Lamb. Satan could not overthrow their conscience; and by the word of their testimony they maintained the truth and righteousness against him as the father of lies; so that while the great High Priest secured their cause above, Satan, as a liar and accuser, seeking to deceive, was baffled and overcome: as a murderer, was submitted to till Christ took the power, and he was turned out. The manner in which accusations and persecutions are connected, in principle, may be seen in the history of the book of Job. Thereon the dwellers in heaven—for this was the ground and place of the enmity and conflict (see Ephesians, chaps. i. ii, and vi.)—are called on to rejoice, for this conflict is ended. Christ, as the great High Priest, might have sustained them in the conflict with the accuser; but now the conflict[1] was ended. This is clearly what concerned the Church, in this matter, as identified with Christ in His priestly exaltation. Woe then comes upon the inhabiters of the earth and of the sea; for the devil, not yet shut up, but cast from heaven, is come down in great wrath,
- ↑ Conflict with Satan, and trial, though used, perhaps, for chastening judgment, are very different from judgment in war, where Satan has power according to the fall of the first Adam, and a will to walk with him.
