שטןAdversarius.SATAN, or Sathan, or Sathanas: This is a meer Hebrew Word, and signifies an Adversary, an Enemy, an Accuser. It is often translated by Adversary, in the Septuagint1 Samuel xxix. 4., and in the Vulgate. For Example; the Princes of the Philistines say to Achish, Send back David, lest in the Battle he be an Adversary to us, and turn his Arms1
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against us. And again, The Lord 1 Kings xi. 14, 23, 24.stirred up Adversaries to Solomon, in the Persons of Hadad and Rezon.
Sometimes St. Jerom has preserved the Word Satan in the Sense of an Adversary; 1 Kings v. 4. 2 Sam. xix. 22.for Example, Non est Sathan, neque occursus malus. I have neither Enemy nor Misfortune. Cur efficiamini mihi hodie in Sathan? Ye Children of Zeruiah, why are ye become my Enemies? At other times Satan is put for Job i. 6, 7, 11, &c.the Devil; for Example, in Job Satan presented himself among the Sons of God. And the Lord said unto Satan, Whence comest Ps. cix. 6.thou? And in the Psalms, Let Satan stand at his Right Hand. And in Zechariah, Satan standing at his Right Hand. And the Zech. iii. 1, 2.Lord said unto Satan, The Lord rebuke thee, O Satan.
In the Books of the New Testament, the Word Satan is taken, both in the Sense of an Adversary, and also for the Devil; for Example, Matt. xvi. 23. Mark viii. 33.Jesus Christ says to Peter, Get thee behind me, Satan, thou art an Offence unto me; that is to say, Begone, O my Adversary, you that withstand what I most desire. But most commonly Satan is taken for the Devil. If Matth. xii. 26. Mark iii. 23.Satan cast out Satan, he is divided against himself. And in the Revelation, He laid hold on the Dragon, that old Serpent, which is the Rev. xx. 2Devil and Satan, and bound him a thousand Years.
The Word Satan in Scripture, is often put for an Accuser, a Plaintiff in a Suit, and I think this to be the most literal Signification of the Word. Zechariah says2, And he shewed me Joshua the High-Priest standing before the Angel of the Lord, and Satan standing at his Right-Hand to resist him. The Septuagint have translated this Word by Diabolus, which also signifies an Adversary, a Slanderer, an Accuser. Satan, or the Accuser, is at the Right-Hand of Joshua, as also in Psal. cviii. 6. Constitue super eum peccatorem, & Diabolus stet à dextris ejus. The Hebrew says, Sathan stet à dextris ejus. Zechariah goes on; And the Lord said unto Satan, The Lord rebuke thee, O Satan. Let him despise thy Accusations, let him contemn thy Malice.
To this Passage is referred what is said in Jude 9.St. Jude. Yet Michael the Arch-angel, when contending with the Devil, he disputed about the Body of Moses (which the Devil would have discovered to the Children of Israel, in order to seduce them to pay it a superstitious Worship) durst not bring against him a railing Accusation, but said, The Lord rebuke thee. Diabolus in this Passage is the same as Satan in Zechariah.
Kingdom of Satan. In the Gospel3, Jesus Christ represents Satan to us as a Monarch, who has other subordinate Devils obedient to him. Beelzebub is, as it were, Acts xxvi. 18.their King. If Beelzebub, says he, drives out Devils, his Kingdom is divided against itself, he labours for his own Ruin, which is by no means credible; it is therefore false that I drive out Devils in the Name of Beelzebub. St. Paul acknowledges in the Acts, that all those which are not in the Religion of Jesus Christ, are under the Empire and Power of Satan. St. John in the Revelations says, Rev. xx. 7.that after a thousand Years Satan should be unbound, should come forth from Hell, and seduce the Nations.
Rev. ii. 9, 13. Rev. ii. 24. τὰ βάθεα τοῦ σατανᾶThe Synagogue of Satan, of which the same Evangelist makes mention, are probably the unbelieving Jews, the false Zealots for the Law of Moses, who at the Beginning were the most eager Persecutors of the Christians. They were very numerous at Smyrna, where St. Polycarp was Bishop, to whom St. John speaks in this Passage.
The Heights or Depths of Satan. S. John writes to the Christians of the Church of Thyatira, and says to them, You know not the Heights or the Depths of Satan, which have not known the Depths of Satan; that is to say, the Mysteries of the Nicolaitans, and of the Simonians, who concealed their Errors under a mysterious Abstruseness; they spoke of certain Intelligences that had created the World, and that were in Opposition to the Creator. They taught a profound Knowledge concerning the Nature of the Angels, and their different Degrees. They had secret Books written in an abstruse and mysterious Manner; and these are what St. John calls the Depths of Satan.
To be delivered up to Satan, is to be excommunicated and surrendered to the Devil for a Season, who visibly possessed this Sort of People, that had deserved this Punishment for their Crimes or Errors. St. Paul delivered up to Satan, Hymeneus and 1 Tim. i. 20.Alexander, that they might learn not to blaspheme. He also surrendered up to him 1 Cor. v. 5.the incestuous Person of Corinth, for the Destruction of the Flesh, that the Spirit may be saved in the Day of the Lord Jesus.
Luke x. 17, 18.When Jesus Christ sent forth his Disciples to preach in the Cities and Villages of Judea, they returned back with great Joy, and told him, saying, Lord, even the Devils are subject unto us through thy Name. Jesus tells them, I beheld Satan as Lightning fall from Heaven. He seems to allude to that Is. xiv. 12.Passage of Isaiah; How art thou fallen from Heaven, O Lucifer, Son of the Morning! By which he insinuated, that the Kingdom of the Devil was coming to a Period. Elsewhere Luke xxii. 31.he says to Peter, Simon, Simon, behold Satan hath desired to have you, that he may sift you as Wheat, but I have prayed for thee, that thy Faith fail not, shewing thereby what vain Efforts the Devil would make to destroy the Infant Church.
We have observed elsewhere, that the Hebrews ascribed to the Operation of Satan, the greatest Part of Bodily Distempers. Thus, Ought not this Woman, being a Daughter of Luke xiii. 16.Abraham, whom Satan hath bound, lo these eighteen Years, be loosed from this Bond on the Sabbath-Day?
By collecting all the Passages where Satan or the Devil is mentioned, it may be observed, that he fell from Heaven, with all his Company; that God cast him down from thence for the Punishment of his Pride; that by his Envy and Malice, Death, and all other Evils came into the World; that by the Permission of God he exercises a Sort of Government in the World, over his Subordinates, over Apostate Angels like himself; that God makes use of him to prove good Men, and chastise bad ones; that he is a lying Spirit in the Mouth of false Prophets, Seducers, and Hereticks; that it is he, or some of his, that torment, obsess, or possess Men, that inspire them with evil Designs, as he did David when he suggested to him to number his People, and to Judas to betray Jesus Christ, and to Ananias and Sapphira to conceal the Price of their Field. That he roves about full of Rage, like a roaring Lion, to tempt, to betray, to destroy us, and to involve us in Guilt and Wickedness.
That his Power and Malice are restrained within certain Limits, and controuled by the Will of God; that he sometimes appears to Men to seduce them; that he can transform himself into an Angel of Light; that he sometimes assumes the Form of a Spectre, as he appeared to the Egyptians while they were involved in Darkness in the Days of Moses; that he creates several Diseases to Men; that he chiefly presides over Death, and bears away the Souls of the Wicked to Hell; that at present he is confined to Hell, as in a Prison, but that he will be unbound and set at Liberty at the End of the World, in the Time of Anti- Christ; that Hell-fire is prepared for him and his; that he is to be judged at the Last Day. But I cannot perceive very clearly from Scripture, that he torments the Souls of the Wicked in Hell, as we generally believe.
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