^ Gregory, Austin, Damascene, &;c.
192 AN EXPOSITION, WITH NOTES, [VeR. 6.
my throne above the stars of God, I will be like the Most High.' But these are but metaphorical passages concerning the king of Babj'lon, and the ground of the mistake was because the angels are often in scripture set forth by stars, as Job xxxviii. 7. That testimony which is most cogent is in 1 Tim. iii. 6, ' Ordain not a novice, lest being lifted up with pride, he fall into the condemnation of the devil ;' this is, lest he make himself guilty of that sin for which the devil was condemned and rejected of God, namely of pride ; and James iii. 15,1 pride is called devilish wisdom ; the sin is often to be read in the judgment that followeth it. God's throwing them down from the dignity of their estates was a sign that they aspired above it, and it may be collected from the first temptation, ' Ye shall be as gods,' as himself said, in the sense of the fathers, Ero sicut altissimus, so to our first parents he said, Eriiis tanquam dii. (3.) They do best that make it a com- pound sin, accommodating all opinions ; for, look, as there are many sins in that one act by which Adam fell, unbelief, pride, ingratitude, disobedience, &c., so in this act of the angels there might be many sins, for though pride be a chief sin in it, yet what kind of pride it was, or how discovered, it cannot be determined. Every opinion is asserted with equal probability. It might be envy at man, as we see the good angels rejoiced at their happiness. Job xxxviii. 7 ; Luke ii. 14, 15, and Luke xv. 7 ; or affectation of worship, as we see now they delight in it, or any other rebellion against God's empire and majesty. 3. How they came to sin. The angels being created pure, they had no lust within to incline them ; being in heaven, they had no object without to draw and allure them ; there was no evil fracture, no tempter ; how could they sin ? I answer — (1.) It is probable that many of the angels sinned by temptation and seducement, and that one great angel, now called Beelzebub, first fell, and drew the rest after him : Mat. xxv. 41, ' The devil and his angels,' and Mat. x. 25, ' Beelzebub the prince of devils ;' it was the name of the idol of the Ekronites, 2 Kings i. 2, and signified the god or lord of flies. Now, because the Jews knew that they were devils that were worshipped in the idols of the Gentiles, they gave the names of the idols to the devils or evil angels, and the chief of the devils they called by the name of Beelzebub, so Mat. xii. 24, implying one that was the prince of the unclean spirits, called devil, Satan, the great dragon, and the god of this icorld ; from all which we may probably collect that there was a prince or chief of the apostate angels, who was the ringleader in this faction and rebellion against God. (2.) Because the question returneth. How came the first angel then to fall ? I answer — ^It is hard to conceive how sin came into the angels first ; all that we can say is this, that the angels were created good, yet mutable and free, and they voluntarily chose not to abide in their own estates. All the answer Austin would give to this question was, Deus non sunt — they are not God ; it is God's prerogative alone to be immutable ; they might sin because they were creatures. And Aquinas giveth this reason : God cannot sin, because his act is his rule ; but all creatures, though never so pure, if not assisted by grace, may sin : Job iv. 18, ' He chargeth his angels with folly ;' there is mutabiliity in the angelical nature, there called folly. Certainly God was not the
^ See my notes there.
YeR. 6.] UPON THE EPISTLE OF JUDE. 193
cause of their fall, by infusing evil to them ; it was the error of the Manichees to say they were created evil ; nor by his prescience, for that enforceth not ; nor bis voluntary permission, for they were left to their own sway ; nor his decree, for that is within himself, and doth not compel the creature ; neither is God to be looked upon as consenting to the action, in that he did not hinder them from it, or in that he did not sustain them by his own grace, for he oweth this grace to none, and giveth it when and to whom he pleaseth ; and in the angelical nature, as well as the human, he would discover his justice and mercy, and the freedom of his dispensations.
4. The number, how many fell ? The schoolmen are too rash. Some say, just as many fell as stood; others, that a third part fell, abusing that place, Rev. xii. 4, ' That the dragon drew a third part of the stars of heaven after him.' Whereas that is meant of defection in the church. Certain we are many fell, and therefore it is said angels in the text. That the number is great appeareth in that the world is full of these evil spirits, and a whole legion, which containeth some thousands, is said to possess one man, Luke viii. 30.