Anf-03 v.vii.iii Pg 15
Gen. xxxii.
Has it, then, been permitted to angels, which are inferior to God, after they have been changed into human bodily form,6983 6983 See below in chap. vi. and in the Anti-Marcion, iii. 9.
nevertheless to remain angels? and will you deprive God, their superior, of this faculty, as if Christ could not continue to be God, after His real assumption of the nature of man? Or else, did those angels appear as phantoms of flesh? You will not, however, have the courage to say this; for if it be so held in your belief, that the Creator’s angels are in the same condition as Christ, then Christ will belong to the same God as those angels do, who are like Christ in their condition. If you had not purposely rejected in some instances, and corrupted in others, the Scriptures which are opposed to your opinion, you would have been confuted in this matter by the Gospel of John, when it declares that the Spirit descended in the body6984 6984 Corpore.
of a dove, and sat upon the Lord.6985 6985
Anf-03 v.iii.xxii Pg 16
Deut. xix. 15; and 2 Cor. xiii. 1.
After the same fashion,2083 2083 Itaque, ironical.
too, (I suppose,) were they ignorant to whom, after His resurrection also, He vouchsafed, as they were journeying together, “to expound all the Scriptures.”2084 2084
Anf-03 v.iv.v.xxii Pg 25
Compare Deut. xix. 15 with Luke ix. 28.
He withdraws to a mountain. In the nature of the place I see much meaning. For the Creator had originally formed His ancient people on a mountain both with visible glory and His voice. It was only right that the New Testament should be attested4342 4342 Consignari.
on such an elevated spot4343 4343 In eo suggestu.
as that whereon the Old Testament had been composed;4344 4344 Conscriptum fuerat.
under a like covering of cloud also, which nobody will doubt, was condensed out of the Creator’s air. Unless, indeed, he4345 4345 Marcion’s god.
had brought down his own clouds thither, because he had himself forced his way through the Creator’s heaven;4346 4346 Compare above, book i. chap. 15, and book iv. chap. 7.
or else it was only a precarious cloud,4347 4347 Precario. This word is used in book v. chap. xii. to describe the transitoriness of the Creator’s paradise and world.
as it were, of the Creator which he used. On the present (as also on the former)4348 4348 Nec nunc.
occasion, therefore, the cloud was not silent; but there was the accustomed voice from heaven, and the Father’s testimony to the Son; precisely as in the first Psalm He had said, “Thou art my Son, today have I begotten thee.”4349 4349
Anf-03 v.iv.v.xliii Pg 11
Deut. xvii. 6, xix. 15, compared with Matt. xviii. 16 and 2 Cor. xiii. 1.
Moreover, the women, returning from the sepulchre, and from this vision of the angels, were foreseen by Isaiah, when he says, “Come, ye women, who return from the vision;”5174 5174
Anf-03 vi.iii.vi Pg 7
Deut. xix. 15; Matt. xviii. 16; 2 Cor. xiii. 1.
—while, through the benediction, we have the same (three) as witnesses of our faith whom we have as sureties8589 8589 Sponsores.
of our salvation too—how much more does the number of the divine names suffice for the assurance of our hope likewise! Moreover, after the pledging both of the attestation of faith and the promise8590 8590 Sponsio.
of salvation under “three witnesses,” there is added, of necessity, mention of the Church;8591 8591 Compare de Orat. c. ii. sub fin.
inasmuch as, wherever there are three, (that is, the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, ) there is the Church, which is a body of three.8592 8592
Anf-01 v.iii.xii Pg 3
Prov. xviii. 17. (LXX).
