I have seen also hundreds of thousands of evil
spirits dispersed by angels and cast down into hell. Numbers are of
no avail against them; neither are devices, cunning, or combinations;
for they see through them all, and disperse them in a moment. (But
more may be seen on this subject in the account of The Destruction of
Babylon.) Such power do angels have in the spiritual world. It is
evident from the Word that they have like power in the natural world
also when it is permitted; for instance, that they have given to
destruction entire armies; and that they brought on a pestilence from
which seventy thousand men died. Of this angel it is said:
The angel stretched out his hand against Jerusalem to
destroy it but Jehovah repented Him of the evil, and said
to the angel that destroyed the people, It is enough, now
stay thy hand. And David saw the angel that smote the
people (2 Samuel 24:16, 17);
besides other passages. Because the angels have such power they are
called powers; as in David:
Bless Jehovah, ye angels, mighty in power (Psalm 103:20).
230. But it must be understood that the angels have no power whatever
from themselves, but that all their power is from the Lord; and that
they are powers only so far as they acknowledge this.
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