274.  It seems as if the author of the Apocalypse wished to throw light upon what the other canonical writers had left obscure:  he gives us an account of a battle that took place in Heaven.  Michael and his angels fought against the Dragon, and the Dragon fought and his angels.  ’But they prevailed not, neither was their place found any more in heaven.  And the great Dragon was cast out, that old serpent, called the Devil, and Satan, which deceiveth the whole world:  and he was cast out into the earth, and his angels were cast out with him’ (Rev. xii. 7, 8, 9).  For although this account is placed after the flight of the woman into the wilderness, and it may have been intended to indicate thereby some revulsion favourable to the Church, it appears as though the author’s design was to show simultaneously the old fall of the first enemy and a new fall of a new enemy.

275.  Lying or wickedness springs from the Devil’s own nature, [Greek:  ek ton idion] from his will, because it was written in the book of the eternal verities, which contains the things possible before any decree of God, that this creature would freely turn toward evil if it were created.  It is the same with Eve and Adam; they sinned freely, albeit the Devil tempted them.  God gives the wicked over to a reprobate mind (Rom. i. 28), abandoning them to themselves and denying them a grace which he owes them not, and indeed ought to deny to them.

276.  It is said in the Scriptures that God hardeneth (Exod. iv. 21 and[296] vii. 3; Isa. lxiii. 17); that God sendeth a lying spirit (1 Kings xxii. 23); strong delusion that they should believe a lie (2 Thess. ii. 11); that he deceived the prophet (Ezek. xiv. 9); that he commanded Shimei to curse (2 Sam xvi. 10); that the children of Eli hearkened not unto the voice of their father, because the Lord would slay them (1 Sam. ii. 25); that the Lord took away Job’s substance, even although that was done through the malice of brigands (Job i. 21); that he raised up Pharaoh, to show his power in him (Exod. ix. 19; Rom. ix. 17) that he is like a potter who maketh a vessel unto dishonour (Rom. ix. 21); that he hideth the truth from the wise and prudent (Matt. xi. 25); that he speaketh in parables unto them that are without, that seeing they may see and not perceive, and hearing they may hear and not understand, lest at any time they might be converted, and their sins might be forgiven them (Mark iv. 12; Luke viii. 10); that Jesus was delivered by the determinate counsel and foreknowledge of God (Acts ii. 23); that Pontius Pilate and Herod with the Gentiles and the people of Israel did that which the hand and the counsel of God had determined before to be done (Acts iv. 27, 28); that it was of the Lord to harden the hearts of the enemy, that they should come against Israel in battle, that he might destroy them utterly, and that they might have no favour (Joshua xi. 20); that the Lord mingled a perverse spirit in the midst of Egypt, and caused it to err in all its