Testimonia

{"author":null,"backreferences":[{"context_html":"<p>As for their other assertion, that God's knowledge cannot\r\ncomprehend things infinite, it only remains for them to affirm,\r\nin order that they may sound the depths of their impiety, that\r\nGod does not know all numbers. For it is very certain that\r\nthey are infinite; since, no matter at what number you suppose\r\nan end to be made, this number can be, I will not say, increased\r\nby the addition of one more, but however great it be,\r\nand however vast be the multitude of which it is the rational\r\nand scientific expression, it can still be not only doubled, but\r\neven multiplied. Moreover, each number is so defined by its\r\nown properties, that no two numbers are equal. They are\r\ntherefore both unequal and different from one another; and\r\nwhile they are simply finite, collectively they are infinite.\r\nDoes God, therefore, not know numbers on account of this\r\ninfinity; and does His knowledge extend only to a certain\r\nheight in numbers, while of the rest He is ignorant? Who\r\nis so left to himself as to say so? Yet they can hardly pretend\r\nto put numbers out of the question, or maintain that they\r\nhave nothing to do with the knowledge of God; for Plato,<a id=\"FNanchor_551_551\"></a><a class=\"fnanchor pginternal\" href=\"#Footnote_551_551\">[551]</a>\r\ntheir great authority, represents God as framing the world on<span class=\"pagenum\"><a id=\"Page_508\">[Pg 508]</a></span>\r\nnumerical principles; and in our books also it is said to God,\r\n\"Thou hast ordered all things in number, and measure, and\r\nweight.\"<a id=\"FNanchor_552_552\"></a><a class=\"fnanchor pginternal\" href=\"#Footnote_552_552\">[552]</a> The prophet also says, \"Who bringeth out their host\r\nby number.\"<a id=\"FNanchor_553_553\"></a><a class=\"fnanchor pginternal\" href=\"#Footnote_553_553\">[553]</a> And the Saviour says in the Gospel, \"The very\r\nhairs of your head are all numbered.\"<a id=\"FNanchor_554_554\"></a><a class=\"fnanchor pginternal\" href=\"#Footnote_554_554\">[554]</a> Far be it, then, from\r\nus to doubt that all number is known to Him \"whose understanding,\"\r\naccording to the Psalmist, \"is infinite.\"<a id=\"FNanchor_555_555\"></a><a class=\"fnanchor pginternal\" href=\"#Footnote_555_555\">[555]</a> The infinity\r\nof number, though there be no numbering of infinite\r\nnumbers, is yet not incomprehensible by Him whose understanding\r\nis infinite. And thus, if everything which is comprehended\r\nis defined or made finite by the comprehension of\r\nhim who knows it, then all infinity is in some ineffable way\r\nmade finite to God, for it is comprehensible by His knowledge.\r\nWherefore, if the infinity of numbers cannot be infinite to the\r\nknowledge of God, by which it is comprehended, what are we\r\npoor creatures that we should presume to fix limits to His\r\nknowledge, and say that unless the same temporal things be\r\nrepeated by the same periodic revolutions, God cannot either\r\nforeknow His creatures that He may make them, or know\r\nthem when He has made them? God, whose knowledge is\r\nsimply manifold, and uniform in its variety, comprehends all\r\nincomprehensibles with so incomprehensible a comprehension,\r\nthat though He willed always to make His later works novel\r\nand unlike what went before them, He could not produce them\r\nwithout order and foresight, nor conceive them suddenly, but\r\nby His eternal foreknowledge.</p>","headings":["THE WORKS OF AURELIUS AUGUSTINE,","BOOK TWELFTH.","ARGUMENT."],"marker_anchor":null,"paragraph_id":"pg45304-paragraph-870"}],"canonical_references":[],"date_end":null,"date_start":null,"deduplication_fingerprint":"69ea3b45d46fe784e6a965f6e89cf24b536325442ca6db231b389f3edf1dd611","edition_title":"The City of God, Volume I","edition_translators":["Marcus Dods","George Wilson (Book IV)","J. J. Smith (Books V-VIII)"],"edition_year":1871,"explicit_reference_candidates":[{"book":"WIS","chapter":11,"kind":"unreviewed","source_notation":"Wisdom xi. 20","verse":20,"verse_end":20}],"headings":[],"id":"pg45304-Footnote_552_552","license_url":"https://www.gutenberg.org/policy/license.html","public_import_allowed":false,"record_kind":"original-editor-translator-note","review_required":["work and recension attribution","original-work chronology","Bible reference numbering and citation kind","English edition rights and attribution"],"review_status":"needs_review","rights_evidence":"Provider catalog reports public domain in the USA. Original transcription title leaves state T. & T. Clark, Edinburgh, 1871; printed translator allocation retained. Gutenberg credits Internet Archive/Canadian Libraries without an exact scan identifier. Full provider license preserved with acquired original; republication and per-work metadata remain unreviewed.","source_anchor":"Footnote_552_552","source_ebook":45304,"source_html":"<div class=\"footnote\">\n<p><a id=\"Footnote_552_552\"></a><a class=\"pginternal\" href=\"#FNanchor_552_552\"><span class=\"label\">[552]</span></a> Wisdom xi. 20.</p></div>","source_sha256":"d89e9a2b80bb59f394f0fb1bf313b39fab162f06af6642166d62c5912c1195f1","source_url":"https://www.gutenberg.org/cache/epub/45304/pg45304-images.html#Footnote_552_552","text_sha256":"538eccebf249147859ffe49d1d8278d040d16923a4350a9ac9d381d59925d2fa","verified":false,"work_id":null}

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