The City of God, Volume I by Saint of Hippo Augustine

of the waters by the firmament is spoken of, and of that other idea that the waters were not created._ Some,[516] however, have supposed that the angelic hosts are somehow referred to under the name of waters, and that this is what is meant by, "Let there be a firmament in the midst of the waters:"[517] that the waters above should be understood of the angels, and those below either of the visible waters, or of the multitude of bad angels, or of the nations of men. If this be so, then it does not here appear when the angels were created, but when they were separated. Though there have not been wanting men foolish and wicked enough[518] to deny that the waters were made by God, because it is nowhere written, "God said, Let there be waters." With equal folly they might say the same of the earth, for nowhere do we read, "God said, Let the earth be." But, say they, it is written, "In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth." Yes, and there the water is meant, for both are included in one word. For "the sea is His," as the psalm says, "and He made it; and His hands formed the dry land."[519] But those who would understand the angels by the waters above the skies have a difficulty about the specific gravity of the elements, and fear that the waters, owing to their fluidity and weight, could not be set in the upper parts of the world. So that, if they were to construct a man upon their own principles, they would not put in his head any moist humours, or "phlegm" as the Greeks call it, and which acts the part of water among the elements of our body. But, in God's handiwork, the head is the seat of the phlegm, and surely most fitly; and yet, according to their supposition, so absurdly that if we were not aware of the fact, and were informed by this same record that God had put a moist and cold and therefore heavy humour in the uppermost part of man's body, these world-weighers would refuse belief. And if they were confronted with the authority of Scripture, they would maintain that something else must be meant by the words. But, were we to investigate and discover all the details which are written in this divine book regarding the creation of the world, we should have much to say, and should widely digress from the proposed aim of this work. Since, then, we have now said what seemed needful regarding these two diverse and contrary communities of angels, in which the origin of the two human communities (of which we intend to speak anon) is also found, let us at once bring this book also to a conclusion. FOOTNOTES: [440] Written in the year 416 or 417. [441] Ps. lxxxvii. 3. [442] Ps. xlviii. 1. [443] Ps. xlvi. 4. [444] Homine assumto, non Deo consumto. [445] Quo itur Deus, qua itur homo. [446] A clause is here inserted to give the etymology of _præsentia_ from _præ vensibus_. [447] Another derivation, _sententia_ from _sensus_, the inward perception of the mind. [448] Gen. i. 1. [449] Prov. viii. 27. [450] Matt. xviii. 10. [451] A common question among the Epicureans; urged by Velleius in Cic. _De Nat. Deor._ i. 9; adopted by the Manichæans and spoken to by Augustine in the _Conf._ xi. 10, 12, also in _De Gen. contra Man._ i. 3. [452] The Neo-Platonists. [453] Number begins at one, but runs on infinitely. [454] Gal. iv. 26. [455] 1 Thess. v. 5. [456] Comp. _de Gen. ad lit._ i. and iv. [457] Ver. 35. [458] Ps. cxlviii. 1-5. [459] Job xxxviii. 7. [460] Vives here notes that the Greek theologians and Jerome held, with Plato, that spiritual creatures were made first, and used by God in the creation of things material. The Latin theologians and Basil held that God made all things at once. [461] John i. 9. [462] Mali enim nulla natura est: sed amissio boni, mali nomen accepit. [463] Plutarch (_De Plac. Phil._ i. 3, and iv. 3) tells us that this opinion was held by Anaximenes of Miletus, the followers of Anaxagoras, and many of the Stoics. Diogenes the Cynic, as well as Diogenes of Apollonia, seems to have adopted the same opinion. See Zeller's _Stoics_, pp. 121 and 199. [464] "Ubi lux non est, tenebræ sunt, non quia aliquid sunt tenebræ, sed ipsa lucis absentia tenebræ dicuntur."--Aug. _De Gen. contra Man._ 7. [465] Wisdom vii. 22. [466] The strongly Platonic tinge of this language is perhaps best preserved in a bare literal translation. [467] Vives remarks that the ancients defined blessedness as an absolutely perfect state in all good, peculiar to God. Perhaps Augustine had a reminiscence of the remarkable discussion in the _Tusc. Disp._ lib. v., and the definition "Neque ulla alia huic verbo, quum beatum dicimus, subjecta notio est, nisi, secretis malis omnibus, cumulata bonorum complexio." [468] With this chapter compare the books _De Dono Persever._ and _De Correp. et Gratia_. [469] Matt. xxv. 46. [470] John viii. 44. [471] 1 John iii. 8. [472] Cf. _Gen. ad Lit._ xi. 27 et seqq. [473] Ps. xvii. 6. [474] 1 John iii. 8. [475] The Manichæans. [476] Isa. xiv. 12. [477] Ezek. xxviii. 13. [478] Job xl. 14 (LXX.). [479] Ps. civ. 26. [480] Job. xl. 14 (LXX.). [481] It must be kept in view that "vice" has, in this passage, the meaning of sinful blemish. [482] Ps. civ. 26. [483] Quintilian uses it commonly in the sense of antithesis. [484] 2 Cor. vi. 7-10. [485] Ecclus. xxxiii. 15. [486] Gen. i. 14-18. [487] The reference is to the _Timæus_, p. 37 C., where he says, "When the parent Creator perceived this created image of the eternal gods in life and motion, He was delighted, and in His joy considered how He might make it still liker its model." [488] Jas. i. 17. [489] The passage referred to is in the TIMÆUS, p. 29 D.: "Let us say what was the cause of the Creator's forming this universe. He was good; and in the good no envy is ever generated about anything whatever. Therefore, being free from envy, He desired that all things should, as much as possible, resemble Himself." [490] The Manichæans, to wit. [491] Gen. i. 31. [492] _Proprietas._ [493] This is one of the passages cited by Sir William Hamilton, along with the "Cogito, ergo sum" of Descartes, in confirmation of his proof, that in so far as we are _conscious_ of certain modes of existence, in so far we possess an absolute certainty that we exist. See note A in Hamilton's _Reid_, p. 744. [494] Compare the _Confessions_, xiii. 9. [495] Ch. 7. [496] Or aliquot parts. [497] Comp. Aug. _Gen. ad Lit._ iv. 2, and _De Trinitate_, iv. 7. [498] For passages illustrating early opinions regarding numbers, see Smith's _Dict._ Art. number. [499] Wisd. xi. 20. [500] Prov. xxiv. 16. [501] Ps. cxix. 164. [502] Ps. xxxiv. 1. [503] John xvi. 13. [504] In Isa. xi. 2, as he shows in his eighth sermon, where this subject is further pursued; otherwise, one might have supposed he referred to Rev. iii. 1. [505] 1 Cor. xiii. 10. [506] Augustine refers to John viii. 25; see p. 415. He might rather have referred to Rev. iii. 14. [507] Ps. civ. 24. [508] Matt. xxii. 30. [509] Matt. xviii. 10. [510] 2 Peter ii. 4. [511] Eph. v. 8. [512] Ps. cxlviii. 2. [513] Matt. iv. 9. [514] Jas. iv. 6. [515] 1 Thess. v. 5 [516] Augustine himself published this idea in his _Conf._ xiii. 32, but afterwards retracted it, as "said without sufficient consideration" (_Retract._ II. vi. 2). Epiphanius and Jerome ascribe it to Origen. [517] Gen. i. 6. [518] Namely, the Audians and Sampsæans, insignificant heretical sects mentioned by Theodoret and Epiphanius. [519] Ps. xcv. 5. BOOK TWELFTH. ARGUMENT. AUGUSTINE FIRST INSTITUTES TWO INQUIRIES REGARDING THE ANGELS; NAMELY, WHENCE IS THERE IN SOME A GOOD, AND IN OTHERS AN EVIL WILL? AND, WHAT IS THE REASON OF THE BLESSEDNESS OF THE GOOD, AND THE MISERY OF THE EVIL? AFTERWARDS HE TREATS OF THE CREATION OF MAN, AND TEACHES THAT HE IS NOT FROM ETERNITY, BUT WAS CREATED, AND BY NONE OTHER THAN GOD.