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| Chapter XXV. How this that is said of the devil in the gospel is to be understood; viz., that “he is a liar, and his father.”
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Chapter XXV.
How this that is said of the devil in the gospel is to
be understood; viz., that “he is a liar, and his
father.”
But as for this which
disturbed you about the devil, that “he is a liar and his
father,”1572
as if it seemed
that he and his father were pronounced by the Lord to be liars, it is
sufficiently ridiculous to imagine this even cursorily. For as we said
a little while ago spirit does not beget spirit just as soul cannot
procreate soul, though we do not doubt that the compacting of flesh is
formed from man’s seed, as the Apostle clearly distinguishes in
the case of both substances; viz., flesh and spirit, what should be
ascribed to whom as its author, and says: “Moreover we have had
fathers of our flesh for instructors, and we reverenced them: shall we
not much more be in subjection to the Father of spirits and
live?”1573
What could show
more clearly than this distinction, that he laid down that men were the
fathers of our flesh, but always taught that God alone was the Father
of souls. Although even in the actual compacting of this body a
ministerial office alone must be attributed to men, but the chief part
of its formation to God the Creator of all, as David says: “Thy
hands have made me and fashioned me:”1574
And the blessed Job: “Hast thou not milked me as milk, and
curdled me as cheese? Thou hast put me together with bones and
sinews;”1575
and the Lord to
Jeremiah: “Before I formed thee in the womb, I knew
thee.”1576
But Ecclesiastes
very clearly and accurately gathers the nature of either substance, and
its beginning, by an examination of the rise and commencement, from
which each originated, and by a consideration of the end to which each
is tending, and decides also of the division of this body and soul, and
discourses as follows: “Before the dust returns to the earth as
it was, and the spirit returns unto God who gave it.”1577
But what could be said with greater
plainness than that he declares that the matter of the flesh which he
styled dust, because it springs from the seed of man, and seems to be
sown by his ministration, must, as it was taken from the earth, again
return to the earth, while he points out that the spirit which is not
begotten by intercourse between the sexes, but belongs to God alone in
a special way, returns to its creator? And this also is clearly implied
in that breathing by God, through which Adam in the first instance
received his life. And so from these passages we clearly infer that no
one can be called the Father of spirits but God alone, who makes them
out of nothing whenever He pleases, while men can only be termed the
fathers of our flesh. So then the devil also in as much as he was
created a spirit or an angel and good, had no one as his Father but God
his Maker. But when he had become puffed up by pride and had said in
his heart: “I will ascend above the heights of the clouds, I will
be like the Most High,”1578
he became a
liar, and “abode not in the truth;”1579
but brought forth a lie from his own storehouse of wickedness and so
became not only a liar, but also the father of the actual lie, by which
when he promised Divinity to man and said “Ye shall be as
gods,”1580
he abode not in
the truth, but from the beginning became a murderer, both by bringing
Adam into a state of mortality, and by slaying Abel by the hand of his
brother at his suggestion. But already the approach of dawn is bringing
to a close our discussion, which has occupied nearly two whole nights,
and our brief and simple words have drawn our bark of this Conference
from the deep sea of questions to a safe harbour of silence, in which
deep indeed, as the breath of the Divine Spirit drives us further in,
so is there ever opened out a wider and boundless space reaching beyond
the sight of our eye, and, as Solomon says, “It will become much
further from us than it was, and a great depth; who shall find it
out?”1581
Wherefore let us
pray the Lord that both His fear and His love, which cannot fail, may
continue steadfast in us, and make us wise in all things, and ever
shield us unharmed, from the darts
of the devil. For with these guards it is
impossible for anyone to fall into the snares of death. But there is
this difference between the perfect and imperfect, that in the case of
the former love is steadfast, and so to speak riper and lasts more
abidingly and so makes them persevere in holiness more steadfastly and
more easily, while in the case of the latter its position is weaker and
it more easily grows cold, and so quickly and more frequently allows
them to be entangled in the snares of sin. And when we heard this, the
words of this Conference so fired us that when we went away from the
old man’s cell we longed with a keener ardour of soul than when
we first came, for the fulfilment of his teaching.E.C.F. INDEX & SEARCH
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