Chapter 4. Of the Great Power Satan Has Not Only Over the Elementary and Sensitive Part of the World, but the Intellectual Also — the Souls of Men

SECT. I.

THis is the Second Branch of the Description, wherein Satan is set forth by his might and Power. This gives weight to the former, were he a Prince, and not able to raise a force that might dread the Saints, the swelling name of Prince were contemptible; but he has power answerable to his dignity, which in five particulars will appear.

First, in his names; Secondly, his nature; Thirdly, his number; Fourthly, his order and unity; Lastly, the mighty works that are attributed to him.

First, for the first, he has names of great power called the strong man, Luke. 11.21. so strong that he keeps his house in peace in defiance of all the sons of Adam, none on earth being able to cope with this giant: Christ must come from Heaven to destroy him and his works, or the field is lost. He is call'd the roaring lion, which beast commands the whole forrest; If he roares all tremble, yea, in such a manner, as Pliny relates, that he goes amongst them, and they stand exanimated while he chooss his prey without resistance; such a lion is Satan, who leads sinners captive at his will, 2 Timothy 3:26. He takes them alive, as the word is, as the Fowler the bird, which with a little scrap is enticed into the net; or as the Conquerour his cowardly enemy, who has no heart to fight, but yields without contest. Such cowards the devil finds sinners, he no sooner appears in a motion, but they yield; They are but a very few noble spirits and those are the children of the most High God, who dare valiantly oppose him, and in striving against sin resist to blood. He is call'd the great red dragon, who with his taile, wicked men his instruments, sweeps down the third part of the stars of Heaven. The Prince of the power of the aire, because as a Prince can muster his subjects, and draw them into the field for his service, so the devil can raise the posse coeli aërii. In a word, he is call'd the God of this world, 2 Corinthians 4:4. because sinners give him a God-like worship, feare him as the Saints do God himselfe.

Secondly, the devils nature shewes his power: 'Tis Angelical. Blesse the Lord, ye his Angels, that excel in strength, Psalms 103:20. Strength is put for Angels, Psalms 78:25. They did eat Angels food, Heb. the food of the mighty. In two things the power of Angelical nature will appear; In its Superiority, and in its Spirituality.

First, its Superiority, Angels are the top of the Creation; man himself made a little lower than the Angels. Now in the works of Creation, the Superiour has a power over the Inferiour; the beasts over the grasse and herb, man over the beasts, and Angels over man.

Secondly, the Spirituality of their nature. The weakness of man is from his flesh: his soul made for great enterprizes, but weighed down with a lump of flesh, is forced to rowe with a strength suitable to its weak Partner; but now the devils being Angels have no such incumbrance, no sumes from a fleshly part to cloud their understanding, which is clear and piercing; no clog at their heele to retard their motion, which for swiftnesse is set out by the winde and flame of fire. Yea, being spiritual they cannot be resisted with carnal force, fire and sword hurt not them. The Angel which appear'd to Manoah, went up in the fire that consumed the sacrifice, though such has been the dotage, and is at this day of superstitious ones, that they think to charme the devil with their carnal exorcismes; hence the Romish Reliques, Crosse, holy water, yea, and among the Jewes themselves in corrupter times, who thought by their phylacteries and Circumcision, to scare away the devil, which made some of them expound that, Cant. 3.8. of Circumcision, Every man has his sword on his thigh, because of feare in the night. By sword on the thigh, they expound Circumcision, which they will vainly have given as a charme against evil spirits that affright them in the night. But alas, the devil cares for none of these, no, not for an Ordinance of God, when by fleshly confidence we make it a spell: he has been often bound with these fetters and chaines, (as is said of him in the Gospel) and the chaines have been plucked asunder by him, neither could any man thus tame him. He esteems, as Job says of the Leviathan, iron as straw, and brasse as rotten wood. It must be a stronger than the strong man must binde him, and none stronger but God the Father of spirits. The devil lost indeed by his fall much of his power, in relation to that holy and happy estate in which he was created, but not his natural abilities, he is an Angel still, and has an Angels power.

Thirdly, the number of devils addes to their power. What lighter then the sand? yet number makes it weighty? what creature lesse then lice? yet what plague greater to the Egyptians? How formidable then must devils be, who are both for nature so mighty, and for number such a multitude? there are devils enough to beleaguer the whole earth; not a place under heaven where Satan has not his troops; not a person without some of these cursed spirits haunting and watching him whereever he goes; yea, for some special service he can send a legion to keep garrison in one single person, as, Mark 5. and if so many can be spared to attend one, to what a number would the muster-rolle of Satans whole army amount if known? And now tell me, if we are not like to finde our march difficult to heaven, (if ever we mean to go there) that are to passe through the very quarters of this multitude, who are scattered over the face of all the earth. When armies are disbanded and the roads full of debautch't souldiers, wandering up and down, it's dangerous travelling: we heare then of murders and robberies from all quarters: These powers of hell are that party of Angels, who for their mutiny and disobedience were cashier'd heaven, and thrust out of that glorious host, and ever since they have stragled here below, endeavouring to do mischief to the children of men, especially travelling in heavens road.

Fourthly, their unity and order makes their number formidable. We cannot say there is love among them, that heavenly fire cannot live in a devils bosome, yet there is unity and order as to this, they are all agreed in their designe against God and man: so their unity and consent is knit together by the ligaments, not of love, but of hatred and policy; Hatred against God and his children which they are filled with; and policy, which tells them, that if they agree not in their designe, their Kingdom cannot stand. And how true they are to this wicked brotherhood, our Saviour gives a faire testimony, when he says, Satan fights not against Satan. Did you ever heare of any mutiny in the devils army? or that any of those Apostate Angels did freely yield up one soul to Christ? They are many, and yet but one spirit of wickedness in them all. My name, said the devils, (not our name,) is legion. The devil is call'd the Leviathan, Isaiah 27:1. The Lord with his strong sword shall punish Leviathan, from their cleaving together of [illegible] compact or joyned together, used for the Whale, Jeb 4. whose strength lies in his scales, which are so knit, that he is, as it were, covered with armour. Thus these cursed spirits do accord in their machinations, and labor to bring their instruments into the same league with them, not contented with their bare obedience, but where they can obtain it do require an express oath of their servants to be true to them, as in witches.

Fifthly, the mighty works that are attributed to these evil spirits in Scripture declare their power, and these either respect the elementary, sensible, or intellectual part of the world. The Elementary, what dreadful effects this Prince of the power of the aire is able to produce on that, see in the Word; he cannot indeed make the least breath of aire, drop of water, or spark of fire, but he can, if let loose, (as Reverend Master Caryl says on Job 1.) go to Gods store-house, and make use of these in such a sort, as no man can stand before him; he can hurle the sea into such a commotion, that the depths shall boile like a pot, and disturb the aire into stormes and tempests, as if heaven and earth would meet. Jobs children were buried in the ruines of their house by a puffe of his mouth, yea, he can go to Gods magazine, (as the former Author says) and let off the great ordnance of heaven, causing such dreadful thunder and lightning, as shall not only affright, but do real execution, and that in a more dreadful way then in the ordinary course of nature. If mans Art can so sublimate nature, as we see in the invention of powder, that has such a strange force, much more able is he to draw forth its power. Again, over the sensitive world his power is great, not only the beasts, as in the herd of swine, hurried by him into the deep; but over the bodies of men also, as in Iob, whose sore boiles were not the breakings out of a distempered nature, but the print of Satans sangs on his flesh, doing that suddenly, which in nature would have required more time to gather and ripen: and the demoniacks in the Gospel grievously vexed and tormented by him. But this the devil counts small game, his great spite is at the souls of men, which I call the Intellectual world, his cruelty to the body is for the souls sake. As Christs pity to the bodies of men, (when on earth) healing their diseases, was in a subserviency to the good of their souls, bribing them with those mercies suitable to their carnal desires, that they might more willingly receiv mercies for their souls, from that hand which was so kind to their bodies, as we give children somthing that pleass them, to perswade them to do something that pleass them not, go to school, learn their book: so the devil who is cruel, as Christ is meek, and wishs good neither to body nor soul, yet shewes his cruelty to the body, but on a design against the soul, knowing well that the soul is soon discomposed by the perturbation of the other, the soul cannot but lightly heare, (and so have its peace and rest broken by the groanes and complaints of the body) under whose very roof it dwells; and then it is not strange, if as for want of sleep the tongue talk idly, so the soul should break out into some sinful carriage, which is the bottom of the devils plot on a Saint. And as for other poor silly souls, he gaines little lesse then a God like fear and dread of them by that power he puts forth (through divine permission) in smiting their goods, beasts and bodies, as among the Indians at this day. Yea, there are many among our selves plainly show what a throne Satan has in their hearts upon this account, such who, as if there were not a God in Israel, go for help and cure to his Doctours, wizzards I mean. And truly had Satan no other way to work his will on the souls of men, but by this vantage he takes from the body, yet considering the degeneracy of mans state, how low his soul is sunk beneath its primitive extraction, how the body which was a lightsome house is now become a prisoner to it, that which was its servant is now become its Master; it is no wonder he is able to do so much. But besides this, he has as a spirit a neerer way of accesse to the soul, and as a superiour spirit, yet more over man a lower creature. And above all, having got within the soul by mans fall, he has now far more power then before; so that where he meets not resistance from God he carrries all before him: As in the wicked, whom he has so at his devotion, that he is (in a sense) said to do that in them, which God does in the Saints. God works effectually in them, Galatians 2:8. 1 Thes. 2.13. Satan works effectually in the children of disobedience, Ephesians 2:2. [illegible], the same word with the former places, he is in a manner as efficacious with them, as the holy Spirit with the other. His delusions strong, 2 Thes. 2.11. They return not re infectâ. The Spirit enlightens, he blindes the mindes of those that believe not, 2 Corinthians 4:4. The Spirit fills the Saints, Ephes. 5.18. Why has Satan filled your heart, says Peter to Ananias, Acts. 5.3. The Spirit fills with knowledge, and the fruits of righteousnesse; Satan fills with envy and all unrighteousnesse. The holy Spirit fills with comfort; Satan the wicked with terrours: As in Saul vexed by an evil spirit; and Iudas, into whom 'tis said he entered, and when he had satisfied his lust upon him, (as Amnon on Tamar) shuts the door of mercy upon him, and makes him that was even now Traitour to his Master, Hangman to himselfe. And though Saints be not the proper subjects of his power, yet they are the chief objects of his wrath, his foot stands on the wickeds back, but he wrestles with these, and when God steps aside, he is far above their match: He has sent the strongest among them home, trembling and crying to their God, with the blood running about their consciences. He is mighty, both as a tempter to and for sin, knowing the state of the Christians affairs so wel, & able to throw his fire-bals so far into the inward senses, (whether they be of lust or horrour) and to blow up these with such unwearied solicitations, that if they at first meet not with some suitable dispositions in the Christian, at which (as from loose cornes of powder) they may take fire, (which is most ordinary) yet in time he may bring over the creature by the length of the siege, and continued volleys of such motions, to listen to a parley with them, if not a yielding to them. Thus many times he even wearies out the soul with importunity.

SECT. II.

Use 1 First, let this (O man make the plumes of your pride fall, whoever you are that gloriest in your power; had you more than you 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 your body you gloriest in? Alas, what is the strength of frail flesh, to the force of their spiritual nature? you are no more to these then a child to a giant, a worme to a man: who could tear up the mountaines, and hurle the world into a confusion, if God would but suffer them. Is it the strength of your parts above others? doest you not see what fooles he makes of the wisest among men? winding them about as a Sophister 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 has in 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 warlike atchievement? Grant you wert able to subdue Nations, and give lawes to the whole world, yet even then without grace from above you wouldest be his slave. And he himselfe for all this his power is a cursed spirit, the most miserable of all Gods creatures, and the more because he has so much power to do mischief; had the devil lost all his Angelical abilities, when he fell, he had gained by his losse. Therefore tremble (O man) at any power you have, except you usest it for God. Art strong in body? who has your strength? God, or your lusts? some are strong to drink, strong to sin, Your bands shall therefore be stronger, Isaiah 28:22. Have you power by your place to do God and his Church service, but no heart to lay it out for them, but rather against them? you and the devil shall be tried at the same bar, it seems you meanest to go to hell for something, you will carry your full lading there. No greater plague can befall a man then 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 souldiers are poor creatures to them; but when the Army is beaten, and all taken prisoners, then they fling off their scarfe and feather, and would be glad to passe for the meanest in the army. Happy would devils be, Princes and great ones in the world be, if then they could appear in the habit of some poor sneaks to receiv their sentence as such, but then their titles, and dignity, and riches shall be read, not for their honor, but further shame and damnation.

Us;e 2 Secondly, it shewes the folly of those that think it is such an easie matter to get heaven. If the devil be so mighty, and heavens way so full of them, then sure it will cost hot water before we display our banners upon the walls of that new Ierusalem. Yet it is plain 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 foule weather, or one riding a long journey alone and without armes, you will conclude he expects no thieves on the road. All (if you ask them) will tell you they are on their 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 any thing like armour, have not enough to gaine the name of Professours at large; others, it may be, will show you some vaine slighty 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 flie in their own face, when they come to use it, and is it any wrong to say these make nothing of getting heaven? Surely these men, (many of whom thrive so well in the world) never got their estates with so little care as they think to get heaven. Ask them why they follow their trade so close, they will tell you estates are not got by sleeping, families are not provided for with the hands in the pocket, 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 you needest feare will put a cheat on your soul, and bereave you of your crown of glory if they can? you are blinder then the Prophets servant, if you seest not more devils encompassing you then he saw men about Samaria. Your worldly trade they will not hinder, nay, may be help you to sinful tricks in that to hinder you in this: but if once you resolvest to seek out for Christ and his grace, they will oppose you to your face; they are under an oath, as Pauls enemies were, to take away the life of your 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 your soul into their hands, when Christ stands by to be your convoy? out of him you are a lost creature, you can not defend your self alone against Satan, nor with Satan against God. Close with Christ, and you are delivered from one of your enemies, and him the most formidable, God I mean: yea, he is become your friend, who will stick close to you in your conflict with the other.

Us;e 3 Thirdly, to the Saints; be not ye dismayed at this report which the Scripture makes of Satans power. Let them feare him who feare not God. What are these mountains of power and pride before you, O Christian, who servest a God that can make a worme thresh a mountain? the greatest hurt he can do you, is by nourishing this false fear of him in your bosome: It is observed (Bernard says) of some beasts in the forrest, Plerunque superant leonem ferientem, quae non sustinent rugientem: Though they are too hard for the Lion in fight, yet tremble when he roares, 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. Labor therefore to get a right understanding of Satans 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 feares of his power.

First, it is a derived power; he has it not in himself, but by pattent from another, and that no other but God: All powers are of him, whether on earth or in hell. This truth subscribed in faith would first sccure you (Christian) that Satans power shall never hurt you. Would your Father give him a sword to mischief you his child? I have created the Smith (says God) that blows the coales, I have created the waster to destroy, and therefore assures them, that no weapon formed against them shall prosper, Isaiah 54:16, &c. If God provides his enemies armes, 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 from above, Iohn 19.10. as if he had said, Do your worst, I know who seal'd your commission,

Secondly, this considered, would meeken and quiet the soul, when troubled by Satan within, or his instruments without; 'Tis Satan buffets, man persecutes me, but God who gives them both power. The Lord (says David) bids him curse. The Lord (says Iob) has given, and the Lord has taken. This kept the Kings peace in both their bosomes. O Christian, look not on the Jayler that whips you, may be he is cruel, but reade the warrant, who wrote that, and at the bottome you shalt finde your Fathers hand.

Secondly, Satans power is limited, and that two ways; he cannot do what he will, and he shall not do what he can.

First, he cannot do what he will. His desires are boundlesse, they walk not only to and fro here below, but in heaven it self, 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, this foole says in his heart, There is no God; but he cannot do this, nor many other things which his canker'd malice stirres him up to wish; he is but a creature, and so has the length of his Tedder to which he is staked and cannot exceed; and if God be safe then you also, for your life is hid with Christ in God; If I live (says Christ) you shall live also. You are engraven on the table of his heart, if he plucks one away, he must the other also. Again, as he cannot hurt the being of God, so he cannot pry into the boseme of God. He knowes not mans, much lesse the thoughts of God. The Astrologers nor their Master could bring back Nebuchadnezzars 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 foretel events: if God teach him not his lesson, nor second causes help him, he is beside his book; so to save his credit, delivers them dubiously, that his text may beare a glosse 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 judgment. Job was an hypocrite in his mouth, but God proved him a liar. Again, thirdly, 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 Gods counsel against themselves. Fourthly, he cannot ravish your will, Diabolus non est jussor vitiorum, sed incentor. He cannot command you to sin against your will; he can motum agere, make the soul go faster, that is, on its way, as the winde carries the tide with more swiftnesse, but he cannot turn the stream of the heart contrary to its own course and tendency.

Secondly, Satans power is so limited, that he shall not 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 si at this sweet fest of comfort▪ but dares not stir to roam off their cheer, his Masters eye is on him. The want of this consideration loseth God his praise, and us our comfort, God having lock't up our comfort in the performance of our duty. Did the Christian consider what Satans power is, and who damms it up; This would alwayes be a Song of praise in his mouth. Has Satan power to rob and burn, kill and slay, torment the body, distress the minde? whom may I thank that I am in any of these out of his hands? does Satan love one better than Job? or am I out of fight, or beside his walk? is his courage cool'd, or his wrath appeas'd, that I scape so well? no, none of these, his wrath is not against one, but all the Saints; his eye is on you, and his arme can reach you; his spirit is not cow'd, nor his stomach stay'd with those millions he has devoured, but keen as ever; yea, sharper, because now he sees God ready to take away, and the end of the world drawing on so fast. 'Tis your God alone whom you are beholden to for all this, his eye keeps you; when Satan finds the good man asleep, then he finds our good God awake; therefore you are not consumed, because he changs not. Did his eye slumber or wander one moment, there would need no other flood to drown you, yea, the whole world, then what would come out of this dragons mouth.

Thirdly, Satans power is ministerial, appointed by God for the service and benefit of the Saints: 'Tis true (as its said of the proud Assyrian,) be weans not so, neither does his heart think so; 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 Noremburg 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 Satans are ruine to 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 devils prison, runs thus, Deliver such a one to Satan for the destruction of the flesh, that the spirit may be saved in the day of the Lord Jesus, 1 Corinthians 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 them, and to make them white, Daniel 11:35. This God intends when he lets his children fall into temptation, as we do with our linnen, the spots they get at our feasts are taken out by washing, rubbing and laying them out to bleech. The Saints spots are most got in peace, plenty and prosperity, and they never recover their whitenesse to such a degree as when they come from under Satans scouring. We do too little, not to feare Satan, we should comfort our selves with the usefulnesse and subserviency of his temptations to our good. All things are yours, who are Christs. He that has given life to be yours, has given death also. He that has given heaven for your inheritance, Paul and Cephas, his Ministers and Ordinances to help you there; has 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.

Section 1.

This is the second branch of the description, in which Satan is presented by his might and power. This gives weight to the first branch. If he were a prince without the power to raise a force that could threaten the saints, the swelling title of 'prince' would mean nothing. But his power matches his rank, as will appear in five particulars.

First, his names. Second, his nature. Third, his number. Fourth, his order and unity. Fifth, the mighty works attributed to him.

First, his names reveal his great power. He is called the strong man (Luke 11:21) — so strong that he holds his house in peace against all the sons of Adam. No one on earth is capable of challenging this giant; Christ had to come from heaven to destroy him and his works, or the battle would be lost. He is called the roaring lion — a beast that commands the whole forest. When he roars, everything trembles. Pliny reports that a lion can walk among other animals and they stand paralyzed while he selects his prey without resistance. Satan is just such a lion, leading sinners captive at his will (2 Timothy 2:26). He takes them alive, as the word says — like a fowler takes a bird with a small crumb of bait lured into the net, or like a conqueror takes a cowardly enemy who has no heart to fight and surrenders without a struggle. Such cowards the devil finds in sinners. He has barely appeared in a temptation before they yield. Only a very few noble spirits — and those are the children of the Most High God — dare to stand against him and strive against sin to the point of resisting to the last. He is called the great red dragon, who sweeps down a third of the stars of heaven with his tail — wicked men who are his instruments. He is called the prince of the power of the air, because just as a prince can muster his subjects and draw them into the field for his service, so the devil can raise the forces of the aerial realm. In a word, he is called the god of this world (2 Corinthians 4:4) because sinners give him god-like worship, fearing him as the saints fear God Himself.

Second, the devil's nature reveals his power: it is angelic. 'Bless the Lord, you His angels, who excel in strength' (Psalm 103:20). Strength is used as another name for angels in Psalm 78:25 — 'Men ate the bread of angels,' which in the original means the bread of the mighty. The power of an angelic nature appears in two things: its superiority and its spirituality.

First, its superiority. Angels are at the top of creation; humanity itself was made a little lower than the angels. In the works of creation, the superior has power over the inferior: the animals have power over grass and plants, humanity has power over animals, and angels have power over humanity.

Second, the spirituality of their nature. Human weakness comes from the flesh. The soul is made for great things, but weighted down by a body of flesh, it is forced to work at the strength of its weaker partner. But the devils, being angels, have no such burden. No fumes from a fleshly nature cloud their understanding, which is clear and sharp. No drag at their heels slows their movement, which Scripture describes by the wind and the flame of fire. Being spiritual, they cannot be resisted by physical force. Fire and sword cannot harm them. The angel who appeared to Manoah went up in the fire that consumed the sacrifice. Yet to this day, superstitious people imagine they can ward off the devil with their physical charms and rituals — hence the Roman relics, crosses, and holy water, and among the Jews in their more corrupt periods, the belief that their phylacteries and circumcision could frighten away evil spirits. Some of them even applied the verse in Song of Solomon 3:8, 'Every man has his sword on his thigh, because of fear in the night,' to circumcision — as if it were a charm against spirits that terrify in the dark. But the devil cares nothing for any of these. He even ignores an ordinance of God when it is used as a magic formula with fleshly confidence. He has often been bound with such fetters and chains, as the Gospel account says, and snapped them apart, and no one could tame him that way. As Job says of Leviathan: he treats iron as straw and bronze as rotten wood. It takes one stronger than the strong man to bind him — and only God, the Father of spirits, is stronger. The devil lost much through his fall in relation to the holy and blessed state in which he was created. But he did not lose his natural abilities. He is still an angel, and has an angel's power.

Third, the number of devils adds to their power. What is lighter than sand? Yet in great enough quantity it becomes crushing. What creature is smaller than a louse? Yet what plague was more devastating to the Egyptians? How formidable, then, must the devils be — so mighty in nature and so vast in number? There are devils enough to besiege the entire earth. There is no place under heaven where Satan does not have his forces, and no person without some of these cursed spirits haunting and watching him wherever he goes. For special assignments, Satan can send a whole legion to keep guard over a single person, as in Mark 5. If so many can be spared to attend one person, what would Satan's full army roll amount to if we could see it? Consider what a difficult march we face on the road to heaven, knowing we must pass through the very territory of this multitude, spread across the face of the whole earth. When armies are disbanded and the roads fill with soldiers drifting aimlessly about, travel becomes dangerous — reports of murders and robberies come from every direction. These powers of hell are that company of angels who were discharged from heaven for their mutiny and disobedience, driven out of that glorious host. Ever since, they have roamed down here, bent on doing harm to the children of men — especially those traveling the road to heaven.

Fourth, their unity and order makes their great number even more formidable. We cannot say there is love among devils — that heavenly fire cannot live in a devil's heart. Yet there is a kind of unity and order among them: they are all agreed on their purpose against God and humanity. Their unity is bound together not by love, but by hatred and strategy. Hatred of God and His children fills them all, and strategy tells them that if they do not cooperate, their kingdom cannot stand. Our Savior gives clear testimony to how faithful they are to this wicked brotherhood when He says that Satan does not fight against Satan. Have you ever heard of a mutiny in the devil's army? Has any fallen angel ever freely surrendered even one soul to Christ? They are many, yet there is one spirit of wickedness in them all. The devils said 'My name is Legion' — not 'our name.' The devil is called Leviathan (Isaiah 27:1). The Lord with His strong sword will punish Leviathan — the name comes from the idea of something bound together or joined, used for the whale (Job 41), whose strength lies in its scales, so tightly locked together that it is covered as with armor. In the same way, these cursed spirits work in tight coordination, and they labor to bind their human instruments into the same league with them. Simple obedience is not enough for them — where they can obtain it, they require an explicit oath of loyalty from their servants, as in the case of witches.

Fifth, the mighty works attributed to evil spirits in Scripture declare their power. These works operate in three spheres: the physical world of nature, the world of the senses and bodies, and the intellectual world of human souls. In the physical world: consider what dreadful effects this prince of the power of the air can produce. He cannot create the smallest breath of air, drop of water, or spark of fire — but if he is let loose, as the Reverend Master Caryl notes on Job 1, he can go to God's storehouse and use these elements in ways no human can withstand. He can hurl the sea into such a fury that the depths boil like a pot. He can whip the air into storms and tempests as though heaven and earth would collide. Job's children were buried in the ruins of their house by a single breath from his mouth. He can also go to God's arsenal and fire off the great cannons of heaven, unleashing thunder and lightning that does not merely frighten but kills — far beyond what nature ordinarily produces. If human ingenuity can refine nature so powerfully, as we see in the invention of gunpowder, Satan is far more capable of drawing out nature's force. Over the world of the senses his power is also great — not only over animals, as when he drove a herd of swine into the sea, but over human bodies as well. Job's painful sores were not the natural breakout of a diseased body but the marks of Satan's claws on his flesh, doing in an instant what nature would have taken much longer to produce. And the people tormented by demons in the Gospels were grievously afflicted by him. But the devil regards all of this as small game. His true hatred is aimed at the souls of men — what we might call the intellectual world. His cruelty to the body is always in service of his attack on the soul. Christ's compassion for people's bodies while on earth — healing their diseases — served the good of their souls. He won them with mercies suited to their physical desires, so they would more readily receive mercy for their souls from the hand that had been so kind to their bodies. We do the same with children — give them something they enjoy to persuade them to do something they would rather avoid, like going to school. Satan, who is cruel as Christ is gentle and wishes good to neither body nor soul, shows cruelty to the body as part of his campaign against the soul. He knows well that the soul is easily unsettled by the body's distress. The soul lives under the same roof as the body and cannot help hearing the body's groans — and when the soul is disturbed by those groans, it is no surprise if, like a tongue made foolish by lack of sleep, it breaks out into sinful behavior. That is the bottom of the devil's plot against the saint. As for other poor souls, Satan has gained something close to god-like fear and reverence from them by the power he exercises — with God's permission — in striking their possessions, livestock, and bodies. This is still seen among certain peoples today. And among ourselves, there are many who plainly show what a throne Satan holds in their hearts by seeking help and cures from his doctors — I mean wizards — as if there were no God in Israel. Even if Satan had no other means of working on the souls of men than through the body's vulnerability, given how far humanity has fallen from its original dignity — how completely the body, which was meant to be a bright and ordered dwelling, has become its master instead of its servant — it would be no surprise that he accomplishes so much. But beyond this, as a spirit he has more direct access to the soul, and as a superior spirit he has power over humanity as a lower creature. Above all, having gotten inside the soul through the fall of man, he now has far more power than before. Where he meets no resistance from God, he sweeps everything before him. In the wicked, who are completely under his control, he is said in a sense to do what God does in the saints. God works effectively in His people (Galatians 2:8; 1 Thessalonians 2:13). Satan works effectively in the children of disobedience (Ephesians 2:2) — the same word is used for both. He is in a sense as effective in them as the Holy Spirit is in the saints. His delusions are powerful (2 Thessalonians 2:11). They do not leave empty-handed. The Spirit enlightens; Satan blinds the minds of those who do not believe (2 Corinthians 4:4). The Spirit fills the saints (Ephesians 5:18). 'Why has Satan filled your heart?' Peter asked Ananias (Acts 5:3). The Spirit fills with knowledge and the fruits of righteousness; Satan fills with envy and all unrighteousness. The Holy Spirit fills with comfort; Satan fills the wicked with terror — as in Saul tormented by an evil spirit, and Judas, into whom Satan is said to have entered. When Satan had satisfied his purpose upon Judas — as Amnon did with Tamar — he shut the door of mercy on him, turning the man who had just betrayed his Master into the executioner of himself. Although the saints are not the proper subjects of Satan's power, they are the chief objects of his hatred. His foot rests on the back of the wicked, but he wrestles actively with the saints, and when God steps aside, he is far more than their match. He has sent the strongest among them home trembling, crying to their God with a conscience full of anguish. He is powerful both as a tempter toward sin and in sustaining the attack. He knows the Christian's situation so well and is able to throw his burning bombs so deep into the inner senses — whether stirring up lust or dread — and press them with such tireless persistence, that even if they do not at first find any ready fuel in the Christian at which they can ignite (which is the more common case), he may in time wear the person down through the length of the siege and wave after wave of such impulses, until the soul listens to a negotiation with them, if not an outright surrender. In this way, he often wearies the soul into submission simply by persistence.

Section 2.

First application: Let this knock the pride out of you, O man — whoever you are who boasts in your power. Even if you had more than any son of Adam ever possessed, what would it all amount to against the power of these angels? Is it your physical strength you boast of? What is the strength of frail flesh compared to the force of their spiritual nature? You are no more to them than a child to a giant, a worm to a man. They could tear up mountains and throw the world into chaos if God would allow it. Is it your mental ability above others? Do you not see how he makes fools of the wisest people, twisting them around like a sophist manipulating a simpleton, making them believe light is dark and bitter is sweet? Could his own ability be anything less than remarkable, to make a rational creature so absurdly throw away treasure for filth — giving up God and the glory available in Him, in the hope of gaining something better by embracing sin? And he accomplished this when humanity had its fullest wits in the innocence of creation. Is it the power of position and dignity won through great achievement? Even if you could subdue nations and give laws to the whole world, without grace from above you would still be his slave. And he himself, for all his power, is a cursed spirit — the most miserable of all God's creatures, made worse precisely because he has such great power to do harm. Had the devil lost all his angelic abilities when he fell, he would have gained by the loss. So tremble, O man, at any power you hold, unless you use it for God. Are you strong in body? In whose service does that strength run — God's, or your lusts? Some are strong to drink, strong to sin. Your chains will therefore be all the stronger (Isaiah 28:22). Do you hold a position that could do great service for God and His church, yet have no heart to use it for them — and instead turn it against them? You and the devil will stand at the same bar. It seems you intend to go to hell with a full load. There is no greater curse on a person than power without grace. Such powerful figures in the world make a fine show while they are here — like senior officers at the head of their regiments, towering above the common soldiers. But when the army is routed and all are taken prisoner, they strip off their insignia and would be glad to pass for the lowest private. Devils, and the great ones of this world, would be glad at that day to appear in the rags of some obscure person and receive their sentence as such — but then their titles, dignities, and riches will be read out, not for their honor, but for their greater shame and damnation.

Second application: This exposes the foolishness of those who think getting to heaven is an easy matter. If the devil is so powerful and the road to heaven so full of them, then it will take a hard fight before we plant our banners on the walls of the new Jerusalem. Yet it is clear that many think otherwise, judging by how they prepare for the journey. If you saw someone going out without a coat, or with a very thin one, you would say he has no fear of bad weather. If you saw someone riding a long journey alone and unarmed, you would conclude he expects no thieves on the road. Everyone, if you ask, will say they are on their way to heaven — but how few seek the company of the saints as if they needed fellow travelers for the journey? Most go out completely unequipped, without anything resembling armor — not enough even to be called serious Christians. Others may show you some vague, groundless hope in God's mercy with no basis in Scripture, and are content with that. But this will be like a rusty, defective pistol — it will explode in their own face when they try to use it. Is it unfair to say these people think nothing of what it takes to reach heaven? These same men, many of whom do so well in the world, never built their earthly estates with so little effort as they think will get them to heaven. Ask them why they work their trade so hard, and they will tell you that wealth is not earned by sleeping, that families are not provided for with your hands in your pockets, that there are swindlers and cheaters in business who would ruin you if you were not watchful. And are there none who might cheat your soul and rob you of your crown of glory if they can? You are blinder than the prophet's servant if you do not see more devils surrounding you than he saw soldiers around Samaria. Your worldly business the devils will not hinder — they may even help you to sinful tricks in that, the better to hinder you in this. But once you resolve to seek Christ and His grace, they will oppose you to your face. They have sworn an oath — like the men who swore to kill Paul — to take the life of your soul if they can. They are desperate creatures who know their own doom is sealed, and they will sell their own lives as dearly as possible. What folly, then, to hand your soul over to them when Christ stands ready to be your escort? Outside of Him you are a lost person — you cannot defend yourself against Satan alone, and you cannot stand with Satan against God. Come to Christ, and you are delivered from one of your enemies — and the most formidable one: God, who has now become your friend and will stay close to you in your conflict with the other.

Third application, to the saints: Do not be dismayed by this report Scripture gives of Satan's power. Let those fear him who do not fear God. What are these mountains of power and pride before you, O Christian, who serve a God who can make a worm thresh a mountain? The greatest harm Satan can do you is by feeding this false fear of him in your heart. Bernard observes of certain animals in the forest: though they can overpower a lion in a fight, they tremble when it roars. So the Christian — when it actually comes to the test — is able through Christ to trample Satan under his feet, yet stands trembling before the battle at the mere thought of him. Work to get a clear understanding of Satan's power, and this lion will not look as fierce as your anxious imagination paints him. Three considerations will relieve you whenever you are overwhelmed by fear of his power.

First, it is a derived power. Satan does not hold it from himself — he holds it by grant from another, and that other is God. All powers come from God, whether on earth or in hell. Truly believing this would first assure you, Christian, that Satan's power will never harm you. Would your Father give him a sword to use against you, His child? 'I have created the smith who blows the coals; I have created the destroyer to destroy' — and therefore God assures His people that no weapon formed against them will succeed (Isaiah 54:16-17). If God arms His enemies, those arms will be of little service to them. When Pilate tried to intimidate Christ by threatening what power he held over His life, Christ replied that Pilate could do nothing unless it were given to him from above (John 19:10-11). As if He said: Do your worst — I know who sealed your commission.

Second, this truth quiets and settles the soul when troubled by Satan within or his instruments without. Satan buffets me; a person persecutes me — but it is God who gave them both their power. 'The Lord told him to curse,' David said of Shimei. 'The Lord gave, and the Lord has taken away,' Job said. This kept the peace in both their hearts. O Christian, do not fix your eyes on the jailer who is whipping you — he may be cruel. But read the warrant. Look at who wrote it. At the bottom you will find your Father's signature.

Second, Satan's power is limited in two ways: he cannot do everything he wants, and he will not be permitted to do everything he can.

First, he cannot do everything he wants. His desires are boundless. They range not only through the earth below but reach up to heaven itself — pulling down his former fellow angels, smashing the carved work of that glorious temple as with axes and hammers, and even dethroning God to put himself in His place. This fool says in his heart: 'There is no God.' But he cannot do any of this. Nor can he do the many other things his bitter malice drives him to desire. He is a creature and has only the length of chain to which he is staked — he cannot exceed it. And if God is safe, then so are you. Your life is hidden with Christ in God: 'Because I live, you will live also' (John 14:19). You are engraved on the heart of Christ — if God were to pluck one away, He would have to pluck the other as well. Furthermore, just as he cannot harm the being of God, he cannot peer into the mind of God. He does not know the thoughts of man — how much less the thoughts of God. Nebuchadnezzar's astrologers and their master could not recover the king's dream. As people have private rooms where no one may enter without a key, God keeps the human heart as His own inner chamber, closed to everyone but Himself. When Satan attempts to foretell events, if God has not taught him his script and secondary causes do not help him along, he is out of his depth. To protect his reputation, he delivers his predictions in ambiguous terms, so that his words can be interpreted to fit whatever outcome occurs. When he presumes to pronounce judgment on a person's spiritual state, there is no weight to be given to his verdict. He called Job a hypocrite, but God proved him a liar. Third, he cannot hinder those purposes and plans of God that he already knows about. He knew Christ was coming in the flesh and did his worst — but he could not prevent His arrival. Though there were many schemes in Satan's heart, the counsel of the Lord concerning Christ stood firm. Indeed, it was delivered through the very actions of Satan and his instruments, who thought they were satisfying their own desires but were actually fulfilling God's purposes against themselves. Fourth, he cannot override your will. The devil is not the commander of your sins, only their instigator. He cannot force you to sin against your will. He can accelerate what is already moving — like wind pushing a tide along faster — but he cannot reverse the current of a heart that is set in the opposite direction.

Second, Satan's power is so limited that he will not be permitted to do everything he can. God releases only as much of Satan's wrath as will serve His own purposes and advance His love toward His saints — and then He closes the floodgate and holds the rest back. God always calls Satan off before he can complete his work on a saint. Satan can — if God allows it — rob the Christian of much of his joy and disturb his peace through cunning insinuations. But he is under command. He stands like a dog beside the table while the saints sit at their feast of comfort — but he dares not snatch the food from their plates. His Master's eye is on him. Forgetting this robs God of praise and robs us of comfort, since God has locked up our comfort in the performance of our duty. If the Christian really considered what Satan's power is and who holds it in check, gratitude would always be on his lips. Does Satan have the power to rob and burn, kill and destroy, torment the body, and distress the mind? Then who deserves thanks that I am still out of his hands in any of these ways? Does Satan love me more than he loved Job? Am I out of sight, or out of his reach? Has his courage cooled, or his anger been satisfied, that I escape so well? No — none of these. His wrath is not against one saint but against all of them. His eye is on you. His arm can reach you. His spirit is not tamed, and his appetite is not dulled by the millions he has already devoured — he is as keen as ever. Indeed, sharper, because he sees God about to put an end to things, and the close of the age coming fast. It is your God alone whom you have to thank for all this. His eye keeps you safe. When Satan finds the good man sleeping, he finds our good God awake. You are not consumed because He does not change. If His eye were to close or wander for one moment, there would be no need of another flood to drown you — and the whole world with you — than what would pour from this dragon's mouth.

Third, Satan's power is ministerial — appointed by God to serve the good of the saints. As was said of the proud Assyrian: he does not think of it that way, nor does his heart intend it that way. It is in his heart to destroy those he tempts. But no matter what he intends: as Luther comforted himself when told what had been decreed against the Protestants at the Diet of Nuremberg — that it was decreed one way there, but otherwise in heaven — so for the saint's comfort, the thoughts God has toward them are thoughts of peace, while Satan's aim is the ruin of their graces and the destruction of their souls. And God's counsel will stand in spite of the devil. Even the warrant God issues when He commits any of His saints to the devil's prison reads like this: 'Deliver such a one to Satan for the destruction of the flesh, so that his spirit may be saved in the day of the Lord Jesus' (1 Corinthians 5:5). So tempted saints may say: we would have perished if we had not appeared — by our own reckoning — to be perishing. This Leviathan, while thinking to swallow them up, is only sent by God — as the whale was sent to Jonah — to carry them safely to shore. 'Some of those who have insight will fall, in order to refine, purge, and make them pure' (Daniel 11:35). This is God's intention when He allows His children to fall into temptation — as we treat linen: spots gotten at the dinner table are removed by washing, rubbing, and bleaching in the sun. Saints pick up most of their spots during seasons of peace, ease, and prosperity. They never recover their whiteness so fully as when they come out from under Satan's scrubbing. We do too little when we merely refrain from fearing Satan. We should go further and draw comfort from the usefulness of his temptations to our good. All things are yours — you who belong to Christ. He who has given you life has given you death also. He who has given you heaven as your inheritance, with Paul and Cephas and all His ministers and ordinances to help you there, has also given you the world with all its afflictions — indeed, the prince of it too, with all his wrath and power — for the same end. This is love and wisdom wrapped in a riddle. But you who have the Spirit of Christ can unravel it.