{"author":null,"backreferences":[{"context_html":"<p>As for what John says about the devil, \"The devil sinneth\r\nfrom the beginning,\"<a id=\"FNanchor_474_474\"></a><a class=\"fnanchor pginternal\" href=\"#Footnote_474_474\">[474]</a> they<a id=\"FNanchor_475_475\"></a><a class=\"fnanchor pginternal\" href=\"#Footnote_475_475\">[475]</a> who suppose it is meant hereby\r\nthat the devil was made with a sinful nature, misunderstand\r\nit; for if sin be natural, it is not sin at all. And how do\r\nthey answer the prophetic proofs,—either what Isaiah says\r\nwhen he represents the devil under the person of the king of\r\nBabylon, \"How art thou fallen, O Lucifer, son of the morning!\"<a id=\"FNanchor_476_476\"></a><a class=\"fnanchor pginternal\" href=\"#Footnote_476_476\">[476]</a>\r\nor what Ezekiel says, \"Thou hast been in Eden, the\r\ngarden of God; every precious stone was thy covering,\"<a id=\"FNanchor_477_477\"></a><a class=\"fnanchor pginternal\" href=\"#Footnote_477_477\">[477]</a>\r\nwhere it is meant that he was some time without sin; for\r\na little after it is still more explicitly said, \"Thou wast\r\nperfect in thy ways?\" And if these passages cannot well be\r\notherwise interpreted, we must understand by this one also,\r\n\"He abode not in the truth,\" that he was once in the truth,<span class=\"pagenum\"><a id=\"Page_455\">[Pg 455]</a></span>\r\nbut did not remain in it. And from this passage, \"The devil\r\nsinneth from the beginning,\" it is not to be supposed that he\r\nsinned from the beginning of his created existence, but from\r\nthe beginning of his sin, when by his pride he had once\r\ncommenced to sin. There is a passage, too, in the Book of\r\nJob, of which the devil is the subject: \"This is the beginning\r\nof the creation of God, which He made to be a sport to His\r\nangels,\"<a id=\"FNanchor_478_478\"></a><a class=\"fnanchor pginternal\" href=\"#Footnote_478_478\">[478]</a> which agrees with the psalm, where it is said,\r\n\"There is that dragon which Thou hast made to be a sport\r\ntherein.\"<a id=\"FNanchor_479_479\"></a><a class=\"fnanchor pginternal\" href=\"#Footnote_479_479\">[479]</a> But these passages are not to lead us to suppose\r\nthat the devil was originally created to be the sport of the\r\nangels, but that he was doomed to this punishment after his\r\nsin. His beginning, then, is the handiwork of God; for there\r\nis no nature, even among the least, and lowest, and last of the\r\nbeasts, which was not the work of Him from whom has proceeded\r\nall measure, all form, all order, without which nothing\r\ncan be planned or conceived. How much more, then, is this\r\nangelic nature, which surpasses in dignity all else that He has\r\nmade, the handiwork of the Most High!</p>","headings":["THE WORKS OF AURELIUS AUGUSTINE,","BOOK ELEVENTH.","ARGUMENT."],"marker_anchor":null,"paragraph_id":"pg45304-paragraph-786"}],"canonical_references":[],"date_end":null,"date_start":null,"deduplication_fingerprint":"90e72f49e31d2fa8269efea08687c9430c63905bd3e836d80dd8dc078e53a099","edition_title":"The City of God, Volume I","edition_translators":["Marcus Dods","George Wilson (Book IV)","J. J. Smith (Books V-VIII)"],"edition_year":1871,"explicit_reference_candidates":[],"headings":[],"id":"pg45304-Footnote_478_478","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_478_478","source_ebook":45304,"source_html":"<div class=\"footnote\">\n<p><a id=\"Footnote_478_478\"></a><a class=\"pginternal\" href=\"#FNanchor_478_478\"><span class=\"label\">[478]</span></a> Job xl. 14 (LXX.).</p></div>","source_sha256":"d89e9a2b80bb59f394f0fb1bf313b39fab162f06af6642166d62c5912c1195f1","source_url":"https://www.gutenberg.org/cache/epub/45304/pg45304-images.html#Footnote_478_478","text_sha256":"296f7107cb0ae9100e16b28d2a9f3645374424ae30ebdb731fdec9840181a4c5","verified":false,"work_id":null}