Chapter 8

That Satan is able to work upon that other corrupt principle in us — guilt of conscience — both how far he is able to know matter by us to object against us, and also to set it on and work upon the guilt and erroneousness of the conscience.

Thus we see how able Satan is to join with and assist carnal reason in us against ourselves. We will now further consider what power and working he may exercise upon that other principle in us, our consciences, in joining with the filth and defilement thereof in accusing us and laying particulars to our charge, in which consists the greatest of his strength — even an army of accusations of us to ourselves, which in this warfare he musters up against us. This sort of temptations (we have in hand) consists either of false major premises or false minor premises, which are like the two wings of an army. His false major premises are such misapprehensions of the ways and of the work of grace, or misunderstandings of sayings of Scripture, etc., which by reason of that darkness of ignorance that is in us, he puts upon us, wrested and perverted. As, 'that to relapse into the same sin again and again is not compatible with grace,' and many the like. For the opinions whereby some do measure what strictness is essential to being in the state of grace are often too severe and rigid, as in others too loose. The measure of some is too scant, not giving allowance to failings; as of others too large, taking in such gross corruptions and the constant practice of them as cannot stand with grace. And Satan deceives with both: as the one sort of profane men to flatter themselves to be in a good condition when they are not, so the other of weak and tender consciences that they are not in a good estate when they are. And in like manner, places of Scripture misunderstood do often prove matter of great temptation to many, as that Hebrews 6 to one who having fallen from his first love, concluded he could never be saved, because it is there said that 'they which are once enlightened, if they fall away, it is impossible they should be renewed to repentance' — whereas it is only to be understood of a revengeful total apostasy. Thus as Elymas perverted the right ways of the Lord: so does Satan also, Elymas being therefore there called 'child of the devil' because he did the work of his father therein (Acts 13:10). Now all such false reasonings as are founded upon such mistakes of the things and of the rule itself whereby we should judge of our estates — false major premises — do properly belong to the former head of carnal reason. But he has another wing of forces to join to these, and they are false accusations of a man to himself from the guilt of his own heart and ways, misconcepts of a man himself, and misapplications to a man himself — another sort of arguments wherein the minor premises are false. So that although a man be full of knowledge and through the light thereof has a right judgment both of the Scriptures and of the ways and work of grace by which men's estates are to be judged — and so therein Satan cannot be too hard for him with all his sophistry — yet by misrepresenting a man to himself and by perverting his own ways to him, making that which is straight seem crooked, and all in him to be hypocrisy, a man is brought to pass a false sentence upon himself. So that if this subtle pleader cannot deceive the judge (as I may so speak) with false rules and mistakes in the law itself, then he endeavors it by misrepresenting the case of the party, and puts in a false bill of accusation so ordered and colored as to procure a judgment against him, laying before the eyes of men's consciences their selfish motives, deadness and hardness of heart, and falseness in such and such turnings of their lives; excepting against what is good in them, aggravating what is evil, and all to enforce from thence a false conclusion. To instance in some one false reasoning: Satan often argues and charges the conscience of one distressed in this or the like manner: 'Those in whom any sin reigns, or in whose hearts hypocrisy and self-love is the predominant principle, are not in the state of grace; but such a one are you,' etc. For the proof of which minor premise he musters up and sets in order in the view of conscience a multitude of instances of sins committed thus heinously, thus often; of duties omitted, and if performed, yet with such and such pride of heart, selfish aims, etc. In which sort of reasoning, the major and first proposition is often true; but the minor — the assumption 'such a one are you' — is most false. And although there be a truth in the instances alleged to prove it — that such sins have been committed and that in performance of duties such particular selfish aims, etc., do arise and are found in the heart — yet not in that manner as he would lay the charge, not as reigning, not as the swaying and prevailing principle in a man's whole course. That hypocrisy is there cannot be denied; but that hypocrisy rules there and is predominant, and that nothing but hypocrisy — this is it — is false, which yet Satan amazes the conscience with, to bring forth this conclusion out of all: 'Therefore you are a hypocrite.' Which conclusion likewise, how able he is to set on with terrors and frightenings, we shall show presently. That which we have now in hand is to show how able he is for those kind of false reasonings, the deceit of which lies chiefly in the assumption and minor proposition — that is, in misapplications to a man himself — in which he has principally to deal with conscience. For the guilt of a man's particular ways, actions, and corruptions is made the matter of the evidence and the proofs of those minor premises; and the defilement and erroneousness of the conscience is that principle in us which he works upon when he enforces such a misapprehension from those evidences.

Wherein we may take notice of a difference between the Holy Ghost's dealing with a believer when at any time he comes with the word and searches and tries the heart, and discovers corruptions to us — to wit, such as David prayed for: 'Examine me, O Lord, and try my heart' (Psalm 26:2; Psalm 139:23) — convincing and reproving us, and that sometimes with some sharpness for our selfish motives, hypocrisies, etc., when also he bores the ear and shows wherein we have exceeded, as Elihu speaks (Job 36:9-10) — and between these other siftings and winnowings of Satan (as Christ's phrase is, Luke 22:31, of which afterwards). The difference is that the Holy Ghost deals sweetly herein, but as a father that rebukes and convinces his child of his misdoings, but without putting in any such sting in the conclusion that therefore we are hypocrites — nor to any such meaning or purpose thence inferred, that therefore sin reigns in us, etc. But in these of Satan, that is the issue he mainly drives all to, and it is made the foot and burden of all those his accusations, and is as the scope and argument that runs through the whole of that his charge against us.

And in respect to this his misrepresenting our estates and false aggravations of our sins to us, he is called as 'the tempter,' which is in a general relation to all sorts of temptations — so 'the accuser' (Revelation 12:20) or impleader against us; and as the accuser of us to God in God's court and before his tribunal (for to accuse in a court the word may seem to import), so in the court of our own consciences. And as he tempts us to sin, so also for sin and by sin — that is, the guilt of it — to draw us to despair. He that accused Job to God would surely accuse Job to himself much more.

And though it may be truly said that neither Satan nor our own consciences can ever aggravate to us too much the intrinsic sinfulness, the heinousness and vileness of our sins in their due and proper colors and true aggravations of them (which we can never come to see enough of, so as not to hate nor loathe and mourn for as we ought): yet Satan and our own consciences may in the representation of our sins put such false apprehensions and such aggravations upon them as may make us apprehend too much about them — as when it is suggested that they are such as are not compatible with the state of grace, or that they are utterly unpardonable. He may likewise use them as inductions to prove a false conclusion. And also, although our sins if truly set forth can never be enough represented if it be in order to drive a man more to God's free grace and to Christ — yet to present them singly and alone, and to hold the mind and intention of it so to them as to cause us to forget our own mercies, and in such a manner as thereby God's mercies and all comforts are hidden and concealed from us: this is Satan's practice, and is the cause of this deep bondage we thus here speak of. And in this respect that name 'the accuser' is given this evil spirit in a direct and full opposition to that special name and office of the Holy Ghost, 'the Comforter' or pleader for us. Because as the Holy Ghost makes intercession in our own hearts to God for us, and upon true repentance helps us to make apologies for ourselves (as the word is, 2 Corinthians 7:11), and comforts us by discovering our graces given us of God (as 1 Corinthians 2:12), and by pleading our evidences and witnessing with our spirits that we are the sons of God: so on the contrary, Satan is 'the accuser,' by laying to our charge the guilt of our sins, by impleading our evidences, misrepresenting our estates, thereby to deject us and swallow us up with sorrow (as 2 Corinthians 2:7). And further, because in these accusations his scope is to misrepresent our estates to us and falsely to disquiet us, therefore he is yet more especially called 'the slanderer' — as one that falsely and lyingly calumniates and slanders all our graces, all God's dealings toward us, all our dealings toward him: slandering our persons, our estates to us, charging us to be hypocrites, unsound and carnal and counterfeit Christians, still misconstruing all to the worst. Which false calumnies and charges of his I take most properly to be those darts mentioned Ephesians 6:11, which are there said more especially to oppose our faith; and therefore faith is there said to quench them. From which trade of his forging darts of calumnies he has his name 'the slanderer' — from a metaphor from casting darts (for the slanderous calumnies of the tongue are as a mace and a sword and a sharp arrow, as Solomon speaks: 'their teeth spears and arrows,' Psalm 57:4). And such are these kind of Satan's temptations and accusations against us — even as darts and arrows that wound and pierce and run through the affections, that strike the soul through and through with fears. His name 'the tempter' is from a word meaning 'to pierce,' because such are his darts, so sharpened and slung with that force as they are fitted to pierce and enabled to run through. And besides the sharpness of the darts themselves, they are said to be 'fiery,' as making double way for themselves: for a piece of iron, though blunt, yet if fired red hot, it runs through without resistance. Satan — he is that great general of the whole powers of darkness in us, and therefore even the forces of the guilt of sin (the proper seat of which is the conscience) he has some command over, as well as of the power of sin in other members. As he can muster up and set on fleshly lusts which fight against the soul and provoke and back them in their assaults upon us, so he can clap on the chains of guilt and bondage.

And as he can stir that guilt that is in us, so also work upon that injudiciousness and erroneous defilement that is in the conscience to judge of a man's own estate. This Satan works upon and abuses. For as he has a power to work upon the corruption in the rest of the faculties, so also over the defilement and pollution of the conscience, misleading it in the verdict as cunning pleaders do a simple jury. The wards of conscience are of themselves loose and naturally misplaced, but he with his false keys wrings and perverts them much more. It naturally gives an uncertain sound, but he by his false alarms and panic fears cast in does much more confound the testimony of it. And how easy is it to trouble a soul disquieted already, and to work upon jealousies which are raised! We see how far a cunning man can insinuate with jealous natures to increase suspicions and surmises. When a humor is stirred, how easily it is worked on; and when the Spirit has already read us a sharp lecture and examined our consciences, then he strikes in and descants upon all.

But the more full and distinct explanation of Satan's work herein requires a further search and inquiry, and larger demonstration of how Satan comes and how far to know matter by us thus to accuse us of. For if he does accuse, he must (as was said, Acts 28) 'have ought against us whereof to accuse,' else it were in vain. And there is this difference between these kind of temptations wherein we are exercised about the guilt of sin and those other into sin: that the object matter of other temptations is what is without ourselves; but in these, that which is in us and from us and has been committed by us is made matter of objection against and disquietment to us. That which is from within the man disquiets the man.

But before I enter upon this inquiry I must premise a general caution, to set limits to our discourse therein.

And the caution is this, that we are to reserve and maintain this both as an undoubted truth and as God's sole and royal prerogative, that he can alone both search and know the heart and conscience. As in like manner, that he can only by his wrath immediately make those deep and killing wounds and gashes with which men's souls are often here and hereafter eternally wounded (of which by way of caution also in the next chapter). Which two glorious and incommunicable attributes of his that description of the word of God (Hebrews 4:12-13) seems fully to hold forth to us. Where, as at the gate of paradise was set a cherub with a flaming sword to keep our fallen parents from ever entering in again, so there Christ is represented as that supreme Judge with whom we are eternally to have to do (verse 13) — or as the original, 'to whom we are to give an account,' for so it is taken Romans 14:12 and elsewhere — and this with that dreadful sword of his word drawn and brandished (by which he will judge men at the latter day, John 12:48, and which therefore is called 'a judge of the thoughts,' verse 12) that by the awful terror thereof he might compel and drive those that hear the gospel to enter into that rest (to which he had exhorted, verse 11) which is set open by him for men now fallen to come into. Which sword, as it has a double edge (as there), so in his hand (who alone can wield it) it serves to a double use. That whereas in a judge two things are requisite to the complete performance of his office — first, skill and knowledge to find out and examine the fact; second, power to execute and punish the malefactor when found guilty — he shows how both these do transcendently and solely meet in him, by what power is found to be in his word, which is the ensign of his justice and instrument of his power in judging. Which is said to be 'a discerner of the thoughts' and 'a sword that pierces and wounds the soul and spirit with unutterable anguish.' Which wounding power is distinctly set forth (as some) from the beginning of verse 12 to those last words 'and is a discerner of the thoughts,' from where to the end of verse 13 that other — the searching and all-judging property of God and his word — is laid forth to us. But rather, as I conceive, the apostle in one continued metaphor carries along the expression of both through the whole, though more principally the one in that former part of the words and the other in the latter. Yet so as both are alike made the royalty of God, which is the thing we have in hand. Neither needs it stumble any that this is attributed to the word of God, of which he seems to speak, for that is all one and to ascribe it to God. For as 'where the word of a king is, there is power,' says Solomon (Ecclesiastes 8:4), so where the word of God is, there is the power of God, and so is it here to be understood. And therefore as in other Scriptures his word is said to create, and by it the heavens to be established, etc.; and also (Galatians 3:8) in the like phrase of speech, 'the Scripture is said to foresee' — that is, God foresaw, who wrote the Scripture — so also here, to know and wound the heart. Which to be the apostle's express intention here appears by the connection of verses 12 and 13. For whereas verse 12 he begins with attributing this power to the word, yet in the end he closes his speech with transferring all that was said thereof upon God himself (verse 13): 'with whom we have to do.'

To open the words a little more largely, so as to clear this assertion out of them, which it is necessary to premise. The words are: 'For the word of God is quick and powerful, and sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing to the dividing asunder of soul and spirit, and of the joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart; neither is there any creature that is not manifest in his sight, but all things are naked and opened to the eyes of him with whom we have to do.'

And first, of that sole searching power of the soul in this chapter, and of that other the sole wounding power of the conscience in the next chapter, we shall have the like occasion to premise.

For the present, that searching, examining, and judging power of the word now in hand, he expresses by an allusion to the anatomy of bodies (which then, though not so frequently as now, was yet in use), or else to the cutting up of the sacrifices, whether those of the Jews or as it was used among the heathen — especially by the soothsayers who curiously searched into every inward part, as we find in the prophet (Ezekiel 21:21). And his similitude stands then: that look what the entrails are to a sharp sword or sacrificer's knife or the like instruments of anatomy in a strong and skillful hand, such are all the most inward and secret parts of the heart, even those which are most difficult to be divided, to this sword in God's hand when he is pleased to use it to search the heart and mind and to discover and bring forth to judgment the secrets thereof. He can use this sword not only to unrip and strip off the outward clothes of outward and formal actions, and so present the soul naked (as his expression is, verse 13); nor only to flay off all the skin, to excoriate, and so to see what lies under it (as the next word there, which is translated 'opened,' does sometimes signify); but further to cleave and cut up to the backbone (for even so deep does the signification of that word reach) so that all the inwards may appear, and this so curiously divided and laid asunder as to see and view apart what is in each. 'It pierces to the dividing asunder of soul and spirit.' By which, grace and corruption are not so properly here to be understood: for then he would have rather said 'flesh and spirit'; and besides, the persons he speaks this of are principally those who shall be found secret unbelievers, who have not spirit in that sense at all in them. But they are here used as near synonyms, to note out the most inward and intimate parts of a man's soul — as the soul and spirit of a man's soul: or soul and spirit are taken as more general and particular, the spirit being a higher part of the soul, and the seat of spiritual things; and the soul the lower, and the seat of animal and sensitive functions. And further, of the joints and marrow: that as in a body one may by dissecting, and by the anatomy of it, view asunder the very joints, and see the very marrow in the bones, and so discover what is in the most inward parts of the body: so God by his word can search and discover the most close and intimate secrets of the soul. Neither is there any creature that is not manifest in his sight. The searching power of this sword is such, that no creature can shelter itself from it; but all things are naked and opened to the eyes of him with whom we have to do. By these few lines he insinuates, that God who is that judge who is to call us to account before him at the latter day, and to whom we eternally have to do, has now already a complete and perfect eye upon all men, even to the most inward and hidden secrets of their hearts. Which being observed, we may see he will be able to judge righteously at the latter day, when he shall have brought all to light. Thus much for that sole searching power of God, which he has over the hearts of men — by which I have excluded Satan's having any immediate insight into the heart, or any like knowledge of it as God has. And thus also is cleared, that prerogative royal of God.

The reasons why God has reserved this to himself are: 1. It was for the glory of God that he should have one private cabinet among the creatures which he alone should know and keep the key of, which might argue his omniscience; as also one place to be sanctified in, where no creature's eye could pierce. That so the greatness of his glory might appear — namely in this, that he is not worshipped outwardly only as great ones are, but inwardly in spirit and truth; and that his glory is such as commands the inward parts, which no eye sees but his own. So that a man will respect God so much the more, knowing that he cannot impose upon him, as upon all other superiors.

2. That God alone might be the judge and rewarder of men's ways, and so looked at by them, to whom alone men must give an account, which would draw the creature's eye alone upon him, when the strength and firstborn of all our actions are his subjects alone and do come under his eye and view. Therefore it is said that 'he rewards men according to their works, whose heart he knows.' It was fitting that he only should take upon him to reward, who only could know the principles of all actions, in which the chief of the good or evil in the action lies. This is the great glory of God and Christ at the day of judgment, that they will discover the secrets of all hearts (1 Corinthians 4:5). It is not said so much of men's actions that they shall be then discovered, as that the secrets of their hearts — for therein lies God's glory, which he will not give to any other.

This premised as a most necessary caution, I come to the discussion of that question mentioned: how and how far Satan may come to know so much matter against us whereof to accuse us.

1. In general it may be considered:

1. That he knows what ends and intentions and thoughts and lusts such corrupt hearts as ours usually produce and bring forth in all men, and therefore can imagine what selfish motives, etc., may be stirring in such and such actions, and so lay them to our charge, and so often hit right therein and speak a man's heart thus at random. For our natures are apt to bring forth all concupiscence, as the apostle says (Romans 7). Therefore, if there were no more than that he knows all temptations common to man's nature, he might go far in accusing every man, he having keys of all sorts sorted to all men's spirits, trying with every one which will enter. And as David's elder brother charged David when he came into the wars — 'This is the pride and the naughtiness of your heart,' guessing at his selfish motives in it — so does Satan. He often in like manner charges us by guess. Thus he did with Job: 'Does Job serve God for nothing?' — he knew such selfish motives were in some men's hearts and so ventures to lay them to Job's charge also.

2. Though he should know very little of us, yet he may from some one particular which he does know or suspect, cast in a suspicious thought about a man's estate, and so set the jealous heart to work itself to search out more matter against itself. As in case of treason, the least hint given by some one sets the state to work to examine the bottom of the business, and so to get all out. So Satan often gives and casts in but a scruple, which proves as a theme for the heart itself to expand upon, and the conscience upon inquiry finds matter against itself to prove and increase that surmise. Thus in general.

But 2. he may more particularly know much against us to accuse us of, and so frame bills against us out of what he knows. And this, first, supposing he had no access to our inward parts and that he had no further way of knowing us than men have one of another (it being made the limits of man's knowledge by God to Samuel, to judge by outward appearance): yet all those advantages which men have to know one another by, he has over us, more than any man can have, and all more eminently.

For 1. those spirits can discern all corporeal actions, though not of all men at once (for then why should Satan travel up and down the earth to review all in it?), yet in that distance proportioned to them. They understand not only by innate inbred species, but some things by species received from things. They learn daily. This the good angels are said to learn by the church what they never knew before of the mysteries of the gospel (Ephesians 3:10). And though these species in them and their manner of knowing corporeal things differs from ours, yet they are analogical with ours. We no more know the manner how they should receive the images of all things done by bodily substances than a blind man can imagine how men that see should receive in colors. Yet this we may be sure of, that all that the senses or mind of man can know, that they can also, for natural things are all due objects made for them. For they were therefore made to be discerned by intelligent creatures; and if by any, then by the most supreme and intellectual natures.

2. They make it their business to study men; it is their trade to go up and down and consider men. 'Have you not considered,' says God to Satan, 'my servant Job?' Satan uses to consider and study men, and as the apostle exhorts to 'consider one another to provoke to love,' so Satan considers men to provoke to sin and to tempt for sin to despair.

3. He may be privy to our vocal confessions of sins to God or men, to our laying open our own hearts to God in private prayers or to others in trouble of conscience. Therefore so much of the heart as is this way discovered, he can and does know. And why may not God permit him and give him the liberty and advantage to accuse us even of that which he comes to know by this means — it being for the trial of his servants? Especially in case they have returned again to those sins which they confessed and yet have not forsaken. It is just that then, as the guilt of former sins returns upon us in such a case, so Satan should be permitted afresh to charge us with them, and that in this case a man should lose the privilege of the seal of confession (as I may so speak). And if God may permit a man to whom we have confessed, according to God's own ordinance, yet to tell things confessed and to cast them in our teeth, as sometimes it has fallen out — why may not Satan, the accuser of the brethren, sometimes be permitted to lay that to our charge which he only knew this way?

4. He is and can be present at all our more retired actions, and is privy to them, being with us at bed, board, in all companies. By means of this he can accuse us: first,

Of all the gross actions a man has done that are obvious to sense: these are usually the greatest material for accusation and lie upon us most heavily in such temptations, as David's murder and adultery did on him — 'My sin,' says he, 'is ever before me.' And these having pulled a man down and put him into prison, our own consciences then may come in with all our more private corruptions, as lesser creditors do. And when once the soul has by means of the accusing of one foul act given way to doubting, then all other private corruptions join and offer themselves to accuse us also, for they lie at the door — as God told Cain — ready for such an occasion.

He may also by this be able to accuse us of all deadness, drowsiness, and neglect in the performance of holy duties — such as want of attention and quickness in them (for these are easily discerned by any one who is observant) — and of the want of stirring affections, and also of neglect of holy conversation in all companies, and the like. If a godly man were to follow a man around in all companies, how much might he know of him, and be able to accuse him of?

By such observations he may know a man's bosom sins. So he knew and observed Judas's bosom sin to be covetousness, and accordingly sorted his temptation to it.

By what he sees outwardly of our actions, he can in many ways guess at inward corruption, which are the principles of them. He has all the ways which a wise discerning man has — one who should always watch a man, set himself to study a man, and has opportunity to suggest when he pleases, on purpose for trial and discovery — all those ways Satan has. And that which Solomon says of a wise man, that though the heart of man is deep, yet a man of understanding will draw it out, holds true of Satan much more. First, by comparing one action with another, one speech with another, wise men guess at men's ends in things and their motives. Second, by gestures — by a man's countenance and behavior, men are often discerned; and by the like may Satan see into us. Thus Joab discerned David's pride in his command for numbering the people, so that it was loathsome in his eyes. And if Joab discerned this by the outward carriage of the matter, how much more might Satan who put the motives in to persuade him to it? Third, himself suggesting many motives and reasons in matters this way and that way, casting in many side-ends and motives to be considered by us, he observes how the heart responds to such suggestions, or where it stuck, and what suggestion it was that turned a man this way or that way. The Jews might see what moved Pilate to crucify Christ, because at that saying — as the text notes — that otherwise he was an enemy to Caesar, he gave sentence. So Satan, when he stirred up David with proud arguments to number the people, must have known what pride was in his heart.

Beyond all this, how far he may have an insight into the imagination and the images therein — which follow and imitate the inward thoughts of the mind as a shadow does the body — and also into the passions, which are but the flowing and reflowing of bodily spirits in which the affections of the will discover themselves, this I leave to others to determine. For the present, this is certain: although all the powers of the rational soul are firmly locked up from him and the immediate acts that are immanent in the soul itself are utterly hidden from him, so that intuitively no devil can discern them any more than one angel can discern the thoughts of another; yet by inference, as they do appear and put themselves forth in the body and bodily organs outwardly in actions, or inwardly in passions, and so indirectly and mediately, they may be very far discerned and looked into by angels. Yet this will not at all prejudice that prerogative given to God when he is said alone to know and search the heart, nor that privilege given to the soul itself to enjoy — that none should know the things of a man but the spirit that is in him — as we shall have occasion to show in the Appendix to this discourse.

Besides those advantages and ways of knowledge somewhat common to us men with each other, these spirits have a further and closer way of knowing the acts of the rational powers — the understanding and will — than we men can have, even as they also have a way of communicating their thoughts to us in a more intimate, close, secret manner; yet still such as falls short of intuitive knowledge of them. They can go into a room further than we can — into a room which is next to the innermost chamber, which yet remains firmly locked to them. As their power in all other things reaches a degree higher than ours, so in this also.

Those rational powers and faculties in us — the understanding and the will — the immediate immanent acts of which are thus in themselves firmly locked up, are yet in this life immersed in the body and bodily organs upon which their working depends. The understanding is joined to the imagination, which makes parallels and resemblances and shadows of those thoughts the mind secretly conceives and forms, so that hardly any thought stirs without the imagination imitating it and acting it out as far as it is able. The will also is conjoined with the affections, which are immersed in bodily organs and spirits, so that no motion of the will puts itself forth without more or less some bodily affections stirring with it. Therefore affections are defined as much by their motion in the body as by their seat in the will itself — as when anger is defined as a boiling of blood about the heart, and affections are but the flowings and reflowings of spirits to and from the heart.

Both these — both mental images and passions — all theologians grant that devils may know, and that to know them they have a nearer access to us than men can have to each other. Indeed, they may discern them intuitively, as we do things that are present before us. Otherwise, there could be no diabolical dreams, nor angelic ones either, caused by good angels. We find that a good angel dictated to Joseph a great article of faith — Christ's divinity and nativity — in a dream, and therefore to his imagination. So they inspired the Sibyls and dictated prophecies, as was said; and so the evil angels prompted Saul's imagination. They do this not by creating new images and species but by calling forth images already there. For the images of things in the imagination being bodily species, they can no more beget a new bodily image than they can create a body anew. Therefore all the power of angels cannot cause a blind man to dream of colors. Their way in communicating their suggestions to us in this regard must be by discerning the species — that is, of all words heard or read that lie in the imagination already — and so by ordering and composing them, even as a typesetter in printing orders his letters that lie confused before him into words and sentences to represent to the reader's eye what he would have read. So Satan presents to the understanding, which naturally prints off from the imagination whatever is in it, whatever he arranges. By the same reason that he can call them forth, and so view the images and species stored there, to set them as he pleases, he must be supposed equally able to discern any of them in the imagination at any time — even when reason itself calls up any of them and makes use of them, as it does whenever it sets itself to think or muse. These and all operations of the sensitive powers they may view and see as truly — for all we know — and as intuitively as we see colors and images of things in a man's eye. So these evil angels may, when God permits, get into the mind, and see all the images and species in the imagination, and those in direct conjunction with the understanding that it is then thinking and musing upon — even as a man does what images are in the eye of another man. And so by discerning those mental images which the understanding is actually then viewing and making use of, he may then judge what the mind is thinking about.

And again, as we discern men's passions when they color and affect the outward parts — as if shame reddens the face and fear turns it white — so may angels more secretly discern the motion of them within, which is the cause of this outward alteration. They can go further, and see the inward commotion of the spirits in our inward parts, even in their channels and springs, in that bodily heart we carry within us, and in the veins and arteries, and so know what affections are stirring. This is evident in that they are also able to work upon these passions; and their power of working on the affections arises from their knowing them and skill to move and stir those spirits and humors in which these passions are seated. In this power of discerning us, they exceed that of men discerning other men, as their power of communicating their minds to us also does. For as they can communicate secretly by the imagination itself — while we can only do so by outward words and signs to the outward senses of others — so they can discern more secretly what is in the imagination and not only what appears in the outward parts. They get into a room further than we men can, so that they can discern the least rising of the tide, the least turn of the stream of affections in our veins and in the bodily heart. Satan can discern those lesser feverish fits of passion that accompany any act of the will, which men do not discern.

That Satan is able to work upon that other corrupt principle in us — guilt of conscience — both how far he is able to know material against us to raise accusations, and how he works upon the guilt and distortion of the conscience.

We have now seen how able Satan is to join with and strengthen carnal reason against us. Let us now consider what power and working he may exercise upon that other principle in us — our consciences — joining with their filth and defilement in accusing us and laying specific charges against us. This constitutes the greatest of his strength — a whole army of accusations that he marshals against us within ourselves. This kind of temptation consists of either false major premises or false minor premises, like the two wings of an army. His false major premises are misreadings of the ways and work of grace, or misunderstandings of Scripture passages, which he puts to us twisted and distorted — by reason of the darkness of ignorance in us. For example: 'that relapsing into the same sin again and again is incompatible with grace,' and many similar claims. For the standards people use to measure what kind of conduct is consistent with the state of grace are often too severe and rigid — and in others too loose. Some set the standard too narrow, allowing no room for failures; others set it too wide, accommodating gross and habitual corruptions that cannot stand alongside grace. Satan deceives with both: using the first to flatter profane people into thinking they are in a good condition when they are not; using the second to convince people with weak and tender consciences that they are not in a good state when they actually are. In the same way, misunderstood Scripture passages often become the source of great temptation for many — as Hebrews 6 did for someone who had grown cold in their faith and concluded they could never be saved, because it says that 'those who have once been enlightened, if they fall away, it is impossible to renew them again to repentance' — whereas that passage speaks only of a willful, total apostasy from the faith. As Elymas perverted the right ways of the Lord, so does Satan — and Elymas is therefore called 'a child of the devil' because in doing so he was doing his father's work (Acts 13:10). Now all such false arguments founded on these kinds of mistakes about grace and the rule by which we are to judge our standing — false major premises — properly belong under the category of carnal reason already discussed. But Satan has another wing of forces to join to these: false accusations of a person to himself, drawn from the guilt of his own heart and conduct — misconceptions a person forms of himself and false applications he makes to himself — another kind of argument where the minor premises are false. So even if a person is full of knowledge and through it has a right understanding both of Scripture and of the ways and work of grace by which people's standing is to be judged — so that Satan cannot overcome him with all his sophistry on that front — he may still be brought to pass a false verdict on himself through Satan's misrepresentation of his own ways, making what is straight appear crooked, and making everything in him appear to be hypocrisy. So if this cunning pleader cannot deceive the judge — so to speak — with false rules and mistakes in the law itself, he then tries to deceive by misrepresenting the facts of the case. He submits a false bill of accusation, carefully arranged and colored to produce a judgment against the person — laying before the eyes of the conscience selfish motives, deadness and hardness of heart, and dishonesty in various turning points in the person's life; objecting to what is good in them, magnifying what is evil, all to press out a false conclusion. To give a specific example: Satan often charges the conscience of a distressed person in this or a similar way: 'Those in whom any sin reigns, or in whose hearts hypocrisy and self-love is the dominant principle, are not in the state of grace; and such you are.' To prove this minor premise, he marshals before the conscience a multitude of examples: sins committed in this way and that way, committed so often; duties neglected, or if performed, done with such pride of heart and selfish motives, and so on. In this kind of reasoning, the major premise is often true; but the minor — 'and such you are' — is almost entirely false. And though there is truth in the specific instances cited to support it — that such sins were committed, and that in the performance of duties such selfish motives do arise and are found in the heart — they are not there in the way Satan would have the charge read: not as reigning, not as the dominant and governing principle of a person's whole life. That hypocrisy is present cannot be denied; but that hypocrisy rules and is dominant, and that nothing but hypocrisy is there — that is what is false, and yet that is what Satan stuns the conscience with, to press out this conclusion: 'Therefore you are a hypocrite.' How able he is to press home that conclusion with terror and fear we will show shortly. What we are dealing with now is showing how capable he is of producing exactly this kind of false reasoning — where the deception lies chiefly in the assumption and minor premise, that is, in false applications made to the person himself — and in this he has mainly to do with the conscience. For the guilt of a person's particular ways, actions, and corruptions is what supplies the evidence and proof for those minor premises; and the defilement and unreliability of the conscience is the principle in us that he works upon when he presses a false conclusion from that evidence.

Here we should notice the difference between the Holy Spirit's dealings with a believer when He comes with the word, searches and examines the heart, and exposes corruptions — such as David prayed for: 'Examine me, O Lord, and try my heart' (Psalm 26:2; Psalm 139:23) — convicting and reproving us, sometimes sharply, for our selfish motives, hypocrisies, and the like, and showing us where we have gone wrong, as Elihu says in Job 36:9-10 — and the siftings and winnowings of Satan (as Christ's phrase has it in Luke 22:31, of which more later). The difference is this: the Holy Spirit deals gently in this — like a father rebuking and convicting his child of wrongdoing, but without driving the point home to this conclusion: therefore you are a hypocrite. He draws no such inference as: therefore sin reigns in you. But in Satan's dealings, that is precisely the conclusion he drives everything toward. It is the bottom line and the recurring burden of all his accusations, the theme that runs through the whole of his charge against us.

In regard to his misrepresenting our standing and his false magnification of our sins against us, he is called — as 'the tempter,' which relates to all kinds of temptations — so also 'the accuser' (Revelation 12:10) or one who prosecutes against us. He accuses us before God in God's court and before His tribunal, and also in the court of our own consciences. As he tempts us to sin, so also he uses sin against us — through the guilt of it — to drag us into despair. He who accused Job to God would surely accuse Job to himself all the more.

Although it may be truly said that neither Satan nor our own consciences can ever magnify the intrinsic sinfulness, the seriousness and vileness of our sins too much — seen in their true light and proper weight — since we can never see enough of them to hate, loathe, and mourn over them as we ought: yet Satan and our consciences may frame our sins with such false impressions and distortions as to make us perceive too much about them in the wrong direction — as when it is suggested that they are incompatible with the state of grace, or that they are utterly unpardonable. He may use them as the basis for proving a false conclusion. And while our sins, if truly set forth, can never be displayed too fully when the purpose is to drive a person more to God's free grace and to Christ — yet to present them alone in isolation, and to fix the mind entirely on them so that we forget all the mercies we have received, and in such a way that God's mercies and all comfort are hidden from us: this is Satan's practice, and it is the cause of the deep bondage we are here speaking of. In this regard, the name 'the accuser' is given to this evil spirit in direct and full opposition to that special name and office of the Holy Spirit — 'the Comforter' or pleader for us. For as the Holy Spirit intercedes within our own hearts to God for us, and upon true repentance helps us to make our defense — as the word implies in 2 Corinthians 7:11 — and comforts us by revealing to us the graces God has given us (1 Corinthians 2:12), and by pleading our evidences and witnessing with our spirits that we are sons of God: so on the other side, Satan is 'the accuser' — laying to our charge the guilt of our sins, contesting our evidences, misrepresenting our standing before us, thereby to cast us down and swallow us up with sorrow (2 Corinthians 2:7). And further, because in these accusations his aim is to misrepresent our standing to us and falsely to distress us, he is even more specifically called 'the slanderer' — one who falsely and lyingly calumniates and slanders all our graces, all God's dealings with us, and all our dealings with Him: slandering our persons and our standing before us, charging us with being hypocrites — unsound, carnal, and counterfeit Christians — constantly putting the worst interpretation on everything. These false charges and slanders of his I take to be most properly the darts mentioned in Ephesians 6:11 — which are said there to be especially directed against our faith, and therefore faith is said to quench them. From his trade of forging these dart-like slanders he receives the name 'the slanderer' — drawn from the metaphor of throwing darts, since slanderous charges are like a club, a sword, and a sharp arrow, as Solomon says: 'their teeth are spears and arrows' (Psalm 57:4). Such are Satan's temptations and accusations against us — like darts and arrows that wound and pierce, running through the emotions and striking the soul through and through with fear. His name 'the tempter' comes from a word meaning 'to pierce,' because his darts are sharpened and hurled with such force as to penetrate and run through. Beyond their sharpness, they are called 'fiery' — making a double way for themselves, for a piece of iron, though blunt, if heated red hot will pass through without resistance. Satan is the great general of all the powers of darkness within us, and therefore he has some command even over the forces of guilt — whose proper seat is the conscience — just as he commands the power of sin in our other members. As he can muster up fleshly lusts that war against the soul and provoke and sustain them in their assaults on us, so he can clap on the chains of guilt and bondage.

As he can stir the guilt that is already in us, so he can also work upon the faulty and polluted judgment of the conscience in assessing a person's own standing. Satan works on this and abuses it. Just as he has power to work upon the corruption in the rest of our faculties, so he has power over the defilement of the conscience, misleading it in its verdict the way a clever lawyer misleads a naive jury. The tumblers of conscience are already loose and out of their proper place by nature; he with his false keys twists and distorts them further. Conscience already gives an uncertain sound naturally; his false alarms and panics cast in from outside confuse its testimony far more. And how easy it is to trouble a soul already unsettled, to play upon jealousies already aroused! We see how far a cunning person can work on a suspicious nature to increase its surmises and suspicions. When a feeling is already stirred, how easily it is amplified; and when the Spirit has already given the conscience a sharp examination, Satan strikes in and elaborates on everything.

A fuller and more precise account of Satan's work here requires a further inquiry — a more extensive examination of how Satan comes to know enough material against us to make accusations. For if he accuses, he must — as was said in Acts 28 — 'have something against us to accuse us of,' otherwise it would be pointless. There is also this difference between these temptations, which exercise us about the guilt of sin, and those other temptations to sin: the material of other temptations is something outside ourselves, but in these temptations, what is within us, what comes from us, and what has been done by us is made the ground of objection and distress. What is inside the person is what troubles the person.

But before entering on this inquiry, I must first state a general caution to set limits to the discussion.

The caution is this: we must hold firmly, both as an undoubted truth and as God's sole royal prerogative, that He alone can search and know the heart and conscience. In the same way, He alone can by His wrath immediately inflict those deep and mortal wounds with which people's souls are so often wounded, both in this life and eternally — of which there will also be a caution in the next chapter. These two glorious and incommunicable attributes of God are fully set forth in the description of the word of God in Hebrews 4:12-13. There, as at the gate of paradise a cherub with a flaming sword was stationed to keep our fallen parents from ever entering again, so Christ is represented as the supreme Judge to whom we are eternally accountable (verse 13) — or as the original has it, 'to whom we are to give an account,' as it is used in Romans 14:12 and elsewhere — wielding that dreadful sword of His word drawn and brandished (by which He will judge men on the last day, John 12:48, and which is therefore called 'a judge of thoughts,' verse 12). By the awe-inspiring terror of it He compels and drives those who hear the gospel to enter into that rest (to which He had urged them in verse 11) which He has opened for fallen humanity to enter. That sword has a double edge, as the text says, and in His hand — for He alone can wield it — it serves a double purpose. A judge requires two things to fully carry out his office: first, skill and knowledge to discover and examine the fact; second, power to execute judgment on the offender when found guilty. The passage shows how both of these belong transcendently and solely to God, as revealed in the power that resides in His word — the symbol of His justice and instrument of His power in judging. His word is called 'a discerner of thoughts' and 'a sword that pierces and wounds the soul and spirit with unspeakable anguish.' Some see the wounding power as described from the beginning of verse 12 through the words 'and is a discerner of thoughts,' and then from that point through verse 13 the other attribute — God's all-knowing and all-judging nature — as laid out. I rather think the apostle carries both through the whole in one sustained metaphor, though with the one more prominent in the first part and the other in the latter. Yet both alike are made the royal prerogative of God, which is the point we are establishing. Nor should it trouble anyone that this is attributed to the word of God, for that is the same as attributing it to God Himself. 'Where the word of a king is, there is power,' says Solomon (Ecclesiastes 8:4); so where the word of God is, there is the power of God — and that is how it is to be understood here. Therefore as in other Scriptures the word is said to create, and by it the heavens to be established, and in Galatians 3:8 'the Scripture is said to foresee' — meaning God foresaw, who wrote the Scripture — so also here, the word is said to know and wound the heart. That this is the apostle's clear intention appears from the connection between verses 12 and 13: having in verse 12 begun by attributing this power to the word, he closes in verse 13 by transferring all that was said of it back onto God Himself: 'with whom we have to do.'

To open the words a little more fully, so as to draw out this point clearly, which it is necessary to establish first. The words are: 'For the word of God is living and active, and sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing even to the division of soul and spirit, of both joints and marrow, and able to judge the thoughts and intentions of the heart; and there is no creature hidden from His sight, but all things are naked and laid open to the eyes of Him with whom we have to do.'

First, concerning that sole searching power over the soul discussed here, and that other — the sole power to wound the conscience — to be discussed in the next chapter, we will have similar occasion to lay the groundwork.

For the present, the searching, examining, and judging power of the word is expressed through an analogy to anatomical dissection — which, though less common then than now, was already practiced — or else to the cutting open of sacrifices, whether Jewish or pagan, particularly by the soothsayers who carefully examined every inward part, as we find in the prophet Ezekiel 21:21. The analogy runs as follows: just as entrails are to a sharp sword, a sacrificial knife, or anatomical instruments in a strong and skilled hand — so are all the most inward and hidden parts of the heart, including the most difficult to divide, to this sword in God's hand when He is pleased to use it to search the mind and heart and bring its secrets to light. He can use this sword not only to strip off the outer clothing of outward and formal actions and so present the soul naked (as His expression has it in verse 13) — and not only to peel off all the skin so as to see what lies beneath (as the next word there, translated 'laid open,' sometimes signifies) — but further to cleave and cut down to the backbone, for even that depth belongs to the word's signification, so that all the inner parts are exposed and so carefully divided and laid apart that each may be separately seen and examined. 'It pierces to the division of soul and spirit.' By this, grace and corruption are not most properly meant here — for then the apostle would more likely have said 'flesh and spirit'; and besides, the people he is primarily speaking about are those who will be found to be secret unbelievers, in whom there is no spirit in that sense at all. Rather, soul and spirit are used here as near synonyms to point to the most inward and intimate depths of a person's inner being — the soul and spirit of the soul, so to speak. Or soul and spirit may be understood as general and specific: the spirit being the higher part of the soul, the seat of spiritual capacities; and the soul the lower, the seat of animal and sensory functions. And further: 'of both joints and marrow' — just as in a body one can by dissection and anatomy view the very joints and see the marrow within the bones, and so discover what lies in the most inward parts of the body, so God by His word can search and expose the most hidden and intimate secrets of the soul. 'There is no creature hidden from His sight, but all things are naked and laid open to the eyes of Him with whom we have to do.' The searching power of this sword is such that no creature can shelter itself from it. In these few lines the apostle implies that God — who is the Judge to whom we will give account at the last day, and with whom we eternally have to do — already has a complete and perfect view of all people, even to the most inward and hidden secrets of their hearts. From this we can see that He will be able to judge righteously on the last day, when He brings all things to light. So much for that sole searching power of God over the hearts of people — by which I have established that Satan has no direct insight into the heart, no knowledge of it like God's. And so that royal prerogative of God is established.

The reasons God has reserved this to Himself are: 1. It was for the glory of God that He should have one private chamber among created beings that He alone knows and holds the key to — demonstrating His omniscience, and providing one space sanctified in such a way that no creature's eye can penetrate it. So that the greatness of His glory may appear — that He is not worshipped only outwardly, as the great are, but inwardly in spirit and truth; and that His glory is such as commands the innermost parts, which no eye sees but His own. A person will therefore honor God all the more, knowing that one cannot deceive Him as one might deceive all other authorities.

2. That God alone might be the judge and rewarder of people's ways, and be looked to as such — the one to whom all must give account. This draws the creature's eye to Him alone, since the best and deepest part of all our actions belongs to Him and comes under His view. Therefore it is said that 'He rewards people according to their works, whose hearts He knows.' It was fitting that only He should take on the role of rewarder, since only He can know the principles behind all actions — in which the chief good or evil of an action lies. This is the great glory of God and Christ at the day of judgment: that they will disclose the secrets of all hearts (1 Corinthians 4:5). Scripture does not say so much that people's actions will be disclosed then as that the secrets of their hearts will be — for therein lies God's glory, which He will not share with anyone else.

This having been stated as a necessary caution, I come to the question just raised: how and to what extent Satan may come to know enough material against us to make accusations.

1. In general, consider:

1. Satan knows what motives, intentions, thoughts, and desires corrupt hearts like ours typically produce in all people, and can therefore guess at what selfish motives may be at work in any given action and lay them to our charge — and often guess correctly, speaking a person's heart at random. For our natures are prone to bring forth all kinds of sinful desire, as the apostle says in Romans 7. Even if he knew nothing more than the temptations common to human nature, that would take him far in accusing any person — having keys of all kinds fitted to all kinds of spirits, trying each to see which will enter. Just as David's older brother charged David when he came to the battlefield — 'This is the pride and the wickedness of your heart' — guessing at his selfish motives: so Satan does. He often charges us in the same way, by inference. He did this with Job: 'Does Job serve God for nothing?' — he knew that such selfish motives existed in some people's hearts, and ventured to lay the charge against Job as well.

2. Even if he knew very little about us specifically, he could still plant a single suspicious thought about a person's standing and set the jealous heart to work searching out more material against itself. In a case of treason, even the smallest tip sets the whole investigative apparatus in motion to get to the bottom of the matter and draw everything out. So Satan often does no more than cast in a single scruple, which becomes a theme for the heart to expand upon — and when conscience looks inward, it finds material against itself to confirm and multiply that suspicion. So much in general.

But 2, he may more specifically know a great deal against us to form charges from. And this first: even if we supposed he had no access to our inward parts and knew us no better than people can know each other — it being God's appointed limit to human knowledge that we judge by outward appearance, as God said to Samuel — yet every advantage people have to know each other, he has over us, and all more abundantly.

For 1. those spirits can perceive all physical actions — not of all people at once (for why else would Satan travel up and down the earth to survey it?), yet within a range proportionate to their nature. They understand things not only through innate inborn forms of knowledge, but also through receiving impressions from things they observe. They continue to learn. The good angels are said to learn from the church things about the mysteries of the gospel they had not known before (Ephesians 3:10). Though the way these spirits receive and process knowledge of physical things differs from ours, it is analogous to ours. We know no more how they should receive impressions of all things done by bodily beings than a blind person can imagine how sighted people receive colors. Yet we may be certain of this: whatever the senses or mind of a person can know, they can also know — for natural things are proper objects of knowledge for them. Indeed, all created things are made to be known by intelligent beings; and if by any, then by the most supreme intellectual natures.

2. They make it their business to study people; going up and down the earth to observe humanity is their occupation. 'Have you considered my servant Job?' God says to Satan. Satan makes it a practice to study and observe people — just as the apostle urges us to 'consider one another so as to stir up love,' so Satan considers people in order to stir up sin, and for sin to drive them into despair.

3. He may be present at our spoken confessions of sins to God or others, at the times when we lay open our hearts to God in private prayer, or to others in spiritual distress. Therefore, whatever of the heart is disclosed in those ways, he can and does know. And why should God not permit him and allow him the opportunity to accuse us even of what he has learned this way — since it serves the testing of His servants? This is especially true when people have returned to the very sins they confessed but did not forsake. It is just that when the guilt of former sins returns in such a case, Satan should be permitted to bring fresh charges on that basis, and that in such a case a person forfeits the protection that the privacy of confession might otherwise afford. And if God may permit another person — to whom we confessed according to God's own ordinance — to later disclose what was confessed and throw it back in our face, as has sometimes happened: why may not Satan, the accuser of the brothers, sometimes be allowed to lay to our charge what he came to know only in this way?

4. He is and can be present at all our more private actions and is privy to them, being with us at bed, at table, and in every company. By this he is able to accuse us: first,

Of all the gross and obvious sins a person has committed: these are usually the heaviest material for accusation and weigh on us most in such temptations — as David's murder and adultery weighed on him: 'My sin,' he says, 'is ever before me.' These pull a person down and put them in prison, and then the conscience comes in with all the smaller and more private corruptions — as lesser creditors do once the principal debtor has been brought to account. Once the soul has been brought to doubt through the accusation of one foul act, all the other private corruptions join in and offer themselves to accuse as well — for they lie at the door, as God told Cain, ready for just such an occasion.

He may also by this means accuse us of all deadness, drowsiness, and neglect in the performance of holy duties — such as lack of attention and alertness in them (which any attentive observer can easily detect) — and of the absence of stirring affections, and neglect of holy conduct in various situations, and the like. If a godly person were to follow another person around in all their company and settings, how much might that observer come to know about them, and be able to charge them with?

By such observation he can come to know a person's deepest besetting sins. So he knew and had observed that Judas's besetting sin was greed, and accordingly tailored his temptation to it.

From what he observes outwardly in our actions, he can in many ways infer the inward corruption that drives them. He has all the means that a wise and discerning person has — one who constantly watches another person, studies them intently, and has the opportunity to suggest things at will for the purpose of testing and discovering: all of these Satan has. And what Solomon says of a wise man — that though the heart of man is deep, a person of understanding will draw it out — is all the more true of Satan. First, by comparing one action with another, one speech with another, wise people guess at the ends and motives behind what others do. Second, by gestures — by a person's countenance and behavior — much can be read about them, and Satan can read us in the same way. Joab discerned David's pride in his command to number the people, so that it was loathsome in his eyes. And if Joab discerned this from the outward handling of the matter, how much more would Satan know — since he was the one who had put the motivating impulses in to persuade David to it? Third, by himself suggesting various motives and reasons, offering side interests and considerations this way and that, Satan observes how the heart responds to each suggestion — where it hesitates and what it was that moved a person in one direction or another. The Jews could see what moved Pilate to condemn Christ to death: the text notes that it was at the statement that otherwise he would be an enemy to Caesar that Pilate gave the sentence. So Satan, having stirred David with proud arguments to number the people, must have known what pride was already in his heart.

Beyond all this, how far Satan may have insight into the imagination and its images — which shadow forth the mind's inward thoughts as a shadow follows the body — and also into the passions, which are the flowing and ebbing of the body's spirits in which the will's affections express themselves: this I leave for others to determine. For the present, this much is certain: although all the powers of the rational soul are firmly locked to him, and the direct acts of the soul in itself are utterly hidden from him — so that no devil can directly perceive them any more than one angel can perceive another's thoughts — yet by inference, as those acts appear and express themselves outwardly in the body and bodily organs through actions, or inwardly through the passions, they can be read to a considerable degree by angels, indirectly and mediately. Yet this does not in any way infringe on that prerogative given solely to God — of being the one who alone searches and knows the heart — nor on that privilege belonging to the soul itself, that none should know the things of a person except the spirit within him — as we will have occasion to show in the appendix to this work.

Beyond those advantages and means of knowledge that we humans share with each other to some degree, these spirits have a further and closer means of knowing the acts of the rational powers — the understanding and the will — than any human can have of another. Similarly, they have a way of communicating their thoughts to us in a more intimate, hidden, and close manner. Yet even this falls short of direct intuitive knowledge of those acts. They can go further into a room than we can — into a room right next to the innermost chamber, which remains firmly shut to them. As their power in all other things exceeds ours by a degree, so also in this.

The rational powers and faculties in us — the understanding and the will — whose direct internal acts are locked to Satan, are nonetheless in this life immersed in the body and bodily organs on which their working depends. The understanding is joined to the imagination, which creates parallels, likenesses, and shadows of the thoughts the mind secretly conceives — so that almost no thought stirs without the imagination imitating it and acting it out as best it can. The will is likewise joined to the affections, which are immersed in bodily organs and spirits, so that no motion of the will expresses itself without some degree of bodily affection stirring alongside it. Therefore affections are defined as much by their movement in the body as by their seat in the will itself — as when anger is defined as a boiling of blood around the heart, and affections are described as the flowing and ebbing of the body's spirits to and from the heart.

Both these — mental images and passions — all theologians grant that devils may know, and that they have closer access to perceive them in us than people have to perceive them in each other. Indeed, they may discern them directly and intuitively, as we perceive things that are in front of us. Without this, there could be no diabolical dreams — nor angelic ones either, caused by good angels. We find that a good angel communicated a great article of faith — Christ's divinity and birth — to Joseph in a dream, and therefore through his imagination. So they inspired the Sibyls and dictated prophecies, as was said; and so evil angels influenced Saul's imagination. They do this not by creating new images and impressions but by drawing on images already present. Since the images in the imagination are physical in character, angels can no more generate an entirely new image there than they can create a physical body from nothing. Therefore all the power of angels cannot cause a blind man to dream of colors. Their means of communicating suggestions to us in this regard must be by recognizing the mental images — that is, of all words heard or read that already reside in the imagination — and then arranging and composing them. This is like a typesetter in printing who orders the scattered letters before him into words and sentences to present the reader with what he wants read. In the same way, Satan presents to the understanding — which naturally prints off from the imagination whatever is in it — whatever he has arranged there. For the same reason that he can summon and arrange those images, and view what is stored there, he must be supposed equally able to perceive any of them in the imagination at any time — even when reason itself calls them up and makes use of them, as it does whenever it turns its attention to think or reflect. All the operations of the sensitive powers, they can view and see — for all we know — as directly and intuitively as we see colors or the images in a person's eyes. So these evil angels may, when God permits, penetrate the mind, see all the images in the imagination, and those directly before the understanding that it is currently thinking about — just as a person can see what images are in another person's eye. And by perceiving those mental images the understanding is actually using and attending to at that moment, Satan can judge what the mind is currently thinking about.

And again, as we discern people's passions when they color and affect the outward features — as shame reddens the face and fear turns it pale — so may angels discern with greater subtlety the inward movement of those passions, which is what causes those outward changes. They can go further still and perceive the internal stirring of the body's spirits in our innermost parts — even in their channels and sources, in the physical heart we carry within us, in the veins and arteries — and so know what affections are at work. This is evident from the fact that they are also able to act upon these passions; their power to move and influence the affections comes from their ability to perceive them and their skill in stirring and moving the spirits and humors in which those passions are seated. In this ability to discern us, they exceed what people can discern of one another, as their power of communicating with us also exceeds ours. As they can communicate secretly through the imagination — while we can only communicate through outward words and signs to the outward senses of others — so they can discern more secretly what is in the imagination, and not only what appears in the outward parts. They get further into the room than we can, so that they can detect the slightest rise of the tide, the faintest turn in the current of the affections in our veins and in the physical heart. Satan can detect those faint feverish surges of passion that accompany any act of the will — surges that people cannot detect in each other.