The Literal Meaning of Genesis (continued)
BOOK ELEVEN 149
CHAPTER 17
Did the Devil know from the beginning that he would sin and be condemned?
22. How, indeed, can the Devil be thought to have lived a blessed life among the blessed angels? If he had no foreknowledge of the sin he would commit and of its punishment, that is, his abandonment of God and the subsequent eternal fire, one can rightly ask why he had no such knowledge.*? The holy angels are not uncertain of their eternal life and beatitude. For how would they be blessed if uncertain? Shall we say that God did not wish to reveal to the Devil, while he was still a good angel, what he would do or what he would suffer, while at the same time He revealed to the other angels that they would remain forever in His Truth? If this is so, the Devil before his fall was not equally blessed, indeed was not fully blessed, since those who are fully blessed are certain of their beatitude so that no fear troubles them. But what demerit did he have to be thus distinguished from the others so that God would not reveal the future to him, not even the future that pertained to him? Surely God did not punish him before he sinned, for God does not condemn the innocent.
Was he perhaps from another category of angels, to whom God did not give a foreknowledge of the future even in what pertained to them? I do not see how those creatures can be blessed who are uncertain of their own beatitude. Thus, some have thought that the Devil was not numbered among those angels whose sublime nature placed them above the heavens, but was numbered among those who were made somewhat lower in the world and assigned to different offices.°° Such angels could perhaps have found pleasure even in something forbidden, but they would be able by their own free choice to reject that pleasure if they did not wish to sin. Their condition would be similar to that of man, especially the first man, who did not yet have in his members the penalty of sin; for even at a later time holy men obedient to God are able to be faithful and to overcome such temptations by the grace of God.