The Literal Meaning of Genesis (continued)
for the Devil is mocked when the temptations by which he tries to corrupt the saints turn to their advantage, and the malice that he has willingly chosen becomes useful, in spite of his intentions, for the servants of God. Indeed, God foresaw this in creating him.
He is, then, the beginning of mocking because wicked men are vessels of the same Devil, and a body, so to speak, with him as their head.®5 God foresaw that they would be wicked, and yet He created them for the benefit of the saints. Like the Devil, they are mocked when, in spite of their will to do harm, their example moves the saints to vigilance, to a devout humility in submission to God, and to an understanding of grace, and when it offers them an opportunity to suffer the wicked and to put to the test their love of their enemies.
But the Devil is the beginning of the creation that is mocked because he precedes it in time and in the primacy of his malice. God accomplishes His purpose regarding the Devil through His holy angels in the working of His providence by which He governs creatures, subjecting wicked angels to good angels so that the sinfulness of the wicked may have the power to do not all that it strives for but only what is allowed. And this restriction is put on wicked men as well as wicked angels, until that justice in which the just live by faith®*—a faith tested now as they patiently live among men—will be turned into judgment,®' so that they may be able to judge not only the twelve tribes of Israel®® but even the angels.°?
CHAPTER 23
In what sense the Devil was never grounded in the truth.
30. When it is said that the Devil had never been grounded in the truth'® and that he had never led a blessed life with the angels, but that he had fallen at the very beginning of his creation, it must not be thought that he did not sin by his own free will but was created evil by God who is good. Otherwise he would not be said to have fallen from the beginning; indeed, he did not