16. The Sin of The Angels

I. It may reasonably be supposed that every hierarchy and choir furnished its contingent to the host of the revolted angels. In every condition of life some are found unfaithful. Past supernatural graces and the delights of God’s friendship are no assurance against a fall. Higher endowments are no preservative, for these are accompanied by greater temptations and more numerous opportunities of sin. Even the cedars of Lebanon have fallen; and those who have eaten the bread of angels have come to lust after the husks of swine. As Lucifer failed, the highest of the Seraphim, the nearest to the throne, the most like unto God, we cannot suppose that any other class was exempt from the dangers that accompany free-will. As Lucifer was the noblest of the blessed spirits, so his sin was the greatest. He had a clearer vision of what he was doing; his powerful will adhered more obstinately to evil; at the same time he owed a deeper debt of gratitude to Him who had made him so great; and the splendour of his natural endowments gave greater encouragement and vigour, and dignity even (we may say), to the cause of evil. How sad to see the destruction of great possibilities of good, and the failure of great promise of happiness! How sad the rejection of God’s best gifts, the frustration of His loving designs! How horrible that His mercy should meet with such a return of hostility and hatred! Yet it is of daily occurrence. You may yet come to this; strive and pray that you may not.

II. What was the sin of the angels? We have no definite information as to details. From Holy Scripture and from our experience of human life we may gather data which afford considerable presumption as to the general character of that sin. It would not have been possible for the angels to fall into those sins which are associated with material conditions, such as carnal lusts, the thirst for gold, or physical brutality, which form so large a part of human transgressions. Their sin would necessarily have been one of the spiritual faculties, the intellect and the will. Such sins would be of less degrading character than ours, but yet of greater guilt, as being offences committed with higher faculties, and with fuller deliberation and knowledge, malice and obstinacy. They may have been transgressions of duties and virtues known to us, or something in kind and degree beyond our comprehension. The civilized man can commit more kinds of crime than the savage; and the sin of the clever cultured man, while less crude and shocking, is more injurious and more full of guile than that of the boor. So the angels with their wider universe, higher duties, finer talents, had opportunities of sin beyond what any man can have. How miserable it is to be subject to so many dangers of sin, and to find them more abundantly even in the gifts of God’s mercy! Long for the day of your release.

III. Considering the sin of the angels apart from details, we may safely describe it in general terms as a choice of self instead of God, of independence instead of submission, of their natural conditions, endowments, and satisfactions, instead of those which were attached to the higher, the divine, the supernatural life. This, taking it a little more specifically, may be called the equivalent of a sin of pride; and as such the sin of the angels is usually described by Holy Scripture and by the general consent of the Church. Thus, it is written of the enemy, the emblem of Satan, “He beholdeth every high thing, he is king over all the children of pride” (Job xli. 25). Pride manifests itself under many different forms, and varies in each individual. In the angels it would have the effect, as soon as it was entertained, of destroying at once all that was divine, virtuous and good, and producing an outburst of every kind of deordination and sin. Still we may say, generally speaking, that all the unfaithful angels united in one revolt under their leader against God. Pride is the destruction of all virtue; it is an abomination before God. It attacks all, and its work is secret, swift and fatal. Guard carefully against it.