A common question among the Epicureans; urged by Velleius in Cicero De Natura Deorum I. 9; adopted by the Manichaeans and spoken to by Augustine in the Confessions XI. 10, 12, also in De Genesi contra Manichaeos I. 3. ↩
The Neo-Platonists. ↩
Number begins at one, but runs on infinitely. ↩
Galatians 4:26. ↩
1 Thessalonians 5:5. ↩
Compare De Genesi ad litteram I and IV. ↩
Verse 35. ↩
Psalm 148:1–5. ↩
Job 38:7. ↩
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. ↩
John 1:9. ↩
Mali enim nulla natura est: sed amissio boni, mali nomen accepit. ↩
Plutarch (De Placitis Philosophorum 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. ↩
“Ubi lux non est, tenebrae sunt, non quia aliquid sunt tenebrae, sed ipsa lucis absentia tenebrae dicuntur.” —Augustine De Genesi contra Manichaeos 7 ↩
Wisdom 7:22. ↩
The strongly Platonic tinge of this language is perhaps best preserved in a bare literal translation. ↩
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 Tusculanae Disputationes lib. V, and the definition “Neque ulla alia huic verbo, quum beatum dicimus, subjecta notio est, nisi, secretis malis omnibus, cumulata bonorum complexio.” ↩
With this chapter compare the books De Dono Perseverantiae and De Correptione et Gratia. ↩
Matthew 25:46. ↩
John 8:44. ↩
1 John 3:8. ↩
Cf. De Genesi ad litteram XI. 27 et seq. ↩
Psalm 17:6. ↩
1 John 3:8. ↩
The Manichaeans. ↩
Isaiah 14:12. ↩
Ezekiel 28:13. ↩
Job 40:14 (Septuagint). ↩
Psalm 104:26. ↩
Job. 40:14 (Septuagint). ↩
It must be kept in view that “vice” has, in this passage, the meaning of sinful blemish. ↩
Psalm 104:26. ↩
Quintilian uses it commonly in the sense of antithesis. ↩
2 Corinthians 6:7–10. ↩
Ecclesiasticus 33:15. ↩
Genesis 1:14–18. ↩
The reference is to the Timaeus, 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.” ↩
James 1:17. ↩
The passage referred to is in the Timaeus, 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.” ↩
The Manichaeans, to wit. ↩
Genesis 1:31. ↩
Proprietas. ↩
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. ↩
Compare the Confessions, XIII. 9. ↩
Or aliquot parts. ↩
Compare Augustine De Genesi ad litteram IV. 2, and De Trinitate, IV. 7. ↩
For passages illustrating early opinions regarding numbers, see Smith’s Dictionary Art. “Number.” ↩
Wisdom 11:20. ↩
Proverbs 24:16. ↩
Psalm 119:164. ↩
Psalm 34:1. ↩
John 16:13. ↩
In Isaiah 11:2, as he shows in his eighth sermon, where this subject is further pursued; otherwise, one might have supposed he referred to Revelation 3:1. ↩
1 Corinthians 13:10. ↩
Augustine refers to John 8:25; see p. 415. He might rather have referred to Revelation 3:14. ↩
Psalm 104:24. ↩
Matthew 22:30. ↩
Matthew 18:10. ↩
2 Peter 2:4. ↩
Ephesians 5:8. ↩
Psalm 148:2. ↩
Matthew 4:9. ↩
James 4:6. ↩
1 Thessalonians 5:5. ↩
Augustine himself published this idea in his Confessions XIII. 32, but afterwards retracted it, as “said without sufficient consideration” (Retractationes II. VI. 2). Epiphanius and Jerome ascribe it to Origen. ↩
Genesis 1:6. ↩
