1. Not in an exemption from troubles. No ; you must expect con- flicts. Though Satan's deadly power be taken away, our heel may be crushed. Christ hath delivered us from the present evil world : Gal. i. 4, ' Who gave himself for us, that he might redeem us from this present evil world.' Not that the world should trouble us no more, but that the world should not be a snare to us. He came not to exempt us from trouble, but ' to save us from our sins,' Mat. i. 21 ; ' To deliver us from wrath to come,' 1 Thes, i. 10. We have the victory which he purchased for us, if the devil and the world do not hinder the fruition of eternal glory. Our victory over Satan is mostly gotten by patience even to the death ; and so those that are killed all the day long are ' more than conquerers through him that loved them,' Horn. viii. 35-37. Satan's main spite is not at your worldly interests, but your souls. God may give him sometimes a power over your worldly and bodily interests, but he doth not give him a power over your souls. Though he get his will over your bodies, yet, if he get not his will over your souls, it is you that conquer, and not Satan ; therefore in the christian sense suffering is conquering. If he do not draw you away from God and Christ, though he and his instruments have great power over you, it is your heel only is bruised, but your head is safe.
2. It is not a total exemption from sin. Necessary vital grace is only absolutely secured ; you shall receive no deadly wound to destroy your salvation. The godly sometimes may be foiled. Satan stirred up David to number the people : 2 Cor. xi. 2, 3, ' I am jealous over you with a godly jealousy ; for I have espoused you to one husband, that I may present you as a chaste virgin to Christ : for I fear lest by any
260 riEEMON UPON GENESIS III. 15.
means, as the serpent beguiled Eve through his subtlety, so your minds should be corrupted from the simplicity that is in Christ ; ' 1 Cor. vii. 5, ' That Satan tempt you not for your incontinency.' Yea, God may employ Satan in punishing his people ; as when the Israelites mur- mured, ' he sent evil angels among them/ Ps. Ixxviii. 49, and ' they were destroyed of the destroyer,' 1 Cor. x. 10. Because careless souls are apt to fall asleep, God permitteth him to be the executioner of his indignation.
Use 4. To animate and encourage Christ's servants in their war against Satan's kingdom, at home and abroad, within and without: ' Not to give place to the devil,' Eph. iv. 27. Christ whom we serve is more able to save than Satan is to destroy.
1. The devil is a creature, but Christ is the sovereign Lord, who hath power over him and all creatures. The devil's tempting is by leave : Job i. 12, ' And the Lord said unto Satan, Behold, all that he hath is in thy power; ' Luke xxii. 31, 'And the Lord said, Simon, Simon, behold, Satan hath desired to have you, that he may sift you as wheat.' He could not enter into the herd of swine without leave from Christ : Mat. viii. 31, ' So the devils besought him, saying, IE thou cast us out, suffer us to go away into the herd of swine.' When we are in Satan's hands, Satan is in God's hands.
2. The devil is an usurper, Christ is the heir of all things. Satan is the god of this world by usurpation, but by lawful ordination Jesus is both Lord and Christ : Acts ii. 36, ' Therefore let all the house of Israel know assuredly that God hath made that same Jesus, whom ye have crucified, both Lord and Christ.'
3. The devil hath only a persuasive force, no constraining efficacy. He cannot change the heart, or create any new principles and habits there, which were nut before. But God can ' put his law into our in- ward parts, and write it in our hearts,' Jer. xxxi. 35. He can only propound alluring baits or objects to the outward senses and fancy, but God worketh immediately on the heart.
4. If the devil be vigilant and assiduous in his temptations, he is matched and overmatched. Christ is always mindful of the affairs of his people ; he doth ever make intercession for us before God : ' And he that keepeth Israel shall neither slumber nor sleep,' Ps. cxxi. 4. Satan daily bloweth the bellows, inflaming our corruptions, suggesting temptations ; but the Spirit is as watchful in our hearts, maintaining his interest there.
5". The devil's malice is restrained, for he is held in chains of dark- ness : 2 Peter ii. 4, ' If God spared not the angels that fell, but cast them down to hell, and delivered them into chains of darkness to be reserved unto judgment ; ' meaning thereby not only the powerful restraints of providence, but the horror of their own despairing fears. Chains imply restraint, but chains of darkness, horror. He himself believeth and trembleth : James ii. 19, ' Thou believest that there is one God, thou doest well ; the devils also believe and tremble.'