SECTION VI. WHAT HE TEACHES OF GOOD AND EVIL SPIRITS. WE learn from our Lord's discourses that the heavenly angels are a numerous host; that they do b God's will in heaven; that they are raised above the imperfect condition of humanity, and are a holy, glorious, and 'immortal beings; that they are acquainted with many of God's counsels, though not with all; that they are occasionally ministering spirits to mankind, both in this life and the next; that at the last day our Lord shall come to judgment, and all the holy angels with him; that he shall send them forth, and they shall sever the wicked from among the just; and that in their presence he will "confess those who boldly confess him before men, and deny those who timidly deny him. Our Lord speaks of evil angels and their head in the following terms: depart from me, ye cursed, into everlasting fire," prepared for the Devil and his angels. He addresses his Tempter by the appellation of Satan; and the history of the temptation exhibits this apostate spirit under his proper character, as the enemy of all righteousness. The evil one, Satan, г and the Devil, are used by him as equivalent terms. [This wicked being is called Satan, because he is the grand adversary of God and goodness; and he is called the Devil, because he is their grand calumniator.] Our Lord further says, that the unbelieving and wicked Jews were of their father the Devil, and willingly executed his desires; who was a manslayer from the beginning, as he seduced our first parents into the commission of a crime which subjected them to death; and who abode not in the truth, but deceived by lies the progenitors of the human race, and was indeed the original framer" of falsehood. In another place evil men are styled by our Lord "children of the evil one; his imitators, and partakers of his malignity. Christ also represents Satan as erecting a kingdom opposite to God's kingdom of righteousness; as a strong man armed, who guardeth his palace, but as overcome, disarmed and spoiled by one stronger than he; as the enemy who sowed t In Hebrew row signifies adversari. In three places ó retain Zarar, in three they translate the word by irisaxes, and in seventeen by Boxos. See Kircher's conc. Gen. iii. 5. he brought a false accusation against God, as concealing knowledge from mankind. In the book of Job, which is a true history poetically adorned, Satan is dramatically introduced as attributing Job's integrity to a wrong motive, and falsely asserting that it would not bear the test of adversity. c. i. 9, 10, 11. c. ii. 5. And in the bold language of the Apocalypse he is represented as the Accuser of the brethren, as having accused faithful Christians before God day and night. c. xii. 10. It seems probable that he acted this part towards his fellow angels in heaven. Gen. iii. 4. And probably the apostate angels. See that very remarkable passage John viii. 44. - Matt. xii. 26. Luke xi. 18. * Matt. xiii. 25, 39. w Matt. xiii. 38. y Luke xi. 21, 22. and parallel places. a b tares among the good seed; and as taking away the word sown in the hearts of men, lest they should. believe and be saved. He repeatedly calls him the prince of this world; and describes this ruler in the hearts of wicked men as coming to inflict on him heavy evils, but finding in him no sin to strengthen his power over him; as d cast out of his dominion in the hearts of men; as judged and condemned to suffer loss, by having his kingdom of idolatry and vice contracted. When the seventy returned, say. ing, Lord, even the demons are subject to us through thy name; he thus figuratively expressed the rapid propagation of his gospel, which tended to establish a kingdom of righteousness; I beheld Satan as lightning fall from heaven. He thus addressed the apostles, when they were in danger of defection from him: "Behold, & Satan hath desired you, to sift you as wheat; to shake and overcome your constancy, through fear of the Jewish rulers. Many learned men have thought that our Lord used the populat language of the times, when he represented the woman, who had been bowed together for eighteen years, as bound by Satan; and when he addressed those who are called demoniacs in the gospels, as really under the power of impure and evil spirits. In some places there is an ambiguity in our Lord's manner of expressing himself, as it is transmitted a Mark iv. 15. and p. p. xiv. 30. See Luke iv. 13. xxii. 53. f Luke x. 17, 18. See Eph. ii. 2. vi. 12. • John d John xii. 31. • John Luke xxii. 31. h See on this xvi. 11. subject Joseph Mede, Disc. vi; Doctor Mead, Medica Sacra; Sykes; Lardner; and a late very able treatise by Mr. Farmer. i Luke xiii. 16. down to us; and it is difficult to determine whether evil, or he who is eminently called the evil one, ought to be understood; as when he says that, in common discourse, whatever is more than plain affirmation or denial cometh of evil; when he teaches us to pray that God would deliver us from evil; and when he intercedes with his Father that he would keep the apostles from evil. On a review of these passages it is clear that some of them prove the "personality of Satan. But I think that evil is sometimes attributed to him, not because it proceeds from his strict and proper agency on mankind, but because he originally introduced it, because he delights in it, and because the immediate authors of it imitate his disposition. Tillotson, "does not see how by any means it can be granted, without prejudice to the prerogative of God, which the scripture plainly gives him, of being the only knower of the heart, that the Devil can have so immediate an access to our minds as to put wicked thoughts into them ;" and he affirms "that all the inward motions of our souls are totally exempted from the immediate cognizance of any other spirit but God alone." He allows indeed "that a heart wickedly bent, and inclined, gives the Devil a great advantage to tempt men more powerfully, by presenting the occasions of wicked thoughts and actions * Matt. v. 37. ủ từ trong Mark vii. 23. 1áñò té πovngs, Matt vi. 13. Luke xi. 4. in Tovngs. Compare Matt. v. 39. Rom. xii 9. see the former sense and Matt. xiii 19, 38. 1 John ii. 13, 14. iii. 12. v. 18. xxv. 41. John viii. 44. for the latter sense. John xvii. 15. Eph. vi. 16. » Matt. to them: for it is usual in scripture phrase, as to ascribe all good motions to God's spirit, so all evil thoughts and actions to the Devil, not that he is the immediate cause of them, but because he is always ready to tempt men to them, and one way or other to promote them. Dr. Clarke observes that, "though in scripture phrase, the moral incapacity of men is frequently ascribed to the delusions of Satan; as when Satan is said to take away the word out of the hearts of men, and to fill their hearts, and the like; yet this is never spoken by way of excuse, but always, on the contrary, of high aggravation. They, out of whose heart Satan taketh away the word, are by our Saviour compared to, and blamed for being like unto, the very worst and most unfruitful ground. And Ananias, whose heart Satan had filled, was asked by St. Peter, in the way of severe reproof; Why hath Satan filled (that is, why hast thou been so wicked, so covetous, so corrupt, as to suffer Satan to fill) thine heart ?" The common scripture phraseology must be understood in a sense consistent with St. James's maxim: "Every man is tempted, when he is drawn away of his own desires, and enticed." r • Serm. on the knowledge of God. v. i. Serm. lxxx. fol. p. 604. Serm. Ixvii. p. 415, 416. fol. 9 Acts v. 3. c. i. 14. |