the beginning."_
As for what John says about the devil, "The devil sinneth from the
beginning,"[474] they[475] who suppose it is meant hereby that the
devil was made with a sinful nature, misunderstand it; for if sin be
natural, it is not sin at all. And how do they answer the prophetic
proofs,--either what Isaiah says when he represents the devil under
the person of the king of Babylon, "How art thou fallen, O Lucifer,
son of the morning!"[476] or what Ezekiel says, "Thou hast been in
Eden, the garden of God; every precious stone was thy covering,"[477]
where it is meant that he was some time without sin; for a little
after it is still more explicitly said, "Thou wast perfect in thy
ways?" And if these passages cannot well be otherwise interpreted,
we must understand by this one also, "He abode not in the truth,"
that he was once in the truth, but did not remain in it. And from
this passage, "The devil sinneth from the beginning," it is not
to be supposed that he sinned from the beginning of his created
existence, but from the beginning of his sin, when by his pride he
had once commenced to sin. There is a passage, too, in the Book of
Job, of which the devil is the subject: "This is the beginning of the
creation of God, which He made to be a sport to His angels,"[478]
which agrees with the psalm, where it is said, "There is that
dragon which Thou hast made to be a sport therein."[479] But these
passages are not to lead us to suppose that the devil was originally
created to be the sport of the angels, but that he was doomed to
this punishment after his sin. His beginning, then, is the handiwork
of God; for there is no nature, even among the least, and lowest,
and last of the beasts, which was not the work of Him from whom has
proceeded all measure, all form, all order, without which nothing can
be planned or conceived. How much more, then, is this angelic nature,
which surpasses in dignity all else that He has made, the handiwork
of the Most High!