The Prince of Tyre

Now that we have said what little we could about the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, the next thing is to say something about rational natures — their kinds and their ranks, the offices held by holy powers and by malignant ones alike, and also those powers that stand somewhere between the good and the evil and are still set in a state of struggle and testing. For in the holy Scriptures we find a great many names for particular ranks and offices, not only of holy beings but of beings of the opposite sort. We will set these out first, and then do what we can to work out what they mean. [a]

There are holy angels of God, whom Paul calls “spirits who serve, sent out for the sake of those who are to inherit salvation.” In Paul’s own writings we also find him naming them — on what authority I do not know — thrones, and dominions, and rulers, and authorities. And after that list, as though he knew there were still other rational offices and ranks besides the ones he had named, he says of the Savior that he is “above every ruler and authority and power and dominion, and every name that is named, not only in this age but also in the age to come.” By this he shows that there were beings besides the ones he had mentioned: some that can be named in this age, though he did not list them here and perhaps no one else knew them either; and others that cannot be named in this age, but will be named in the age to come.

Next we must recognize that every being endowed with reason, if it oversteps the rules and limits set for it, is beyond doubt caught up in sin by swerving away from what is right and just. So every rational creature is capable of earning praise or blame: praise, if it follows the reason it has and advances to better things; blame, if it falls away from the plan and course of what is right — and for that reason it is justly liable to pain and punishment. This holds for the devil himself as well, and for those who are with him and are called his angels. [f]

But the titles of these beings need explaining, so that we know who it is we are talking about. The names Devil, and Satan, and Wicked One — of the one who is also described as God’s Enemy — come up in many passages of Scripture. Angels of the devil are mentioned as well, and a prince of this world, though whether he is the devil himself or someone else is not yet clear. There are also princes of this world spoken of as having a kind of wisdom that will come to nothing; but whether these are the same as the rulers we have to wrestle with, or other beings altogether, seems to me a point on which no one can easily give a verdict. After the rulers, authorities too are named, whom we have to wrestle with, and our struggle is carried on against the princes of this world and the world-rulers of this darkness as well. Paul himself also speaks of spiritual forces of wickedness in the heavenly places. And what are we to say about the evil and unclean spirits the Gospel mentions?

Then there are certain heavenly beings, named by a similar title, who are said to bend the knee — or to be going to bend it — at the name of Jesus; and with them things on earth and things under the earth, which Paul lists in that order. And certainly, in a discussion of rational natures, it would not be right to keep silent about ourselves, who are human beings and are called rational animals. Nor should this point be passed over carelessly: that even among us human beings different ranks are mentioned, in the words “The Lord’s portion is his people Jacob; Israel is the measuring cord of his inheritance.” The other nations, moreover, are called a portion belonging to the angels, since “when the Most High divided the nations and scattered the sons of Adam, he fixed the boundaries of the nations according to the number of the angels of God.” And so, along with the other rational natures, we must give the nature of the human soul a thorough examination too.

Now that we have listed so many important names of ranks and offices — and it is certain that real beings stand behind them — let us ask this. Did God, the creator and founder of all things, make some of them holy and happy, so that they could take in nothing at all of the opposite kind, and make others able to go either way, toward virtue or toward vice? Or are we to suppose that he made some altogether incapable of virtue, others altogether incapable of wickedness and able only to remain in a state of happiness, and still others able to go either way? [k]

Let our first inquiry begin with the names themselves. Consider the holy angels: have they always been holy from the moment they first existed, are they holy now, and will they be holy — and have they never taken in, nor ever been able to take in, any occasion for sin? Next, consider those called holy rulers: did they begin to rule over subjects from the moment God created them, and were those subjects created with that nature, formed for the very purpose of being subject and under authority? In the same way, were those called authorities created with that nature and for the express purpose of exercising authority, or did they arrive at that authority and rank as a reward their virtue had earned? And again, did those called thrones or seats gain that settled happiness at the same moment as they came into being, so that they hold it by the Creator’s will alone? And did those called dominions have their dominion conferred on them, not as a reward for progress made, but as a privilege belonging to the way they were made — so that it is in some degree inseparable from them, and natural to them?

Now if we take the view that the holy angels, and the holy authorities, and the blessed seats, and the glorious powers, and the magnificent dominions hold those powers and ranks and glories by what they are, then it plainly follows that the beings named as holding offices of the opposite kind must be regarded the same way. In that case the rulers we have to struggle against did not receive that spirit of opposition and resistance to everything good at some later point, nor fall away from good by the freedom of their will, but had it in them as the very substance of their being from the moment they began to exist. The same would hold for the authorities and the powers: in none of them would wickedness be something that came after their first existence. And those whom the apostle called the world-rulers and princes of the darkness of this age would derive their rule, and their occupation of darkness, not from a warped intention but from the necessity of the way they were made. Logic will force the same view on us about wicked and malignant spirits and unclean demons.

But if holding this view about the malignant and opposing powers seems absurd — and it certainly is absurd to take the cause of their wickedness away from the purpose of their own will and lay it by necessity on their Creator — then why are we not equally bound to admit the same about the good and holy powers: that the good in them is not theirs by their very being? For we have plainly shown that this belongs to Christ and the Holy Spirit alone, and beyond doubt to the Father as well. It was proved that there is nothing composite in the nature of the Trinity, so that these qualities could look as though they were in it as accidents that follow along. From this it follows that with every creature it is the result of its own works and its own movements that those powers which appear to hold sway over others, or to exercise authority or dominion, have been promoted and set over those they are said to govern or hold authority over — not through some privilege built into the way they were made, but on account of what they have deserved.

But we do not want to look as though we were building our claims about matters this weighty and this difficult on inference alone, or asking our hearers to agree to what is only guesswork. So let us see whether we can get any statements from the holy Scriptures, on whose authority these positions can be held with more confidence. First we will bring forward what the holy Scriptures contain about the wicked powers; then we will go on to the others, as the Lord is pleased to give us light, so that in matters this hard we may find what comes nearest to the truth, or what we ought to think if we are to keep the rule of godliness. [q]

Now in the prophet Ezekiel we find two prophecies addressed to the prince of Tyre. Anyone who had not yet heard the second might take the first to be spoken about some man who was prince of the Tyrians. For the moment, then, we will take nothing from that first prophecy. But the second is plainly of a kind that cannot be understood of a man at all, only of some superior power that had fallen from a higher standing and been brought down to a lower and worse one. From it we will take an illustration, and it will show as clearly as anything could that those opposing and malignant powers were not formed or created that way by nature, but fell from a better position to a worse one and were turned into wicked beings — and that the blessed powers, in the same way, were not of such a nature that they could not take in the opposite, if they leaned that way and grew careless and failed to guard the blessedness of their condition with the utmost care.

For if the one called the prince of Tyre is described as having been among the holy ones, and without stain, and set in the paradise of God, and adorned with a crown of loveliness and beauty, are we to suppose that such a being could be in any way inferior to any of the holy ones? He is described as adorned with a crown of loveliness and beauty, and as having walked stainless in the paradise of God. How can anyone suppose that such a being was not one of those holy and blessed powers which, set as they are in a state of happiness, we must believe to hold no other honor than this? But let us see what the words of the prophecy themselves teach us.

“The word of the LORD came to me, saying: Son of man, take up a lament over the prince of Tyre, and say to him, This is what the Lord GOD says. You were the seal of a likeness, and a crown of loveliness among the delights of paradise. You were adorned with every fine stone and gem, and clothed with sardonyx and topaz and emerald and carbuncle and sapphire and jasper, set in gold and silver, and with agate, amethyst, chrysolite, beryl, and onyx. With gold too you filled your treasuries and the storehouses inside you. From the day you were created along with the cherubim, I set you on the holy mountain of God. You were in the midst of the fiery stones. You were stainless in your days, from the day you were created until wrongs were found in you. Out of the greatness of your trade you filled your storehouses with wrongdoing, and you sinned, and you were wounded from the mountain of God. And a cherub drove you out from the midst of the burning stones. Your heart was lifted up because of your loveliness; your knowledge was corrupted along with your beauty. Because of the multitude of your sins I threw you down to the earth in front of kings; I made you a spectacle and a mockery because of the multitude of your sins and your wrongs. Because of your trade you have defiled your holy places. And I will bring fire out of the midst of you, and it will devour you, and I will make you ashes and cinders on the earth in the sight of all who see you. And all who know you among the nations will mourn over you. You have been made destruction, and you will exist no longer, forever.”

Since these are the prophet’s words, who could hear “You were a seal of a likeness, and a crown of loveliness among the delights of paradise,” or “From the day you were created with the cherubim, I set you on the holy mountain of God,” and water the meaning down so far as to suppose it was said of some man or holy person — let alone of the prince of Tyre? Or what fiery stones can he picture, in the midst of which any man could live? Or who could be supposed stainless from the very day of his creation, and then, when wickedness was found in him afterward, be spoken of as thrown down onto the earth? For what this means is that one who was not yet on the earth is said to be thrown down onto it — and whose holy places, moreover, are said to be defiled.

We have shown, then, that what we quoted about the prince of Tyre from the prophet Ezekiel refers to an opposing power, and it proves as clearly as anything could that this power was once holy and happy; that it fell from that happiness from the time wrongdoing was found in it, and was hurled down to the earth; and that it was not this way by nature and by creation. We hold, then, that these words are spoken about a certain angel who had received the office of governing the nation of the Tyrians, and to whom their souls had also been entrusted for care. But which Tyre we ought to understand, and which souls of Tyrians — whether the Tyre that lies within the borders of the province of Phoenicia, or some other Tyre that the one we know on earth stands for; and whether the souls of the Tyrians are the souls of the city we know, or the souls belonging to the Tyre that is understood spiritually — does not seem to be a matter that needs examining here. We would only look as though we were investigating subjects of such mystery and importance in passing, when they call for labor and work of their own.