Chapter 27.—The Answer.

Wherefore we most wholesomely confess what we most correctly believe, that the God and Lord of all things, who in His strength created all things good, and foreknew that evil things would arise out of good, and knew that it pertained to His most omnipotent goodness even to do good out of evil things rather than not to allow evil things to be at all, so ordained the life of angels and men that in it He might first of all show what their free will was capable of, and then what the kindness of His grace and the judgment of His righteousness was capable of. Finally, certain angels, of whom the chief is he who is called the devil, became by free will outcasts from the Lord God. Yet although they fled from His goodness, wherein they had been blessed, they could not flee from His judgment, by which they were made most wretched. Others, however, by the same free will stood fast in the truth, and merited the knowledge of that most certain truth that they should never fall.106    “Eamque [scil. veritatem] de suo casu nunquam futuro certissimam scire.” For if from the Holy Scriptures we have been able to attain the knowledge that none of the holy angels shall fall evermore, how much more have they themselves attained this knowledge by the truth more sublimely revealed to them! Because to us is promised a blessed life without end, and equality with the angels,107    Matt. xxii. 30. from which promise we are certified that when after judgment we shall have come to that life, we shall not fall from it; but if the angels are ignorant of this truth concerning themselves, we shall not be their equals, but more blessed than they. But the Truth has promised us equality with them. It is certain, then, that they have known this by sight, which we have known by faith, to wit, that there shall be now no more any fall of any holy angel. But the devil and his angels, although they were blessed before they fell, and did not know that they should fall unto misery,—there was still something which might be added to their blessedness, if by free will they had stood in the truth, until they should receive that fulness of the highest blessing as the reward of that continuance; that is, that by the great abundance of the love of God, given by the Holy Spirit, they should absolutely not be able to fall any more, and that they should know this with complete certainty concerning themselves. They had not this plenitude of blessedness; but since they were ignorant of their future misery, they enjoyed a blessedness which was less, indeed, but still without any defect. For if they had known their future fall and eternal punishment, they certainly could not have been blessed; since the fear of so great an evil as this would compel them even then to be miserable.

27. Quapropter saluberrime confitemur, quod rectissime credimus, Deum Dominumque rerum omnium, qui creavit omnia bona valde, et mala ex bonis exoritura esse praescivit, et scivit magis ad suam omnipotentissimam bonitatem pertinere, etiam de malis bene facere , quam mala esse non sinere, sic ordinasse Angelorum et hominum vitam, ut in ea prius ostenderet quid posset eorum liberum arbitrium, deinde quid posset suae gratiae beneficium justitiaeque judicium. Denique angeli quidam, quorum princeps est qui dicitur diabolus, per liberum arbitrium a Domino Deo refugae facti sunt. Refugientes tamen ejus bonitatem, qua beati fuerunt, non potuerunt ejus effugere judicium, per quod miserrimi effecti sunt. Caeteri autem per ipsum liberum arbitrium in veritate steterunt, eamque de suo casu nunquam futuro certissimam scire meruerunt. Si enim nos de Scripturis sanctis nosse potuimus sanctos Angelos jam nullos esse casuros; quanto magis hoc ipsi revelata sibi sublimius veritate noverunt? Nobis quippe beata sine fine vita promissa est, et aequalitas Angelorum: ex qua promissione certi sumus, cum ad illam vitam post judicium venerimus, non inde nos esse lapsuros: 0933 quod si de se ipsis Angeli nesciunt, non aequales, sed beatiores erimus. Veritas autem nobis eorum promisit aequalitatem (Matth. XXII, 30). Certum est igitur hoc eos nosse per speciem, quod nos per fidem, nullam scilicet ruinam cujusquam sancti angeli jam futuram. Diabolus vero et angeli ejus, etsi beati erant antequam caderent, et se in miseriam casuros esse nesciebant, erat tamen adhuc quod eorum adderetur beatitudini, si per liberum arbitrium in veritate stetissent, donec istam summae beatitudinis plenitudinem, tanquam praemium ipsius permansionis acciperent, id est, ut magna per Spiritum sanctum data abundantia charitatis Dei, cadere ulterius omnino non possent, et hoc de se certissime nossent. Hanc plenitudinem beatitudinis non habebant: sed quia nesciebant suam futuram miseriam, minore quidem, sed tamen beatitudine sine ullo vitio fruebantur. Nam si suum casum futurum nossent aeternumque supplicium, beati utique esse non possent, quos hujus tanti mali metus jam tunc miseros esse compelleret.