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| Why the Evil Prince Was Made.
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Chapter
IV.—Why the Evil Prince Was Made.
But some one will say, How then was it necessary
that that prince should be made, who was to turn away the minds of men
from the true prince?836
| 836 [Comp. book viii.
55, 56; Homily XIX. 2–18.—R.] | Because
God, who, as I have said, wished to prepare friends for His Son, did
not wish them to be such as by necessity of nature could not be aught
else, but such as should desire of their own choice and will to be
good; because neither is that praiseworthy which is not desirable, nor
is that judged to be good which is not sought for with purpose.
For there is no credit in being that from which the necessity of your
nature does not admit of your changing. Therefore the providence
of God has willed that a multitude of men should be born in this world,
that those who should choose a good life might be selected from
many. And because He foresaw that the present world could not
consist except by variety and inequality, He gave to each mind freedom
of motions,837
| 837 [The
doctrine of free-will, and the necessity of evil in consequence,
appears throughout. Comp. book iii. 21, v. 6. In the
Homilies there is not so much emphasis laid upon this point; but
see Homily XI. 8.—R.] | according to
the diversities of present things, and appointed this prince, through
his suggestion of those things which run contrary, that the choice of
better things might depend upon the exercise of
virtue.
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