A Practical Commentary on the Epistle of Jude

3. How they came to sin the Angels being created pure, they had no lust within to incline them, being in heaven they had no object without, to draw and allure them, there was no evil fracture, no tempter how could they sin? I answer 'tis probable that many of the Angels sinned by temptation, and seducement, and that one great Angel now called Beelzebub first fell, and drew the rest after him, Mat. 25. 41. the Devil and his Angels, and Mat. 10. 25. Beelzebub the Prince of Devils, it was the name of the Idol of the Ekronites, 2 Kings 1. 2. and signified the God or Lord of flies, now because the Jews knew that they were Devils, that were worshipped in the Idols of the Gentiles▪ they gave the names of the Idols to the Devils or evil Angels, and the chief of the Devils they called by the name of Beelzebub. So Matth. 12. 24. implying, one that was the Prince of the unclean spirits called Devil, Satan, the great Dragon, and the God of this World; from all which we may probably collect, that there was a Prince or Chief of the Apostate Angels, who was the Ring-leader in this Faction and Rebellion against God. 2. Because the question returneth how came the first Angel then to fall? I answer 'tis hard to conceive how sin came into the Angels first; all that we can say, is this, that the Angels were created good, yet mutable and free, and they voluntarily chose not to abide in their own estates. All the answer Augustine would give to this question was, Deus non sunt, they are not God; 'tis God's Prerogative alone to be immutable, they might sin because they were creatures; and Aquinus giveth this reason, God cannot sin, because his act is his rule, but all creatures though never so pure, if not assisted by Grace may sin, Job 4. 18. he chargeth his Angels with folly; there is mutability in the Angelical nature, there called folly: Certainly ⟨p. 279⟩God was not the cause of their fall, by infusing evil to them; 'twas the error of the Manichees, to say they were created evil, nor by his prescience for that enforceth not, nor his voluntary permission, for they were left to their own sway, nor his decree, for that is within himself, and doth not compel the creature; neither is God to be looked upon as consenting to the action, in that he did not hinder them from it;