De Moor IX:26: The Punishment of the Angelic Fall, Part 1

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Our AUTHOR, discoursing concerning the Punishment of the Evil Angels, distinguishes that into, 1.  Punishment Begun, which they already bear, and, 2.  Punishment Consummated, which they will experience after the day of Final Judgment.

1.  With respect to Punishment Begun;

            α.  They, having been excluded from the Place of Blessedness, are cast down into an Infernal Prison, Cast Down from Heaven to Tartarus, 2 Peter 2:4;[1] Jude 6; in which passages there is truly a treatment concerning infernal Angels, as we evinced in § 23, where on the one hand they are found as ἀπολιπόντες τὸ ἴδιον οἰκητήριον, those leaving their own habitation; on the other hand God is said ταρταρῶσαι/ tartarosai, that they might be reserved unto Judgment, that is, to have cast them down to Tartarus, from τάρταρος/Tartarus, which is the Place of the Infernal, perhaps so called from ταράσσειν/tarassein, to agitate, to strike down, because it is a place filled with terror, perturbation, and anguish.  Hence also ἡ ἄβυσσος, the abyss/deep, occurs as the place of their ordinary habitation, Luke 8:31; Revelation 9:11.

It is no hindrance, a.  On the one hand,

                                           a.  That even now the Devil appears sometimes to be present in Heaven, Job 1:6, etc.; 2:1, etc.; 1 Kings 22:19-22.  For in those passages God is described as the King and Judge of the whole earth in expressions that are taken from human tribunals; or according to that which obtains among human Kings, before whom Ministers, abiding in his court, approach daily, to report what they have done in the King’s name, and to receive new orders; and thus parabolically is represented to us as clearly as possible through this Appearance of the Devil before God the total Subjection of the Devil under the powerful control of God, and his Dependence upon God’s provident government:  see our AUTHOR’S Exercitationes Textuales XVI, Part IV, § 3, 19.

                                           b.  That after the revelation of Christ, indeed, consummated in sufferings, the Devils appear finally to have been expelled from Heaven, Luke 10:18; Revelation 12:7-9, in which passages emblematically is set before our eyes the Diminishment of Diabolical Power and Dignity by Christ, and the weakness of his Accusation:  see our AUTHOR’S Commentarium in Apocalypsin.

                             b.  On the other hand, that they are also set before us as operating in the Lower Heaven, Ephesians 6:12, and on our Earth quite frequently:  which sort of operations one may not with Bekker deny on this pretext, that the Devil was soon after the Fall cast down into Tartarus, and is there detained as a captive.  For,

                                           a.  Apart from the fact that the passages in Peter and Jude, treating of the Infernal Prison of the Devils, we saw above to have been twisted by Bekker unto an alien sense; the Apostles do not affirm in those places, that the Devils are always detained in that Prison, in such a way that they never go out from there:  for, that they are said to be reserved in everlasting chains under darkness, or chains of darkness, unto the Judgment, only signifies that for them altogether inescapable is the Judgment of Consummate Punishment to be inflicted upon them, unto which they are kept by the mighty hand of God the Judge in a most miserable state.  Since,

                                           b.  The sacred page elsewhere often sets them forth as operating in the lower World, that is, as sent forth from Prison temporarily by the most wise dispensation of the same Judge for this; for the exercise of the pious, and the vexation and punishment of the impious, to aggravate the just punishment of the Devil himself, for which reason he perpetrates more and greater crimes in this world and against mankind, by tempting the pious, and seducing the impious, with God so allowing; and at the same time to augment the praise of the mercy of divine Grace, freeing the elect sinner in Christ from that miserable servitude to Satan, under which He allows reprobates to be detained; and also the praise of His Power and Faithfulness in the certain keeping and preservation of those called according to the purpose of Election,[2] so that the gates of Hell might not ever prevail against them,[3] no matter how powerful the danger of seduction might be.

              β.  They have been Deprived of the Divine Image, which nevertheless is again to be understood with various restrictions.

Namely, Negatively they have not been Deprived of the Divine Image,

                             a.  With respect to Spiritual Essence, which has endured.

                             b.  Not with respect to all Knowledge, since profound Knowledge of God and creatures survives in them; hence were attributed to them πανουργία/subtilty, 2 Corinthians 11:3, and μεθοδείαι/wiles, Ephesians 6:11, and hence so many Predictions of Dæmons celebrated of old, all which one cannot deny either on account of the opposition of the sacred history, which makes mention of the prophecy of the apparition of Samuel, not the true Samuel, but impersonated, 1 Samuel 28:16-19:  see above, § 10; and ODÉ, Commentario de Angelis, section IV, chapter V, § 6, pages 622-624:  and also it makes mention of a certain damsel, prophesying many things, certainly by a spirit, not of God, but of gain, Acts 16:16; ODÉ, Commentario de Angelis, section IV, chapter V, § 6, page 625.  For, although many fabulous things are able to be narrated concerning the Predictions of Dæmons, confidence is not to be taken from all of them on that account; although the glory is to be left to God, because He knows all future contingencies without exception, of Himself, eternally, most certainly and infallibly:  this does not hinder, that certain future contingencies, yet hidden from men, are also able to be known sometimes by Devils, whether certainly, or even only conjecturally, whence the obscure and ambiguous responses.  As a foundation for this sort of Diabolical Prescience, greater than that of men, is indeed commended:

                                           a.  The Demons’ far greater Experience of all events, which, since Experience furnishes conjectures less frequently failing even to doctors, farmers, sailors, and astronomers, is believed to furnish the same to infernal Angels:  thus AUGUSTINE, libro de Divinatione Dæmonum, chapter III, tome 6, column 371, To Demons, by the long time in which their lives are extended, is also added a far greater Experience of affairs than is able to come to men because of the brevity of their lives.

                                           b.  Their most sagacious Intellect, whereby they are able to penetrate to the inner workings of secret shifts, hidden causes, and latent signs, conjoined with swiftness of Motion; whereby they have often been able to reveal things more hidden, and which in such a place were not yet able to be known by men, although already verily existing, as future:  as AUGUSTINE, libro de Divinatione Dæmonum, chapters III, V, tome 6, columns 371, 372, makes mention again of the briskness and swiftness of the motion of the senses of Demons, whereby they know and pronounce things that the slowness of earthly and dull sense marvel at.

                                           c.  They were able to foreknow some things from the divine Revelation accessible to them, what awaits evil men, as the history teaches, 1 Kings 22:20-22.  Neither is this absurd, since even to Pagan men, Balaam,[4] Pharaoh,[5] Nebuchadnezzar,[6] God revealed future things:  there is no absurdity in this, that the Judge would communicate with the hangman concerning certain punishments of the guilty to be inflicted by his hand; but in this manner God often makes use of the Devil in the inflicting of evils:  AUGUSTINE, libro de Divinatione Dæmonum, chapter V, It is to be known, that those generally foretell those things that they themselves are going to do:  for they often receive power both to send diseases, and to render a man sick by contaminating the very air, etc.

                                           d.  Also, some of the things that they would announce to the Gentiles they were able to have from the prophecies written in Sacred Scripture, where many things are found concerning the destinies of various kingdoms and peoples; certainly the argument of Scripture is not unknown to the Devil, as it is evident from Matthew 4:6.  And thus TERTULLIAN says that the Devil steals Divination, Apologia, chapter XXII, The dispositions of God, both at that time from the preaching of the Prophets they received, and now from the resoundings/ echoes they gather.  So also do they, hence taking certain prophecies of the times, imitate Divinity, while they steal Divination.  Compare what things have already been observed in § 8.

                             c.  Not even with respect to any External Good, or External Appearance of Good, which they are able to feign.  Yet it is only the bare Appearance of God, while under that External Appearance of God Demons often hide their worst ends; as Paul on a number of occasions signifies the matter to stand with the false Apostles, whom he in this regard compares as Angels or ministers of the Devil with their prince, 2 Corinthians 11:13-15.  With the external confession of Christ as the Son of God, which they on a number of occasions bore in Demoniacs, they join sufficiently clear indications of their hatred and envy toward Jesus, although by His power, which they well knew, they were driven to the external veneration of Him, Matthew 8:29, 31.

                             d.  Finally, not with respect to Power, which is yet great in them.  This is evident:

                                           a.  From the spiritual Fascination of their Minds against the power of the Word, Conscience, Blessings of God, and illuminating Grace:  See Ephesians 2:2; 6:11, 12, 16; 2 Corinthians 4:4; 2 Timothy 2:26; 1 Peter 5:8; Revelation 12:4; 20:3, 7, 8; Matthew 6:13.  Add the example of Eve, seduced by him, Genesis 3; of David, 1 Chronicles 21:1, in which passage it is by no means invincibly evident that the Devil, the prince of Evil Angels, is to be understood, see VRIEMOET’S Adnotationes ad Dicta classica Veteris Testamenti, tome 3, chapter XIV, pages 78, 79; of Judas, John 13:2, 27; of Ananias, Acts 5:3, consult VOETIUS’ Disputationum theologicarum, part I, pages 960-966.

Neither ought Bekker to say, that thus men to excuse themselves too readily from sin, and to transfer all blame to the Devil, when spiritual power of this sort over men is granted to Satan.

I Respond, 1.  Manifest truth is not to be denied on account of abuse of this sort:  we are unwilling to deny divine Providence, as it is asserted from Scripture by the Reformed Church, because Adversaries falsely charge that it follows from our doctrine, that God is the author of sin.  2.  Neither does it free us from fault, that we allow ourselves to be seduced by the Devil.  DYKE[7] observes, in The Mystery of Self-Deceiving, chapter XIII, pages 138, 139, that the Devil has no power over us, except by the help of our own corruption:  he would labor long, but in vain, to strike sparks to kindle a fire, unless we ourselves were carrying and supplying tinder in our own bosom, James 1:14.  The Devil only tempts and entices us, sets the table, as it were, but does not compel us, and so he is able to act only by moral suasion, but not by coactive power.  Similarly you read in VOGELSANG, Exercitationibus theologicis XXIII, § 39, page 690, Unless a man be charmed with suggestions, the efforts of the Tempter were in vain.  The concupiscence of man is indeed kindled and incited by the fan of Satan:  but only to the extent that it eagerly receives agitation of the fan.  Moreover, it is a furnace, and have abundant fire within, and a vast amount of fuel for the flames, as it were.  No one is seduced, unless he be willing.  And all attempts of the most malignant spirits had been useless and in vain, unless we had betrayed ourselves, and had unsealed the ark of our soul, as it were, to these most dangerous brigands.  3.  Nor are Theologians wont to ascribe all sins equally to Satan; but here they observe a certain distinction, concerning which BURMAN, Synopsi Theologiæ, book I, chapter XLVI, § 55, thus discourses, Yet not all the sins of men come to be ascribed to the Devil as author.  For the man is sufficient unto himself for the perpetration of those.  But we are then particularly tempted by an evil Spirit, when we are powerfully urged by a sudden and vehement impulse, and we feel ourselves to be carried to sins sometimes beyond what is normal, and to be urged into the abyss, as it were:  especially when we are incited and drawn away to certain foul and nefarious deed, which we are otherwise wont to abhor.

                                           b.  From their Physical Works, Marvelous and excelling human strength, yet not true miracles; which marvels they sometimes work through Magicians, Exodus 7:22; 8:7, 18, 19, on which passages are also able to be consulted Chapter XX, § 2, and ODÉ, Commentario de Angelis, section IV, chapter V, § 6, pages 619-621, who asserts that among the Devils’ marvelous works of this sort are also to be reckoned, and by no means excluded, Specters, Commentario de Angelis, section II, chapter III, § 7, number III A, pages 253-256, and section IV, chapter V, § 8, 9, pages 630-636:  compare also the things just now observed in § 3; and HEIDEGGER’S Corpus Theologiæ Christianæ, locus VIII, § 77, 78, page 297.  Likewise from the Bodily Evils inflicted upon men by the Devil, with God permitting, Job 1:12-19; 2:7, which history of Job in various ways, that in his possessions, family, and person he was truly afflicted and vexed by Satan, an infernal Angel, or the prince of them, our AUTHOR skillfully vindicates from the wrestings of Bekker, Exercitationibus Textualibus XVI, Part IV:  2 Corinthians 12:7, on which passage see our AUTHOR’S Exercitationes Textuales XLII, Part III, and my Sermon printed in Dutch.  Especially from the Gospel history of the Demoniacs, of which I have already made mention above, which wretches the holy Writers most clearly teach to have been vexed, not by some natural and normal distemper of melancholy, epilepsy, madness, etc.; 1.  when they join Demoniacs with other infirm people, yet in such a way that they make sufficient clear that the evil that vexes them is distinguished from all natural disease and sickness and denotes a more grievous sort of evil, by the cure of which also the glory of the Lord Jesus is able to be illustrated in a singular manner.  2.  The evil, wherewith these wretches were vexed, the Evangelists everywhere call Devils by their proper names, δαίμονα/demon, δαιμόνιον/demon, πνεῦμα πονηρὸν καὶ ἀκάθαρτον, a spirit evil and unclean; indeed, they attribute to one man πολλὰ δαιμόνια, many devils:[8]  but what then are those many diseases infesting one man at the same time, all which at the same time are properly called δαιμόνια/devils?  3.  They distinguish these Devils, as true Spirits subsisting of themselves, from the Demoniacs; then they say that the former enter into the man, depart from him, and pass from the man into the swine, etc.  4.  These Spirits, to be restrained by no man, next, when they observe Jesus approaching from far off, let go of all fury, and show that they recognize Him, and reveal that they are not ignorant of His divine nature and mediatorial office:  and so these furious men, already from the beginning of the ministry of Christ, and immediately after His coming into a strange land not previously visited by Him, were more thoroughly instructed concerning the Lord Jesus, than by all His sermons and miracles He prevailed to render the greater part of the Jewish people, even the great and the wise among them; and knew that, which the Lord was affirming to be evident to His own disciples only from the revelation of the Father.[9]  5.  Moreover, the Lord Jesus everywhere carries Himself toward the Demoniacs, as one persuaded that these were truly possessed and vexed by evil Angels.  And it ought only to be held as impudent blasphemy, to feign that the Lord Jesus after the likeness of a human physician merely accommodated Himself to the false and melancholic ideas of these men, so that He might all the more easily free them from the evil wherewith they were vexed.  Thus perishes the glory of the divine Power of Christ, whereby He is celebrated as more powerful than that strong man[10] and god of this world:[11]  thus perishes the glory of the divine Majesty, which would appear the humble subjection of Demons to Him:  thus falls His perfect Holiness and Veracity, neither is applicable to Him this elogium, that no deceit was in His mouth.[12]  And why would Christ have employed arts of this sort, to whom there was no want of Power to raise the dead with a word, much less to heal one raving:  or if you are willing to acknowledge the Power of the Lord in this healing, what purpose do arts and deceptions of this sort serve?  In any event, nothing further would have been necessary after the liberation of the man from his madness:  but the Gospel mentions, that the Demons, after they had gone out from the man having Legion, finally entered the swine; when without any advantage to the better healing of the madman the whole flock miserably perished.  6.  On the other hand, in the casting out of Demons there was an extraordinary external symbol, whereby the Lord was teaching that He had come to destroy the works of the Devil, 1 John 3:8; as in the healing of the deaf, the blind, the lame, and the mute there was a manifest prelude to the fulfillment of the promise, Isaiah 35:5, 6.  7.  It is not strange, if especially in the time of the walking about of the Lord Jesus on earth we find mention made of Demoniacs:  God was able to grant this power to the Devil especially at that time for the glory of His Son, John 9:3.  And the Devil, since he knew that in a short time his head was to be crushed, was also able to run riot furiously beyond measure, Revelation 12:12.  Thoroughly examine our AUTHOR’S Dissertationem de Dæmoniacis, which the whole Tractate should be called, Exercitationibus Textualibus XXIX, Part I:  add VOETIUS’ Disputationem de Operationibus Dæmonum, which is found in Disputationum theologicarum, part I, pages 933-984, and his Disputationem de Energumentis, which was reprinted in the same place, pages 1018-1059.

But Positively this Privation of the Divine Image consists, a.  in the Loss of the Beatific Vision of God, and of the Knowledge of God as favorably inclined to them, and of the Knowledge of divine mysteries with willing assent.  b.  In the Loss of all true Holiness, while, on the other hand, they hold the good and all good men, God and the pious, in hatred, and are ever opposed to them, Matthew 6:13; 2 Corinthians 4:4; 1 John 3:8.  c.  In the Loss of Joy from the blessed and perfect Vision of God resulting in Conformity in Holiness, and, on the other hand, a sense of gloomy Terror, James 2:19.  To which have regard emblematically the words of Peter, 2 Peter 2:4, σειραὶ ζόφου, chains of darkness; and of Jude, Jude 6, ζόφος/darkness, under which everlasting chains the Evil Angels are kept until the Judgment.  This darkness, according to WITSIUS, Commentario in Epistolam Judæ, Meletemata Leidensia, page 469, is a most wretched state, in which no [scintilla] of light, whether honest, of which they might make use in order to do good, or pleasant, which might furnish some consolation or hope of that, shines upon them.  While they are held in Chains of Darkness by none other than the hand of God provoked to wrath, who keeps them bound for Judgment, WITSIUS observes in that same place, their miserable necessity of doing evil, which also weighs upon them, in such a way that they are not able to surmount it; arising from their love of falsehood and injustice, from hatred of God and men, and from a cursed delight in crimes, 2 Timothy 2:26.  But to which he thinks is able to be added their inescapable horror of conscience, trembling at the rod of God and final judgment:  that is, just as it is in the case of a captive condemned to death, who has to be in dread, as often as he sees and feels his chains, which render the judgment to which he has been condemned inescapable.

              γ.  That this Punishment received an Augment under the New Testament, with the power of the Devil broken, a.  through the actual Redemption of Christ, Hebrews 2:14; Colossians 2:15, where only ineptly are understood Good Angels and other Princes of the people among Men, as if Christ were dressed with them, when he was under the Old Testament, and then undressed Himself on the cross:  but a triumphant victor is not wont to undress and to strip himself or his friends, but his defeated foes, and to expose them to public ignominy, which perfectly squares here with evil Angels:  compare below, Chapter XX, § 37.  b.  Through the more abundant Application of this Redemption, in the Calling of the Gentiles, Revelation 20:2, 3, which of old caused the Oracles of the Gentiles to be silent, see below Chapter XVIII, § 12, number 3β; and also in the Reformation of the Church in the Sixteenth Century, which among those devoted to purer rites cause a great many Diabolical Portents to cease, which under the Papacy are narrated to have formerly obtained or to obtain even now; in which we ought thankfully to acknowledge, not the eminent fruit of Bekker’s book de Orbe fascinato, but the fulfillment of the ancient divine prophecy in Zechariah 13:1, 2, on which text see our AUTHOR’S Commentarium in Prophetas minores.  On Revelation 20:2, 3, our AUTHOR’S Commentarius is likewise to be consulted, who shows that this Vision is best referred ἐν πλάτει, broadly, to the first thousand years of Christianity, not withstanding the Gentile Idolatry and Persecution, which was in vigor for almost the first three Centuries of this Millennium; the new impiety of Muhammed and Antichrist, which after the Seventh Century is wont to be repeated; and the most noxious heresies, wherein in the three intervening Centuries the Devil showed himself efficacious throughout the Roman world, no less than outside of it in Gentile Idolatry.  While our AUTHOR wants those two things to be kept in mind, 1.  That the Binding is not to be understood as altogether absolute, or that whereby all Seduction would cease, but limited in such a way that he would not hold all Nations entirely constrained in the old manner.  2.  In the Binding of Satan, and likewise in the Loosing of the same, five distinct stages are to be acknowledged and to be applied to the succession of the times, so that the Millennium begins with the beginning of the Binding and is completed in the consummation of the Loosing:  whence at that time three Centuries of the decreasing and diminishing of the power of Satan, and again three or four of the increasing and augmentation of the same, agree with this symbol quite well; as it is certain, that the corruption of both worlds in the seventh Century was only begun, if a comparison be made with the following centuries.  With which observed, our AUTHOR begins the Binding of Satan from the pouring out of the Spirit upon the Apostles, and, with the Gospel beginning to be preached by them, first among the Jews, and then among the Gentiles; in the midst of which the Seduction of the Nations, that is, the removal of the same from the knowledge and worship of the true God, which Satan accomplished in the world before the descent of Christ by the Gospel, was restrained to such an extent, that he was not able thereafter to drag off to the same idolatry and impiety, or even similar, all and entire peoples promiscuously, with them illuminated by the light of the Gospel.

To the Augment of the Diabolical Punishment under the New Testament appears not incorrectly to be referred this, that the Approach of the Final Judgment multiplies the Terrors of the Demons; compare what things I was just now showing on Jude 6 out of WITSIUS.

[1] 2 Peter 2:4:  “For if God spared not the angels that sinned, but cast them down to hell (ταρταρώσας, casting down to Tartarus), and delivered them into chains of darkness, to be reserved unto judgment…”

[2] See Romans 9:11.

[3] Matthew 16:18.

[4] Numbers 22-24.

[5] Genesis 41.

[6] Daniel 2; 4.

[7] Daniel Dyke (c. 1575-1614) was an English Puritan minister and scholar, remembered for his works on Christian praxis.

[8] Luke 8:30; Mark 5:15.

[9] Matthew 16:16, 17.

[10] Matthew 12:29; Mark 3:27; Luke 11:21, 22.

[11] 2 Corinthians 4:4.

[12] Isaiah 53:9; 1 Peter 2:22.