Application: of Character of The Assailants or Enemies With Whom The Christian Is to Wrestle 2/2

  

Consider 2.  [It is a limited power.]  Satan’s power is limited, and that two ways—he cannot do what he will, and he shall not do what he can.

           (1.) He cannot do what he will.  His desires are boundless, they walk not only to and fro here below, but in heaven itself, where he is pulling down his once fellow-angels, knocking down the carved work of that glorious temple, as with axes and hammers, yea, unthroning God and setting himself in his place.

(a) This fool saith in his heart, ‘There is no God;’ but he cannot do this, nor many other things, which his cankered malice stirs him up to wish; he is but a creature, and so hath the length of his tedder, to which he is staked, and cannot exceed.  And if God be safe, then thou also, for thy life ‘is hid with Christ in God.’  ‘If I live,’ saith Christ, ‘ye shall live also.’  You are engraven on the table of his heart; if he plucks one away, he must the other also.  (b) Again, as he cannot hurt the being of God, so he cannot pry into the bosom of God.  He knows not man’s, much less the thoughts of God.  The astrologers nor their master could bring back Nebuchadnezzar’s dream.  As men have their closets for their own privacy, where none can enter in but with their key; so God keeps the heart as his withdrawing room, shut to all besides himself; and therefore when he takes upon him to foretell events, if God teach him not his lesson, nor second causes help him, he is beside his book.  So to save his credit [he] delivers them dubiously, that his text may bear a gloss suitable to the effect whatever it is.  And when he is bold to tell the state of a person, there is no weight to be laid on his judgement.  Job was an hypocrite in his mouth, but God proved him a liar.  (c) Again, he cannot hinder those purposes and counsels of God he knows.  He knew Christ was to come in the flesh, and did his worst, but could not hinder his landing, though there were many devices in his heart, yet the counsel of the Lord concerning him did stand, yea, was delivered by the midwifery of Sa­tan suggesting , and his instruments executing his lust as they thought, but fulfilling God's counsel against themselves.  (d) Satan cannot ravish thy will.  He can­not command thee to sin against thy will, he can motum agere—make the soul go faster, that is on its way, as the wind carries the tide with more swiftness; but he cannot turn the stream of the heart contrary to its own course and tendency.

           (2.) Satan's power is so limited that he cannot do what he can.  God lets out so much of his wrath as shall praise him, and be as a stream to set his purpose of love to his saints on work, and then lets down the flood-gate by restraining the residue thereof.  God ever takes him off before he can finish his work on a saint.  He can, if God suffers him, rob the Christian of much of his joy, and disturb his peace by his cun­ning insinuations, but he is under command; he stands, like a dog, by the table, while the saints sit at his sweet feast of comfort, but dares not stir to roam off their cheer; his Master's eye is on him.  The want of this consideration loseth God his praise, and us our comfort—God having locked up our comfort in the performance of our duty.  Did the Christian con­sider what Satan’s power is, and who dams it up, this would always be a song of praise in his mouth.  Hath Satan power to rob and burn, kill and slay, torment the body, distress the mind? whom may I thank that I am in any of these out of his hands?  Doth Satan love me better than Job? or am I out of sight, or beside his walk?  Is his courage cooled or his wrath appeased, that I escaped so well?  No, none of these. His wrath is not against one, but all the saints; his eye is on thee, and his arm can reach thee; his spirit is not cowed, nor his stomach stayed with those mil­lions he hath devoured, but [is] keen as ever; yea, sharper, because now he sees God ready to take away, and the end of the world drawing on so fast.  It is thy God alone whom thou art beholden to for all this; his eye keepeth thee.  when Satan finds this good man asleep, then he finds our God awake; therefore thou art not consumed, because he changeth not.  Did his eye slumber or wander for one moment, there would need no other flood to drown thee, yea, the whole world, that what would come out of this dragon’s mouth.

           Consider 3. [It is a ministerial power.]  Satan’s power is ministerial, appointed by God for the service and benefit of the saints.  It is true, as it is said of the proud Assyrian, ‘he meaneth not so, neither doth his heart think so,’ Isa. 10:7; but it is in his heart to des­troy those he tempts.  But no matter what he thinks; as Luther comforted himself, when told what had passed at the diet at Nuremberg against the Protes­tants, that ‘it was decreed one way there, but other­wise in heaven;’ so for the saints’ comfort, the thoughts which God thinks to them are peace, while Satan's are to ruin their graces, and destruction to their souls.  And his counsel shall stand in spite of the devil.  The very mittimus which God makes, when he commits any of his saints to the devil’s prison, runs thus: ‘Deliver such an one unto Satan for the destruction of the flesh, that the spirit may be saved in the day of the Lord Jesus,’ I Cor. 5:5; so that tempted saints may say, ‘We had perished if we had not perished to our own thinking.’  This leviathan, while he thinks to swallow them up, is but sent of God (as the whale to Jonah) to waft them safe to land.  ‘Some of them of understanding shall fall, to try them, and to purge, and to make them white,’ Dan. 11:35.  This God intends when he lets his children fall into temptation.  As we do with our linen, the spots they get at our feasts, are taken out by washing, rub­bing, and laying them out to bleach.  The saints’ spots are most got in peace, plenty, and prosperity, and they never recover their whiteness to such a degree as when they come from under Satan’s scouring.  We do too little, not to fear Satan; we should comfort ourselves with the usefulness and sub­serviency of his temptations to our good.  All things are yours who are Christ's.  He hath given life to be yours, hath given death also.  He that hath given heaven for your inheritance—Paul and Cephas, his ministers and ordinances to help you thither—hath given the world with all the afflictions of it, yea, the prince of it too, with all his wrath and power, in order to the same end.  This, indeed, is love and wisdom in a riddle, but you who have the Spirit of Christ can unfold it.

Application: of Character of The Assailants or Enemies With Whom The Christian Is to Wrestle 1/2

          

 Use First.  Let this, O man, make the plumes of thy pride fall, whoever thou art that gloriest in thy power.  Hadst thou more than thou or any of the sons of Adam ever had, yet what were all that to the power of these angels?  Is it the strength of thy body thou gloriest in?  Alas, what is the strength of frail flesh, to the force of their spiritual nature?  Thou art no more to these, than a child to a giant, a worm to a man: they could tear up the mountains, and hurl the world into a confusion, if God would but suffer them.  Is it the strength of thy parts above others? Dost thou not see what fools he makes of the wisest among men? winding them about as a sophist would do an idiot, making them believe light is dark, bitter is sweet, and sweet bitter.  Were not the strength of his parts admirable, could he make a rational crea­ture, as man is, so absurdly throw away his scarlet, and embrace dung?  I mean, part with God and the glorious happiness he hath with him, in hope to mend himself by embracing sin.  Yet this he did when man had his best wits about him in innocency.  Is it the power of place and dignity got by war-like achievement?  Grant thou wert able to subdue na­tions, and give laws to the whole world, yet even then, without grace from above, thou wouldst be his slave.  And he himself, for all this his power, is a cursed spirit, the most miserable of all God’s crea­tures, and the more as he hath so much power to do mischief.  Had the devil lost all his angelical abilities when he fell, he had gained by his loss.  Therefore tremble, O man, at any power thou hast, except thou usest it for God.  Art [thou] strong in body; who hath thy strength? God, or thy lusts?  Some are strong to drink, strong to sin; thy bands shall therefore be stronger, Isa. 28:22.  Hast thou power, by thy place, to do God and his church service, but no heart to lay it out for them, but rather against them?  Thou and the devil shall be tried at the same bar.  It seems thou meanest to go to hell for something, thou wilt carry thy full lading thither.  No greater plague can befall a man, than power without grace.  Such great ones in the world, while here, make a brave show, like chief commanders and field-officers at the head of their regiments—the common soldiers are poor creatures to them; but when the army is beaten, and all taken prisoners, then they fling off their scarf and feather, and would be glad to pass for the meanest in the army.  Happy would devils be, [happy would] princes and great ones in the world be, if then they could appear in the habit of some poor sneaks to receive their sentence as such; but then their titles and dignity, and riches, shall be read, not for their honour, but further shame and damnation.

           Use Second.  It shows the folly of those that think it is such an easy matter to get to heaven.  If the devil be so mighty, and heaven's way so full of them, then sure it will cost hot water before we dis­play our banners upon the walls of that new Jerusa­lem.  Yet it is plain that many think otherwise by the provision they make for their march.  If you should see a man walking forth without a cloak, or with a very thin one, you will say, ‘Surely he fears no foul weather;’ or one riding a long journey alone and with­out arms, you will conclude he expects no thieves on the road.  All, if you ask them, will tell you they are on the way to heaven; but how few care for the com­pany of the saints? as if they needed not their fellow­ship in their journey!  Most go naked, without so much as anything like armour, [and] have not enough to gain the name of professors at large; others, it may be, will show you some vain flighty hopes on the mercy of God, without any scripture bottom for the same, and with these content themselves, which will, like a rusty unsound pistol, fly in their own face when they come to use it; and is it any wrong to say [that] they meet with many rooks and cheaters in their dealing, who, should they not look to themselves, would soon undo them.  And are there none that thou needest fear will put a cheat on thy soul, and bereave thee of thy crown of glory if they can?  Thou art blinder than the prophet's servant, if thou seest not more devils encompassing thee, than he saw men about Samaria.  Thy worldly trade they will not hin­der, nay, may be [will] help thee to sinful tricks in that, to hinder thee in this; but if once thou resolvest to seek out for Christ and his grace, they will oppose thee to thy face.  They are under an oath, as Paul’s enemies were, to take away the life of thy soul if they can; desperate creatures themselves, who know their doom is irrecoverable, and sell their own lives they will as dear as they can.  Now what folly is it to betray thy soul into their hands, when Christ stands by to be thy convoy?  Out of him thou art a lost creature; thou canst not defend thyself alone against Satan, nor with Satan against God.  Close with Christ, and thou art delivered from one of thy enemies, and him the most formidable, God, I mean; yea, he is become thy friend, who will stick close to thee in thy conflict with the other.

           Use Third.  To the saints; be not ye dismayed at this report which the Scripture makes of Satan’s power.  Let them fear him who fear not God.  What are these mountains of power and pride, before thee, O Christian, who servest a God that can make a worm thrash a mountain?  The greatest hurt he can do thee, is by nourishing this false fear of him in thy bosom.  It is observed, Bernard saith, of some beasts in the forest, [that] though they are too hard for the lion in fight, yet [they] tremble when he roars.  Thus the Christian, when he comes to the pinch indeed, is able through Christ to trample Satan under his feet, yet before the conflict, stands trembling at the thought of him.  Labour therefore to get a right un­derstanding of Satan's power, and then this lion will not appear so fierce, as you paint him in your melan­choly fancy.  Three considerations will relieve you when at any time you are beset with the fears of his power.

           Consider 1.  It is a derived power.  He hath it not in himself, but by patent from another, and that no other but God.  All powers are of him, whether on earth or in hell.  (1.) This truth subscribed in faith, would first secure thee, Christian, that Satan’s power shall never hurt thee.  Would thy Father give him a sword to mischief thee his child?  ‘I have created the smith,’ saith God, ‘that bloweth the coals,’ ‘I have created the waster to destroy,’ and therefore he as­sures them that no weapon formed against them shall prosper,’ Isa. 54:16, 17.  If God provides his enemies’ arms, they shall, I warrant you, be such as will do them little service.  When Pilate thought to scare Christ, with what he could do towards the saving or taking away of his life, he replies, that he could do nothing ‘except it were given him from above,’ John 19:11, as if he had said, ‘Do your worst, I know who sealed your commission.’  (2.) This considered, would meeken and quiet the soul, when troubled by Satan within, or his instruments without.  It is Satan buffets, man persecutes me, but it is God who gives them both power.  The Lord, saith David, bids him curse.  The Lord, saith Job, hath given, and the Lord hath taken.  This kept the king’s peace in both their bosoms.  O Christian, Look not on the jailor that whips thee; may be he is cruel, but read the warrant, [see] who wrote that, and at the bottom thou shalt find thy Father’s hand.