This we infer from _1 Tim. 5:21_—“_the elect angels_”; _cf._ _1 Pet. 1:1, 2_—“_elect ... unto obedience._” If certain angels, like certain men, are “_elect ... unto obedience_,” it would seem to follow that there was a period of probation, during which their obedience or disobedience determined their future destiny; see Ellicott on _1 Tim. 5:21_. Mason, Faith of the Gospel, 106-108—“_Gen. 3:14_—‘_Because thou hast done this, cursed art thou_’—in the sentence on the serpent, seems to imply that Satan’s day of grace was ended when he seduced man. Thenceforth he was driven to live on dust, to triumph only in sin, to pick up a living out of man, to possess man’s body or soul, to tempt from the good.” (_c_) Some preserved their integrity. _Ps. 89:7_—“_the council of the holy ones_”—a designation of angels; _Mark 8:38_—“_the holy angels._” Shakespeare, Macbeth, 4:3—“Angels are bright still, though the brightest fell.” (_d_) Some fell from their state of innocence. _John 8:44_—“_He was a murderer from the beginning, and standeth not in the truth, because there is no truth in him_”; _2 Pet. 2:4_—“_angels when they sinned_”; _Jude 6_—“_angels who kept not their own beginning, but left their proper habitation._” Shakespeare, Henry VIII, 3:2—“Cromwell, I charge thee, fling away ambition; By that sin fell the angels; how can man then, The image of his Maker, hope to win by it?... How wretched Is that poor man that hangs on princes’ favors!... When he falls, he falls like Lucifer, Never to hope again.” (_e_) The good are confirmed in good. _Mat. 6:10_—“_Thy will be done, as in heaven, so on earth_”; _18:10_—“_in heaven their angels do always behold the face of my Father who is in heaven_”; _2 Cor. 11:14_—“_an angel of light._” (_f_) The evil are confirmed in evil. _Mat. 13:19_—“_the evil one_”; _1 John 5:18, 19_—“_the evil one toucheth him not ... the whole world lieth in the evil one_”; _cf._ _John 8:44_—“_Ye are of your father the devil ... When he speaketh a lie, he speaketh of his own: for he is a liar, and the father thereof_”; _Mat. 6:13_—“_deliver us from the evil one._”