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274 CITY OF GOD
times for all the souls, who have delivered themselves
over to the jurisdiction of the demons and who use their
liberty and their faculties only for such temerity. I do
not speak of the pagans, the idolaters and heretics.
These indeed, the angels likewise defend and inspire to
the practice of the moral virtues, which they afterwards
use as arguments against the devils; but ordinarily the
most they do for them is to protect their lives, in order
that God, having allowed them so much time for their
conversion, may be justified in his behavior toward them.
The angels also labor to prevent them from committing
such great sins as the demons incite them to; for the
charity of the angels exerts itself, so that at least they
may not incur such great punishments, as the malice of
the demons seeks to fasten upon them.
291. Within the mystical communion of the Church
however are fought the hardest battles between the angels
and the demons, according to the different state of souls.
All its members they commonly defend with the ordi
nary weapons furnished them by the sacramental char
acter impressed upon the soul in Baptism, by grace, by
virtues, by the performance of good and meritorious
works, by devotions to the saints, by the prayers of the
just, and by all the good movements Catholics may have
during their life. This defense of the just is most power
ful; for since they are in grace and friendship of God,
the angels obtain a greater right against the demons, and
thus they rout them by showing up the holiness and per
fection of these souls, which are so formidable to the
powers of hell and therefore this
;
by itself ought to cause
us to esteem grace beyond
all creation. There are other
lukewarm and imperfect souls who fall into sin and
occasionally rise again. Against these the demons obtain
more power to persecute them with their cruelty. But
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