Book XII

That the nature of the angels, both good and bad, is one and the same.

That there is no entity? contrary to the divine, because nonentity seems to be that which is
wholly opposite to Him who supremely and always is.

That the enemies of God are so, not by nature but by will, which, as it injures them, injures a
good nature; so if vice does not injure, it is not vice.

Of the nature of irrational and lifeless creatures, which in their own kind and order do not
mar the beauty of the universe.

That in all natures, of every kind and rank, God is glorified.

What the cause of the blessedness of the good angels is, and what the cause of the misery of
the wicked.

That we ought not to expect to find any efficient cause of the evil will.

Of the misdirected love whereby the will fell away from the immutable to the mutable good.

Whether the angels, besides receiving from God their nature, received from Him also their good
will by the Holy Spirit imbuing them with love.

Of the falseness of the history which allots many thousand years to the world’s past.

Of those who suppose that this world indeed is not eternal, but that either there are numberless
worlds, or that one and the same world is perpetually resolved into its elements, and renewed at the conclusion of fixed cycles.

How these persons are to be answered, who find fault with the creation of man on the score
of its recent date.

Of the creation of the human race in time, and how this was effected without any new design
or change of purpose on God’s part.

How we are to understand God’s promise of life eternal, which was uttered before the
“eternal times”.

What defense is made by sound faith regarding God’s unchangeable counsel and will, against
the reasonings of those who hold that the works of God are eternally repeated in revolving
cycles that restore all things as they were.

Against those who assert that things that are infinite?! cannot be comprehended by the
knowledge of God.

Of worlds without end, or ages of ages.

Of the impiety of those who assert that the souls which enjoy true and perfect blessedness, must yet again and again in these periodic revolutions return to labour and misery.

That God foreknew that the first man would sin, and that He at the same time foresaw how
large a multitude of godly persons would by His grace be translated to the fellowship of the
angels.

Of the nature of the human soul created in the image of God.

Whether the angels can be said to be the creators of any, even the least creature.

That God alone is the Creator of every kind of creature, whatever its nature or form.

Of that opinion of the Platonists, that the angels were themselves indeed created by God, but
that afterwards they created man’s body.

That the whole plenitude of the human race was embraced in the first man, and that God there
saw the portion of it which was to be honoured and rewarded, and that which was to be
condemned and punished.

In the first man is the beginning of all mankind, and of the two cities.