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Lactantius
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Introductory Notice To Lactantius.
[302] Circumvallavit, “placed a barrier round.” See Gen. iii. 24: “He placed at the east of the garden of Eden cherubims, and a flaming sword, which turned every way to keep the way of the tree of life.”
[303] [Not novissima, but extrema here. He refers to book vii. cap. 11, etc.]
[304] Temporary. The word is opposed to everlasting.
[305] No one actually lived a thousand years. They who approached nearest to it were Methuselah, who lived 969 years, Jared 962, and Noah 950.
[306] It appears that the practise of the Egyptians varied as to the computation of the year.
[307] Philo and Josephus.
[308] [“Old Parr,” born in Shropshire, a.d. 1483, died in 1635: i.e., born before the discovery of America, he lived to the beginning of Hampden’s career in England.]
[309] The reading is quod, which in construction refers not to the preceding, but to the following substantive. Qui has been suggested as a preferable reading.
[310] Lactantius understands the hundred and twenty years (mentioned Gen. vi. 3) as the limit of human life, and regards it as a mark of severity on God’s part. But Chrysostom, Jerome, Augustine, and most commentators, regard it rather as a sign of God’s patience and long-suffering, in giving them that space for repentance. And this appears to be confirmed by the Apostle Peter, 1 Ep. iii. 20, “When once the long-suffering of God waited in the days of Noah, while the ark was a preparing.”
[311] Ham.
[313] This refers to that prophetic denunciation of divine judgment on the impiety of Ham, which Noah, by the suggestion of the Holy Spirit, uttered against the posterity of the profane man. Gen. ix. 25: “Cursed be Canaan.” The curse was not uttered in a spirit of vengeance or impatience on account of the injury received, but by the prophetic impulse of the Divine Spirit. [The prophet fixes on the descendant of Ham, whose impiety was foreseen, and to whom it brought a curse so signal.]
[314] [Our author falls into a hysteron-proteron: the curse did not work the ignorance, but wilful ignorance and idolatry wrought the curse, which was merely foretold, not fore-ordained.]
[315] Resedit.
[316] Eclipses.
Chap. XV.—Of the Corruption of Angels, and the Two Kinds of Demons.
[317] Cultum.
[318] Substantiæ, “essence.”
[319] See 2 Cor. iv. 4, “the god of this world.”
[320] Middle.
[321] Unclean.
[322] δαήμονες. Other derivations have been proposed; but the word probably comes from δαίω, “to distribute destinies.” Plato approves of the etymology given by Lactantius; for he says that good men, distinguished by great honours, after their death became demons, in accordance with this title of prudence and wisdom. [See the whole subject in Lewis’ Plato, etc., p. 347. ]
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