Chapter XVII
Truth, Freedom, and EvO Chapter XVII Why the angel who deserted justice couldn't return to it.
T. When we posited that only the will for happiness had been given to Satan, we saw that he was able to will nothing else.
S. Yes, we saw this clearly.
T. Now after Satan had deserted justice, so that the only will he had was that will which he first had for happiness, was he able to return to the will for justice by his own means [per se], and so regain that will which he could not have gained by his own means before it had been given to him?
S. He was even less able to gain it after he had lost it than before it had been given. Before it had been given, he was unable to have it because of the condition of his nature; but after he had lost it, he also didn't deserve to have it because of his guilt.
T. Satan could in no way have had justice from himself when he didn't have justice, because he could have it from himself neither before he had received it nor after he had deserted it.
S. He was not supposed to have anything from himself anyway.
Chapter XVIII How the evil angel made himself unjust and the good angel made himself just; and that the evil angel ought to give thanks to God for the good things which he received and deserted, just as the good angel ought to give thanks to God for the good things which he received and kept.
Isn't it the case that when Satan had justice, there's a sense in which he could have given it to himself?
S. How could he have done this?
T. Well, we say "to do" in many senses. For we say that we do something when we cause a thing to be, and also when we are able to cause something not to be and yet don't cause it not to be.
The Fall of Satan
And so, because Satan was able either to remove justice from himself or not to remove it from himself, he was, in a sense, able to give justice to himself. In the same way, the good angel, who remained constant in the truth in which he was created, did not cause himself to lose justice when he could have done so. By remaining constant, the good angel gave justice to himself, even though he received all this from God. For the two angels received from God both the abihty to keep and the ability to desert justice. For God gave them the abihty to desert justice so that they might be able, in some sense, to give it to themselves.
If they were in no way able to remove justice from themselves, then they were in no way able to give it to themselves; yet whoever in this way has given justice to himself has received from God the very ability to give justice to himself.
I see that by not removing justice, they were able to give justice to themselves; and the one angel gave justice to himself and the other one didn't.
T. Don't you see, then, that they ought to give thanks to God for His goodness? And isn't it right that Satan should return to God what is God's, since he cast off from himself what God gave him and was unwilling to receive what God offered
[viz., the gift of perseverance]?
S. Yes, I see this.
T. So the evil angel ought always to give thanks to God for the happiness which he removed from himself, just as the good angel ought to give thanks for the happiness which he gave to himself.
S. You are absolutely right.
I think you are now able to see that God can in no way do what is unjust, unless it is an unjust deed for Him not to do a just deed which He could do. For before someone has received justice, he is neither just nor unjust; and after someone has received justice, he becomes unjust only if he deserts justice willingly.
Therefore, as the good angel made himself just by not removing justice from himself when he was able, so God made the evil angel unjust by not giving justice back to him even though He could have done so.
S. That's easy to understand.