bond of union with our Creator, that we and character may gaze at the most worthless
76 THE WORKS OF ST. AUGUSTIN. [Book IV.
Since, as the one fell through being lifted up, and cast down [man] also who consented to him; so the other was raised up through being abased, and lifted up [man] also who believed in Him. For because the devil had not himself come thither whither he had led the way (inasmuch as he bare indeed in his ungodliness the death of the spirit, but had not undergone the death of the flesh, because he had not assumed the covering of the flesh), he appeared to man to be a mighty chief among the legions of devils, through whom he exercises his reign of deceits; so puffing up man the more, who is eager for power more than righteousness, through the pride of elation, or through false philosophy; or else entangling him through sacrilegious rites, in which, while casting down headlong by deceit and illusion the minds of the more curious and prouder sort, he holds him captive also to magical trickery; promising too the cleansing of the soul, through those initiations which they call tedetat, by transforming himself into an angel of light, through divers machinations in signs and prodigies of lying.
Thou, Father, art in me, and I in Thee, that they also may be one in us: that the world may believe that Thou hast sent me. And the glory which Thou gavest me I have given them; that they may be one, even as we are one."
CHAP, 9.—THE SAME ARGUMENT CONTINUED.
He did not say, I and they are one thing; ? although, in that He is the head of the church, which is His body,3 He might have said, I and they are, not one thing,+4 but one person, > because the head and the body is one Christ; but in order to show His own Godhead consubstantial with the Father (for which reason He says in another place, °'I and my Father are one" °), in His own kind, that is, in the consubstantial parity of the same nature, He wills His own to be one,' but in Himself; since they could not be so in themselves, separated as they are one from another by divers pleasures and desires and uncleannesses of sin; whence they are cleansed through the Mediator, that they may be one*in Him, not only through the same nature in which all become from mortal men equal to the angels, but also through the same will most harmoniously conspiring to the same blessedness, and fused in some way by the fire of charity into one spirit. For to this His words come, *' That they may be one, even as we are one;'' namely, that as the Father and Son are one, not only in
CHAP. II,—MIRACLES WHICH ARE DONE BY DE-
MONS ARE TO BE SPURNED.
14. For it is easy for the most worthless spirits to do many things by means of aerial bodies, such as to cause wonder to souls which are weighed down by earthly bodies, even though they be of the better inclined. For if earthly bodies themselves, when trained by a certain skill and practice, exhibit to men so great marvels in theatrical spectacles, that they who never saw such things scarcely believe them when told; why should it be hard for the devil and his angels to make out of corporeal elements, through their own aerial bodies, things at which the flesh marvels; or even by hidden inspirations to contrive fantastic appearances to the deequality of substance, but also in will, so 'those also may be one, between whom and
God the Son is mediator, not only in that they are of the same nature, but also through "the same union of love. And then He goes on thus to intimate the truth itself, that He is the Mediator, through whom we are reconciled to God, by saying, ''I in them, and Thou in me, that they may be made perfect in-one. 2 luding of men's senses, whereby to deceive them, whether awake or asleep, or to drive them into frenzy? But just as it may happen that one who is better than they in life and character may gaze at the most worthless of men, either walking on a rope, or doing by various motions of the body many things difficult of belief, and yet he may not at all desire to do such things, nor think those men on that account to be preferred to himself; so the faithful and pious soul, not only if it sees, but even if on account of the frailty of the flesh it shudders at, the miracles of demons, yet will not for that either deplore its own want of power to do such things, or judge
CHAP. J0.——-AS CHRIST 1S THE MEDIATOR OF LIFE,
SO THE DEVIL IS THE MEDIATOR OF DEATH.
13. Therein is our true peace and firm bond of union with our Creator, that we should be purified and reconciled through the Mediator of life, as we had been polluted and alienated, and so had departed from Him, through the mediator of death. For as the devil through pride led man through pride to death; so Christ through lowliness led back man through obedience to life.
I John xvii. 20-22. 2 Unum. 3 Eph, i, 22,23. 4 Unum. 5 Unus. 6 John x. 30; unum. 7 Unum. 8 Unum. 9 John xvii. 23.
To 2 Cor. x1. 14.