31. Demonstration. That no creature is reconciled to God and delivered from the dominion of sin and damnation except through Christ is a dogma which is repeated and inculcated on every page in the Scriptures. Therefore, if it is established by an express testimony that Christ did not will to liberate the evil angels, their cause must be held to be desperate. But such a testimony exists, and it is said expressly enough that Christ did not will to bring salvation to the evil angels.
Let Paul be heard asserting concerning Christ:1 Οὐ γὰρ δήπου ἀγγέλων ἐπιλαμβάνεται, ἀλλὰ σπέρματος Ἀβραὰμ ἐπιλαμβάνεται. The Vulgate renders this: “For nowhere doth he take hold of the angels, but of the seed of Abraham he taketh hold.” But what is meant by ἐπιλαμβάνεσθαι ἀγγέλων, to take hold of angels, and ἐπιλαμβάνεσθαι σπέρματος Ἀβραάμ, to take hold of the seed of Abraham? There are many who interpret it thus: to receive, to assume angels; to receive, to assume the seed of Abraham. Yet this notion of receiving and assuming neither accords with the context nor satisfies the purpose of the Apostle.
Therefore ἐπιλαμβάνεσθαι here is equivalent to the Hebrew גָּאַל, “he set free, he vindicated,” as Braunius and d’Outrein have already confirmed by many considerations in their commentaries, and Cramerus in his book On the Goel.2 The causal particle γάρ shows that the Apostle here adduces the reason why it came about that the devil was destroyed through the Incarnation, and believing Israelites were freed from the fear of death by which they were grievously distressed under the old economy. The reason given for so dissimilar an outcome is this: that Christ was to be the ἐπιλήπτωρ, גּוֹאֵל, protector and redeemer, not of angels, but of the seed of Abraham. And thus the angels are excluded from every hope of obtaining salvation through Christ. This is signified most effectively by the particles οὐ δήπου: “not at all,” “in no respect,” so that the sense is: “For he does not at all vindicate angels, but he sets the seed of Abraham at liberty.”
But it is evident from the sentence of Christ that the condition of reprobate men and of the angels is one and the same:3 Πορεύεσθε ἀπ’ ἐμοῦ, οἱ κατηραμένοι, εἰς τὸ πῦρ τὸ αἰώνιον τὸ ἡτοιμασμένον τῷ διαβόλῳ καὶ τοῖς ἀγγέλοις αὐτοῦ. “Depart from me, accursed, into the eternal fire which is prepared for the devil and his angels.” Therefore, just as the evil angels, so reprobate men can promise themselves no liberation through Christ; and consequently the cause both of the former and of the latter is desperate, and their destruction everlasting.