of the angels._
At present, since I have undertaken to treat of the origin of the holy
city, and first of the holy angels, who constitute a large part of this
city, and indeed the more blessed part, since they have never been
expatriated, I will give myself to the task of explaining, by God's
help, and as far as seems suitable, the Scriptures which relate to
this point. Where Scripture speaks of the world's creation, it is not
plainly said whether or when the angels were created; but if mention
of them is made, it is implicitly under the name of "heaven," when it
is said, "In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth,"
or perhaps rather under the name of "light," of which presently. But
that they were wholly omitted, I am unable to believe, because it is
written that God on the seventh day rested from all His works which
He made; and this very book itself begins, "In the beginning God
created the heavens and the earth," so that before heaven and earth
God seems to have made nothing. Since, therefore, He began with the
heavens and the earth,--and the earth itself, as Scripture adds, was
at first invisible and formless, light not being as yet made, and
darkness covering the face of the deep (that is to say, covering an
undefined chaos of earth and sea, for where light is not, darkness must
needs be),--and then when all things, which are recorded to have been
completed in six days, were created and arranged, how should the angels
be omitted, as if they were not among the works of God, from which on
the seventh day He rested? Yet, though the fact that the angels are the
work of God is not omitted here, it is indeed not explicitly mentioned;
but elsewhere Holy Scripture asserts it in the clearest manner. For
in the Hymn of the Three Children in the Furnace it was said, "O all
ye works of the Lord, bless ye the Lord;"[457] and among these works
mentioned afterwards in detail, the angels are named. And in the psalm
it is said, "Praise ye the Lord from the heavens, praise Him in the
heights. Praise ye Him, all His angels; praise ye Him, all His hosts.
Praise ye Him, sun and moon; praise Him, all ye stars of light. Praise
Him, ye heaven of heavens; and ye waters that be above the heavens.
Let them praise the name of the Lord; for He commanded, and they
were created."[458] Here the angels are most expressly and by divine
authority said to have been made by God, for of them among the other
heavenly things it is said, "He commanded, and they were created."
Who, then, will be bold enough to suggest that the angels were made
after the six days' creation? If any one is so foolish, his folly is
disposed of by a scripture of like authority, where God says, "When the
stars were made, the angels praised me with a loud voice."[459] The
angels therefore existed before the stars; and the stars were made the
fourth day. Shall we then say that they were made the third day? Far
from it; for we know what was made that day. The earth was separated
from the water, and each element took its own distinct form, and the
earth produced all that grows on it. On the second day, then? Not even
on this; for on it the firmament was made between the waters above and
beneath, and was called "Heaven," in which firmament the stars were
made on the fourth day. There is no question, then, that if the angels
are included in the works of God during these six days, they are that
light which was called "Day," and whose unity Scripture signalizes
by calling that day not the "first day," but "one day."[460] For the
second day, the third, and the rest are not other days; but the same
"one" day is repeated to complete the number six or seven, so that
there should be knowledge both of God's works and of His rest. For
when God said, "Let there be light, and there was light," if we are
justified in understanding in this light the creation of the angels,
then certainly they were created partakers of the eternal light which
is the unchangeable Wisdom of God, by which all things were made,
and whom we call the only-begotten Son of God; so that they, being
illumined by the Light that created them, might themselves become light
and be called "Day," in participation of that unchangeable Light and
Day which is the Word of God, by whom both themselves and all else were
made. "The true Light, which lighteth every man that cometh into the
world,"[461]--this Light lighteth also every pure angel, that he may
be light not in himself, but in God; from whom if an angel turn away,
he becomes impure, as are all those who are called unclean spirits,
and are no longer light in the Lord, but darkness in themselves,
being deprived of the participation of Light eternal. For evil has no
positive nature; but the loss of good has received the name "evil."[462]