But the evil one is not onlv the " prince of the daemons," but also he is called the "prince of this world" (6 apxwv Tov Ki'itTfiov TOVTov) in John xii, 31; xiv, 30; xvi, 11, and even the " god of this world" (o Btug tov alwvoQ ToijTov) in 2 Cor. iv, 4; the two expressions being united in the words tovi; KoafioKparopag tov (tkotovi; TOV auovoQ TOVTOV, used in Eph. vi, 12. (The word Kocfioc, properly referring to the system of the universe, and so used in .John i, 10, is generally applied in Script- ure to human society as alienated from God, with a ref- erence to the " pomp and vanity" which make it an idol [see, e.g., 1 John ii, 15]; alwv refers to its transitory character, and is evidently used above to qualify the startling application of the word Biog, a " god of an age" being of course no true God at all. It is used with KOdfioQ in Eph. ii, 2.) This power he claimed for him- self as a (Megatc'd antltority in the temptation of our Lord (Luke iv, G), and the temptation would have been unreal had he spoken altogether falsely. It implies an- other kind of indirect infliience exercised through earth- ly instruments. There are some indications in Script- ure of the exercise of this power through inanimate in- struments, of an influence over the powers of nature, and what men call the " chances" of life. Such a power is distinctly asserted in the case of Job, and probably im- plied in the case of the woman with a spirit of infirmity (in Luke xiii, IG), and of Paul's "thorn in the flesh" (2 Cor. xii, 7). It is onl}' consistent with the attribution of such action to the angels of (iod (as in Exod. xii, 23; 2 Sam. xxiv, IG; 2 Kings xix, 35; Acts xii, 23), and, in our ignorance of the method of connection of the second causes of nature with the supreme will of God, we can- not even say whether it has in it any antecedent im- probability; but it is little dwelt upon in Scripture in comparison with the other exercise of this power through the hands of wicked men, who become "children of the devil," and accordingly "do the lusts of their father." (See John viii, 44; Acts xiii, 10; I John iii, 8-10; and comp. John vi, 70.) In this sense the Scripture regards all sins as the " works of the devil," and traces to him, through his ministers, all spiritual evil and error (2 Cor. xi, 14, 15), and all the persecution and hindrances which oppose the (iospel (Kev. ii, 10; 1 Thess. ii, 18). Most of all is this indirect action of Satan manifested in those who deliberately mislead and tcm|)t men, and who at last, indepemlenr of any interest of their own. come to take an unnatural pleasure in the sight of evil-doing in others (Kom. i, 32).
The m<;thod of his action is best discerned by an ex- amination of the title by which he is designated in Scripture. He is called emphatically o Cin(io\oQ, " the devil." The derivation of the word in itself implies only the endeavor to Ijrcak tlie bonds between others and "set them at variance" (see, e. g., I'lato, aSi/iuji. p. 222 c, ctalidWnv i/^ii- Kat 'Ayd^iui'u); but common usage adds to this general sense the special idea of "set- ting at variance h// slumkr." In the New Test, the word
SiajioXoi is used three times as an epithet (1 Tim. iii, 11; 2 Tim. iii, 3; Tit. ii, 3), and in each case with something like the special meaning. In the application of the title to Satan both the general and special senses should be kept in view. His general object is to break the bonds of commimion between God and man, and the bonds of truth and love which bind men to each other — to " set" each soul " at variance" both with men and God, and so reduce it to that state of self-will and self- ishness which is the seed-plot of sin. One special means by which he seeks to do this is slander of God to man and of man to God.
The slander of (iod to man is seen best in the words of Gen. iii, 4, 5 : " Ye shall not surelj' die : for God doth know that in the day that ye eat thereof your ej'es shall be opened, and j'e shall be as gods, knowing good and evil." These words contain the germ of the false notions which keep men from God, or reduce their service to him to a hard and compulsory slaverj', and which the heathen so often adopted in all their hideousness, when they represented their gods as either careless of human weal and woe or "envious" of human excellence and happiness. They attribute selfishness and jealousy to the giver of all good. This is enough (even without the imputation of falsehood which is added) to pervert man's natural love of freedom till it rebels against that which is made to appear as a hard and arbitrary tyranny, and seeks to set up, as it thinks, a freer and nobler stand- ard of its own. Such is the slander of (iod to man, by which Satan and his agents still strive against his re- uniting grace.