Of the confirmation of the elect
angels,
and the fall of the non-elect
John Gill
Having considered at large the
doctrines of creation and providence; I proceed to observe the first and
principal events of providence relating to angels and men; and shall
begin with the angels, the first of rational creatures that were created, and
in whom the providence of God first took place; and whereas there was a distinction
made between them, of elect and non-elect, as has been shown in a preceding
chapter. I shall take notice,
1. Of the
confirmation of the elect angels; for as God chose them to a state of holiness
and happiness; as soon as he created them, he confirmed them in that state; the
providence of God was not only concerned in the preservation and sustentation
of them in their being when created, #Col 1:16,17 but in the government of
them, which are the two parts and branches of providence. Now the government of
rational creatures is in a moral way, by giving a law to
them, as the rule of their obedience; and such a law was given to angels, not
of a positive nature, similar to what was given to Adam, forbidding him on pain
of death, to eat of the fruit of a certain tree, as a trial of his obedience to
the whole will of God; since we read of no such law, or like it, given to
angels; nor a law in the form of a covenant, as to men, since
the angels do not appear to have had any federal head, they standing singly and
alone, and each for themselves; nor do we ever read of good angels keeping
covenant; nor of the evil angels being charged with the breach of covenant; but
it was a law implanted in their nature, concreated with them in like manner, as
the law of nature was inscribed on Adam's heart, some remains of which are to
be observed in his fallen posterity, and even among the
Gentiles, #Ro 2:14,15 which is the same in substance with the moral law
written; and with which angels are concerned, so far as the precepts of it are
suitable to spiritual substances; for such of them, and so much of them, as
relate to the body, and to corporeal actions, cannot agree with angels, who are
incorporeal; as the fifth, sixth, seventh, and eighth commands:
but such as relate to the fear and worship of God in a spiritual manner; to
love to God, and love to fellow creatures; these are binding on angels, and are
perfectly obeyed by the good angels; and in this their perfect obedience and
holiness, are they immutably confirmed, from the moment of their creation; for
this their confirmation is not owing to any merits of theirs, through the good
use of the freedom of their wills: some have fancied that
they were first in a state of probation, and having stood some time in their
obedience, through the power of their free will, merited confirmation in that
state from God, but a creature, even of the highest rank, can merit nothing at
the hand of God; for "Who hath first given to him, and it shall be
recompensed to him again?" #Ro 11:35. The obedience of angels was due to God, and could merit nothing of him; nor was their confirmation
owing to the merits of Christ. Christ is a Mediator between God and men; but
not between God and angels; for though he may be allowed to be a medium of
conservation of angels; yet not a Mediator of peace and reconciliation, which
they needed not; he is not a Saviour and Redeemer of them; he merited nothing
for them by his incarnation, sufferings, and death; these
were not on their account; hence the angels say, "Unto you is born this
day (not unto us) a Saviour, which is Christ the Lord", #Lu 2:11 Heb
2:14,16,17. But their confirmation is owing to the free favour and good will of
God, choosing them to a state of holiness and happiness; and to his putting
them under the care and charge of Christ, as the Head of all principality and
power, #1Ti 5:21 Col 2:10.
Now in this state of constant
obedience and perfect holiness, they are immutably fixed by the will of God,
and have from their creation continued in it, and ever will; as appears by
their enjoyment of the presence of God perpetually; they always behold
the face of God in heaven; they never left their habitation, but have always
resided in heaven, where they were first placed; hence called the "angels
of heaven", #Mt 18:10 24:36 and by their constant and perfect obedience to
the will of God, and which is made the pattern of obedience to it in men; or we
are directed to pray that it might be like it; "Thy will be done in earth,
as it is in heaven"; that is, by the angels there, #Mt
6:10 and by the consummate happiness of the saints at the resurrection being
like to theirs; which supposes them to have continued in their original state,
and that the saints will be like unto them, not only in the immortality of their
bodies, but in perfect holiness and impeccability, as perfectly holy as they,
and no more subject to sin than they are, #Lu 20:36 and by what is said of them
with relation to the second coming of Christ, and their
estate to all eternity; as that he shall descend from heaven with his mighty
angels; shall come, not only in his own, and in his Father's glory, but in the
glory of the holy angels; that he will employ them in gathering in the elect
from the four parts of the world; that he will then confess the names of his
faithful followers before them; and that the wicked will be
tormented with fire and brimstone in their presence; the smoke of whose torment
shall ascend for ever and ever; and consequently the holy angels will be free
from that torment, and be happy for ever and ever; see #2Th 1:7 Lu 9:26 Mt
24:31 Re 3:5 14:10, 11.
2. The next
remarkable event respecting angels, is the sin and fall of the non-elect
angels. The heathens seem to have had some notion of the fall of the evil
angels; for Plutarch speaks {1} of demons or devils, as yehlatoi and
ouranopeteiv, expelled by the gods, and fallen from heaven. The providence of
God was equally concerned in the sustentation and conservation of them in their
beings, as of the elect angels; and in which they are and
will be everlastingly preserved. The same law also for the government of them,
and as a rule of obedience, was given to them; or otherwise they could not be
chargeable with sin, as they are; they are called the angels that sinned. Now
sin is a transgression of the law; where there is no law there is no
transgression, #2Pe 2:4 1Jo 3:4 Ro 4:15. These angels, in their original estate
of creation, were in a capacity of obeying the law that was
given them; their will was inclined to it; and the bias of their mind was
towards it; for they were created holy, just, and good; the estate they are now
in, is not that in which they were made; it is expressly said of them, that
they "kept not their first estate", and "abode not in the truth",
#Jude 1:6 Joh 8:44 which supposes a better estate than what they are now in, and that they were originally in an estate of truth; that
is, of integrity, righteousness, and holiness, though they did not abide in it,
but fell from it; for being left to the freedom of their will, which was
mutable, and is that folly and weakness which angels in their original state
were chargeable with by God, and in comparison of him; they sinned and fell, to
which fall of theirs our Lord has respect, when he says,
"I beheld Satan, as lightning fall from heaven", #Lu 10:18 that is,
suddenly, swiftly, and irresistibly, and which proves the existence of Christ
before his incarnation; as that not only he was before Abraham, but before
Adam; however, before the fall of Adam, for he was before the fall of the
angels, he was present at it, and a witness of it. Now concerning this, the
following things may be inquired into.
2a. First, What was the sin of
the angels, by which they fell? this cannot be said with precision, the
scriptures being silent about it; yet it is generally supposed, and it is
probable from the scriptures, that their sin was,
2a1. Pride;
and which seems probable from #1Ti 3:6. Not a novice,
lest being
lifted up with pride, he fall into the
condemnation
of the devil; being guilty of the same sin, he
is in danger
of the same condemnation; and usually so it is,
as
the wise man observes, that "pride goes before
destruction;
and an haughty spirit before a fall",
#Pr 16:18.
And so it might before the fall of the angels,
and be the
cause of it. They might first begin with
contemplating
their own perfections and excellencies, which were
very
great; as their wisdom, knowledge, strength, &c. which
might lead on
to self-admiration, and issue in an over-weening
opinion of themselves,
so as to think more highly of
themselves
than they ought to have done; and to conclude,
that
creatures of such an high rank and class, as they were,
ought
not to be subject to a law, and therefore cast off the
yoke of the
law, and departed from their allegiance and
obedience to
God; hence one of the names of Satan is Belial,
"without
a yoke"; and the children of the devil are called
sons of
Belial; not being subject to the law of God,
#2Co
6:15 2Sa 23:6 upon which they seem to have affected
deity; and
having revolted from God, set up for gods themselves;
and this may
be thought to be confirmed from the manner in which
they tempted
our first parents to rebel against God; to do
which they
might hope to prevail with them, as it was the
snare
in which they themselves were taken; "Ye shall be as
Gods, knowing
good and evil", #Ge 3:5 as also by all the
methods they
have since taken to get themselves worshipped
as gods.
Satan has usurped to himself the title of the god
of this
world; and very early did he introduce into the
world
the worship of idols, and the offering of sacrifice to
them; which
to do is no other than to sacrifice to devils,
#2Co 4:4 1Co
10:20 yea, he has prevailed upon the poor
Indians, both
Eastern and Western, to worship him openly as
a devil; and
nothing can be a greater instance of his pride,
arrogance,
and impudence, than the proposal he made to
Christ, to
give him all the kingdoms of this world, if he
would but
fall down and worship him, #Mt 4:9.
2a2. Some
have thought that envy was the sin of the devils, by
which
they fell; led thereunto by a saying in the Apocryphal
book of
Wisdom,
``Nevertheless through envy of
the devil came death into the world: and they that do hold of his side do find
it.''(Wisdom 2:24)
and, indeed,
envy and pride are inseparable; a proud man is
always
envious at others; he cannot bear that any should be
above him, or
even equal to him: the apostle joins these
sins
together, #Jas 4:5,6 the angels might envy the
superior
power and excellencies of God himself, and
therefore
withdrew from him, as not bearing his superiority
over them,
envying that he should be above them, and higher
than they; if
there was any superior rank and class of
angels above
these, since some are called dominions,
thrones,
principalities, and powers, they might be the
object of
their envy, and be displeased that they were not
of the same,
or of a superior class; however, it seems
highly
probable, that they envied the state and happiness
man {2}, and
therefore contrived his fall and ruin; as that
he
should be made after the image and likeness of God, which
is never said
of them, however like to God angels may be;
and that man
should be the lord of the whole world, and all
the creatures
put in subjection to him; which they might
think more
properly belonged to them. And especially they
might
be envious at the Son of God, who they might
understand,
would in time assume human nature; though the
end and
design of it they might not know; and that in that
nature he
should sit at the right hand of God, which they
were not
admitted to; and that he should in that nature be
the
Head of all principality and power; and that angels,
authorities,
and powers, should be subject to him in it. Now
this they
could not brook and bear, that the human nature
should be
advanced above that of theirs; and therefore broke
away from God
in envy, wrath, and malice; and hence there
has
been from the beginning, a continued enmity and
opposition by
the devil, to Christ, the seed of the woman,
that should
bruise the head of the serpent; hence Satan
always sought
to oppose Christ in his person and offices,
and to lead
men into errors and mistakes about them; denying
him
in one or other of his natures, and depreciating him in
his offices;
and hence he set up antichrist, whose coming
was after the
working of Satan; and whose doctrines are
doctrines of
devils, and diametrically opposite to the glory
of Christ.
2a3. Unbelief
may also be taken into the account of the sin of
the angels;
they must disbelieve the eternal power of God,
and his truth
and faithfulness to his word, or they would
not have
dared to have sinned against him; and as the
apostasy
of our first parents began with that, and disregard
unto, and a
disbelief of the threatening word of God; it may
be reasonably
thought, that something of the same kind led
on to the
rebellion and fall of the angels; indeed, their
sin seems to
be a complication of iniquity, of pride, envy,
2b. Secondly,
There are several questions commonly asked, relative to the fall of angels; to
which a short answer may be returned; as,
2b1.
How and by what means they came to fall? they had no
tempter;
there were no creatures in being capable of
tempting them
to sin; not irrational creatures, who could
have no
influence on them; and if man was then created, as
it is a
question whether he was or not; and if he was, he had
no
disposition to anything of this kind; but, on the other
hand, his
fall was through the temptation of an evil angel;
there was
none but God to tempt them, and he tempts none,
neither angel
nor man, #Jas 1:13,14 and this indeed was the
case, as
before observed; the angels were left to their own
free
will, which was mutable, and so of themselves, and not
through any
temptation without them, sinned and fell; this
is always
spoken of as their own voluntary act and deed,
without any
force or persuasion used with them; they kept
not their
first estate, left their habitation, and abode not
in
the truth. It is very probable, that one of them, famous
above the
rest for his wisdom and strength, might begin the
apostasy; and
being in high esteem for his excellent
qualifications,
he gave the lead, and others followed his
example; hence
we read of the prince of devils, and of the
prince
of the power of the air, or of the posse of devils in
it, and of
the devil and his angels, #Mt 12:24 25:41
#Eph 2:2.
2b2. It is
sometimes asked, When the angels fell? to which it may
be
answered, Not before the sixth day of the creation: as it
is probable
they might be created on the first day, when the
heavens,
their habitation, was made, and light was formed;
so they
continued in their first estate, during the six days
of the creation;
for on the sixth day, when all the
creatures
were made, "God saw everything that he had made,
and behold it
was very good"; not only when made, but to
this time had
continued so. Now if the angels had sinned
before, this
could not have been said; and yet they must
have fallen
before Adam fell, because it was the serpent, or
the
devil in the serpent, either in a real one, or in the
form of one,
that beguiled Eve, and so was the cause and
means of the
fall of man. But however, certain it is, that
the fall of
the angels was very early; since the devil is
called,
"a murderer from the beginning", #Joh 8:44 a
destroyer
of mankind, either from the beginning of the
world, that
is, quickly after it was made; or from the
beginning of
his creation, not long after he began to be; or
from the
beginning of man's creation, who abode not long in his
happy state,
but soon fell from it, through the temptation of
2b3. This
question is sometimes put, What number of the angels
fell? This
cannot be said with any precision; some have
thought that
as many fell as stood; grounding it on a
passage
in #Eze 41:18 where it is said, that on the wall of
the temple
were carved, with cherubim and palm trees, a
palm tree
between a cherub and a cherub; by cherubim they
understand
angels, and by palm trees good men, said to
flourish like
the palm tree; and who are supposed to fill up
the
places of fallen angels; and so conclude the same number
fell as
stood; but as such a sense of the text cannot easily
be
established, it is insufficient to build such a notion
upon. Others
have thought, that not so many fell as stood;
since evil
angels are never said to be innumerable, as the
good
angels are, #Heb 12:22. And which they also gather from
the words of
Elisha to his servant; "Fear not; for they that
be with us,
are more than they that be with them"; and the
servant's
eyes were presently opened, and he saw the
"mountain
full of horses and chariots of fire round about";
that
is, angels in such forms, #2Ki 6:16,17 but then the
comparison is
not between good and bad angels; but between
the good
angels and the Syrian host. Others fancy that a
third part of
the angels fell; this they take from #Re 12:4
where the
dragon is said to draw with his tail the third
part
of the stars of heaven; but by the stars are not meant
angels, but
such who bore the character of the ministers of
the word, who
in that book are called stars, #Re 1:20 whom
Satan,
through his influence, prevailed upon to drop their
character,
and desert their office. However, it is certain,
that
not a few of the angels, but many of them, fell; even
as many as to
form a kingdom, with a prince at the head of
it; and there
were so many that possessed one man, as to be
called a
legion, which consisted of some hundreds; for when
the devil in
him was asked his name, he answered, "My name
is
legion, for we are many"; yea, it seems there are various
kinds and
sorts of them; for when the disciples asked Christ
the reason why
they could not cast out a certain devil, our
Lord, among
other things, says, "this kind goeth not out but
by prayer and
fasting", #Mt 12:24,26 17:19-21 Mr 5:9.
2c. Thirdly, The state and
condition into which the angels were brought by sin, may next be considered.
They were originally angels of light; full of light, knowledge, and
understanding; but by sinning are become angels of darkness; and are called the
power of darkness, and the rulers of the darkness of this world, blind, and
blinding others, #Col 1:13 Eph 6:12 2Co 4:4 for whatever
light and knowledge of natural things they retain, and which may be increased
by long observation and experience; or whatever notional knowledge they have of
evangelic truth, they have no spiritual and experimental knowledge; not the
light of faith; nor rejoicing of hope; nor heat of love; no light of spiritual
joy and gladness; but all black despair. They were once pure
and holy creatures; but through their sin and fall, became impure and unholy;
and therefore called "unclean spirits"; who delight in the impurities
of sin; and take pleasure in drawing men into them, to the commission of them;
the devil is called emphatically and eminently, "the wicked one",
being notoriously and superlatively wicked; even wickedness itself, #Mt 10:1
13:38 #1Jo 3:12 5:18. Once they were lovers of God, and of
their fellow creatures; but now at enmity to God, and all that is good; and
spiteful and malicious to mankind. Satan is called emphatically the enemy, the
enemy of God and of Christ, and of all good men; desirous of doing all the harm
and mischief to them he can, or gets leave to do; the case of Job abundantly
proves this; whose substance, family, and health, by permission, he destroyed; and would have taken away his life, could he have
obtained leave: and as also the possessions of men by him, in the times of
Christ show; to the torment of their bodies, and the distraction of their
minds; and, indeed, he is always going about seeking whom he may devour, #1Pe
5:8. These fallen angels, who were once in a guiltless state, are now in the
most desperate circumstances; are in chains of darkness and
black despair, under irremissible guilt; no pardon for them, nor hope of it for
evermore; which leads on to observe,
2d. Fourthly, Their punishment;
and which is both of loss and sense; they have lost the favour and presence of
God, and they sensibly feel his wrath and indignation on them.
Sinning, they were hurled out of heaven, and deprived of their blissful state
they left; being forced to leave their habitation there; nor will their place
be any more found there; the apostle Peter says, they were "cast down to
hell", #2Pe 2:4 but where that is, it is not easy to say; very probably
upon their ejection out of heaven, they fell down into the air, since Satan is
said to be the "prince of the power of the air",
#Eph 2:2. Not that he has a power of moving the air, and of raising storms and
tempests; but he is the ruler of the posse of devils that dwell in the air {3};
from whence, by divine permission, they descend and patrol; and rove about the
earth, in chains, limited and restrained for the punishment of wicked men, and
for the trial of the graces of good men; but as yet they do not seem to have
their full punishment inflicted on them; or are not yet in
full torment; as may be learnt from their words to Christ; "Art thou come
hither to torment us before our time?" and are said to be "reserved
unto judgment, and unto the judgment of the great day"; when their full
sentence will be pronounced upon them, and be carried into execution, #Mt 8:29
2Pe 2:4 Jude 1:6 which they "believe and tremble" at, #Jas 2:19 and which punishment will be everlasting; there will be no end
of it, no deliverance from it; it is called everlasting fire, prepared for the
devil and his angels; the fire of divine wrath, which will never be quenched,
but always burn without intermission, to all eternity; and a "lake of fire
and brimstone", where the devil, with the beast and false prophet, will be
"tormented day and night for ever and ever", #Mt 25:41 #Re 20:10.
{1} De Vitando aere Al. p.
830.
{2} It is an ancient tradition
of the heathens, that the evil demons envied good men, Plutarch. in Dio, p.
958.
{3} It was
a notion of the Chaldeans, that the air is full of demons, Laert. Proem. ad
Vit. Philos. p. 5. and of Pythagoras, ibid. Vit. PhiIosoph. l. 8. in Vita ejus;
and of Plato, Apuleius de Deo Socratis; and of the Jews, so R. Joseph Ben
Gekatilia in Shaare ora, fol. 4. 1.