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TOPIC: Edwards, Jonathan - Rational Biblical Theology (Other Topics in this Collection)
SUBJECT: Chapt 29 The Angels
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1. The Nature of the Angels.
“The angels of heaven do praise God together” is the simple title of a rather full accounting for the angels by Jonathan Edwards. *1* In this sermon he shows that like men these heavenly inhabitants are immediately and constantly created but unlike men are pure, not possessed of fallen natures. Yet they are holier now than they were because “a sinless perfection, is not such in those that are finite, but that it admits of infinite degrees.” *2* The last end of God in the creation of the angels was that they be his ministers, the ministers of the Son of God, and ministers of the fallen human creation. It is on that role as minister of men that much of the angels’ history and destiny rode as we shall see.
“The design of God in thus ordering things, is to teach and show that he is all, and the creature nothing. . . .” *3* In the paragraph that precedes this in Miscellany M 681, Edwards shows how God teaches this great lesson.
In another “Miscellany” Edwards repeats this theme of the superiority of angels in nature and their inferiority in honor to man. He compares it to ministers of the gospel who also are superior in authority and power to their parishioners whom they are nonetheless appointed humbly to serve and not exercise dominion over them. *4*
Angels are called thrones, dominions, powers etc. in the Bible. Edwards’ explanation is that though they are set over the administration of God’s providence they are limited creatures and could not possibly carry out such an assignment without particular allocations of responsibilities. In a rare flourish of rhetoric he calls them the “nobles & barons of the court of heaven.” *5*
Edwards sees no reason that angels cannot accomplish miracles. He does not address the apologetic problem that could be raised by this position apparently assuming that angels would work in perfect submission to God and therefore could not mislead mankind. At any rate, his argument for attributing this power to angels is explained as follows:
I cannot see why it should be thought more disagreeable to reason to suppose, that angels may have influence on matter so as to cause those alterations in it, which are beyond the established laws of matter, more than to suppose that our spirits should have such an influence. And I do not see why other spirits should not have influence on matter according to other laws; or why, if we suppose spirits have an influence on matter, that it must necessarily be according to the same established rules as our spirits. We find that from such motions of mind there follows such an alteration in such and such matter, according to established rules; and those rules are entirely at the pleasure of him that establishes them. And why we should not think that God establishes other rules for other spirits, I cannot imagine. And if we should suggest, that according to established laws, angels do make alterations in the secret springs of bodies, and so of minds, that otherwise would not be, I can not see why it should be accounted more of a miracle than that our souls can make alterations in the matter of our hands and feet, which otherwise would not be. *6*
2. The “Covenant of Works” Probation of the Angels
Angels, like men, were placed on probation. Would they or would they not submit to being ministers of salvation to “vastly inferior” human beings? Edwards takes “little lower than angels” (Heb_2:5-8) to refer to the exaltation of the First Adam and humiliation of the Second. “Indeed it was the great exaltation of men but it was the great humiliation of the Person of Christ.” “Little lower” must refer to space with reference to the Second Adam because he was a worm and no man. Having made this introduction, Edwards launches into his doctrine, showing man’s vast inferiority to angels. *7*
The common view of humans, shared by Jonathan Edwards, saw man possessed of a natural and moral image. Without comparing the only two rational creatures God ever made, Edwards does see something similar in the angelic nature. Men have two natures; angels two appetites. *8*
Presumably the unfallen angels’ “appetite to their own honour” did not overcome “their holy inclination to subjection.” As we shall see, the horrible fall of the other angels, as well as the model of the God-man’s “humiliation,” kept them from falling.
The angels had their equivalent of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. As Edwards describes it:
How the elect angels know good and evil. It is a thing supposed, without proof, that the glorious inhabitants of heaven never felt any such thing as trouble or uneasiness of any kind. Their present innocency and holiness does not prove it. God may suffer innocent creatures to be in trouble for their greater happiness. The nature and end of that place of glory does not prove it, for if that did not hinder sin from entering, neither will it necessarily hinder trouble from entering there.
The elect angels probably felt great fear at the time of the revolt of Lucifer and the angels that followed him. They were then probably the subjects of great surprise, and a great sense of their own danger of falling likewise; and when they saw the wrath of God executed on the fallen angels, which they had no certain promise that they should not suffer also by their own disobedience, being not yet confirmed, it probably struck them with fear. And the highest heavens was not a place of such happiness and rest before Christ’s ascension as it was afterwards; for the angels were not till then confirmed. So that it was in Christ, God-man, that the angels have found rest. The angels, therefore, have this to sweeten their safety and rest, that they have it after they have known what it is to be in great danger, and to be distressed with fear. *9*
In M 591 Edwards describes it this way:
Confirmation of the angels. It is an argument that it was Christ that confirmed the angels, and adjudged to them their reward; that this was an act of judgment; was the proper act of a judge, whereby judgment was passed, whether they had fulfilled the law or no, and were worthy of the reward of it by the tenor of it. But Christ is constituted Universal Judge of all, both angels and men. Joh_5:22. “For the Father judgeth none, but hath committed all judgment to the Son;” and Christ is not only constituted the judge of men, but of angels. 1Co_6:3. “Know ye not that we shall judge angels?” If this be meant only of the evil angels, yet that shows that Christ’s power of judging is extended beyond mankind to the angelic nature; and if he be constituted the Judge of the evil angels, that will confirm me that he is of the good too, as he is the Judge of both good and bad of mankind, and Christ tells us that all power is given him in heaven and in earth, Mat_28:18. And we are often particularly told as to the good angels, that he is made their Lord and Sovereign, and that they are put under him. The apostle, in Rom_14:10-12. speaking of Christ’s being universal Judge, before whose judgment-seat all must stand, and to whom all must give an account, speaks of it as meant by those words in the Old Testament, “As I live, saith the Lord, every knee shall bow to me, and every tongue shall confess to God;” which place of the Old Testament the apostle refers to in Php_2:9-11. “Wherefore God also hath highly exalted him, and given him a name above every name, - That at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, of things in heaven, and things in earth, and things under the earth, and that every tongue should confess, that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.” And these things are spoken of Christ, as God man; for in this last-mentioned place, it is mentioned as the reward of his being found in fashion as a man, and humbling himself, and in that other place, and in the place in Romans, his being universal Judge, and every knee bowing to him, and every tongue confessing to him, is spoken of him as God man; for it is said that he “died, rose, and revived,” that he might have this honour and authority. So in Joh_5:27, it is said that the Father hath given him authority to execute judgment also, because he is the Son of God: so that if he has acted the part of a Judge, towards the elect angels, it must be since his incarnation: and we know that he is to judge angels at the last day as God man.
Corol. I. Hence Christ is the tree of life in the heavenly paradise, to all the inhabitants of it. If our first parents had stood in their obedience, and were found meet for their reward of eternal life; then they were to be brought to the tree of life, and were to receive it from that tree, by eating the fruit of it, as the eternal life was the fruit of that tree. Thus it is in the earthly paradise, the dwelling-place of men. And there was also a tree of life in the heavenly paradise, the dwelling-place of angels. When they had stood in their obedience, and were looked upon of God meet for the reward of eternal life, they were brought to Jesus, to receive the reward at his hands, which they in God’s account especially become worthy of by their being willing to be subject to him as God man, and being willing to depend on him as their absolute Lord and supreme Judge.
Corol. II. Here we may observe the wonderful analogy there is in God’s dispensations towards angels and men.
Corol. III. Here we may take notice of the manifold wisdom of God; what glorious and wonderful ends are accomplished by the same events in heaven, earth, and hell, as particularly by those dispensations of Providence in Christ’s incarnation, death, and exaltation. How manifold are the wise designs that are carried on in different worlds by the turning of one wheel!
Corol. IV. Here we may observe how the affairs of the church on earth, and of the blessed assembly of heaven, are linked together. When the joyful times of the gospel began on earth, which began with Christ’s exaltation, then joyful times began also in heaven among the angels there, and by the same means. When we have such a glorious occasion given us to rejoice, they have an occasion given them. So long as the church continued under a legal dispensation, so long the angels continued under law; for since their confirmation, the angels are not under law, as is evident by what I have said in my Notes on Gal_5:18. So doubtless at the same time there was a great addition to the happiness of the separate spirits of the saints, of which the resurrection of many of them at Christ’s resurrection is an argument. And in the general, when God gradually carries on the designs of grace in this world, by accomplishing glorious things in the church below, there is a new occasion of joy and glory to the church in heaven; thus the matter is represented in John’s Revelations, and it is fit that it should be thus, seeing they are one family. *10*
What God was aiming at, as His Son so perfectly exhibited it when He became a creature, was humility. Just as God raised the humbler man above the greater angel, He required both to cultivate an emptying or humbling of themselves. Satan the greatest of all mere creatures fell precisely because he would not humble himself. He was cast down to earth and hell:
[939] Occasion of the fall of the angels. We cannot but suppose that it was made known to the angels, at their first creation, that they were to be ministering spirits to men, and to serve the Son of God in that way, by ministering to them as those that were peculiarly beloved of him, because this was their proper business for which they were made; this was the end of their creation. It is not to be supposed that seeing they were intelligent creatures, that were to answer the end of their beings as voluntary agents, or as willingly falling in with the design of their Creator, that God would make them, and not make known to them what they were made for, when he entered into covenant with them, and established the conditions of their eternal happiness, and especially when they were admiring spectators of the creation of this beloved creature for whose good they were made, and this visible world that God made for his habitation. Seeing God made the angels for a special service, it is reasonable to suppose that the faithfulness of the angels in that special service must be the condition of their reward or wages; and if this was the great condition of their reward, then we may infer that it was their violating this law, and refusing and failing of this condition, which was that by which they fell. Hence we may infer, that the occasion of their fall was God’s revealing this their end and special service to them, and their not complying with it. That must be the occasion of their fall.
COROL. Confirmation of the angels at Christ’s ascension. *11*
And all this though the elect “saints are made higher in glory in heaven forever.” *12*
Though even the good and holy angels did humble themselves and became servants of lesser man, that very spirit of humility produces harmony in heaven among unfallen angels and redeemed men.
[681] The angels of heaven, though a superior order of being, and of a more exalted nature and faculties by far than men, are yet all ministering spirits sent forth to minister to them that shall be the heirs of salvation; and so in some respect are made inferior to the saints in honour. So likewise the angels of the churches, the ministers of the gospel that are of a higher order and office than other saints, yet they are, by Christ’s appointment, ministers and servants to others, and are least of all, as Mat_20:25-27. “Ye know that the princes of the Gentiles exercise dominion over them, and they that are great exercise authority upon them. But it shall not be so among you: but whosoever will be great among you, let him be your minister; and whosoever will be chief among you, let him be your servant.” Mat_23:8-12. “But be not ye called Rabbi: for one is your Master, even Christ; and all ye are brethren. And call no man your father upon the earth: for one is your Father, which is in heaven. Neither be ye called masters: for one is your Master, even Christ. But he that is greatest among you shall be your servant. And whosoever shall exalt himself shall be abased; and he that shall humble himself shall be exalted.” And Mar_9:35. “If any man desire to be first, the same shall be last of all, and servant of all.” It is as it is in the body natural, those parts that we account more noble and honourable are, as it were, ministers to the more inferior, to guard them, and serve them, as the apostle observes, 1Co_12:23-24. “And those members of the body, which we think to be less honourable, upon these we bestow more abundant honour; and our uncomely parts have more abundant comeliness. For our comely parts have no need: but God hath tempered the body together, having given more abundant honour to that part which lacked.” God’s ways are all analogous, and his dispensations harmonize one with another. As it is between the saints that are of an inferior order of beings, and the angels which are of more exalted natures and degrees, and also between those Christians on earth that are of inferior order, and those who are of superior, being ministers of Christ; so without doubt it also is in some respects in heaven, between those that are of lower and those that are of higher degrees of glory. There, those that are most exalted in honour and happiness, though they are above the least, yet in some respects they are the least; being ministers to others, and employed by God to minister to their good and happiness. These sayings of Christ in Mat_20:25, &c. and Mar_9:35, were spoken on occasion of the disciples manifesting an ambition to be greater in his kingdom, by which they meant his state of exaltation and glory; and so it is in some sort, even with respect to the man Christ Jesus himself, who is the very highest and most exalted of all creatures, and the head of all. He, to prepare himself for it, descended lowest of all, was most abased of any, and in some respects became least of all. Therefore, when Christ in these places directs that those that would be greatest among his disciples, should be the servants of the rest, and so, in some respects, least; he enforces it with his own example. Mat_20:26-28. “Whosoever will be great among you, let him be your minister, and whosoever will be chief among you, let him be your servant. Even so the Son of man came not to be ministered unto, but to minister, and to give his life a ransom for many.” And Luk_22:26-27. “He that is greatest among you, let him be as the younger, and he that is chief as he that doth serve, for whether is greater, he that sitteth at meat, or he that serveth? is not he that sitteth at meat? But I am among you as he that serveth.” None in the kingdom of heaven ever descended so low as Christ did, who descended as it were into the depths of hell. He suffered shame and wrath, and was made a curse. He went lower in these things than ever any other did, and this he did as a servant not only to God, but to men, in that he undertook to serve us, and minister to us in such dreadful drudgery, while we sit at meat in quietness and rest, and partake of those dainties which he provides for us. Christ took upon him to minister to us in the lowest service, which he represented and typified by that action of washing the disciples feet, which he did chiefly for that end. Thus Christ is he that seems to be intended in Mat_11:11, by him “that is least in the kingdom of heaven;” who is there said to be greater than John the Baptist.
The design of God in thus ordering things, is to teach and show that he is all, and the creature nothing, and that all exaltation and dignity belong to him; and therefore those creatures that are most exalted shall in other respects be least and lowest. Thus, though the angels excel in wisdom and strength, and are advanced to glorious dignity, and are principalities and powers, and kings of the earth, yet God makes them all ministers to them who are much less than they, of inferior nature and degree. Thus, also, the saints who are most exalted in dignity are servants to others. The angelic nature is the highest and most exalted created nature; yet God is pleased to put greater honour upon our inferior nature, viz. the human, by causing that the Head and King of all creatures should be in the human nature, and that the saints in that nature in Christ, should be in many respects exalted above the angels, that the angelic nature may not magnify itself against the human; and the man Christ Jesus, that creature who is above all, owes his superiority and dignity, not at all to himself, but to God; viz. to his union with a divine person. Though he be above all, yet in some respects he is inferior; for he is not in the highest created nature, but in a nature that is inferior to the angelic. To prepare him for his exaltation above all, he was first brought lowest of all in suffering and humiliation, and in some respects in office, or in those parts of the office that were executed by him in his state of humiliation. Though the saints are exalted to glorious dignity, even to union and fellowship with God himself; to be in some respects divine in glory and happiness, and in many respects to be exalted above the angels; yet care is taken that it should not be in themselves, but in a person who is God, and they must be as it were emptied of themselves in order to it. And though the angels are exalted in themselves, yet they are ministers to them who are not exalted in themselves, but only in communion with a divine person as of free grace partaking with them. Thus wisely hath God ordered all things for his own glory, that however great and marvellous the exercises of his grace, and love, and condescension are to the creature, yet he alone may be exalted, and that he may be all in all. And though the creature be unspeakably and wonderfully advanced in honour by God’s grace and love; yet it is in such a way and manner, that even in its exaltation it might be humbled, and so as that its nothingness before God, and its absolute dependence on God, and subjection to him, might be manifested. Yet this humiliation or abasement, which is joined with the creatures’ exaltation, is such as not to detract from the privilege and happiness of the exaltation. So far as exaltation is suitable for a creature, and is indeed a privilege and happiness to the creature, it is given to the creature and nothing taken from it. That only is removed that should carry any shadow of what belongs only to the Creator, and which might make the difference between the Creator and creature, and its absolute, infinite dependence on the Creator, less manifest. That humiliation only is brought with the exaltation that is suitable to that great humility that becomes the creature before the Creator. This humiliation does not detract any thing from the happiness of elect holy creatures, but adds to it, for it gratifies that humble disposition that they are of, it is exceeding sweet and delightful to them to be humbled and abased before God, to cast down their crowns at his feet as the four and twenty elders do in Rev_4:10. - And to abase themselves, and appear nothing, and ascribe all power, and riches, and wisdom, and strength, and honour, and glory, and blessing to him. They will delight more in seeing God exalted than themselves, and they will not look on themselves the less honoured because that God appears to be all, even in their exaltation, but the more. These creatures that are most exalted will delight most in being abased before God, for they will excel in humility as much as in dignity and glory, as has been elsewhere observed. The man Christ Jesus, who is the head of all creatures, is the most humble of all creatures. That in Mat_18:4, “Whosoever therefore humbleth himself as this little child, the same is greatest in the kingdom of heaven,” is true, with respect to the humility that they exercise, both in this and in another world. They that have most humility in this world, will continue to excel in humility in heaven; and the proposition is reciprocal. They that have the greatest humility, shall be most exalted, and shall be greatest in the kingdom of heaven, and they that are greatest in the kingdom of heaven, are most humble.
Corol. I What has been said above, confirms the conclusion that some in heaven will be a kind of ministers in that society: teachers; ministers to their knowledge and love, and helpers of their joy, as ministers of the gospel are here.
Corol. II. Hence we may learn the sweet and perfect harmony that will reign throughout that glorious society, and how far those that are lowest will be from envying those that are highest, or the highest from despising the lowest, for the highest shall be made ministers to the happiness of the lowest, and shall be even below them in humility, and the lowest shall have the greatest love to the highest for their superior excellency, and for the greater benefit which they shall receive from their ministration, as it is the disposition of the saints to love and honour their faithful ministers here in this world. *13*
In his most comprehensive statement on the exaltation of the humble, Edwards reveals the grand, overall end of God in the creation of the world. *14*
Though the elect angels stood, it was nevertheless only by Jesus Christ the Savior that they did:
Herein Christ was the Saviour of the elect angels, for though he did not save them as he did elect men from the ruin they had already deserved, and were condemned to, and the miserable state they were already in, yet he saved them from eternal destruction they were in great danger of, and otherwise would have fallen into with the other angels. The elect angels joined with him, the glorious Michael, as their captain, while the other angels hearkened to Lucifer and joined with him, and then was that literally true that was fulfilled afterwards figuratively. Rev_12:1-17. “When there was war in heaven: Michael and his angels fought against the dragon; and the dragon fought and his angels, and prevailed not. . . .” *15*
Somewhat more catechetically Edwards puts the question and gives a seven-fold answer: “How far the elect angels are dependent on Christ for eternal life?” *16* First, the work of redemption is their end; second, their test was to obey Christ in this work; third, this was especially so in the angels’ attendance on Christ in his suffering; fourth, Christ is the judge of angels that gives them their reward of eternal life; fifth, they are the more closely related to Christ by his incarnation; sixth, Christ is the one through whom they enjoy eternal life; seventh,
As the perfections of God are manifested to all creatures, both men and angels, by the fruits of those perfections, i.e. by God’s works . . . so the glorious angels have the greatest manifestations of the glory of God by what they see in the work of man’s redemption, and especially in the death and sufferings of Christ. *17*
The “good” angels saw it to their spiritual advantage to remain faithful *18* and especially when they were frightened by the fall of others. *19* So they stayed with Christ and in a sense were saved by him. Nevertheless, even later during the Old Testament period they did not understand the plan of human redemption but that subject brings us to the relation of the angels and the saints.
3. The Angels and the Saints
Edwards goes into exegesis and criticism to show that the angels did not understand the history of redemption until it was virtually completed:
That the angels in the times of the Old Testament did not fully understand the counsels and designs of God with regard to men’s redemption, may be argued from that text Isa_64:4. “For since the beginning of the world they have not heard, (men is not in the original,) nor perceived by the ear, neither hath the eye seen, O God, beside thee, what he hath prepared for him that waiteth for him.” In the original, what “he hath made or done for him that waiteth for him.” It is rendered in the margin, “hath seen a God besides thee which doth so for him that waiteth for him.” But our translation gives the sense more agreeable to the citation of the apostle, 1Co_2:7-9. It is manifest by this text, if we take it in a sense agreeable to the apostle’s understanding of it, that none of old understood the mystery of man’s redemption by Jesus Christ, it never entered into the hearts of any; and if this be the sense, it will follow from the words of the text, not only that it had not entered into the hearts of any of mankind, but also of the angels, for all are expressly excluded but God himself; none have heard, seen, or perceived, O God, beside thee. The meaning is not only that no works had been already done that ever any had seen or heard of parallel to this work; for if the meaning was, that no works that were past had been seen or heard of like this work, those words, O God, beside thee, would not be added; for if that were the sense, these words would signify, That, though others had not seen any past works parallel with this, yet God had, which would not have been true; for God himself had not seen any past works parallel with this. The same may also be argued from Eph_3:9-11, compared with Rom_16:25-26, and Col_1:26. Not only are the words of Eph_3:10, very manifestly to my present purpose, but those words in the verse preceding are here worthy of remark. The mystery which, from the beginning of the world, hath been HID IN GOD; which seems plainly to imply, that it was a secret which God kept within himself, which was hid and sealed up in the divine understanding, and never had as yet been divulged to any other, which was hid in God’s secret counsel, which as yet no other being had ever been made acquainted with; and so the words imply as much as those in the forementioned place in Isaiah, that none had perceived it beside God. *20*
However, in the New Testament the ways that the angels minister to men’s salvation in the economy of redemption is made clear. The sermon on Mat_13:47-50 states that “God makes use of the ministry of angels in affairs relating to the eternal state of mankind.” *21* He uses them in the giving of the means of grace; in ministering to Christ; in ministering to the saints in resisting sin; in preservation of the elect; and in bringing souls to heaven. It is interesting to note that many of the texts on which these assertions are based are found in the Old Testament as what is latent in the Old becomes patent in the New Testament.
So the destiny of the angels and saints is inextricably intertwined. There is a “sweet harmony . . . between God’s . . . dealings with the angels and his dealings with mankind. . . .” Nowhere is that more exquisitely stated by Edwards than when he remarks that
though one is innocent and the other guilty, the one having eternal life by a covenant of grace, the other by a covenant of works, yet both have eternal life by his Son Jesus Christ God man, and both, though different ways, by the humiliation and sufferings of Christ; the one as the price of life, the other as the greatest and last trial of their steadfast and persevering obedience. *22*
4. The Probation and Fall of the Angels.
Not all of the angels stood. Edwards seems more preoccupied with those who fell than with those who stood. Probably, these angels occupy more space in the Bible and Edwards’ interest in them is to warn against them.
This does not prevent C. R. Reaske from charging Edwards with a monomania concerning the devil. *23* He argues that this preoccupation with the devil began early in Edwards’ life, reached maniacal proportions in the Great Awakening and continued, however subdued, throughout his life. The non-sinister explanation of Edwards’ continued interest in the devil throughout his life was that he continued his interest in the Bible throughout his life. A student of mine, after completing a long paper on the devil, was asked if he was glad to be finished with the devil. He said he was but wished that the devil was finished with him.
Edwards traces the fall of angels to the proclamation of the incarnation in heaven:
[320] Devils. It seems to me probable that the temptation of the angels, which occasioned their rebellion, was, That when God was about to create man, or had first created him, God declared his decree to the angels that one of that human nature should be his Son, his best beloved, his greatest favourite, and should be united to his eternal Son, and that he should be their Head and King, that they should be given to him, and should worship him, and be his servants, attendants, and ministers: and God having thus declared his great love to the race of mankind, gave the angels the charge of them as ministering spirits to men. Satan, or Lucifer, or Beelzebub, being the archangel, one of the highest of the angels, could not bear it. . . . *24*
Edwards even speculates, based on Eze_28:12-19, that before the fall the devil was the anointed one among the angels and so was replaced by Christ and this occasioned his fall. Much of this speculation rests on the prophet’s description of the fall of the King of Tyre. Edwards tries to prove that this is but a thinly veiled representation of the devil himself:
I. It is exceeding manifest that the king of Tyrus is here spoken of as a type of the devil, or the prince of the angels or cherubim that fell. 1. Because he is here expressly called an angel or cherub, once and again, Eze_28:14-16. And is spoken of as a fallen cherub. 2. He is spoken of as having been in heaven under three different names; by which names heaven is often called in Scripture, viz. Eden, The Garden of God, or the Paradise of God; verse 13, the Holy Mountain of God, verse 14 and 16; and The Sanctuary, verse 18. 3. He is spoken of as having been in a most happy state in the paradise of God, and holy mountain of God, in great honour, and beauty, and pleasure. 4. He is spoken of as in his first estate, or the state wherein he was created, to be perfectly free from sin, but afterwards falling by sin. Eze_28:15. “Thou wast perfect in thy ways, from the day that thou wast created, till iniquity was found in thee.” 5. The iniquity by which he fell was pride, or his being lifted up by reason of his superlative beauty and brightness. Verse 17. “Thine heart was lifted up because of thy beauty. Thou hast corrupted thy wisdom by reason of thy brightness.” 6. He is represented as being cast out of heaven, and cast down to the earth for his sin. . . . 7. He is represented as being destroyed by fire here, in this earthly world. Verse 18. “I will bring forth a fire from the midst of thee: it shall devour thee; and I will bring thee to ashes upon the earth in the midst of all that behold thee.” 8. His great wisdom is spoken of as being corrupted by sin, i.e., turned into a wicked craftiness. Eze_28:17. “Thou hast corrupted thy wisdom because of thy brightness.” If the king of Tyrus were not here expressly called “a cherub,” “in the paradise of God,” and “in God’s holy mountain,” by which it is most evident that he is spoken of as a type of a cherub in the paradise of God; yet I say if it had not been so, the matter would have been very plain, for the things here spoken of cannot be applied to the king of Tyrus with any beauty, nor without the utmost shining, any other way than as a type of the devil that was once a glorious angel in paradise. For how could it be said of the king of Tyrus, in any other sense, but as a type of the anointed angel, that he had been in God’s holy mountain, and in Eden, the garden of God, and in God’s sanctuary, and there been first perfect in his ways? (For the original word is a kind of expression that is ever used in scripture to signify holiness, or moral perfection.) And how in any other sense was he afterwards cast, as profane, out of the mountain of God? *25*
Edwards also cites Joh_8:31 ff. in which the Jews who were said to have believed on Christ turned away from him when he revealed his divinity. This reminds Christ of the fact that they were like their father, the devil, presumably because he too turned away from submission to this truth when it was declared to him long before.
5. The Devil’s Stratagems
The devil being driven on to his own inexpressible torment by the fury of sin, malice, revenge, and pride, and is so entirely under the government of malice, that although he never attempted any thing against God but he was disappointed, yet he cannot bear to be quiet and refrain from exercising himself with all his might and subtlety against the increase of holiness; though, if he considered, he might know that it will turn to its advantage. He is the strong man, the greatest murderer, the destroyer. Thousands go to hell daily by his stratagems but he is not glutted. He likes to hear the shrieks of the damned. Edwards even traces this spirit before the fall. He began with a proud and spiteful spirit against God that has reigned in him ever since. It is his pride that makes it impossible for him to bear seeing others happier than he is. He is constantly using his serpentine cleverness by which he effected the fall of man in the first place. And he never wearies having been active in the old world, with David then Christ, Judas, Peter and in the future he will create the Antichrist.
How does the devil go about his devilish ways? He blinds and deceives. The very darkness of this world comes from the darkness of the bottomless pit. He suggests thoughts such as casting oneself from the temple, taking the census, betraying Christ as well as forwarding men’s natural lusts. How all of this is done cannot be certainly determined, but Edwards makes a number of suggestions.
First, the devil by working on the humors of the body and secondly by making impressions on the imagination of the pleasures of sin and the like or wrong impressions of the injury they will receive in the service of virtue etc. The appeal in this sermon is to natural men who suppose that some human enemy were constantly stalking them.
“The devil is a liar” after all. *26* He was the first to lie and lied first in this world becoming the father of lies. That is his means of setting up and keeping his dominion. It is the power of darkness. Islam could not exist without it. And he is the father of all those principles that tend to lies such as hatred and enmity. But how does one know when the devil is speaking? What he says does not have its foundation in the Word of God. Also, if the suggestion goes beyond the Bible one should not trust it. In the Gen_3:4 sermon Edwards teaches that some are bewitched into thinking that there will be no punishment, a particularly attractive Satanic ploy. *27* And people usually believe him. In spite of his unbiblical character and teaching, “The devil is orthodox in his faith; he believes the true scheme of doctrine; he is no Deist, Socinian, Arian, Pelagian, or antinomian; the articles of his faith are all sound, and in them he is thoroughly established.” *28* After all, he “was educated in the best divinity school in the universe, viz. the heaven of heavens.” *29* He knows the truth but he does not tell it; he knows lies and these he loves to tell.
Perhaps Satan’s master strategy is to appear as an angel still. “Satan oftentimes transforms himself into an angel of light.” *30* He does this as a teacher of false doctrine. As such he predominates in the whole world. The whole kingdom of Antichrist is his. He pretends that the doctrine is from God as in Islam, Romanism, Quakerism. He even represents these errors as saving doctrines. As a counselor the devil directs men’s practices. He makes a show of holiness. He counsels sin but he cleverly pretends that it is a duty. He passes off the pursuit of the world as care of family, of anxiety as prudence; liberality is made to appear prodigality, strife is deliberately confused with zeal, and in all of this the devil uses the Bible constantly, says Edwards in anticipation of C. S. Lewis’ Screwtape Letters. Flattery gets the devil everywhere.
Thus Edwards warned his people about Satan’s devices, our weakness against him, and our need for Christ if we are to stand in the evil day. In the funeral sermon for “Uncle Hawley,” who had cut his own throat, Edwards preached,
We are in the devil’s hands and if God should leave us he will quickly devour us. . . . He would have had us with him in hell long before this if God had not kept us. And ’tis because God’s mercy towards us don’t cease that we ben’t already tore to pieces by him and we shall be destroyed by him before tomorrow morning if God don’t keep us. . . . Yea there are devils about us and if they don’t destroy our bodies they’ll find ways eternally to undo our souls if God leaves us. . . . How sottish therefore will be a person’s dependency on his own striving in such a case as this. *31*
Yet Edwards was not unique in his preaching in this respect. The Puritans had always kept their people well-warned about Satan’s devilish ways, as Thomas Taylor *32* had preached:
God so orders it . . . that where he gives greater strength and grace, there must be greater exercise of these gifts. Let no one, however strong in faith, think that Satan has ceased troubling him. ‘Alas poore soules; the more grace, the more trouble.’ *33* Who can hope to be safer from the attack of that roaring lion than Adam and Christ? The whole compass of the earth is his circuit, and wherever we are, we must remember him. ‘Seeme the place never so secret . . . the greenest grass may harbor a serpent.’ *34* He knows our estates, our tempers, our desires. ‘By our outward behavior and gesture, he can gather our speciall corruptions, as a Physitian by outward signes . . . can judge of the particular disease within . . . like a cunning angler, he can bait his hooke, so as he hath experience the fish will take; and though he see not the fish in the water, yet by his quill and corke he can tell when it is taken. *35* Particularly in church or about our ordinary trades, we are most likely to meet him. He lures the learned to preach above the people’s capacity, and the unlearned to think themselves too ignorant to understand or to be taught the doctrine of grace. He teaches the tradesman to say, ‘Why I must live, I must not put forth my wife and children to begge . . . I must utter my wares, though I lie, and sweare, and exact, and deceive.’ *36* Usury and oppression of the poor are signs of his conquest over us just as is our love of stage plays and strong drink. Safety lies only in fighting him, but we must remember that the harder we oppose him the harder he resists; ‘Reach once at Satans head, and he will surely reach as high as he may at thine.’ *37*
6. The Devil in his Relationships
With respect to his fellow devils it appears that Satan is an absolute monarch, the boss of the underworld. Satan
is more frequently spoken of singly, in Scripture, than devils are spoken of in the plural number, as though he were more than all the rest. . . . His strength and subtlety are very great indeed; so much superior to the rest, that he maintains a dominion over them, and is able to govern and manage them, that they durst not raise rebellion against him, agreeable to Job_41:25. . . . All the rest of the devils are his servants, his wretched slaves, they are spoken of as his possession, Matthew 25:41. *38*
There is also demoniacal possession of men. According to Edwards those who neglect salvation under warnings are in a way that tends to great hardening of witchcraft. *39* Once men become magicians and witches they are less likely to give up their trade because they are more under the power of Satan. Christ, of course, delivered some from bodily possession by devils, and also from possession of the soul, which was greater, which soul-deliverances have continued after miraculous deliverances have ceased. There are different ways of bodily possession dumb devils, spirit of infirmity, etc. The same is true of mental possession pride, maliciousness, drunkenness, uncleanness.
There seems to have been a special ordering of providence that accounts for so many being possessed at the time of Christ. It made his messianic glory appear all the brighter. Exorcism was Christ’s greatest victory over devils.
While the devil possesses the bodies of few men, he nevertheless controls all souls of unredeemed men. According to Edwards, “[w]icked men are the children of the devil.” ** Satan “naturally” dwells in the hearts of fallen men. Indeed the whole world is like the man possessed by the devil, Edwards shows in the sermon on Luke 8:26-39. *41* How the devil does work in the hearts of sinners is explained. For example, men in this world fear the judgment of God and hope that there will not be another world. When such wishful thinking occurs and men entertain such ideas “the devil sets in to enforce them.”
Although the devil is a “cruel master” men bear his image nonetheless. They pride themselves on their freedom while being his slaves all the while.
But it is not the men whom the serpent does control, but those whom he does not, who interest him most and bring forth his greatest efforts to seduce. First, it is clear, according to Edwards, that the converted are released from the overpowering control of Satan as we have seen. That does not imply however that he cannot profoundly affect the saints even to the point of their gross denial of Jesus Christ as in the notorious case of Peter.
The devil’s main channel of influence is through the imagination of the saints. This is the reason he is especially successful with the melancholy and why Edwards was constantly warning his people against that mood. It was not, however, above Satan’s power to suggest ordinary ideas to ordinary persons. He is particularly active with persons in preparation for grace. The devil can simulate even the order of religious experiences as well as tempt persons when they are under actual conviction. With saints as well as others he can suggest biblical texts as well as their misapplication, though he cannot awaken mens consciences. Edwards believed as we shall see later that the end of the first great awakening in Northampton was effected by Satanic suggestions.
The devil’s chief target is the godly. The more he attacks them the more he advances them. His very onslaught against their redeemer brought their redemption. Now “there is no enchantment no witchcraft can hurt them no black art can affect their happiness,” for “God holds Satan on a chain.” *42* His power “is a limited power.” By nature he cannot create, search hearts, give life, give spiritual life or prevent men from coming to Christ. When a person is converted he is out of Satan’s ultimate reach for Christ is above the devil, and the devils are left with nothing to do but tremble at the wrath of God.
Since angels were a major topic in Jonathan Edwards story of redemption, I will conclude here with parts of his most comprehensive sermonic treatment of the them.
Introduction
In what follows Edwards discusses matters concerning Christ and the saints. Then he takes up,
Section IV. How angels are benefited by the salvation of men.
Section VII. Some wonderful circumstances of the overthrow of Satan.
Section VIII. The superiority of this wisdom to that of the angels.
7. Conclusion
C. S. Lewis was most astute when he had the wicked Screwtape brag to his young tempter-trainee Wormwood, concerning the success of his diabolical cause:
In modern Christian writings . . . I see few of the old warnings about Worldly Vanities, the Choice of Friends, and the Value of Time. All that, your patient would probably classify as “Puritanism” - and may I remark in passing that the value we have given to that word is one of the really solid triumphs of the last hundred years? By it we rescue annually thousands of humans from temperance, chastity, and sobriety of life. *44*
Among many, the success of this lie from the pit continues today. And yet the morality of our Puritan, Jonathan Edwards, was actually advanced by the devil’s mastery of the art of deception. Naturally alert to the world and the flesh, Edwards was taught by the Word that Satan was the powerful enemy of his soul. Receiving this truth by faith, he was all the more alert to the devil’s stratagems, having a healthy respect for the wily one. And, as much as in him lay, he labored to warn the less alert, weaker Christians of the danger.
Though Satan seeks to devour whom he may, in the end, Edwards had the last laugh: Satan went hungry. The greatest blockhead of all time imagined he could outwit the All-wise God, the Defender of Christ’s little ones. Edwards trusted that “[t]he Lord is faithful, and He will strengthen and protect you from the evil one” (2Th_3:3). But Beelzebub never learns that God’s elect, those who receive the love of the truth so as to be saved, cannot be deceived (2Th_2:10; Mat_24:24).