Anf-03 v.iv.iii.xxv Pg 6
Gen. iii. 9; 11.
Where art thou? as if ignorant where he was; and when he alleged that the shame of his nakedness was the cause (of his hiding himself), He inquired whether he had eaten of the tree, as if He were in doubt. By no means;3020 3020 Immo.
God was neither uncertain about the commission of the sin, nor ignorant of Adam’s whereabouts. It was certainly proper to summon the offender, who was concealing himself from the consciousness of his sin, and to bring him forth into the presence of his Lord, not merely by the calling out of his name, but with a home-thrust blow3021 3021 Sugillatione.
at the sin which he had at that moment committed. For the question ought not to be read in a merely interrogative tone, Where art thou, Adam? but with an impressive and earnest voice, and with an air of imputation, Oh, Adam, where art thou?—as much as to intimate: thou art no longer here, thou art in perdition—so that the voice is the utterance of One who is at once rebuking and sorrowing.3022 3022 Dolendi.
But of course some part of paradise had escaped the eye of Him who holds the universe in His hand as if it were a bird’s nest, and to whom heaven is a throne and earth a footstool; so that He could not see, before He summoned him forth, where Adam was, both while lurking and when eating of the forbidden fruit! The wolf or the paltry thief escapes not the notice of the keeper of your vineyard or your garden! And God, I suppose, with His keener vision,3023 3023 Oculatiorem.
from on high was unable to miss the sight of3024 3024 Præterire.
aught which lay beneath Him! Foolish heretic, who treat with scorn3025 3025 Naso.
so fine an argument of God’s greatness and man’s instruction! God put the question with an appearance of uncertainty, in order that even here He might prove man to be the subject of a free will in the alternative of either a denial or a confession, and give to him the opportunity of freely acknowledging his transgression, and, so far,3026 3026 Hoc nomine.
of lightening it.3027 3027 Relevandi.
In like manner He inquires of Cain where his brother was, just as if He had not yet heard the blood of Abel crying from the ground, in order that he too might have the opportunity from the same power of the will of spontaneously denying, and to this degree aggravating, his crime; and that thus there might be supplied to us examples of confessing sins rather than of denying them: so that even then was initiated the evangelic doctrine, “By thy words3028 3028 Ex ore tuo, “out of thine own mouth.”
thou shalt be justified, and by thy words thou shalt be condemned.”3029 3029
Anf-03 vi.iv.xxii Pg 30
Gen. ii. 27 (or in the LXX. iii. 1), and iii. 7, 10, 11.
At all events, with regard to those in whom girlhood has changed (into maturity), their age ought to remember its duties as to nature, so also, to discipline; for they are being transferred to the rank of “women” both in their persons and in their functions. No one is a “virgin” from the time when she is capable of marriage; seeing that, in her, age has by that time been wedded to its own husband, that is, to time.8902 8902 Routh refers us to de Virg. Vel. c. 11.
“But some particular virgin has devoted herself to God. From that very moment she both changes the fashion of her hair, and converts all her garb into that of a ‘woman.’” Let her, then, maintain the character wholly, and perform the whole function of a “virgin:” what she conceals8903 8903 i.e. the redundance of her hair.
for the sake of God, let her cover quite over.8904 8904 i.e. by a veil.
It is our business to entrust to the knowledge of God alone that which the grace of God effects in us, lest we receive from man the reward we hope for from God.8905 8905 i.e. says Oehler, “lest we postpone the eternal favour of God, which we hope for, to the temporal veneration of men; a risk which those virgins seemed likely to run who, when devoted to God, used to go veiled in public, but bareheaded in the church.”
Why do you denude before God8906 8906 i.e. in church.
what you cover before men?8907 8907 i.e. in public; see note 27, supra.
Will you be more modest in public than in the church? If your self-devotion is a grace of God, and you have received it, “why do you boast,” saith he, “as if you have not received it?”8908 8908
Anf-01 ix.vii.xv Pg 2
Gen. iv. 10.
