(1.) Though Satan's head be crushed, yet still there is room for our duty, that we may use the means for our safety, as good soldiers of Christ, and live as in a continual fight. These are set down, 1 Peter v. 8, 9, ' Be sober and vigilant, because your adversary the devil, as a roaring lion, walketh about, seeking whom he may devour ; whom re- sist steadfast in the faith.'
(1st.) Sobriety, or an holy moderation as to the comforts and delights of the present life. The devil, the flesh, and the world are in conspiracy. By the baits of the world he enticeth our flesh to a neglect of God and heavenly things ; therefore we must use the world as if we used it not, lest our hearts be burdened and depressed, and disabled from seeking after our great end and happiness.
(2c?.) Vigilancy and watchfulness is necessary, that we may stand upon our guard, avoiding snares, and forecasting hazards, lest we fall as a ready prey into the mouth of the tempter : 1 Cor. xvi. 13, ' Watch ye, stand fast in the faith, quit yourselves like men, be strong.' The first point of a christian soldier is to watch ; conscience must stand porter at the door, examining what cometh in and what goeth out. The devil watcheth all advantages against us, that he may spy where we aie weakest ; and if the enemy watch and we sleep, we cannot be safe.
(3c?.) Steadfast resistance in the faith. When we are yielding, Satan gets ground ; but when we believingly and steadfastly resist, he is dis- couraged. This steadfast resistance in the faith is — (1.) Adhering to the privileges of the gospel as our happiness ; (2.) Persevering in the duties thereof as our work ; resolving not to let go our hold, but by patient continuance in well-doing to wait for the mercy of our Lord Jesus unto eternal life. Now if Christ should so destroy the devil as to exempt from this duty, the whole gospel would be in vain, and the
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promises and precepts of it to no purpose, and all the furniture of grace which Christ hath purchased for us and promised to us be lost and useless. Surely Christ hath not so crushed the serpent's head but that we need to be sober and watchful and steadfast in the faith ; otherwise we were not his soldiers, but his enemies.
(2.) Not to exempt us from trials of our sincerity. God will have all obedience to be tried and honoured by opposition, and sometimes by sharp and grievous opposition : Eev. ii. 10, ' The devil shall cast some of you into prison, that you may be tried.' Thus Job was remitted to Satan for his trial : chap. i. 12, ' And the Lord said unto Satan, Behold, all that he hath is in thy power.' And Paul had his messenger of Satan for his trial, to see what shift he could make, with sufficient internal grace under outward and vexatious evils, 2 Cor. xii. 7-10. Now better undergo the fiery trial than the fiery torment. Tried we are then, but not destroyed. God may let loose the wolf to drive us into the fold, and exercise us with temptations, but not suffer us to be overwhelmed.
[4.] In the external management of the mediatorial kingdom there are many vicissitudes and interchanges of the outward condition of the ohurch. Sometimes God doth notably defeat Satan and his instruments, and the devil's kingdom visibly goeth to wrack ; as at the first promul- gation of the gospel, though the world was captivated under Satan, rooted in former superstitions, yet Christ prevailed and got ground by the rod of his strength and the word of his kingdom, though Satan everywhere had his temples wherin he was worshipped and his oracles were resorted to with great reverence. Till the Hebrew child silenced him, he ate the fat of their sacrifices, and drank the wine of their drink- offerings, yea, often the blood of their sons and daughters, whom they sacrificed to him ; yet all of a sudden his strongholds were demolished, the idols broken, whom they and their fathers had worshipped and prayed unto in their distresses and adversities, and blessed in their pros- perities; the temples broken down, the altars polluted and set at nought, and the world turned from these vanities to the living God. But a little while after the fires were kindled, and the professors of the true religion were butchered and slaughtered ; but then * they overcame him by the blood of the Lamb, and by the word of their testimony, and not loving their lives unto the death,' Kev. xii. li. So that when the church seemed weakest and her enemies strongest, then she had more for her than against her. When Satan's instruments were killing christians, then they were pulling down Satan's throne and advancing Christ's ; so that it is better to be a simple soldier on Christ's side than commander of a whole army against him. When the persecutors had done, Satan raised up heretics in the church, as worms that bred in the body, and devoured it ; yet Christ confounded them, and in a little time brake each sect in pieces, and those that were the great scourge and vexation of one age were scarce known to the next but by their names and some obscure reports. The light of the gospel did soon scatter these mists as soon as they did arise. Last of all came the great apostasy of antichristianism, whereby the simplicity of the chris- tian doctrine was turned into school niceties, the worship of the gospel into a theatrical pomp and the pageantry of ridiculous ceremonies, and