Thomas Manton · 28 of 67

Verse 6. · Part 1

Ver. 6. And the angels which kept not their first estate, but left their own habitation, he hath reserved in everlasting chains, under darkness, unto the judgment of the great day.

In this verse you have the second instance, from the apostate angels, who, notwithstanding the dignity and height of their nature, upon their rebellion were left to a dreadful punishment. In this instance there is an argument not a pari (as in the former verse), but a majore ad minus, not from a like case, but from the greater to the lesser; for if God spared not such creatures as by the of creation were advanced to such an excellency of being, certainly he will not spare us, whatever gospel privileges we have, if we walk unsuitably.

In these words observe:—(1.) The sin of the angels, they kept not their first estate. (2.) Their punishment, which is twofold:—

1. Present and felt.

2. Future and decreed.

1. Present, which is also double:—(1.) Poena damni, their loss, they left their own habitation. (2.) Poena sensûs, their punishment of pain or sense, he hath reserved in everlasting chains, under darkness.

2. Future and decreed, unto the judgment of the great day.

Because I will not perplex the discourse by grasping at too much at one time, I shall discuss each circumstance apart, and in distinct explication. I begin with the phrases implying their sin and fall. And the angels: the expression is plural, to note the great number of those which fell. Their first estate, τήν ἀρχὴν: the word may be translated either their principality or their beginning, and, which is all one, first estate. If you translate it principality, it will well enough suit with the scope of the apostle; and the angels are often called ‘principalities’ in scripture, because of their great power and excellent nature: so Col. i. 16, ‘Thrones, dominions, principalities, and powers;’ all which terms imply the dignity of the angelical nature; nay, the devils themselves, because of that power and cunning which they still retain, are called ‘principalities:’ Eph. vi. 12, ‘We wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities and powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world.’ If you translate it beginning or first estate, it will more fully express the misery and fall of the apostate angels, they being not only departed from the excellency and power, but from the integrity and wherein they were first created. So that the point is, that the angels are fallen from the condition of their original excellency and integrity.

So Peter, 2 Peter ii. 4, ἀγγέλων ἁμαρτησάντων, ‘God spared not the angels that sinned,’ &c.; and John viii. 44, ‘The devil abode not in the truth, because there is no truth in him.’ That purity and integrity wherein they were created is there called ‘truth,’ because truth is the perfection of any rational creature, and that which they had was only to be kept up by the truth or right notions of God. In opening this point I shall inquire:—

1. What was this ἀρχή, or first estate.

2. What was their sin, or how they departed from it

3. How they came to sin.

4. The number of them that fell.

5. The time.

1. I do confess the scriptures do speak somewhat sparingly of the nature or fall of angels, it being calculated chiefly for the use of man; but some hints there are which we shall take notice of and improve, not to satisfy curiosity, but to serve profit. What then is this first estate from which they are departed? I answer—Their original condition of holiness and happiness. Every creature which the Lord made, he saw it to be good; much more the angels, whom God created for his own train and company; they are called ‘the sons of God,’ Job xxxviii. 7, because they bore his image, and that in a more eminent degree than man, as being wholly spiritual substances, just, holy, pure, in all qualities representing God their father. It is said of man, ‘thou hast made him a little lower than the angels,’ Ps. viii. 5. When man was at his best there was an inferiority, the image of God was given to us in a less degree; although we were placed above all visible creatures, yet than the angels we were a little lower. That they were excellent appeareth in that the angelical obedience is made the pattern of ours, Mat. vi. 10; and our happiness in heaven is expressed by the condition of their nature: Mat. xxii. 30, ‘They are as the angels of God in heaven;’ yea, it is notable that when the scriptures would express any excellency, they use to say it is fit for angels Thus manna is called ‘angels’ food,’ Ps. lxxviii. 25, not as if they needed food, spirits are not capable of corporal refreshments; but if so high a creature should need food, he could have no better. So ‘the tongue of angels,’ 1 Cor. xiii. 1; that is, with a tongue becoming creatures of so perfect an understanding. But you will say, These expressions are meant of the good angels. I answer—That at their first creation they had the same common nature and excellency, as appeareth by the name of ‘thrones, dominions, and powers,’ which they yet retain in common with the good angels; yea, and by that power, wisdom, and knowledge which is yet left. In their innocency they were alike good and alike happy, and could contemplate and behold God, and embrace him with delight as others did; all that is supernatural in the good angel is the grace of confirmation, by which they in the knowledge and love of God, whereas others left τήν ἀρχὴν, ‘their first estate,’ and it is probable this grace was given to the good angels in the very moment of their creation, before any merit of theirs or use of their natural abilities, as appeareth by the others’ sudden fall, and because they are chosen in Christ, who is the head of men and angels, Col. i. 16.

2. What was their sin? There is a great deal of difference among divines about it; for herein they proceed by guess and conjecture rather than any certain proof. , there is enough to vindicate God’s justice against them. Quaevis peccata, saith Aquinas, sunt in malis angelis. According to his opinion, they have the guilt of all sin upon them, as tempting man to every sin; but what was the special formal sin is not so easily determined. Some say, affectation of the divinity; others say, flat rebellion against the law of their creation, or rash attempts against the empire and of God; others envy, be cause of the human nature exalted above the angelical in Christ, he ‘took not the nature of angels,’ Heb. ii. 16. But whether that mystery were made known to them is uncertain; rather there are probabilities to the contrary; for the good angels know it now by God’s dispensations to the church, Eph. iii. 10. Others think rebellion against a particular law given to them, as that concerning eating the forbidden fruit was to man. Whether it were affecting a higher degree above their creation, or refusing their office and ministration about man, or confidence in their own gifts and received excellency, in a matter of so great uncertainty it is hard to determine. To state their sin, take these propositions:—(1.) The law which made their act to be sin was the moral law, as being the copy of God’s holiness, his revealed will to all rational creatures; and they are said to sin, 2 Peter ii. 4, and ἁμαρτία, sin, is ἀνομία, a ‘ of a law,’ 1 John iii. 4; and of no other law do we read but of the moral law, which (as is probable) was given to the angels, excepting only such things as are not suitable to a spiritual nature, the commandment concerning adultery or unlawful propagation, for ‘they neither marry nor give in marriage,’ Mat. xxii. 30, a thing proper to the bodily life. (2.) The most likely thing in their sin was pride; there is pride in every sin, namely, a despising and contempt of the commandment; and this is a sin agreeable enough to a spiritual nature, as adultery, drunkenness, and such sins are proper to a corporeal and sensitive nature: ὑπερηφανία (saith Chrysostom) δύναμεις ἀσωματους κατέστασε καὶ κατέβαλεν ἄνωθεν. To prove it, the fathers usually quote that place, Isa. xiv. 12, 13, ‘How art thou fallen from heaven, Lucifer, son of the morning I for thou hast said in thy heart, I will ascend above the heights of the clouds, I will exalt my throne above the stars of God, I will be like the Most High.’ But these are but metaphorical passages concerning the king of Babylon, and the ground of the mistake was because the angels are often in scripture set forth by stars, as Job xxxviii. 7. That testimony which is most cogent is in 1 Tim. iii. 6, ‘Ordain not a novice, lest being lifted up with pride, he fall into the condemnation of the devil;’ this is, lest he make himself guilty of that sin for which the devil was condemned and rejected of God, namely of pride; and James iii. 15, pride is called devilish wisdom; the sin is often to be read in the judgment that followeth it. God’s throwing them down from the dignity of their estates was a sign that they aspired above it, and it may be collected from the first temptation, ‘Ye shall be as gods,’ as himself said, in the sense of the fathers, Ero sicut altissimus, so to our first parents he said, Eritis tanquam dii. (3.) They do best that make it a compound sin, accommodating all opinions; for, look, as there are many sins in that one act by which Adam fell, unbelief, pride, ingratitude, disobedience, &c., so in this act of the angels there might be many sins, for though pride be a chief sin in it, yet what kind of pride it was, or how discovered, it cannot be determined. Every opinion is asserted with equal probability. It might be envy at man, as we see the good angels rejoiced at their happiness, Job xxxviii. 7; Luke ii. 14, 15, and Luke xv. 7; or affectation of worship, as we see now they delight in it, or any other rebellion against God’s empire and majesty.

3. How they came to sin. The angels being created pure, they had no lust within to incline them; being in heaven, they had no object without to draw and allure them; there was no evil tracture, no tempter; how could they sin? I answer—(1.) It is probable that many of the angels sinned by temptation and seducement, and that one great angel, now called Beelzebub, first fell, and drew the rest after him: Mat. xxv. 41, ‘The devil and his angels,’ and Mat. x. 25, ‘Beelzebub the prince of devils;’ it was the name of the idol of the Ekronites, 2 Kings i. 2, and signified the god or lord of flies. Now, because the Jews knew that they were devils that were worshipped in the idols of the , they gave the names of the idols to the devils or evil angels, and the chief of the devils they called by the name of Beelzebub, so Mat. xii. 24, implying one that was the prince of the unclean spirits, called devil, Satan, the great dragon, and the god of this world; from all which we may probably collect that there was a prince or chief of the apostate angels, who was the ringleader in this faction and rebellion against God. (2.) Because the question returneth, How came the first angel then to fall? I answer—It is hard to conceive how sin came into the angels first; all that we can say is this, that the angels were created good, yet mutable and free, and they voluntarily chose not to abide in their own estates. All the answer Austin would give to this question was, Deus non sunt—they are not God; it is God’s prerogative alone to be immutable; they might sin because they were creatures. And Aquinas giveth this reason: God cannot sin, because his act is his rule; but all creatures, though never so pure, if not assisted by grace, may sin: Job iv. 18, ‘He chargeth his angels with folly;’ there is mutability in the angelical nature, there called folly. Certainly God was not the cause of their fall, by infusing evil to them; it was the error of the Manichees to say they were created evil; nor by his prescience, for that enforceth not; nor his voluntary permission, for they were left to their own sway; nor his decree, for that is within himself, and doth not compel the creature; neither is God to be looked upon as consenting to the action, in that he did not hinder them from it, or in that he did not sustain them by his own grace, for he oweth this grace to none, and giveth it when and to whom he pleaseth; and in the angelical nature, as well as the human, he would discover his justice and mercy, and the freedom of his dispensations.

4. The number, how many fell? The schoolmen are too rash. Some say, just as many fell as stood; others, that a third part fell, abusing that place, Rev. xii. 4, ‘That the dragon drew a third part of the stars of heaven after him.’ Whereas that is meant of defection in the church. Certain we are many fell, and therefore it is said angels in the text. That the number is great appeareth in that the world is full of these evil spirits, and a whole legion, which containeth some thousands, is said to possess one man, Luke viii. 30.

5. For the time. In the general, very soon. Therefore it is said, John viii. 44, that ‘Satan was a murderer from the beginning;’ and 1 John iii. 8, ‘The devil sinneth from the beginning;’ that is, presently after his creation; created these angels were. It was the error of Valentius and Basilides, in the age next the apostles, that they were not created, but begotten of God. These primitive monsters broached it to the disgrace of Jesus Christ, the only-begotten Son of God. But that they were created, see Col. i. 16, and Ps. cxlviii. 2, and created they were in time. Some of the Greek writers supposed the angels to be made before the world; but there is no ground for that, there being but one beginning of all created beings. And it is said, ‘Before the beginning nothing was made,’ John i. 3; therefore created they were the second day, with the heavens, as being of the same matter; as man was made when his seat and dwelling-place was perfected; so the angels, when their seat and place of residence was prepared. Moses mentioneth them not, because he treateth of the visible world and corporeal beings. Now, it is certain that, being created, they sinned man fell, for the devil, in and by the serpent, ‘seduced Eve,’ 2 Cor. xi. 3; therefore probably they fell a little after their creation; not in the very instant, that it might appear they were not naturally evil. It is probable that some time between their creation and defection, but a very little time, to show the mutability of the creature.

Use. Let me now apply what hath been spoken, and press you to consider it in your thoughts, and to consider it with observation and application to yourselves.

1. Consider it with observation, and there is scarce a matter that can be more profitably amplified in your thoughts; we have the most impartial view of things in another person. Oh! think of this dreadful instance, the fall of the angels. (1.) Observe that such excellent creatures fell. Angels themselves were created excellent but mutable. Certainly we that ‘dwell in houses of clay, and whose foundation is in the dust,’ Job iv. 19, had need to be more cautious; if they be mutable, we are weaker and more mutable. To see such glorious stars leave their station, and fall from heaven like lightning, it should make us poor creatures tremble and look to our own standing, ‘lest we also fall,’ 1 Cor. x. 12. Self-confidence is the next way to ruin. God only cannot sin, because his act is his rule. There may be great height, strong abilities, rare accomplishments of nature and grace, and yet you see these cannot exempt us from shameful falls without the divine concurrence. The angels were the courtiers of heaven, the glory of the creation, in the first rank of the created beings, and yet they fell. Who can presume to stand when angels fall? (2.) They fell soon, a little after their creation. There is no created excellency but, if left to itself, will quickly undo itself; how soon do creature perfections fade! Surely there is no stability but in Christ. As the angels, so Adam fell a little after his creation: Ps. xlix. 12, ‘Adam, being in honour, abideth not;’ in the original, ‘abideth not for a night;’ and if it be applied to the first Adam, it implieth that he left the honour of his innocency the first day; in the morning innocent, and at night a sinner. Our new state in this regard is better than innocency, and the grace of exceedeth that of creation. The Lord would still keep the creature depending; our estate in Christ only is sure, because there our strength lieth in another. Let us then ‘work out our salvation with fear and trembling.’ If angels fell, and Adam fell, when they had no such mixed nature and divided principles as we have, what will become of us? Neither man nor angel can be kept without a surety; and unless Christ be continually present with his own gifts, there is no standing. (3.) They fell dreadfully, and from angels became devils, exercising theft, lying, envy, murder towards men. The best things corrupted become worst; as no vinegar so tart as that which is made of the sweetest wine. When men sin against light and grace they become cruel: ‘The revolters are profound to make slaughter,’ saith the prophet, Hosea v. 2. After profession the fall is most desperate: ‘Their latter end is worse than their beginning,’ 2 Peter ii. 20. What a malice have these evil angels now against God and man! they go about seeking whom they may devour. None so bad as apostates. (4.) Their fall made way for ours. By this means there came to be a tempter in the world. The fall of angels occasioned the fall of man, and the fall of man the coming of Christ. Do but go home with reverence, and observe how, by the bare permission of God, the divine decrees were accomplished, and wonder at the purity of that unspotted that is conversant about sin and evil, but not conscious to it. The angels led the way, and man followed, and so occasion was given for the discovery of ‘the manifold wisdom of God’ to men and angels, Eph. iii. 10. (5.) So many fell as were not elected by God. There was and reprobation among the angels. Among the most glorious creatures God would show the liberty of his counsels; not only amongst men, the lower sort of rational creatures, but among angels. Therefore the apostle speaketh of ‘elect angels,’ 1 Tim. v. 21. Why should clay murmur when gold is refused? If some of the angels were appointed to be ‘vessels of dishonour,’ ‘who art thou that repliest upon God,’ ἀνταποκρινόμενος? Rom. ix. 20, that will be disputing the sovereignty of God, and ask the reason why he giveth grace to some and not to others? Wonder at it till thou canst understand it. Disputare vis mecum? mirare mecum, et clama, O altitudo! God’s decrees are hard meat, not easily digested by reason. A proud creature cannot endure to hear of God’s sovereignty; it awakeneth our security to hear of a distinction in the counsels of God, and that grace runneth in a narrower channel than whole mankind. Do but consider; amongst the angels some are passed by and others confirmed. And who art thou, O man, that repliest? (6.) In the election of angels, pardoning mercy is not so much glorified as in the election and calling of men; then was grace shown but not mercy; none of the fallen angels were saved, but fallen man is called to grace in Christ. We were all ‘in our blood’ when God said ‘live;’ the whole lump and mass of mankind was fallen. Probably, next to the free counsels of God, that was the reason the whole human nature fell; but not the whole angelical nature, but only a part of it, so that the kind itself needed not to be repaired. Their sins argued more malice because of the height of their understanding; they sinned without a tempter. But the reason of reasons is, the will and gracious good pleasure of God, who was willing to show pardoning mercy to us, and not to them; the good angels had confirmation, but we ; we are , they continued: love after a breach made is more remarkable. (7.) From the sin in general by which they fell. It was by pride. See the danger of this sin; it always goeth before falling. The angels lost their holiness out of a desire of greatness; they would be over all and under none; it is dangerous when men mind rather to be great than good. In scripture we have two notable instances of the fall by pride, and our restoration by humility. The angels fell by pride and aspiring, and Christ restored mankind by being humble, lowly, and submitting himself even to the death of the cross. Adam would be as God, and so ruined us; and Christ, that was God, became as man, and so saved us. To counter work Satan, he layeth aside the glory of his Godhead; he layeth aside the glory of his Godhead and puts on a humble garb, saving us not by power, but by suffering. Well, then, look upon pride as the sure fore runner of a fall. (8.) Observe, the particular fact is uncertain, though the general sin may be known; as how this pride was discovered, whether in a thought, or by some bold attempt, is not known; it doth not so much pertain to edification and salvation to know their sin, as to know our own. The scriptures direct us to look inward; it is more for our profit to keep out Satan’s power than to know the circumstances of his fall; let us not fall with him. Peter would know John’s end, but Christ rebuketh him, ‘What is that to thee? follow thou me,’ John xxi. 20-22. We betray our duties by our curiosity; surely we should be more at home, and look to our beam, that we may not ascite others before the chair of censure, but ourselves before the tribunal of conscience. (9.) Observe, that the first sin that ever was, was a punishment to itself: ‘They kept not their first estate.’ The sin is expressed in such a phrase as doth imply their loss. Duty hath its reward in its mouth, as the sacks of the patriarchs their moneys; so sin its punishment. Never think that you shall get anything by offending God; you do but defile, and debase, and degrade yourselves from your own excellency when you sin. It is hell enough to turn away from God, and misery enough to pollute and stain his image in our souls. The fall of the angels is described to be a departure from their own happiness.

2. Consider it with application to yourselves. First, apply it for humiliation. We left τὴν ἀρχὴν, ‘our first estate,’ as well as the angels: ‘God made man upright, but they sought out many inventions,’ Eccles. vii. 29. Read your own guilt and apostasy in the sin of the angels; usually the page is whipped to show the prince’s fault, but here the princes and noblest part of the world are set out to us for examples, that in their ruin and dreadful fall we might understand our own. Do but observe the parable; they had ἀρχὴν, an original estate of happiness and holiness, and so we; they fell soon, so we; they fell by pride, so we: the angelical fall is our glass; we are a kind of devils, and apostates from God. They were driven out of heaven, so we out of paradise; they are punished with darkness, and so we. Secondly, Apply it for caution; there is a new beginning in Christ. The apostle saith, Heb. iii. 14, ‘We are made partakers of Christ, if we hold τὴν ἀρχὴν, the beginning of our confidence steadfast unto the end.’ If we should break with God again upon this new stock, there will be no more sacrifice for sin. Faith, which is the gift of God’s grace, is the beginning and root of a new life in Christ. If we should forfeit this, we cannot expect God will deal with us any more.

We are now come to the phrases that imply their punishment, and that we made to be twofold—present and future. The first part of the present punishment is poena damni, their loss, implied in that clause, leaving their own habitation, in which their guilt is further intimated; for the apostle here maketh it to be their act, but Peter in the parallel place maketh it God’s act: 2 Peter ii. 4, ‘God spared not his angels that sinned, but cast them down to hell.’ Without further diversion we may take up the point thus:—

Obs. That the apostate angels, upon their sin and fall, departed from that place of happiness and glory which before they enjoyed. So Rev. xii. 8, ‘Their place was found no more in heaven, and the great dragon was cast out, that old serpent, called the devil and Satan, which deceiveth the whole world: he was cast out into the earth, and his angels were cast out with him.’ That scripture, I confess, is mystical, and speaketh of the overcoming of Satan in this present world, and casting him out of the church, which is there expressed by heaven, as the world by earth. For I observe in that book the church is some times expressed by terms suitable to the Judaical state. So in Rev. xi. 2, the church is called the temple, and the world the court; and sometimes by the celestial state, and so the church is called heaven, and the world earth. But, however, there is a plain allusion to Satan’s first fall from heaven as the ground of these expressions, and therefore I may use that place as a proof in this matter. That you may understand the loss of the angels, give me leave to lay down these propositions:—(1.) The place of their innocency was heaven, round about the throne of God, where the good angels do ‘continually behold his face,’ and ‘stand before him,’ Dan. vii. 10. In such a blessed place and in such blessed company was their οἰκητήριον, their abode or habitation. When God disposed the several creatures into proper mansions and places of abode, he took the angels into his own train and glorious attendants, that they might still be with him; other creatures were his servants, these his courtiers, that is, his household and ordinary servants, that were to attend as in his chamber of presence. (2.) In this place they were to enjoy God and glorify God; their happiness was to enjoy God, their duty to glorify him; there they behold his face, Mat. xviii. 10, for vision and sight of God is the happiness of rational creatures, and therefore our happy estate is expressed by ‘beholding him face to face,’ 1 Cor. xiii. 14, and David saith, Ps. xvi. 11, ‘In thy presence,’ or ‘in thy face is fulness of joy.’ In heaven, then, did God manifest himself to them; there they were to applaud his counsels, receive his commands, to love God with the most perfect embraces of their will, and to ‘fulfil his commandments, hearkening to the voice of his word,’ (3.) From this place they are now driven into ‘the lower parts of the world,’ as being a place more fit for sin and misery. That the place into which they are driven is the bottom and centre of the earth cannot be shown out of scripture; rather the contrary, for sometimes they are said to fly up and down in the air, and therefore is Satan called ‘the prince of the power of the air,’ Eph. ii. 3, and the other devils, ‘principalities and spiritual wickednesses in high places,’ Eph. vi. 12. They aspire to get as high as they can, but they can get no further than the regions of the air; and sometimes they are said to ‘compass the earth to and fro,’ Job i. 7. The earth is Satan’s walk and circuit, where he seeks to do mischief, and sometimes they are in the sea, Mat. viii. 32, for as yet they are not in that prison and place of torments where they shall abide for ever under the wrath of the Lord. Therefore when Christ checketh their power in the world, they expostulate with him, ‘Jesus, thou Son of God, art thou come to torment us before our time?’ Mat. viii. 29, ‘and him that he would not cast them into the great deep;’ by which some understand the final place of their residence and torments, even the lowest place of the world, most remote from the highest heavens, which place as yet they have not entered. But how is it said that they are already ‘cast down into hell,’ 2 Peter ii. 4, ταρταρῶσας? I answer—That expression doth only note the dreadfulness of their fall, from so glorious a mansion to such a place of misery; and because wherever they are, they carry their own hell with them, though by God’s permission they are as yet suffered to remain in the air or earth. (4 ) Departing from heaven, they departed from all the happiness and glory which they enjoyed there, namely, that light which they had in their understandings to behold God, that power in their wills to love and serve him; instead of which they are filled with darkness and malice, and become the irreconcileable enemies of God and man. As to their light, their gracious knowledge is quite extinct, their natural knowledge much eclipsed, and their experimental knowledge not enough to engage their hearts to God. As to their integrity and holiness, instead of a will to love and serve God, there are nothing but obstinate purposes to do evil, and endeavours to hinder the glory of God and the good of man, 1 Peter v. 8, lest we should enjoy that happiness which he hath left. Hence those titles given them in scripture, as devil, Rev. xii. 9, which signifieth a slanderer; Satan, which signifieth an enemy; the tempter, Mat. iv. 1, because he daily soliciteth us to evil; ὁ πόνηρος, the evil one, Mat. v., being full of wickedness himself, he maketh it his study and care to propagate it in others; Belial, 2 Cor. vi. 15, unprofitable, as good for nothing; ἀπολλύων the destroyer, because he worketh mischief; the old serpent, Rev. xii. 6, because under the shape of the serpent he poisoned Eve. As to their power, it is much broken and limited; they are held in the chains of providence; they could not do hurt to the herd of swine without permission, Luke viii. 26. (5.) Though they have lost much of the glory and power annexed to their habitation, yet many tokens of the divine image do as yet remain in them. Holiness is, as we said, utterly lost—‘he sinneth from the beginning,’ 1 John iii. 8, that is, doth nothing else but sin; and Aquinas saith well, Hoc est angelis casus, quod hominibus mors—their fall into sin to them is as death to us; but now in other things they have much left; as man after his fall is like a drifted picture, and had only enough left to show what he once was, so the angels, though they are much fallen from the excellency of their nature, yet there is enough left to show that once they were glorious creatures. That which remaineth may be referred to two heads—their great cunning and active power. (1.) Their knowledge and cunning is great; they have much natural and experimental knowledge, so as they can discern hidden causes and virtues which escape the flight of man’s reason and understanding; they know how to apply active to passive things, can guess notably at future events; but as for a certain knowledge of them, unless of such things as depend upon necessary causes, that is proper to God, and accordingly he challengeth it: Isa. xii. 23, ‘Show the things that are to come, that we may know that ye are gods,’ &c. Therefore the devil’s oracles were either false or doubtful, as 1 Kings xxii. 16. Great skill in arts and tongues they have, as appeareth by their teaching those things with wonderful facility to those that have familiarity with them. In divine things they know enough of God and his justice to feel a horror impressed upon themselves, James ii. 19; Luke iv. 34; Acts xix. 15. Besides they are of wonderful sagacity to judge of men’s hearts by the gestures, the motion of the blood and spirits, and other such external signs, for directly they do not know the thoughts; that is the privilege of God. (2.) Their power is great still, though limited, so that it cannot be exercised but when and where and as God will. They are able to raise tempests, to bring fire from heaven, as they did to ruin Job’s house and children, Job i.; they can deceive with lying miracles, but true miracles can only be wrought by a divine power. Being of much sagacity and skill in the secrets of nature, they may poison the air, destroy the bodies of men, infest and trouble beasts and cattle; in short, do all that lieth within the compass of a natural cause where God permitteth. Again, they may possess the bodies of men, hinder the godly in the execution of their duty; overrule the spirits of wicked men, and act and stir them up to wrath, lust, filthiness, Eph. ii. 3, besot them with error, &c.: it would require a distinct discourse to open this power to you. They cannot create new beings, nor raise dead bodies, nor compel the will of man; they can do mira, but not miracula, &c. Let me now come to observe somewhat of practical concernment from what hath been spoken.