How We May Know Whether We Be Under Satan As Our Prince, or Not 1/4

How We May Know Whether We Be Under Satan As Our Prince, or Not

  First.  Is Satan such a great prince?  Try whose subject thou art.  His empire is large; [there are] only a few privileged who are translated into the kingdom of God's dear Son.  Even in Christ's own territories —[the] visible church I mean—where his name is professed and the sceptre of his gospel held forth, Satan hath his subjects.  As Christ had his saints in Nero’s court, so the devil his servants in the outward court of his visible church.  Thou must therefore have something more to exempt thee from his government, than living within the pale, and giving an outward conformity to the ordinances of Christ; Satan will yield to this and be no loser.  As a king lets his mer­chants trade to, yea, live in a foreign kingdom, and, while they are there, learn the language, and observe the customs of the place.  This breaks not their al­legiance; nor all that, thy loyalty to Satan.  When a statute was made in Queen Elizabeth's reign, that all should come to church, the Papists sent to Rome to know the pope's pleasure.  He returned then this answer, as it is said, ‘Bid the Catholics in England give me their heart, and let the queen take the rest.’ His subject thou art whom thou crownest in thy heart, and not whom thou flatterest with thy lips.

           But to bring the trial to an issue, know that thou belongest to one of these, and but to one; Christ and satan divide the whole world.  Christ will bear no equal, and Satan no superior; and therefore, hold in with both thou canst not.

           Now if thou sayest that Christ is thy prince, answer to these interrogatories.

1. How came he [Christ] into the throne?  Satan had once the quiet possession of thy heart; thou wast by birth, as the rest of thy neighbours, Satan's vassal; yea, hast oft vouched him in the course of thy life to be thy liege lord; how then comes this great change?  Satan, surely, would not of his own accord resign his crown and sceptre to Christ; and for thyself, thou wert neither willing to renounce, nor able to resist, his power.  This then must only be the fruit of Christ’s victorious arms, whom God hath exalted ‘to be a Prince and a Saviour,’ Acts 5:31.  Speak therefore, Hath Christ come to thee, as once to Abraham to Lot, when prisoner to Chedorlaomer, rescuing thee out of Satan’s hands, as he was leading thee in the chains of lust to hell?  Didst thou ever hear a voice from heaven in the ministry of the word calling out to thee as once to Saul, so as to lay thee at God's foot, and make thee face about for heaven; to strike thee blind in thine own apprehension, who before hadst a good opinion of thy state; to tame and meeken thee; so as now thou art willing to be led by the hand of a child after Christ?  Did ever Christ come to thee, as the angel to Peter in prison, rousing thee up, and not only causing the chains of darkness and stupidity to fall off thy mind and conscience, but make thee obe­dient also—that the iron gate of thy will hath opened to Christ before he left thee?  Then thou hast some­thing to say for thy freedom.  But if in all this I be a barbarian, and the language I speak be strange, thou knowest no such work to have passed upon thy spirit, then thou art yet in the old prison.  Can there be a change of government in a nation by a conqueror that invades it, and the subjects not hear of this?  One king unthroned and another crowned in thy soul, and thou hear no scuffle all this while?  The regenerating Spirit is compared to the wind, John 3:8.  His first at­tempts on the soul mat be so secret that the creature knows not whence they come, or whither they tend; but, before he hath done, the sound will be heard throughout the soul, so as it cannot but see a great change in itself, and say, ‘I that was blind, now see; I that was hard as ice, now relent for sin; now my heart gives; I can melt and mourn for it.  I that was well enough without a Christ, yea, did wonder what others saw in him, to make much ado for him, now have changed my note with the daughters of Jerusalem; and for, What is your Beloved? as I scornfully have asked; I have learned to ask where he is, that I might seek him with you.’  O soul, canst thou say it thus with thee?  Thou mayest know who has been here; no less than Christ, who, by his victorious Spirit, hath translated thee from Satan’s power into his own sweet kingdom.
2. Whose law dost thou freely subject thyself unto?  The laws of these princes are as contrary as their natures; the one a law of sin, Rom. 8:2; the other a law of holiness, Rom. 7:12; and therefore if sin hath not so far bereaved thee of thy wits, as not to know sin from holiness, thou mayest, except [thou] resolve to cheat thy own soul, soon be resolved.  Confess therefore and give glory to God; to which of these laws doth thy soul set its seal?  When Satan sends out his proclamation, and bids the sinner go, set thy foot upon such a command of God.  Observe what is thy behaviour; dost thou yield thyself, as Paul phraseth it, Rom. 6:16^[5]; ‘yield yourselves,’ a metaphor from princes’ servants or others, who are said to present themselves before their lord, as ready and at hand to do their pleasure; by which the apostle ele­gantly describes the forwardness of the sinner’s heart to come to Satan’s foot, when knocked or called. Now doth thy soul go out thus to meet thy lust, as Aaron his brother, glad to see its face in an occasion? Thou art not brought over to sin with much ado, but thou likest the command.  Transgress at Gilgal, saith God, this liketh you well, Hosea 4:5^[6].  As a courtier, who doth not only obey, but thank his prince that he will employ him.  Needest thou be long in resolving whose thou art?  Did ever any question, whether those were Jeroboam's subjects, who willingly fol­lowed his command? Hosea 5:11.  Alas, for thee, thou art under the power of Satan, tied by a chain stronger than brass or iron; thou lovest thy lust.  A saint may be for a time under a force; sold under sin, as the apostle bemoans; and therefore glad when deliverance comes; but thou sellest thyself to work iniquity.  If Christ should come to take thee from thy lusts, thou wouldst whine after them, as Micah after his gods.