03 - Chapter 03
CHAP. III. RESPECTING EVIL ANGELS. Of Evil Spirits, as of Holy Angels, our knowledge is derived exclusively from the word of God. The Scriptures, which never afford insight into such circumstances connected with the unseen Universe, as, if disclosed, would merely gratify curiosity and foster unprofitable speculation, say little concerning the rebellion of these unhappy beings against their Maker in addition to the statement of the fact and of its consequences. And that statement is uniformly introduced in the way of an aweful warning to men not to offend. God spared not the Angels that sinned, but cast them down to hell, and delivered them into chains of darkness, to be reserved unto judgement.1 The Lord knoweth how to reserve the unjust unto the day of Judgement, to be punished. Of these fallen spirits who revolted from their allegiance to Jehovah, the instigator and the leader, himself originally, as [1] 2 Peter 2:4-9., and Jude 1:6. it should seem, an Angel eminent in dignity, is denominated specifically, The Devil, and also Satan, the adversary, the adversary of God and subsequently of man, and Beelzebub the Prince of the Devils.1 From the time of his original apostasy he has persisted in his enmity against God; and since the formation of the human race has displayed unceasing hatred against them as favoured creatures of the Almighty. No sooner were our first parents stationed in Paradise, than Satan planned and accomplished their ruin. Assuming the shape, or using the organs, of the serpent, he persuaded Eve, and by her instrumentality, induced Adam to transgress the commandment, ordained to be the test of their obedience. Thus, having drawn them away from God, and subjected them to his own influence and dominion, he became the author of sin, and of wretchedness, and of death, to them and to all their posterity. Hence the Scriptures describe the Devil as having the power of death.2 With reference to this transaction, he is termed in the New Testament the Serpent, the old Serpent, the great Dragon, which deceiveth the whole world. With re- [1] Matthew 12:24.
[2] Hebrews 2:14. ference also to the destruction, which by his subtle falsehood he brought upon mankind, and perhaps with a view to the everlasting misery in which he has overwhelmed the Angels whom he has deluded; he is pronounced by our Saviour to have been a murderer from the beginning: to have no truth in Mm: to be a liar and the father of lies. Through his temptations all flesh has corrupted its way upon earth: the whole world lieth in wickedness.1 Hence unrighteous men are denominated in the Scriptures the children of Satan. He that committeth sin is of the Devil : for the Devil sinneth from the beginning. In this the children of God are manifest and the Children of the Devil.’* The field is the world: the tares are Children of the wicked one: the enemy that sowed them is the Devil.3 Ye are of your father the Devil: and the lusts of your father ye will do* One of you is a Devil.6 Sins of every description, and without exception, are habitually described as works of Satan. Christ came to destroy the works of the Devil.6 The coming of the Man of Sin is after the working of [1] 1 John 5:19.
[2] John 8:44.
[3] 1 John 3:8-10.
[4] John 6:70.
[5] Matthew 13:38-39
[6] 1 John 3:8.
Satan, with all power and signs and lying wonders, and with all deceivableness of unrighteousness.1 I know the blasphemy of them which are the synagogue of Satan. I know where thou dwellest, even where Satan’s seat is, where Satan dwelleth. As many as have not this (corrupt) doctrine, and have not known the depths of Satan? Then cometh the Devil, and taketh the word out of their hearts, lest they should believe and be saved. 3 In the Old Testament, we read a memorable example of the malignant activity of this Apostate Spirit. And Satan stood up against Israel and provoked David to number Israel.* The New Testament sets before us his unwearied hostility against the followers of Christ; and unceasingly warns us to vigilance and exertion under the grace of God to withstand it. The Devil hath desired to have you that he may sift you as wheat. We would have come unto you once and again, but Satan hindered us 5 by opposition and persecution which he excited. The Devil shall cast some of you into prison.*’ Why hath Satan filled thine heart to lie to the
[1] 2 Thessalonians 2:9-10.
[2] 1 Chronicles 21:1.
[3] Revelation 2:9
[4] 1 Thessalonians 2:18.
[5] Luke 8:12.
[6] Revelation 2:10.
Holy Ghost? 1 Neither give place to the Devil.2 Lest he fall into the snare of the Devil. s That they may recover themselves out of the snare of the Devil, who are taken captive by him at his will.4 That Satan tempt you not.5 Lest Satan should get an advantage of us: for we are not ignorant of his devices.6 Lest the Tempter have tempted you, and our labour be in vain.7 Be strong in the Lord and-in the power of’his might. Put on the whole armour of God, that ye may be able to stand against the wiles of the Devil.6 Your adversary the Devil like a roaring lion walketh about seeking whom he may devour.9 So powerful is the control which the Devil exercises over mankind, so predominating is the influence which he has established in the very nature and over the hearts of all men, that by our Lord he is styled the Prince of this world10, and by St. Paul the God of this world,.11 Well knowing that to accomplish the destruction of his kingdom, the redemption of the world from his bondage, to turn men from
[1] Acts 5:3.
[2] 1 Thessalonians 3:5.
[3] Ephesians 4:27.
[4] Ephesians 6:10-18.
[5] 1 Timothy 3:7
[6] 1 Peter 5:8.
[7] 2 Timothy 2:26.
[8] John 12:31; John 14:30.
[9] 1 Corinthians 7:5. 1 Corinthians 16:2.
[10] 2 Corinthians 2:2.
[11] 2 Corinthians 11:4. darkness to light, from the power of Satan unto God1, was the object for the achievement of which the Son of God manifested Himself in human nature; this adversary of all righteousness unabatingly directed his darkest machinations against our Lord. No sooner had Jesus been proclaimed to be the promised Redeemer by the testimony of John the Baptist, by the visible descent of the Holy Ghost upon Him after his baptism, and by the voice of his Almighty Father; than the Devil assaulted Him in the wilderness during forty days with diversified temptations. When they all had been proved inefficacious, Satan departed from Christ, but only, as St. Luke pointedly observes, for a season.2 We cannot doubt that internal trials were among the means by which the Devil continued to afflict our Lord. He also stirred up the malice of the Pharisees, of the Sadducees, of the Herodians. He put it into the heart of Judas to betray his master.3 Christ himself, when his sufferings and his death were at hand, ascribed them to the Devil. Hereafter, said he to his disciples, I will not talk much with you; for the Prince of this world [1] Acts 26:18.
[2] Luke 4:13.
[3] Luke 22:3-4. John 13:2-27. cometh. To his enemies when they seized Him He pronounced the hour to be that of the Powers of darkness. Thus at length Satan prevailed to bring our Lord to the Cross; unconscious that, while he was exultingly bruising the heel of the Son of God, he was receiving on his own head a mortal wound. But he is permitted to retain a portion of power till the Day of Judgement Against every person upon earth he continually practises his devices. He tempts us to remain in slavery to him, to add iniquity unto iniquity, to harden ourselves against the grace of God, to refuse deliverance through the blood of Christ: and thus labours to ensnare us into all the present wretchedness which accompanies sin, and into the punishment which in another world is awaiting every impenitent transgressor. In his enmity against God and his attempts for the destruction of men he is constantly seconded by the hosts of Evil Spirits. They are termed in the New Testament his Angels.1 He is the Wicked One2, the Tempter3, the Spirit that still worketh
[1] Matthew 25:41. Revelation 12:7-9.
[2] Matthew 13:19-38. 1 John 2:13-14; 1 John 3:12; 1 John 5:18.
[3] Matthew 4:3: 1 Thessalonians 3:5. in the children of disobedience.1 His angels are Evil Spirits, foul Spirits, unclean Spirits, seducing Spirits, Principalities and Powers at his command, Rulers of the darkness of this world.2 In the Old Testament we meet with few traces of power openly exercised by Evil Spirits over the bodies of men. In the days of our Lord’s ministry, the Devil and his Angels not only occupied themselves, as throughout all former ages, and as they will continue to act to the end of time, in harassing and beguiling the soul by temptations ; but were left at liberty, under the permission of God, to disturb and completely to derange the understandings of individuals, and to afflict their bodies with grievous infirmities and with unwonted and torturing maladies. The divine purpose in this permission we cannot but conclude to have been, that the power of Christ to deliver all that in any way, corporeal or spiritual, should be oppressed of the Devil, might be the more gloriously manifested.’3 The number of persons rendered miserable by these invisible and irresistible tormentors was very great. In what-
[1] Ephesians 2:2.
[2] Luke 7:21; Acts 19:13, &c. Mark 9:25; Matthew 10:1; 1 Timothy 4:1; Ephesians 6:12.
[3] Acts 10:38. ever part of Judaea and Galilee our Saviour preached the Gospel, into whatever part he sent forth His disciples, persons possessed with Devils were found. On a single evening Jesus healed at Capernaum manyl who were thus possessed. The sufferings with which the Evil Spirits overwhelmed those whom they had seized were various. We read of a man who had a deaf and dumb Spirit; that is to say, who was under the domination of an Evil Spirit which rendered him both deaf and dumb: so that when the Spirit was cast out, the man instantly recovered his faculties of hearing and of speech. We read of another man possessed by a Devil who deprived the sufferer of speech and of sight: and when the Evil Spirit was expelled by our Lord, the blind and dumb both spake and saw.2 We read also of a woman bent double by a Spirit of infirmity: and our Lord, on healing her, expressly declared that Satan had bowed her down for eighteen years.3 In other instances we find the Devils driving their victims to mountains and deserts, tearing them by the most violent convulsions, or casting them into water or into [1] Luke 4:41.
[2] Matthew 12:22
[3] Luke 13:11, Luke 13:16. fire. The derangement of intellect, which, from the representations given by the sacred writers of persons possessed, we might conclude to be a common part of their calamities, is pointedly noticed by two of the Evangelists as to a particular individual: for when he was delivered by our Lord from the Evil Spirits, he is described as being again in his right mind.l That the loss of understanding in persons possessed had not proceeded from ordinary causes of insanity, but was the actual consequence of the possession, is incontestable. St. Matthew, in one of his accounts of afflicted people healed by Christ, carefully distinguishes those which were possessed with Devils from those which were lunatic.* And not only did the language addressed to our Lord by the Devils through the lips of the person possessed correspond at all times with the reality of the possession, but on many occasions it did actually and of itself prove the possession. For it proved that the speakers knew that which man by his natural powers could not know ; that which men had not attained under the offer of Divine teaching [1] Mark 5:15; Luke 8:35.
[2] Matthew 4:24. to know; that which men in general, when it was declared to them, would not believe. While the Jews refused to acknowledge Jesus Christ, notwithstanding his wonderful works, to be the promised Redeemer; while some said, He is Elias ; while others affirmed, He is Jeremiah; while others answered, He is a Prophet, or as one of the Prophets; while Herod pronounced Him to be John the Baptist returned from the grave; the Devils were under no such delusions. They believed and trembled.1 They confessed their Divine Adversary, their appointed conqueror, in his earthly humiliation. They loudly exclaimed, by the organs of the individuals whom they occupied; " We know Thee who Thou art, the Christ, the Holy One of God! Send us not into the deep, Thou Son of the Most High God ! We adjure Thee that Thou torment us not."2 The same confession continued to be made, the same attestation to be borne, in the days of the Apostles. The Evil Spirit by whom the young woman at Philippi was possessed, was constrained to proclaim by her lips concerning Paul and his companions, These [1] James 2:19.
[2] Matthew 8:29; Mark 1:1-45; Mark 2:4-28; Mark 5:7; Luke 4:34-41; Luke 8:31. men are the servants of the Most High God, which show unto us the way of salvation.l
If the Holy Angels are an innumerable company, there are grounds for inferring that the host of fallen Angels, however inferior in amount to those who remained stedfast in righteousness, may also be characterised as surpassing computation. The New Testament exhibits them as always at hand to combine in order to harass a single individual. When an Evil Spirit is described in the Parable as determined to take renewed possession of a man whom he had quitted, he has no difficulty in finding seven other Spirits more wicked than himself, who enter with him into his former abode and dwell there. It is distinctly recorded that out of Mary Magdalen our Saviour had expelled seven Devils.2 Consider also that such a multitude of Evil Spirits had united to afflict a sufferer already noticed as to be described by the term Legion.3
There are passages in Scripture which imply that the Deity sees fit occasionally to constrain Evil Spirits to act as his agents in executing [1] Acts 16:16; Acts 17:3; Mark 5:9; Luke 8:1-56.
[2] Luke 8:2. chastisement upon transgressors. It was thus that God sent an Evil Spirit between Abime- lech and the men of Shechem to cause dissensions among them, that the cruelty done to the threescore and ten sons of Jerubbaal might come, and their blood be laid upon Abimelech their brother which slew them, and upon the men of Shechem which aided him in the killing of his brethren,1 It was thus that an Evil Spirit was sent to inflict punishment upon Saul. The same instrumentality appears to have had its place in the plagues poured out upon the Egyptians. God cast upon them the fierceness of his anger, wrath, and indignation, and trouble, by sending Evil Angels among them.2 A still more remarkable passage occurs in the writings of St. Paul. Iii reference to a flagrant offender by an incestuous marriage among the Corinthians the Apostle writes, I have judged concerning him that hath so done this deed; in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, when ye are gathered together, and my spirit, with the power of our Lord Jesus Christ, to deliver such an one unto Satan for the destruction of the flesh, that the spirit may be saved in the day of the Lord Jesus.3 It should seem [1] Judges 9:23-24
[2]
[3] Psalms 78:49. that Satan, the prime author and instigator of the iniquity, was compelled by power from the Lord Jesus Christ committed to the Apostle to inflict some very aweful and painful kind of bodily malady on the offender, that thus the Tempter himself might be forced to give aid in defeating his own purpose of ruining the soul of his victim, and in stimulating that victim to seek the path of repentance and salvation. A similar course of proceeding may be implied in the declaration of the same Apostle concerning Hymenaeus and Alexander ; Whom I have delivered unto Satan, that they may learn not to blasphemed So determined is the hostility of Satan against the holy purposes of God, that, when he shall be loosed from his prison, the bottomless pit, after having there been chained during the Millennian reign of righteousness upon earth, he will instantly go out to deceive the nations which are in the four quarters of the earth, to gather them to battle against the servants of the Most High. The attempt shall bring ruin on all engaged in it, and specially on its author. And they went up, saith St. John, prophetically
There is a circumstance revealed in the New Testament as connected with the ultimate judgement of these fallen spirits, which is highly impressive. St. Paul, in reproving the Corinthian converts for their litigious selfishness, which impelled them to carry any dispute to a heathen tribunal instead of referring it to the arbitration of some of their Christian brethren, exclaims, 1 speak to your shame. Do ye not know that the Saints shall judge the world ? And if the world shall be judged by you, are ye unworthy to judge the smallest matters ? If then ye have judgements of things pertaining to this life, better were it even to set them to judge who are the least esteemed in the Church, than to resort as ye do to the tribunal of idolaters.
[1] Revelation 20:1. Revelation 2:10. Matthew 25:11. The argument, were it left at this point, would be conclusive. But the Apostle has raised it to the highest strength by the additional question, Know ye not that we shall judge Angels ? In this additional question he announces to the Christian Church, that holy men who, under the grace of their Redeemer, shall have been enabled to withstand in their mortal course the wiles of Satan and his associates, shall be openly exalted in that aweful Day to be as it were assessors with their Lord in appreciating the guilt and in pronouncing the condemnation of those apostate hosts, which had laboured to involve them in eternal perdition. Know ye not that we shall judge Angels ?l
" But God," retorts the objector, "is declared to be a God of love. Is he a God of love to spirits whom he consigns to everlasting torments ? " He who asks this question cannot refuse to allow us to propose inquiries in our turn. Is it necessary to the character of a God of love that he should love wickedness and the consummately wicked? Would you main tain such an affirmation respecting a human character.of the
1 Corinthians 6:1-6. most elevated benevolence ? Is not the presence of certain qualities in an object essential to render that object fit to be loved, capable of being loved ? Can that be the object of love which is in itself essentially unlovely, odious, detestable ? Is it inconsistency in a God of love, in a God who is love, to abominate sin and determinate sinners ? Would it not be an imperfection, would it not be a proof that he is not a God of holiness, were it otherwise ? Is it not characteristic of a God of holiness and of justice to impose punishment on determinate sinners ? And may not the imposition of such punishment be an act of pure and eminent love towards multitudes of beings to us unknown, themselves in a state of probation, and witnesses of the consequences which Satan and his Angels have drawn down upon themselves by disobedience ? " Be those things as they may," the objector rejoins, "you will not deny that the disobedience of these beings was foreseen of God before he created them: and therefore you cannot deny that it was knowingly permitted by Him." Undoubtedly. " Can it then be consistent with the character of the Deity, of whom you afiirm that He is Love, to create beings whose existence, exclusively owing to Him and on His part wholly spontaneous, He foresees as entailing upon them eternal perdition ? " In this question is involved much more than may at the first glance seem to be included within the limited terms in which it is couched. The subject requires a separate discussion.