Chapter XXVIII.—He Proceeds to the Last Verse, “All Things are Very Good,”—That Is, the Work Being Altogether Good.

43. And Thou, O God, sawest everything that Thou hadst made, and behold it was very good.1297    Gen. i. 31. So we also see the same, and behold all are very good. In each particular kind of Thy works, when Thou hadst said, “Let them be made,” and they were made, Thou sawest that it was good. Seven times have I counted it written that Thou sawest that that which Thou madest was “good;” and this is the eighth, that Thou sawest all things that Thou hadst made, and behold they are not only good, but also “very good,” as being now taken together. For individually they were only good, but all taken together they were both good and very good. All beautiful bodies also express this; for a body which consists of members, all of which are beautiful, is by far more beautiful than the several members individually are by whose well-ordered union the whole is completed, though these members also be severally beautiful.1298    In his De Gen. con. Manich. i. 21, he enlarges to the same effect on Gen. i. 31.

CAPUT XXVIII. Et vidit Deus omnia quae fecit, et ecce bona valde, etc., Gen. 1, 31.

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43. Et vidisti, Deus, omnia quae fecisti, et ecce bona valde; quia et nos vidimus ea, et ecce omnia bona valde. In singulis generibus operum tuorum, cum dixisses ut fierent et facta essent, illud atque illud vidisti quia bonum est. Septies numeravi scriptum esse te vidisse quia bonum est quod fecisti: et hoc octavum est, quia vidisti omnia quae fecisti; et ecce non solum bona, sed etiam valde bona tanquam simul omnia. Nam singula tantum bona erant; simul autem omnia et bona, et valde. Hoc dicunt etiam quaeque pulchra corpora; quia longe multo pulchrius est corpus quod ex membris pulchris omnibus constat, quam ipsa membra singula quorum ordinatissimo conventu completur universum; quamvis et illa etiam singillatim pulchra sint.