The Place Where Satan Rules

         

 Second. [Satan's empire is confined to place.]  The place where the devil rules is in this world, that is, here below, not in heaven.  He is the ruler of this lower world, not of the heavenly.  The highest the devil can go is the air; [he is] called the prince there­of, as being the utmost marches of his empire; he hath nothing to do with the upper world.  Heaven fears no devil, and therefore its gates stand always open.  Never durst this fiend look into that holy place since he was first expelled, but [he] rangeth to and fro here below as a vagabond creature, excommunicated the presence of God, doing what mischief he can to saints on their way to heaven.  But is not this matter of great joy, that Satan hath no power there, where the saints’ lies?  What hast thou, Christian, which thou needest value, that is not there?  Thy Christ is there, and if thou lovest him, thy heart also, which lives in the bosom of its Beloved.  Thy friends and kindred in Christ are there, or expected, with whom thou shalt have a merry meeting in thy Father’s house, notwithstanding the snare on Tabor, the plots of Satan which lie in the way.  O friends, get a title to that kingdom, and you are above the flight of this kite.  This made Job a happy man indeed, who, when the devil had plundered him to his skin, and worried him almost out of that too, could then even vouch Christ, in the face of death and devils, to be his Redeemer; whom he should with those eyes, that now stood full with brinish tears, behold, and that for himself as his own portion.  It is sad with him indeed, who is robbed of all he is worth at once; but this can never be said of a saint.  The devil took away Job’s purse, as I may say, which put him into some straits, but he had a God in heaven that put him into stock again.  Some spending-money thou hast at present in thy purse, in the activity of thy faith, the evidence of thy sonship, and comfort flowing from the same, en­largement in duty and the like.  These Satan may for a time disturb, yea, deprive thee of, but he cannot come to the rolls, to blot thy name out of the book of life; he cannot null thy faith, make void thy relation, dry up thy comfort in the spring, though [he may] dam up the stream; nor [can he] hinder thee a happy issue of thy whole war with sin, though [he may] worst thee in a private skirmish; these all are kept in heaven, among God's own crown-jewels, who is said to keep us by his ‘power through faith unto salvation.’

[The subjects over which Satan rules.]

           Third. [The subjects of Satan’s empire are stinted.]  The third boundary of the devil’s prin­cipality is in regard of his subjects, and they are des­cribed here to be the darkness of this world, that is, such who are in darkness.  This word is used some­times to express the desolate condition of a creature in some great distress, ‘He that walketh in darkness, and hath no light,’ Isa. 50:10; sometimes to express the nature of all sin; so, Eph. 5:11, sin is called the ‘works of darkness;’ sometimes the particular sin of ignor­ance; [and is] often is set out by the darkness of the night, blindness of the eye.  All these I conceive may be meant, but chiefly the latter; for though Satan makes a foul stir in the soul that is in the darkness of sorrow, whether it be from outward crosses or inward desertions; yet if the creature be not in the darkness of sin at the same time, though he may disturb his peace as an enemy, yet [he] cannot be said to rule as a prince.  Sin only sets Satan in the throne.  So that I shall take the words in the two latter interpreta­tions.  First. [I take them] for the darkness of sin in general.  Second. For the darkness of ignorance in special.  And the sense will be, that the devil’s rule is over those that are in a state of sin and ignorance, not over those who are sinful or ignorant.  [Were it] so, he would take hold of saints as well as others; but [it is] over those who are in a state of sin, which is set out by the abstract, ‘rulers of the darkness,’ the more to express the fullness of the sin and ignorance that possesseth Satan’s slaves.  The notes [or Doctrines] will be two.  First. Every soul in a state of sin is under the rule of Satan.  Second. Ignorance above other sins enslaves a soul to Satan; and therefore all sins are set out by that which chiefly expresseth this, namely, darkness.