{"collection":"chr","html_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/browse/chr/ecf/102/1020324.htm","path":"chr/ecf/102/1020324.htm","source_url":"https://sacred-texts.com/chr/ecf/102/1020324.htm","text":"Chapter 20.\u2014Of the Words Which Follow the Separation of Light and Darkness, \u201cAnd God Saw the Light that It Was Good.\u201d\nThen, we must not pass from this passage of Scripture without noticing that when God said, \u201cLet there be light, and there was light,\u201d it was immediately added, \u201cAnd God saw the light that it was good.\u201d No such expression followed the statement that He separated the light from the darkness, and called the light Day and the darkness Night, lest the seal of His approval might seem to be set on such darkness, as well as on the light. For when the darkness was not subject of disapprobation, as when it was divided by the heavenly bodies from this light which our eyes discern, the statement that God saw that it was good is inserted, not before, but after the division is recorded. \u201cAnd God set them,\u201d so runs the passage, \u201cin the firmament of the heaven, to give light upon the earth, and to rule over the day and over the night, and to divide the light from the darkness: and God saw that it was good.\u201d For He approved of both, because both were sinless. But where God said, \u201cLet there be light, and there was light; and God saw the p. 216 light that it was good;\u201d and the narrative goes on, \u201cand God divided the light from the darkness! and God called the light Day, and the darkness He called Night,\u201d there was not in this place subjoined the statement, \u201cAnd God saw that it was good,\u201d lest both should be designated good, while one of them was evil, not by nature, but by its own fault. And therefore, in this case, the light alone received the approbation of the Creator, while the angelic darkness, though it had been ordained, was yet not approved.","title":"Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Vol. II: City of God: Cha...","type":"page"}