ded a mystical one
derived from numbers and assigned by some writers, according to whom
the work of the second day is not marked with approval because the
second number is an imperfect number, as receding from the perfection
of unity.

Reply Obj. 4: Rabbi Moses (Perplex. ii) understands by the "Spirit of
the Lord," the air or the wind, as Plato also did, and says that it
is so called according to the custom of Scripture, in which these
things are throughout attributed to God. But according to the holy
writers, the Spirit of the Lord signifies the Holy Ghost, Who is said
to "move over the water"--that is to say, over what Augustine holds
to mean formless matter, lest it should be supposed that God loved of
necessity the works He was to produce, as though He stood in need of
them. For love of that kind is subject to, not superior to, the
object of love. Moreover, it is fittingly implied that the Spirit
moved over that which was incomplete and unfinished, since that
movement is not one of place, but of pre-eminent power, as Augustine
says (Gen. ad lit. i, 7). It is the opinion, however, of Basil (Hom.
ii in Hexaem.) that the Spirit moved over the element of water,
"fostering and quickening its nature and impressing vital power, as
the hen broods over her chickens." For water has especially a
life-giving power, since many animals are generated in water, and the
seed of all animals is liquid. Also the life of the soul is given by
the water of baptism, according to John 3:5: "Unless a man be born
again of water and the Holy Ghost, he cannot enter into the kingdom
of God."

Reply Obj. 5: According to Augustine (Gen. ad lit. i, 8), these three
phrases denote the threefold being of creatures; first, their being
in the Word, denoted by the command "Let . . . be made"; secondly,
their being in the angelic mind, signified by the words, "It was . .
. done"; thirdly, their being in their proper nature, by the words,
"He made." And because the formation of the angels is recorded on the
first day, it was not necessary there to add, "He made." It may also
be said, following other writers, that the words, "He said," and "Let
. . . be made," denote God's command, and the words, "It was done,"
the fulfilment of that command. But as it was necessary, for the sake
of those especially who have asserted that all visible things were
made by the angels, to mention how things were made, it is added, in
order to remove that error, that God Hims