morning and evening, before there was a sun._
We see, indeed, that our ordinary days have no evening but by the
setting, and no morning but by the rising, of the sun; but the first
three days of all were passed without sun, since it is reported to have
been made on the fourth day. And first of all, indeed, light was made
by the word of God, and God, we read, separated it from the darkness,
and called the light Day, and the darkness Night; but what kind of
light that was, and by what periodic movement it made evening and
morning, is beyond the reach of our senses; neither can we understand
how it was, and yet must unhesitatingly believe it. For either it was
some material light, whether proceeding from the upper parts of the
world, far removed from our sight, or from the spot where the sun
was afterwards kindled; or under the name of light the holy city was
signified, composed of holy angels and blessed spirits, the city of
which the apostle says, "Jerusalem which is above is our eternal mother
in heaven;"[454] and in another place, "For ye are all the children of
the light, and the children of the day; we are not of the night, nor of
darkness."[455] Yet in some respects we may appropriately speak of a
morning and evening of this day also. For the knowledge of the creature
is, in comparison of the knowledge of the Creator, but a twilight; and
so it dawns and breaks into morning when the creature is drawn to the
praise and love of the Creator; and night never falls when the Creator
is not forsaken through love of the creature. In fine, Scripture, when
it would recount those days in order, never mentions the word night.
It never says, "Night was," but "The evening and the morning were the
first day." So of the second and the rest. And, indeed, the knowledge
of created things contemplated by themselves is, so to speak, more
colourless than when they are seen in the wisdom of God, as in the art
by which they were made. Therefore evening is a more suitable figure
than night; and yet, as I said, morning returns when the creature
returns to the praise and love of the Creator. When it does so in the
knowledge of itself, that is the first day; when in the knowledge of
the firmament, which is the name given to the sky between the waters
above and those beneath, that is the second day; when in the knowledge
of the earth, and the sea, and all things that grow out of the earth,
that is the third day; when in the knowledge of the greater and less
luminaries, and all the stars, that is the fourth day; when in the
knowledge of all animals that swim in the waters and that fly in the
air, that is the fifth day; when in the knowledge of all animals that
live on the earth, and of man himself, that is the sixth day.[456]