4. In his plii/.iical nature, Satan is among those that are termed spiritual beings; not as excluding necessa- rily all idea of matter, but as opposed rather to the an- imal nature. The good angels are all ministering spir- its, TTi'tv^ui-a (lleb. i, 14). Satan is one of the angels that kept not their first principality. The fall produced no change in his physical or metaphysical nature. Paul, in warning the Ephesians against the wiles of the devil, tells them (Eph. vi, 12) that they contended not against flesh and blood, mere human enemies, but against prin- cipalities and powers; against the rulers of the dark- ness of this world; against spiritual wickedness in high places, in which the contrast is between human and su- perhuman foes, the latter being spiritual natures, or spirits, in opposition to tlesh and blood (Rosenmiiller, ad he). Satan is immortal, but not eternal ; neither omniscient nor omnipresent, but raised high above the human race in knowledge and power. The Persian mythology in its early stage, and subsequently the Gnostics and Manichisans, ranked the evil principle as coeval and co-ordinate, or nearly so, with God, or the good princi[)le. The doctrine of the Jewish Church al- ways made him a dependent creature, sidiject to the control of the Almighty. By the modifications which Zoroaster subsequently introduced, the Persian angel- ology came more nearlj- to resemble that of the Jews. Some have ascril)cd to Satan the power of working miracles, contending that there are two series of antag- onistical miracles running through the Bible. To the miracles of Moses were opposed those of tlie Egyptian magicians ; and to those of Christ and his apostles, the signs and wonders of false prophets and Antichrists — the divine and the satanic. Olshauson maintains this view, as do some of the older commentators (Biblisc/im Commentar. i, 242). The evidence in supjiort of such a belief has not been sufficient to procure for it general acceptance (see Rosenmiiller and Calvin on Matt, xxiv,
24; 2 Thess. ii, 9 ; Hengstenberg, E^ypt and the Books of Moses, ch. iii; also Kosenmilller and Bush on Exod. ch. vii). With a substantial presence in onh' one place at one time, yet, as the head of a spiritual kingdom, he is virtually present wherever his angels or servants are executing his will.
5. Scripture describes to us distinctly the moral char- acter of the Evil One. This is no matter of barren spec- ulation to those who, by j'ielding to evil, may become the "cliildren of Satan" instead of "children of God." The ideal of goodness is made up of the three great moral attributes of (iod — love, truth, and purity, or holiness — combined with that spirit which is tlie natu- ral temper of a finite and dependent creature, the spirit of faith. We find, accordingly, that the opposites to these qualities are dwelt upon as the characteristics of the devil. In .lohn viii, 44, compared with 1 John iii, 10-15, we have hatred and falsehood; in the constant mention of the "unclean" spirits, of which he is the chief, we find impurity ; from 1 Tim. iii, 6, and the nar- rative of the temptation, we trace the spirit of pride. These are especially the " sins of the devil ;" in them we trace the essence of moral evil and the features of the reprobate mind. Add to this a spirit of restless activity, a power of craft, and an intense desire to spread corruption, and with it eternal death, and we have the portraiture of the spirit of evil as Scripture has drawn it plainly before our eyes.
More particularly, vSatan's character is denoted by liis titles, Satan, Adversary, Diabolos, False Accuser, Tempter, etc. All the representations of him in Script- ure show him to have unmixed and confirmed evil as the basis of his character, exiiibiting itself in respect to (iod in assuming to be his equal, and in wishing to transfer the homage and service which belong only to God to himself; and, in respect to men, in efforts to draw them away from God and attach them to his kingdom. The evil develops itself in all possible ways and by all possible means of opposition to God, and to those who are striving to establish and extend his dominion. The immutability of his evil character precludes the idea of repentance, and, therefore, the possibility of recovering grace. " He possesses an understanding which mis- apprehends exactly that which is most worthy to be known, to which the key fails without which nothing can be understood in its true relations — an understand- ing darkened, however deep it may penetrate, however wide it may reach. He is thereby necessarih' unblessed ; torn away from the centre of life, yet without ever find- ing it in himself; from the sense of inward emptiness, continually driven to the exterior world, and j'et with it, as with himself, in eternal contradiction ; forever fleeing from (iod, yet never escaping him; constantly laboring to frustrate his designs, yet always conscious of being obliged to promote them ; instead of enjoyment in the contemplation of his excellence, the never satis- fied desire after an object which it cannot attain; in- stead of hope, a perpetual wavering between doubt and despair: instead of love, a powerless hatred against God, against his fellow-beings, against himself" (Twesten).