Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Vol. II:
City of God: Chapter 11

Chapter 11.—Against the Platonists, Who Argue from the Physical Weight of the Elements that an Earthly Body Cannot Inhabit Heaven.

But against this great gift of God, these reasoners, “whose thoughts the Lord knows that they are vain” 1626 bring arguments from the weights of the elements; for they have been taught by their master Plato that the two greatest elements of the world, and the furthest removed from one another, are coupled and united by the two intermediate, air and water.  And consequently they say, since the earth is the first of the elements, beginning from the base of the series, the second the water above the earth, the third the air above the water, the fourth the heaven above the air, it follows that a body of earth cannot live in the heaven; for each element is poised by its own weight so as to preserve its own place and rank.  Behold with what arguments human infirmity, possessed with vanity, contradicts the omnipotence of God!  What, then, do so many earthly bodies do in the air, since the air is the third element from the earth?  Unless perhaps He who has granted to the earthly bodies of birds that they be carried through the air by the lightness of feathers and wings, has not been able to confer upon the bodies of men made immortal the power to abide in the highest heaven.  The earthly animals, too, which cannot fly, among which are men, ought on these terms to live under the earth, as fishes, which are the animals of the water, live under the water.  Why, then, can an animal of earth not live in the second element, that is, in water, while it can in the third?  Why, though it belongs to the earth, is it forthwith suffocated if it is forced to live in the second element next above earth, while it lives in the third, and cannot live out of it?  Is there a mistake here in the order of the elements, or is not the mistake rather in their reasonings, and not in the nature of things?  I will not repeat what I said in the thirteenth book, 1627 that many earthly bodies, though heavy like lead, receive from the workman’s hand a form which enables them to swim in water; and yet it is denied that the omnipotent Worker can confer on the human body a property which shall enable it to pass into heaven and dwell there.

But against what I have formerly said they can find nothing to say, even though they introduce and make the most of this order of the elements in which they confide.  For if the order be that the earth is first, the water second, the air third, the heaven fourth, then the soul is above all.  For Aristotle said that the soul was a fifth body, while Plato denied that it was a body at all.  If it were a fifth body, then certainly it would be above the rest; and if it is not a body at all, so much the more does it rise above all.  What, then, does it do in an earthly body?  What does this soul, which is finer than all else, do p. 493 in such a mass of matter as this?  What does the lightest of substances do in this ponderosity? this swiftest substance in such sluggishness?  Will not the body be raised to heaven by virtue of so excellent a nature as this? and if now earthly bodies can retain the souls below, shall not the souls be one day able to raise the earthly bodies above?

If we pass now to their miracles which they oppose to our martyrs as wrought by their gods, shall not even these be found to make for us, and help out our argument?  For if any of the miracles of their gods are great, certainly that is a great one which Varro mentions of a vestal virgin, who, when she was endangered by a false accusation of unchastity, filled a sieve with water from the Tiber, and carried it to her judges without any part of it leaking.  Who kept the weight of water in the sieve?  Who prevented any drop from falling from it through so many open holes?  They will answer, Some god or some demon.  If a god, is he greater than the God who made the world?  If a demon, is he mightier than an angel who serves the God by whom the world was made?  If, then, a lesser god, angel, or demon could so sustain the weight of this liquid element that the water might seem to have changed its nature, shall not Almighty God, who Himself created all the elements, be able to eliminate from the earthly body its heaviness, so that the quickened body shall dwell in whatever element the quickening spirit pleases?

Then, again, since they give the air a middle place between the fire above and the water beneath, how is it that we often find it between water and water, and between the water and the earth?  For what do they make of those watery clouds, between which and the seas air is constantly found intervening?  I should like to know by what weight and order of the elements it comes to pass that very violent and stormy torrents are suspended in the clouds above the earth before they rush along upon the earth under the air.  In fine, why is it that throughout the whole globe the air is between the highest heaven and the earth, if its place is between the sky and the water, as the place of the water is between the sky and the earth?

Finally, if the order of the elements is so disposed that, as Plato thinks, the two extremes, fire and earth, are united by the two means, air and water, and that the fire occupies the highest part of the sky, and the earth the lowest part, or as it were the foundation of the world, and that therefore earth cannot be in the heavens, how is fire in the earth?  For, according to this reasoning, these two elements, earth and fire, ought to be so restricted to their own places, the highest and the lowest, that neither the lowest can rise to the place of the highest, nor the highest sink to that of the lowest.  Thus, as they think that no particle of earth is or shall ever be in the sky so we ought to see no particle of fire on the earth.  But the fact is that it exists to such an extent, not only on but even under the earth, that the tops of mountains vomit it forth; besides that we see it to exist on earth for human uses, and even to be produced from the earth, since it is kindled from wood and stones, which are without doubt earthly bodies.  But that [upper] fire, they say, is tranquil, pure, harmless, eternal; but this [earthly] fire is turbid, smoky, corruptible, and corrupting.  But it does not corrupt the mountains and caverns of the earth in which it rages continually.  But grant that the earthly fire is so unlike the other as to suit its earthly position, why then do they object to our believing that the nature of earthly bodies shall some day be made incorruptible and fit for the sky, even as now fire is corruptible and suited to the earth?  They therefore adduce from their weights and order of the elements nothing from which they can prove that it is impossible for Almighty God to make our bodies such that they can dwell in the skies.

Footnotes

Ps. 94.11.

C. 18.