Page:The New View of Hell.djvu/170



but who, on account of his impious attempt to overthrow the divine government and establish himself on the throne of the universe, was cast down from heaven, and became thereby the prince of the bottomless pit, the commander in chief of all the hosts of hell. (See Is. xii. 14); Jude 6th v.; Rev. ix. 11.)

Such was the generally accepted doctrine of the Devil a hundred years ago. And it is believed by many at the present day. A high authority where definitions are in question (Noah Webster), defines Satan to be "the grand adversary of man; the devil, or prince of darkness; the chief of the fallen angels; the arch-fiend." And in an abridgement of his great work, we find Devil defined thus:—"In the Christian theology—a fallen angel expelled from heaven for rebellion against God; the chief of the fallen angels."'

From these definitions we learn that the notion which Christians have generally attached to these words, has been precisely that expressed by Milton in his great epic, where he introduces Satan as one

"cast out from heaven, with all his host

Of rebel angels; by whose aid aspiring

To set himself in glory above his peers,

He trusted to have equaled the Most High

If He opposed; and with ambitious aim