thei-efore when he takes upon him to foretell events, if God teach him not his lesson, nor second causes help him, he is beside his book ; so, to save his credit, delivers them dubiously, that his text may bear a gloss suitable to the effect, whatever it is. And when he is bold to tell the state of a person, there is no weight to be laid on his judgment; Job was an hypocrite in his mouth, but God proved him a liar. Again, Thirdly, he cannot hinder those purposes and counsels of God he knows. He knew Christ was to come in the flesh, and did his worst, but could not hinder his landing ; though there were many devices in his heart, yet the comisel of the Lord concerning him did stand, yea, was delivered by the midwifery of Satan's suggesting, and his instruments executing his lust, as they thought, but fulfilling God's counsel against them- selves. Fourthly, He cannot ravish thy will; Diaholus non est jttssor vitiorum, sed incentor. He cannot command thee to sin against thy will; he can motum agere, make the soul go faster that is on its way, as the wind carries the tide with more swiftness, but he cannot turn the stream of the heart contrary to its own course and tendency.
Secondly, Satan's power is so limited, that he shall not do what he can : God lets out so much of his wrath as shall praise him, and be as a stream to set his purpose of love to his saints at work, and then lets down the flood-gate, by restraining the residue thereof. God ever takes him oflPbefore he can finish his work on a saint. He can, if God suff"ers him, rob the Christian of much of his joy, and disturb his peace by his cunning insinuation ; but he is under command ; he stands like a dog by the table, while the saints sit at this sweet feast of comfort, but dares not stir to disturb their cheer ; his Master's eye is on him. The want of this considei-ation loseth God his praise, and us om- comfort, God having locked up our comfort in the performance of our duty. Did the Christian consider what Satan's power is, and who dams it up, this would always be a song of praise in his mouth. Hath Satan power to rob and burn, kill and slay, torment the body, distress the mind ? Whom may I thank that I am in any of these out of his hands? Doth Satan love one better than Job ? or am I out of sight, or beside his walk ? Is his courage cooled, or his wrath apjieased, that I escape so well ? No, none of these ; his wrath is not against one, but all the saints ; his eye is on thee, and his ann can reach thee ; his spirit is not cowed, nor his stomach stayed with those millions he hath devoured, but keen as ever, yea, shai-pei", because now he sees God ready to take away, and the end of the world drawing on so fiist. It is thy God alone whom thou art beholden to for all this ; his eye keepeth thee ; when Satan finds the good man asleep, then he finds our good God awake ; therefore thou art not consumed, because he changeth not. Did his eye slumber or wander one moment, there woidd need no other flood to drown thee, yea, the whole world, than what woidd come out of this dragon's mouth.
Thirdly, Satan's power is ministerial, appointed by God for the service and benefit of the saints : it is true, as it is said of the pi'oud Assyrian, ' He meaneth not so, neither doth his heart think so,' Isa. x. 7; but it is in his heart to destroy those he tempts : but no matter what he thinks ; as Luther comforted himself, when told what had passed at the diet of Nuremberg against the Pro- testants, ' that it was decreed one way there, but otherwise in heaven ;' so for the saints' comfort, the thoughts which God thinks to them are peace, while Satan's are ruin to their graces, and destruction to their soids ; and his counsel shall stand in spite of the devil. The very mittimus which God makes, when he commits any of his saints to the devil's prison, runs thus : ' Deliver such a one to Satan for the destruction of the flesh, that the spirit may be saved in the day of the Lord Jesus,' 1 Cor. v. 5. So that tempted saints may say. We had perished if we had not perished to our own thinking. This Leviathan, while he thinks to swallow them up, is but sent of God, as the whale to Jonah, to waft them safe to land. ' Some of them of iniderstanding shall fall, to try them, and to purge them, and to make them white,' Dan. xi. 3.5. This God intends when he lets his children fall into temptation, as we do with om- linen ; the spots they get at our feasts are taken out by washing, rubbing, and laying them out to bleach. Tiic saints' spots are most in peace, plenty, and prosperity, and they never recover their whiteness to such a degree, as when they come from under Satan's
AGAINST THE RULERS OF THE DARKNESS, ETC. \()S