52 SERMONS UPON 1 JOHN III. [SeR. XIII,
over them. So he is called the god of this world, 2 Cor. iv. 4, because of his great prevalency here : ' The priuce of the power of the air, that Avorketh in the children of disobedience,' Eph. ii. 2, All men in their unrenewed estate are very slaves to Satan, to his motions and sugges- tions, whom they resemble in their sin and wickedness, he taking them captive at his will and pleasure, 2 Tim. ii. 26. They are at war with God, from the covenant of whose friendship they are fallen, but at peace with Satan.
4. Satan hath a twofold power over the fallen creature — legal and usurped.
[1.] He hath a power over them by a kind of legal right, a power flowing from the sentence of condemnation pronounced by the law against sinners ; therefore it is said he had the power of death : Heb. ii. 14, ' That he might destroy him who had the power of death, that is, the devil.' The devil by his temptations having drawn men to sin, and so made them liable to death, they fall into his hands and come into his power, so that he hath a dominion over them, reigneth in them, blindeth them, perverteth them, stingeth them to death, and so by sin more and more they are made obnoxious to the curse and vengeance of God's broken law. As the jailor and executioner hath the power of the gallows, so hath the devil the power of death. The devil hath no right, as a lord, to judge and condemn us, but as an executioner of God's curse; so God may put the poor captive sinner into his hand, which is one reason why we should the more earnestly beg the pardon of sins, and be thankful for the mercy of a Redeemer. Now this power being by the appointment of God, it must some way or other be evacuated and disannulled : Isa. xlix. 24, 'Shall the prey be taken from the mighty, and the lawful captive delivered ? ' Sinners are Satan's lawful prize, but Christ came and turned the devil out of office : ' By death he hath destroyed him that had the power of death.' He made Satan's office idle and useless ; when God was reconciled, his power was at an end. Therefore upon his blotting out the handwriting of ordinances, which was against us, we presently hear of the disan- nulling of Satan's power. Col. i. 14, 15. When the judge and the law are satisfied, the jailor and executioner hath no more to do.
[2.] He hath a power by tyrannical usurpation, in regard of which he is called the prince of this world: John xii. 31, 'Now is the prince of this world condemned.' God ma'de him an executioner, and we made him a prince and a god, obeying his sinful motions and counsels, and being led by him up and down, and driven on furiously in a way of sin. So Christ, as true king and head, both of men and angels, putteth down Satan as a usurper, and breaketh the yoke of his oppression, rescueth the elect by strong hand : Col. i. 13, * Who hath delivered" us from the power of Satan, and translated us into the kingdom of his dear Son.' Satan had housed and possessed souls as his lawful goods : Luke xi. 21, ' When a strong man armed keepeth his palace, his goods are in peace ; ' Mat. xii. 29, ' How can one enter into a strong man's house, and spoil his goods, except he first bind the strong man, and then he will spoil his house ? ' Not part with the possession of one soul till he be mastered ; therefore the usurper and disturber of man- kind is destroyed.
VeR. 8.] SERMONS UrON 1 JOHN III. 53
5. There is a twofold work of the devil — one without us, and the other within us.
[1.] The work of the devil without us is a false religion, or those idolatrous and superstitious rites by which the world hath been deceived, and by which Satan's kingdom hath been upheld. Now Satan's king- dom is cast down by the doctrine of the gospel, accompanied by Christ's jiowerful Spirit : Luke x. 18, 'I beheld Satan fall from heaven like lightning.' When the gospel was first preached, the devil was de- throned, and fell from his great unlimited power in the world ; as lightning flasheth and vanisheth, and cometh to nothing, and never re- collects itself again : John xii. 31, ' Now shall the prince of this world be cast out.' The apostles went abroad to bait the devil, and hunt him out of his territories, and they did it with great effect. And there- fore it is made one argument by which the Spirit doth convince us of the truth of the gospel: John xvi. 11, 'He shall convince the world of judgment, because the prince of this world is judged.' The casting out of Satan from the bodies of those who were possessed by him, the silencing his oracles, the suppressing his superstitions, and destroy- ing the kingdom of wickedness and darkness, was an apparent evidence of the truth of the gospel, as was striking blind Elymas, a famous sor- cerer. Acts xiii. So the punishment of his servants and votaries, dis- solving the force of his enchantments : ' They that used curious arts burnt their books,' Acts xix. 15. The devil's kingdom went to wreck in all the parts of it ; the old religion everywhere was overturned, no more the same rites, the same temples, the same gods that they and their predecessors had so long worshipped ; and God, as worship- ped in Christ, cometh up in the room. Though the world were captivated, under Satan, rooted in former superstitions, yet Christ pre- vailed, and got ground by the rod of his strength, even the word of his kingdom. Before that, Satan everywhere had his temples wherein he was worshipped, his oracles resorted to with great reverence, till the Hebrew child silenced him. He ate of 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 his strongholds were now demolished, the idols broken whom they and their fathers had worshipped and prayed unto in their distresses and adversities, and blessed in their prosperities. Now all of a sudden are these tem- ples thrown down, these images broken, these altars polluted and set at nought, and the people turned from these vanities unto the living God ; and still he is undeceiving the world ; he came to dissolve the works of the devil, and in every age something is done in that kind. The unwary and corrupt world dotli put Christ upon acting mainly the demolishing and destructive part hitherto. When gentile worship was put down, then antichristianity got up in a mystery, and fortifietli itself by the numerous combined interests of the carnal ; ' But the wea- ])ons of our warfare are not carnal, but might}^ thiough God, to pull down strongholds,' 2 Cor. x. 4. But in time, by the power of the word and the course of God's providence, and the patience of his servants and the efficacy of his Spirit, this whole mystery of iniquity will be finished and come to nothing.