But in the temptation of a fallen nature Satan has a greater power. Every sin committed makes a man the "servant of sin" for the future (John viii, 34; IJom. vi, 1(>); it therefore creates in the spirit of man a positive tendency to evil, which sympathizes with, and aids the temptation of the evil one. Tliis is a fact recognised by experience ; the doctrine of Scripture, inscrutably mys- terious, l)ut unmistakably declared, is that, since the fall, this evil tendency is born in man in capacity, prior to all actual sins, and capable of being brought out into ac- tive existence by such actual sins committed. It is this which Paul calls " a law," i. e. (according to his universal use of the word) an external power " of sin" over man, bringing the inner man (the i'dTic) into captivity (Rom. vii, 14-24). Its power is broken by the atonement and
the gift of the Spirit, but yet not completely cast out; it still "lusts against the spirit" so that men " cannot do the things which they would" (Gal. v, 17). It is to this sjiiritual power of evil, the tendency to falsehood, cruelty, ])ride, and unbelief, independenth' of any benefits to be derived from them, that Satan is said to appeal in tempt- ing us. If his temptations be yielded to without repent- ance, it becomes the reprobate (dSoKifwi;) mind, which delights in evil for its own sake (Kom. i, 28, 32), and makes men emjihatically " children of the devil" (John viii, 44; Acts xiii, 10; 1 John iii, 8, 10) and "accursed" (Matt. XXV, 41), fit for "the fire prepared for the devil and his angels." If they be resisted, as by God's grace they iTiaj' be resisted, then the evil power (the " flesh" or the "old man") is gradually "crucified" or "mortified" until the soul is prepared for that heaven where no evil can enter.
This twofold power of temptation is frequently re- ferred to in Scripture as exercised chieHy by the sug- gestion of evil thoughts, but occasionally by the dele- gated power of Satan over outward circumstances. To this latter power is to be traced (as has been said) the trial of Job b}' temporal loss and bodily suffering (Job i, ii), the remarkable expression used by our Lord as to the woman with a "spirit of infirmity" (Luke xiii, 16), the "thorn in the flesh." which Paul calls the "messen- ger of Satan" to buffet him (2 Cor. xii, 7). Its language is plain, incapable of being explained as metaphor or poetical personification of an abstract principle. Its gen- eral statements are illustrated by examples of tempta- tion. (See, besides those already mentioned, Luke xxii, 5; John xxiii, 27 [.Judas] ; Luke xxii, 31 [Peter] ; Acts V, 3 [Ananias and Sapphira] ; 1 Cor. vii, 5; 2 Cor. ii. 11 ; 1 Thess. iii, 5.) The subject itself is the most startling form of the mystery of evil ; it is one on which, from our ignorance of the connection of the first cause with sec- ond causes in nature, and of the process of origination of human thought, experience can hardly be held to be competent either to confirm or to oppose the testimony of Scripture.
It is of no avail that there are difficulties connected with the agency ascribed to Satan. Objections are of little weight when brought against well -authenticated facts. Any objections raised against the agency of Satan are equally valid against his existence. If he exists, he must act; and if he is evil, his agency must be evil. The fact of such an agency being revealed as it is, is every way as consonant with reason and religious conscious- ness as are the existence and agency of good angels. Neither reason nor consciousness could by itself estab- lish such a fact; but all the testimony they are capable of adducing is in agreement with tlie Scripture repre- sentation on the subject.
On the subject of dremonical possession (q. v.) it is sufficient here to remark that although widely different in form, yet it is of the same intrinsic character as the other power of Satan, including both that external and internal influence to which reference has been made above. It is disclosed to us only in connection with the revelation of that redemption from sin which destroys it — a revelation begun in the first promise in Eden, and manifested in itself at the atonement in its effects at the great day. Its end is seen in the Apocalypse, where Sa- tan is first " bound for a thousand years," then set free for a time for the last conflict, and finally "cast into the lake of fire and brimstone ... for ever and ever" (xx, 2, 7-10).
V. Traditions. — According to the Mohammedans, who have derived their account from Jcwisli traditions, Sa- tan, or, as they sometimes call him, Ehlis. was an arch- angel whom God employed to destroy the Jiniis or Genii, a race intermediate between men and angels, who ten- anted the earth before the creation of Adam. In riches, power, and magnificence, the pre-Adamite sultans of the ■linns far surpassed any height to which monarchs of the human race have attained; but the pride with which such glories inspired them filled them with impiety, and
SATAN, DEPTHS OF