{"author":null,"backreferences":[{"context_html":"<p class=\"c005\">1. But let us now return to the order of our proposed discussion,\r\nand behold the commencement of creation, so far as\r\nthe understanding can behold the beginning of the creation\r\nof God. In that commencement,<a id=\"r303\"></a><a class=\"c007 pginternal\" href=\"#f303\"><sup>[303]</sup></a> then, we are to suppose\r\n<span class=\"pageno\" id=\"Page_127\">127</span>that God created so great a number of rational or intellectual\r\ncreatures (or by whatever name they are to be called), which\r\nwe have formerly termed understandings, as He foresaw would\r\nbe sufficient. It is certain that He made them according to\r\nsome definite number, predetermined by Himself: for it is\r\nnot to be imagined, as some would have it, that creatures have\r\nnot a limit, because where there is no limit there can neither\r\nbe any comprehension nor any limitation. Now if this were\r\nthe case, then certainly created things could neither be restrained\r\nnor administered by God. For, naturally, whatever\r\nis infinite will also be incomprehensible. Moreover, as\r\nScripture says, “God has arranged all things in number and\r\nmeasure;”<a id=\"r304\"></a><a class=\"c007 pginternal\" href=\"#f304\"><sup>[304]</sup></a> and therefore number will be correctly applied to\r\nrational creatures or understandings, that they may be so\r\nnumerous as to admit of being arranged, governed, and controlled\r\nby God. But measure will be appropriately applied\r\nto a material body; and this measure, we are to believe, was\r\ncreated by God such as He knew would be sufficient for the\r\nadorning of the world. These, then, are the things which\r\nwe are to believe were created by God in the beginning, <i>i.e.</i>\r\nbefore all things. And this, we think, is indicated even in\r\nthat beginning which Moses has introduced in terms somewhat\r\nambiguous, when he says, “In the beginning God made\r\nthe heaven and the earth.”<a id=\"r305\"></a><a class=\"c007 pginternal\" href=\"#f305\"><sup>[305]</sup></a> For it is certain that the firmament\r\nis not spoken of, nor the dry land, but that heaven\r\nand earth from which this present heaven and earth which\r\nwe now see afterwards borrowed their names.</p>","headings":["The Writings of Origen, Vol. 1 of 2","ORIGEN DE PRINCIPIIS.","BOOK II.","CHAPTER IX. ON THE WORLD AND THE MOVEMENTS OF RATIONAL CREATURES, WHETHER GOOD OR BAD; AND ON THE CAUSES OF THEM."],"marker_anchor":null,"paragraph_id":"pg70561-paragraph-171"}],"canonical_references":[],"date_end":null,"date_start":null,"deduplication_fingerprint":"1502c698f770bae13a667dca281a4b84d185cac604768fe69dde77e70e3981b2","edition_title":"The writings of Origen, Vol. 1 (of 2)","edition_translators":["Frederick Crombie"],"edition_year":1869,"explicit_reference_candidates":[{"book":"GEN","chapter":1,"kind":"unreviewed","source_notation":"Gen. i. 1","verse":1,"verse_end":1}],"headings":[],"id":"pg70561-f305","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":"Project Gutenberg metadata: Public domain in the USA. Existing 1869 English translation; translator died 1889. Electronic transcription subject to Project Gutenberg reuse terms.","source_anchor":"f305","source_ebook":70561,"source_html":"<div class=\"footnote\" id=\"f305\">\n<p class=\"c006\"><span class=\"label\"><a class=\"pginternal\" href=\"#r305\">305</a>. </span><abbr title=\"Genesis\">Gen.</abbr> <abbr title=\"one\">i.</abbr> 1.</p>\n</div>","source_sha256":"de125e213d16053354f22b34a1c8d477ac23f201e660e4f4841b2ed7e05bb367","source_url":"https://www.gutenberg.org/cache/epub/70561/pg70561-images.html#f305","text_sha256":"28f99c0254c8b9fe3d2e73514799cc650216c0360f411587ef09166f1d336659","verified":false,"work_id":null}