(4) Personality of Satan. \Ve determine the personality of Satan by the same criteria that we use in determining whether Cmsar and Napoleon were real personal beings, or the personification of abstract ideas, viz., by the tenor of history concerning them, and the ascription of personal attributes to them. All the forms of personal agency are made use of by the sacred writers in setting forth the character and conduct of Satan. They describe him as having power and domin ion, messengers and followers. He tempts and resists; he is held accountable, charged with guilt ; is to be judged and to receive final punishment. On the supposition that it was the object of the sa cred writers to teach the proper personality of Satan, they could have found no more express terms than those which they have actually used. And on the supposition that they did not intend to teach such a doctrine, their use of language, incapable of communicating any other idea, is wholly inexplicable.
To suppose that all this semblance of a real, veritable, conscious moral agent, is only a trope, a prosopopeia, is to make the inspired penmen guilty of employing a figure in such a way that, by no ascertained laws of language, it could be known that it was a figure—in such a way that it could not be taken to be a figure, without violence to all the rhetorical rules by which they on other occasions are known to have been guided. A personification, protracted through such a book as the Bible, even should we suppose it to have been written by one person—never dropped in the most simple and didactic portions—never explained when the most grave and important truths are to be inculcated, and when men the most ignorant and prone to superstition are to be the readers— a personification extending from Genesis to Rev elation—this is altogether anomalous and inad missible. But to suppose that the several writers of the different books of the Bible, diverse in their style and intellectual habits, writing under widely differing circumstances, through a period of nearly two thousand years, should each, from Moses to John, fall into the use of the same per sonification, and follow it, too, in a way so ob scure and enigmatical, that not one in a hundred of their readers would escape the error which they did not mean to teach, or apprehend the truth which they wished to set forth—to suppose this, is to require men to believe that the inspired writers, who ought to have done the least vio lence to the common laws of language, have really done the most. Such uniformity of inexplicable singularity, on the part of such men as the au thors of the several books of the Bible, could be accounted for only on the hypothesis that they were subject to an evil as well as a good inspira tion. On the other hand, such uniformity of ap pellations and imagery, and such identity of char acteristics, protracted through such a series of writings, go to confirm the received doctrine of a real personality.
(5) Natural History. The class of beings to which Satan originally belonged, and which con stituted 'a celestial hierarchy,' is very numerous: `Ten thousand times ten thousand stood before him' (Dan. vii :to). They were created and de pendent (John 1:3). Analogy leads to the con clusion that there are different grades among the angels as among other races of beings. The Scrip tures warrant the same. Michael is described as one of the chief princes (Dan. x:13) ; as chief captain of the host of Jehovah (Josh. v:14). Sim ilar distinctions exist among the fallen angels (Col. ii:t5 ; Eph. vi:12). It is also reasonable to suppose that they were created susceptible of im provement in all respects, except moral purity, as they certainly were capable of apostasy. As to the time when they were brought into being, the Bible is silent ; and where it is silent, we should be silent, or speak with modesty. Some suppose that they were called into existence after the cre ation of the world ; among whom is Dr. John Dick. Others suppose that they were created just anterior to the creation of man, and for purposes of a merciful ministration to him. It is more probable, however, that as they were the highest in rank among the creatures of God. so they were the first in the order of time ; and that they may have continued for ages in obedience to their Maker, before the creation of man, or the fall of the apostate angels.
The Scriptures are explicit as to the apostasy of some, of whom Satan was the chief and leader. `And the angels which kept not their first estate or principality, but left their own habitation,' etc. (Jude, verse 6). Tor if God spared not the an gels that sinned,' etc. (2 Pet. ii :4). Those who followed Satan in his apostasy are described as belonging to him. The company is called the devil and his angels (Matt. xxv :41). The relation marked here denotes the instrumentality which the devil may have exerted in inducing those called his angels to rebel against Jehovah and join themselves to his interests. As to what consti tuted the first sin of Satan and his followers, there has been a diversity of opinion. Some have supposed that it was the beguiling of our first parents. Others have believed that the first sin of the angels is mentioned in Gen. Vi :2. The sacred writers intimate very plainly that the first trans gression was pride, and that from this sprang open rebellion. Of a bishop, the apostle says (I Tim. iii :6), He must not be a novice, lest, being puffed up with pride, he fall into the condemna tion of the devil.' From which it appears that pride was the sin of Satan, and that for this he ,was condemned. This, however, marks the quality of the sin, and not the act.