Victoriam in bello per Omnipotentem dari cui voluerit
Victory Given by the Almighty's Angel
Augustine shows from the City of God that the Almighty grants victory in war through His own angel to whom He wills, and that this true King acts through His own messenger, with counsel that may be hidden but never unjust.
Augustine shows in his book The City of God that victory in war is granted by the Almighty through His own angel—the one He wills and commands. 4, ch. 17): "The Almighty sends victory, and it comes, as if obeying the king of the gods, to those whom He commands, and stands on their side. This is truly said of that true King of the ages: He does not send a victory that has no substance of its own, but His own angel, and He causes whomever He wills to conquer.1 His counsel may be hidden, but it cannot be unjust. "
Read the original Latin
Victoriam in bello ab Omnipotente per angelum suum cui voluerit et cui jusserit dari, Augustinus in libro de Civitate Dei demonstrat, dicens (lib. IV, c. 17): « Victoriam Omnipotens mittit, atque illa tanquam regi deorum obtemperans ad quos jusserit venit, et in eorum parte considit. Hoc vere de illo vero rege saeculorum dicitur, quod mittat non victoriam, quae nulla substantia est, sed angelum suum, et facit vincere quem voluerit. Cujus consilium occultum esse potest, iniquum non potest. »
Notes
- 1 ↩Augustine's point is that victory is not a thing God bestows but the angel through whom God acts; the king of the ages is Christ, and the emphasis falls on divine agency rather than on any abstract gift.
On the Person and Ministry of the King (De regis persona et regio ministerio) companion
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