Let no one, therefore, look for an efficient cause of the evil will;for it is not efficient, but deficient, as the will itself is not an effecting of something, but a defect.For defection from that which supremely is, to that which has less of being,--this is to begin to have an evil will.Now, to seek to discover the causes of these defections,--causes, as I have said, not efficient, but deficient,--is as if some one sought to see darkness, or hear silence.
Yet both of these are known by us, and the former by means only of the eye, the latter only by the ear; but not by their positive actuality,(1) but by their want of it.Let no one, then seek to know from me what I know that I do not know; unless he perhaps wishes to learn to be ignorant of that of which all we know is, that it cannot be known.For those things which are known not by their actuality, but by their want of it, are known, if our expression may be allowed and understood, by not knowing them, that by knowing them they may be not known.For when the eyesight surveys objects that strike the sense, it nowhere sees darkness but where it begins, not to see.And so no other sense but the ear can perceive silence, and yet it is only perceived by not hearing.Thus, too, our mind perceives intelligible forms by understanding them; but when they are deficient, it knows them by not knowing them; for "who can understand defects?"(2)CHAP.8.--OF THE MISDIRECTED LOVE WHEREBY THE WILL FELL AWAY FROM THEIMMUTABLE
TO THE MUTABLE GOOD.
This I do know, that the nature of God can never, nowhere, nowise be defective, and that natures made of nothing can.These latter, however, the more being they have, and the.more good they do (for then they do something positive), the more they have efficient causes; but in so far as they are defective in being, and consequently do evil (for then what is their work but vanity?), they have deficient causes.And I know likewise, that the will could not become evil, were it unwilling to become so;and therefore its failings are.justly punished, being not necessary, but voluntary.For its defections are not to evil things, but are themselves evil; that is to say, are not towards things that are naturally and in themselves evil, but the defection of the will is evil, because it is contrary to the order of nature, and an abandonment of that which has supreme being for that which has less.For avarice is not a fault inherent in gold, but in the man who inordinately loves gold, to the detriment of justice, which ought to be held in incomparably higher regard than gold Neither is luxury the fault of lovely and charming objects, but of the heart that inordinately loves sensual pleasures, to the neglect of temperance, which attaches us to objects more lovely in their spirituality, and more delectable by their incorruptibility.Nor yet is boasting the fault of human praise, but of the soul that is inordinately fond of the applause of men, and that makes light of the voice of conscience.Pride, too, is not the fault of him who delegates power, nor of power itself, but of the soul that is inordinately enamored of its own power, and despises the more just dominion of a higher authority.Consequently he who inordinately loves the good which any nature possesses, even though he obtain it, himself becomes evil in the good, and wretched because deprived of a greater good.
CHAP.9.--WHETHER THE ANGELS, BESIDES RECEIVING FROM GOD THEIR NATURE, RECEIVEDFROM HIM ALSO THEIR GOOD WILL BY THE HOLY SPIRIT IMBUING THEM WITHLOVE.
There is, then, no natural efficient cause or, if I may be allowed the expression, no essential cause, of the evil will, since itself is the origin of evil in mutable spirits, by which the good of their nature is diminished and corrupted; and the will is made evil by nothing else than defection from God,--a defection of which the cause, too, is certainly deficient.But as to the good will, if we should say that there is no efficient cause of it, we must beware of giving currency to the opinion that the good will of the good angels is not created, but is co-eternal with God.For if they themselves are created, how can we say that their good will was eternal? But if created, was it created along with themselves, or did they exist for a time without it? If along with themselves, then doubtless it was created by Him who created them, and, as soon as ever they were created, they attached themselves to Him who created them, with the love He created in them.And they are separated from the society of the rest, because they have continued in the same good will; while the others have fallen away to another will, which is an evil one, by the very fact of its being a falling away from the good; from which, we may add, they would not have fallen away had they been unwilling to do so.But if the good angels existed for a time without a good will, and produced it in themselves without God's interference, then it follows that they made themselves better than He made them.Away with such a thought! For without a good will, what were they but evil? Or if they were not evils, because they had not an evil will any more than a good one (for they had not fallen away from that which as yet they had not begun to enjoy), certainly they were not the same, not so good, as when they came to have a good will.Or if they could not make themselves better than they were made by Him who is surpassed by none in His work, then certainly, without His helpful operation, they could not come to possess that good will which made them better.