hath opposed from the beginning with all his might, and he setteth your hearts at work to kill me. But I say I will not stand upon this, because I only deliver it as that which is the opinion of some, and hath some probability. However, this is certain, whatsoever his sin was, he hath now, being fallen, set up his kingdom in a special manner against Christ; and so Christ hath been the great stumbling-stone, and angels fall upon it, and men fall upon it. So that indeed the first quarrel was laid in this; God himself proclaimed it at the very beginning. "The seed of the woman shall bruise the serpent's head;" which, though spoken to the serpent, comes in by way of curse, as striking at the very spirit of the devil's sin. "He shall break thy head," saith he.

Thou wouldest have lifted up thyself. He shall crush thee." God, I say, proclaimed the war, and the quarrel hath continued from the beginning of the world to this day, and will do, till Satan be put out of the air, for so long he is to have his kingdom, though Christ beateth him out of it every day in the world, and so will continue to do till he hath won the world from him, and This from Dr. then he will chain him up in the bottomless pit. Goodwin, vol. 1 of his works, part ii. p. 32, 33. [1266] Fall of the angels. The same Dr. Goodwin, in the 2d vol. of his works, in his Discourse on the Knowledge of God the Father, and of his Son Jesus Christ, speaking of the pride of some, has these words: "A lower degree of accursed pride fell into the heart of the devil himself, whose sin in his first apostatizing from God, is conceived to be a stomaching that man should be one day advanced unto the hypostical union, and be one person with the Son of God, whose proud angelical nature (then in actual existence, the highest of creatures,) could not brook."

THE DEVIL.

[48] Seeing the devil is so cunning and subtil, it may seem a paradox why he will endeavour to frustrate the designs of an Omniscient Being, or to pretend to controvert him that is omnipotent, and will not suffer any thing but what is for his own glory, seeing that God turns every thing he does to the greater and more illustrious advancement of his own honour. And seeing he has experience of it, for so long a time, all his deep laid contrivances have at last come out to his own overthrow, and the work has been directly contrary to his design. To this I say, that although the devil be exceeding crafty and subtil, yet he is one of the greatest fools and blockheads in the world, as the subtilest of wicked men are. Sin is of such a nature, that it strangely infatu

VOL. VIII.

65

ates and stultifies the mind. Men deliberately choose eternal torments rather than miss of their pleasure of a few days; and to esteem a little silver and gold above eternal happiness, makes men choose a few minutes pleasure, though eternal misery be joined thereunto, rather than not have it; this do the cunningest of wicked men. Sin has the same effect on the devils to make them act like fools, and so much the more as it is greater in them than in others. The devil acts here according to his deliberate judgment, 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 subtilty against the increase of holiness; though, if he considered, he might know that it will turn to its advantage.

[296] Devils.-It is probable one reason why men have the offer of a Saviour, and the devils never had, was because their sin was attended with that malice, and spite, and haughty scornfulness that was equivalent to that sin against the Holy Ghost. Their sin was a downright spiteful rebellion, and a direct malicious war against God, a scorn of subjection, and a proud seeking of his throne.

[353] Angels.-The fall and misery of the rebel angels contributes exceedingly to the happiness of the faithful angels; it greatly exalts and gives life to their joy, their love, and admiration, and praise; not, however, by any pleasure they take in their misery, but by seeing the miserable state of those of the same kind, from whom they are distinguished by God's electing love, which leads them to reflect what evil they have escaped, by withstanding the temptation of the chief of the rebel angels.

CONFIRMATION OF THE ANGELS.

[442] See Angels.

[515] The fall of the angels that fell, was a great establishment and confirmation to the angels that stood. They resisted a great temptation by which the rest fell, whatever that temptation was, and they resisted the entreaties of the ringleaders which drew away multitudes: and the resisting and overcoming great temptation naturally tends greatly to confirm in righteousness. And probably they had been engaged on God's side in resisting those that fell when there was war and rebellion raised in heaven against God. All the hosts of heaven soon divided, some on one

side, and some on the other, and standing for God in opposition and war against those that are his enemies, naturally tended to confirm their friendship to God; and then they saw the dreadful issue of the fallen angels' rebellion, how much it was to their loss; they saw how dreadful the wrath of God was, which tended to make them dread rebellion, and sufficiently careful to avoid it. They now learnt more highly to prize God's favour by seeing the dreadfulness of his displeasure; they now saw more of the beauty of holiness, now they had the deformity of sin to compare it with. But when their time of probation was at an end, and they had the reward of certain confirmation by having eternal life absolutely made certain to them, is in some degree uncertain. However, there are many things that make it look exceedingly probable to me, that whenever this was done, it was through the Son of God, that he was the immediate dispenser of this reward, and that they received it of the Father through him.

1. We have shown before, in No. 320, that it was in contempt of the Son of God that those of them that fell, rebelled; it was because they would not have one in the human nature to rule over them. How congruous, therefore, is it, that those that stood should be dependent on him for their reward of confirmation in contempt of whom the others had rebelled. It was congruous that Christ, who was despised and rejected by a great number of the angels, should become the foundation upon which the rest should be built for eternal life, Ps, cxviii. 22, The stone which the builders rejected, the same is become the head of the corner."

66

That God should thus honour his Son in the sight of the angels, who had been thus contemned by the angels that fell in their sight, this makes it seem probable to me that the time of their confirmation was when Jesus Christ ascended into heaven; for,

First. It was Jesus Christ in the human nature, that was despised and rejected by the rebelling angels. It was congruous, therefore, that it should be Jesus Christ in the human nature that should confirm them that stood.

Secondly. It was also congruous that their confirmation should be deferred till that time, that before they were confirmed they might have a thorough trial of their obedience in that particular, wherein the rebelling angels were guilty, viz. in their submission to Jesus Christ in the human nature. It was congruous therefore that their confirmation should be deferred till they had actually submitted to Christ in man's nature as their King, as they had opportunity to do when Christ in man's nature ascended into heaven.

Thirdly. It seems very congruous that this should be reserved to be part of Christ's exaltation. We often read of Christ's being set over the angels when he ascended, and set at the right hand

of God, and of his being then made head of all principality, and power, that then all things were put under his feet, that then God the Father said "Let all the angels of God worship him." It was very congruous that Christ should have this honour immediately after such great humiliation and sufferings. Fourthly. It was fit that the angels should be confirmed after they had seen Christ in the flesh, for this was the greatest trial of the angels' obedience that ever was. If the other angels rebelled only at its being foretold that such an one in man's nature should rule over them, if that was so great a trial that so many mighty angels fell in it; how great a trial was it when they actually saw a poor, obscure, despised, afflicted man, one whom they had just seen so mocked, and spit upon, and crucified, and put to death like a vile malefactor! This was a great trial to those thrones, dominions, principalities, and powers, those mighty, glorious, and exalted, spirits, whether or no they would submit to such an one for their sovereign Lord and King.

It was also very fit that God should honour the day of the ascension, and glorious exaltation of his Son, which was a day of such joy to Christ, with joining with it such an occasion of joy to the angels as the reception of their reward of eternal life: that when Christ rejoiced, who had lately endured so much sorrow, the heavenly hosts might rejoice with him.

Object. I. It may be objected, That it was a long time for the Angels to be kept in a state of trial from the beginning of the world till the ascension of Christ, but there might very fitly be a longer time of trial for those mighty spirits than for others.

Object. II. That the angels could not enjoy quiet and undisturbed happiness for all that while, if they were all the time unconfirmed, and did not certainly know that they should not fall.

I answer there was no occasion for any distressing fears, for they never could be guilty of rebellion without knowing, when they were going to commit it, that it was rebellion, and that thereby they should forfeit eternal life, and expose themselves to wrath by the terror of God's covenant; and they could not fall, but it must be their voluntary act; and they had perfect freedom of mind from any lust; and they had been sufficiently warned, and greatly confirmed when the angels fell, so that there was a great probability that they should not fall, though God had not yet declared and promised absolutely hat they should not: they were not absolutely certain of it; is was an occasion of joy reserved for the joyful and glorious v of Christ's ascension.

Fifthly. The angels are now confirmed, and have been since Christ's ascension.

I. For Christ, since he appeared in the flesh, gathered together, and united into one society, one family, one body, all the angels and spirits in heaven, and the church on earth. Now it is not to be supposed that part of this body are in a confirmed state, and part still in a state of probation. But,

II. The second argument that the angels are confirmed by Christ, is, that we learn by scripture that Christ is the head of the angels, and that the angels are united to him as part of his body, which holds forth that he is not only their head of government, but their head of communication too. Christ is therefore the head, from whence the angels receive communication of good but how well doth this agree with their receiving their reward of obedience from him? God in making Christ head of angels and men, hath made him his dispenser of his benefits to all universally. It is therefore most probable that he, who now dispenses the blessings of the angels' reward to them, is he from whom they first received that reward; that God bestowed it upon them at first through his hands. And this also confirms that the time of the angels' confirmation was at Christ's ascension; for then was he made the Head of the angels, then were all things put under his feet.

III. It is most congruous that that person who is to judge the angels, who shall publicly declare the unalterable condemnation of those that fell, and also shall publicly declare the unalterable confirmation of those that stood, should be the same person who acted the part of a Judge before, when they were first confirmed. He that is the Judge of the angels at the last day, publicly before heaven, earth, and hell, to confirm them, is probably the same person who was their judge when they were first confirmed in heaven. The Father bath committed all judgment to the Son, and this he did to Christ God man; for the committing all judgment to him was done at Christ's first exaltation, and the first fruits of it was probably his confirming the angels, as their Judge.

IV. Christ's being called "the tree of life, that groweth in the midst of the paradise of God," Rev. ii. 7. If we consider the use of the tree of life that grew in the midst of the earthly paradise, it was to confirm man in life in case of obedience. If he had stood, he was to have received the reward in that way, by eating the fruit of that tree. Christ, being the tree of life in the heavenly paradise, is so to all the inhabitants of that paradise,

[570] Confirmation of angels. We learn by the first chap. of Coloss. 16th, 17th, 18th, 19th, and 20th verses, that it was the