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THE CORONATION 285
15, 10). The same happens when the just perform
works of true virtue and merit new degrees of glory.
Now that which happens among the heavenly inhab
itants in the conversion of sinners and in the increase of
merit of the just, has a counterpart in what happens with
the demons at the sins of the just and the deeper falls
of sinners; for no sin is committed by men, however
small, in which the demons do not take pleasure; and
those that attend to the business of tempting mortals immediately
give notice to the demons in the eternal dun
geons of their successes. There they enjoy them and
record them for further use, both in order to press their
claims before the divine Judge, and in order that their
greater dominion and jurisdiction over sinners according
to the measure of the offense may be publicly known.
In this manner they show their treacherous hate of men,
whenever they succeed in deceiving them into sin by some
momentary and apparent pleasure. But the Most High,
who is just in all his works, ordained that also the con
version of sinners and the good works of the just should
redound to the torment of the envious demons, since
they rejoice so much at the perdition of man.
304. This sort of chastisement therefore causes great
torments to all the demons; because by it they are not
only confounded and oppressed in their mortal hatred of
men, but by the victories of the saints and the conversion
of sinners they are deprived of a great part of their
power over those, whom they have drawn into sin by
their plots. The new torments thus caused to them they
seek to vent upon the damned in hell; and just as there
is new joy in heaven at the penance and good works of
sinners, so, for the same reason, there arise new con
fusion and misfortune in hell at the good works of the
just. On such occasions, amid howls of despair, the
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