The god of this world. What ! doth he put God out of his place ? No ; but the world maketh him so, namely, a god, by doing that to Satan, partlj^ in himself and partly to his instruments, that they should do to God. The}' are at his beck, and run at his command ; he leadeth them by worldly profits and pleasures, as a sheep is led by a green pasture. His influence acts. "Wicked men are rightly styled ' men of the world,' Ps. xvii. 14 ; and Satan is truly called, by our apostle, * the god of the world,' for they make him so by yielding to him in his designs.
Satan hath ruled in the church for many hundred years, yet more for- merly than he doth in these times ; but he did it subtilly. Great per- sons ruled by their friends, their friends were ruled by popish spirits ; they by Jesuits, and the Jesuits by the man of sin, and he by Satan. So you see all resolved to the first principle. Satan hath a great hand in the government of the world. Doubtless the frogs that came out of the mouth of the beast. Rev. svi. 13, are Jesuits and irksome devilish spirits. He lieth hid in a corner, and is not seen ; but he is the god of the world, because by his subordination he ruleth as he list.
Use. Here you see the malice of man, justice of God, and vsxirpation of Satan. Man is the delinquent, God the judge, Satan the executioner. Man hath a hard and malicious heart against the light, he swelleth against it, and hateth nothing so much as the light. Take a worldly man that hath great parts, ofier him the world,* contrary to'his lusts and preferment, he will swell. Satan cavils against it. Indeed, men hate nothing so deadly as light, and this is the procuring cause of all mischief. When the truth is forced t on 3'ou, and you will have none, then God as a just judge saith. Take him, Satan ; take him, Jesuit ; take him, this or that profane person or vice ; and how can such persons escape the blackness of darkness for ever ?
And, beloved, can a man receive this glorious light of the Lord Jesus, ■when men are so dull and ignorant in the great point of religion ? not only because they hate the light, and put off God's just judgments, but also from Satan's temptations, either immediately from himself or his instru- ments. And lest this should seem to be spoken something too high, ' the gospel is hid to them that perish,' &c., therefore, saith he, ' we preach not ourselves, but Christ ; and ourselves your servants for his sake.' He did not speak this arrogantly, for all his ministerial function. He aimeth not at himself, but ' I serve Christ ; and am your servant for his sake.' Not the servant of your lusts, for had he been the servant of men he had not been the servant of the Lord Jesus Christ ; but the servant of their souls, one that would have laid his hands I at their feet to serve them, and would have been their servant indeed for their souls' good.
Now, the words that I have read to you shew the chief and principal cause of the glorious light of the gospel, and the means both to remove the cause of obscurity from the Scripture, and from St Paul's ministry, and shew where it is indeed.
* Qu. ' word ' ?— Ed. f That is, ' enforced'.— G. % Qu. ' liead ' ?— Ed.
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OOMMENTAKY ON
The principal cause of all liglit is God : * God, that hath commanded the light to shine out of darkness, hath shined in our hearts,' not only outwardly in his word, but in our hearts. And to that end he gave the word, &c. So hero is the chief cause of the chief end.
First, The chief cause of •all saving lii/ht that ire hare in the ministry of the word is God, that shineth in our hearts b}' the ministry of the gospel. And,
Secondly, The chief oid is to i/ire the liijht (f the (jlory of God in the face of Jesus Christ; not obscurely, like popish spirits, to impose darkness upon the Scriptures. Darkness is not from them ; for the subject of the Scrip- tures dcclareth the image of God, not the accidental, but the real image of God the Father, who is light ; and then they* oppose God, who is light in himself. But the end of the gospel is to give light, and ' the knowledge of God in the face of Jesus Christ.' If therefore the cause and matter and end be light, where is the cause of obscurity ?
To come to the words :
First, You see the cause of light, of imrard light in the heart. There is a double light — a light in the air and a light in the eye. So there is a light in the heart and a light in the truths themselves. Now, God is the cause of that inward liglit : ' God hath shined in our hearts ;' not only to us, but in our hearts, by his Holy Spirit.