How We May Know Whether We Be Under Satan As Our Prince, or Not 2/4

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

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

To whom goest thou for protection?  As it be­longs to the prince to protect his subjects, so princes expect their subjects should trust them with their safety.  The very bramble bids, ‘If in truth you anoint me king over you, then come and put your trust in my shadow,’ Judges 9:15.  Now who hast thy confi­dence?  Darest thou trust God with thy soul, and the affairs of it in well-doing?  Good subjects follow their calling, commit state matters to the wisdom of their prince and his council.  When wronged, they appeal to their prince in his laws for right; and when they do offend their prince, they submit to the penalty of the laws, and bear his displeasure patiently, till humbling themselves they recover his favour, and do not, in a discontent, fall into open rebellion.  Thus a gracious soul follows his Christian calling, committing himself to God as a faithful Creator, to be ordered by his wise providence.  If he meets with violence from any, he scorns to beg aid of the devil to help him, or be his own judge to right himself; no, he acquiesceth in the counsel and comfort the Word of God gives him.  If himself offends, and so comes under the lash of God’s correcting hand, he doth not then take up rebellious arms against God, and refuse to receive cor­rection; but saith, ‘Wherefore doth a living man complain, a man for the punishment of his sins?’ whereas a naughty man dares not venture his estate, life, credit, or anything he hath, with God in well-doing; he thinks he shall be undone presently, if he sits still under the shadow of God's promise for pro­tection; and therefore he runs from God as from under an old house that would fall on his head, and lays the weight of his confidence in wicked policy, making lies his refuge.  Like Israel, he trusts in perverse­ness; when God tells him, ‘In returning and rest he shall be saved; in quietness and confidence shall be his strength;’ he hath not faith to take God’s word for his security in ways of obedience.  And when God comes to afflict him for any disloyal carriage, instead of accepting the punishment for his sin—and so to own him for his Sovereign Lord, that may righ­teously punish the faults of his disobedient subjects —his heart is filled with rage against God, and instead of waiting quietly and humbly, like a good subject till God upon his repentance receives him into his fa­vour, his wretched heart, presenting God as an enemy to him, will not suffer any such gracious and amiable thoughts of God to dwell in his bosom, but bids him look for no good at his hand: ‘This evil is of the Lord; why should I wait on the Lord any longer?’  Whereas a gracious heart is most encouraged to wait from this very consideration that drives the other away: ‘Because it is the Lord afflicts.’

1. Whom dost thou sympathize with?  He is thy prince, whose victories and losses thou layest to heart, whether in thy own bosom or abroad in the world.  What saith thy soul, when God hedgeth up thy way, and keeps thee from that sin which Satan hath been soliciting for?  If on Christ's side thou wilt rejoice when thou art delivered out of a temptation, though it be by falling into an affliction.  As David said of Abigail, so wilt thou here: Blessed be the ordinance, blessed be the providence which kept me from sinning against my God; but if otherwise thou wilt harbour a secret grudge against the word which stood in thy way, and be discontented, thy design took not.  A naughty heart, like Amnon, pines while his lust hath vent.  Again, what music doth the achievements of Christ in the world make in thy ear? When thou hearest [that] the gospel thrives, the blind see, the lame walk, the poor gospellized, doth thy spirit rejoice in that hour?  If a saint, thou wilt, as God is thy Father, rejoice [that] thou hast more brethren born; as he is thy prince, that the multitude of his subjects increase.  So when thou seest the plots of Christ's enemies discovered, powers defeated, canst thou go forth with the saints to meet King Jesus, and ring him out of the field with praises? or do thy bells ring backward, and such news make thee haste, like Haman, mourning to thine house, there to empty thy spirit, swollen with rancour against his saints and truth?  Or if thy policy can master thy passion, so far as to make fair weather in thy countenance, and suffer thee to join with the people of God in their acclamations of joy, yet then art thou a close mourner within, and likest the work no better than Haman his office, in holding Mordecai's stirrup, who had rather have held the ladder.  This speaks thee a certain enemy of Christ, how handsomely soever thou mayest carry it before men.

           

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.

How Satan Came To Be Such a Prince

           

Question 1. But how comes Satan to this princi­pality?  

    Answer.  Not lawfully, though he can show a fair claim.  As,

1. He obtained it by  conquest;as he won his crown, so he wears it by power and policy.  But con­quest is a cracked title.  A thief is not the honester because able to force the traveller to deliver his purse; and a thief on the throne is no better than a private one on the road, or a pirate in a pinnace, as one boldly told Alexander.  Neither doth that prove good with process of time which was evil at first.  Satan indeed hath kept possession long, but a thief will be so as long as he keeps his stolen goods.  He stole the heart of Adam from God at first, and doth no better to this day.  Christ's conquest is good, because the ground of the war is righteous—to recover what was his own; while Satan cannot say of the meanest creature, ‘It is my own.’
2. Satan may lay claim to his principality by elec­tion.It is true he came in by a wile, but now he is a prince elect, by the unanimous voice of corrupt na­ture.  ‘Ye are of your father the devil,’ saith Christ, ‘and his lusts ye will do.’  But this also hath a flaw in it, for man by law of creation is God's subject, and cannot give away God’s right; by sin he loseth his right in God as a protector, but God loseth not his right as a sovereign.  Sin disabled man to keep God’s law, but it doth not enfranchise or disoblige him that he need not keep it.
3. Satan may claim a deed of gift from God him­self,as he was bold to do to Christ himself upon this ground, persuading him to worship him as the prince of the world.  He showed unto him all the kingdoms of the world, saying, ‘All this power will I give thee, and the glory of them: for that is delivered unto me; and to whomsoever I will I give it,’ Luke 4:5, 6.  Here was a truth, though he spake more than the truth—as he cannot speak truth, but to gain credit to some lie at the end of it.  God, indeed, hath delivered, in a sense, this world to him, but not in his sense to do what he will with it; nor by any approbatory act given him a patent to vouch him his viceroy: not Satan by the grace of God, but by permission of God, prince of this world. 

           Question 2.  But why doth God permit this apostate creature to exercise such a principality over the world?

           Answer 1. As a righteous act of vengeance on man, for revolting from the sweet government of his rightful Lord and Maker.  It is the way God punish­eth rebellion: ‘Because ye would not serve me in gladness, in the abundance of all things, therefore ye shall serve your enemies in hunger,’ &c.  Satan is a king given in God's wrath.  Ham’s curse is man’s punishment; ‘a servant of servants.’  The devil is God’s slave, man the devil’s.  Sin hath set the devil on the creature’s back; and now he hurries him with­out mercy, as he did the swine, till he be choked with flames, if mercy interpose not.

           Answer 2. God permits this his principality, in order to the glorifying of his name in the recovery of his elect from the power of this great potentate. What a glorious name will God have when he hath finished this war, wherein, at first, he found all possessed by this enemy, and not a man of all the sons of Adam to offer himself as a volunteer in this service, till made willing by the day of his power!  This, this will gain God a name above every name, not only of creatures, but of those by which himself was known to his crea­ture.  The workmanship of heaven and earth gave him the name of Creator; providence of Preserver; but this of Saviour.  Herein he doth both the former; preserve his creature, which else had been lost; and create a new creature—I mean the babe of grace —which, through God, shall be able to beat the devil out of the field, who was able to drive Adam, though created in his full stature, out of paradise.  And may not all the other works of God empty themselves as rivers into this sea, losing their names, or rather swelling into one of redemption?  Had not Satan taken God's elect prisoners, they would not have gone to heaven with such acclamations of triumph.  There are three expressions of great joy in Scripture; the joy of a woman after her travail, the joy of harvest, and the joy of him that divideth the spoil.  The exultation of all these is wrought upon a sad ground, many a pain and tear it costs the travailing woman, many a fear the husbandman, perils and wounds the soldier, before they come at their joy; but at last they are paid for all, the remembrance of their past sorrows feeding their present joys.  Had Christ come and entered into affinity with our nature, and returned peaceably to heaven with his spouse, finding no resistance, though that would have been admirable love, and would have afforded the joy of marriage, yet this way of carrying his saints to heaven will greaten the joy, as it adds to the nuptial song the triumph of a conqueror, who hath rescued his bride out of the hands of Satan, as he was leading her to the chambers of hell.

Against Principalities

Against principalities.

           The devil or whole pack of them are here des­cribed by their government in this world —principalities.  The term principalities is here used in the abstract for the concrete; that is, such as have a principality.  So, Titus 3:1, we are bid to be subject to principalities and powers, that is, princes and rulers; so the Vulgate reads it.  We wrestle against princes, which some will have to express the eminency of their nature above man’s; that as the state and spirit of princes is more raised above others—great men have great spirits—as Zebah and Zalmunna to Gideon, asking who they were they slew at Tabor; ‘As thou art,’ say they, ‘so were they, each one resembled the children of a king,’ that is, for majesty and presence beseeming a princely race; so they think, the eminent nature of angels here to be intended, who are as far above the highest prince, as he above the basest peasant.  But because they are described by their na­ture in the fourth branch, I shall subscribe to their judgment, who take this for their principality or gov­ernment, which the devil exerciseth in this lower world; and the note shall be,

[What a principality Satan hath.]

           Doctrine.  That Satan is a great prince.  Christ himself styles him the 'prince of this world,’ John 14:30.  Princes have their thrones where they sit in state; Satan hath his—Thou dwellest where Satan hath his throne, Rev. 2:13; and that such a one, as no earthly princes may compare [with].  Few kings are enthroned in the hearts of their subjects; they rule their bodies and command their purses, but how oft in a day are they pulled out of their thrones by the wishes of their discontented subjects.  But Satan hath the heart of all his subjects.  Princes have their hom­age and peculiar honour done to them.  Satan is served upon the knee of his subjects; the wicked are said to worship the devil, Rev. 13:4.  No prince expects such worship as he; no less than religious worship will serve him.  Jeroboam is said to ordain priests for devils, II Chr. 11:15; and therefore he [Satan] is called not only the prince, but the god of this world, be­cause he hath the worship of a god given him. Princes, such as are absolute, have a legislative power, nay, their own will is their law, as at this day in Turkey, where their laws are written in no other tables than in the proud sultan’s breast.  Thus Satan gives law to the poor sinner, who is bound and must obey, though the law be writ with his own blood, and the creature hath nothing but damnation for fulfilling the devil's lust.  It is called a ‘law of sin,’ Rom. 8:2, be­cause it comes with authority.  Princes have their ministers of state, whom they employ for the safety and enlargement of their territories; so Satan his, who propagates his cursed designs, [and] therefore we read of ‘doctrines of devils,’ I Tim. 4:1.  

Princes have their secrets of government, which none knows but a few favourites in whom they confide.  Thus the devil hath his mysteries of iniquity, and depths of Satan we read of, which all his subjects know not of, Rev. 2:24; these are imparted to a few favourites, such as Elymas, whom Paul calls ‘full of subtlety, and child of the devil;’ such, whose consciences are so debauched, that they scruple not the most horrid sins; these are his white boys.  I have read of a people in America that love meat best when it is rotten and stinks.  The devil is of their diet.  The more corrupt and rotten the creature is in sin, the better he pleaseth his tooth. Some are more the children of the devil than others.  Christ had his beloved disciple; and Satan those that lie in his very bosom, and know what is in his heart.  In a word, princes have their tribute and custom; so Satan his.  Indeed he doth not so much share with the sinner in all, but is owner of all he hath; so that the devil is the merchant, and the sinner but the broker to trade for him, who at last puts all his gains into the devil's purse.  Time, strength, parts, yea, conscience and all, is spent to keep him in his throne.

How The Christian DOES Wrestle With Flesh And Blood

  

Second.  Observe where he lays the stress of the saint’s battle; not in resisting flesh and blood, but principalities and powers; where the apostle excludes not our combat with man, for the war is against the serpent and his seed.  As wide as the world is, it cannot peaceably hold the saints and wicked together. But his intent is to show what a complicated enemy, man's wrath and Satan's interwoven, we have to deal with.  Observe therefore the conjuncture of the saint’s enemies.  We have not to do with naked man, but with man led on by Satan; not with flesh and blood, but principalities and powers acting in them.  There are two sorts of men the Christian wrestles with, good men and bad.  Satan strikes in with both.

1. The Christian wrestles with good men.Many a sharp conflict there hath been betwixt saint and saint, scuffling in the dark through misunderstanding of the truth, and each other; Abraham and Lot at strife.  Aaron and Miriam justled with Moses for the wall, till God interposed and ended the quarrel by his immediate stroke on Miriam.  The apostles, even in the presence of their Master, were at high words, con­testing who should be the greatest.  Now in these civil wars among saints, Satan is the great kindle-coal, though little seen, because, like Ahab, he fights in a disguise, playing first on the one side, and on the other, aggravating every petty injury, and thereupon provoking to wrath and revenge; therefore the apos­tle, dehorting from anger, useth this argument, Give no place to the devil; as if he had said, Fall not out among yourselves, except you long for the devil’s company, who is the true soldier of fortune, as the common phrase, living by his sword, and therefore hastes thither where there is any hope of war.  Gregory compares the saints in their sad differences to two cocks, which Satan the master of the pit sets on fighting, in hope, when killed, to sup with them at night.  Solomon saith, Prov. 18:6, the mouth of the contentious man calls for strokes.  Indeed we by our mutual strifes give the devil a staff to beat us with; he cannot well work without fire, and therefore blows up these coals of contention, which he useth at his forge, to heat our spirits into wrath, and then we are malleable, easily hammered as he pleaseth. Conten­tion puts the soul into disorder, and [amid arms laws are silent.]  The law of grace acts not freely, when the spirit is in a commotion.  Meek Moses provoked, speaks unadvisedly.  Methinks this, if nothing else will, should sound a retreat to our un­happy differences—that this Joab hath a hand in them—he sets his evil spirit betwixt brethren, and what folly is it for us to bite and devour one another to make hell sport?  We are prone to mistake our heat for zeal, whereas commonly in strifes between saints, it is a fire-ship sent in by Satan to break their unity and order; wherein while they stand, they are an Armada invincible, and Satan knows he hath no other way but this shatter to them.  When the Christian’s language, which should be one, begins to be con­founded, they are then near a scattering; it is time for God to part his children when they cannot live in peace together.
2. The Christian wrestles with wicked men. Be­cause you are not of of the world, saith Christ, the world hates you.  The saint's nature and life are antipodes to the world; fire and water, heaven and hell, may as soon be reconciled as they with it.  The heretic is his enemy for truth's sake; the profane for holiness’ [sake]; to both the Christian is an abomination, as the Israelite to the Egyptian.  Hence come wars; the fire of persecution never goes out in the hearts of the wicked, who say in their hearts as they once with their lips, [Christians to the lions.]  Now in all the saint’s wars with the wicked, Satan is commander-in-chief; it is their father’s work they do; his lusts they fulfil.  The Sabeans plundered Job, but went on Sa­tan’s errand.  The heretic broacheth corrupt doctrine, perverts the faith of many, but in that [he is] the min­ister of Satan, II Cor. 11:15; they have their call, their wiles and wages from him.  Persecutors [have] their work ascribed to hell.  Is it a persecution of the tongue?  It is hell sets it on fire.  Is it of the hand?  Still they are but the devil’s instruments, Rev. 2:10. The devil shall cast some of you into prison.

           Use First.  Do you see any driving furiously against the truths or servants of Christ?  O pity them, as the most miserable wretches in the world; fear not their power, admire not their parts; they are men pos­sessed of, and acted by, the devil; they are his drudges and slaughter-slaves, as the martyr called them. Augustine, in his epistle to Lycinius, one of excellent parts but wicked, who once was his scholar, speaks thus pathetically to him: O how I would weep and mourn over thee, to see such a sparkling wit pros­tituted to the devil's service!  If thou hadst found a golden chalice, thou wouldst have given it to the church; but God hath given thee a golden head, parts and wit, and in this propinas teipsum diabolo—thou drinkest thyself to the devil.  When you see men of power and parts, using them against God that gave them, weep over them; better they had lived and died, the one slaves, the other fools, than do the devil such service with them.

           Use Second.  O ye saints, when reproached and persecuted, look farther than man, spend not your wrath upon him.  Alas! they are but instruments in the devil's hand.  Save your displeasure for Satan, who is thy chief enemy.  These may be won to Christ’s side, and so become thy friends at last.  Now and then we see some running away from the devil’s colours, and washing thy wounds with their tears, which they have made with their cruelty.  It is a notable passage in Anselm, [in which he] compares the heretic and the persecutor to the horse, and the devil to the rider.  Now, saith he, in battle, when the enemy comes riding up, the valiant soldier ‘is angry not with the horse, but horseman; he labours to kill the man, that he may possess the horse for his use; thus must we do with the wicked, we are not to bend our wrath against them, but [against] Satan that rides them, and spurs them on, labouring by prayer for them as Christ did on the cross, to dismount the devil, that so these miserable souls hackneyed by him may be delivered from him.’  It is more honour to take one soul alive out of the devil's clutches, than to leave many slain upon the field.  Erasmus said of Au­gustine, that he begged the lives of those heretics, at the hands of the emperor’s officers, who had been bloody persecutors of the orthodox: Like a kind physician he desired their life, that if possible he might work a cure on them, and make them sound in the faith.

How The Christian DOES NOT Wrestle With Flesh And Blood

How The Christian Does Not Wrestle With Flesh And Blood

           First.  How meanly doth the Spirit of God speak of man, calling him flesh and blood!  Man hath a heaven-born soul, which makes him akin to angels, yea, to the God of them, who is the Father of spirits; but this is passed by in silence, as if God would not own that which is tainted with sin, and not the crea­ture God at first made it; or because the soul, though of such noble extraction, yet being so immersed in sensuality, deserves no other name than flesh, which part of man levels him with the beast, and is here in­tended to express the weakness and frailty of man's nature.  It is the phrase [by] which the Holy Ghost expresseth the weakness and impotency of a creature by.  ‘They are men, and their horses are flesh’, Isa. 31:3, that is, weak; as on the contrary, when he would set out the power and strength of a thing, he opposeth it to flesh—‘Our weapons are not carnal, but mighty,’ II Cor. 10:4.  And so in the text, not flesh and blood, but powers.  As if he should say, ‘Had you no other to fear but a weak sorry man, it were not worth the providing arms or ammunition; but you have enemies that neither are flesh, nor are resisted with flesh.’  So that here we see what a weak creature man is, not only weaker than angels, as they are spirit and he flesh—put in some sense beneath the beasts, as the flesh of man is frailer than the flesh of beasts; therefore the Spirit of God compares man to the grass, which soon withers, and his goodliness to the flower of the field, Isa. 40:6.  Yea, he is called vanity. ‘Men of low degree are vanity, and men of high de­gree are a lie,’ Ps. 62:9.  Both alike vain; only the rich and the great man's vanity is covered with honour, wealth, &c., which are here called a lie, because they are not what they seem, and so worse than plain vanity, which is known to be so, and deceives not.

           Use First. Is man but frail flesh?  Let this hum­ble thee, O man, in all thy excellency; flesh is but one remove from filth and corruption.  Thy soul is the salt that keeps thee sweet, or else thou wouldst stink above ground.  Is it thy beauty thou pridest in?  Flesh is grass, but beauty is the vanity of this vanity.  This goodliness is like the flower, which lasts not so long as the grass, appears in its mouth and is gone; yea, like the beauty of the flower, which fades while the flower stands.  How soon will time's plough make fur­rows in thy face, yea, one fit of an ague so change thy countenance, as shall make thy doting lovers afraid to look on thee?  Is it strength?  Alas, it is an arm of flesh, which withers oft in the stretching forth.  Ere long thy blood, which is now warm, will freeze in thy veins; thy spring crowned with May-buds will tread on December's heel; thy marrow dry in thy bones, thy sinews shrink, thy legs bow under the weight of thy body; thy eye-strings crack; thy tongue [be] not able to call for help; yea, thy heart with thy flesh shall fail. And now thou who art such a giant, take a turn of thou canst in thy chamber, yea, raise but thy head from thy pillow if thou art able, or call back thy breath, which is making haste to be gone out of thy nostrils, never to return more; and darest thou glory in that which so soon may be prostrate?

           Is it wisdom?  The same grave that covers thy body, shall bury all that—the wisdom of thy flesh I mean—all thy thoughts shall perish, and [thy] goodly plots come to nothing.  Indeed, if a Christian, thy thoughts as such shall ascend with thee, not one holy breathing of thy soul lost.  Is it thy blood and birth? Whoever thou art, thou art base-born till born again; the same blood runs in thy veins with the beggar in the street, Acts 17:26.  All nations there we find made of the same blood; in two things all are alike, we come in and go out of the world alike; as one is not made of finer earth, so not resolved into purer dust.

           Use Second.  Is man flesh?  Trust not in man; ‘cursed be he that makes flesh his arm!’ not the mighty man; robes may hide and garnish, they cannot change flesh.  Put not your trust in princes, Ps. 146:3; alas, they cannot keep their crowns on their own heads, their heads on their own shoulders; and look­est thou for that which they cannot give themselves? Not in wise men, whose designs recoil oft upon them­selves, that they cannot perform their enterprise. Man’s carnal wisdom intends one thing, but God turns the wheel and brings forth another.  Trust not in holy men, they have flesh, and so their judgment [is] not infallible, yea, their way [is] sometimes doubtful.  His mistake may lead thee aside, and though he returns, thou mayest go on and perish. Trust not in any man, in all man, no not in thyself, thou art flesh.  He is a fool, saith the wise man, that trusts his heart.  Not in the best thou art or doest; the garment of thy righteousness is spotted with the flesh; all is counted by St. Paul confidence in the flesh, besides our rejoicing in Christ, Php. 3:3.

 Use Third.  Is man but flesh?  Fear him not.  This was David's resolve: ‘I will not fear what flesh can do unto me,’ Ps. 56:4.  Thou needest not, thou oughtest not to fear.  Thou needest not.  What, not such a great man, not such a number of men, who have the keys of all the prisons at their girdle, who can kill or save alive! no, not these.  Only look they be thy enemies for righteousness’ sake.  Take heed thou makest not the least child thine enemy by of­fering wrong to him; God will right the wicked even upon the saint.  If he offends, he shall find no shelter under God's wing for his sin.  This made Jerome com­plain that the Christians’ sins made the arms of those barbarous nations which invaded Christendom vic­torious.  But if man's wrath finds thee in God's way, and his fury take fire at thy holiness, thou needest not fear, though thy life be the prey he hunts for. Flesh can only wound flesh; he may kill thee, but not hurt thee.  Why shouldst thou fear to be stripped of that which thou hast resigned already to Christ?  It is the first lesson thou learnest, if a Christian, to deny thyself, to take up thy cross, and follow thy Master; so that the enemy comes too late.  Thou hast no life to lose, because thou hast given it already to Christ, nor can man take away that without God's leave.  All thou hast is insured; and though God hath not prom­ised thee immunity from suffering in this kind, yet he hath undertaken to bear thy loss, yea, to pay thee a hundredfold; and thou shalt not stay for it till another world.  Again, thou oughtest not to fear flesh. Our Saviour Matt. 10, thrice in the compass of six verses, commands us not to fear man.  If thy heart quail at him, how wilt thou behave thyself in the list against Satan, whose little finger is heavier than man's loins?  The Romans had weapons rebated or cudgels, which they were tried at before they came to the sharp.  If thou canst not bear a bruise in thy flesh from man’s cudgel and blunt weapon, what wilt thou do when thou shalt have Satan's sword in thy side? God counts himself reproached when his children fear a sorry man; therefore we are bid, Sanctify the Lord, and not to fear the fear.  Now if thou wouldst not fear man who is but flesh, labour [to do these two things],

1. Mortify thy own flesh.  Flesh only fears flesh; when the soul degenerates into carnal desires and delights, no wonder he falls into carnal fears.  Have a care, Christian, thou bringest not thyself into bond­age.  Perhaps thy heart feeds on the applause of men, this will make thee afraid to be evil spoken of, as those who shuffled with Christ, John 12:42; owning him in private when they durst not confess him open­ly, for they loved the praise of men.  David saith the mouth of the wicked is an open sepulchre; and in this grave hath many a saint's name been buried.  But if this fleshly desire were mortified, thou wouldst not pass to be judged by man; and so of all carnal af­fections.  Some meat you observe is aguish; if thou settest thy heart on anything that is carnal—wife, child, estate, &c.—these will incline thee to a base fear of man, who may be God's messenger to afflict thee in these.
2. Set faith against flesh.  Faith fixeth the heart, and a fixed heart is not readily afraid.  Physicians tell us we are never so subject to receive infection as when the spirits are low, and therefore the antidotes they give are all cordials.  When the spirit is low through unbelief, every threatening from man makes sad im­pression.  Let thy faith take but a deep draught of the promises, and thy courage will rise.

           Use Fourth.  Is man but flesh?  Comfort thyself, Christian, with this, that as thou art flesh, so thy heavenly Father knows it, and considers thee for it.

1. In point of affliction; Ps. 103:14, ‘He knoweth our frame; he remembereth that we are dust.’  Not like some unskilful empiric, who hath but one receipt for all, strong or weak, young or old; but as a wise physician considers his patient, and then writes his bill.  Men and devils are but God's apothecaries, they make not our physic, but give what God prescribes. Balaam loved Balak's fee well enough, but could not go an hair's breadth beyond God's commission. In­deed God is not so choice with the wicked; ‘Hath he smitten him, as he smote those that smote him?’ Isa. 27:7.  In a saint’s cup the poison of affliction is cor­rected, not so in the wicked's; and therefore what is medicine to the one is ruin to the other.
2. In duty.  He knows you are but flesh, and therefore pities and accepts thy weak service, yea, he makes apologies for thee.  The spirit is willing, saith Christ, but the flesh is weak.
3. In temptations.  He considers thou art flesh and, and proportions the temptations to so weak a nature.  It is called such a temptation as is common to man; a moderate temptation, as in the margin, fit­ted for so frail a creature.  Whenever the Christian begins to faint under the weight of it, God makes as much haste to his succour, as a tender mother would to her swooning child; there­fore he is said to be nigh, to revive such, lest their spirit should fail.

Character of The Assailants or Enemies With Whom The Christian is To Wrestle

Character of The Assailants or Enemies With Whom The Christian is To Wrestle

‘Not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places,’   Eph. 6:12.

           The assailants that appear in arms against the Christian, or the enemies with whom he is to wrestle, are described, First, Negatively, ‘not against flesh and blood,’ or rather comparatively, not chiefly against flesh and blood.  Second, Positively, ‘but against principalities and powers,’ &c.

Division First.—The Assailants described negatively.

‘Not against flesh and blood.’

           We are not to take the negative part of the description for a pure negation, as if we had no conflict with flesh and blood, but wholly and solely to engage against Satan; but by way of comparison, not only with flesh and blood, and in some sense not chiefly.  It is usual in Scripture such manner of phrase: Call not thy friends to dinner, but the poor, Luke 14:12; that is, not only those, so as to neglect the poor.  Now, what is meant here by flesh and blood? There is a double interpretation of the words.

[What is meant by flesh and blood.]

           First.  By flesh and blood may be meant our own bosom corruptions; that sin which is in our corrupt nature, so oft called flesh in the Scripture —‘the flesh lusteth against the Spirit;’ and sometimes flesh and blood, ‘Flesh and blood hath not revealed this;’ Matt. 16:17, that is, this confession thou hast made comes from above; thy fleshly corrupt mind could never have found out this supernatural truth, thy sinful will could never have embraced it.  ‘Flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God,’ I Cor. 15:50; that is, sinful mortal flesh; as it is expounded in the words following.  I consulted not with flesh and blood, Gal.1:16; that is, carnal reason.  Now this bosom enemy may be called flesh, First. Partly from its derivation, and Second. Partly from its operation.

           First. Partly from its derivation, because it is derived and propagated to us by natural generation. Thus Adam is said to beget a son in his own likeness, sinful as he was, as well as mortal and miserable; yea, the holiest saint on earth having flesh in him, derives this corrupt and sinful nature to his child, as the circumcised Jew begat an uncircumcised child; and the wheat cleansed and fanned, being sown, comes up with a husk.  ‘That which is born of the flesh is flesh,’ John 3:6.

           Second.  It is called flesh, partly from the opera­tions of this corrupt nature, which are fleshly and carnal.  The reasonings of the corrupt mind [are] fleshly; therefore [it is] called the carnal mind, in­capable indeed of the things of God, which it neither doth nor can perceive.  as the sun doth hide the heavens which are above it from us, while it reveals things beneath, so carnal reason leaves the creature in the dark concerning spiritual truths, when it is most able to conceive and discourse of creature excel­lences, and carnal interests here below.  What a child­ish question for so wise a man, did Nicodemus put to Christ! though Christ to help him did wrap his speech in a carnal phrase.  If fleshly reason cannot under­stand spiritual truths when thus accommodated, and the notions of the gospel translated into its own lan­guage, what skill is it like to have of them, if put to read them in their original tongue?  I mean, if this garment of carnal expression were taken off, and spir­itual truths in their naked hue presented to its view. The motions of the natural will are carnal, and therefore ‘they that are after the flesh,’ Rom. 8:5, are said to ‘mind the things of the flesh.’  All its desires, delights, cares, fears, are in, and of, carnal things; it favours spiritual food no more than an angel fleshly. What we cannot relish we will hardly make our daily food.  Every creature hath its proper diet; the lion eats not grass, nor the horse flesh; what is food to the carnal heart, is poison to the gracious; and that which is pleasing to the gracious, is distasteful to the carnal.

           Now according to this interpretation, the sense of the apostle is not as if the Christian had no combat with his corrupt nature, for in another place it is said, the Spirit lusts against the flesh, and the flesh against the Spirit—and this enemy is called the sin that besets the Christian round—but to aggravate his con­flict with this enemy by the access of a foreign power, Satan, who strikes in with this domestic enemy.  As if while a king is fighting with his own mutinous sub­jects, some outlandish troops should join with them; now he may be said, not to fight with his subjects, but with a foreign power.  The Christian wrestles not with his naked corruptions, but with Satan in them.  Were there no devil, yet we should have our hands full, in resisting the corruptions of our own hearts; but the access of this enemy makes the battle more terrible, because he heads them who is a captain so skilful and experienced.  Our sin is the engine, Satan is the engineer; lust the bait, Satan the angler.  When a soul is enticed by his own lust, he is said to be tempted, James 1:14, because Satan and our own lust concur to the completing the sin.

           Use First.  Let us make thee, Christian, ply the work of mortification close.  It is no policy to let thy lusts have arms, which are sure to rise and declare against thee when thine enemy comes.  Achish’s nobles did but wisely, in that they would not trust David in their army when to fight against Israel, lest in the battle he should be an adversary to them; and darest thou go to duty, or engage in any action, where Satan will appear against thee, and not endeavour to make sure of thy pride, unbelief, &c.,that they join not with thine enemy?

           Use Second.  Are Satan and thy own flesh against thee—not single corruption, but edged with his policy, and backed by his power?  See then what need thou hast of more help than thy own grace. Take heed of grappling with him in the strength of thy naked grace; here thou hast two to one against thee.  Satan was too hard for Adam, though he went so well appointed into the field, because left to himself; much more easily will he foil thee.  Cling therefore about thy God for strength; get him with thee, and then, though a worm, thou shalt be able to deal with this serpent.

           Second.  Flesh and blood is interpreted as a periphrasis of man.  ‘We wrestle not with flesh and blood,’ that is, not with man, who is here described by that part which chiefly distinguisheth him from the angelic nature.  Touch me, saith Christ, and handle me, a spirit hath not flesh.  Now, according to this interpretation, [observe these particulars].  First.  How meanly the Spirit of God speaks of man.  Second. Where he lays the stress of the saint's battle; not in resisting flesh and blood, but principalities and powers.  Where the apostle excludes not our combat with man, for the war is against the serpent and his seed; —as wide as the world is, it cannot peaceably hold the saints and wicked together.  But his intent is to show what a complicated enemy—man's wrath and Satan's interwoven together—we have to deal with.

Application of the: THE NATURE OF THE WAR IS SET OUT BY THIS WORD 'WRESTLING'

Use First.  [Consolation.]  This is a ground of consolation to the weak Christian, who disputes against the truth of his grace, from the inward con­flicts and fightings he hath with his lusts, and is ready to say like Gideon, in regard of outward enemies, ‘If God be with me, why is all this befallen me?’  Why do I find such strugglings in me, provoking me to sin, pulling me back from that which is good?  Why dost [thou] ask?  The answer is soon given; because thou art a wrestler, not a conqueror.  Thou mistakest the state of a Christian in this life.  When one is made a Christian, he is not presently called to triumph over his slain enemies, but carried into the field to meet and fight them.  The state of grace is the commencing of a war against sin, not the ending of it; rather than thou shalt not have an enemy to wrestle with, God himself will come in a disguise into the field, and appear to be thine enemy.  thus when Jacob was alone, a man wrestled with him until breaking of the day; and therefore set thy heart at rest if this be thy scruple.  Thy soul may rather take comfort in this, that thou art a wrestler.  This struggling within thee, if upon the right ground, and to the right end, doth evidence there are two nations within thee, two contrary natures, the one from earth, earthly, and the other from heaven, heavenly; yea, for thy further comfort, know [that] though thy corrupt nature be the elder, yet it shall serve the younger.

           Use Second.  [Hope of triumph.]  O how should this make the Christian long to be gone home, where there is none of this stir and scuffle!  It is strange, that every hour seems not a day, and every day a year, till death sounds thy joyful retreat, and calls thee off the field—where the bullets fly so thick, and thou art fighting for thy life with thy deadly enemies—to come to court, where not swords, but palms are seen in the saints’ hands; not drums, but harps; not groans of bleeding soldiers and wounded consciences, but sweet and ravishing music is heard of triumphing victors carolling the praises of God and the Lamb, through whom they have overcome.  Well, Christians, while you are below, comfort yourselves with these things. There is a place of rest remaining for the people of God.  You do not beat the air, but wrestle for a heaven that is yonder above the clouds; you have your worst first, the best will follow.  You wrestle but to win a crown, and win to wear it, yea, wear, never to lose it, which once on, none shall ever take off, or put you to the hazard of battle more.  Here we overcome to fight again; the battle of one temptation may be over, but the war remains.  What peace can we have as long as devils can come abroad out of their holes, or anything of sinful nature remains in ourselves unmortified?  [This nature] will even fight upon its knees, and strike with one arm while the other is cut off; but when death comes, the last stroke is struck. This good physician will perfectly cure thee of thy spiritual blindness and lameness,—as the martyr told his fellow at the stake, bloody Bonner would do their bodily.  What is it, Christian, which takes away the joy of thy life, but the wrestlings and combats which this bosom-enemy puts thee to?  Is not this the Peninnah that, vexing and disturbing thy spirit, hath kept thee off many a sweet meal, thou mightest have had in communion with God and his saints?—or if thou hast come, hath made thee cover the altar of God with thy tears and groans?  And will it not be a happy hand that cuts the knot, and sets thee loose from thy deadness, hypocrisy, pride, and what not, wherewith thou wert yoked?  It is life which is thy loss, and death which is thy gain.  Be but willing to endure the rending of this vail of thy flesh, and thou art where thou wouldst be, out of the reach of sin, at rest in the bosom of thy God.  And why should a short evil of pain affright thee more, than the de­liverance from a continual torment of sin's evil ravish thee?  Some you know have chosen to be cut, rather than to be ground daily with the stone, and yet, may be, their pain comes again; and canst thou not quietly think of dying, to be delivered from the torment of these sins, never to return more?  And yet that is not the half that death doth for thee.  Peace is sweet after war, ease after pain; but what tongue can express what joy, what glory must fill the creature at the first sight of God and that blessed company?  None but one that dwells there can tell.  Did we know more of that blissful state, we ministers should find it as hard a work to persuade Christians to be willing to live here so long, as now it is, to persuade them to be willing to die so soon.

How The True Wrestlers Should Manage Their Combat

 Direction to the saints.  Seeing your life is a con­tinual wrestling here on earth, it is our wisdom to study how you may best manage the combat with your worst enemy; which that you may do, take these few directions.

           First.  Look thou goest not into the field without thy second.  My meaning is, engage God by prayer to stand at thy back.  God is in a league offensive and defensive with thee, but he looks to be called.  Did the Ephraimites take it ill, that Gideon called them not into the field, and may not God much more? as if thou meanedst to steal a victory before he should know it.  Thou hast more valour than Moses, who would not stir without God, no, though he sent an angel for his lieutenant.  Thou art wiser than Jacob, who to overcome Esau, now marching up, turns from him, and falls upon God; he knew if he could wrestle with God, he might trust God to deal with his brother.  Engage God and the back-door is shut, no enemy can come behind thee, yea, thine enemy shall fall before thee.  God turn the counsel of Ahithophel into foolishness, saith David.  Heaven saith amen to his prayer, and the wretch hangs himself.

           Second.  Be very careful of giving thine enemy hand-hold.  Wrestlers strive to fasten upon some part or other, which gives them advantage more easily to throw their adversary; to prevent which, they used—1. To lay aside their garments; 2. To anoint their bodies.

1. Christian, labour to put off the old man which is most personal, that corruption which David calls his own iniquity, Ps. 18:23.  This is the skirt which Satan lays hold of; observe what it is, and mortify it daily; then Satan will retreat with shame, when he sees the head of that enemy upon the wall, which should have betrayed thee into his hands.
2. The Roman wrestlers used to anoint their bodies.  So do thou; bathe thy soul with the frequent meditations of Christ's love.  Satan will find little wel­come, where Christ's love dwells; love will kindle love, and that will be as a wall of fire to keep off Satan; it will make thee disdain the offer of a sin, and as oil, supple the joints, and make [thee] agile to offend thy enemy.  Think how Christ wrestled in thy quarrel; sin, hell, and wrath had all come full mouth upon thee, had not he coped with them in the way. And canst thou find in thy heart to requite his love, by betraying his glory into the hands of sin, by cowardice or treachery.  Say not thou lovest him, so long as thou canst lay those sins in thy bosom which plucked his heart out of his bosom.  It were strange if a child should keep, and delight to use, no other knife, but that wherewith his father was stabbed.

           Third.  Improve the advantage, thou gettest at any time, wisely.  Sometimes, the Christian hath his enemy on the hip, yea, on the ground, can set his foot on the very neck of his pride, and throw away his unbelief, as a thing absurd and unreasonable.  Now, as a wise wrestler, fall with all thy weight upon thine enemy.  Though man think it foul play to strike when his adversary is down, yet do not thou so compliment with sin, as to let it breathe or rise.  Take heed thou beest not charged of God, as once Ahab, for letting go this enemy now in thy hands, whom God hath ap­pointed to destruction.  Learn a little wisdom of the serpent’s brood, who, when they had Christ under their foot, never thought they had him sure enough, no, not when dead; and therefore both seal and watch his grave.  Thus do thou, to hinder the resurrection of thy sin, seal it down with stronger purposes, solemn covenants, and watch it by a wakeful circumspect walking.

PART 3-Reproof To Such As Are Not True Wrestlers

  

  Second.  It reproves those who seem to wrestle against sin, but not according to the word of com­mand that Christ gives.  There is a law in wrestling which must be observed.  If a man also strive for mas­teries, yet is he not crowned except he strive lawfully, II Tim. 2:5.  He alludes to the Roman games, to which there were judges appointed to see that no foul play were offered contrary to the law of wrestling; the prize being denied to such though they did foil their adver­sary; which the apostle improves to make the Chris­tian careful in his war, as being under a stricter law and discipline, that requires not only valour to fight, but obedience to fight by order and according to the word of command.  Now few do this that go for great wrestlers.

1. Some while they wrestle against one sin, em­brace another,and in this case it is not [that] the per­son wrestles against sin, but one sin wrestles against another, and it is no wonder to see thieves fall out when they come to divide the spoil.  Lusts are di­verse, Titus 3:3, and it is hard to please many masters, especially when their commands are so contrary. When pride bids lay on in bravery, lavish out in entertainment, covetousness bids lay up; when malice bids revenge, carnal policy saith, Conceal thy wrath, though not forgive.  When lust sends to his whores, hypocrisy pulls him back for shame of the world.  Now is he God's champion that resist one sin at the command of another, it may be a worse?

2. Some wrestle, but they are pressed into the field, not volunteers.Their slavish fears scare them at present from their lust, so that the combat is rather betwixt their conscience and will, than them and your lust.  Give me such a sin, saith will.  No, saith con­science, it will scald; and throws it away.  A man may love the wine, though he is loath to have his lips burned.  Hypocrites themselves are afraid to burn.  In such combats the will at last prevails, either by bribing the understanding to present the lust it desires in a more pleasing dress, that conscience may not be scared with such hideous apparitions of wrath; or by pacifying conscience with some promise of repentance for the future; or by forbearing some sin for the pre­sent, which it can best spare, thereby to gain the reputation of something like a reformation.  Or if all this will not do, then, prompted by the fury of its lust, the will proclaims open war against conscience, sinning in the face of it, like some wild horse, [which] impatient of the spur which pricks him and bridle that curbs him, gets the bit between his teeth, and runs with full speed, till at last he easeth himself of his rider; and then where he sees fattest pasture, no hedge or ditch can withhold him, till in the end you find him starving in some pound for his trespass. Thus, many sin at such rate, that conscience can no longer hold the reins nor sit the saddle, but is thrown down and laid for dead; and then the wretches range where their lusts can have the fullest meal, till at last they pay for their stolen pleasures most dearly, when conscience comes to itself, pursues them, and takes them more surely by the throat than ever, never to let them go till it brings them before God's tribunal.
3. Others wrestle with sin, but they do not hate it,and therefore they are favourable to it, and seek not the life of sin as their deadly enemy.  These wres­tle in jest, and not in earnest; the wounds they give sin one day, are healed by the next.  Let men resolve never so strongly against sin, yet will it creep again into their favour, till the love of sin be quenched in the heart; and this fire will never die of itself, the love of Christ must quench the love of sin, as Jerome [saith] excellently [one love extinguishes another.] This heavenly fire will indeed put out the flame of hell; which he illustrates by Ahasuerus’ carriage to Vashti his queen, who in the first chapter makes a de­cree in all haste that she comes no more before him; but when his passion is a little down, Est. 2:1, he be­gins to relent towards her; which his council perceiv­ing, presently seek out for a beautiful virgin, on whom the king might place his love, and take into his royal bed; which done, we hear no more of Vashti.  Then and not till then will the soul's decree stand against sin, when the soul hath taken Christ into his bosom.