is 1s 1 1 :2, the list of the gifts of the Holy Spirit, in which wisdom is the first and piety the last.
Book XI 445 you see, is the meaning offor his angels to makefun of, the way he is made fun of is by his temptations being of benefit to the saints when he strives to debauch them by these means, so that the malice, which he himself deliberately chose to be in the grip of, might prove useful against his will to the servants of the God who fashioned him with this in mind.
The reason he is "the beginning for making fun of is that bad human beings too, the instruments of the devil and so to say the body of which he is the head, are made fun of in the same way. God foreknew, of course that they were going to be evil, but he nevertheless created them for the benefit of the saints. This is when their wishing to do harm bestows on the saints a salutary warning from comparison with them, and a lovingly respectful humility under God, and an appreciative understanding of grace, and good practice in putting up with bad people, and a good test ofhow much they really love their enemies (Mt 5:44). He, though, is "the beginning of the fashioning," which is made fun of like that, because he precedes these others both by a very long time and by his pre-eminent malice.
God however does this to him through the holy angels according to that working of providence by which he administers created things, namely by subjecting bad angels to good angels, so that their shameless villainy may be able to achieve only as much as it is allowed to, not as much as it aims at. This applies not only to the bad angels but also to human beings, until this justice, with which one lives by faith,25 which is now being patiently practiced among such people by the saints, is turned into judgment (Ps 94:15), so that they too may judge not only the twelve tribes of Israel but angels as well.26
23, 30. So then the idea that the devil never stood in the truth, never led a blessed life with the angels, but fell from the very beginning of his creation, is not to be taken as meaning that he was created evil by the good God, not perverted by his own free choice. Otherwise he would not be said to have fallen from the beginning—he did not fall, after all, if he was made like that. But the very moment he was made, he turned away from the light of truth, swollen with pride, and corrupted by delight in his own personal power. Thus he never tasted the sweetness of the blessed life of the angels. It is not that on receiving it he turned up his nose at it, but that by refusing to receive it he turned his back on it and let it slip through his fingers.
Accordingly he could not have had foreknowledge of his fall either, since wisdom is the fruit of piety.27 He, however, immediately proved impious, and consequently also mentally blind. So he did not fall from something he had
25. See Rom 1:17. 26. See Mt 19:28; 1 Cor 6:3. 27. This is said as though it had some scriptural authority behind it; all that occurs to me. however, is 1s 1 1 :2, the list of the gifts of the Holy Spirit, in which wisdom is the first and piety the last. The inference may have been that the first and greatest derives from the last and least.