Ambrose of Milan : From the goods that inhere in the nature of creation—they are indeed very good, even as the Lord said—one can apprehend the supreme and everlasting good. The order of the universe, its arrangement and its beauty—is not a man moved by this to love his Creator, even if he is slow in ability? For if we love our parents because they have produced us, how much more ought we to love the Creator of our parents and our own Creator! Therefore the power of God is a creating power. Even if God is not seen, he is judged from his works, and his works betray the workman, so that he who is not comprehended may be perceived. — FLIGHT FROM THE WORLD 2.10 Augustine of Hippo : Certainly we should not carelessly pass over the words of Scripture that say, "And God saw that all the things that he had made were very good." For when dealing with individual things, it only says, "God saw that it is good," but in speaking of all things, it was not enough to say "good" without adding "very" as well. For if prudent observers consider the single works of God, they find that individually in their own species, they have praiseworthy measures, numbers and orders. How much more then will this be true of all of them together, that is, of the universe that is filled with these individual things gathered into unity? For every beauty that is composed of parts is much more praiseworthy in the whole than in a part. — TWO BOOKS ON GENESIS AGAINST THE MANICHAEANS 1.21.32 Augustine of Hippo : No one doubts that God himself is the primal good. Indeed things can be said to be similar to God in many ways. Some, created in accordance with power and wisdom, are similar to God because uncreated power and wisdom are in him. Other created things are similar to God in the simple fact that they are alive, and God is incomparably alive and the source of life. Other created things are similar to God in that they have being, for God is the highest being and the source of being. And even those things that merely exist and yet do not live or know are in his likeness, not completely but in a slight degree, because even they are good in their own order, while God is incomparably good in a way transcending all other goods and from whom everything good proceeds. — EIGHTY-THREE QUESTIONS 51.2 Augustine of Hippo : And this number is on that account called perfect, because it is completed in its own parts: for it has these three, sixth, third, and half; nor is there any other part found in it, which we can call an aliquot part. The sixth part of it, then, is one; the third part, two; the half, three. But one and two and three complete the same six. And Holy Scripture commends to us the perfection of this number, especially in this, that God finished His works in six days, and on the sixth day man was made in the image of God. And the Son of God came and was made the Son of man, that He might re-create us after the image of God, in the sixth age of the human race. For that is now the present age, whether a thousand years apiece are assigned to each age, or whether we trace out memorable and remarkable epochs or turning-points of time in the divine Scriptures, so that the first age is to be found from Adam until Noah, and the second thence onwards to Abraham, and then next, after the division of Matthew the evangelist, from Abraham to David, from David to the carrying away to Babylon, and from thence to the travail of the Virgin, which three ages joined to those other two make five. Accordingly, the nativity of the Lord began the sixth, which is now going onwards until the hidden end of time. — ON THE TRINITY 4.4.7 Bede : And God saw all that he had made, and behold, it was very good. Because it was said of each of God's works individually that he saw that they were good, rightly in conclusion, with all things completed, it was stated with an added emphasis that he saw all that he had made, and it was very good. But the question rightly arises, why of man, when he was made, was it not additionally stated individually: And God saw that it was good, but rather that his creation was more generally praised among the others? Or did God, foreseeing that man would sin and not remain in the perfection of his image, wish to state that he was good not individually but along with the others, as if indicating what was to come? Therefore, man before sin and undoubtedly in his own kind was good, but Scripture omitted saying this, rather to state more what would announce something to come. For God is the best creator of natures, but indeed the most just regulator of sinners, so that even if certain things become deformed through individual sins, yet the entirety always remains beautiful with them. — Commentary on Genesis (Hexaemeron) Bede : And there was evening and there was morning, the sixth day. Thus the heavens and the earth and all their array were completed. The number six is considered to be perfect because it is completed by its parts: namely the sixth which is one, the third which is two, and the half which is three. Indeed, one and two and three make up six, which in the units of numbers you will nowhere else find except here, nor in the tens except for the number twenty-eight. Therefore, in six days God completed all the array of the heaven and the earth, so that He who established all things in measure and number and weight, might also teach that His works are perfect in this very number in which He worked. And God completed on the seventh day His work which He had made. In another translation, it is said that God completed His works which He had made on the sixth day. This brings up no question at all because it is declared plainly in the description of what was done in it. But it is rightly questioned how our version, which descends from the Hebrew truth, says that God completed His work which He had made on the seventh day, in which nothing new is mentioned as having been created, unless perhaps we say that He made the seventh day itself then, and in its making completed His work, by which creation of it He finished the measure and number of the days by whose cycle all ages henceforth would proceed to their end. For in the revolution of times, the eighth day is counted the same as the first day. — Commentary on Genesis (Hexaemeron) Gregory of Nazianzus : He made a first day, a second, a third, and so forth until the seventh day which was a rest from work. According to these days, everything created was subdivided, brought into an order by inexpressible laws. So creation was not an instantaneous act by the all-powerful Word; for him to think or to speak is to accomplish a task. If humans were last to enter the world—and in such a way as to honor God's handiwork with God's image—is this not marvelous? It is like saying that as a king he prepared the palace and then, as king, when everything was already prepared, led in the procession. — HOMILIES ON Genesis 44 John Chrysostom : I mean, his all-powerful hand and boundless wisdom were not at a loss even to create everything in one day. Why say "one day"? Even in a brief moment. Yet it was not because of its utility to him that he produced anything that exists, since being self-sufficient he is in need of nothing. It was rather out of his loving kindness and goodness that he created everything; accordingly he created things in sequence and provided us with a clear instruction about created things through the tongue of the blessed author, so that we might learn about them precisely and not fall into the error of those led by purely human reasoning. — HOMILIES ON Genesis 3.12