Against Powers 1/2

Against Powers

           Satan, in this second branch of the description, is set forth by his strength and puissance—called powers.  This gives weight to the former.  Were he a prince and not able to raise a force that might dread the saints, the swelling name of prince were contemp­tible; but he hath power answerable to his dignity, which in five particulars will appear.  First. In his names.  Second. His nature.  Third. His number. Fourth. His order and unity.  Fifth. The mighty works that are attributed to him.

The great power Satan hath not only over the elementary and sensitive part of the world, but over the intellectual also—the souls of men.

           First.  He hath names of great power.  [He is] called ‘the strong man,’ Luke 11:21; strong that he keeps his house in peace in defiance of all the sons of Adam, none on earth being able to cope with this giant.  Christ must come from heaven to destroy him and his works, or the field is lost.  He is called the roaring lion, which beast commands the whole forest. If he roars, all tremble; yea, in such a manner, as Pliny relates, that he goes amongst them, and they stand exanimated while he chooseth his prey without resistance; such a lion is Satan, who leads sinners captive at his will, II Tim. 2:26.  He takes them alive, as the word is, as the fowler the bird, which, with a little scrap is enticed into the net; or as the conqueror his cowardly enemy, who has no heart to fight, but yields without contest.  Such cowards the devil finds sinners [that] he no sooner appears in a motion, but they yield.  They are but a very few noble spirits, and those are the children of the most High God, who dare val­iantly oppose him, and in striving against sin resist to blood.  He is called the ‘great red dragon,’ who with his tail, wicked men his instruments, sweeps down the third part of the stars of heaven; the ‘prince of the power of the air,’ because as a prince can muster his subjects, and draw them into the field for his service so the devil can raise [the power of the air].  In a word, he is called ‘the god of this world,’ II Cor. 4:4, because sinners give him a god-like worship, fear him as the saints do God himself.       

 Second.  The devil’s nature shows his power; it is angelical.  Bless the Lord, ye his angels, that excel in strength, Ps. 103:20.  Strength is put for angels, Ps. 78:25.  They did eat angels’ food, the food of the mighty.  In two things the power of angelical nature will appear; in its superiority, and in its spirituality.

1. Its superiority.  Angels are the top of the cre­ation; man himself is made a little lower than the angels.  Now in the works of creation, the superior hath a power over the inferior; the beasts over the grass and herb, man over the beasts, and angels over man.
2. The spirituality of their nature.  The weak­ness of man is from his flesh; his soul, made for great enterprises, but weighed down with a lump of flesh, is forced to row with a strength suitable to its weak partner.  But now, the devils being angels have no such encumbrance, no fumes from a fleshly part to cloud their understanding, which is clear and pierc­ing; no clog at their heel to retard their motion, which, for swiftness, is set out by the wind and flame of fire.  Yea, being spiritual, they cannot be resisted with carnal force; fire and sword hurt not them.  The angel which appeared to Manoah went up in the fire that consumed the sacrifice.  Though such had been the dotage, and is at this day, of superstitious ones, that they think to charm the devil with their carnal exorcisms; hence the Romish relics, cross, holy water; yea, and [it existed] among the Jews themselves in corrupter times, who thought by their phylacteries and circumcision to scare away the devil, which made some of them expound that [passage] Song. 3:8, of circumcision: ‘Every man hath his sword upon his thigh because of fear in the night.’  By sword on the thigh, they expound circumcision, which they will vainly have given as a charm against evil spirits that affright them in the night.  But alas, the devil cares for none of these, no, not for an ordinance of God, when by fleshly confidence we make it a spell; he hath been often bound with these fetters and chains, as is said of him in the gospel, and the chains have been plucked asunder by him, neither could any man thus tame him.  He esteems, as Job saith of the levia­than, iron as straw and brass as rotten wood.  It must be a stronger than the strong man [that] must bind him, and none [is] stronger but God, the Father of spirits.  The devil lost, indeed, by his fall, much of his power in relation to that holy and happy estate in which he was created, but not his natural abilities; he is an angel still, and hath an angel’s power.

           Third.  The number of devils adds to their pow­er.  What lighter than the sand? yet number makes it weighty.  What creature less than lice? yet what plague greater to the Egyptians.  How formidable must devils be, who are both for nature so mighty and for number such a multitude!  There are devils enough to beleaguer the whole earth; not a place un­der heaven where Satan hath not his troops; not a person without some of these cursed spirits haunting and watching him wherever he goes; yea, for some special service, he can send a legion to keep garrison in one single person, as Mark 5; and, if so many can be spared to attend one, to what a number would the muster-roll of Satan's whole army amount, if known?  And now tell me if we are not like to find our march difficult to heaven—if ever we mean to go thither —that are to pass through the very quarters of this multitude, who are scattered over the face of all the earth?

           When armies are disbanded, and the roads full of debauched soldiers, wandering up and down, it is dangerous travelling; we hear then of murderers and robberies from all quarters.  These powers of hell are that party of angels, who for their mutiny and dis­obedience were cashiered heaven, and thrust out of that glorious host; and, ever since, they have straggled here below, endeavouring to do mischief to the chil­dren of men, especially travelling in heaven's road.

           Fourth.  Their unity and order makes their number formidable.  We cannot say there is love among them—that heavenly fire cannot live in a devil’s bosom; yet there is unity and order as to this —they are all agreed in their design against God and man: so their unity and consent is knit together by the ligaments not of love, but of hatred and policy —hatred against God and his children, which they are filled with—and policy, which tells them that if they agree not in their design, their kingdom cannot stand. And how true they are to this wicked brotherhood, our Saviour gives a fair testimony, when he saith, Satan fights not against Satan.  Did you ever hear of any mutiny in the devil's army? or that any of these apostate angels did freely yield up one soul to Christ? They are many, and yet but one spirit of wickedness in them all.  My name, said the devils, not our name, is legion.  The devil is called the leviathan.  ‘The Lord with his strong sword shall punish leviathan,’ Isa. 27:1, from their cleaving together, of %&- (lava), compact or joined together, used for the whale, whose strength lies in his scales, which are so knit, that he is, as it were, covered with armour.  Thus these cursed spirits do accord in their machinations, and labour to bring their instruments into the same league with them; not contented with their bare obedience, but where they can obtain it do require an express oath of their servants to be true to them, as in witches.