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The sins of men and angels do nothing to impede the "great works of
the Lord which accomplish His will." For He who by His providence
and omnipotence distributes to every one his own portion, is able to
make good use not only of the good, but also of the wicked. And thus
making a good use of the wicked angel, who, in punishment of his first
wicked volition, was doomed to an obduracy that prevents him now from
willing any good, why should not God have permitted him to tempt the
first man, who had been created upright, that is to say, with a good
will? For he had been so constituted, that if he looked to God for
help, man's goodness should defeat the angel's wickedness; but if by
proud self-pleasing he abandoned God, his Creator and Sustainer,
he should be conquered. If his will remained upright, through leaning
on God's help, he should be rewarded; if it became wicked, by
forsaking God, he should be punished. But even this trusting in
God's help could not itself be accomplished without God's help,
although man had it in his own power to relinquish the benefits of
divine grace by pleasing himself. For as it is not in our power to
live in this world without sustaining ourselves by food, while it is in
our power to refuse this nourishment and cease to live, as those do who
kill themselves, so it was not in man's power, even in Paradise, to
live as he ought without God's help; but it was in his power to live
wickedly, though thus he should cut short his happiness, and incur
very just punishment.
Since, then, God was not ignorant that man would fall, why should
He not have suffered him to be tempted by an angel who hated and envied
him? It was not, indeed, that He was unaware that he should be
conquered. but because He foresaw that by the man's seed, aided by
divine grace, this same devil himself should be conquered, to the
greater glory of the saints. All was brought about in such a manner,
that neither did any future event escape God's foreknowledge, nor did
His foreknowledge compel any one to sin, and so as to demonstrate in
the experience of the intelligent creation, human and angelic, how
great a difference there is between the private presumption of the
creature and the Creator's protection. For who will dare to believe
or say that it was not in God's power to prevent both angels and men
from sinning?
But God preferred to leave this in their power, and thus to show both
what evil could be wrought by their pride, and what good by His
grace.
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