CHAP.21.--TO WHAT EXTENT THE LORD WAS PLEASED TO MAKE HIMSELF KNOWNTO THE
DEMONS.
The devils themselves knew this manifestation of God so well, that they said to the Lord though clothed with the infirmity of flesh, "What have we to do with Thee, Jesus of Nazareth? Art Thou come to destroy us before the time?"(1) From these words, it is clear that they had great knowledge, and no charity.They feared His power to punish, and did not love His righteousness.He made known to them so much as He pleased, and He was pleased to make known so much as was needful.
But He made Himself known not as to the holy angels, who know Him as the Word of God, and rejoice in His eternity, which they partake, but as was requisite to strike with terror the beings from whose tyranny He was going to free those who were predestined to His kingdom and the glory of it, eternally true and truly eternal.He made Himself known, therefore, to the demons, not by that which is life eternal, and the unchangeable light which illumines the pious, whose souls are cleansed by the faith that is in Him, but by some temporal effects of His power, and evidences of His mysterious presence, which were more easily discerned by the angelic senses even of wicked spirits than by human infirmity.But when He judged it advisable gradually to suppress these signs, and to retire into deeper obscurity, the prince of the demons doubted whether He were the Christ, and endeavored to ascertain this by tempting Him, in so far as He permitted Himself to be tempted, that He might adapt the manhood He wore to be an example for our imitation.But after that temptation, when, as Scripture says, He was ministered to(2) by the angels who are good and holy, and therefore objects of terror to the impure spirits, He revealed more and more distinctly to the demons how great He was, so that, even though the infirmity of His flesh might seem contemptible, none dared to resist His authority.
CHAP.22.--THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN THE KNOWLEDGE OF THE HOLY ANGELS ANDTHAT OF
THE DEMONS.
The good angels, therefore, hold cheap all that knowledge of material and transitory things which the demons are so proud of possessing,--not that they are ignorant of these things, but because the love of God, whereby they are sanctified, is very dear to them, and because, in comparison of that not merely immaterial but also unchangeable and ineffable beauty, with the holy love of which they are inflamed, they despise all things which are beneath it, and all that is not it, that they may with every good thing that is in them enjoy that good which is the source of their goodness.
And therefore they have a more certain knowledge even of those temporal and mutable things, because they contemplate their principles and causes in the word of God, by which the world was made,--those causes by which one thing is, approved, another rejected, and all arranged.But the demons do not behold in the wisdom of God these eternal, and, as it were, cardinal causes of things temporal, but only foresee a larger part of the future than men do, by reason of their greater acquaintance with the signs which are hidden from us.Sometimes, too, it is their own intentions they predict.And, finally, the demons are frequently, the angels never, deceived.For it is one thing, by the aid of things temporal and changeable, to conjecture the changes that may occur in time, and to modify such things by one's own will and faculty,--and this is to a certain extent permitted to the demons,--it is another thing to foresee the changes of times in the eternal and immutable laws of God, which live in His wisdom, and to know the will of God, the most infallible and powerful of all causes, by participating in His spirit; and this is granted to the holy angels by a just discretion.And thus they are not only eternal, but blessed.And the good wherein they are blessed is God, by whom they were created.For without end they enjoy the contemplation and participation of Him.
CHAP.23.--THAT THE NAME OF GODS IS FALSELY GIVEN TO THE GODS OF THEGENTILES, THOUGH SCRIPTURE APPLIES IT BOTH TO THE HOLY ANGELS AND JUST MEN.