reader may, perhaps, know more about this” than I do; the question is too deep for meanin

But, in fact, has not an error arisen from confounding Satan and his angels with certain angels who are mentioned in the Scripture as having incurred the wrath of God, (not indeed! by any such insane blasphemy as defying him to arms," but) by "not keeping their first estate, but leaving their own habitations ?"

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It seems strange that this confusion should. ever have taken place, when the matters predicated of the two parties are so strikingly contradictory. The "angels who sinned" are "delivered into chains of darkness;”* and if there is meaning in language, we must surely understand a state of strict bondage, and restraint. On the other hand, we are told that Satan"walketh about as a roaring lion, seeking whom he may devour." He is mitted to "go to and fro upon the earth.” He is about, and among, men, so as to take possession of them; so that seven devils, or even a legion of his emissaries, may be the inhabitants of one individual. As the "accuser of the brethren," whose office it is to accuse them before God, day and night,§ he

per

* 2 Peter ii. 4. +1 Peter v. 8. Job i. 7. § Rev. xii. 10.

must needs possess a freedom amounting almost to ubiquity. In short, as if to preclude all mistake, and to certify us that he is not one of those beings already delivered into chains to await the judgment, it is declared that he shall hereafter be chained; and it is thereby implied (whatever may be the precise meaning of the term,) that he is not already in chains.

Surely Satan and his angels are not chained; and I cannot conceive how they came to be confounded with those angels of whom (according to most expositors) almost the only thing clearly revealed is, that they are in "chains of darkness." But if these who are thus chained, are not the angels of Satan, who are they? This question will form the subject of a subsequent essay; in this I have only been led to speak of them, because they are com monly confounded with him by whose temp- -tation man fell. In the meantime, let us return to the consideration of man, whose fall was; believe, an event prior to that of the angels and if it cannot be properly said to have been *** the cause of it, it may yet appear that the two events were not altogether unconnected, 10758

ESSAY V.

THE CONSEQUENCES OF THE FALL.

Those which affect Man-The inferior orders of the animal creationThe material world.

IN considering the consequences of the fall, it may, perhaps, be convenient to divide them into three classes.

I. Those which immediately affect man himself.

Under this head we may mention

i. His subjection to Satan, whose servant he voluntarily became, when, by obedience to him, he renounced his allegiance to God,

Of the extent of this power I have already spoken in the preceding essay; and I would press the consideration of this point the more, because it forms a part of the wisdom of the present day, to fritter away this doctrine almost

to nothing. If it be true, as the Word of God expressly asserts, that in the last days "men "shall depart from the faith, giving heed to "seducing spirits and doctrines of devils," there is, perhaps, no craft or subtlety by which Satan could so well promote his object, as by suggesting the disbelief of his own existence. If it be true that "iniquity shall abound," and men shall depart from the faith; and if we already see something like this, in the awful infidelity, which, under the names of neology, and rationalism, has over-run the greater part of Christendom, and has made some (I do not venture to say how much) progress in our own country, it will not, I hope, appear useless or unseasonable, if, in addition to what I have already said, respecting the great enemy of man, I here add a few words on the subject of that power, which he acquired over man at the fall.

It is almost needless to say, that the influence of Satan can only be exercised as it is permitted by God; and that he could have no power at all except it were given him from above. Thus in the case of Job we read, "The Lord said unto Satan, Hast thou con"sidered my servant Job;" or, (as we read

in the margin of our Bibles,) "Hast thou set "thy heart on my servant Job, that” (margin because) "there is none like him in all “the earth, a perfect and an upright man, "one that feareth God, and escheweth evil. "Then Satan answered the Lord, and said, “Doth Job serve God for nought? hast thou "not made an hedge about him, and about his house, and about all that he hath on every "side? Thou hast blessed the works of his "hands, and his substance is increased in the "land; but put forth thine hand now and "touch all that he hath, and he will curse "thee to thy face. And the Lord said unto "Satan, Behold all that he hath is in thy

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power, only upon himself put not forth thine "hand." In this case a permission was given to destroy the property of Job, and it was afterwards extended to his person. The Lord afterwards said unto Satan, "Behold he is in "thine hand, but save his life."

Again, when Satan desired to sift the dis ciples of our Lord as wheat, it was granted to him; and although our Lord made it the subject of prayer to his heavenly Father, yet he did not pray that the tempter might be prevented from executing his design; but only