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But if some one oppose our opinion, and say that the holy angels are
not referred to when it is said, "Let there be light, and there was
light;" if he suppose or teach that some material light, then first
created, was meant, and that the angels were created, not only before
the firmament dividing the waters and named "the heaven," but also
before the time signified in the words, "In the beginning God
created the heaven and the earth;" if he allege that this phrase,
"In the beginning," does not mean that nothing was made before (for
the angels were), but that God made all things by His Wisdom or
Word, who is named in Scripture "the Beginning," as He
Himself, in the gospel, replied to the Jews when they asked Him who
He was, that He was the Beginning;, I will not contest the
point, chiefly because it gives me the liveliest satisfaction to find
the Trinity celebrated in the very beginning of the book of Genesis.
For having said "In the Beginning God created the heaven and the
earth," meaning that the Father made them in the Son (as the psalm
testifies where it says, "How manifold are Thy works, O Lord! in
Wisdom hast Thou made them all" , a little afterwards mention is
fitly made of the Holy Spirit also. For, when it had been told us
what kind of earth God created at first, or what the mass or matter
was which God, under the name of "heaven and earth," had provided
for the construction of the world, as is told in the additional words,
"And the earth was without form, and void; and darkness was upon the
face of the deep," then, for the sake of completing the mention of
the Trinity, it is immediately added, "And the Spirit of God
moved upon the face of the waters." Let each one, then, take it as
he pleases; for it is so profound a passage, that it may well
suggest, for the exercise of the reader's tact, many opinions, and
none of them widely departing from the rule of faith. At the same
time, let none doubt that the holy angels in their heavenly abodes
are, though not, indeed, co-eternal with God, yet secure and
certain of eternal and true felicity. To their company the Lord
teaches that His little ones belong; and not only says, "They shall
be equal to the angels of God," but shows, too, what blessed
contemplation the angels themselves enjoy, saying, "Take heed that
ye despise not one of these little ones: for I say unto you, that in
heaven their angels do always behold the face of my Father which is in
heaven."
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