[2.] The dominion and power of sin. The devil keepeth peaceable possession in the soul as long as sin reigneth : Eph. ii. 2, ' He worketh in the children of di.sobedience.' Their hearts are his shop and work- house, where he formeth weapons and instruments of rebellion against God. The devil, who hath lost his seat in heaven, hath built himself a throne in the heart of every wicked man, and lords it over them as over his slaves ; and if they liad eyes to see, this is a heavier bondage than if they were laden with irons, and cast into the deepest dungeon tliat ever was digged. Convinced men are sensible of it, but they know
56 SERMONS UPON 1 JOHN III. [SeR. XIII.
not how to help themselves. Converted men are in part freed ; the dominion of sin is broken in them, though its life be prolonged for a season. But because it is a nice case how to distinguish between the remaining of sin and the reigning of it, and the life from the dominion, and every degree of this hated enemy is a burden, therefore they pray earnestly, Ps. cxix. 133, ' Order my steps in thy word, and let no ini- quity have dominion over me.' Watch and strive: Kom. vi. 12, ' Let not sin reign therefore in your mortal bodies, that ye should obey the lusts thereof.' Comfort themselves with their justification, in the im- perfection of their sanctification : Rom. vi. 14, ' For sin shall not have dominion over us ; for ye are not under the law, but under grace.' But the great encouragement of all is Christ's undertaking ; ' He came to destroy the works of the devil' And surely his end will not be frus- trated : Rom. vi. 11, ' Likewise reckon ye yourselves to be dead indeed unto sin, but alive unto God.' Therefore you may see it a-dying, and Christ destroyeth the power of sin by degrees, putting an enmity in your hearts against it : Gen. iii. 15, ' I will put enmity between thee and the woman, and between thy seed and her seed.' Sin dieth as our love dieth to it ; they grow every day more free from it, as heretofore from righteousness. The devil seeks to increase sin, but Christ to destroy it. When he hath once rescued the prey out of Satan's hands, he will maintain his interest against all the powers of darkness : Eph. vi. 10, 11, * Be strong in the Lord, and in the power of his might ; for we fight not against flesh and blood.' The war is not only against visible enemies, nor against internal passions and lusts, but against spiritual wickednesses. Yet the divine grace is sufficient; we have God's Spirit against the evil spirit : 1 John iv. 4, ' Greater is he that is in you than he that is in the world.'
[3.] The being of sin shall at length be destroyed; for the final victory is sure and near, for Christ will perfect the conquest which he hath begun : Rom. xvi. 20, ' The God of peace shall tread Satan under our feet shortly.' At death sin is totally disannulled, and then sin shall gasp its last, and the physician of souls will then perfect the cure. The Papists say, as Bellarmine, that either we must be perfect before death, or in purgatory after death. I answer — As we are sinners in the first moment of our birth, so after death no more sinners ; no, not in the last moment of expiration. Christ taketli time to finish his work. No sinner doth enter into the state of bliss. Death doth remove us from this sinful flesh, and admits the soul into the sight of God, which is in that instant perfected ; as remove the veil, and light break- eth in all of a sudden.
Object. 1. How doth Christ destroy the works of the devil, since the kingdom of sin and Satan yet remaineth in so great a part of the world ?
Object. 2. How doth Christ destroy the works of the devil, since many of Christ's own people are sorely assaulted, shaken, and many times foiled by the devil ?
(1.) For the general case. In time Christ doth destroy them, all the opposite reigns or kingdoms, the kingdom of sin, Satan, and death. Christians have no enemy to their happiness but such as shall be con- quered by Christ ; sooner or later he will overcome them all. Yet, for
YeR. 8.] SEEMONS UPON 1 JOHN TIL 57
the present, this destruction is not so universal but that sin and Satan do still continue. There is not a total destruction of these things, but an absolute subjection to the mediatorial kingdom ; they are so far destroyed as they cannot hinder the salvation of the elect ; they are destroyed so far that they shall not hinder the demonstration of his luercy to them ; but as they are subservient to the demonstration of liis justice, error is so far continued. In reprobate and damned souls, the spot of sin remaineth in its perfect dye, the dominion of sin con- tinueth in its absolute power. Gruilt is an obligation to eternal pain ; but all this in a subjection to his throne. Some continue slaves to Satan, and evermore remain so, and we are not altogether gotten free from Satan's power. God hath a ministry for the devil in the world. Absolute subjection to Christ is at the day of judgment ; the infernal spirits shall then bow the knee to Christ, as things in heaven and on earth, and things under the earth : Phil. ii. 10, compared with Rom. xiv. 10, 11, and Isa. xlv. 23, ' Unto me every knee shall bow, and every tongue shall swear.' The saints shall then judge angels, 2 Cor. vi. 2. God hath a ministry for Satan to punish careless souls, to hinder the word, inject ill thoughts, lay snares, raise persecution, sow tares, accuse and trouble the faithful, vex their bodies as he did Job ; so Paul had a messenger of Satan, some racking pain in his body, the stone or gout, or the like.