Edition Hide
De civitate Dei (CCSL)

Caput VII: Quod sanctorum angelorum ea sit in nos dilectio, ut nos non suos, sed unius ueri dei uelint esse cultores.

Merito illi in caelestibus sedibus constituti inmortales et beati, qui creatoris sui participatione congaudent, cuius aeternitate firmi, cuius ueritate certi, cuius munere sancti sunt, quoniam nos mortales et miseros, ut inmortales beatique simus, misericorditer diligunt, nolunt nos sibi sacrificari, sed ei, cuius et ipsi nobis cum sacrificium se esse nouerunt. cum ipsis enim sumus una ciuitas dei, cui dicitur in psalmo: gloriosissima dicta sunt de te, ciuitas dei; cuius pars in nobis peregrinatur, pars in illis opitulatur. de illa quippe superna ciuitate, ubi dei uoluntas intellegibilis atque incommutabilis lex est, de illa superna quodammodo curia - geritur namque ibi cura de nobis - ad nos ministrata per angelos sancta illa scriptura descendit, ubi legitur: sacrificans dis eradicabitur, nisi domino soli. huic scripturae, huic legi, praeceptis talibus tanta sunt adtestata miracula, ut satis appareat, cui nos sacrificari uelint inmortales ac beati, qui hoc nobis uolunt esse quod sibi.

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The City of God

Chapter 7.--Of the Love of the Holy Angels, Which Prompts Them to Desire that We Worship the One True God, and Not Themselves.

It is very right that these blessed and immortal spirits, who inhabit celestial dwellings, and rejoice in the communications of their Creator's fullness, firm in His eternity, assured in His truth, holy by His grace, since they compassionately and tenderly regard us miserable mortals, and wish us to become immortal and happy, do not desire us to sacrifice to themselves, but to Him whose sacrifice they know themselves to be in common with us. For we and they together are the one city of God, to which it is said in the psalm, "Glorious things are spoken of thee, O city of God;" ¹ the human part sojourning here below, the angelic aiding from above. For from that heavenly city, in which God's will is the intelligible and unchangeable law, from that heavenly council-chamber,--for they sit in counsel regarding us,--that holy Scripture, descended to us by the ministry of angels, in which it is written, "He that sacrificeth unto any god, save unto the Lord only, he shall be utterly destroyed," ² --this Scripture, this law, these precepts, have been confirmed by such miracles, that it is sufficiently evident to whom these immortal and blessed spirits, who desire us to be like themselves, wish us to sacrifice.