Tertullian, On Baptism 3

Mindful of that pronouncement as if it were a prescription, we nonetheless argue how foolish and impossible it is for water to be reformed. What has this substance done to deserve so great an office? In my view, we must demand the authority of the liquid element, and indeed it supplies abundant evidence from the very beginning. One of the things that rested with God before any formation of the world, still unpolished in appearance, was this: In the beginning God made heaven and earth. But the earth was invisible and unformed, and darkness lay over the abyss, and the Spirit of God hovered over the waters (Genesis 1:1-2). So, first, you must venerate the antiquity of the waters because they are an ancient substance; then their dignity, because they served as the seat of the divine Spirit, making them certainly more pleasing than the other elements at that time. Even the darkness was still entirely unformed, lacking the adornment of the stars, and the gloomy abyss, the unprepared earth, and the rough heaven — only the liquid, always a perfect material, joyful, simple, pure of itself, presented a worthy vehicle to God. What is more, from then on the ordering of the world was established by God with the moderating waters. To suspend the heavenly firmament He made it in the middle with the waters divided; to suspend the dry land He prepared it with the waters separated. Later, when the world had been ordered through the elements and inhabitants were assigned, the first waters were commanded to produce living souls. The first liquid, because it was alive, produced life, so it should not be surprising that in Baptism waters know how to animate. Even the work of forming man was completed with the waters assisting. The material was taken from the earth, yet it was not usable unless moist and succulent, and the separated waters had tempered it into mud with their remaining moisture before the fourth day. If I went on to recount all or most of the things that attest the authority of this element — how great its power or grace, how many talents, offices, and services it renders the world — I fear I would seem to be gathering praises of water rather than reasons for Baptism. Yet I could teach more fully that there is no room for doubt: if God arranged this material in all things and works, He also made it serve in His own sacraments; if it governs earthly life, it also provides for heavenly life.