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AND that we may understand the power of its awful tyranny we see that
that angel who, for the greatness of his splendour and beauty was termed
Lucifer, was cast out of heaven for no other sin but this, and, pierced
with the dart of pride, was hurled down from his grand and exalted position
as an angel into hell. If then pride of heart alone was enough to cast down
from heaven to earth a power that was so great and adorned with the
attributes of such might, the very greatness of his fall shows us with what
care we who are surrounded by the weakness of the flesh ought to be on our
guard. But we can learn how to avoid the most deadly poison of this evil if
we trace out the origin and causes of his fall. For weakness can never be
cured, nor the remedies for bad states of health be disclosed unless first
their origin and causes are investigated by a wise scrutiny. For as he
(viz., Lucifer) was endowed with divine splendour, and shone forth among
the other higher powers by the bounty of his Maker, he believed that he had
acquired the splendour of that wisdom and the beauty of those powers, with
which he was graced by the gift of the Creator, by the might of his own
nature, and not by the beneficence of His generosity. And on this account
he was puffed up as if he stood in no need of divine assistance in order to
continue in this state of purity, and esteemed himself to be like God, as
if, like God, he had no need of any one, and trusting in the power of his
own will, fancied that through it he could richly supply himself with
everything which was necessary for the consummation of virtue or for the
perpetuation of perfect bliss. This thought alone was the cause of his
first fall. On account of which being forsaken by God, whom he fancied he
no longer needed, he suddenly became unstable and tottering, and discovered
the weakness of his own nature, and lost the blessedness which he had
enjoyed by God's gift. And because he "loved the words of ruin," with which
he had said, "I will ascend into heaven," and the "deceitful tongue," with
which he had said of himself, "I will be like the Most High," and of
Adam and Eve, "Ye shall be as gods," therefore "shall God destroy him
forever and pluck him out and remove him from his dwelling place and his
root out of the land of the living." Then the just, when they see his ruin,
shall fear, and shall laugh at him and say" (what may also be most justly
aimed at those who trust that they can obtain the highest good without the
protection and assistance of God): "Behold the man that made not God his
helper, but trusted in the abundance of his riches, and prevailed in his
vanity."
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