CITY OFGOD(BOOKXII) 299
Now, it is true that their good will was not only the cause of their turning and
adhering to Him, who is Perfect Being, rather than to themselves, whose being was less
than perfect, but also the reason why they had more of being than before and could live
wisely and happily in union with God. Nevertheless, this merely shows that any will,
however good, would have been destitute and destined to remain in hopeless desire, did
not He who had created their good nature out of nothing, and had given it a capacity for
union with Himself, first awaken in the will a greater longing for this union and then fill
the will with some of His very Being in order to make it better.
This raises another issue. For, if the good angels did something themselves to
bring about their good will, did they do this with or without a will? If without, then, of
course, they were not the agents. If with a will, was it an evil or a good one? If evil, how
could it produce a good will? If good, well, then, they had a good will already. And who
made this but God Himself who created them with a good will (that is, with the unblem-
ished love by which they could adhere to Him) and who at the same time created their
nature and enriched it with grace?
Thus, we are compelled to believe that the holy angels never existed without a
good will, that is, without the love of God. But what of those angels who were created
good and became evil by their own bad will for which their good nature is not responsi-
ble except in so far as there was a deliberate defection from good—for it is never good,
but a defection from good, that is the cause of evil? These angels either received less
grace of divine love than those who persevered in grace, or, if both were created equally
good, then, while the former were falling by bad will, the latter were increasingly aided
to reach that plenitude of beatitude which made them certain that they would never
fall—a matter which I discussed in the preceding Book.
Thus with our praise to our Creator, we should all proclaim that, not only of
holy men, but also of holy angels, it may be said that “the charity of God is poured
forth” in them “by the Holy Spirit who has been given” to them (Rom. 5:5). Nor is it
the good only of men, but first and foremost that of angels, which is referred to in the
words: “It is good for me to adhere to my God” (Ps. 72:28).
And they who share this common good are in a holy communion both with Him
to whom they adhere and one with another, and they form a single community, one City
of God, which is also His living sacrifice and His living temple.
This ends the discussion of the origin of this City in so far as it concerns the
angels. I must now turn to the rise of that part of the City which is made up of mortal
men, created by the same God, who will one day be united to the immortal angels and
who, at present, are either sojourning on earth or, if dead, are resting in the hidden
sanctuaries where the souls of the departed have their abode.
It was from one man, the first whom God created, that the whole human race took
its start. This is the faith revealed in Holy Scripture, a faith that has gained marvelous
and merited authority throughout the world and among all peoples—as, along with
other truths, Scripture itself divinely predicted would be the case.