Chapter V.
The perfect union of the Father and the Son in their works. To see in God the same as to approve. To praise the work while the parts are not yet complete is proper to God.
18. And God saw that it was good (Gen. I, 3). The Son does what the Father wants: the Father praises what the Son does. Nothing is found in Him that deviates from nature, whose work does not deviate from the will of the Father. He saw, indeed, not with bodily eyes, but he determined that it was fitting for the fullness of grace, so that his judgment might be known to me; for we are accustomed also to discuss those things which are divine. And what wonder if they can retract from the work, who ask questions about the generation of the very operator Himself? They call Him into judgment, they try to assert that He is unequal and degenerate. Thus the law: And God said, and God did. The Father and the Son are honored with the same name of majesty. And God saw that it was good. He spoke as if knowing everything the Father willed, and He saw as if knowing everything the Son would do, holding knowledge and acting in partnership.
He saw that it was good. He did not know it as something unknown, but he approved of what pleased him. It was not as if a work unknown pleased him; for neither was the Father unknown who was pleased in the Son, as it is written: This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased (Matt. III, 17) . But the Son always knows the will of the Father, and the Father of the Son, and the Son always hears the Father, and the Father the Son, through the unity of nature, will, and substance. Finally, the Son testifies to this in his Gospel, saying to the Father: I knew that you always hear me (John 11:42). For the Son is the image of the invisible God. He expresses all things of the Father as an image, he illuminates all things of his as the splendor of glory, and he reveals them to us. The Son sees the work of the Father, just as the Father sees the work of the Son; as the Lord himself declared: The Son can do nothing by himself, unless he sees the Father doing it (John 5:19). Therefore he sees the Father who is doing, and he sees through the secret of the invisible nature, and he hears likewise. Finally he says: As I hear, I judge, and my judgment is true; because I am not alone, but I and the Father who sent me (John 8:16).
20. This is mystical, that is moral. It has seen for me, it has approved for me. What God has approved, may you not speak reprehensibly of; for what God has cleansed, may you not call common (Acts X, 15), you remembered it is written for you; therefore, let no one blaspheme the good of God. If the firmament is good, how much more so is its creator good; even if the Arians refuse, let the Eunomians cry out, the fruit of a degenerate root is worse.
21. God saw, He said, that it was good. Artists usually create individual parts first and then skillfully connect them together: those who carve human faces or shape bodies from marble, sculpt with bronze, or mold from wax, do not know how the individual parts will fit together or what beauty the future connection will bring; and therefore they either dare not praise or praise only in part. But God, as the judge of the whole, foreseeing what is to come, praises as if already perfect those things that are still at the beginning of the first work, surpassing the knowledge of the end of the work. It is not surprising, therefore, that someone who sees the perfection of things, not in the completion of the work, but in the predestination of their own will, praises each part as if it were suitable for the future: praises the fullness of the individual parts put together with beauty. For that is true beauty, both to have what is fitting in each individual part and also in the whole, so that grace may be praised in each part and the fullness of a suitable form may be praised in all.
22. But now, even the second day is coming to a close for us, so that while we are constructing the framework of the firmament, we do not make those who listen weaker with our long-windedness; while the conversation is extended into the night, which is still without the light of the moon and the stars, for the luminaries of the heavens have not yet been created, it may bring darkness to those who are returning: at the same time, let their bodies be taken care of with food and drink, so that while their minds are feasting, the frailty of the flesh does not complain about the fasting of the night as well.
Book Three. Of the Work of the Third Day.