Against The Rulers of The Darkness of This World - The Time When Satan Rules

   

These words contain the third branch in the des­cription of our great enemy the devil; and they hold forth the proper seat of his empire, with a threefold boundary.  He is not ‘Lord over all’—that is the in­communicable title of God—but a ruler of the dark­ness of this world,where the time, place, and subjects of his empire are stinted.  First. The time when this prince hath his rule—in this world, that is, now, not hereafter.  Second. The place where he rules—in this world, that is, here below, not in heaven.  Third. The subjects or persons whom he rules, not all in this lower world neither; they are wrapped up in these words—the darkness of this world.

[The time when Satan rules.]

           First. [Satan's empire is bounded by time.]  The time when he rules is in this world; that is, now, not hereafter.  This word world may be taken in the text for that little spot of time which, like an inconsiderable parenthesis, is clapped in on either side with vast eternity, called sometimes the present world, Titus 2.12.  On this stage of time this mock king acts the part of a prince; but when Christ comes to take down his scaffold at the end of this world, then he shall be degraded, his crown taken off, his sword broke over his head, and he hissed off with scorn and shame; yea, of a prince, become a close prisoner in hell.  No more, then, shall he infest the saints, no, nor rule the wicked, but he with them, and they with him, shall lie under the immediate execution of God’s wrath.  For this very end Christ hath his patent and commission, which he will not give up, till ‘he shall have put down all rule,’ I Cor. 15:24.  Then, and not till then, will he deliver up his economical kingdom to his Father, ‘when he shall have put down all rule;’ ‘for he must reign, till he hath put all enemies under his feet,’ ver. 25.  Satan is cast already, his doom is past upon him, as Adam’s was upon his first sin, but full execution is stayed till the end of the world.  The devil knows it; it is an article in his creed, which made him trembling ask Christ why he came to torment him before his time.

           Use First. This brings ill news to the wicked.  Your princes cannot long sit in his throne.  Sinners at present have a merry time of it, if it would hold; they rejoice, while Christ's disciples weep and mourn; they rustle in their silks, while the saint goes in his rags. Princes are not more careful to oblige their courtiers with pensions and preferments, than the devil is to gratify his followers.  He hath his rewards also: ‘All this will I give thee.’  ‘Am not I able to promote thee?’ saith Balak to Balaam.  Oh, it is strange—and yet not strange, considering the degeneracy of man’s nature—to see how Satan carries sinners after him with this golden hook.  Let him but present such a bait as honour, pelf, or pleasure, and their hearts skip after it, as a dog would after a crust.  He makes them sin for a morsel of bread.  Oh the naughty heart of man loves the wages of unrighteousness, which the devil promiseth, so dearly, that it fears not the dreadful wages which the great God threatens.  As sometimes see a spaniel so greedy of a bone, that he will leap into the very river for it, if you throw it thither, and by the time he comes with much ado thither, it is sunk, and he gets nothing but a mouthful of water for his pains—thus sinners will [go] after their desired pleasures, honours, and profits, swim­ming through the very threatenings of the Word to them.  And sometimes they lose even what they gaped for there.  Thus God kept Balaam, as Balak told him, ‘from honour,’ Num. 24:11.  But however they speed here, they are sure to lose themselves everlastingly without repentance.  They that are resolved they will have these things, are the men that will fall into the devil’s snare, and are led into those foolish and hurtful lusts, which will drown them in destruction and perdition, I Tim. 6:9.  O poor sinners! were it not wis­dom, before you truck+ with the devil, to inquire what title he can give you to these goodly vanities? will he settle them as a free estate upon you? can he secure your bargain, and keep you from suits of law? or is he able to put two lives into the purchase, that when you die, you may not be left destitute in another world?  Alas, poor wretches! you shall ere long see what a cheat he hath put  on you, from whom you are like to have nought but caveat emptor —let the buyer look to that; yea, this great prince that is so brag to tell what he will give you, must down himself; and a sad prince must needs make a sad court.  O what howling will there then be of Satan and his vassals together!  O but, saith the sinner, the pleasures and honour sin and Satan offer are present, and that which Christ promiseth we must stay for.  This, indeed, that which takes most.  Demas, saith Paul, forsook me, ‘having loved this present world,’ II Tim. 4:10.  It is present, indeed, sinners, for you can­not say it will be yours the next moment.  Your pres­ent felicity is going, and the saints’, though future, is coming, never to go; and who, for a gulp of pottage and sensual enjoyments at present, would part with a reversion of such a kingdom?  Except thou art of his mind, who thought he had nothing but what he had swallowed down his throat, [thou wouldst not].

This Cicero could say was more fit to be writ on an ox’s grave than [on] a man’s.  Vile wretch, that think­est it is not better to deal with God for time, than [with] the devil for ready pay.  Tertullian wonders at the folly of the Roman’s ambition, who would endure all manner of hardship in field and fight, for no other thing but to obtain at last the honour to be consul, which he calls  ‘a joy that flies away at the year’s end.’  But O! what desperate madness is it of sinners then, not to endure a little hardship here, but [to] entail on themselves the eternal wrath of God here­after, for the short feast and running banquet their lusts entertain them here withal; which often is not gaudium unius horœ—a joy that lasts an hour.

           Use Second. Let this encourage thee, O Chris­tian, in thy conflict with Satan—the skirmish may be sharp, but it cannot be long.  Let him tempt thee, and his wicked instruments trounce  thee, it is but a little while, and thou shalt be rid of both their evil neigh­bourhoods.  The cloud while it drops is rolling over thy head, and then comes fair weather, an eternal sunshine of glory.  Canst thou not watch with Christ one hour or two? keep the field a few days?  If thou yield thou art undone for ever.  Persevere but while [until] the battle is over, and thine enemy shall never rally more.  Bid faith look through the key-hole of the promise, and tell thee what it sees there laid up for him that overcomes; bid it listen and tell thee whether it cannot hear the shout of those crowned saints, as of those that are dividing the spoil, and receiving the reward of all their services and sufferings here on earth.  And dost thou stand on the other side afraid to wet thy foot with those sufferings and temp­tations, which, like a little plash of water, run between thee and glory?