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De Trinitate

X.

[X 13] Haec est vera pax et cum creatore nostro nobis firma conexio purgatis et reconciliatis per mediatorem vitae sicut maculati et alienati ab eo recesseramus per mediatorem mortis. Sicut enim diabolus superbus hominem superbientem perduxit ad mortem, ita Christus humilis hominem oboedientem reduxit ad vitam; quia sicut ille elatus cecidit et deiecit consentientem, sic iste humiliatus surrexit et erexit credentem. Quia enim non pervenerat diabolus quo ipse perduxerat (mortem quippe spiritus in impietate gestabat sed mortem carnis non subierat quia nec indumentum susceperat), magnus homini videbatur princeps in legionibus daemonum per quos fallaciarum regnum exercet. Sic hominem per elationis typhum potentiae quam iustitiae cupidiorem aut per falsam philosophiam magis inflans aut per sacra sacrilega inretiens, in quibus etiam magicae fallaciae curiosiores superbioresque animas deceptas inlusasque praecipitans, subditum tenet pollicens etiam purgationem animae per eas quas τελετάς appelant transfigurando se in angelum lucis per multiformem machinationem in signis et prodigiis mendacii.

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The Fifteen Books of Aurelius Augustinus, Bishop of Hippo, on the Trinity

Chapter 10.--As Christ is the Mediator of Life, So the Devil is the Mediator of Death.

13. Therein is our true peace and firm bond of union with our Creator, that we should be purified and reconciled through the Mediator of life, as we had been polluted and alienated, and so had departed from Him, through the mediator of death. For as the devil through pride led man through pride to death; so Christ through lowliness led back man through obedience to life. Since, as the one fell through being lifted up, and cast down [man] also who consented to him; so the other was raised up through being abased, and lifted up [man] also who believed in Him. For because the devil had not himself come thither whither he had led the way (inasmuch as he bare indeed in his ungodliness the death of the spirit, but had not undergone the death of the flesh, because he had not assumed the covering of the flesh), he appeared to man to be a mighty chief among the legions of devils, through whom he exercises his reign of deceits; so puffing up man the more, who is eager for power more than righteousness, through the pride of elation, or through false philosophy; or else entangling him through sacrilegious rites, in which, while casting down headlong by deceit and illusion the minds of the more curious and prouder sort, he holds him captive also to magical trickery; promising too the cleansing of the soul, through those initiations which they call teletai, by transforming himself into an angel of light, ¹ through divers machinations in signs and prodigies of lying.