Testimonia

{"author":null,"backreferences":[{"context_html":"<p>For my own part, indeed, as I dare not say that there ever\r\nwas a time when the Lord God was not Lord,<a id=\"FNanchor_543_543\"></a><a class=\"fnanchor pginternal\" href=\"#Footnote_543_543\">[543]</a> so I ought not\r\nto doubt that man had no existence before time, and was first\r\ncreated in time. But when I consider what God could be the\r\nLord of, if there was not always some creature, I shrink from\r\nmaking any assertion, remembering my own insignificance, and\r\nthat it is written, \"What man is he that can know the\r\ncounsel of God? or who can think what the will of the Lord\r\nis? For the thoughts of mortal men are timid, and our\r\ndevices are but uncertain. For the corruptible body presseth\r\ndown the soul, and the earthly tabernacle weigheth down the\r\nmind that museth upon many things.\"<a id=\"FNanchor_544_544\"></a><a class=\"fnanchor pginternal\" href=\"#Footnote_544_544\">[544]</a> Many things certainly\r\ndo I muse upon in this earthly tabernacle, because the one thing\r\nwhich is true among the many, or beyond the many, I cannot\r\nfind. If, then, among these many thoughts, I say that there\r\nhave always been creatures for Him to be Lord of, who is\r\nalways and ever has been Lord, but that these creatures have\r\nnot always been the same, but succeeded one another (for we\r\nwould not seem to say that any is co-eternal with the Creator,\r\nan assertion condemned equally by faith and sound reason), I\r\nmust take care lest I fall into the absurd and ignorant error\r\nof maintaining that by these successions and changes mortal\r\ncreatures have always existed, whereas the immortal creatures\r\nhad not begun to exist until the date of our own world, when\r\nthe angels were created; if at least the angels are intended\r\nby that light which was first made, or, rather, by that heaven\r\nof which it is said, \"In the beginning God created the heavens\r\nand the earth.\"<a id=\"FNanchor_545_545\"></a><a class=\"fnanchor pginternal\" href=\"#Footnote_545_545\">[545]</a> The angels at least did not exist before\r\nthey were created; for if we say that they have always\r\nexisted, we shall seem to make them co-eternal with the\r\nCreator. Again, if I say that the angels were not created in\r\ntime, but existed before all times, as those over whom God,\r\nwho has ever been Sovereign, exercised His sovereignty, then\r\nI shall be asked whether, if they were created before all time,<span class=\"pagenum\"><a id=\"Page_502\">[Pg 502]</a></span>\r\nthey, being creatures, could possibly always exist. It may\r\nperhaps be replied, Why not <i>always</i>, since that which is in\r\nall time may very properly be said to be \"always?\" Now,\r\nso true is it that these angels have existed in all time, that\r\neven before time was, they were created; if at least time\r\nbegan with the heavens, and the angels existed before the\r\nheavens. And if time was even before the heavenly bodies, not\r\nindeed marked by hours, days, months, and years,—for these\r\nmeasures of time's periods which are commonly and properly\r\ncalled times, did manifestly begin with the motion of the\r\nheavenly bodies, and so God said, when He appointed them,\r\n\"Let them be for signs, and for seasons, and for days, and for\r\nyears,\"<a id=\"FNanchor_546_546\"></a><a class=\"fnanchor pginternal\" href=\"#Footnote_546_546\">[546]</a>—if, I say, time was before these heavenly bodies by some\r\nchanging movement, whose parts succeeded one another and\r\ncould not exist simultaneously, and if there was some such\r\nmovement among the angels which necessitated the existence\r\nof time, and that they from their very creation should be subject\r\nto these temporal changes, then they have existed in all\r\ntime, for time came into being along with them. And who\r\nwill say that what was in all time, was not always?</p>","headings":["THE WORKS OF AURELIUS AUGUSTINE,","BOOK TWELFTH.","ARGUMENT."],"marker_anchor":null,"paragraph_id":"pg45304-paragraph-863"}],"canonical_references":[],"date_end":null,"date_start":null,"deduplication_fingerprint":"7aa673caf766b307fb8650f430cf5a19eb5f9522efab1bcc119a1b0f32636582","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":[],"headings":[],"id":"pg45304-Footnote_543_543","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_543_543","source_ebook":45304,"source_html":"<div class=\"footnote\">\n<p><a id=\"Footnote_543_543\"></a><a class=\"pginternal\" href=\"#FNanchor_543_543\"><span class=\"label\">[543]</span></a> Cf. <i>de Trin.</i> v. 17.</p></div>","source_sha256":"d89e9a2b80bb59f394f0fb1bf313b39fab162f06af6642166d62c5912c1195f1","source_url":"https://www.gutenberg.org/cache/epub/45304/pg45304-images.html#Footnote_543_543","text_sha256":"30db804e62891e47fec4518d12981f71ff6e22621631c58befe021e7d21e406c","verified":false,"work_id":null}

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