Herein we continue, from part 1, part 2, part 3, part , part 5, part 6, 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 XI.
Chapter 1 And, first, I will explain how the foundations of these two cities were originally laid, in the difference that arose among the Angels.
Chapter 4 They are taught also by the Angels of God, who always behold the face of the Father, and announce His will to whom it befits.
Chapter 7 …under the name of light the holy city was signified, composed of holy Angels and blessed spirits.
Chapter 9 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…Where Scripture speaks of the world’s creation, it is not plainly said whether or when the Angels were created…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 you works of the Lord bless the Lord;” and among these works mentioned afterwards in detail, the Angels are named. And in the psalm it is said, “Praise the Lord from the heavens, praise Him in the heights. Praise Him, all His Angels; praise Him, all His hosts. Praise Him, sun and moon; praise him, all you stars of light. Praise Him, you heaven of heavens; and you 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?…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”…“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…“The true Light, which lights every man that comes into the world,” — this Light lights 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.”
Chapter 11 And since these things are so, those spirits whom we call Angels were never at any time or in any way darkness, but, as soon as they were made, were made light; yet they were not so created in order that they might exist and live in any way whatever, but were enlightened that they might live wisely and blessedly…For if they had equally participated in this true knowledge, then the evil Angels would have remained eternally blessed equally with the good, because they were equally expectant of it…the life of these Angels was not blessed, for it was doomed to end, and therefore not eternal, whether they knew it or not…whether their good would be eternal or would some time terminate, this very doubt concerning so grand a destiny was incompatible with the plenitude of blessedness which we believe the holy Angels enjoyed…in comparison of His blessedness, what is that of the Angels, though, according to their capacity, they be perfectly blessed?
Chapter 12 And the Angels are not the only members of the rational and intellectual creation whom we call blessed…he shall eternally enjoy the most high God in the company of Angels, and beyond the reach of ill—this man, no matter what bodily torments afflict him, is more blessed than was he who, even in that great felicity of Paradise, was uncertain of his fate.
Chapter 13 That it is so with the Angels of light we piously believe; but that the fallen Angels, who by their own default lost that light, did not enjoy this blessedness even before they sinned, reason bids us conclude…Or, if it seems hard to believe that, when the Angels were created, some were created in ignorance either of their perseverance or their fall…it is much harder to believe that the holy Angels are now uncertain of their eternal blessedness…no new devil will ever arise among the good Angels, as he knows that this present devil will never again return into the fellowship of the good? For the truth in the gospel promises to the saints and the faithful that they will be equal to the Angels of God; and it is also promised them that they will “go away into life eternal”…
And because the evil Angels could not be certain of that, since their blessedness was destined to come to an end, it follows either that the Angels were unequal, or that, if equal, the good Angels were assured of the eternity of their blessedness after the perdition of the others; unless, possibly, some one may say that the words of the Lord about the devil “He was a murderer from the beginning, and abode not in the truth,” are to be understood as if he was not only a murderer from the beginning of the human race, when man, whom he could kill by his deceit, was made, but also that he did not abide in the truth from the time of his own creation, and was accordingly never blessed with the holy Angels, but refused to submit to his Creator…These persons are so befooled by error, that, although they acknowledge with ourselves the authority of the gospels, they do not notice that the Lord did not say, “The devil was naturally a stranger to the truth,” but “The devil abode not in the truth,” by which He meant us to understand that he had fallen from the truth, in which, if he had abode, he would have become a partaker of it, and have remained in blessedness along with the holy Angels.
Chapter 15 There is a passage, too, in the Book of Job, of which the devil is the subject: “This is the beginning of the creation of God, which He made to be a sport to His Angels,” which agrees with the psalm, where it is said, “There is that dragon which You have made to be a sport therein.” But these passages are not to lead us to suppose that the devil was originally created to be the sport of the Angels, but that he was doomed to this punishment after his sin. His beginning, then, is the handiwork of God; for there is no nature, even among the least, and lowest, and last of the beasts, which was not the work of Him from whom has proceeded all measure, all form, all order, without which nothing can be planned or conceived. How much more, then, is this Angelic nature, which surpasses in dignity all else that He has made, the handiwork of the Most High!
Chapter 16 And, among the intelligent, the immortal such as the Angels, above the mortal, such as men…But of such consequence in rational natures is the weight, so to speak, of will and of love, that though in the order of nature Angels rank above men, yet, by the scale of justice, good men are of greater value than bad Angels.
Chapter 18 For God would never have created any, I do not say Angel, but even man, whose future wickedness He foreknew, unless He had equally known to what uses in behalf of the good He could turn him, thus embellishing, the course of the ages, as it were an exquisite poem set off with antitheses.
In the next segment, we will consider more on Angels in Augustine of Hippo.
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