{"author":null,"backreferences":[{"context_html":"<p>Some,<a id=\"FNanchor_516_516\"></a><a class=\"fnanchor pginternal\" href=\"#Footnote_516_516\">[516]</a> however, have supposed that the angelic hosts are\r\nsomehow referred to under the name of waters, and that this\r\nis what is meant by, \"Let there be a firmament in the midst\r\nof the waters:\"<a id=\"FNanchor_517_517\"></a><a class=\"fnanchor pginternal\" href=\"#Footnote_517_517\">[517]</a> that the waters above should be understood of\r\nthe angels, and those below either of the visible waters, or of\r\nthe multitude of bad angels, or of the nations of men. If\r\nthis be so, then it does not here appear when the angels were\r\ncreated, but when they were separated. Though there have\r\nnot been wanting men foolish and wicked enough<a id=\"FNanchor_518_518\"></a><a class=\"fnanchor pginternal\" href=\"#Footnote_518_518\">[518]</a> to deny\r\nthat the waters were made by God, because it is nowhere\r\nwritten, \"God said, Let there be waters.\" With equal folly\r\nthey might say the same of the earth, for nowhere do we read,\r\n\"God said, Let the earth be.\" But, say they, it is written,\r\n\"In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth.\"<span class=\"pagenum\"><a id=\"Page_480\">[Pg 480]</a></span>\r\nYes, and there the water is meant, for both are included in\r\none word. For \"the sea is His,\" as the psalm says, \"and\r\nHe made it; and His hands formed the dry land.\"<a id=\"FNanchor_519_519\"></a><a class=\"fnanchor pginternal\" href=\"#Footnote_519_519\">[519]</a> But\r\nthose who would understand the angels by the waters above\r\nthe skies have a difficulty about the specific gravity of the\r\nelements, and fear that the waters, owing to their fluidity and\r\nweight, could not be set in the upper parts of the world. So\r\nthat, if they were to construct a man upon their own principles,\r\nthey would not put in his head any moist humours, or\r\n\"phlegm\" as the Greeks call it, and which acts the part of\r\nwater among the elements of our body. But, in God's handiwork,\r\nthe head is the seat of the phlegm, and surely most\r\nfitly; and yet, according to their supposition, so absurdly\r\nthat if we were not aware of the fact, and were informed by\r\nthis same record that God had put a moist and cold and\r\ntherefore heavy humour in the uppermost part of man's body,\r\nthese world-weighers would refuse belief. And if they were\r\nconfronted with the authority of Scripture, they would maintain\r\nthat something else must be meant by the words. But,\r\nwere we to investigate and discover all the details which are\r\nwritten in this divine book regarding the creation of the\r\nworld, we should have much to say, and should widely digress\r\nfrom the proposed aim of this work. Since, then, we have\r\nnow said what seemed needful regarding these two diverse\r\nand contrary communities of angels, in which the origin of\r\nthe two human communities (of which we intend to speak\r\nanon) is also found, let us at once bring this book also to a\r\nconclusion.</p>","headings":["THE WORKS OF AURELIUS AUGUSTINE,","BOOK ELEVENTH.","ARGUMENT."],"marker_anchor":null,"paragraph_id":"pg45304-paragraph-826"}],"canonical_references":[],"date_end":null,"date_start":null,"deduplication_fingerprint":"47c9adc252a530bdab1c187c8901daa4d40ef66d9558ccfeda9413c0433ba17c","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_516_516","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_516_516","source_ebook":45304,"source_html":"<div class=\"footnote\">\n<p><a id=\"Footnote_516_516\"></a><a class=\"pginternal\" href=\"#FNanchor_516_516\"><span class=\"label\">[516]</span></a> Augustine himself published this idea in his <i>Conf.</i> xiii. 32, but afterwards\r\nretracted it, as \"said without sufficient consideration\" (<i>Retract.</i> II. vi. 2).\r\nEpiphanius and Jerome ascribe it to Origen.</p></div>","source_sha256":"d89e9a2b80bb59f394f0fb1bf313b39fab162f06af6642166d62c5912c1195f1","source_url":"https://www.gutenberg.org/cache/epub/45304/pg45304-images.html#Footnote_516_516","text_sha256":"2ea4399f7ddbbf92b0fbea63b50605270b9dce48c90cccacba55f5c01e30f113","verified":false,"work_id":null}