Chapter 6. Of the Spirituality of the Devil's Nature and Their Extreme Wickedness

THese words are the fourth branch in the deseription, Spiritual wickednesses, and our contest or combate with them as such exprest by the adversative particle [Against] in the Greek, [illegible] word for word; Against the Spirituals of wickedness, which is, say some, against wicked spirits; that is, true, but not all. I conceive with many Interpreters, not only the spiritual nature of the devil, and the wickedness thereof to be intended, but also, yea, chiefly the nature and kinde of those sins, which these wicked spirits do most usually and vigourously provoke the Saints unto, and they are the spirituals of wickedness, not those grosse fleshly sins, which the herd of beastly sinners like swine wallow in; but sin spirituallized, and this, because it is not [illegible], but [illegible], not spirits, but spirituals. The words present us with these three doctrinal Conclusions.

First, the devils are spirits.

Secondly, the devils are spirits extremely wicked.

Thirdly, these wicked spirits do chiefly annoy the Saints with, and provoke them to spiritual wickednesses. First, of the first.

SECT. I.

First, they are spirits. Spirit is a word of various acception in Scripture. Amongst other used often to set forth the essence and nature of Angels good and evil, both which are called spirits. The holy Angels, Hebrews 1:14. Are they not all ministring spirits? The evil: There came forth a spirit and stood before the Lord, and said, I will perswade him, 1 Kings 22:21. that spirit was a devil. How oft is the devil call'd the unclean spirit, foule spirit, lying spirit, &c. Sin did not alter their substance, for then, as one says well, that nature and substance which transgrest could not be punish't.

First, the devil is a spirit, that is, his essence is immaterial and simple, not compounded (as corporal beings are) of matter and forme: Handle and see me (says Christ to his disciples, that thought they had seen a Spirit) a Spirit has not flesh and bones, as ye see me have, Luke 24:39. If they were not thus immaterial, how could they enter into bodies and possess them, as the Scripture tells us they have, even a legion into one man? Luke 8:30. one body cannot thus enter into another.

Secondly, the devils are spiritual substances, not qualities, or evil motions, arising from us, as some have absurdly conceived. So the Sadduces, and others following them deny any such being, as Angel good or evil: but this is so fond a conceit, that we must both forfeit our reason, and deny the Scriptures to maintain it, where we finde their Creation related, Colossians 1:18. the fall of some from their first estate, Jude 6. and the standing of others called the Elect Angels; The happiness of the one, who behold Gods face; and their employment, are sent out to attend on the Saints as servants on their Masters heirs, Heb. 1. The misery of the other, reserved in chaines of darkness unto the judgement of the great day; and their present work, which is to do mischief to the souls and bodies of men, as far as they are permitted; all which show their subsistence plain enough. But so immerst is sorry man in flesh, that he will not easily believe what he sees not with his fleshly eyes; upon the same account we may deny the being of God himself, because invisible.

Thirdly, they are entire spiritual substances, which have every very one proper existence: and thus they are distinguish't from the souls of men, which are made to subsist in a humane body; and together with it to make one perfect man; so that the soul, though when separated from the body, it does exist, yet has a tendency to union with its body again.

Fourthly, they are, though entire spiritual substances, yet finite, being but creatures. God only is the uncreated, infinite, and absolutely simple Spirit, yea Father of all other spirits.

Now from this spiritual nature of the devil, we may further see what a dreadful enemy we have to grapple with.

First, as spirits they are of vast intellectual abilities. Sorry man, while in this dark prison of the body, has not light enough to know what Angelical perfections are; that they excel in knowledge all other creatures we know, because as Spirits they come nearest by Creation to the Nature of God that made them; the heavens are not lift higher from the earth, then Angels by knowledge from man, while on earth. Man by Art has leatn't to take the height of the stars of heaven, but where is he that can tell how far in knowledge Angels exceed man? 'Tis true, they have lost much of that knowledge they had, even all their knowledge as holy Angels, what now they know of God has lost its savor, and they have no power to use it for their own good. What Jude says of wicked men, may be said of them; What they know naturally in these things they corrupt themselves. They know the holiness of God, but love him not for it, as the Elect Angels do, and themselves by Creation did. They know the evil of sin, and love it not the lesse; but though they are such fooles for themselves, yet have subtilty too much for all the Saints on Earth, if we had not a God to play our game for us.

Secondly, as spirits they are invisible, and their approaches also. They come and you see not your enemy. Indeed this makes him so little feared by the ignorant world, whereas it is his greatest advantage if rightly weighed. O if men have an apparition of the devil, or heare a noise in the night, they cry, The devil, the devil, and are ready to runne out of their wits for feare; but they carry him in their hearts, and walk all the day long in his company, and feare him not. When your proud heart is clambering up to the pinacle of honor in your ambitious thoughts, who sets you there but the devil? When your adulterous heart is big with all manner of uncleannesse and filthinesse, who but Satan has been there, begetting these brats on your whorish spirit? When you are raging in your passion, throwing burning coales of wrath and fury about with your inflamed tongue, where was it set on fire but of hell? When you are hurried like the swine into the precipice, and even choakt with your own drunken vomit, who but the devil rides you?

Thirdly, as spirits they are immortal. Of other enemies you may hear news at last that they are dead which sought your life, as the Angel told Joseph of Herod. Persecuting men walk a turne or two upon the stage, and are call'd off by death, and there is an end of all their plots; but devils die not, they will hunt you to your grave, and when you diest they will meet you in another world, to accuse and torment you there also.

Fourthly, they are unwearied in their motions. When the fight is over among men; the Conquerour must sit down and breathe, and so loseth the chase, because not able to pursue it in time. Yea, some have given over their Empires, as glutted with the blood of men, and weary of the work, when they cannot have their will as they desired: Thus Dioclesian, because he saw he did but mowe a medow, that grew the thicker for the cutting down (as Tertullian speaks of the Christians martyred) he throws away his Scepter in a pet. Charles the fifth did the like (some say) upon the same reason, because he could not root out the Lutherans. But the devils spirit is never cowed, nor he weary of doing mischief, though he has never stood still since first he began his walk to and fro the world. O what would become of us if a God were not at our back, who is infinitely more the devils odds then he ours?

SECT. II.

Secondly, they are wicked spirits; wicked in the abstract, as in the Text, and call'd by way of eminency in sin, The wicked one, Matthew 13:19. As God is called the holy one, because none holy as the Lord. So, the devil the wicked one, because he is a none such in sin. In a few particulars let us endeavour to take the height of the devils sin, and the rather that we may judge of the degrees of sins, and sinners among the sons of men, the neerer God in holiness, the more holy; the liker the devil, the more wicked.

First, these Apostate Angels are the inventers of sin; the first that sounded the Trumpet of rebellion against their Maker, and led the dance to all that sin which since has filled the world. Now what tongue can accent this sin to its full? for such a noble creature whom God had set on the top as it were of all the creation neerest to himself, from whom God had kept nothing but his own royal diadem, for this Peere and Favorite of the Court without any cause or solicitation from any other, to make this bold and blasphemous attempt to snatch at Gods own Crown, this paints the devil blacker then the thoughts of men and Angels can conceive. He is called the father of lies, as those who found out any Art, are called the father of it. Jubal the father of all such as handle the harp, and organ; he invented Musick; and this is a dreadful aggravation, because they sinned without a Tempter. And though man is not in such a degree capable of this aggravation, yet some men sin after the very similitude of the devils transgression in this respect, who as Saint Paul, Romans 1:30. stiles them, are inventers of evil things. Indeed sin is an old trade, found out to our hand; but as in other trades and arts, some famous men arise, who adde to the inventions of others, and make trades and arts (as it wtre) new; so there ever are some infamous in their generation, that make old sins new by superadding to the wickedness of others. Uncleannesse is an old sin from the beginning, but the Sodomites will be filthy in a new way, and therefore it carries their name to this day. Some invent new errrors, others new oathes, such as are of their own coyning, hot out of the mint, they scorne to sweare after the old fashion. Others new devices of perseuting, as Julian had a way by himself different from all before him; and to the end of the world every age will exceed other in the degrees of sinning Ishmael and the mockers of the old world, were but children and bunglers to the scoffers and cruel mockers of the last time. Well take heed of showing your wit in inventing new sins, lest you stirre up God to invent new punishments. Is not destruction to the wicked, and a strange punishment to the workers of iniquity? Job 31:3. Sodom sinned after a new mode, and God destroys them after a new way, sends hell from above upon them. Some have invented new opinions, Monstrous errors, and God has suited their monstrous errors with births as monstrous of their own body.

Secondly, they were not onely the inventers of sin, but are still the chief tempters to, and promoters of sin in the world, therefore call'd [illegible], the tempter; and sin called the work of the devil, whoever commits it; as the house goes by the name of the Master-workman, though he useth his servants hands to build it. O take heed of soliciting others to sin; you takest the Devils office (as I may say) out of his hand: let him do it himself if he will; make not your self so like him. To tempt another is worse then to sin your self. It speaks sin to be of great growth in that man, that does it knowingly and willingly. Herbs and flowers shed not their seed till ripe, creatures propagate not, till of stature and age. What do those, that tempt others, but diffuse their wicked opinions and practices, and as it were raise up seed to the devil; thereby-to keep up the name of their infernal Father in the world? this shows sin is mighty in them indeed. Many a man though so cruel to his own soul as to be drunk or sweare, yet will not like this in a child or servant; what are they then but devils incarnate, who teach their children the devils Catechisme, to sweare and lie, drink and drab? If you meet such, be not afraid to call them (as Paul did Elymas, when he would have perverted the Deputy) children of the devil, full of all subtilty and mischief, and enemies of all righteousnesse. O do you not know what you do, when you tempt? I'le tell you. you do that, which you cannot undo by your own repentance; you poisonest one with errour, initiatest another in the devils School, (Alehouse I mean) but afterwards may be you seest your mistake, and recantest your errour, your folly, and givest over your drunken trade; are you sure now to rectifie and convert them with your selfe? alas poor creatures! this is out of your power, they may be will say as he (though he did it upon a better account) that was solicited to turne back to popery by him, who had before perswaded him to renounce the same, You have given me one turn, but shall not give me another. And what a grief to your spirit will it be, to see these going to hell on your errand, and you not able to call them back? you may cry out as Lamch, I have slaine a man to my wounding, and a young man to my hurt. Nay, when you are asleep in your grave, he whom you seducedst may have drawn in others, and your name may be quoted to commend the opinion and practice to others, by which (as it is said, though in another sense, Abel being dead, yet speaks) you may, though dead, sin in those that are alive, generation after generation. A little spark kindled by the errour of one, has cost the pains of many ages to quench it, and when thought to be out, has broke forth again.

Thirdly, They are not barely wicked, but maliciously wicked. The Devill has his name [illegible], to denote his spightfull nature, his desire to vex and mischief others. When he drawes souls to sin, it is not because he tastes any sweetnesse, or findes any profit therein; he has too much light to have any joy or peace in sin: he knows his doome, and trembles at the thought of it, and yet his spightful nature makes him vehemently desire and uncessantly endeavour the damnation of souls. As you shall see a mad dogge run after a flock of sheep, kill one, then another, and when dead, not able to eate of their flesh, but kills to kill: so Satan is carried out with a boundlesse rage against man, especially the Saints, he would not, if he could, leave one of Christs flock alive; such is the height of his malice against God whom he hates with a perfect hatred, and because he cannot reach him with a direct blow, therefore he strikes him at second hand through his Saints; that wicked arme which reaches not to God, is extended against these excellent on the earth, well knowing the life of God is in a manner bound up in theirs. God cannot outlive his honor, and his honor speeds as his mercy is exalted or depressed; this being the attribute God meanes to honor in their salvation so highly, and therefore maligned above the rest by Satan. And this is the worst that can be said of these wicked spirits, that they maliciously spite God, and in God the glory of his mercy.

Use 1 First this may help us to conceive more fully what the desperate wickedness of mans nature is, which is so hard to be known, because it can never be seen at once, it being a fountain whose immensity consists not in the streame of actual sin (that is visible, and may seem little) but in the spring that uncessantly feeds this, but here is a glasse that will give us the shape of our hearts truly like themselves. Seest you the monstrous pitch and height of wickedness that is in the devil, all this there is in the heart of every man, there is no lesse wickedness potentially in the tamest sinner on earth, then in the devils themselves, and that one day you whoever you are will show to purpose, if God prevent you not by his renewing grace, you are not yet fledg'd, your wings are not grown to make you a flying Dragon▪ but you are of the same brood, the seed of this serpent is in you, and the devil begets a child like himselfe; you yet standest in a soile not so proper for the ripening of sin, which will not come to its fulnesse till transplanted unto hell. You who are here so maidenly and modest, as to blush at some sins out of shame, and forbear the acting of others out of fear: when there you shalt see your case as desperate as the devil does his, then you will spit out your blasphemies with which your nature is stuft, with the same malice that he does. The Indians have a conceit that when they die, they shall be transform'd into the deformed likenesse of the devil, therefore in their language they have the same word for a dead man and the devil; sin makes the wicked like him before they come there, but indeed they will come to their countenance more fully there, when those flames shall wash off that paint, which here hides their complexion. The Saints in heaven shall be like the Angels in their alacrity, love and constancy to serve God, and the damned like the devils in sin as well as punishment. This one consideration might be of excellent use to unbottome a sinner, and abase him so as never to have high thought of himself. It is easie to runne down a person whose life is wicked, and convince him of the evil of his actions, and make him confesse what he does is evil; but here is the thicket we lose him in, he will say, 'tis true, I am overseen, I do what I should not, God forgive me: but my heart is good. Your heart good, sinner? and so is the devils, his nature is wicked and yours as bad as his. These pimples in your face show the heat of your corrupt nature within, and without Gospel-physick, the blood of Christ applied to you, you will die a Leper; none but Christ can give you a new heart, till which you will every day grow worse and worse. Sin is an hereditary disease that encreass with age. A young sinner will be an old devil.

Use 2 Again, it would be of use to the Saints, especially those in whom God by his timely call forestall'd the devils market; as sometimes the Spirit of God takes sin in its quarters before it comes into the field, in the sins of youth: now such a one finding not those daring sins committed by him that others have been left unto, may possibly not be so affected with his own sin or Gods mercy. O let such a one behold here the wickedness of his heart in this glasse of the devils nature, and he will see himself as a great debtor to the mercy of God as Manasses, or the worst of sinners, as in pardoning, so in preventing the same cursed nature with theirs, before it gave fire on God with those bloody sins which they committed. That you did not act such outragious sins, you are beholden to Gods gracious surprize, and not the goodnesse of your nature which has the devils stamp on it, for which God might have crusht you, as we do the brood of Serpents before they sting, knowing what they will do in time. Who will say that Faux suffered unjustly, because the Parliament was not blown up? it was enough that the materials for that Massacre were provided, and he taken there with match and fire about him ready to lay the traine; and can you say when God first took hold on you, that you had'st not those weapons of rebellion about you, a nature fully charged with enmity against God, which in time would have made its own report of what for present lay like unfired ponder silent in your bosome, O Christian, think of this, and be humbled for your villainous nature, and say, Blessed be God that sent his Spirit and grace so timely to stay your hand, (as Abigail to David) while your nature meditated nothing but warre against God and his laws.

Use 3 Again. Thirdly, are the devils so wickedly malicious against God himself? O Sirs, take the right notion of sin, and you will hate it. The reason why we are so easily perswaded to sin is, because we understand not the bottome of his designe in drawing a creature to sin. It is with men in sinning as it is with Armies in fighting; Captains beat their drummes for Voluntiers, and promise all that list pay and plunder, and this makes them come trowling in: but few consider what the ground of the Warre is; against whom, or for what. Satan entics to sin, and give golden promises what they shall have in his service with which silly souls are won: but how few ask their souls, Whom do I sin against? what is the devils designe in drawing me to sin? Shall I tell you? do you think 'tis your pleasure, or profit he desires in your sinning? alas, he means nothing lesse, he has greater plots in his head then so. He has by his Apostasie proclaim'd warre against God, and he brings you by sinning to espouse his quarrel, and to jeopard the life of your soul in defense of his pride and lust; which that he may do, he cares no more for the damnation of your soul, then the great Turk does to see a company of his slaves cut off for the carrying on of his designe in a siege: And darest you venture to go into the field upon his quarrel against God? O Earth, tremble you at the presence of the Lord. This bloody Joab sets you, where never any came off alive. O stand not where Gods bullets fly, throw down your armes, or you are a dead man. Whatever others do, O ye Saints, abhorre the thoughts of sinning willingly, which when you do, you help the devil against God, and what more unnatural then for a child to be seen in armes against his father?

These words are the fourth branch of the description: 'spiritual forces of wickedness.' Our combat with them is expressed by the word 'against' in the Greek — literally, 'against the spirituals of wickedness.' Many interpreters take this to mean not only the spiritual nature of the devil and the wickedness of that nature, but also — and chiefly — the nature and kind of sins that these wicked spirits most vigorously press upon the saints. They are the spiritual forms of wickedness, not the gross fleshly sins that the crowd of brutish sinners wallow in like pigs, but sin in its spiritualized form. These words present three conclusions.

First, the devils are spirits.

Second, the devils are spirits of extreme wickedness.

Third, these wicked spirits chiefly attack the saints with, and provoke them toward, spiritual forms of wickedness. First, the first conclusion.

Section 1.

First, they are spirits. The word 'spirit' carries various meanings in Scripture. Among other uses, it is frequently used to describe the nature and essence of angels, both good and evil — both of whom are called spirits. The holy angels: 'Are they not all ministering spirits?' (Hebrews 1:14). The evil: 'Then a spirit came forward and stood before the Lord, and said, I will persuade him' (1 Kings 22:21) — that spirit was a devil. How often is the devil called the unclean spirit, the foul spirit, the lying spirit, and so on. Sin did not alter their substance — for as one writer correctly notes, if it had, the very nature that sinned could not be punished for it.

First, the devil is a spirit — that is, his essence is immaterial and simple, not composed of matter and form the way physical beings are. 'Handle me and see,' Christ said to His disciples when they thought they had seen a ghost. 'A spirit does not have flesh and bones, as you see that I have' (Luke 24:39). If devils were not immaterial in this way, how could they enter into and possess physical bodies, as Scripture tells us they have done — even a whole legion within one person (Luke 8:30)? One body cannot enter into another.

Second, devils are spiritual substances — actual beings, not merely qualities or evil impulses arising from within us, as some have absurdly suggested. The Sadducees and those who followed them denied the existence of angels, good or evil. But this is such a foolish notion that we would have to abandon both our reason and the plain testimony of Scripture to maintain it. Scripture records their creation (Colossians 1:16), the fall of some from their original state (Jude 6), the standing of others called the elect angels, the happiness of the holy angels who behold God's face, and their assignment to attend on the saints as servants on the heirs of their master (Hebrews 1). It also records the misery of the fallen angels, held in chains of darkness until the day of judgment, and their present activity of doing harm to the souls and bodies of men as far as they are permitted. All of this makes their real existence plain enough. But humanity is so immersed in the physical that people are reluctant to believe in what they cannot see with their own eyes. By the same reasoning, they might deny the existence of God Himself — for He too is invisible.

Third, they are complete spiritual substances, each one with its own proper existence. In this they are distinguished from human souls, which are made to exist within a human body — forming with it one complete person. So the human soul, even when separated from the body at death, still tends toward reunion with its body.

Fourth, although they are complete spiritual substances, they are still finite — they are creatures. God alone is the uncreated, infinite, and absolutely simple Spirit — and the Father of all other spirits.

From this spiritual nature of the devil, we can see further what a dreadful enemy we have to contend with.

First, as spirits they have vast intellectual ability. Poor humanity, confined in this dark prison of the body, does not have enough light to grasp what angelic perfections are. That angels surpass all other creatures in knowledge is clear — as spirits, they stand nearest by creation to the nature of the God who made them. The heavens are not farther from the earth than angels are above humanity in knowledge. Man by skill has learned to measure the height of the stars, but who can measure how far angels exceed man in knowledge? It is true that they have lost much of the knowledge they once had — all their knowledge as holy angels, in fact. What they now know of God has lost its savor, and they have no power to use it for their own good. What Jude says of wicked men may be said of them: 'Whatever they know naturally, in these things they corrupt themselves' (Jude 1:10). They know the holiness of God but do not love Him for it, as the elect angels do and as they themselves did at their creation. They know the evil of sin and are not the less drawn to it. Yet while they are such fools in their own interests, they still have more cunning than all the saints on earth — unless we have God playing the game for us.

Second, as spirits they are invisible, and their approaches are invisible too. They come and you do not see your enemy. Indeed, this is what makes them so little feared by the ignorant world — whereas invisibility is actually their greatest advantage, rightly understood. If men see an apparition of the devil or hear a noise in the night, they cry 'The devil! The devil!' and are nearly out of their minds with fear. Yet they carry him in their hearts and walk in his company all day long without fearing him at all. When your proud heart climbs toward the pinnacle of honor in your ambitious thoughts — who put you up there but the devil? When your heart is full of impurity and filth — who but Satan has been there, begetting those vile children in your corrupt spirit? When you are raging in your anger, throwing burning coals of wrath and fury around with your inflamed tongue — where was it set on fire but in hell? When you are driven headlong like the swine into destruction, nearly choking on your own drunken excess — who but the devil is riding you?

Third, as spirits they are immortal. Of other enemies you may one day hear the news that they are dead and gone — as the angel told Joseph that Herod, who had sought the child's life, was dead. Persecuting people walk a scene or two upon the stage and are called off by death, and that is the end of all their plots. But devils do not die. They will pursue you to your grave, and when you die they will meet you in another world to accuse and torment you there as well.

Fourth, as spirits they are untiring in their activity. When a human battle is over, the conqueror must sit down and recover — and so loses the pursuit, unable to press the advantage in time. Some rulers have even abandoned their empires, exhausted and sated by bloodshed, when they could not achieve what they wanted. Diocletian, when he saw he was only mowing a meadow that grew thicker with every cutting — as Tertullian described the martyred Christians — threw away his scepter in frustration. Charles the Fifth reportedly did the same because he could not uproot the Lutherans. But the devil's spirit is never broken, and he never grows weary of doing harm, though he has been ceaselessly active since the day he began his roaming to and fro in the world. What would become of us if God were not at our back — One who infinitely outmatches the devil, as far beyond him as the devil is beyond us?

Section 2.

Second, they are wicked spirits — wicked in the fullest sense, and called by way of supreme distinction 'the evil one' (Matthew 13:19). As God is called the Holy One because none is holy as the Lord, so the devil is called the evil one because he is without equal in wickedness. Let us take the measure of the devil's sin in a few particulars — partly so we can better judge the degrees of sin and sinners among humanity. The closer to God in holiness, the more holy; the more like the devil, the more wicked.

First, these fallen angels are the inventors of sin — the first to sound the trumpet of rebellion against their Maker, the ones who led the way into all the sin that has since filled the world. No tongue can fully express this sin. Here was a noble creature whom God had placed at the very top of creation, nearest to Himself — from whom God had kept nothing but His own royal crown. For this favorite of the court, without any cause or outside temptation, to make this brazen and blasphemous attempt to seize God's own crown — this paints the devil blacker than the imagination of men or angels can conceive. He is called the father of lies, as those who discovered any art are called its father. Jubal is called the father of all who play the harp and flute — he invented music. This is a dreadful aggravation of the devil's sin: he sinned without a tempter. Though humanity is not capable of this same aggravation in the same degree, some people do sin after the very likeness of the devil's transgression. As Paul says (Romans 1:30), some are 'inventors of evil.' Sin is, of course, an ancient trade — already discovered and at hand. But as in other trades and arts, notable figures arise who add to what others invented and, in a sense, make old arts new again. So there are always in every generation those who make old sins new by exceeding the wickedness of those before them. Sexual immorality is an ancient sin, but the people of Sodom invented a new form of it, which is why it carries their name to this day. Some invent new heresies; others new oaths — freshly coined, hot from the mint, too proud to swear in the old way. Others devise new methods of persecution. Julian had a way entirely his own, different from all who came before him. And to the end of the world, every age will surpass the previous in the depths of wickedness. Ishmael and the mockers of the ancient world were children and amateurs compared to the scoffers and cruel mockers of the last days. Beware of showing your cleverness by inventing new sins, lest you stir up God to invent new punishments. 'Is there not calamity for the unjust and disaster for the workers of iniquity?' (Job 31:3). Sodom sinned in a new way, and God destroyed them in a new way — sending fire from above upon them. Some have devised monstrous new opinions and errors, and God has answered their monstrous errors with equally monstrous physical events.

Second, they were not only the inventors of sin but are still the chief tempters and promoters of sin in the world. This is why the devil is called 'the tempter,' and sin is called the work of the devil — whoever commits it. Just as a building takes the name of the master craftsman, even though he used his workers' hands to build it. Be careful about soliciting others to sin — you are, in effect, doing the devil's job for him. Let him do it himself if he will; do not make yourself so much like him. Tempting another to sin is worse than sinning yourself. It shows sin to have grown to full strength in that person who does it knowingly and willingly. Herbs and flowers do not shed their seed until they are ripe; creatures do not reproduce until they have reached maturity. What do those who tempt others accomplish but spreading their wicked beliefs and practices — raising up children for the devil, keeping their infernal father's name alive in the world? This shows that sin has reached full power in them. Many a man, though cruel enough to his own soul to get drunk or swear, will not tolerate it in a child or servant. What then should we call those who teach their children the devil's catechism — how to swear and lie, drink and debase themselves? They are little more than devils in human flesh. If you meet such a person, do not be afraid to call them what Paul called Elymas when he tried to turn the proconsul away from the faith — 'a son of the devil, full of all deceit and villainy, and an enemy of all righteousness' (Acts 13:10). Do you know what you are doing when you tempt someone? Let me tell you. You do something that your own repentance cannot undo. You poison someone with error, enroll another in the devil's school — the alehouse, I mean. Then perhaps later you see your mistake, recant your error and your foolishness, and give up the drunken trade. But are you certain you can bring them back with you? You cannot. They may well say — as someone once said, though on better grounds, to the man who had led him into error and then tried to lead him out again: 'You gave me one turn, but you will not give me another.' And what grief it will be to see these people going to hell on your errand, and to be unable to call them back. You may cry as Lamech did: 'I have killed a man to my own wounding, and a young man to my own hurt.' In fact, long after you are asleep in your grave, the person you led astray may have led others the same way, and your name may be quoted to recommend the very opinion and practice that you started — just as Abel, though dead, yet speaks. You may still be sinning, through those who are alive, generation after generation. A small spark kindled by one person's error has cost many generations of effort to quench — and when it appeared to be out, it has broken out again.

Third, they are not merely wicked but maliciously wicked. The devil's name itself denotes his spiteful nature — his desire to torment and harm others. When he draws souls into sin, it is not because he tastes any sweetness or gains any profit from it. He has too much knowledge to find any joy or peace in sin. He knows his doom and trembles at the thought of it — and yet his spite drives him to desire and tirelessly pursue the damnation of souls. Like a mad dog running through a flock of sheep — killing one, then another, and when they are dead, unable to eat them, but killing simply to kill — Satan is carried along by a boundless rage against humanity, and especially against the saints. He would not leave one of Christ's flock alive if he could help it. Such is the height of his hatred against God, whom he hates with a total hatred. And because he cannot strike God directly, he strikes Him through His saints — knowing that the life of God is, in a manner, bound up with theirs. God's honor rises and falls with the exaltation or depression of His mercy toward His people — and this is the very attribute God intends to glorify most supremely in their salvation. It is therefore the attribute Satan hates above all others. And this is the worst that can be said of these wicked spirits: they maliciously attack God Himself, and in God, the glory of His mercy.

First application: This helps us understand more fully the desperate wickedness of human nature — which is so hard to truly know because it can never be seen all at once. It is a spring whose vastness lies not in the visible stream of outward sin (which may seem small) but in the source that feeds it endlessly. Here is a mirror that shows us our hearts as they truly are. See the monstrous height of wickedness that is in the devil — and know that all of this is present in the heart of every human being. There is no less wickedness potentially in the most outwardly respectable sinner on earth than there is in the devils themselves. You will one day show it fully — whoever you are — if God does not prevent it by His renewing grace. You are not yet fully developed; your wings have not grown to make you a flying dragon. But you are of the same breed. The seed of this serpent is in you, and the devil produces offspring like himself. You stand in soil that is not yet quite right for sin to ripen fully — it will not come to its fullness until it is transplanted to hell. You who are here so respectable and modest — blushing at some sins out of shame and holding back from others out of fear — when you see your condition as desperate as the devil sees his, you will spit out blasphemies with the same malice that he does. Some Native peoples hold the belief that when a person dies, they are transformed into the disfigured likeness of the devil — so in their language, the same word serves for a dead man and the devil. Sin makes the wicked like him before they arrive there. But they will come into their full resemblance there, when those flames burn away the paint that now conceals their true appearance. The saints in heaven will be like the angels in their eagerness, love, and constancy in serving God. The damned will be like the devils — both in sin and in punishment. This one thought could be of great use to strip a sinner of any high opinion of himself. It is easy to point out the sins in a person's life and get him to admit that what he does is wrong. But here is where we lose him: he will say, 'That's true, I slipped up, I did what I shouldn't, God forgive me — but my heart is good.' Your heart is good, sinner? The devil's nature is wicked — and yours is just as bad as his. These blemishes on your face show the fever raging in your corrupt nature within. Without the medicine of the Gospel — the blood of Christ applied to you — you will die a leper. Only Christ can give you a new heart; without that, you will grow worse and worse every day. Sin is a hereditary disease that increases with age. A young sinner will become an old devil.

Second application, to the saints — especially those whom God called early, intercepting the devil's market before their sins had time to develop. Sometimes the Spirit of God arrests sin in its camp before it reaches the battlefield, as in the sins of youth. Such a person, not having committed the bolder sins that others have been left to fall into, may not feel the weight of his own sin or the greatness of God's mercy as sharply as others. Let such a person look at the wickedness of his heart in this mirror of the devil's nature. He will see himself as great a debtor to God's mercy as Manasseh or the worst of sinners — not only for pardoning the same cursed nature, but for preventing it from unleashing those bloody sins that others were left to commit. That you did not act out such outrageous sins, you owe entirely to God's gracious intervention — not to any goodness in your nature, which bears the devil's mark. For that nature alone, God would have been justified in crushing you, as we crush a nest of serpents before they grow old enough to strike, knowing what they will do in time. No one would say Guy Fawkes was treated unjustly merely because Parliament was not blown up. It was enough that the materials for the massacre were prepared, and that he was found on site with match and fire ready to ignite the fuse. Can you say that when God first took hold of you, you did not have the same weapons of rebellion — a nature fully loaded with enmity against God, which in time would have discharged itself in the open? What lay silent in your heart like unlit powder would have made its report eventually. O Christian, think on this. Be humbled for your corrupt nature, and say: Blessed be God, who sent His Spirit and grace in time to stay your hand — as Abigail stayed David — while your nature was planning nothing but war against God and His laws.

Third application: The devils are this maliciously wicked against God Himself? O then, understand the true nature of sin — and you will hate it. The reason we are so easily persuaded to sin is that we do not understand what Satan is actually after when he leads a person into it. Sinning is like soldiers going to war: officers beat their drums for volunteers and promise all who enlist good pay and plunder, and they come flooding in. But few stop to ask what the war is about, who they are fighting against, or why. Satan lures people to sin and makes golden promises about what they will gain in his service — and with those promises foolish souls are won. But how few ever ask: Who am I sinning against? What is the devil's design in drawing me to sin? Shall I tell you? Do you think your pleasure or profit is what he cares about? He has no interest in those things at all. He has far greater purposes in mind. He has declared war against God by his rebellion, and by drawing you into sin he enlists you in his quarrel — putting the life of your soul at risk in defense of his pride and lust. To accomplish this, he cares no more about the damnation of your soul than a great conqueror cares about losing a company of soldiers in a siege. And do you dare go into the field on his side against God? O earth — tremble at the presence of the Lord! This treacherous commander places you where no one has ever come out alive. Do not stand where God's bullets fly. Lay down your weapons, or you are a dead man. Whatever others do — O you saints — be horrified at the thought of sinning willingly. When you do, you take up arms to help the devil against God. And what could be more unnatural than for a child to be found fighting against his own father?