(2d.) The object, ' The works of the devil ; ' whereby is meant sins whicii are called his lusts. The devil is the author of sin, the pro- moter of sin, and hath a great power over us by reason of sin. Sin is his work ; he doth not only sin himself, but instigates others to sin ; and this Christ came to destroy by the merit of his purchase and the virtue of his Spirit. The points which I shall handle are two —
Doct 1. That while men live in a sinful course, they are children of Satan, and not of God.
Doct. 2. The design of Christ's coming into the world was to destroy sin. which Satan had brought into the world.
The first point, that while men live in sin, or in a sinful course, they are children of Satan, and not of God. For this first point take these considerations —
1. That God and the devil are so opposite, that a man cannot be the child of God and of the devil too. Since the first breach made with God, by Adam's defection and apostasy, there are two parties and two seeds — the seed of the woman and the seed of the serpent, Gen. iii. 15. God and Satan divide the world. There is no neutral and middle estate ; a man must be one of these, but he cannot be both at the same time. Those that continue in the apostasy from God are of Satan's party ; and till their estate be altered and changed, they ought so to be reckoned. The great work of Christ, by the powerful means of grace he hath instituted and blessed, is ' to turn men from Satan to God,' Acts xxvi. 18 ; to take them out of one kingdom to another, ' from the kingdom of Satan to the kingdom of God;' Col. i. 13, 'Who hath rescued us out of the power of darkness, and put us into the kingdom of his dear Son.' We must quit the one before we can be received into the other ; we cannot be of both at the same time. Now by nature the whole world of mankind Heth in wickedness, and the devils are said to be rulers of the darkness of this world, Eph. vi. 12 ; that is, those that live in the darkness of sin, ignorance, and superstition, the devil exerciseth a tyranny over them, and so they continue till their estate and hearts be changed.
2. Our being children to either is not to be determined by profes- sion only, but practice ; for many who are by profession among God's people may yet be limbs of Satan and children of the devil ; as Christ
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telleth the Jews, who were the only visible people God had for that time in the world, John viii. 44, ' Ye are of your father the devil, and his lusts will 3'e do ; ' and again, speaking of the tares that grew among the wheat, Mat. xv. 38, ' The field is the world ; the good seed are the children of the kingdom, but the tares are the children of the wicked one.' Mark, the field is the world, that is, the state of the church in this world ; the good seed signifies the good christians, but the tares the wicked that are remaining intermingled among them, and are only left to be distinguished by the reapers, who are the angels, at the last day ; so that all that live in a state of sin, and are unrenewed by the Holy Ghost, and not converted to God, are the children of the devil, though they grow among the corn. Now what a detestable thing is it that any of us should be Christ's in profession and the devil's in practice and conversation ? For us to have any commerce with the devil, and belong to the devil, after we are visibly brought into the kingdom of God, should be abhorred by all good christians. We detest witches that come into an express and explicit covenant with Satan ; but we are in an implicit covenant with him, of his league and confederacy, if we cherish his lusts, follow his counsels and sugges- tions. Others renounce their baptism, but you foi-get your baptism, which implieth a solemn vow against the devil, the world, and the flesh. And therefore carnal christians are said to ' forget that they w-ere purged from their old sins,' 2 Peter i, 9 ; that is, washed in God's laver, wherein they were dedicated to God, and renounced the devil and his works and lusts.
3. They that do evil, or live in a course of evil doing, are Satan's children for two reasons —
[1.] Because they resemble and imitate him ; for he is our father whom we imitate. Now they imitate Satan in his rebellion against God. A man is said to be of the devil, non natura sed imitatione. His substance is not by traduction from Satan, but he is said to be of the devil by his corruption. By nature he is of God, but by sin he is of Satan ; not as a man, but as a wicked man, he imitateth the devil, and beareth his image, and is like Satan in malignity. So Elymas tlie sorcerer : Acts xiii. 10, ' 0 thou child of the devil, thou full of all craft and subtilty, thou enemy of all righteousness ! wilt thou not cease to pervert the ways of the Lord ? ' Some are apparently so as he was, while they resemble him in a cruel destructive nature, and a special enmity to Christ, and his interest, and truth, and kingdom in the world, and seek to maintain the interest of sin and wickedness. This is one special sort of sin which is proper to Satan; but all that cherish sin in themselves and others are Satan's children, though they do not go to the height of enmity against Christ ; because they take after the devil as children do after their parents. Look, as we are denominated children of God by imitation and resemblance of him, Eph. v. 1, 'Be ye followers of God as dear children,' so pari raiione, by like reason, the devil's children, if we follow him in our obstinate rebellion against God.