Herein we continue, from part 1, part 2, part 3, part , part 5, part 6, part 7, part 8, part 9, part 10, part 11, part 12, part 13, considering info on Angels in Augustine of Hippo (354-430 AD). The fuller complete result consists of quotations of those sections within the text that refer to Angels, Cherubim, Seraphim, Devil, Satan, demons, serpent and dragon. The point is not to elucidate these references but to provide relevant partial quotations and citations. See my section on Angels here, Cherubim and Seraphim here, Satan here and Demons here.
Angels in Augustine of Hippo’s The City of God, Book XXII.
Chapter 1 …in that city all the citizens shall be immortal, men now for the first time enjoying what the holy Angels have never lost. And this shall be accomplished by God, the most almighty Founder of the city…It is He who, when He foreknew that certain Angels would in their pride desire to suffice for their own blessedness, and would forsake their great good, did not deprive them of this power, deeming it to be more befitting His power and goodness to bring good out of evil than to prevent the evil from coming into existence…It is he who with very just punishment doomed the Angels who voluntarily fell to everlasting misery, and rewarded those who continued in their attachment to the supreme good with the assurance of endless stability as the meed of their fidelity…He thus fills up and repairs the blank made by the fallen Angels, and that thus that beloved and heavenly city is not defrauded of the full number of its citizens, but perhaps may even rejoice in a still more overflowing population.
Chapter 9 …whether He made use of the spirits of martyrs as He uses men who are still in the body, or effects all these marvels by means of Angels, over whom He exerts an invisible, immutable, incorporeal sway.
Chapter 11 If a demon, is he mightier than an Angel who serves the God by whom the world was made? If, then, a lesser god, Angel, or demon could so sustain the weight of this liquid element that the water might seem to have changed its nature, shall not Almighty God, who Himself created all the elements, be able to eliminate from the Earthly body its heaviness, so that the quickened body shall dwell in whatever element the quickening spirit pleases?
Chapter 17 She about whom you make inquiries shall herself be a man, and not a woman, He said nothing of the kind; but “In the resurrection they neither marry nor are given in marriage, but are as the Angels of God in heaven.” They shall be equal to the Angels in immortality and happiness, not in flesh, nor in resurrection, which the Angels did not need, because they could not die.
Chapter 20 Or if it is contended that each will rise with the same stature as that of the body he died in, we shall not obstinately dispute this, provided only there be no deformity, no infirmity, no languor, no corruption—nothing of any kind which would ill become that kingdom in which the children of the resurrection and of the promise shall be equal to the Angels of God, if not in body and age, at least in happiness.
Chapter 29 For then shall be that “peace of God which,” as the apostle says, “passes all understanding,” — that is to say, all human, and perhaps all Angelic understanding, but certainly not the divine. That it passes ours there is no doubt; but if it passes that of the Angels—and he who says “all understanding” seems to make no exception in their favor—then we must understand him to mean that neither we nor the Angels can understand, as God understands, the peace which God Himself enjoys. Doubtless this passes all understanding but His own. But as we shall one day be made to participate, according to our slender capacity, in His peace, both in ourselves, and with our neighbor, and with God our chief good, in this respect the Angels understand the peace of God in their own measure, and men too, though now far behind them, whatever spiritual advance they have made.
For we must remember how great a man he was who said, “We know in part, and we prophesy in part, until that which is perfect has come;” and “Now we see through a glass, darkly; but then face to face.” Such also is now the vision of the holy Angels, who are also called our Angels, because we, being rescued out of the power of darkness, and receiving the earnest of the Spirit, are translated into the kingdom of Christ, and already begin to belong to those Angels with whom we shall enjoy that holy and most delightful city of God of which we have now written so much. Thus, then, the Angels of God are our Angels, as Christ is God’s and also ours. They are God’s, because they have not abandoned Him; they are ours, because we are their fellow citizens. The Lord Jesus also said, “See that you despise not one of these little ones: for I say unto you, That in heaven their Angels do always see the face of my Father which is in heaven.”
Chapter 30 And in that blessed city there shall be this great blessing, that no inferior shall envy any superior, as now the Archangels are not envied by the Angels, because no one will wish to be what he has not received, though bound in strictest concord with him who has received; as in the body the finger does not seek to be the eye, though both members are harmoniously included in the complete structure of the body.
In the next segment, we will consider more on Angels in Augustine of Hippo.
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