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| To What Extent the Lord Was Pleased to Make Himself Known to the Demons.
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Chapter 21.—To What Extent the
Lord Was Pleased to Make Himself Known to the Demons.
The devils themselves knew this
manifestation of God so well, that they said to the Lord though
clothed with the infirmity of flesh, “What have we to do with
Thee, Jesus of Nazareth? Art Thou come to destroy us before the
time?”360
From these
words, it is clear that they had great knowledge, and no charity.
They feared His power to punish, and did not love His
righteousness. He made known to them so much as He pleased, and
He was pleased to make known so much as was needful. But He made
Himself known not as to the holy angels, who know Him as the Word
of God, and rejoice in His eternity, which they partake, but as was
requisite to strike with terror the beings from whose tyranny He
was going to free those who were predestined to His kingdom and the
glory of it, eternally true and truly eternal. He made Himself
known, therefore, to the demons, not by that which is life eternal,
and the unchangeable light which illumines the pious, whose souls
are cleansed by the faith that is in Him, but by some temporal
effects of His power, and evidences of His mysterious presence,
which were more easily discerned by the angelic senses even of
wicked spirits than by human infirmity. But when He judged it
advisable gradually to suppress these signs, and to retire into
deeper obscurity, the prince of the demons doubted whether He were
the Christ, and endeavored to ascertain this by tempting Him, in so
far as He permitted Himself to be tempted, that He might adapt the
manhood He wore to be an example for our imitation. But after
that temptation, when, as Scripture says, He was ministered to361
by the
angels who are good and holy, and therefore objects of terror to
the impure spirits, He revealed more and more distinctly to the
demons how great He was, so that, even though the infirmity of His
flesh might seem contemptible, none dared to resist His
authority.E.C.F. INDEX & SEARCH
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