Works of the Right Rev. Bishop Hay of Edinburgh/Volume 1/Chapter 4

Q. I. What are the principal creatures that God made in the world?

A. Angels and men.

Q. 2. Why are they the principal or chief of all others?

A. Because they are endowed with understanding and free-will, by which they are capable of knowing and loving God, of which none of the other creatures are capable.

Q. 3. For what end, then, were the other creatures made?

A. For the use and benefit of man, to excite him to love, praise, and adore his Creator, for the numberless services he receives from these creatures.

Q. 4. Who are the angels?

A. Pure spirits without any body: " He made his angels spirits," Ps. ciii. 4.

Q. 5. In what state did God create the angels?

A. In a most excellent and happy state; for (i.) He made them of a spiritual and incorruptible nature. (2.) He gave them a most sublime understanding, capable of, and endowed with, exceeding great knowledge. (3.) He made them Almighty his strength" Ps. cii. 20 . And (4.) Besides these natural excellences, He adorned them with the supernatural gift of His Divine grace and heavenly beauty.

Q. 6. For what end did He create them?

A. That they might be always in His own presence, " Their angels always see the face of My Father who is in heaven," Mat. xviii. 10; assisting at His throne, for "Thousands of thousands ministered to Him, and ten thousand times a hundred thousand stood before Him," Dan. vii. 10; and executing His orders throughout the rest of the creation, for they " Executed His word, hearkening to the voice of His orders," Ps. cii. 20.

Q. 7. Did they continue in this happy state?

A. The greater part of them did, and are now confirmed in glory: but many of them fell by sin, and are now devils in hell.

Q. 8. What was the sin by which they fell?

A. It was pride, arising from the great beauty and sublime graces which God had bestowed upon them. For, seeing themselves such glorious beings, they fell in love with themselves, and, forgetting the God that made them, wished to be on an equality with their Creator.

Q. 9. What were the consequences of their crime?

A. They were immediately deprived of all their supernatural graces and heavenly beauty: they were changed from glorious angels into hideous devils; they were banished out of heaven, and condemned to the torments of hell, which was prepared to receive them.

Q. 10. Who was the chief of these fallen angels?

A. He was called Lucifer before his fall, which signifies one that carries light along with him, from the exceeding great splendour with which God had adorned him above his fellows; and since his fall, he is called Satan, or the Adversary, because he is the enemy both of God and man; he is also called the Devil.

Q. 11. What account doth the Scripture give of all this?

A. It is as follows: In the prophet Ezekiel, under the figure of the king of Tyre, the beauty and fall of the angels is thus described: " Thus saith the Lord God, Thou wast the seal of resemblance, full of wisdom, and perfect in beauty: Thou wast in the pleasure of the paradise of God. . . . Thou wast a cherub stretching out thy wings. . . . Thou wast perfect in thy ways from the day of thy creation until iniquity was found in thee. Thou wast filled with iniquity; thou hast sinned, and I cast thee out from the mountain of God and destroyed thee, O covering cherub. And thy heart was filled up with thy beauty. I have cast thee to the ground," Ezech. xxviii. And the prophet Isaiah thus speaks to Lucifer, the chief of the fallen angels, under the figure of the king of Babylon: " How art thou fallen from heaven, O Lucifer! . . . Thou saidst in thy heart, I will ascend into heaven, I will exalt my throne above the stars of God, I will sit in the mountain of the covenant, in the sides of the north. I will ascend above the height of the clouds. I will be like the Most High. But yet thou shalt be brought down to hell, into the depth of the pit," Isa. xiv. 12 . And at the last day the Judge will say to the wicked, " Depart from Me, ye cursed, into everlasting fire, prepared for the devil and his angels," Mat. xxv. 41 . Their fall is also thus described by St John: " And there was a great battle in heaven, Michael and his angels fought with the dragon, and the dragon fought and his angels. And they prevailed not, neither was their place found any more in heaven; and the great dragon was cast out, that old serpent, who is called the Devil and Satan, who seduceth the whole world," Rev. xii. 7, 8, 9; for " God spared not the angels that sinned, but delivered them, drawn down by infernal ropes, to the lower hell into torments," 2 Peter, ii. 4 . " And the angels who kept not their principality, but forsook their own habitation, He hath reserved under darkness, in everlasting chains, unto the judgment of the great day," Jude, verse 6. " And the devil, who seduced them, was cast into the pool of fire and brimstone, where both the beast and the false prophet shall be tormented day and night, for ever and ever," Rev. xx. 9.]