He foresees the good and He creates them; He foresees the wick- (continued)
ed and He creates them. He gives Himself to the good that they may find their delight in Him; and He graciously bestows many of His gifts on the wicked also, mercifully forgiving them, justly punishing them, and at the same time mercifully punishing them, justly forgiving them, fearing nothing from anyone's malice, needing nothing from anyone's justice, looking not to His own interests from the works of the good, and looking to the interests of the good even in the punishments of the wicked. Why, then, would He not permit a man to be tempted and thereby to be revealed,2° convicted, and punished when his proud desire to be his own master would bring forth what it had conceived and would be confounded by its own offspring,?! and when his just punishment would deter from the sin of pride and disobedience generations yet to come, for whose sake this event was written down and proclaimed?
CHAPTER 12
The Devil could not have used the serpent except with God's permission.
16. If someone should ask why the Devil was allowed to carry out the temptation through a serpent particularly, the authority of Scripture should be enough to suggest that it happened with some meaning intended. After all, in speaking divinely Scripture deals with a whole universe of things revealed by God corresponding in a way to this natural universe of ours which is full of the works of His hands. Not that the Devil wished to symbolize something for our instruction, but since he could not have approached man to tempt him without God's permission, he surely could not have used any other creature in this act than the one allowed him.
Consequently, whatever meaning the serpent had is to be attributed to that disposition of Providence by which the Devil indeed had his desire to harm, but permission to do so only as given him by God, either to overturn and destroy the vessels of