De Moor IX:28: The Unwilling Submission of the Evil Angels to the Divine Will

In all things they are obliged to Yield to the divine; not only in the Profession of the Glory of God, as often as He extracts it, Mark 1:24; Luke 8:28, or in Terminating their Wickedness, when He commands it, Mark 1:25-27; but also as well, after the likeness of Lictors, in Binding the Impious through hardening, and Tormenting them in various ways, 2 Timothy 2:25, 26; Matthew 8:30-32; 27:3-5, in comparison with John 17:12; and also in Afflicting the Pious themselves for the trial and exercise of their faith, of which sort we have in various ways an example in the vexation of Job, Job 1:12, etc.; 2:6, 7.  We have already previously observed, that the manner of speaking here is parabolical and figurative, under which, nevertheless, is set before our eyes, not some fable, but a matter truly conducted, only to be explained θεοπρεπῶς, in a manner worthy of God, no less than in 1 Kings 22:19-23; Zechariah 3:1-5.  That is, either we are able here to represent to ourselves a judicial gathering, in which ὁ κατήγορος τῶν ἀδελφῶν, the accuser of the brethren,[1] is present:  or we ought to set forth to ourselves God after the likeness of an earthly King, who from his ministers assembled for government demands an account of the province under their charge, being also about to impose new commands upon each, as it might seem good to him.  While Satan, according to the great power granted to himself as God’s Torturer and Lictor of mankind, is found as he that went to and fro in the earth after the likeness of a head-of-household, or steward, who in diligently attending to his affairs goes to and fro and travels over every part of the house and field, organizing at the same time matters of the family and of the field.  We teach, however, that under this figurative presentation, with all human imperfection thence removed (as is fitting), 1.  the highest Cause of all the afflictions of Job was the altogether free and ἀνυπεύθυνον, not accountable divine dispensation, which was extending to the examination of Job.  2.  That Satan, as ὁ κατήγορος τῶν ἀδελφῶν, the accuser of the brethren, relentlessly accuses the pious before God, and according to his own wickedness, and as far as in him lies, incites God against the pious, Job 2:3.  3.  That Satan, released from his infernal prison, even now operates in this world, even especially to tempt and vex the Pious.  4.  But that in all his operations he is altogether dependent upon the nod of divine Providence, so that he is not able to proceed a hair’s breadth beyond the physical determination of divine Providence:  see our AUTHOR’S Exercitationes Textuales XVI, Part IV; SPANHEIM’S Miscellanea Sacra Antiquitatum, book I, chapter I, § 12, numbers 2, 3, opera, tome 2, columns 9, 10; WESSELIUS’ Præfationem Belgicam before Willem van Houte’s Keur van Bybelstoffen,[2] ** 2 versa, 3, 4.  Add a similar example of the Buffeting of Paul;[3] which was just now mentioned in § 26.  CYPRIAN, de Oratione Dominica, opera, page 106:  The Lord also necessarily teaches, that in prayer we should say, And suffer us not to be led into temptation.  In which part it is shown that our adversary is able to do nothing against us, unless God previously permit; so that all our fear, devotion, and attention are turned toward God, since in our temptations nothing is allowed to the wicked one, unless power be granted thence.  Which he then confirms with examples.

Whence they are not to be feared with unbelief.  Demons are altogether to be feared as our most grievous and powerful enemies, whom it is not fitting to ignore, unless by our carelessness we wish to furnish occasion to them of winning a victory over us, 2 Corinthians 2:10, 11; Matthew 26:41.  Yet they are not to be feared with Unbelief, with their total dependence upon God considered, and with the divine promises carefully weighed at the same time, 2 Thessalonians 3:3; Matthew 16:18; Romans 16:20:  whence, on the other hand, it is permissible for the pious to glory, that neither Angels, nor principalities, nor powers are able to separate them from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord, Romans 8:38, 39.

Much less is it ever permissible to worship evil Angels, not even for our bodily good, that is, so that they might not harm us; just as in the ancient Church it is narrated concerning the Cainites by EPIPHANIUS, Hæresi XXXVIII, § 2, opera, tome I, page 277, that they invoked and worshipped Angels, even Evil Angels; while THEODORET observes, in Hæreticarum Fabularum, book I, chapter XV, opera, tome 4, page 206, that to particular Demons they attributed their particular lusts and sins, as the authors of them, whom, when they were perpetrating those, they were seeking to please and to gratify, according to their claim:  see DANÆUS, ad Augustinum de Hæresibus, chapter XVIII, page 937.  But even to this day a great many Gentiles, contemplating the Devil, as him to whom the Most High God has committed the government of the World, and driven by fear, worship him, represented under various and also horrible forms, lest he do them harm; just as it is related concerning the Indians in the vicinity of the city of Goa,[4] with the Calicutans in the kingdom of Malabar,[5] and others in Narsinga,[6] Coromandel,[7] Pegu,[8] Siam,[9] and Malacca;[10] concerning the Chinese[11] and Japanese;[12] and also concerning the many peoples of America, in New France,[13] Virginia,[14] and the New kingdom of Granada,[15] the Mexicans,[16] etc.; by HOORNBEECK in his first book de Conversione Indorum et Gentiliorum, chapters V-VII, IX:  while similarly religious Worship was exhibited by the ancient Gentiles to evil Demons, as LELAND shows, de Utilitate et Necessitate Revelationis Christi, part I, section I, chapter V, pages 185-191, section II, chapter XXII, pages 599-601.  In which manner the Devil is able truly to be called the god of this world, 2 Corinthians 4:4, whose ambition is appeased through divine Worship of this sort, and grateful obedience is rendered, Matthew 4:8, 9; but against which honor exhibited to the Devil we respond with the Lord in the words that follow in verse 10.

Demons are not even to be worshipped indirectly, through the performance of exorcisms and magical amulets against demonic power and obsession and other evils, which are believed to come upon man by the malice of the Devil and diabolical arts:  τοῦτο τὸ γένος οὐκ ἐκπορεύεται, εἰ μὴ ἐν προσευχῇ καὶ νηστείᾳ, this kind goeth not out but by prayer and fasting, Matthew 17:21.  With other methods either Satan does not comply, or he yields to them by mere collusion:  while it belongs to the diabolical art, even to suggest remedies against his own injuries, so that he might do the greatest harm precisely when he appears to heal, namely by ensnaring man in his worship.  Thus by magical collusion with the Devil, and thus verily by Beelzebul, the sons of the Jews were sometimes able to cast out Demons; so that in this manner the Devil might detract from Christ’s glory, which by the casting out of Demons was being applied to Him, lest thence He be acknowledged to be the Son of God and the Christ, who should come to destroy the works of the Devil.[17]  As JOSEPHUS also relates in his Antiquities of the Jews, book VIII, chapter II, pages 257, 258, concerning the popular Eleazar, who, with Vespasian[18] present, and his sons, and the Chiliarchs, and the rest of the multitude of the soldiers, τοὺς ὑπὸ τῶν δαιμόνων λαμβανομένους, those who were possessed by demons, was ἀπολύων/ delivering, also with the method of extracting τὸ δαιμόνιον διὰ τῶν μυκτήρων, the demon through the nostrils, and of commanding the same, that in exiting he overturn a cup or bowl full of water, which was in fact done.

But vigilance must be maintained against them, and they must be fought bravely, Ephesians 4:27; 6:11-13, 16; James 4:7; 1 Peter 5:8, 9:  see CALVIN’S Institutes of the Christian Religion, book I, chapter XIV, § 17, 18; ARROWSMITH’S[19] Tacticam Sacram.

[1] Revelation 12:10.

[2] Willem van Houte was an eighteenth-century member (not an ordained minister) of the Dutch Reformed Church.  He is remembered for his Keur van Bybelstoffen, a collection of expositions and meditations on selected Biblical passages.

[3] 2 Corinthians 12:7.

[4] Goa was the Portuguese capital of India, and a major hub for Roman Catholic missionary efforts in Asia.  European Christians frequently interpreted the Hindu deities as devils, and their rituals as devil-worship.  The Portuguese Inquisition founded the Goa Inquisition (1560-1812) in an attempt to enforce Roman Catholic Orthodoxy among the inhabitants.

[5] Calicut was an important port and political center on the Malabar Coast (the southwestern coast of India).  Ludovico di Varthema (a sixteenth-century Italian traveler) reported that the Calicutans worshipped the Devil under the name of Deumo (probably the Hindu goddess Devi, a benevolent warrior, but frightful in appearance), called the Devil of Calicut by Europeans.

[6] Narsinga was the common Portuguese name for the Hindu Empire of Vijayanagara (c. 1336–1646) in South India.  Sixteenth-century Portuguese travelers, Duarte Barbosa and Domingo Paes provided detailed descriptions of Vijayanagara’s temples, idol processions, and elaborate religious ceremonies, which European Christians interpreted as idolatrous and demonic.

[7] The Coromandel Coast was located in southeastern India.  Jesuit and Franciscan missionaries provided descriptions of the Hindu temples, festivals, and rituals, together with accounts of possessions and exorcisms.

[8] The Kingdom of Pegu (in Burma) controlled important ports in the Bay of Bengal.  Among the Mon people Theravada Buddhism thrived, with its temples, images, rites, and monks; but this Buddhism mixed syncretistically with the native animism and spirit veneration.

[9] Siam, the Ayutthaya Kingdom (modern Thailand), was a major center of trade in Southeast Asia in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries.  There Theravada Buddhism and Hindu Brahminism mixed with elements of animism and spirit veneration.

[10] The Strait of Malacca was an important trading route in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries.  The religious situation was similar to that of Siam, with a heavier Islamic presence.  Portuguese missionaries used Malacca as a launching point for missions to China and Japan.

[11] In China, in addition to Buddhism with its temples and rites, European Christians also encountered Confucianism and Taoism, and native ancestor veneration.

[12] In sixteenth-century Japan, Jesuit missionaries encountered Buddhism and Shinto, together with ancestor veneration.

[13] New France was a territory including parts of Quebec and the Maritimes.  There the French interacted mainly with Algonquian and Iroquoian groups, practicing animism and shamanism.

[14] In seventeenth-century Virginia, the English encountered the Powhatan (Algonquian-speaking) Confederacy.  In addition to their animism and shamanism, the Powhatan worshipped and sacrificed to Okee, a frightful spirit of evil and misfortune.

[15] The sixteenth-century New Kingdom of Granada comprehended modern Colombia and some surrounding territories.  The Muisca people were involved in the veneration of ancestors and lineage deities, which involved ritual offerings to, and reciprocal exchanges with, the spirits.

[16] Among the Mexican peoples of central Mexico, the Aztecs were the most prominent.  The Aztecs built great pyramid-temples to their pantheon of gods, and the worship included human-sacrifice and heart extraction.

[17] See Genesis 3:15; 1 John 3:8.

[18] Vespasian ruled as the Roman Emperor from 69 to 79 AD.

[19] John Arrowsmith (1602-1659) was an English Puritan minister and divine.  He served as Master of Trinity College, Cambridge (1644), and Vice-Chancellor of the University.  Given his attainments, he was seated as a member of the Westminster Assembly (1643-1649).