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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, and
indeed the more blessed part, since they have never been expatriated, I
will give myself to the task of explaining, by God's help, and as far
as seems suitable, the Scriptures which relate to this point. Where
Scripture speaks of the world's creation, it is not plainly said
whether or when the angels were created; but if mention of them is
made, it is implicitly under the name of "heaven," when it is said, "In
the beginning God created the heavens and the earth," or perhaps rather
under the name of "light," of which presently. But that they were
wholly omitted, I am unable to believe, because it is written that God
on the seventh day rested from all His works which He made; and this
very book itself begins, "In the beginning God created the heavens and
the earth," so that before heaven and earth God seems to have made
nothing. Since, therefore, He began with the heavens and the earth --
and the earth itself, as Scripture adds, was at first invisible and
formless, light not being as yet made, and darkness covering the face
of the deep (that is to say, covering an undefined chaos of earth and
sea, for where light is not, darkness must needs be) -- and then 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 ye works of the Lord
bless ye the Lord;" and among these works mentioned afterwards in
detail, the angels are named. And in the psalm it is said, "Praise ye
the Lord from the heavens, praise Him in the heights. Praise ye Him,
all His angels; praise ye Him, all His hosts. Praise ye Him, sun and
moon; praise him, all ye stars of light. Praise Him, ye heaven of
heavens; and ye 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? Far from it; for
we know what was made that day. The earth was separated from the water,
and each element took its own distinct form, and the earth produced all
that grows on it.
On the second day, then? Not even on this; for on it the firmament was
made between the waters above and beneath, and was called "Heaven," in
which firmament the stars were made on the fourth 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," and whose unity Scripture signalizes by calling that day
not the "first day," but "one day." For the second day, the third, and
the rest are not other days; but the same "one" day is repeated to
complete the number six or seven, so that there should be knowledge
both of God's works and of His rest. For when God said, "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,
by which all things were made, and whom we call the only-begotten Son
of God; so that they, being illumined by the Light that created them,
might themselves become light and be called "Day," in participation of
that unchangeable Light and Day which is the Word of God, by whom both
themselves and all else were made. "The true Light, which lighteth
every man that cometh into the world," -- this Light lighteth 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."
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