Fifthly, Sin leads to utter darkness ; utter darkness is darkness to the ut- most ; sin in its fidl height, and wrath in its full heat, together ; both univer- sal, both eternal. Here is some mixture, peace and trouble, j^ain and ease, sin and thoughts of repenting, sin and hopes of pardon; there the fire of wrath shall burn without slacking, and sin run parallel with torment : hell- birds are no changelings ; their toniient makes them sin, and their sin feeds their torment, both imquenchable, one being fuel to another.
Secondly, Let us see how it ajjpears, that such as are under a state of sin, are under the rule of Satan. Sinners are called the children of thedcvil, 1 John iii. 10 ; and who rules the child but the father ? They are slaves ; who rules the slave but the master? They are the very mansion-house of the devil; where hath a man command, but in his own house? 'I will go to my house,' Matt. xii. 44. As if the devil had said, I have walked among the saints of God, to and fro, knocking at this door and that, and none will bid me welcome ; I can find no rest; well, I know where I may be bold; I'll even go to my own house, and thei"e I am sure to rule the roast without control ; and ' when he comes, he finds it empty, swept and garnished;' that is, all ready for his entertainment. Servants make the house tinm and handsome against their master comes home, especially when he brings guests with him, as here the devil brings ' seven more.'
Look to the sinner ; there is nothing he is or hath, but the devil hath domi- nion over it: 'he rules the whole man,' their minds blinding them. All the sinner's apprehensions of things are shaped by Satan : he looks on sin with the devil's spectacles ; he reads the word with the devil's comment : he sees nothing in its native colours, but is imder a continual delusion. The very wisdom of a wicked man is said to be 'devilish,' Jam. iii. 15; or devil-like, because taught by the devil, and also such as the devil's is, ' wise only to do evil.' ' He commands their wills,' though not to force them, yet eftectually to draw them. ' His work,' saith Christ, ' ye will do.' You are resolved on your way, the devil hath got your hearts, and him ye will obey : and therefore when Christ comes to recover his throne, he finds the soul in an uproar, as Ephesus at Paul's sermon, crying him down, and Diana up. We will not have this man to reign over us ; what is the Almighty that we shoidd serve him ? ' He rules over all their members;' they ai'e called 'weapons of unrighteousness ;' all at the devil's service ; as all the arms of a kingdom, to defend the prince against any that shall invade. The head to plot, the hand to act, the feet swift to carry the body up and down about his service ; ' he rules over all that he hath.' Let God come in a poor member, and beseech him to lend him a penny, or bestow a morsel to refresh his craving heart, and the covetous wretch's hand of cha- rity is withered, that he cannot stretch it forth : but let Satan call, and his purse flies open, and his heart also. Nabal, that could not spare a few fragments for David and his followers, coidd make ' a feast like a prince,' to satisfy his own lusts of gluttony and drunkeimess. ' Heconnnands their time ;' when God calls to duty, to pi'ay, to hear, no time all the week to be spared for that ; but if the sinner hears there is a merry meeting, a knot of good fellows at the ale-house, all is thrown aside to wait on his lord and master; calling left at sixes and sevens, yea, wife and children crying, it may be starving, while the wretch is pouring out their very blood, in wasting their livelihood, at the foot of his lust. The sinner is in the 'bond of iniquity ;' and being bound, he must obey. He is said to go after his lusts, ' as the fool to the stocks,' Prov. vii. 22. The pinioned malefactor can as soon untie his own arms and legs, and so run from his keeper, as he from his lusts. 'They are servants,' and their members in- struments of sin : even as the workman takes up his axe, and it resists not; so doth Satan dispose of them, except CJod saith nay.
See here the deplorable condition of every one in a state of sin. He is under the rule of Satan, and government of hell. What tongue can utter, what heart can conceive the misery of this state! It was a dismal day which Christ
2Qg AGAINST THE RULERS OF THE