At what period, and for what offence these apostate spirits were expelled from heaven, are questions of very difficult solution, and on which scripture throws very little light. The fall of the angels is generally supposed by divines to have preceded the fall of our first parents, and to have been posterior to the sixth day of creation; because it is expressly declared in scripture, that on that day God saw every thing that he had made, and behold it was very good; from which it is reasona ble to infer, that none of his creatures had at that time incurred his displeasure. Some, however, have main tained, that the fall of the angels was of a later date, and consider it as alluded to in that passage of Genesis which speaks of the sons of God, having, by communi cation with the daughters of men, begotten the mighty men of old. This opinion was strengthened by some copies of the Septuagint, which, in the days of St Aut,- had in this place the angels of God, instead of the sons of God. It is detailed at considerable length in the apocryphal fragment ascribed to Enoch, where the su perior beings supposed to have criminal intercourse with the daughters of men, are expressly called angels, or Egregori, and their names, number, and dignity, are detailed at length. But neither in this work, nor in any other books of the Old Testament, is there any express mention of the rebellion of the angels against their Ma ker, their subsequent expulsion to hell, and eternal en mity to the human race. Some indeed have maintained, that the prophet Isaiah had the fall of the angels in view, when lie apostrophizes as follows : "How art thou fallen from heaven, 0 Lucifer, son of the morning ! how art thou cut down to the ground, which didst weaken the nations: For thou halt said in thine heart, I will ascend into heaven, I will exalt my throne above the stars of God; I will sit also upon the mount of the congregation, in the sides of the north: I will ascend above the heights of the clouds; I will be like the Most High. Yet thou shalt be brought down to hell, to the sides of the pit." (ch. xiv. v. 12-15.) But it seems more reasonable to conclude, that this passage is figurative, and alludes to the dethronement of the king of Babylon. The prophet does not say "thou art brought clown to hell," but "thou shalt be brought down to hell :" and he goes on in the next verses to add, "They that see thee shall narrowly look upon thee, saying, Is this the man that made the earth to tremble, that did shake the kingdoms ; that made the world as a wilderness, and destroyed the cities thereof, that opened not the house of his prisoners ?" &c., which can scarcely be rendered applicable to any
but a temporal prince.
The word which our translators have rendered Lucifer, after the Vulgate, in this passage, is in the original, Hellel, and means resplendent ; and thus, by a remark able allegory, a term which imports the harbinger of light, and which was in that sense applied to the beauti ful planet which ushers in the morning, the Eosphorus and Phosphorus of the Greeks, became the appellation of the prince or leader of those apostate spirits that re belled against their Maker. The term Satan, by which he was also distinguished, occurs first in the book of Job, and seems to have been of Chaldxan original. Beelzebub, another appellation of the prince of darkness, was of still later origin among the Jews.
Thus it appears, that on the subject of the fall of the angels, but slight information can be gleaned from scripture. Yet this doctrine adapts so well to the fun damental tenets of the sacred writings, and to the lead ing principles both of the Mosaic and gospel dispensa tions, that it has been almost universally admitted as an article of belief both by Jews and Christians ; who have generally considered the Serpent or 'Tempter, by whom the sin of our first parents was accomplished, as the chief of this impious and rebellious host, whose fall was the consequence of their wicked pride and ambition, by which they were led to war against their Maker. A doctrine entirely analogous is preserved in the tradi tions of the ancient Persians, Babylonians, and Arabians. The Niahometans believe that the devil, who was once one of those angels who stood highest in the favour of God, and was named Azazil, forfeited paradise for re fusing to pay homage to Adam at the command of his Maker ; and is now constantly employed in endeavour ing to seduce and pervert mankind. And in the Shacta, one of the most ancient of the sacred writings of the Brahmins, the fall and punishment of certain of the an gels is minutely detailed. This article of belief, there fore, has all the corroboration which can be derived from the most general} ixeption. (nz)