Notes:
Sermon 72: Of Evil Angels
These twin essays in angelology were written as a single exercise in January 1783, and then published in four successive instalments with texts but no titles in the Arminian Magazine, 1783 (Vol. VI, January through April), under the rubric, ‘Original Sermons by the Rev. John Wesley, M. A., Sermons XIII and XIV’. The paired sermons, with their present titles, were then published in SOSO, VI.103-45, and not published again in Wesley’s lifetime.
He must have thought that he needed to say something about the place and role of angels in ‘the great chain of being’ which, along with the Christian Platonists, he conceived of as the general structure of creation (see No. 56, ‘God’s Approbation of His Works’, I.14 and n.). This would also help explain his placement of these sermons here, after his delineations of the limits of knowledge and reason. But angelology was not one of his prime interests; this is suggested by the fact that he had preached from Heb. 1:14 only three times before (in 1752, 1758, and 1782) and from Eph. 6:12 only once (in 1759); his other references to angels are few and scattered in his writings as a whole.
Wesley’s ideas here, with a single puzzling exception (see No. 72, ‘Of Evil Angels’, I.3), are unsurprisingly conventional. One finds much the same viewpoints in Anglican theology in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, usually in connection with a doctrine of Providence or other comments on ‘the ways of God to men’. However, there are two identifiable sources closer than others to Wesley’s basic arguments here; only their practical applications are clearly different. One of these is Bishop George Bull, Some Important Points of Primitive Christianity, especially Sermons 11 and 12. Note that Wesley has reversed Bull’s order. This would follow his other main source, Thomas Crane’s second chapter, ‘Of Good and Bad Angels’, in Isagoge ad Dei Providentiam. And, of course, the great cosmic vision of Paradise Lost stands in Wesley’s further background here. It is interesting that Wesley could not have known Milton’s chapter IX, ‘Of the Special Government of Angels’, in his posthumous De Doctrina Christiana, since that was not published until 1825. But there is nothing in this part 03:004of Milton’s ‘doctrine’ from which Wesley would have dissented. And, on a crucial point, that it was a majority of the angels who fell and enlisted under Satan’s banner, Milton’s scenario in Paradise Lost is clearly decisive here.
03:016 Of Evil AngelsEphesians 6:12
We wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against wicked spirits
Translated thus in Wesley’s Notes.
11. It has been frequently observed that there are no gaps or chasms in the creation of God, but that all the parts of it are admirably connected together, to make up one universal whole. Accordingly there is one chain of beings,
For other references to this favourite notion of Wesley’s, cf. No. 56, ‘God’s Approbation of His Works’, I.14 and n.
The ‘fixity of species’ and their continuous gradation was a basic supposition of Aristotelian biology which Wesley still took for granted; cf. Historia Animalium, VIII.588a-b.
22. We can only observe, in a gross and general manner, rising one above another, first, inorganical earth, then minerals and vegetables in their several orders; afterwards insects, reptiles, fishes, birds, beasts, men, and angels. Of angels indeed we know nothing with any certainty but by revelation. The accounts which are left by the wisest of the ancients, or given by the modern heathens, being no better than silly, self-inconsistent fables, too gross to be imposed even upon children. But by divine revelation we are informed that they were all created holy and happy; yet they did not all continue as they were created—some kept, but some left, their first estate. The former of these are now good angels; the latter, evil angels. Of the former I have spoken in a 03:017preceding discourse; I purpose now to speak of the latter. And highly necessary it is that we should well understand what God has revealed concerning them, that they may gain no advantage over us by our ignorance, that we may know how to wrestle against them effectually. For ‘we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against wicked spirits in heavenly places.’
33. This single passage seems to contain the whole Scripture doctrine concerning evil angels. I apprehend the plain meaning of it, literally translated, is this: ‘Our wrestling’, the wrestling of real Christians, ‘is not’ only, or chiefly, ‘against flesh and blood’—weak men or fleshly appetites and passions—‘but against principalities, against powers’—the mighty princes of all the infernal legions,
Jackson emended the original ‘legions’ to ‘regions’, and may have had a textual warrant, since he had before him Wesley’s annotated copy of Sermons, Vol. VI, now missing.
In prosecuting this important subject, I will endeavour to explain, first, the nature and properties of evil angels; and, secondly, their employment.
11I. 1. With regard to the first, we cannot doubt but all the angels of God were originally of the same nature. Unquestionably they were the highest order of created beings. They were spirits, pure, ethereal creatures, simple and incorruptible; if not wholly immaterial, yet certainly not encumbered with gross, earthly flesh and blood. As spirits they were endued with understanding, with affections, and with liberty, or a power of self-determination; so 03:018that it lay in themselves either to continue in their allegiance to God or to rebel against him.
22. And their original properties were doubtless the same with those of the holy angels. There is no absurdity in supposing Satan, their chief, otherwise styled ‘Lucifer, son of the morning’,
Isa. 14:12.
Milton, Paradise Lost, v.659-60.
See Rev. 12:4.
33. We do not exactly know (because it is not revealed in the oracles of God) either what was the occasion of their apostasy, or what effect it immediately produced upon them. Some have not improbably supposed that when God ‘published the decree’ (mentioned Psalm 2:6-7) concerning the kingdom of his only-begotten Son to be over all creatures, these first-born of creatures gave place to pride, comparing themselves to him (possibly intimated by the very name of Satan, Lucifer, or Michael, which means, ‘Who is like God?’).
AM (1783) reads ‘Satan, Lucess, or Michael…’, obviously a printer’s error. In the errata to AM and in his personal copy Wesley altered this to ‘Satan, successor of Michael’. For SOSO (1788) he altered it yet again to the reading here preferred. This preference presupposes Wesley’s disagreement with traditional angelology, in which Satan and Lucifer are allied, and Michael has no such successor—cf. Rev. 12:7-9 and Isa. 14:12-20 (AV); see also J. B. Russell, Satan, the Early Christian Tradition (Cornell Univ. Press, 1981), pp. 67, 131, 194. The problem of Wesley’s first alteration, however, still remains as an unaccountable anomaly.
Isa. 14:13-14.
See 2 Sam. 1:19, 25, 27. Cf. Charles Wesley’s hymn on Gen. 1:27, Short Hymns on Select Passages of the Holy Scriptures: ‘How are the mighty fallen!’ (Poet. Wks., IX.2).
Cf. Milton, Paradise Lost, i.591-94; and see No. 71, ‘Of Good Angels’, I.5 and n.
If we suppose their outward form was not entirely changed (though it must have been in a great degree, because the evil disposition of the mind must dim the lustre of the visage), yet what an astonishing change was wrought within when angels became devils, when the holiest of all the creatures of God became the most unholy!
44. From the time that they shook off their allegiance to God they shook off all goodness, and contracted all those tempers which are most hateful to him, and most opposite to his nature. And ever since they are full of pride, arrogance, haughtiness, exalting themselves above measure; and although so deeply depraved through their inmost frame, yet admiring their own perfections. They are full of envy, if not against God himself (and even that is not impossible, seeing they formerly aspired after his throne), yet against all their fellow-creatures; against the angels of God, who now enjoy the heaven from which they fell; and much more against those worms of the earth who are now called to ‘inherit the kingdom’.
1 Cor. 6:9, etc.
55. In the prosecution of this infernal design they are diligent in the highest degree. To find out the most effectual means of putting it into execution, they apply to this end the whole force of their angelical understanding. And they second it with their whole strength, so far as God is pleased to permit. But it is well for mankind that God hath set them their bounds which they cannot pass. He hath said to the fiercest and strongest of the apostate spirits, ‘Hitherto shalt thou come, and no farther.’
Job 38:11.
Gen. 6:7.
6 03:0206. One circumstance more we may learn from the Scripture concerning the evil angels. They do not wander at large, but are all united under one common head. It is he that is styled by our blessed Lord, ‘the prince of this world’;
John 12:31; 14:30; 16:11.
2 Cor. 4:4.
Rev. 9:11; see also Matthew Poole, Annotations; Matthew Henry, Exposition; and Wesley, Notes, on the meaning of the name (from ἀπολλύειν, to destroy). Wesley says: ‘Both Abaddon and Apollyon signify a destroyer. By this he [Apollyon] is distinguished from the dragon, whose proper name is Satan.’ But he would also have had in mind ‘the foul fiend’ in Bunyan’s Pilgrim’s Progress who assaults Christian on his way through the Valley of Humiliation.
Rev. 12:9; 20:2.
Rev. 9:11.
0II. But what is the employment of evil angels? This is the second point to be considered.
11. They are (remember! so far as God permits) κοσμοκράτορες,
Cf. Eph. 6:12, and the references in the intertestamental literature in Arndt and Gingrich, Greek-English Lexicon. For Wesley’s satanocratic views, cf. No. 12, ‘The Witness of Our Own Spirit’, §10 and n.
Matt. 4:8-9.
Luke 4:5.
[Luke 4:] ver. 5, 6.
Eph. 6:12 (Notes).
1 John 5:19 (Notes).
22. ‘But has every man a particular evil angel as well as a good one attending him?’ This has been an exceeding ancient opinion both among the Christians and the Jews before them. But it is generally doubted whether it can be sufficiently proved from Scripture. Indeed it would not be improbable that there is a particular evil angel with every man, if we were assured there is a good one. But this cannot be inferred from those words of our Lord concerning little children, ‘In heaven their angels do continually see the face of their Father which is in heaven.’
Cf. Matt. 18:10.
Acts 12:15.
33. But whether or no particular men are attended by particular evil spirits, we know that Satan and all his angels are continually warring against us, and watching over every child of man. They are ever watching to see whose outward or inward circumstances, whose prosperity or adversity, whose health or sickness, whose 03:022friends or enemies, whose youth or age, whose knowledge or ignorance, whose business or idleness, whose joy or sorrow, may lay them open to temptation. And they are perpetually ready to make the utmost advantage of every circumstance. These skilful wrestlers espy the smallest slip we make, and avail themselves of it immediately; as they also are ‘about our bed, and about our path, and spy out all our ways’.
Cf. Ps. 139:2 (BCP).
Cf. 1 Pet. 5:8.
Cf. 2 Cor. 11:3.
Charles Wesley, ‘Hymns for the Watch-night’, No. 8, st. 7, ll. 5-8, in Hymns and Sacred Poems (1749), II.130 (Poet. Wks., V.272). See also, No. 83, ‘On Patience’, §2, where the first four lines of this stanza appear.
44. It is by these instruments chiefly that the ‘foolish hearts’ of those that know not God ‘are darkened’;
Cf. Rom. 1:21.
Cf. 2 Cor. 4:4.
See Heb. 11:1.
Wisd. 3:4. For Wesley’s other uses of this text, cf. Nos. 74, ‘Of the Church’, §9; 87, ‘The Danger of Riches’, I.11, II.12; and 129, ‘Heavenly Treasure in Earthen Vessels’, I.3.
See 1 Pet. 1:3.
55. Next to the love of God there is nothing which Satan so cordially abhors as the love of our neighbour. He uses therefore 03:023every possible means to prevent or destroy this; to excite either private or public suspicions, animosities, resentment, quarrels; to destroy the peace of families or of nations, and to banish unity and concord from the earth. And this indeed is the triumph of his art; to embitter the poor, miserable children of men against each other, and at length urge them to do his own work, to plunge one another into the pit of destruction.
Ps. 55:23 (AV).
66. This enemy of all righteousness is equally diligent to hinder every good word and work. If he cannot prevail upon us to do evil he will, if possible, prevent our doing good. He is peculiarly diligent to hinder the work of God from spreading in the hearts of men. What pains does he take to prevent or obstruct the general work of God! And how many are his devices to stop its progress in particular souls!
Cf. No. 42, ‘Satan’s Devices’, passim.
See 2 Pet. 3:18.
Gal. 5:22-23 (Notes).
77. To effect these ends he is continually labouring with all his skill and power to infuse evil thoughts of every kind into the hearts of men. And certainly it is as easy for a spirit to speak to our heart as for a man to speak to our ears. But sometimes it is exceeding difficult to distinguish these from our own thoughts, those which he injects so exactly resembling those which naturally arise in our own minds. Sometimes indeed we may distinguish one from the other by this circumstance: the thoughts which naturally arise in our minds are generally, if not always, occasioned by, or at least connected with, some inward or outward circumstance that went before. But those that are preternaturally suggested have frequently no relation to or connection (at least none that we are able to discern) with anything which preceded. On the contrary they shoot in as it were across, and thereby show that they are of a different growth.
Cf. No. 41, Wandering Thoughts, passim.
88. He likewise labours to awaken evil passions or tempers in our souls. He endeavours to inspire those passions and tempers 03:024which are directly opposite to ‘the fruit of the Spirit’.
Gal. 5:22; Eph. 5:9.
Cf. No. 51, The Good Steward, I.4 and n.
99. And in general we may observe that as no good is done, or spoken, or thought by any man without the assistance of God, working together in and with those that believe in him; so there is no evil done, or spoke[n], or thought, without the assistance of the devil, ‘who worketh with energy’, with strong though secret power, ‘in the children of unbelief’.
Cf. Eph. 2:2.
Luke 22:3.
Cf. Acts 5:3.
Cf. 2 Cor. 6:1.
Gal. 5:19.
1 John 3:8.
1010. On this account, because he is continually inciting men to evil, he is emphatically called, ‘the tempter’.
Matt. 4:3; 1 Thess. 3:5.
Cf. Charles Wesley, Hymns and Sacred Poems (1749), II.119, No. 2 of ‘Hymns for the Watch-night’ (Poet. Wks., V.261):
A constant watch he keeps,
He eyes me night and day,
And never slumbers, never sleeps,
Lest he should lose his prey.
See also No. 132, ‘On Faith, Heb. 11:1’, §10, where Wesley again quotes this quatrain.
Indeed the holiest of men, as long as they remain upon earth, are not exempt from his temptations. They cannot expect it; seeing ‘it is enough for the disciple to be as his Master.’
Cf. Matt. 10:25.
Luke 23:46.
1111. For such is the malice of the wicked one that he will torment whom he cannot destroy. If he cannot entice men to sin he will (so far as he is permitted) put them to pain. There is no doubt but he is the occasion, directly or indirectly, of many of the pains of mankind; which those who can no otherwise account for them lightly pass over as ‘nervous’. And innumerable ‘accidents’, as they are called, are undoubtedly owing to his agency, such as the unaccountable fright or falling of horses, the overturning of carriages, the breaking or dislocating of bones; the hurt done by the falling or burning of houses, by storms of wind, snow, rain, or hail, by lightning or earthquakes. But to all these, and a thousand more, this subtle spirit can give the appearance of ‘accidents’, for fear the sufferers, if they knew the real agent, should call for help on one that is stronger than him.
1212. There is little reason to doubt but many diseases likewise, both of the acute and chronical kind, are either occasioned or increased by diabolical agency; particularly those that begin in an instant, without any discernible cause; as well as those that continue, and perhaps gradually increase, in spite of all the power of medicine. Here indeed ‘vain men’ that ‘would be wise’
Job 11:12.
A Latin tag long since a commonplace; cf. Chaucer, ‘The Canon’s Yeoman’s Tale’, l. 904, Canterbury Tales (1687), p. 109. See Wesley’s letter to William Law, Jan. 6, 1756: ‘ignotum per aeque ignotum’; and also A Farther Appeal, Pt. I, V.9 (11:147 in this edn.).
1313. Many years ago I was asking an experienced physician, and one particularly eminent for curing lunacy, ‘Sir, have you not seen reason to believe that some lunatics are really demoniacs?’ He answered: ‘Sir, I have been often inclined to think that most lunatics are demoniacs. Nor is there any weight in that objection that they are frequently cured by medicine. For so might any other disease occasioned by an evil spirit, if God did not suffer him to repeat the stroke by which that disease is occasioned.’
Probably Thomas Deacon (1698-1753), a physician and schismatic non-juring bishop, much interested in demoniacal possession and exorcisms. In No. 132, ‘On Faith, Heb. 11:1’, §8, Wesley speaks of ‘one of the most eminent physicians I ever knew, particularly in cases of insanity, Dr. Deacon’. He had known Deacon first at Oxford, and in his diary records a visit with Deacon in Manchester on May 17, 1733 (and occasional visits thereafter). See also The Principles of a Methodist Farther Considered, IV.7, and Wesley’s letter to Thomas Stedman, Aug. 13, 1774. The same idea had already been suggested by Joseph Mede, Discourse VI, on John 10:20, Works, p. 29.
1414. This thought opens to us a wider scene. Who can tell how many of those diseases which we impute altogether to natural causes may be really preternatural? What disorder is there in the human frame which an evil angel may not inflict? Cannot he smite us, as he did Job, and that in a moment, with boils from the crown of the head to the sole of the foot?
Job 2:7.
Mark 9:20.
1515. But that malice blinds the eyes of the wise,
Deut. 16:19.
Cf. Saint-Jure, Life, p. 96: ‘He told her [the Prioress of the Carmelites of Dijon] that being led into his Chapel of Citry, and set down upon a bench, by reason of his sickness, the bench broke, without any appearance at all to him that such a thing could happen, and that he believed, the evil spirit had broken it, to move him to impatience, making him to fall untowardly: “But by the mercy of God, I was no more moved thereat”, said he, “than you see me now, although the pains that surprised me were very sharp.”’ Cf. also, Wesley, An Extract of the Life of M. de Renty (Bibliog, No. 43), London, 1741, p. 21 (iv. 4).
Cf. No. 124, ‘Human Life a Dream’, §4 and n.
It may be observed in all these instances we usually say ‘the devil’, as if there was one only; because these spirits, innumerable as they are, do all act in concert, and because we know not whether one or more are concerned in this or that work of darkness.
30[III.] It remains only to draw a few plain inferences from the doctrine which has been delivered.
11. And first, as a general preservative against all the rage, the power, and subtlety of your great adversary, ‘put on the panoply’, the whole armour, ‘of God,’
Cf. Eph. 6:11.
Cf. Phil. 2:5.
Cf. 1 John 2:6.
Acts 24:16.
Eph. 6:13.
Ibid.
Ibid.
22. To his ‘fiery darts’, his evil suggestions of every kind, blasphemous or unclean, though numberless as the stars of heaven, oppose ‘the shield of faith’;
Eph. 6:16.
Cf. Charles Wesley, ‘The Whole Armour of God’, in Hymns and Sacred Poems (1749), I.237 (Poet. Wks., V.42). Orig., second line reads, ‘What can his love withstand?’
3 03:0283. If he inject doubts whether you are a child of God, or fears lest you should not endure to the end, ‘Take to you for a helmet the hope of salvation.’
Cf. 1 Thess. 5:8.
Cf. 1 Pet. 1:3-4.
Cf. Heb. 3:14.
44. Whenever the ‘roaring lion, walking about and seeking whom he may devour’,
Cf. 1 Pet. 5:8.
1 Pet. 5:9.
See No. 48, ‘Self-denial’, III.4 and n.
Cf. 2 Tim. 1:6.
Eph. 6:10.
Jas. 4:7.
55. But ‘there is no temptation’, says one, ‘greater than the being without temptation.’
Miguel de Molinos, The Spiritual Guide Which Disentangles the Soul (1688), I.63. Wesley extracted this for the Christian Lib., XXXVIII.262: ‘Finally thou art to know, that the greatest temptation is to be without temptation.’
Cf. 2 Cor. 11:3.
66. Lastly, if he ‘transform himself into an angel of light’,
Cf. 2 Cor. 11:14.
Matt. 26:41.
Cf. 1 John 2:20, 27 (Notes).
See Job 40:24.
Cf. Rom. 12:1, 2.
Cf. Eph. 4:15.
January 7, 1783
Date as added in AM.
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Entry Title: Sermon 72: Of Evil Angels