Chapter X.—Another Cavil Met, I.e., the Devil Who Instigated Man to Sin Himself the Creature of God. Nay, the Primeval Cherub Only Was God’s Work. The Devilish Nature Superadded by Wilfulness. In Man’s Recovery the Devil is Vanquished in a Conflict on His Own Ground.

If, however, you choose to transfer the account510    Agnitione. The distinctive term of the Gnostic pretension was the Greek equivalent Γνῶσις.    Elogium. of evil from man to the devil as the instigator of sin, and in this way, too, throw the blame on the Creator, inasmuch as He created the devil,—for He maketh those spiritual beings, the angels—then it will follow that511    Agnitione.    Ergo. what was made, that is to say, the angel, will belong to Him who made it; while that which was not made by God, even the devil, or accuser,512    Plane.    Delator. cannot but have been made by itself; and this by false detraction513    Non evagabor, ut dicam.    Deferendo, in reference to the word delator, our author’s synonyme for διάβολος. from God: first, how that God had forbidden them to eat of every tree; then, with the pretence that they should not die if they ate; thirdly, as if God grudged them the property of divinity. Now, whence originated this malice of lying and deceit towards man, and slandering of God? Most certainly not from God, who made the angel good after the fashion of His good works.  Indeed, before he became the devil, he stands forth the wisest of creatures; and514    Provocari.    Nisi. wisdom is no515    Debebo.    Nisi. evil. If you turn to the prophecy of Ezekiel, you will at once perceive that this angel was both by creation good and by choice corrupt. For in the person of the prince of Tyre it is said in reference to the devil: “Moreover, the word of the Lord came unto me, saying, Son of man, take up a lamentation upon the king of Tyrus, and say unto him, Thus saith the Lord God: Thou sealest up the sum, full of wisdom, perfect in beauty” (this belongs to him as the highest of the angels, the archangel, the wisest of all); “amidst the delights of the paradise of thy God wast thou born” (for it was there, where God had made the angels in a shape which resembled the figure of animals). “Every precious stone was thy covering, the sardius, the topaz, and the diamond, the beryl, the onyx, and the jasper, the sapphire, the emerald, and the carbuncle; and with gold hast thou filled thy barns and thy treasuries. From the day when thou wast created, when I set thee, a cherub, upon the holy mountain of God, thou wast in the midst of stones of fire, thou wast irreproachable in thy days, from the day of thy creation, until thine iniquities were discovered. By the abundance of thy merchandise thou hast filled thy storehouses, and thou hast sinned,” etc.516    Ratione.    Ezek. xxviii. 11–16 (Sept.). This description, it is manifest, properly belongs to the transgression of the angel, and not to the prince’s: for none among human beings was either born in the paradise of God, not even Adam himself, who was rather translated thither; nor placed with a cherub upon God’s holy mountain, that is to say, in the heights of heaven, from which the Lord testifies that Satan fell; nor detained amongst the stones of fire, and the flashing rays of burning constellations, whence Satan was cast down like lightning.517    Constantius.    Luke x. 18. No, it is none else than the very author of sin who was denoted in the person of a sinful man: he was once irreproachable, at the time of his creation, formed for good by God, as by the good Creator of irreproachable creatures, and adorned with every angelic glory, and associated with God, good with the Good; but afterwards of his own accord removed to evil. From the day when thine iniquities,518    Quale est ut.    Læsuræ ="injuries.” ᾽Αδικήματα ἔν σοι—Iniquitates in te.”—Hieron. says he, were discovered,—attributing to him those injuries wherewith he injured man when he was expelled from his allegiance to God,—even from that time did he sin, when he propagated his sin, and thereby plied “the abundance of his merchandise,” that is, of his Wickedness, even the tale519    Agnoscis.    Censum. of his transgressions, because he was himself as a spirit no less (than man) created, with the faculty of free-will.  For God would in nothing fail to endow a being who was to be next to Himself with a liberty of this kind.  Nevertheless, by precondemning him, God testified that he had departed from the condition520    Vacat.    Forma. of his created nature, through his own lusting after the wickedness which was spontaneously conceived within him; and at the same time, by conceding a permission for the operation of his designs, He acted consistently with the purpose of His own goodness, deferring the devil’s destruction for the self-same reason as He postponed the restitution of man. For He afforded room for a conflict, wherein man might crush his enemy with the same freedom of his will as had made him succumb to him (proving that the fault was all his own, not God’s), and so worthily recover his salvation by a victory; wherein also the devil might receive a more bitter punishment, through being vanquished by him whom he had previously injured; and wherein God might be discovered to be so much the more good, as waiting521    Argumenta ="proofs.”    Sustinens. for man to return from his present life to a more glorious paradise, with a right to pluck of the tree of life.522    Sin.    [Kaye. p. 313.]

CAPUT X.

Sed, etsi ab homine in diabolum transcripseris mali elogium, ut in instinctorem delicti; uti sic quoque in Creatorem dirigas culpam, ut auctorem diaboli, qui facit angelos spiritus: ergo quod factus a Deo est, id est angelus, id erit ejus qui 0296C fecit; quod autem factus a Deo non est, id est diabolus, id est delator, superest ut ipse sese fecerit, deferendo de Deo; et quidem falsum: primo, quod Deus illos ex omni ligno edere vetuisset, dehinc quasi morituri non essent, si edissent; tertio, quasi Deus illis invidisset divinitatem. Unde igitur malitia mendacii et fallaciae in homines, et infamiae in Deum? a Deo utique non, qui et angelum ex forma operum bonorum instituit bonum. Denique sapientissimus omnium editur, antequam diabolus; nisi malum est sapientia. Et si evolvas Ezechielis prophetiam (Ezech., XXVIII, 12), facile animadvertes tam institutione bonum angelum illum, quam sponte corruptum. In persona enim principis Sor, ad diabolum pronuntiatur: Et factus est sermo Domini ad 0296Dme, dicens: Filii hominis, sume planctum super principem Sur; et dices ei : Haec dicit Dominus: Tu resignaculum similitudinis (qui scilicet integritatem 0297A imaginis et similitudinis resignaveris), plenus sapientia , corona decoris (hoc ut eminentissimo angelorum, ut archangelo, ut sapientissimo omnium), in deliciis paradisi Dei tui natus es (illic enim ubi Deus in secunda animalium figurae formatione angelos fecerat). Lapidem optimum indutus es; sardium, topazium, smaragdum, carbunculum, sapphirum, jaspin, lyncurium, achaten, amethystum, chrysolitum, beryllum, onychinum ; et auro replesti horrea tua, et thesauros tuos. Ex qua die conditus es, cum Cherubposui te in monte sancto Dei; fuisti in medio lapidum igneorum; fuisti invituperabilis in diebus tuis, ex qua die conditus es, donec inventae sunt laesurae tuae . De multitudine negotiationis tuae promas tuas replesti, et deliquisti: et caetera. Quae ad sugillationem angeli, 0297B non ad illius principis proprie pertinere manifestum est, eo quod nemo hominum in paradiso Dei natus sit; ne ipse quidem Adam, translatus potius illuc: nec cum Cherub positus in monte sancto Dei, id est, in sublimitate coelesti, de qua Satanam Dominus quoque decidisse testatur; nec inter lapides igneos demoratus, inter gemmantes siderum ardentium radios, unde etiam quasi fulgur dejectus est Satanas. Sed ipse auctor delicti, in persona peccatoris viri denotabatur; retro quidem invituperabilis a die conditionis suae, a Deo in bonum conditus, ut a bono conditore invituperabilium conditionum, et excultus omni gloria angelica, et apud Deum constitutus, qua bonus apud bonum: postea vero a semetipso translatus in malum. Ex quo enim, inquit, apparuerunt 0297Claesurae tuae: illi eas reputans, quibus scilicet laesit hominem ejectum a Dei obsequio : et ex illo deliquit, ex quo delictum seminavit; atque ita exinde negotiationis, id est, malitiae suae multitudinem exercuit; delictorum scilicet et sensuum, non minus et ipse liberi arbitrii institutus, ut spiritus. Nihil enim Deus proximum sibi non libertate ejusmodi ordinasset. Quem tamen et praedamnando testatus est ab institutionis forma libidine propria conceptae ultro malitiae exorbitasse; et commeatum operationibus ejus admetiendo, rationem bonitatis suae egit; eodem consilio et homo eadem arbitrii libertate elideret inimicum, qua succiderat illi; probans suam, non Dei culpam; et ita salutem digne per victoriam recuperaret, et diabolus amarius puniretur ab eo, quem 0297D eliserat ante devictus; et Deus tanto magis bonus 0298A inveniretur, sustinens hominem gloriosiorem in paradisum, ad licentiam decerpendae arboris vitae jam de vita regressurum.