Anf-03 v.iv.iii.iv Pg 8
Gen. i.
not as if He were ignorant of the good until He saw it; but because it was good, He therefore saw it, and honoured it, and set His seal upon it; and consummated2745 2745 Dispungens, i.e., examinans et probans et ita quasi consummans (Oehler).
the goodness of His works by His vouchsafing to them that contemplation. Thus God blessed what He made good, in order that He might commend Himself to you as whole and perfect, good both in word and act.2746 2746 This twofold virtue is very tersely expressed: “Sic et benedicebat quæ benefaciebat.”
As yet the Word knew no malediction, because He was a stranger to malefaction.2747 2747 This, the translator fears, is only a clumsy way of representing the terseness of our author’s “maledicere” and “malefacere.”
We shall see what reasons required this also of God. Meanwhile the world consisted of all things good, plainly foreshowing how much good was preparing for him for whom all this was provided. Who indeed was so worthy of dwelling amongst the works of God, as he who was His own image and likeness? That image was wrought out by a goodness even more operative than its wont,2748 2748 Bonitas et quidem operantior.
with no imperious word, but with friendly hand preceded by an almost affable2749 2749 Blandiente.
utterance: “Let us make man in our image, after our likeness.”2750 2750
Anf-03 v.v.xxix Pg 18
Gen. i. 9.
“Appear,” says He, not “be made.” It had been already made, only in its invisible condition it was then waiting6415 6415 Sustinebat: i.e. expectabat (Oehler).
to appear. “Dry,” because it was about to become such by its severance from the moisture, but yet “land.” “And God called the dry land Earth,”6416 6416
Anf-03 v.v.xxix Pg 27
Gen. i. 9.
Why does He command it to appear, if it were not previously invisible? His purpose was also, that He might thus prevent His having made it in vain, by rendering it visible, and so fit for use. And thus, throughout, proofs arise to us that this earth which we inhabit is the very same which was both created and formed6424 6424 Ostensam: “manifested” (see note 10, p. 96.)
by God, and that none other was “Without form, and void,” than that which had been created and formed. It therefore follows that the sentence, “Now the earth was without form, and void,” applies to that same earth which God mentioned separately along with the heaven.6425 6425
Anf-01 viii.iv.xcvii Pg 2
Ps. iii. 4, 5.
And Isaiah likewise mentions concerning Him the manner in which He would die, thus: ‘I have spread out My hands unto a people disobedient, and gainsaying, that walk in a way which is not good.’2321 2321
Anf-03 v.iv.v.xiii Pg 12
Ps. iii. 4.
You have a representation of the name; you have the action of the Evangelizer; you have a mountain for the site; and the night as the time; and the sound of a voice; and the audience of the Father: you have, (in short,) the Christ of the prophets. But why was it that He chose twelve apostles,3914 3914
Anf-03 v.iv.iii.xix Pg 13
Comp. Ps. iv. 4.
“walk not in the counsel of the ungodly; nor stand in the way of sinners; nor sit in the seat of the scornful.”2933 2933
Anf-03 v.iv.vi.xviii Pg 16
Ps. iv. 4.
expresses his meaning, (he says,) “Be ye angry, and sin not;”6017 6017
Anf-02 vi.iii.i.vii Pg 17.1
Anf-03 iv.ix.iii Pg 3
See Gen. xii.–xv. compared with xvii. and Rom. iv.
nor yet did he observe the Sabbath. For he had “accepted”1163 1163
Anf-03 iv.ix.iii Pg 5
There is, if the text be genuine, some confusion here. Melchizedek does not appear to have been, in any sense, “subsequent” to Abraham, for he probably was senior to him; and, moreover, Abraham does not appear to have been “already circumcised” carnally when Melchizedek met him. Comp. Gen. xiv. with Gen. xvii.
“But again,” (you say) “the son of Moses would upon one occasion have been choked by an angel, if Zipporah,1165 1165
Anf-01 ii.ii.xxxii Pg 5
Gen. xxii. 17, Gen. xxviii. 4.
All these, therefore, were highly honoured, and made great, not for their own sake, or for their own works, or for the righteousness which they wrought, but through the operation of His will. And we, too, being called by His will in Christ Jesus, are not justified by ourselves, nor by our own wisdom, or understanding, or godliness, or works which we have wrought in holiness of heart; but by that faith through which, from the beginning, Almighty God has justified all men; to whom be glory for ever and ever. Amen.
