Anf-02 iv.ii.ii.xxviii Pg 2.1
Anf-03 iv.xi.xxi Pg 5
Gen. ii. 23, 24.
But this (gift of prophecy) only came on him afterwards, when God infused into him the ecstasy, or spiritual quality, in which prophecy consists. If, again, the evil of sin was developed in him, this must not be accounted as a natural disposition: it was rather produced by the instigation of the (old) serpent as far from being incidental to his nature as it was from being material in him, for we have already excluded belief in “Matter.”1655 1655 See Adv. Hermog. xiii.
Now, if neither the spiritual element, nor what the heretics call the material element, was properly inherent in him (since, if he had been created out of matter, the germ of evil must have been an integral part of his constitution), it remains that the one only original element of his nature was what is called the animal (the principle of vitality, the soul), which we maintain to be simple and uniform in its condition. Concerning this, it remains for us to inquire whether, as being called natural, it ought to be deemed subject to change. (The heretics whom we have referred to) deny that nature is susceptible of any change,1656 1656 See Adv. Valentin. xxix.
in order that they may be able to establish and settle their threefold theory, or “trinity,” in all its characteristics as to the several natures, because “a good tree cannot produce evil fruit, nor a corrupt tree good fruit; and nobody gathers figs of thorns, nor grapes of brambles.”1657 1657
Anf-03 iv.xi.xi Pg 10
Gen. ii. 24, 25.
he experienced the influence of the Spirit. For there fell upon him that ecstasy, which is the Holy Ghost’s operative virtue of prophecy. And even the evil spirit too is an influence which comes upon a man. Indeed, the Spirit of God not more really “turned Saul into another man,”1569 1569
Anf-03 v.iii.iii Pg 8
Susanna (Apoc.).
Samuel also, when he was but a little child, reproved Eli, who was ninety years old, for giving honour to his sons rather than to God.649 649
Anf-03 v.iv.v.xxxiv Pg 28
Mal. ii. 15.
Thus you have Christ following spontaneously the tracks of the Creator everywhere, both in permitting divorce and in forbidding it. You find Him also protecting marriage, in whatever direction you try to escape. He prohibits divorce when He will have the marriage inviolable; He permits divorce when the marriage is spotted with unfaithfulness. You should blush when you refuse to unite those whom even your Christ has united; and repeat the blush when you disunite them without the good reason why your Christ would have them separated. I have4829 4829 Debeo.
now to show whence the Lord derived this decision4830 4830 Sententiam.
of His, and to what end He directed it. It will thus become more fully evident that His object was not the abolition of the Mosaic ordinance4831 4831 Literally, “Moses.”
by any suddenly devised proposal of divorce; because it was not suddenly proposed, but had its root in the previously mentioned John. For John reproved Herod, because he had illegally married the wife of his deceased brother, who had a daughter by her (a union which the law permitted only on the one occasion of the brother dying childless,4832 4832 Illiberis. [N.B. He supposes Philip to have been dead.]
when it even prescribed such a marriage, in order that by his own brother, and from his own wife,4833 4833 Costa: literally, “rib” or “side.”
seed might be reckoned to the deceased husband),4834 4834
Treasury of Scriptural Knowledge, Chapter 17
VERSE (17) - Ge 2:24 2Sa 3:2-5 1Ki 11:1-4 Ne 13:26 Mal 2:15 Mt 19:5
