Chapter 32.--From God Also is the Very Power to Be Hurtful.
Likewise because the power even of those that are hurtful is from God alone, thus it stands written, Wisdom speaking: "Through me kings reign and tyrants hold the land through me." [1116] The apostle also says: "For there is no power but of God." [1117] But that it is worthily done is written in the book of Job: "Who maketh to reign a man that is a hypocrite, on account of the perversity of the people." [1118] And concerning the people of Israel God says: "I gave them a king in my wrath." [1119] For it is not unrighteous, that the wicked receiving the power of being hurtful, both the patience of the good should be proved and the iniquity of the evil punished. For through power given to the Devil both Job was proved so that he might appear righteous, [1120] and Peter was tempted lest he should be presumptuous, [1121] and Paul was buffeted lest he should be exalted, [1122] and Judas was damned so that he should hang himself. [1123] When, therefore, through the power which He has given the Devil, God Himself shall have done all things righteously, nevertheless punishment shall at last be rendered to the Devil not for these things justly done, but for the unrighteous willing to be hurtful, which belonged to himself, when it shall be said to the impious who persevered in consenting to his wickedness, "Go ye into everlasting fire which my God has prepared for the Devil and his angels." [1124]
[1116] Prov. viii. 15.
[1117] Rom. xiii. 1.
[1118] Job xxxiv. 30. Compare the Revised English Version. The sense seems to be completely missed in Augustin's text.--A.H.N.
[1119] Hos. xiii. 11.
[1120] Job i. and ii.
[1121] Matt. xxvi. 31-35, 69-75.
[1122] 2 Cor. xii. 7.
[1123] Matt. xxvii. 5.
[1124] Matt. xxv. 41.
Chapter 33.--That Evil Angels Have Been Made Evil, Not by God, But by Sinning.
But because evil angels also were not constituted evil by God, but were made evil by sinning, Peter in his epistle says: "For if God spared not angels when they sinned, but casting them down into the dungeons of smoky hell, He delivered them to be reserved for punishment in judgment." [1125] Hence Peter shows that there is still due to them the penalty of the last judgment, concerning which the Lord says: "Go ye into everlasting fire, which has been prepared for the Devil and his angels." Although they have already penally received this hell, that is, an inferior smoky air as a prison, which nevertheless since it is also called heaven, is not that heaven in which there are stars, but this lower heaven by the smoke of which the clouds are conglobulated, and where the birds fly; for both a cloudy heaven is spoken of, and flying things are called heavenly. As when the Apostle Paul calls those evil angels, against whom as enemies by living piously we contend, "spiritual things of wickedness in heavenly places." [1126] That this may not be understood of the upper heavens, he plainly says elsewhere: "According to the presence of the prince of this air, who now worketh in the sons of disobedience." [1127]
[1125] 2 Pet. ii. 4.
[1126] Eph. vi. 12.
[1127] Ibid. ii. 2.
Chapter 34.--That Sin is Not the Striving for an Evil Nature, But the Desertion of a Better.
Likewise because sin, or unrighteousness, is not the striving after evil nature but the desertion of better, it is thus found written in the Scriptures: "Every creature of God is good." [1128] And accordingly every tree also which God planted in Paradise is assuredly good. Man did not therefore strive after an evil nature when he touched the forbidden tree; but by deserting what was better, he committed an evil deed. Since the Creator is better than any creature which He has made, His command should not have been deserted, that the thing forbidden, however good, might be touched; since the better having been deserted, the good of the creature was striven for, which was touched contrary to the command of the Creator. God did not plant an evil tree in Paradise; but He Himself was better who prohibited its being touched.
[1128] 1 Tim. iv. 4.