Herein we continue, from part 1, part 2, part 3, considering info on the Devil from Aurelius Ambrosius aka St. Ambrose bishop of Milan (340-397 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.
Letter 17
Who is to be worshipped from the bottom of the heart; for “the gods of the heathen,” as Scripture says, “are devils”…I had set up these memorials of piety and virtue, I offered up these spoils gained from the world, these trophies of victory over the devil, these I offered up as gained from the enemy of all, and in them is eternal victory.
Letter 20
By experience the devil also knew that this book would be explained, in which all the power of his temptations is shown and made clear, and so today he roused himself with greater vigour…But let us come to the lessons before us. You see that permission is given to the devil, that the good may be tested.
Letter 22 And so strengthened against the temptations of the devil, he kept his footsteps constantly without offense. But let us go on to what follows…But this is not to be wondered at since such is the faithlessness of unbelievers that the confession of the devil is often more easy to endure. For the devil said: “Jesus, Son of the living God, why are You come to torment us before the time?” And the Jews hearing this, even themselves denied Him to be the Son of God. And at this time you have heard the devils crying out, and confessing to the martyrs that they cannot bear their sufferings, and saying, “Why are you come to torment us so severely?” And the Arians say: “These are not martyrs, and they cannot torment the devil, nor deliver any one,” while the torments of the devils are proved by their own words, and the benefits of the martyrs are declared by the restoring of the healed, and the proof of those that are loosed…For otherwise they would not have any feeling against their works, did they not judge that they have not the faith which was in them, that faith established by the tradition of our forefathers, which the devils themselves cannot deny, but the Arians do…The devil confesses this, but the Arians refuse to do so.
The devil says: Let him who denies the Godhead of the Holy Spirit be so tormented as himself was tormented by the martyrs. I do not accept the devil’s testimony but his confession. The devil spoke unwillingly, being compelled and tormented. That which wickedness suppresses, torture extracts. The devil yields to blows, and the Arians have not yet learned to yield. How great have been their sufferings, and yet, like Pharaoh, they are hardened by their calamities! The devil said, as we find it written: “I know You Who You are, You are the Son of the living God”…The Arians say, The torments of the devils are not real but fictitious and made-up tales…That voice is better than that of devils, which the soundness of those utters who came infirm; better is the voice which blood sends forth, for blood has a loud voice reaching from Earth to heaven.
Letter 41
Now sin is of the devil; that wicked one has, as it were, these riches in his possession. For as the riches of Christ are virtues, so crimes are the wealth of the devil.
Letter 51
The devil envied that which was your most excellent possession.
Letter 63
Wherefore also the Lord Jesus, wishing to make us more strong against the temptations of the devil, fasted when about to contend with him, that we might know that we can in no other way overcome the enticements of evil. Further, the devil himself hurled the first dart of his temptations from the quiver of pleasure, saying: “If You be the Son of God, command that these stones become bread”…Lastly, in His later words He taught us that evil cannot be easily overcome except by our fasting, saying: “This kind of devils is not cast out but by prayer and fasting”…Would you have us put off the man in order to put on the beast, and stripping ourselves of Christ, clothe ourselves or be superclothed with the garments of the devil?…when Judas had received the bread from Christ the devil entered into his heart, as though claiming his own property, as though retaining his right to his own portion…Then Christ departed from him, Judas also himself left Jesus and followed the devil.
In the next segment, we will consider more from Ambrose on the Devil.
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