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At present, since I have undertaken to treat of the origin of the
holy city, and first of the holy angels, who constitute a large part
of this city, and indeed the more blessed part, since they have never
been expatriated, I will give myself to the task of explaining, by
God's help, and as far as seems suitable, the Scriptures which
relate to this point. Where Scripture speaks of the world's
creation, it is not plainly said whether or when the angels were
created; but if mention of them is made, it is implicitly under the
name of "heaven," when it is said, "In the beginning God created
the heavens and the earth," or perhaps rather under the name of
"light," of which presently. But that they were wholly omitted, I
am unable to believe, because it is written that God on the seventh
day rested from all His works which He made; and this very book
itself begins, "In the beginning God created the heavens and the
earth," so that before heaven and earth God seems to have made
nothing. Since, therefore, He began with the heavens and the
earth, and the earth itself, as Scripture adds, was at first
invisible and formless, light not being as yet made, and darkness
covering the face of the deep (that is to say, covering an undefined
chaos of earth and sea, for where light is not, darkness must needs
be), and then when all things, which are recorded to have been
completed in six days, were created and arranged, how should the
angels be omitted, as if they were not among the works of God, from
which on the seventh day He rested? Yet, though the fact that the
angels are the work of God is not omitted here, it is indeed not
explicitly mentioned; but elsewhere Holy Scripture asserts it in the
clearest manner. For in the Hymn of the Three Children in the
Furnace it was said, "O all ye works of the Lord bless ye the
Lord;" and among these works mentioned afterwards in detail, the
angels are named. And in the psalm it is said, "Praise ye the Lord
from the heavens, praise Him in the heights. Praise ye Him, all
His angels; praise ye Him, all His hosts. Praise ye Him, sun
and moon; praise him, all ye stars of light. Praise Him, ye heaven
of heavens; and ye waters that be above the heavens. Let them praise
the name of the Lord; for He commanded, and they were created."
Here the angels are most expressly and by divine authority said to have
been made by God, for of them among the other heavenly things it is
said, "He commanded, and they were created." Who, then, will be
bold enough to suggest that the angels were made after the six days'
creation? If any one is so foolish, his folly is disposed of by a
scripture of like authority, where God says, "When the stars were
made, the angels praised me with a loud voice." The angels therefore
existed before the stars; and the stars were made the fourth day.
Shall we then say that they were made the third day? Far from it;
for we know what was made that day. The earth was separated from the
water, and each element took its own distinct form, and the earth
produced all that grows on it. On the second day, then? Not even on
this; for on it the firmament was made between the waters above and
beneath, and was called "Heaven," in which firmament the stars were
made on the fourth day. There is no question, then, that if the
angels are included in the works of God during these six days, they
are that light which was called "Day," and whose unity Scripture
signalizes by calling that day not the "first day," but "one day."
For the second day, the third, and the rest are not other days; but
the same "one" day is repeated to complete the number six or seven,
so that there should be knowledge both of God's works and of His
rest. For when God said, "Let there be light, and there was
light," if we are justified in understanding in this light the
creation of the angels, then certainly they were created partakers of
the eternal light which is the unchangeable Wisdom of God, by which
all things were made, and whom we call the only-begotten Son of
God; so that they, being illumined by the Light that created them,
might themselves become light and be called "Day," in participation
of that unchangeable Light and Day which is the Word of God, by
whom both themselves and all else were made. "The true Light, which
lighteth every man that cometh into the world,", this Light lighteth
also every pure angel, that he may be light not in himself, but in
God; from whom if an angel turn away, he becomes impure, as are all
those who are called unclean spirits, and are no longer light in the
Lord, but darkness in themselves, being deprived of the participation
of Light eternal. For evil has no positive nature; but the loss of
good has received the name "evil."
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