APPLICATION - Against The Rulers of The Darkness of This World 4/6

Perhaps, when the physician gives them over for dead, then we must come and close up those eyes with comfort, which were never opened to see Christ in his truth, or be counted cruel, because we will not sprinkle them with this holy water, and anoint them for the kingdom of heaven, though they know not a step of the way which leads to it.  Ah, poor wretches! what comfort would you have us speak to those, to whom God himself speaks terror?  Is heaven ours to give to whom we please? or is it in our power to alter the laws of the Most High, and save those whom he condemns?  Do you not re­member the curse that is to fall upon his head ‘that maketh the blind to wander out of the way?’ Deut. 27:18.  What curse, then, would be our portion, if we should confirm such blind souls, that are quite out of the way to heaven, encouraging you to go on and ex­pect to reach heaven at last, when, God knows, your feet stand in those paths that lead to eternal death? No, it is written, we cannot, and God will not reverse it; you may read your very names among those damned souls which Christ comes in flaming fire to take vengeance on, who, the apostle tells us, are such ‘that know not God, and obey not the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ,’ II Thes. 1:8.  And therefore, in the fear of God, let this provoke you, of what age or sex, rank or condition soever in the world, to labour for the saving knowledge of God in Christ, whom to know is life eternal.

Are you young?  Inquire after God betimes, while your parts are fresh, and memory strong, before the throng of worldly cares divert you, or lusts of youth debauch you.  The feet of those lusts which have buried millions of others in perdition, stand ready to carry you the same way, if preventing grace come not and deliver you out of their hands, by seasoning your minds with the knowledge of God. This morning's draught may prevent thy being in­fected with the ill savours thou mayest receive from the corrupt examples of others.  Nay, how long thy stay may be in the world thou knowest not—see whether thou canst not find graves of thy length in the burial-place; and if thou shouldst die ignorant of God and his law, what would then become of thee?  The small brush and the old logs, young sinners and those that are withered with age, meet and burn to­gether; or if thou shouldst stay a while longer here, may be because thou wilt not learn now, God will not teach thee then; or if thou shouldst in thy old age get acquaintance with God, yet it is sad to be sowing thy seed, when thou shouldst be reaping thy sheaves; learning to know God, when thou mightest be com­forting thyself from the old acquaintance thou hast enjoyed with him.

Are you old and ignorant?  Alas, poor creatures! your life in the socket, and this candle of the Lord not set up and lighted in your understanding! your body bowing to the dust, and nature tolling the pass­ing bell, as it were, and you, like one going into the dark, know not whither death will lead you or leave you.  It is like the infirmities of age make you wish your bones were even laid at rest in the grave; but if you should die in this condition, your poor souls would even wish they were here again with their old burdens on their back.  Aches and diseases of old age are grievous, but damned souls would thank God if he would bless them with such a heaven as to lie in these pains, to escape the torments of the other.  O bethink you before you go hence!  The less time you have, the more diligence you must use to gain knowl­edge.  We need not be earnest, one would think, to bid the poor prisoner learn his book, that cannot read, when he knows he shall be hanged if he read not his neck-verse.  It is not, indeed, the bare know­ing the truths of the gospel saves; but the gross ignorance of them, to be sure, will damn souls.

Are you poor?  It is not your poverty is your sin or misery, but your ignorance where the true treasure lies.  Were you God’s poor, rich in knowledge and faith, you were happy—‘Better is a poor and a wise child than an old and foolish king, who will no more be admonished,’ Ecc. 4:13—yea, so happy, that did the princes of the world understand themselves aright, they would wish themselves in your clothes, how rag­ged soever they are, rather than be in their own robes. There are better making for you in heaven, which you shall put on, when theirs shall be pulled off to their shame.  It will not then trouble you that you were, while in the world, poor; but it will torment them they were so rich and great, and so poor to God and beggarly in their souls.

Are you rich?  Labour for the knowledge of the Most High.  Solomon had more of the world’s trea­sure than a thousand of you have, and yet we find him hard at prayer, tugging with God for knowledge, II Chr. 1:10.  All these outward enjoyments are but vaginœ bonorum[the shells of blessings], as afflic­tions are vaginœ malorum [the shells of evils].  I am afraid that many men think themselves privileged by their worldly greatness from this duty, as if God were bound to save them because rich.  Alas, sirs, there are not so many of you like to come there.  I must confess, it would make one tremble to think what a small number those among the great ones that shall be saved, are summed up into, Not many great, not many rich.  Why so few saved?  Because so few have saving knowledge.  O the atheism, the ignorance, the sottish barbarism that is to be found even in those that the world applaud, and even worship, because of their lands and estates, who yet are not able to give any account of their faith?  A poor leather-coat Chris­tian will shame and catechize a hundred of them.  If heaven were to be purchased with house and lands, then these would carry it away from the poor disciples of Jesus Christ—they have their hundreds and thousands lying by them for a purchase always, but this money is not current in heaven’s exchange.  ‘This is life eternal, to know thee, and Jesus Christ, whom thou hast sent.’

APPLICATION - Against The Rulers of The Darkness of This World 3/6

Now a minister may be accessory to the ignorance of his people

           First. By his own ignorance.  Knowledge is so fundamental to the work and calling of a minister, that he cannot be one without it.  ‘Because thou hast rejected knowledge, I will also reject thee, that thou shalt be no priest to me: seeing thou hast forgotten the law of thy God, I will also forget thy children. Hosea 4:6.  The want of knowledge in a minister can be such a defect, as cannot be supplied by anything else.  Be he never so meek, patient, bountiful, unblamable, if he hath not skill to divide the word aright, he is not cut out for a minister.  Everything is good, as it is good for the end it is appointed to.  A knife, though it had a haft of diamonds, yet if it will not cut, it is no knife.  A bell, if not sound, is no bell.  The great work of a minister is to teach others, his lips are to preserve knowledge, he should be as conversant in the things of God as others in their particular trades.  Ministers are called lights.  If the light then be darkness, how great is the darkness of that people like to be?  I know these stars in Christ’s hands are not all of the same magnitude.  There is a greater glory of gifts and graces shining in some than [in] others; yet so much light is necessary to every minister, as was in the star the wise men saw at Christ's birth, to be able out of the word to direct sinners the safe and true way to Christ and salvation.  O sirs, it is a sad way of getting a living by killing of men, as some unskilful physi­cians do; but much more to get a temporal livelihood by ruining souls through our ignorance.  He is a cruel man to the poor passengers, who will undertake to be pilot, when he never so much as learned his compass.

           Second. By his negligence.  It is all one if the nurse hath no milk in her breasts, or having [it], draws it not forth to her child.  There is a woe to the idle shepherd, Zech. 11:17; such as have mouths, but speak not; lips, but not to feed the people with knowledge.  It shall be the people's sin, if they feed not when bread is before them, but woe to us if we give them not meat in due season.  O sirs, what shall we say to our Lord that trusts us, if those abilities which he hath given us as market-money to buy bread for our people, be found wrapped up in a napkin of sloth? if that time wherein we should have been teaching and instructing them, shall appear to be wasted in our pleasures, or employed about our car­nal profits.  That servant shall have but a sad wel­come of his master when he comes home, that shall be found out of the way with the key, and the family starving in meantime for want of provision.

           Third. By his unedifying preaching; when he preacheth unsound doctrine, which doth not perfect the understanding, but corrupt it.  Better he did leave them in simple ignorance, than colour their minds with a false dye; or when that he preacheth is frothy and flashy, no more fit to feed their souls, than husks the prodigal’s belly, which, when they know, they are little the wiser for their soul’s good.  Or, when his discourses are so high flown, that the poor people stand gazing, as those who have lost the sight of their preacher, and at the end of the sermon cannot tell what he would have.  Or, those who preach only truths that are for the higher form of professors, who have their senses well exercised; excellent, may be, for the building up three or four eminent saints in the congregation; but in the meantime, the weak ones in the family—who should indeed chiefly be thought on, because least able to guide themselves, or carve for themselves—these are forgotten.  He, sure, is an unwise builder that makes a scaffold as high as Paul’s steeple, when his work is at the bottom, and he is to lay the foundation, whereas the scaffold should rise as the building goes up.  So Paul advanceth in his doc­trine, as his hearers do in knowledge: ‘Therefore leaving the principles of the doctrine of Christ, let us go on to perfection,’ Heb. 6:1.  ‘Let us;’ it is well, in­deed, when the people can keep pace with the preacher.  To preach truths and notions above the hearer’s capacity, is like a nurse that should go to feed the child with a spoon too big to go into its mouth.  We may by such preaching please ourselves and some of higher attainments, but what shall poor ignorant ones do in the meantime?  He is the faithful steward that considers both.  The preacher is, as Paul saith of himself, a ‘debtor both to the Greeks, and to the Barbarians, both to the wise and to the unwise,’ Rom. 1:14.  [He is] to prepare truths suitable to the de­gree of his hearers.  Let the wise have their portion, but let them be patient to see the weaker in the family served also.

   Fourth. A minister may be accessory to the igno­rance of his people, when through the scandal of his life he prejudiceth his doctrine; as a cook, who, by his nastiness, makes others afraid to eat what comes out of his foul fingers.  Or he may be so, when, through his supercilious carriage, his poor people dare not come to him.  He that will do any good in the min­ister’s calling, must be as careful as the fisher, that he doth nothing to scare souls away from him, but all to allure and invite, that they may be toled  within the compass of his net.

           Use Third. [To the ignorant.]  Is the ignorant soul such a slave to Satan?  Let this stir you up that are ignorant from your seats of sloth whereon, like the blind Egyptians, you sit in darkness, speedily come out of this darkness, or resolve to go down to utter darkness.  The covering of Haman’s face did tell him that he should not stay in the king's presence.  If thou livest in ignorance, it shows thou art in God’s black bill.  He puts this cover before their eyes in wrath, whom he means to turn off into hell: ‘If our gospel be hid, it is hid to them that are lost,’ II Cor. 4:3.  In one place sinners are threatened, ‘they shall die without knowledge,’ Job 36:12; in another place, they shall die in their sins, John 8:21.  He, indeed, that dies without knowledge, dies in his sins; and what more fearful doom can the great God pass upon a creature than this?  Better die in a prison, die in a ditch, than die in one’s sins.  If thou die in thy sins, thou shalt rise in thy sins; as thou fallest asleep in the dust, so thou awakest in the morning of the resur­rection; if an ignorant Christless wretch, as such thou shalt be arraigned and judged.  That God whom sin­ners now bid depart from them will then be worth their acquaintance—themselves being judges—but alas! then he will throw their own words in their teeth, and bid them depart from him, he desires not the knowledge of them.  O sinners, you shall see at last, God can better be without your company in heaven, than you could be without his knowledge on earth.  Yet, yet it is day, draw your curtains, and be­hold Christ shining upon your face with gospel-light. Hear wisdom crying in the streets, and Christ piping in your window in the voice of his Spirit and messen­gers, ‘How long, ye simple ones, will ye love sim­plicity? and the scorners delight in their scorning, and fools hate knowledge?  Turn you at my reproof: be­hold, I will pour out my spirit unto you, I will make known my words unto you,’ Prov. 1:21-23.  What can you say, sinners, for your sottish ignorance?  Where is your cloak for this sin?  The time hath been when the word of the Lord was precious, and there was no open vision, not a Bible to be found in town or coun­try; when the tree of knowledge was forbidden fruit, and none might taste thereof without license from the pope.  Happy he that could get a leaf or two of the Testament into a corner, afraid to tell the wife of his bosom!  O how sweet were these waters, when they were forced to steal them! but you have the word, or may, in your houses; you have those that open them every Sabbath in your assemblies; many of you, at least, have the offers of your ministers, to take any pains with you in private, passionately  beseeching you to pity your souls, and receive instruction; yea, it is the lamentation they generally take up, [that] you will not come unto them that you may receive light. How long may a poor minister sit in his study, before any of the ignorant sort will come upon such an errand?  Lawyers have their clients, and physicians their patients; these are sought after, and called up at midnight for counsel; but alas! the soul, which is more worth than raiment and body too, that is neg­lected, and the minister seldom thought on, till both these be sent away.  

APPLICATION - Against The Rulers of The Darkness of This World 2/6

           

(2.) You deal unrighteously with God, that train not up your children in the knowledge of God. Because your children, if you be Christian parents, are God’s children, they stand in a federal relation to him, which the children of others do not; and shall God's children be nurtured with the devil’s education?  Ignorance is that which he blinds the minds of the children of disobedience withal.  Shall God’s children have no better breeding?  The chil­dren of a Jew God made account were born to him, ‘Thy sons and thy daughters whom thou hast born unto me,’ Eze. 16:20.  God had by the covenant which he made with that people, married them unto him­self, and therefore as the wife bears her children to her husband, they are his children.  So God calls the children of the Jews his, and complains of it as a hor­rible wickedness in them, that they should not bring them up as his, but offer them up to Moloch; they have ‘slain my children,’ saith God, ver. 21.  And are not the children of a Christian his children, as well as the Jews’ were?  Hath God altered or recalled the first covenant, and cut off the entail, and darest thou slay not only thy children, but the Lord’s also?  And is not ignorance that bloody knife that doth it?  ‘My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge,’ Hos. 4:6. Do you not tremble to offer them, not to Moloch but [to] the devil, whom, before, you had given up to God, when you brought them to that solemn ordin­ance of baptism, and there desired before God and man that they might become covenant-servants to the Lord? and hast thou bound them to him, and never teach them, either who their Lord and Master is, or what their duty is as his servants?  Of thy own mouth God will condemn thee.

 Fourth. Consider, you who are parents, that by not instructing your children, you entitle yourselves to all the sins they shall commit to their death.  We may sin by a proxy, and make another’s fact our own. ‘Thou hast slain him with the sword of the children of Ammon,’ II Sam. 12:9.  So thou mayest pierce Christ, and slay him over and over with the bloody sword of thy wicked children, if thou beest not the more careful to train them up in the fear of God. There might be something said for that heathen who, when the scholar abused him, fell upon the master and struck him.  Indeed it is possible he might be in the most fault.  When the child breaks the Sabbath, it is his sin, but more the father's, if he never taught him what the command of God was.  And if the par­ent be accessory to the sin of the child, it will be hard for him to escape a partnership, yea, a precedency in the punishment.  O what a sad greeting will such have of their children at the great day! will they not then accuse you to be the murderers of their precious souls, and lay their blood at your door, cursing you to your face that taught them no better?  But, grant that, by the interposition of thy timely repentance, thou securest thy soul from the judgement of that day, yet God can scourge thee here for the neglect of thy duty to them.  How oft do we see children be­come heavy crosses to such parents?  It is just that they should not know their duty to thee, who didst not teach them their duty to God.  Or if thou shouldst not live so long as to see this, yet sure thou canst not but go in sorrow to thy grave, to leave chil­dren behind thee that are on their way to hell.  Some think that Lot's lingering so long in Sodom, was his loathness to leave his sons-in-law behind him, to perish in the flames.  No doubt, good man, it was very grievous to him, and this might make him stay pleading with them, till the angel pulled him away. And certainly nothing makes holy parents more loath to be gone out of this Sodomitical world, than a de­sire to see their children out of the reach of that fire, before they go, that God will rain upon the heads of sinners.  You know not how soon the messenger may come to pluck you hence.  Do your best while you are among them to win them home to God.

           Use Second. To the ministers of the gospel.  Let this stir up your bowels of compassion towards those many ignorant souls in your respective congre­gations, who know not the right hand from the left. This, this is the great destroyer of the country, which ministers should come forth against with all their care and strength.  More are swept to hell with this plague of spiritual darkness than [with] any other.  Where the light of knowledge and conviction is, there com­monly is a sense and pain that accompanies the sin­ner when he doth evil, which forceth some, now and then, to inquire for a physician, and [to] come in the distress of their spirits to their minister or others for counsel.  But the ignorant soul feels no such smart. If the minister stay till he sends for him to instruct him, he may sooner hear the bell go for him, than any messenger come for him.  You must seek them out, and not expect they will come to you.  These are a sort of people that are afraid more of their remedy than of their disease, and study more to hide their ig­norance, than how they may have it cured, which should make us pity them the more, because they pity themselves so little.  I confess, it is no small unhap­piness to some of us, who have to do with a multi­tude, that we have neither time nor strength to make our addresses to every particular person in our con­gregations, and attend on them as their needs require, and yet cannot well satisfy our consciences otherwise. But let us look to it, that though we cannot do to the height of what we would, we be not found wanting in what we may.  Let not the difficulty of our province make us like some, who when they see they have more work upon their hands than they can well des­patch, grow sick of it, and sit down, out of a lazy despondency, and do just nothing.  He that hath a great house running to ruin, and but a small purse—it is better for him to repair now a little, and then a little, than [to] let all fall down, because he cannot do it all at once.  Many ministers may complain of their predecessors, that they left them their people more out of repair than their houses, and this makes the work great indeed; as the Jews did, who were to revive the stones out of the heaps of rubbish, before they could build the wall; yet it went up, because the people had a mind to work, Neh. 4.  O if once our hearts were but filled with zeal for God, and com­passion to our people’s souls, we would up and be doing, though we could but lay a brick a day, and God would be with us.  May be, you who find a people rude and sottishly ignorant, like stones in the quarry, and trees unfelled, shall not bring the work to such perfection in your days as you desire; yet as David did for Solomon, thou mayest, by thy pains in teaching and instructing them, prepare materials for another who shall rear the temple.  It is very ordinary for one minister to enter into the labours of another, to reap those by a work of conversion, in whom a former minister hath cast the seed of knowledge and conviction.  And when God comes to reckon with his workmen, the ploughman and the sower shall have his penny, as well as the harvest-man and reaper.  O it is a blessed thing to be, as Job saith he was, ‘eyes to the blind,’ much more to blind souls.  Such are the ministers God himself calls pastors after his own heart, that feed his people with knowledge and under­standing, Jer. 3:15.  But woe to those that are accessory to their people’s ignorance.  Now a minister may be accessory to the ignorance of his people—

APPLICATION - Against The Rulers of The Darkness of This World 1/6

 Use First. This speaks to you that are parents. See what need you have of instructing your children, and training them up betimes in the nurture and admonition of the Lord.  Till these chains of dark­ness be knocked off their minds, there is no possi­bility of getting them out of the devil's prison.  He hath no such tame slave as the ignorant soul.  Such a one goes before Satan—as the silly sheep before the butcher—and knows not who he is, nor whether he carries him.  And can you see the devil driving your children to the shambles, and not labour to rescue them out of his hands?  Bloody parents you are, that can thus harden your bowels against your own flesh.  now the more to provoke you to your duty, take these considerations.

           First. Your relation obligeth you to take care of their precious souls.  It is the soul [that] is the child, rather than the body; and therefore in Scripture put for the whole man.  Abraham and Lot went forth with all the souls they had gotten in Haran, Gen. 12; so, all the souls that came with Jacob into Egypt, that is, all the persons.  The body is but the sheath; and if one should leave his sword with you to be kept safely for him, would you throw away the blade, and only pre­serve the scabbard?  And yet parents do commonly judge of their care and love to their children by their providing for the outward man, by their breeding, that teaching them how to live like men, as they say, when they are dead and gone, and [to] comport themselves to their civil place and rank in the world.  These things, indeed, are commendable; but is not the most weighty business of all forgotten in the meantime, while no endeavour is used that they may live as Christians, and know how to carry themselves in duty to God and man as such?  And can they do this without the knowledge of the holy rule they are to walk by?  I am sure David knew no means effectual without this, and therefore propounds the question, ‘Wherewithal shall a young man cleanse his way?’ and he resolves it in the next words, ‘by taking heed thereto according to thy word,’ Ps. 119:9.  And how shall they compare their way and the Word together, if not instructed?  Our children are not born with Bibles in their heads or hearts.  And who ought to be the instructor, if not the parent, yea, who will do it with such natural affection?  As I have heard some­times a mother say in other respects, Who can take such pains with my child, and be so careful as myself, that  am its mother?  Bloody parents then they are who acquaint not their children with God or his Word.  What do they but put them under a necessity of perishing, if God stir not up some to show more mercy than themselves to them?  Is it any wonder to hear that ship to be sunk or dashed upon the rock, which was put to sea without card or compass?  No more is it, they should engulf themselves in sin and perdition, that are thrust forth into the world—which is a sea of temptation—without the knowledge of God or their duty to him.  In the fear of God think of it, parents.  your children have souls, and these God sets you to watch over.  It will be a poor account at the last day, if you can only say, Lord, here are my children, left them rich and wealthy. The rust of that silver you left them will witness your folly and sin, that you would do so much for that which rusts, and nothing for the enriching their minds with the knowl­edge of God, which would have endured for ever. Happy if you had left them less money and more knowledge.

           Second. Consider it hath ever been the saints’ practice to instruct and teach their children the way of God.  David we find dropping instruction into his son Solomon: ‘Know thou the God of thy father, and serve him with a perfect heart and with a willing mind,’ I Chr. 28:9. Though a king, he did not put it off to his chaplains, but whetted it on him with his own lips.  Neither was his queen Bathsheba forgetful of her duty, her gracious counsel is upon record, Prov. 31; and that she may do it with the more seriousness and solemnity, we find her stirring up her motherly bowels, to let her son see she fetched her words deep, even from her heart: ‘What, my son? and what, the son of my womb? and what, the son of my vows?’ ver.2.  Indeed that counsel is most like to go to the heart which comes from thence.  Parents know not what impression such melting expressions of their love mingled with their instructions, leave with their children.  God bids draw forth our souls to the hungry, that is more than draw forth our purse, which may be done, and the heart hard and churlish.  Thus we should draw forth our souls with our instructions. What need I tell of Timothy’s mother and grand­mother, who acquainted him with the Scripture from his youth?  And truly, I think that man calls in ques­tion his own saintship, that takes no care to acquaint his child with God, and the way that leads to him.  I have known some that, though profane themselves, have been very solicitous their children should have a good education; but never knew I saint that was regardless whether his child knew God or not.

           Third. It is an act of great unrighteousness not to instruct our children.  We read of some who hold the truth in unrighteousness.  Among others, those parents do it that lock up the knowledge of these sav­ing truths from their children, which God hath im­parted to themselves.  There is a double unrigh­teousness in it.

1. They are unrighteous to their children,who may lay as much claim to their care of instructing them, as to their labour and industry in laying up a temporal estate for them.  If he should do unrigh­teously with his child, that should not endeavour to provide for his outward maintenance, or having gath­ered an estate, should lock it up, and deny his child necessaries, then much more he that lives in ignor­ance of God, whereby he renders himself incapable of providing for his child’s soul, but most of all, he that having gathered a stock of knowledge, yet hides it from his child.
2. They are unrighteous to God.

           (1.) In that they keep that talent in their own hands which was given to be paid out to their chil­dren.  When God revealed himself to Abraham, he had respect to Abraham’s children, and therefore we find God promising himself this at Abraham’s hands, upon which he imparts his mind to him concerning his purpose of destroying Sodom, ‘Shall I hide from Abraham,’ saith God, ‘that thing which I do?  I know him that he will command his children, and his household after him, and they shall keep the way of the Lord,’ Gen. 18:17, 19.  The church began at first in a family, and was preserved by the godly care of par­ents in instructing their children and household in the truths of God, whereby the knowledge of God was transmitted from generation to generation, and though the church is not confined to such strait limits, yet every private family is as a little nursery to the church.  If the nursery be not carefully planted, the orchard will soon decay.  O could you be willing, Christians, that your children, when you are laid in the dust, should be turned into the degenerate plant of a strange vine, and prove a generation that do not know God?  Atheism needs not be planted; you do enough to make your children such, if you do not endeavour to plant religion in their minds.  The very neglect of the gardener to sow and dress his garden, gives advantage enough to the weeds to come up. This is the difference between religion and atheism, Religion doth not grow without planting, but will die even where it is planted, without watering; atheism, irreligion, and profaneness are weeds [that] will grow without setting, but they will not die without plucking up.  All care and means are little enough to stub them up.  And therefore you that are parents, and do not teach your children, deal the more unrighteously with God, because you neglect the best season in their whole life for planting in them the knowledge of God, and plucking up the contrary weeds of atheism and irreligion.  Young weeds come up with most ease. Simple ignorance in youth becomes wilful ignorance, yea, impudence in age; you will not instruct them when young, and they will scorn that their ministers should, when they are old.

Souls in A STATE OF IGNORANCE Are Subject To Satan’s Rule

Souls in A STATE OF IGNORANCE Are Subject To Satan’s Rule

 Doctrine Second.  Ignorance above other sins enslaves a soul to Satan.  A knowing man may be his slave, but an ignorant one can be no other.  Knowledge doth not make the heart good, but it is impossible that without knowledge it should be good. There are some sins which an ignorant person cannot commit, there are more which he cannot but commit; knowledge is the key, Luke 11:52; Christ the door, John 10.  Christ opens heaven.  Knowledge opens Christ.  In three particulars the point will appear more fully.  First. Ignorance opens a door for sin to enter.  Second. As ignorance lets sin in, so it locks it up in the soul, and the soul in it.  Third. as it locks it up, so it shuts all means of help out.

           First. Ignorance opens the door for Satan to enter in with his troops of lusts.  Where the watch is blind, the city is soon taken.  An ignorant man sins, and like drunken Lot, he knows not when the temp­ter comes, nor when he goes; he is like a man that walks in his sleep, knows not where he is, nor what he does.  ‘Father, forgive them,’ saith Christ, ‘they know not what they do.’  The apostle, I Cor. 15, having reproved the sensu­ality of some, ver. 32, who made the consideration of death, by which others are awed from sin, a provocative to sin, ‘Let us eat and drink, for to-morrow we shall die;’ he gives an account of this absurd reasoning: All have not the knowledge of God.  An ignorant person is a man in shape, and a beast in heart.  There is no knowledge in the land, saith the prophet, Hosea 4:1 and see what a regiment follows this blind captain, swearing, lying, killing, stealing, and what not.  We read, II Tim. 3:6, of some ‘laden with sins;’ ‘silly women,’ and such who never ‘come to the knowledge of the truth.’  Here are trees full of bitter fruit, and what dung shall we find at the root, that makes them so fruitful, but ignorance?

           Second. Ignorance, as it lets sin in, so it locks it up in the soul, and the soul in it.  Such a one lies in Satan's inner dungeon, where no light of conviction comes. Darkness inclines to sleep; a blind man and a drowsy conscience go together.  When the storm arose, the mariners who were awake fell a praying to their god, but the sleeper fears nothing.  Ignorance lays the soul asleep under the hatches of stupidity. God hath planted in the beast a natural fear of that which threatens to hurt it.  Go to thrust a beast into a pit, and it hangs back; nature shows its abhorrency. Man being of a nobler nature, and subject to more dangers, God hath set a double guard on him; as [he has] a natural fear of danger, so also a natural shame that covers the face at the doing of any unworthy action.  Now an ignorant man hath slipped from both these his keepers; he sins and blusheth not, because he knows not his guilt; he wants that magistrate within which should put him to shame.  Neither is he afraid, because he knows not his danger; and there­fore he plays with his sin, as the child with the waves, that, by and by, will swallow him up.  Conscience is god's alarm to call the sinner up.  It doth not always ring in his ear that hath knowledge, being usually set by God to go off at some special hour, when God is speaking in an ordinance, or striking in a providence; but in an ignorant soul this is silent.  The clock can­not go when the weights are taken off; conscience is only a witness to what it knows.

           Third. Ignorance shuts out the means of re­covery.  Friends and ministers, yea, Christ himself stands without, and cannot help the creature.  As such, threatenings and promises are of no use; he fears not the one, he desires not the other, because he knows neither.  Heaven’s way cannot be found in the dark, and therefore the first thing God doth, is to spring in with a light, and let the creature know where he is, and what the way is to get out of his prison-house, without which all attempts to escape are in vain.  There is some shimmering light in all.  Non dantur purœ tenebrœ [absolute darkness is not giv­en], I think, is good divinity as well as philosophy. And this night-light may discover many sins, produce inward prickings of conscience [for] them, yea, stir up the creature to step aside, rather than to drown in such broad waters.  There are some sins so cruel and costly, that the most prostrate soul may in time be weary of their service for low ends; but what will all this come to, if the creature be not acquainted with Christ, the true way to God, faith and repentance, the only way to Christ?  Such a one, after all this bustle, instead of making an escape from Satan, will run full into his mouth another way.  There are some ways which at first seem right to the traveller, yet wind about so insensibly, that when a man hath gone far, and thinks himself near home, he is carried back to the place from whence he set forth.  This will befall every soul ignorant of Christ, and the way of life through him.  After many years' travel, as they think, towards heaven by their good meanings, blind de­votions, and reformation, when they shall expect to be within sight of heaven, they shall find themselves even where they were at first, as very slaves to Satan as ever.

How One Born a Slave To Sin May Be Translated Into The Kingdom of Christ 2/2

  

Third.  Satan labours to while off the sinner with delays.  Floating, flitting thoughts of repenting he fears not; he can give sinners leave to talk what they will do, so he can beg time, and by his art keep such thoughts from coming to a head, and ripening into a present resolution.  Few are in hell but thought of repenting, but Satan so handled the matter, that they could never pitch upon the time in earnest when to do it.  If ever thou meanest to get out of his clutches, fly out of his doors and run for thy life, wherever this warning finds thee; stay not, though in the midst of thy joys, with which thy lusts entertain thee.  As the paper which came to Brentius—from that senator his dear friend—took him at supper with his wife and children, and bade him flee citò, citus, citissimè—[quickly, more quickly, as quickly as possible]—which he did, leaving his dear company and sweet cheer; so do thou, or else thou mayest repent thy stay when it is too late.  A vision charged the wise men to go back another way, and not so much as see Herod, though he had charged them otherwise.  O go not back, drunkard, to thy good fellows; adulterer, to thy queans ; covetous wretch, to thy usury and unlawful gain: turn another way and gratify not the devil a moment.  The command saith, ‘Now repent;’ the imperative hath no future tense. God saith, ‘To-day, while it is called to-day.’  The devil saith, To-morrow.  Which wilt thou obey, God or him?  Thou sayest, thou meanest at last to do it, then why not now?  Wilt thou stand with God a day or two, huckle with him for a penny?  Heaven is not such a hard pennyworth, but thou mayest come up to his terms.  And which is the morrow thou meanest? Thou hast but a day in thy life, for aught thou know­est, where then canst thou find a morrow for repen­tance?  But shouldst thou have as many days to come as Methuselah lived, yet know, sin is hereditary, and such sort of diseases grow more upon us with our years.  It is with long-accustomed sinners, as with those who have sat long under a government, they rather like to be as they are, though but ill on it, than think of a change; or like those who in a journey have gone out of their way all the day, will rather take any new way, over hedge and ditch, than think of going so far and back to be set right.

   Fourth.  Satan labours to compromise the bus­iness, and bring it to a composition between him and Christ.  When conscience will not be pacified, then Satan for quiet’s sake will yield to something, as Pharaoh with Moses; after much ado he is willing they should go.  ‘And Pharaoh said, I will let you go, that you may sacrifice to the Lord your God in the wilderness,’ Ex. 8:28.  But then comes this caution, ‘Only you shall not go very far away.’  Thus Satan will yield; the sinner may pray, and hear the word, and make a goodly profession, so he doth not go very far, but that he may have him again at night.  If God hath the matins, he looks for the vigils, and thus he is content the day should be divided.  Doth con­science press a reformation and change of the sinner’s course? rather than fail, he will grant that also.  Yet as Pharaoh, when he yielded they should go, he meant their little ones should stay behind as a pledge for those that went, Ex. 10:11; so Satan must have some one sin that must be spared, and no matter though it be a little one.  Now if ever you would get out of the devil's rule, make no composition with him.  Christ will be king or no king.  Not a hoof must be left behind, or anything which may make an errand for thee afterwards to return.  Take therefore thy ever­lasting farewell of every sin, as to the sincere and fixed purpose of thy heart, or thou dost nothing. Paul joins his faith and purpose together, II Tim. 3:10, not the one without the other.  At the promulgation of the law in Sinai, God did, as it were, give Israel the oath of allegiance to him; then he told them what law he would rule them by, and they gave their consent; this was the espousal which God puts them in mind of, Jer. 2, in which they were solemnly married to­gether, as king and subjects.  Now mark, before God would do this, he will have them out of Egypt.  They could not obey his laws and Pharaoh’s idolatrous customs also, and therefore he will have them out, before he solemnly espouseth them to be a nation peculiarly his.  Thou must be a widow before Christ marry thee; he will not lie beside another's wife.  O that it were come to this! then the match would soon be made between Christ and thee.  Let me ask thee, poor soul, hast thou seriously considered who Christ is, and what his sweet government is? and couldst thou find in thy heart—out of an inward abhor­rency of sin and Satan, and a liking to Christ—to renounce sin and Satan, and choose Christ for thy Lord?  Doth thy soul say, as Rebekah, ‘I will go,’ if I could tell how to get to him.  But alas, I am here a poor prisoner, I cannot shake off my fetters,  and set myself at liberty to come unto Christ.’  Well, poor soul, canst thou groan heartily under thy bondage? then for thy comfort know thy deliverance is at the door; he that heard the cry of Israel in Egypt, will hear thine also, yea, [will] come and save thee out of the hands of thy lusts.  He will not act as some, who entangle thy affections by making love to thee, and then give over the suit and come at thee no more.  If Christ has won thy heart, he will be true to thee, and be at all the cost to bring thee out of thy prison- house also, yea, take the pains to come for thee himself, and bring with him those wedding garments in which he will carry thee from thy prison to his Father's house with joy, where thou shalt live, not only as a subject under his law, but as a bride in the bosom of his love.  And what can be added to thy happiness more? when thy prince is thy husband, and that such a prince to whom all other are vassals, even the Prince of the world himself; and yet so gracious, that his majesty hinders not his familiar converse with thee a poor creature, but adds to the condescent thereof; therefore God chooseth to mix names of greatness and relation together, the one to sweeten the other: ‘Thy Maker is thine husband, thy Re­deemer the Holy One of Israel; The God of the whole earth shall he be called,’ Isa. 54:5.  And to usher in those promises with titles of greatest dread and ter­ror to the creature, that hold forth the greatest con­descensions of love; how can God stoop lower than to come and dwell with a poor humble soul? which is more than if he had said, such a one should dwell with him; for a beggar to live at court is not so much as the king to dwell with him in this cottage.  Yet this promise is ushered in with the most magnificent titles: ‘Thus saith the high and lofty One that inhabiteth eternity, whose name is Holy; I dwell in the high and holy place, with him also that is of a contrite and humble spirit,’ Isa. 57:15; and why such titles, but to take away the fears which his saints are prone to take up from them?  Will the high and lofty One, saith the humble soul, look on a poor worm? will the Holy God come near such an unclean crea­ture? saith the contrite one.  Isaiah himself cried he was undone at the sight of God, and this attribute proclaimed before him, Isa. 6.  Now God prefixeth these, that the creature may know his majesty and holiness, which seems so terrible to us, are no prej­udice to his love; yea, so gra­cious a prince is thy hus­band, that he delights rather his saint should call him by names of love than state.  ‘Thou shalt call me Ishi; and shalt call me no more Baali.  Hosea 2:16, that is, my husband, not my Lord.

How One Born a Slave To Sin May Be Translated Into The Kingdom of Christ 1/2

How One Born a Slave To Sin May Be Translated Into The Kingdom of Christ 1/2

           Question.  But possibly thou wilt say, How may I, that am a home-born slave to sin, yea, who have lived so many years under his cursed rule, get out of his dominion and power, and be translated into the kingdom of Christ?

           Answer.  The difficulty of this great work lies not in prevailing with Christ to receive thee for his subject, who refuseth none that in truth of heart de­sire to come under his shadow.  It doth not stand with his design to reject any such.  Do physicians use to chide their patients away? lawyers their clients? or generals discourage those who fall off from the enemy and come to their side? surely no.  When David was in the field, it is said, ‘Every one that was in distress, and every one that was in debt, and every one that was discontented, gathered themselves unto him; and he became a captain over them,’ I Sam. 22:2.  And so will Christ be to every one that is truly discontented with Satan's government, and upon an inward dislike thereof repairs to him.  But the main business will be to take thee off from thy engagements to thy lusts and Satan; till which be done, Christ will not own thee as a subject, but look on thee as a spy.  It fares with sin­ners as with servants.  There may be fallings out be­tween them and their masters, and high words pass between them, that you would think they would take up their pack and be gone in all haste; but the fray is soon over, and by next morning all is forgot, and their servants are as hard at their work as ever.  O how oft are sinners taking their leave of their lusts, and giving warning to their old masters, [that] will repent and re­form, and what not; but in a few days they have re­pented of their repentance, and deformed their de­formings, which shows they were drunk with some passion when they thought or spake this, and no won­der they reverse all when they come to their true tem­per. Now because Satan has many policies by which he useth to keep his hold of sinners, I shall discover some of them, which if thou canst withstand, it will be no hard matter to bring thee out of his power and rule.

Policies of Satan which must be withstood if we would escape from his rule.

           First.  Satan doth his utmost, that sinners may not have any serious thoughts of the miserable state they are in, while under his rule; or hear anything from others which might the least unsettle their minds from his service.  Consideration, he knows, is the first step to repentance.  He that doth not con­sider his ways what they are, and whither they lead him, is not like to change them in haste.  Israel stir­red not, while [until] Moses came and had some dis­course with them about their woeful slavery, and the gracious thoughts of God towards them; and then they began to desire to be gone.  Pharaoh soon be­thought him what consequence might follow upon this, and cunningly labours to prevent by doubling their task: ‘Ye are idle, ye are idle: therefore ye say, Let us go and do sacrifice to the Lord.  Go therefore now, and work,’ Ex. 5:17, 18.  As if he had said, ‘Have you so much spare time to think of gadding into the wilderness, and have you your seditious conventicles, Moses and you, to lay your plots together?  I will break the knot: give them more work; scatter them all over the land to gather straw, that they may not meet to entice one another's hearts from my service.’  Thus Satan is very jealous of the sinner, afraid that every Christian that speaks to him, or ordinance he hears, should inveigle him.  By his good-will he should come at neither, no, nor have a thought of heaven or hell from one end of the week to the other; and that he may have as few as may be, he keeps him full-handed with work.  The sinner grinds, and he is filling the hopper, that the mill may not stand still.  He is with the sinner as soon as he wakes, and fills his wretched heart with some wicked thoughts, which as a morning draught may keep him from the infection of any sa­vour of good that may be breathed on him by others in the daytime.  All the day long he watched him, as the master would do his man that he fears will run away.  and at night he like a careful jailor locks him up again in his chamber with more bolts and fetters upon him, not suffering him to sleep as he lies on his bed till he hath done some mischief.  Ah, poor wretch!  Was ever slave so looked to?  As long as the devil can keep thee thus, thou art his own sure enough.  The prodigal came to himself, before he came to his father.  He considered with himself what a starving condition he was in, his husks were poor meat, and yet he had not enough of them neither, and how easily he might mend his commons, if he had but grace to go home and humble himself to his father.  Now and not till now he goes.  Resolve thus, poor sinner, to sit down and consider what thy state is, and what it might be, if thou wouldst but change the bondage of Satan for the sweet government of Jesus Christ.  First ask thy soul whether the devil can, after thou hast worn out thy miserable life here in this drudgery, prefer thee to a happy state in the other world, or so much as secure thee from a state of torment and woe?  If he cannot, whether there not be one Jesus Christ who is able and willing to do it? and if so, whether it be not bloody cruelty to thy precious soul to stay any longer under the shadow of this bramble, when thou mayest make so blessed a change?  A few of these thought abidingly laid home to thy soul, may—God striking in with them—shake the foundations of the devil's prison, and make thee haste as fast from him, as one out of a house on fire about his ears.

      Second.  Satan hath his instruments to oppose the messengers and overtures which God sends by them to bring the sinner out of Satan’s rule.  When Moses comes to deliver Israel out of Egyptian bond­age, up start Jannes and Jambres to resist him.  When Paul preacheth to the deputy, the devil hath his chap­lain at court to hinder him—Elymas, one that was full of all subtlety and mischief.  Some or other, to be sure, he will find, when God is parleying with a sin­ner, and persuading him to come over to Christ, that shall labour to clog the work.  Either carnal friends —these he sends to plead his cause; or old com­panions in wickedness—these bestir them; one while [by] labouring to jeer him out of his new way, or, if that take not, by turning their old love into bitter wrath against him for playing the apostate and leaving him so.  Or if yet he will not be stopped in his way, then he hath his daubing preachers, still like Job’s messengers the last the worst, who with their soul-flattering, or rather murdering doctrine, shall go about to heal his wound ‘slightly.’  Now as ever you desire to get out of Satan's bondage, have a care of all these; harden thyself against the entreaties of carnal friends and relations.  Resolve, that if thy children should hang about thy knees to keep thee from Christ, thou wilt throw them away; [resolve], if thy father and mother should lie prostrate at thy foot, rather than not go to Christ, to go over their very backs to him.  Never can we part with their love upon such advantageous terms as these.  And for thy breth­ren in iniquity, I hope thou dost not mean to stay while [i.e. until] thou hast their good-will; then even ask the devil's also.  Heaven is but little worth if thou hast not a heart to despise a little shame, and bear a few frumps from profane Ishmaels for thy hopes of it.  Let them spit on thy face, Christ will wipe it off; let them laugh, so thou winnest.  If they follow not thy example before they die, the shame will be their own; God himself shall spit it on their face before men and angels, and then kick them into hell.  And lastly, escape but the snare of those flatterers, who use their tongues only to lick sinners’ consciences whole with their soothing doctrine, and thou art fair for a Christ; ask not counsel of them; they may go about to give you ease, with which they sow up thy wounds, must be ripped open, or thou diest for it.

Application of This Doctrine ‘That The Soul In a State of Sin In Under The Rule of Satan’

Application of This Doctrine, ‘That The Soul In a State of Sin In Under The Rule of Satan.’

See here the deplored condition of every one in a state of sin.  He is under the rule of Satan and gov­ernment of hell.  What tongue can utter, what heart can conceive the misery of this state?  It was a dismal day which Christ foretold, Matt 24, when the ‘abom­ination of desolation’ should be seen standing in the holy place; then, saith Christ, let him that is in Judea flee into the mountains.  But what was that to this? they were but men, though abominable, these devils. They did but stand in the material temple, and defile and deface that: but these display their banners in the souls of men, pollute that throne which is more glorious than the material heaven itself, made for God alone to sit in.  They exercised their cruelties at furthest on the bodies of men, killing and torturing them; here the precious souls of men are destroyed. When David would curse to purpose the enemies of God, he prays that Satan may be at their right hand. It is strange that sinners should no more tremble at this, who, should they see but their swine, or a beast bewitched and possessed of the devil, run headlong into the sea, would cry out as half undone: and is not one soul more worth than all these?  What a plague is it to have Satan possess thy heart and spirit, hur­rying thee in the fury of thy lusts to perdition?  O poor man! what a sad change thou hast made?  Thou who wouldst not sit under the meek and peaceful gov­ernment of God, thy rightful Lord, art paid for thy rebellion against him, in the cruelty of this tyrant, who writes all his laws in the blood of his subjects. And why will you sit any longer, O sinners, under the shadow of this bramble, from whom you can expect nothing but eternal fire to come at last and devour you?  Behold, Christ is in the field, sent of God to recover his right and your liberty.  His royal standard is pitched in the gospel, and proclamation made, that if any poor sinners, weary of the devil's government, and heavy laden with the miserable chains of his spir­itual bondage, so as these irons of his sins enter into his very soul to afflict it with the sense of them—shall thus come and repair to Christ—he shall have pro­tection from God’s justice, the devil’s wrath and sin’s dominion; in a word, he shall have rest, and that glorious, Matt. 11:28.

           Usually when a people have been ground with the oppression of some bloody tyrant, they are apt enough to long for a change, and to listen to any overture that gives them hope of liberty, though reached by the hand of a stranger, who may prove as bad as the other, yet bondage is so grievous, that people desire to change, as sick men their beds, though they find little ease thereby.  Why then should deliverance be unwelcome to you sinners? —deliverance brought, not by a stranger whom you need fear what his design is upon you, but [by] near kinsman in blood, who cannot mean you ill, but he must first hate his own flesh; and whoever did that? To be sure not he, who though he took part of our flesh, that he might have the right of being our Redeemer, yet would have no kindred with us in the sinfulness of our nature, Heb. 2:14, 15.  And it is sin that is cruel, yea, to our own flesh.  What can you expect from him but pure mercy, who is himself pure?  They are ‘the mercies of the wicked which are cruel,’ Prov. 12:10.  Believe it, sirs, Christ counts it his honour, that he is a king of a willing people, and not of slaves.  He comes to make you free, not to bring you into bondage, to make you kings, not vassals. None give Christ an evil word, but those who never were his subjects.  Inquire but of those who have tried both Satan’s service and Christ’s, they are best able to resolve you what they are.  You see when a soul comes over from Satan’s quarters unto Christ, and has but once the experience of that sweetness which is in his service, there is no getting him back to his old drudgery; as they say of those who come out of the north, which is cold and poor, they like the warm south so well, they seldom or never go back more. What more dreadful to a gracious soul, than to be delivered into the hands of Satan? or fall under the power of his lusts?  It would choose rather to leap in­to a burning furnace, than be commanded by them. This is the great request a child of God makes, that he would rather whip him in his house, than turn him out of it to become a prey to Satan.

           O sinners, did you know—which you cannot till you come over to Christ, and embrace him as your Lord and Saviour—what the privileges of Christ’s ser­vants are, and what gentle usage saints have at Christ’s hands, you would say these are the only hap­py men in the world which stand continually before him.  His laws are writ, not with his subjects’ blood, as Satan's are, but with his own.  All his commands are acts of grace, it is a favour to be employed about them.  To you it is given to believe, yea, to suffer, Php. 1:29.  Such an honour the saint esteems it to do anything he commands, that they count God rewards them for one piece of service, if he enables them for another.  ‘This I had,’ saith David, ‘because I kept thy precepts,’ Ps. 119:56; what was the great reward he got?  ‘I have remembered thy name, O Lord, in the night, and have kept thy law,’ ver. 55; then follows, ‘This I had.’  He got more strength and skill to keep the law for the future, by his obedience past, and was not well paid, think you, for his pains?  There is ‘fruit’ even in ‘holiness,’ the Christian hath in hand, which he eats while he is at work, that may stay his stomach until his full reward comes, which is ‘eternal life,’ Rom. 6:22.  Jesus Christ is a prince that loves to see his people thrive and grow rich under his govern­ment.  This is he whom sinners are afraid of, that when he sets open their prison, and bids them come forth, they choose rather to bore their ears to the devil's post, than enjoy this blessed liberty.  It is no wonder that some of the saints have, indeed, ‘when tortured, not accepted deliverance, that they might obtain a better resurrection,’ Heb. 11:35.  But what a riddle is this, that forlorn souls bound with the chains of their lusts, and the irresistible decree of God for their damnation, if they believe not on the Lord Jesus, should, as they are driving to execution, refuse deliverance!  This may set heaven and earth on won­dering.  Surely, dying in their sins, they cannot hope for a better resurrection than they have a death.  I am afraid rather, that they do not firmly believe they shall have any resurrection, and then no wonder they make so light of Christ’s offer, who think themselves safe, when once earthed in this burrow of the grave. But let sinners know, it is not the grave can hold them, when the day of assize comes, and the Judge calls for the prisoners to the bar.  The grave was never intended to be a sanctuary to defend sinners from the hand of justice, but a close prison to secure them against the day of trial, that they may be forthcoming. Then sinners shall be digged out of their burrows, and dragged out of their holes, to answer their contempt of Christ and his grace.  O how will you be astonished to see him become your judge, whom you now refuse to be your king! to hear that gospel witness against you for your damnation, which at the same time shall acquit others for their salvation!  What think you to do, sinners, in that day?  Wilt thou cry and scream for mercy at Christ's hands?  Alas, when the sentence is passed, thy face will immediately be covered; condemned prisoners are not allowed to speak: tears then are unprofitable, when no place left for re­pentance, either in Christ’s heart or [in] thine own. Or meanest thou to apply thyself to thy old lord, in whose service thou hast undone thy soul, and cry to him, as she to Ahab, Help, O king!  Alas! thine eye shall see him in the same condemnation with thyself. Hadst thou not better now renounce the devil’s rule, while thou mayest be received into Christ’s govern­ment?—pour out thy tears and cry now for mercy and grace when they are to be had, than to save them for another world to no purpose?

Souls In a State Of Sin Are Subject to Satan’s Rules

Souls In a State Of Sin Are Subject to Satan’s Rules.

           Doctrine First. Every soul in a state of sin is under the rule of Satan; under which point these two things must be inquired.  First. The reason why sin is set out by darkness.  Second. How every one in such a state appears to be under the devil’s rule.

           First. [The reason why sin is set out by darkness.]

1. Sin may be called darkness, because the spring and common cause of sin in man is darkness. The external cause [is] Satan, who is the great promoter of it; he is a cursed spirit, held in chains of darkness.  The internal is the blindness and darkness of the soul.  We may say when anyone sins, he doth he knows not what, as Christ said of his murderers. Did the creature know the true worth of the soul which he now sells for a song, the glorious amiable nature of God and his holy ways, the matchless love of God in Christ, the poisonful nature of sin, and all these, not by a sudden beam darted into the window at a sermon, and gone again like a flash of lightning, but by an abiding light, it would spoil the devil’s market.  Poor creatures would not readily take this toad into their bosom.  Sin goes in a disguise, and so is welcome.
2. It is darkness, because it brings darkness into the soul, and that naturally and judicially.

           (1.) Sin bring darkness into the soul naturally.  There is a noxious quality in sin offensive to the un­derstanding, which is to the soul what the eye and palate are to the body; it discerns of things, and dis­tinguisheth true from false, as the eye white from black; it trieth words, as the mouth tasteth meats. Now as there are some things bad for the sight, and others bad for the palate, vitiating it, so that it shall not know sweet from bitter; so here sin besots the creature and makes it injudicious, that he, who could see such a practice absurd and base in others before, when once he hath drunk off this enchanting cup himself—as one that hath foredone his understand­ing—is mad of it himself, not able to see the evil of it, or use his reason against it.  Thus Saul, before he had debauched his conscience, thinks the witch worthy of death; but after he had trodden his conscience hard with other foul sins, goes to ask counsel of one himself.

           (2.) Sin brings darkness into the soul judicially.  Such have been threatened, whose ear God hath been trying to open and instruct, and have run out of God's school into the devil’s, by rebelling against light, that they shall ‘die without knowledge,’ Job. 36:10, 12.  What! should the candle burn waste, when the creature hath more mind to play than work?

3. Sin may be called darkness, because it runs into darkness. Impostors bring in their damnable heresies privily, like those who sell bad ware.  Loath to come to the market, where the standard tries all, [they] put it off in secret.  So in moral wickedness, sinners like beasts go out in the night for their prey, loath to be seen, afraid to come where they should be found out.  Nothing more terrible to sinners than [the] light of truth, because their deeds are evil, John 3:19.  Felix was so nettled with what Paul spake, that he could not sit out the sermon, but flings away in haste, and adjourns the hearing of Paul till a con­venient season, but he could never find one.  The sun is not more troublesome in hot countries, than truth is to those who sit under the powerful preaching of it; and therefore as those seldom come abroad in the heat of the day, and when they must, have their de­vices over their heads to screen them from the sun, so sinners shun as much as may be the preaching of the Word; but if they must go, to keep in with their relations, or for other carnal advantages, they, if pos­sible, will keep off the power of truth, either by sleeping the sermon away, or prating it away with any foolish imagination which Satan sends to bear them company and chat with them at such a time; or by choosing such a cool preacher to sit under, whose toothless discourse shall rather flatter than trouble, rather tickle their fancy than prick their consciences, and then their sore eyes can look upon the light. They love truth flourishing, who do not love it when it is confuting. They dare handle and look on the sword with delight when in a rich scabbard, who would run away to see it drawn.
4. Sin may be called darkness for its uncom­fortable­ness,and that in a threefold respect.

           (1.) Darkness is uncomfortable, as it shuts out of all employment.  What could the Egyptians do under the plague of darkness but sit still? and this to an active spirit is trouble enough.  Thus in a state of sin man is an unserviceable creature, he can do his God no service acceptably, spoils everything he takes in hand; like one running up and down in a shop when the windows are shut, he doth nothing right.  It may be writ on the grave of every sinner, who lives and dies in that state, ‘Here lies the man that never did God an hour’s work in all his life.’

           (2.) Darkness is uncomfortable in point of enjoy­ment.  Be there never such rare pictures in the room, if dark, who the better?  A soul in a state of sin may possess much, but he enjoys nothing; this is a sore evil, and little thought of.  One thought of its state of enmity to God, would drop bitterness into every cup; all he hath smells of hellfire; and a man at a rich feast would enjoy it sure but little, if he smelt fire, ready to burn his house and himself in it.

           (3.) Darkness is uncomfortable, as it fills with terrors.  Fears in the night are most dreadful; a state of sin is a state of fear.  Men that owe much, have no quiet, but when they are asleep, and not then neither, the cares and fears of the day sink so deep, as makes their rest troublesome and unquiet in the night.  The wicked hath no peace, but when his conscience sleeps, and that sleeps but brokenly, awaking often with sick fits of terror; when he hath most prosperity, he is scared like a flock of birds in a corn-field, at every piece going off.  He eats in fear, and drinks in fear; when afflicted, he expects worse behind, and knows not what this cloud may spread to, and where it may lay him, whether in hell or not, he knows not, and therefore trembles, as one in the dark, not knowing but his next step may be into the pit. Sin may be called darkness, because it leads to utter darkness.Utter darkness is darkness to the ut­most.  Sin in its full height, and wrath in its full heat together; both universal, both eternal.  Here is some mixture, peace and trouble, pain and ease; sin and thoughts of repenting, sin and hopes of pardon; there the fire of wrath shall burn without slacking, and sin run parallel with torment; hell-birds are no changelings, their torment makes them sin, and their sin feeds their torment, both unquenchable, one being fuel to another.

          Second. Let us see how it appears, that such as are under a state of sin, are under the rule of Satan.  Sinners are called the children of the devil, I Jon 3:10; and who rules the child, but the father?  They are slaves; who rules the slave, but the master?  They are the very mansion-house of the devil; where hath a man command, but in his own house?  ‘I will return into my house,’ Matt. 12:44.  As if the devil had said, I have walked among the saints of God, to and fro, knocking at this door and that, and none will bid me welcome, I can find no rest; well, I know where I may be bold, I will even go to my own house, and there I am sure to rule the roost without control: and when he comes, he finds it empty, swept and garnished, that is all ready for his entertainment.  Servants make the house trim and handsome against their master comes home, especially when he brings guests with him, as here the devil brings seven more.

           Look to the sinner, there is nothing he is or hath, but the devil hath dominion over it; he rules the whole man, their minds blinding them.  All the sinner’s apprehensions of things are shaped by Satan; he looks on sin with the devil’s spectacles, he reads the word with the devil’s comment, he sees nothing in its native colours, but is under a continual delusion. The very wisdom of a wicked man is said to be devilish, James 3:15,  or devil-like, be­cause taught by the devil, and also such as the devil’s is, wise only to do evil.  He commands their wills, though not to force them, yet effectually to draw them.  His work, saith Christ, ye will do.  You are re­solved on your way, the devil hath got your hearts, and him you will obey; and therefore when Christ comes to recover his throne, he finds the soul in an uproar, as Ephesus at Paul’s sermon, crying him down, and Diana up.  ‘We will not have this man to reign over us;’ ‘what is the Almighty that we should serve him?’  He rules over all their members; they are called weapons of unrighteousness, all at the devil’s service, as all the arms of a kingdom, to defend the prince against any that shall invade—the head to plot, the hand to act, the feet swift to carry the body up and down about his service; he rules over all he hath. Let God come in a poor member, and beseech him to lend him a penny, or bestow a morsel to refresh his craving bowels, and the covetous wretch his hand of charity is withered, and he cannot stretch it forth; but let Satan call, and his purse flies open and heart also. Nabal, that could not spare a few fragments for David and his followers, this churl could make a feast like a prince, to satiate his lust of gluttony and drunken­ness.  He commands their time; when God calls to duty, to pray, to hear, no time all the week to be spared for that; but if the sinner hears there is a merry-meeting, a knot of good fellows at the ale­house, all is thrown aside to wait on his lord and mas­ter.  Calling left at six and sevens; yea, wife and chil­dren crying, may be starving; while the wretch is pour­ing out their very blood, in wasting their livelihood, at the foot of his lust.  The sinner is ‘in bond of ini­quity,’ and being bound he must obey.  He is said to go after his lust, as the fool to the stocks, Prov. 7:22. The pinioned male­factor can as soon untie his own arms and legs, and so run from his keeper, as he from his lusts.  They are ‘servants,’ and their members ‘ins­truments of sin;’ even as the workman takes up his axe and it resists not, so doth Satan dispose of them, except God saith nay.

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.