Satan then is possessed of great subtlety, and addicted to _wiles, snares_, and _devices_, for the purpose of deluding mankind. He is thus described by Christ: "He was a murderer from the beginning, and abode not in the _truth_, because there is no _truth_ in him. When he speaketh a _lie_, he speaketh of his own; for he is a _liar_, and the father of it." Peter, in addressing Ananias said, "Why hath _Satan_ filled thine heart to _lie_ to the Holy Ghost?" "We are not ignorant," says the same apostle, "of Satan's _devices_." "If our Gospel be hid, it is hid to them that are lost: in whom the god of this world _hath blinded the minds_ of them which believe not, lest the light of the glorious Gospel of Christ, who is the image of God, should shine unto them." "I fear, lest by any means, as the serpent _beguiled_ Eve through his subtlety, so your minds should be corrupted from the simplicity that is in Christ." In speaking of the deceptive practices of false apostles, he thus alludes to infernal power--"No marvel; for Satan himself is transformed into an angel of light." And in writing to the Ephesians, Paul exhorts--" Put on the whole armour of God, that ye may be able to stand against the _wiles_ of the devil." Antichrist is described by a similar allusion: "Even him, whose coming is after the working of Satan, with all power, and signs, and _lying wonders_, and with all _deceivableness_ of unrighteousness." "And I saw an angel come down from heaven, having the key of the bottomless pit, and a great chain in his hand. And he laid hold on the dragon, that old serpent, which is the devil, and Satan, and bound him a thousand years, and cast him into the bottomless pit, and shut him up, and set a seal upon him, that he should _deceive_ the nations no more, till the thousand years should be fulfilled; and after that he must be loosed a little season."