{"author":null,"backreferences":[{"context_html":"<p>The philosophers who wished us to have the gods for our\r\nfriends rank the friendship of the holy angels in the fourth\r\ncircle of society, advancing now from the three circles of\r\nsociety on earth to the universe, and embracing heaven itself.\r\nAnd in this friendship we have indeed no fear that the angels\r\nwill grieve us by their death or deterioration. But as we\r\ncannot mingle with them as familiarly as with men (which\r\nitself is one of the grievances of this life), and as Satan, as\r\nwe read,<a id=\"FNanchor_637_637\"></a><a class=\"fnanchor pginternal\" href=\"#Footnote_637_637\">[637]</a> sometimes transforms himself into an angel of light,\r\nto tempt those whom it is necessary to discipline, or just to\r\ndeceive, there is great need of God's mercy to preserve us\r\nfrom making friends of demons in disguise, while we fancy\r\nwe have good angels for our friends; for the astuteness and\r\ndeceitfulness of these wicked spirits is equalled by their hurtfulness.\r\nAnd is this not a great misery of human life, that\r\nwe are involved in such ignorance as, but for God's mercy,\r\nmakes us a prey to these demons? And it is very certain\r\nthat the philosophers of the godless city, who have maintained\r\nthat the gods were their friends, had fallen a prey to\r\nthe malignant demons who rule that city, and whose eternal\r\npunishment is to be shared by it. For the nature of these\r\nbeings is sufficiently evinced by the sacred or rather sacrilegious\r\nobservances which form their worship, and by the\r\nfilthy games in which their crimes are celebrated, and which\r\nthey themselves originated and exacted from their worshippers\r\nas a fit propitiation.</p>","headings":["THE CITY OF GOD.","BOOK NINETEENTH.","ARGUMENT."],"marker_anchor":null,"paragraph_id":"pg45305-paragraph-510"}],"canonical_references":[],"date_end":null,"date_start":null,"deduplication_fingerprint":"9a03ab7f92d64acec8b9422a6340421bbdbb565970b24cd92c84b60478b6c834","edition_title":"The City of God, Volume II","edition_translators":["Marcus Dods","George Wilson (Books XVII-XVIII)"],"edition_year":1871,"explicit_reference_candidates":[{"book":"2CO","chapter":11,"kind":"unreviewed","source_notation":"2 Cor. xi. 14","verse":14,"verse_end":14}],"headings":[],"id":"pg45305-Footnote_637_637","license_url":"https://www.gutenberg.org/policy/license.html","public_import_allowed":false,"record_kind":"original-editor-translator-note","review_required":["work and recension attribution","original-work chronology","Bible reference numbering and citation kind","English edition rights and attribution"],"review_status":"needs_review","rights_evidence":"Provider catalog reports public domain in the USA. Original transcription title leaves state T. & T. Clark, Edinburgh, 1871; printed translator allocation retained. Gutenberg credits Internet Archive/Canadian Libraries without an exact scan identifier. Full provider license preserved with acquired original; republication and per-work metadata remain unreviewed.","source_anchor":"Footnote_637_637","source_ebook":45305,"source_html":"<div class=\"footnote\">\n<p><a id=\"Footnote_637_637\"></a><a class=\"pginternal\" href=\"#FNanchor_637_637\"><span class=\"label\">[637]</span></a> 2 Cor. xi. 14.</p></div>","source_sha256":"7e0ced9e70512f3cf050b53c9d548e36b70d468d875153869f95d8aff5bbb530","source_url":"https://www.gutenberg.org/cache/epub/45305/pg45305-images.html#Footnote_637_637","text_sha256":"fffb24ce8bf9636ca954d35e7db104abd50d735cb3e41ecf70420a16e91fa4ea","verified":false,"work_id":null}