Testimonia

{"author":null,"backreferences":[{"context_html":"<p>All these things were said and done in a vision from God;\r\nbut it would take long, and would exceed the scope of this\r\nwork, to treat of them exactly in detail. It is enough that\r\nwe should know that, after it was said Abram believed in<span class=\"pagenum\"><a id=\"Page_137\">[Pg 137]</a></span>\r\nGod, and it was counted to him for righteousness, he did not\r\nfail in faith in saying, \"Lord God, whereby shall I know\r\nthat I shall inherit it?\" for the inheritance of that land\r\nwas promised to him. Now he does not say, How shall I\r\nknow, as if he did not yet believe; but he says, \"Whereby\r\nshall I know,\" meaning that some sign might be given by\r\nwhich he might know the manner of those things which he\r\nhad believed, just as it is not for lack of faith the Virgin\r\nMary says, \"How shall this be, seeing I know not a man?\"<a id=\"FNanchor_275_275\"></a><a class=\"fnanchor pginternal\" href=\"#Footnote_275_275\">[275]</a>\r\nfor she inquired as to the way in which that should take\r\nplace which she was certain would come to pass. And when\r\nshe asked this, she was told, \"The Holy Ghost shall come\r\nupon thee, and the power of the Highest shall overshadow\r\nthee.\"<a id=\"FNanchor_276_276\"></a><a class=\"fnanchor pginternal\" href=\"#Footnote_276_276\">[276]</a> Here also, in fine, a symbol was given, consisting of\r\nthree animals, a heifer, a she-goat, and a ram, and two birds,\r\na turtle-dove and pigeon, that he might know that the things\r\nwhich he had not doubted should come to pass were to\r\nhappen in accordance with this symbol. Whether, therefore,\r\nthe heifer was a sign that the people should be put under the\r\nlaw, the she-goat that the same people was to become sinful,\r\nthe ram that they should reign (and these animals are said to\r\nbe of three years old for this reason, that there are three\r\nremarkable divisions of time, from Adam to Noah, and from\r\nhim to Abraham, and from him to David, who, on the rejection\r\nof Saul, was first established by the will of the Lord in\r\nthe kingdom of the Israelite nation: in this third division,\r\nwhich extends from Abraham to David, that people grew up\r\nas if passing through the third age of life), or whether they\r\nhad some other more suitable meaning, still I have no doubt\r\nwhatever that spiritual things were prefigured by them as\r\nwell as by the turtle-dove and pigeon. And it is said, \"But\r\nthe birds divided he not,\" because carnal men are divided\r\namong themselves, but the spiritual not at all, whether they\r\nseclude themselves from the busy conversation of men, like\r\nthe turtle-dove, or dwell among them, like the pigeon; for\r\nboth birds are simple and harmless, signifying that even in\r\nthe Israelite people, to which that land was to be given, there\r\nwould be individuals who were children of the promise, and<span class=\"pagenum\"><a id=\"Page_138\">[Pg 138]</a></span>\r\nheirs of the kingdom that is<a id=\"FNanchor_277_277\"></a><a class=\"fnanchor pginternal\" href=\"#Footnote_277_277\">[277]</a> to remain in eternal felicity.\r\nBut the fowls coming down on the divided carcases represent\r\nnothing good, but the spirits of this air, seeking some food for\r\nthemselves in the division of carnal men. But that Abraham\r\nsat down with them, signifies that even amid these divisions\r\nof the carnal, true believers shall persevere to the end. And\r\nthat about the going down of the sun great fear fell upon\r\nAbraham and a horror of great darkness, signifies that about\r\nthe end of this world believers shall be in great perturbation\r\nand tribulation, of which the Lord said in the gospel, \"For\r\nthen shall be great tribulation, such as was not from the\r\nbeginning.\"<a id=\"FNanchor_278_278\"></a><a class=\"fnanchor pginternal\" href=\"#Footnote_278_278\">[278]</a></p>","headings":["THE CITY OF GOD.","BOOK SIXTEENTH.","ARGUMENT."],"marker_anchor":null,"paragraph_id":"pg45305-paragraph-233"}],"canonical_references":[],"date_end":null,"date_start":null,"deduplication_fingerprint":"ee810d750d122e044be4eccd122994e84154d7dfdf76040a5e983dbf71645787","edition_title":"The City of God, Volume II","edition_translators":["Marcus Dods","George Wilson (Books XVII-XVIII)"],"edition_year":1871,"explicit_reference_candidates":[],"headings":[],"id":"pg45305-Footnote_277_277","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_277_277","source_ebook":45305,"source_html":"<div class=\"footnote\">\n<p><a id=\"Footnote_277_277\"></a><a class=\"pginternal\" href=\"#FNanchor_277_277\"><span class=\"label\">[277]</span></a> Various reading, \"who are to remain.\"</p></div>","source_sha256":"7e0ced9e70512f3cf050b53c9d548e36b70d468d875153869f95d8aff5bbb530","source_url":"https://www.gutenberg.org/cache/epub/45305/pg45305-images.html#Footnote_277_277","text_sha256":"f36e7cf7cdeb035a5ed524d51ec578852a300edcca0d7f0e4982783341387928","verified":false,"work_id":null}

references: [] | work_id: | origin: existing-private-derived-record | source: https://www.gutenberg.org/cache/epub/45305/pg45305-images.html#Footnote_277_277