{"author":null,"backreferences":[{"context_html":"<p>The word of the Lord came to Abraham in a vision also.\r\nFor when God promised him protection and exceeding great\r\nreward, he, being solicitous about posterity, said that a certain\r\nEliezer of Damascus, born in his house, would be his heir.\r\nImmediately he was promised an heir, not that house-born\r\nservant, but one who was to come forth of Abraham himself;\r\nand again a seed innumerable, not as the dust of the earth,\r\nbut as the stars of heaven,—which rather seems to me a promise\r\nof a posterity exalted in celestial felicity. For, so far as\r\nmultitude is concerned, what are the stars of heaven to the\r\ndust of the earth, unless one should say the comparison is like\r\ninasmuch as the stars also cannot be numbered? For it is not\r\nto be believed that all of them can be seen. For the more\r\nkeenly one observes them, the more does he see. So that it is\r\nto be supposed some remain concealed from the keenest observers,\r\nto say nothing of those stars which are said to rise and\r\nset in another part of the world most remote from us. Finally,\r\nthe authority of this book condemns those like Aratus or\r\nEudoxus, or any others who boast that they have found out and\r\nwritten down the complete number of the stars. Here, indeed,\r\nis set down that sentence which the apostle quotes in order to\r\ncommend the grace of God, \"Abraham believed God, and it\r\nwas counted to him for righteousness;\"<a id=\"FNanchor_272_272\"></a><a class=\"fnanchor pginternal\" href=\"#Footnote_272_272\">[272]</a> lest the circumcision<span class=\"pagenum\"><a id=\"Page_136\">[Pg 136]</a></span>\r\nshould glory, and be unwilling to receive the uncircumcised\r\nnations to the faith of Christ. For at the time when he believed,\r\nand his faith was counted to him for righteousness,\r\nAbraham had not yet been circumcised.</p>","headings":["THE CITY OF GOD.","BOOK SIXTEENTH.","ARGUMENT."],"marker_anchor":null,"paragraph_id":"pg45305-paragraph-230"}],"canonical_references":[],"date_end":null,"date_start":null,"deduplication_fingerprint":"77fb3a0de55f2abbcd0248c10d548979be9c08e5d71bdb53398fce394539eb2c","edition_title":"The City of God, Volume II","edition_translators":["Marcus Dods","George Wilson (Books XVII-XVIII)"],"edition_year":1871,"explicit_reference_candidates":[{"book":"ROM","chapter":4,"kind":"unreviewed","source_notation":"Rom. iv. 3","verse":3,"verse_end":3},{"book":"GEN","chapter":15,"kind":"unreviewed","source_notation":"Gen. xv. 6","verse":6,"verse_end":6}],"headings":[],"id":"pg45305-Footnote_272_272","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_272_272","source_ebook":45305,"source_html":"<div class=\"footnote\">\n<p><a id=\"Footnote_272_272\"></a><a class=\"pginternal\" href=\"#FNanchor_272_272\"><span class=\"label\">[272]</span></a> Rom. iv. 3; Gen. xv. 6.</p></div>","source_sha256":"7e0ced9e70512f3cf050b53c9d548e36b70d468d875153869f95d8aff5bbb530","source_url":"https://www.gutenberg.org/cache/epub/45305/pg45305-images.html#Footnote_272_272","text_sha256":"a60e115ce328b59db2257a44b408326956e39fc87e904599fadbe8edb3ee0aa9","verified":false,"work_id":null}