4. The operations and actions performed by the faln Angels, may be considered, either in the simple respect of their natural and created power, and this how great soever it was before their fall, is not only lessened, but that which remains, is limited and restrained with the Adamantine Chains of the decree of divine providence: or in respect of what power they may have superadded by God, when they are Commissionated and sent by God to effect some particular actions, as for example, Moses and Aaron had but the ordinary strength and power that was common to other men, before they were sent upon the message to Pharaoh, and made Instruments to deliver the Israelites, for then were they armed and indowed with the power of working great and stupendious Miracles. So it cannot rationally be imagined that the two Angels that were sent as Instruments to destroy Sodom and Gomorrha, did or could of their own proper, individual and created power, bring down Fire and Brimstone from Heaven to burn those two Cities, but that it was brought to pass by the Power of the Almighty, as granted and given to them for that judgment only, and not by that ordinary power that they could always exercise, for the Text saith: Then the Lord rained upon Sodom, and upon Gomorrha brimstone and fire from the Lord forth of heaven. Neither can it rationally be supposed that one Angel hath by his created power, that ability, that he can slay in one night an hundred fourscore, and five thousand, as it is written the Angel did in the camp of the Assyrians, but that it was brought to pass by the power of Jehovah superadded unto him, to work the great deliverance of Hezekiah and his people. Upon which place the learned Expositor John Calvin saith thus: Solus quidem dominus satis per se potest, ac certè solus nos servat: Angeli enim, manus quodammodo sunt ipsius: Unde etiam Virtutes & Potestates vocantur. Interim hæc vis soli Deo tribuenda, cujus organa tantummodo sunt Angeli, ne in superstitionem incidamus. From whence we may note these two things. 1. That even Devils are but the organs and instruments by which God accomplisheth his will, and executeth his wrath and justice, and so are but as tormenters and executioners to act no more than what they are appointed and commanded to do. 2. We may observe that in times past they had large Commissions given and great power superadded to perform great wonders for the destruction of the wicked, which was done for great and extraordinary ends, such as in these days the Lord doth seldom or never use, and therefore there can be no reason now shewed why Devils should have any extraordinary power added unto them in working strange feats for Witches and Sorcerers.
De op. Dei l. 4. c. 4. p. 174.
2 Pet. 2. 4.
Jude 6.
Loc. Com. p. 12.
Matth. 25. 41.
5. It will much conduce to the clearing of this point of the power of Devils to examine into what place they are faln, or since their rebellion into what Prison they are shut, and this we shall give in the Thesis of learned Zanchy who saith thus: “All the evil Angels were thrust down from Heaven, into places that are below the Celestial Orbs, to wit into this air, and below, as it were into a caliginous Prison, where they are reserved unto the Universal Judgment as bound with chains.” And this is plain from the words of S. Peter, who saith: For if God spared not the Angels that sinned, but cast them down to hell, and delivered them into chains of darkness to be reserved unto judgment. To which accordeth that of Jude: And the Angels that kept not their first estate, but left their own habitation, he hath reserved in everlasting chains under darkness, unto the judgment of the great day. For as learned Musculus tells us: Decet Christianum hominem ea modestia, & cautio, ut nihil affirmet, nec si quis alius affirmaverit, inconsideratè recipiat, quod non certo veritatis testimonio è sacris literis desumpto, confirmari queat. To this we shall only add what the acute and learned Theologue Amesius notes upon this place of Peter, which in English is this: “In general (he saith) we are taught, that they did not keep their first estate, that is, they did forsake righteousness and that station in which they were placed of God, and afterwards they have exercised from the beginning, envy, lies and murther against Men. Also (he saith) we are taught, that they were a great number that were partakers of this defection, and therefore the Apostle speaketh in the plural number. 1. They are said to be thrust down in Tartarum into Hell by reason of the commutation of estate and condition, because that from a most high condition, which they received by creation, they were cast down to an estate most low. 2. By reason of commutation of place, because they were thrust down from a place of beatitude, where they were conversant about the Throne of God with the rest of the Angels, into an inferiour place subject to sin and misery. But that this place is in the lowest parts of the earth, as the Papists do hold, cannot be made forth from the Scriptures, but rather the contrary, for they are said to be conversant, and to rule in the air, and to walk to and fro in the earth seeking the subversion of Men. This at the least is manifest from the Scriptures, and ought to satisfie those that are not too curious. 1. That they suffer a great change of estate and condition. 2. That they are excluded and shut out from their first habitation. 3. That they are in such a place where they suffer both the pain of loss and of sense. They are said to be delivered over to darkness, partly in respect of sin, and partly in respect of misery; for darkness in Scripture doth denote both: and they are said to be delivered in chains, by a metaphor taken from facinorous persons, that are condemned and kept bound in prison with chains, and the chains are these. 1. Obfirmation or obduration in sins. 2. An utter despair of any freedom or deliverance. 3. A terrible, expectation of extream misery, and an horrid fear of being cast into the abysse or deep. 4. The Providence of God which continually watches over their custody, imprisonment, and punishment. They are said to be reserved to damnation, because they are so bound up in these evils and miseries, that they never can escape; and yet these are but the beginnings only of their miseries, for they are hereafter to go into that everlasting fire, that is prepared for the Devil, and his Angels.”
Job 1. 7.
1 Pet. 5. 8.
1 Kings 22. 22.