CHAPTER XVII: The victory which Christ obtains over the devil, in us, and by us.

CHAPTER XVII: The victory which Christ obtains over the devil, in us, and by us.

as bad as the first, Christ goes to heaven, and leaves the devil still in actual possession of power; still, for all he had thus chastised him, and had used him as the vilest varlet that ever was, Christ lets him go like a wretch (though we may not call him so ourselves, yet in relation to Christ, and his usage of him, we may), with possession of all his power, as god of this world, ruling in men's hearts, both elect and others, because he is to have another bout with him; and he suffers him to hold his possession on still in the world, reserving him for a further victory.

CHAPTER XVII

The victory which Christ obtains over the devil, in us, and by us.— How he not only redeems us, but delivers us from his dominion and power.—That not only Christ in his own person should conquer the devil, and break his power, but that we should bear a part in it with him, is implied in that first promise in Gen. 3, that the seed of the woman should break the serpent's head.—That in all the several parts of that power which Satan hath, and acts in the world, believers, by the virtue and strength of Christ, are conquerors over him.—That in the issue they conquer him as to that power which he hath to tempt them to sin.—The several ages of Christians considered from 1 John 2:13, 14.—That by Christ believers prevail against Satan as to the accusations of them, which he brings before God.—That Christ, and the saints at last, defeat Satan's designs, and projects, and enterprises, as he is prince of this world.

I come now to the second part or degree of this victory, namely, Christ's destroying and confounding him in us and by us.

1. In us. The devil had still all the elect of God then alive, among all the Gentiles, whom the apostle wrote to and converted, and most of them converted by the apostles in Judea also, fast under lock and key, shut up under sin and wrath, so as Christ must win every soul from him whom he meant to save. Therefore at the conversion of

every soul converted (which is expressly a turning a man from Satan to God, a delivering out of the power of darkness, Acts 26:18, and elsewhere), he then comes and begins to bind Satan, and to take his weapons from him, Luke 11:21. He speaks in relation to throwing

Satan out of men's hearts, as well as out of their bodies. For so he applies it, ver. 23, 24; and then it is that Christ begins to execute what virtually he did on the cross, and what at triumphing: he gave a specimen, a public show of that be had power to do. Now,

First, I observe from that place, that the devil, for all the bangs and blows he had at Christ's ascension, that he remains still in possession in men's hearts, and is at peace; and possesseth an elect child of God his heart as his palace, and reckons all his powers and faculties to be his goods and furniture, to use at pleasure.

Well, but Christ having virtually redeemed him on the cross, and spoiled Satan for him and on his behalf then, and triumphed over him in that person's stead, and as representing him, comes now with a writ of execution for all his goods detained from him; with a habeas animas, to possess himself of all, and actually to take Satan's power.

And when Christ comes, he finds him 'armed' (so ver. 21) still, for all he was spoiled on the cross, and as 'strong' in us as ever. For what was then done was but spiritually, and in merito; but now he 'binds' him (Mat. 12:29) to his good behaviour; that is, as in relation to his possessing of, and working in that man, so as Satan is in a chain.

Christ claps irons on him, that whereas Satan acted in him afore, as lord in his own house, and he was his jailor; now himself is become

Christ's prisoner, bound hand and foot, so as he cannot stir or do anything against us, but with his leave. Then Christ takes possession of all his armoury; so πανοπλία is to be interpreted, ver. 22 (for ver.

21 he is presented armed), so then all Satan's tempting, accusing power, and the things by which he tempts and works, do all fall now into Christ's hands, as his spoils paid for afore; and now Christ becomes actually possessed of them; and as he is King and Lord (to allude to what Christ said from another more general occasion), takes to himself the power and reigns, Rev. 11:30. Satan lies bound;

his power, rule, his wit, cunning, force, whatever, is at Christ's feet, to order as he shall give leave, and no otherwise; and he is to have commission from Christ ere he act or tempt.

I conceive thus of it, that as at first conversion, Phil. 3:12, Christ is said to apprehend, or to take our persons actually, to accomplish in us all that he purchased for us (which made Paul desire to have the whole given him that Christ had apprehended him for, and received then for him of the Father, by a renewed act of donation, the graces, gifts he shall ever bestow and give forth), so doth Christ now by a renewed act take possession of all Satan's power and weapons; so as he cannot use a threatening, he cannot blow up a lust, but by Christ's consent and permission, not in the ordinary providential way only, but by special leave and license; as the attachment of nobles, at least the execution, is by special commission from the prince, but all other persons are left to the ordinary course of the laws, which are to be put in execution by inferior magistrates as they see occasion. And this actual possession of all Satan's power as a spoil is perfect also on Christ's part, as a king, to have it let forth at his dispose; and is perfect in this sense, that Christ takes all, once for all, in our behalf, and to be let out but as shall be for our good; and therefore conversion is called a translating us out of the power of darkness into the kingdom of his Son. We come now under Christ's actual jurisdiction, who hath taken to himself the government of us. The difference the apostle holds forth, 2 Tim. 2:25, 26, speaking of saving repentance, 'If peradventure God will give them repentance to the acknowledgment of the truth, that they may recover themselves out of the snare of the devil, who are taken captive by him at his will;' whereof the meaning is, that they may not be under Satan's jurisdiction, as afore, 'at his will,' but be so freed as to be able to recover themselves out of his snare.

And because even this first work is a renewed triumph of Christ's over Satan, therefore Paul says, 2 Cor. 2:14, that by converting souls,

Christ made him triumph; 'Now thanks be to God, which always causeth us to triumph in Christ, and maketh manifest the savour of

his knowledge by us in every place;' even as Christ himself had done upon the cross, in turning out Satan, in judging and casting out the prince of this world out of men's hearts, by convincing men of sin, righteousness, and judgment, John 16:11. But now, though Christ hath taken possession of our persons, and hath thrown out of us

Satan and his power; yet so as still Christ lets him loose, and gives line to his tempting power, when, how long, and so far as Christ himself pleaseth, or under such and such laws and rules as are in force in that invisible world between Christ and him; and on his audit days, when he comes afore God, he gives an account, of which you read, Job 2:1, 'Again there was a day when the sons of God came to present themselves before the Lord; and Satan came also among them to present himself before the Lord.' For both good angels, as Zech. 1:10, 11, do at times come and give account of their walking to and fro the earth, as also bad, in that of Job. Christ gives him a commission in such and such cases, and within the compass of such and such rules, to have power to do so and so, and so to tempt us and put us to it; and he comes to give an account how he hath behaved himself in it. But yet this his binding Satan in conversion of us to God, is an overcoming him in us, and now therein we are altogether passive, even as in the working the habits and principles of regeneration itself, we are said to be delivered, rescued, and the devil cast out for us (we throw him not out) by an eternal hand, by one stronger than he, who comes upon him.

There therefore remains a fourth thing, an overcoming by us as well as in us, both which is coming on through the whole course of our lives. Christ thinks it not enough to have overcome him in himself, as Col. 2:15, nor to overcome him in us thus at our first conversion, but he will overcome him by us, he will have our hand actively in it also, and cause us to be more than conquerors in the end.

Now, then, that the glory of this victory on our part, through him that loved us, may be made the more glorious, such are the dispensations of our God, that though Christ hath taken into possession all his power, yet he lets forth a great and large portion of power still unto

Satan, to be exercised by commission from himself. Satan is still left to range up and down (and in view as it were loose), to tempt, to afflict, and sorely shoot at these poor souls, thus rescued out of his hands, and all to greaten the victory that yet remains to be accomplished by us. Christ loves to have us joined in it, so 2 Tim.

2:26, that they may 'recover themselves' out of the snares of the devil; so 1 John 5:18, 'he that is born of God keeps himself, that the evil one touch him not.' And as we are said to mortify the deeds of the flesh by the Spirit, so to recover ourselves, and keep ourselves from Satan, in a great measure.

That we may the more clearly and distinctly take this into our thoughts, we are to consider that the first promise to mankind fallen was made for a victory over Satan; Gen. 3:15, 'I will put enmity between thee and the woman, and between thy seed and her seed; it shall break thy head, and thou shalt bruise his heel.' Here is a promise consisting of two parts: a former part, 'I will put enmity between her seed and thy seed;' and a latter part, 'it shall break thy head,' &c. Now there is a controversy who should be intended by 'the seed of the woman,' and who that same it, that shall break, should be? The papists, they take the woman for the virgin Mary, and limit it to her; and the seed to be Christ only, her Son, and in his own person singly considered, and exclusively of us; and the victory spoken of, 'it shall break,' to be only that of his in himself over the devil by himself alone. Calvin understands by 'the seed of the woman,' the whole spiritual race of believers collectively in all ages, as more directly intended, and Christ only as the eminentest of that seed, and by whom all the rest obtain the victory, and so principally intended.

Pareus halves it; understanding by 'the seed,' in the former part of the promise, all believers of mankind; but the it, or he, in the latter part, prophetically to point out and terminate on Christ alone, the great he or it that on our behalf encountered Satan (as David alone did Goliah) in a single duel, and 'brake his head.' And it is urged that the Septuagint reads the it by ἀυτὸς, he, and that so it is in all the copies of that translation, and so the Chaldee paraphrast, so Jerome, and others of the ancients. And also that the Greek σπέρμα, seed,

being of the neuter gender, yet the Septuagint have rendered it he, ἀυτὸς, and not it, so making another difference. I altogether waive that first of the papists, for the absurd glosses they make upon the words in honour of the virgin Mary; and propound that both Christ in his person, and believers in their persons, as considered in and with him, are directly intended in both seed and it, as making up one and the same; the one as the noun, the other as the pronoun answering thereunto.

1. Christ is intended as the captain or champion in this warfare and victory. (So Heb. 2 ver. 10, Christ is styled, and that in reference to this very victory over the devil, which follows, ver. 14.)

2. All believers, or the children, and his brethren (as in the same place they are called), are also here intended and comprehended, so making one seed—he the captain, they the body of the army, that in their turns overcome Satan also through him that loved them!

And unto this interpretation, all things seem to fall in to make it good, and nothing to hinder it.

1. The Holy Ghost hath (as it were purposely) chosen in the original tongue such a conjunction of words as might admit both senses.

(1.) The word זרע stands indifferent to either, for it is nomen collectivum, that signifies a race or generation of many (as is known), and so is applicable to the whole company or family of believers; or it signifies a sole and singular person, as Eve herself (the woman in the text) in the next chapter, Gen. 4:25, terming that one son of hers,

Seth, her seed, useth that word זרע, and so that also is applicable to point at Christ, as a singular person, singularly aimed at.

(2.) The pronoun also in the latter part of the promise, הוא, translated in the impersonal it, may as well be translated he; the original word will comply with either.* And so as if you take זרע, or seed, collectively, then it in the impersonal doth fully answer thereunto, as the pronoun to it; on the other hand, if you understand

זרע, or seed, personally of one singular man, then read he; the Hebrew will bear both fruits, so as you may view the words in either of these postures, 'I will put enmity between thy seed and her seed, and it shall break thy head,' &c., that is, Christ collectively taken, or together with the whole body of believers. He and they together shall crush thee, and 'thou shalt bruise his, or its heel;' or again you may read it thus, 'I will put enmity between thy seed, and the woman's seed,' (taking the woman's seed for that one single person Christ as alone considered), 'and he shall break thy head, and thou shalt bruise his heel,' and so the Septuagint and others alleged have translated it.

2. If we take the materials themselves in these two promises, or two parts of the promise, and the scope thereof, they will as readily comply with both these senses; and then both words and things will be found to conspire in the testifying hereof.

That Christ personally is directly intended, and his own personal victory, appears from hence.

1. This was the first promise of the Messiah, who is said to be 'the Lamb slain from the beginning of the world,' that is, from the fall (as also John 8:44, from the beginning is taken), and this spoken as in relation to these words here, prophesying 'thou shalt bruise his heal.'

And this is also the fundamental promise upon which the faith of the whole church lived before the flood, and after for two thousand years, till it was in Isaac and his seed renewed to Abraham in other terms, and therefore not to understand Christ in his own person singly as in himself, and by himself overcoming Satan, to be directly intended, were to take away that great head of the church's faith for so many ages. For we read of no other propounded but this, and so have no warrant to think that there was any other promise extant.

2. And indeed the whole race of the elect of mankind could not, nor cannot be supposed to overcome this so potent an enemy, they being so weak and impotent in themselves, and now also become in a great respect captive to him, and under his power. It was necessary

therefore to the believing thereof, that this Messiah or Christ, whom God had designed to be one of that seed, as the head of them, as Satan was the head of his seed; and who should be able (for and on their behalf) first to overcome him singly and personally himself, and so mortally break his head, as that then the rest of his brethren might come to set their feet thereon, in the strength and virtue of him. It was necessary, I say, to the strengthening our faith, that this our

Christ should be presupposed, in the first and chief place, to be here promised and prophesied of, and directly pointed at, and not by consequence or implication only, or but as in the crowd among the whole seed. And can we otherwise think that God, in this his first proclaiming of this great war and victory to be obtained by mankind, should mention only, and set out in the field so, a company of the sons of men, utterly disarmed, and having each a deadly wound, and not propose (as the ground and foundation of the faith thereof) him the Christ, the conqueror, in whom their whole strength lay? Yea, could the devil have feared the breaking of his head by any or all those (put them all together), so unable even so much as to resist the least tentation of his, unless God should have aimed and set forth some one extraordinary, one of mankind, that should be infinitely stronger than he?

3. The seed promised is in a special and singular manner called 'the seed of the woman' (man not mentioned), as a seed that should be brought forth not by the ordinary way of generation of both man and woman, and so doth in the letter of it point more especially at Christ.

2. As Christ singly in himself, so withal the whole seed of believers, as represented in him, and so representatively in him, are to be understood in this promise, 'He shall break thy head.' This assertion is made out by parts.

(1.) That the whole seed of believers are intended in the former part of the promise, 'I will put enmity between her seed and thy seed.'

(2.) That in the latter part of the promise, 'He shall break thy head,'

Christ is set forth in his own person, so as including too, and representing, the whole seed.

It cannot be denied, but that the curse was intended for all the serpent's seed, as whose head should be broken as well as the devil's; for they, as well as the devils, partake of the guilt that causeth this curse, namely, they do bruise the heel of Christ himself, or his saints, as well as Satan doth. And the wicked Jews did it personally, and against himself, as Peter chargeth them, 'whom ye slew, and hanged on a tree,' Acts 5:30, as well as the devil himself, that set them on to crucify him. Nor indeed could the devil have done it without them; and therefore these, and all else, are intended as spoken unto in the curse, as well as Satan. And yet we see that the devil is alone here both blamed and cursed; the devil alone was present whilst this was pronouncing, and none of them but he; and so it is carried as if none were cursed but he; how then can all his seed be included and involved in this curse? No way but representatively 'in him;' he alone personally stood by, but yet as the father of them all, and representer and personater of them; and he alone is made the butt or mark the curse is directed against, but withal it lights upon and is shot against the whole generation of them, and was accordingly considered by God when he sent forth this curse against both him and them. As in like manner when God, in the 14th verse, cursed the serpent to creep on his belly, &c., he means all the devils, his angels, with him, the whole kind of them, and perhaps as having their heads all in this conspiracy against man, as in their own first fall; though the great devil (who got the name of 'the old serpent' by it, Rev. 20) did put it in execution.

Now then answerably on the other side, this our great he or ἀυτὸς, as John delights to style him again and again, 1 John 3:2, 3, 5, 6, the devil's great antagonist, our champion, he personally and alone was to encounter him, and fulfil this great promise of breaking his head; yet considered as the representative of us his seed involved in him.

And look how the curse reacheth both serpent and seed; so the

promise, as fulfilled by him, extendeth to Christ and us, to Christ as our great David, that overcame this Goliah for us at a single duel; then to us as wrapt up in him, and personated by him therein. Seeing that the fates and facts of these two great antagonists, and their several adherents, are within the small compass of this one sentence,

'He shall break thy head, and thou shalt bruise his heel,' so interchangeably set opposite one to the other, in a way (I say) of correspondent opposition; this rightly supposeth the law of parallel opposition to hold in each, viz., as to this respect, which is the main, that as the devil is cursed with having his head broken, and bruising

Christ's heel, and his seed included as accursed therein, also in like manner, in promising Christ that he should break Satan's head, and have his heel withal bruised by him, it is intended that his seed and fellows were represented in and with him. And that seeing the one holds good on Satan's part to this sense mentioned, that the other should on Christ's, as including the seed, especially seeing the Scriptures elsewhere do confirm this truth, that Christ represented his seed in what was done for them.

For the proof of the first. As by the serpent's seed is meant the whole race and generation of wicked men (for other seed the devil hath none) is evident, and of them it is Christ, speaking to the Pharisees, says, 'They are of their father the devil,' John 8:44; and the apostle

John the same, 1 John 3:8; therefore by the law of opposition (and here is the highest and most general opposition put: 'I will put enmity between thy seed and her seed') the whole seed of the godly who were to come of that woman,—'the mother' (upon that occasion called) 'of all living'—that is, that live by faith, must be understood also. And this confirms it, that these that are said to be the serpent's seed were all to be of mankind, and so to be in the literal sense and a carnal respect the seed of the woman, as well as those other, according to natural generation.

The word seed imports a race or generation of men, which is usual, and also it is applied to some one person as well. Thus when Eve had

Seth, that one son, she calls him her seed, Gen. 4:25. And accordingly

the word זרע, seed, being a masculine in the Hebrew, the pronoun הוא, may be translated by the impersonal it, as referring to seed, as it refers to seed, as signifying a whole race; or he, as personally referring to Christ, who also was in an especial manner the seed of the woman, and not of man, though the other (as Seth) are so called,

Gen. 4:25.

Yet 2. This whole seed is intended, as first represented in that one person Christ, who should by his own strength break the serpent's head for them all, which is clear to be by this parallel reason out of the text. For in that latter promise, 'He shall break thy head,' &c., there is no express mention made of the serpent's seed, or of their being broken, but it is spoken to and of the serpent only in the letter,

'thy head, and thou shalt bruise his heel;' and yet none will deny but that this part of the curse was intended unto all the serpent's seed of wicked men, as well as to the serpent the devil. Even as it is true that they should bruise Christ's heel (as the wicked Jews did), as well as the devil himself, that set them on to crucify him, therefore they all must be intended as spoken unto in this curse, as well as Satan, though he is alone named; and how should this be? But that he, as the father and head of them then, stood by whilst it was pronouncing, and was present, and he alone; and though in appearance he alone was cursed, and none else, to have his head broken, yet it is evident that all his seed of wicked men were cursed at the same time in this curse directed against him, for they all were to be broken and crushed as well as he, and that for bruising Christ's heel as well as he did. And he, as the father and representer of them, was made the butt of this curse, and therefore was considered by God as the representer of the great devil who lay hid in that serpent. He is understood to have cursed with him all the whole company of angels that fell with him; and as perhaps having had all their hands in this conspiracy against man, though the great devil only put it in execution. Answerably our great he (as John delights to call him in this, 1 John 3:2–6), the devil's special antagonist, our champion, is personally designed as the conqueror of him, but we representatively considered in him, whilst himself alone did it, in those words, 'He

shall break it;' and look, as the curse therein reacheth both serpent and seed, but the seed as represented now by him as their head and father of them, so the promise therein extends likewise to both Christ and us: to Christ, as our David overcoming that great Goliah in a single duel; to us as therein represented by him.

3. So as withal, thirdly, we in our persons are to have a victory over him through his strength, and not representatively only in his.

(1.) Because the victory belongs personally to all those to whom the damage or conflict doth. Now the hurt, the damage we have a personal share in, as well as Christ had. The devil and his seed, by reason of natural enmity put, do bruise our heel, and we find it personally to our cost; therefore to them also extends that victory, 'It shall break thy head;' the same whose heel is bruised are the breakers of his head. And to be sure we receive many wounds and bruisings from him and his, for we feel and groan under them daily, and all the brotherhood in the world with us.

(2.) The enmity that puts the difference, and is the ground of the quarrel, is not betwixt Christ only and the devil's seed, but the whole generation of the just that came of the woman, as experience in all ages hath shewn.

But all this hitherto shews but what was done against Satan in himself, and by himself, and we are therein considered but secondarily and remotely, by way of representation only.

All which have taken up the foregoing part of this discourse hitherto at large; therefore, (3.) That this seed shall in their succession and turns bear their parts, and have their share in an actual and personal way in breaking

Satan's head, as the intendment also in this prophetic promise, comes next to be evinced.

1. The same of whom it is said, 'Satan shall bruise his heel;' the same it is of whom it is there also said, 'He' or 'It shall break thy head.' So as look who are concerned and have a share in being bruised or wounded in the battle or conflict with Satan, the same here have ascribed to them a proportionable interest in the victory, it being

(besides the import that both are so conjoined here) a declared maxim by God, and that as to this very point, that 'if we suffer with Christ, we shall also reign with him,' Rom. 8:17, 2 Tim. 2:12. Now all the whole seed or race have their share in their being bruised and wounded by Satan, and therefore also in that other; the bruised are his breakers. We all find to this day, by virtue of this prophecy, the sad effects of his bruising our heel, as well as Christ did his, and so we too in conformity unto Christ, and therefore we may as well believe ourselves included in the promise itself made to these bruisings.

2. The enmity in the former part, that is the cause of those mutual assailments of each other in the latter part, and the issue whereof is this victory; I say, that enmity that is the cause both of his bruising our heel, and then of the breaking of his head, is spoken of here as in common to all the seed, as well as unto Christ personally on our behalf, and therefore the combat, and the issue of the war, the victory, are not to be restrained to Christ only, when the enmity, which is the cause of it, is not, but is commensurate and extended unto all.

3. This agrees with the general scope and intent of God's uttering this, made good and proved by the event, and that presently began between Abel and Cain, and hath continued ever since, which is that God here first set up his standard (whereof Christ was to be the standard-bearer under him) four hundred* years before Christ yet came in the flesh, and proclaims the war that was instantly to begin, and to be carried down throughout all ages, and proclaims it in the language of an hereditary war, such as was to be between two houses or families of great and long continuance, to be between two seeds, and so from father unto son downwards, and the totum genus, the

whole kind and generation of each; and therefore it is too narrow to restrain it only to Christ the seed, though it is he that is the chieftain, and of whom the whole family in heaven and earth is named, and to whom the glory of all is to be ascribed.

4. But that which above all convinceth me is, that both in the New Testament we find it affirmed of the saints, that they in their persons are the overcomers of Satan, as Christ hath overcome him in his own person. So 1 John 2:13, 'You have overcome the evil one,' and 1 John

4:3, 4, 'You have overcome the world,' and with it the prince of the world; as the reason which follows evidently argues, 'For he who is in you,' says he, 'is stronger than he that is in the world.' So then not Christ only in himself for us, but he also, and he in us, is to overcome

Satan and his together, the world and him that is in it, both serpent and seed.

This victory also is set out in the New Testament in such expressions and phrases as evidently doth allude to this very promise in Genesis, as the accomplishment of it. Rom. 16:20, 'And God shall tread down

Satan under your feet shortly.' It is God indeed treads him down, and yet it is their feet he is trodden under. Now as the curse of the devil in Genesis, 'It shall bruise thy head,' is an allusion to the serpent's condition, who going on the ground, and being not able to reach the head, yet whilst out of enmity he will be nibbling at the heel, he is liable to have his head crushed by the foot whose heel he thus assaults; so to 'tread down Satan under our feet' holds as great an affinity with that promise there. Also this being called the enemy, the old serpent, hath an undeniable reference to him that was that serpent, who personated and clothed himself with that serpent, and therein first assaulted Eve, between whom and us the enmity is put.

Yea and Christ himself is pleased to give forth to his apostles, and us in them, our part and share in this victory over Satan, under the same expressions and allusion to this promise, as then bequeathed to us together with himself, Luke 10:19, when speaking of their subduing Satan, ver. 17, and by their ministry throwing him down as

lightning, ver. 18, he utters it in those words, ver. 19, 'Behold I give unto you power to tread on serpents and scorpions, and all the power of the enemy.' So then this is Christ's glory, and was the scope of that first promise, that as himself, so also we, should tread on the serpent's, the enemy's head; and so he came to have a second victory in us, as well as in himself, which as his sufferings in us are termed ὑστερήματα, the after-sufferings of Christ, Col. 1:24, so this overcoming by the saints is the after-victories of Christ. And this second after-victory puts the devil in some respects to more shame and confusion than the first, when he was dressed so by Christ (as we use to speak) of which you heard; for the weaker the victor is, the more glorious is the conquest; and the stronger the enemy is and the more equal to deal with, the more glorious is the conquest, and the greater is the shame of his defeat. In Rev. 12 you have the devil described, and set forth with all his royal titles heaped up one upon another, as nowhere else together is the like in Scripture; ver. 9, 'The great dragon, that old serpent, called the devil and Satan, which deceiveth the whole world;' such is his power, subtilty, and jurisdiction. And upon what occasion is this great description of him given? 'Tis after a conquest of him, a downfall: 'he prevailed not,' ver.

8; 'he was cast out,' ver. 9, and 'his angels with him,' ver. 9; 'cast down,' ver. 10; 'overcome,' ver. 11. So then look, as in scorn and as a matter of triumph, a king when conquered shall be proclaimed with all his titles, so is he. And to make all this the more glorious, he sets out a woman, and yet more unequal, a woman in travail, that cannot help herself, much less resist an enemy; ver. 1, 2, and unto her, that is, the church, is the victory ascribed in the song of triumph that is made upon it; ver. 12, 'They overcame him by the blood of the Lamb, and they loved not their lives unto death.' This woman and this dragon are set together to shew the inequality of this match. This confounded the devil more, that they, that woman, should be said to overcome, than that Michael and all his angels should be so. It was

Abimelech's confusion and pride, Judges 9:54, 'A woman cast a millstone on Abimelech's head, and all to brake his skull.' 'O slay me,' saith he, 'that men say not of me, a woman slew me.' The woman began the war, Rev. 12, so that she hath the devil under her feet at

the end, cast down to the earth, as ver. 9; and so he hath the serpent's curse exquisitely accomplished on him, 'Upon thy belly shalt thou go, and dust shalt thou eat all the days of thy life;' which analogically, as applied to Satan, notes out the most abject condition and extremity of captivation, that as one fully conquered, he should be laid flat on the ground and trodden on, so as to lick the dust of it; for so captivity, according to the manner of those countries, is expressed by their belly cleaving to the earth, and licking the dust,

Ps. 44:24, 25, and Ps. 72:9. And therefore though God had cursed Satan to hell afore, immediately upon his fall, 2 Peter 2:4, 'He saved not the angels that fell, but cast them down to hell;' yet this after curse is a second hell, which therefore is said to torment him 'all his days,' even for ever, that he falls also by the hand and under the foot of man, whom he so much envied and despised. And hereby is not God fully even with him? Doth he not retaliate his sin upon him to the utmost of the curses? The devil, though in the shape of a serpent, subtilely assaults and sets on the woman, as thinking he could easily deceive and overcome her, as he did, and by her the man. These two, you know, in the type were Christ and his church, Eph. 5:31–33.

Well, 'because thou hast done this,' says God. He never goes about to convince him of his sin, (as he did the man and woman), but falls a cursing him, 'The seed of the woman shall break thy head.' The seed, i.e., both Christ the head and Christ the body; Christ the man and Christ the woman; Christ personal and Christ mystical, shall do it, as the Scripture calls the church the whole seed, as you have heard.

And whereas he began with the woman, and so prevailed over the man; on the contrary here, Christ the man deals with him first, spoils and triumphs over him, and then he turns him ever to the woman to have a second bout with him. Come (says he to the whole church), thou shalt set thy feet, thy tender feet upon him too, and in my strength shalt crush him. Rupertus* tells it with a great deal of confidence, as having had it, he says, from those that knew it by experience, that if the naked foot of a woman chance to tread or touch a serpent's head, it dies instantly, which a far greater force will not effect. Thus the devil dies not, nor is fully and totally subdued till

she hath set her foot upon him also; and it will be thought that however Christ's so hard tread may break his head, and his power more, yet her tread breaks his heart, and it is no derogation from Christ's, for it is Christ in both. Nay, it is for confusion to that proud spirit, which is as bad as wrath, and therefore after his being judged to hell, he hath the curse of this annexed to it; yea and for this end

(among other) did Christ take up flesh and blood, that is, the weaknesses of man's nature, and not the nature of angels in their strength, that he might, in destroying the devil, therein add confusion to his conquest: it is the reason insinuated, if not expressly given, Heb. 2:14. And upon the same reason, that the apostle would heighten our conflict with Satan to us (thereby to prepare and awaken us), that we fight not against flesh and blood, but against principalities and powers; by the same is the confusion of Satan rendered the greater, that flesh and blood hath a strength given it to tread upon principalities and powers. But herein as Paul gives the account of it, 'the strength of Christ is perfected in weakness' (it is proper as to conclude the point in hand withal), for the apostle brings it in upon occasion of Satan's being sent to buffet him; 'A messenger of Satan,' as some, or the 'angel Satan,' as others, was sent to buffet him, 2 Cor. 12:7, 8.

If we would further know the particulars and the glories of these Christ's victories over him, achieved by the saints, we must estimate them by that threefold power and advantage which Satan hath still left him over the saints.

1. In ruling the world, to bring afflictions on them.

2. In accusing them to God.

3. In tempting them to sin. And the saints have an answerable victory over all; and these victories also obtained in a fair and rational way, by and according to equitable rules, and not by extraordinary force.

So that in handling these three ensuing particulars, I must carry along three things through each particular.

1. Satan's power.

2. How the saints, or Christ by the saints, do defeat him.

3. How each of these defeats is done by rule, in a rational legal way.

Which latter renders these victories on our parts more slow and tedious, but more glorious. You have a maxim, 2 Tim. 2:5, that no man is crowned that doth not strive lawfully; Christ himself did not overcome him by mere force, but in an equitable way, as was shewn; so nor do we.

1. Satan hath over us a tempting power unto the greatest sin; you know he is called the tempter. I will begin with that; Peter, that had been worried by him, cries out to all his fellows, 1 Peter 5:8, 'There is a roaring lion' (look to yourselves), 'who always goes up and down seeking whom,' of us believers, 'he may devour;' and his outcry is τῇ ἀδελφότητι, to the whole brotherhood of saints in the world, 'Be sober, be vigilant; because your adversary the devil, as a roaring lion, walketh about, seeking whom he may devour.' It is as if one should have given warning to a company of children (suppose those in Elisha's story) a bear, a lion is broke loose, hungry and roaring, seeking whom he may devour; and who knows whom he may light on? as elsewhere, Paul, Gal. 6:1, 'Lest thou or thou be tempted.' For Paul knew that after he is cast out at conversion, as in the forementioned Luke 11, he attempts to make re-entries. He not knowing who are true believers, who are not, maketh the same assaults and stormings upon men savingly converted that he doth on temporaries; which made Paul so jealous of all his converts, lest by some means the tempter should have tempted them, 1 Thess. 3:5. In this work of temptation Satan is permitted to exercise abundance of power, more than in any of the former, unto astonishment of themselves and angels; and they are so put to it, that indeed it may be asked, where is the blessedness you spake of? What is become of those great good tidings of perfect victory over him on the cross and ascension? And the actual possession of all his power by Jesus Christ, and taken from him at our conversion? The apostle hath a very high expression, Eph.

6:12, shewing how much the saints are put to it in this particular, 'And having done all to stand.' He had said afore, 'We wrestle not with flesh and blood, but with principalities and powers.' It is true, indeed, God will not suffer us to be tempted above what we are able to bear, yet suffers to the utmost what we are able to bear; that is, he leaves us but to just so much grace as shall be sufficient, 2 Cor. 12:9.

Many a righteous man is scarcely saved in this respect, his temptations are so strong, his jailors so many; yet still I may say what was said of Joseph, Christ's type and ours, I may say the same of every Christian, 'The archers have sorely grieved him, and shot at him, and hated him,' Gen. 49:23. These arrow-masters (as Ainsworth reads it), his brethren, his mistress, his master, they all put him unto great trials and temptations, and so do these arrow-masters, these forgers of those fiery darts and arrows (as in the same Eph. 6:16 they are called), every Christian. But Christ hath promised, as there he did of Joseph, ver. 25, 'But his bow abode in strength, and the arms of his hands are made strong by the hands of the mighty God of Jacob.'

There is no victory but there is a battle, no battle but there must be a permission to use wiles and utmost force. We read of both in Satan, who is called the lion and the serpent. No man is crowned, unless he strive lawfully, 2 Tim. 2:3, therefore Christ will do so, the devil shall have fair play, yea, and sometimes do his worst; and this makes the victory the more glorious, James 1:12, 'Blessed is the man that endureth temptation: for when he is tried, he shall receive the crown of life, which the Lord hath promised to them that love him;' that is, one who hath gone through them and overcome them, though with infinite batterings and bruisings of spirit. Nor are temptations there to be limited to outward afflictions, but to extend it unto trials for sin. For it follows, ver. 13, 14, 'But let no man say when he is tempted, I am tempted of God: for God cannot be tempted with evil, neither tempteth he any man: but every man is tempted when he is drawn away of his own lust, and enticed.' Now that the saints, after some years' experience in Christianity, have usually some experience of their having overcome that evil one, and that so as to be a pledge unto them of their full and final overcoming at last (of which that in the Rev. 2:7, 13, 'To him that overcometh I will give the crown of life,'

is to be understood), is a certain truth; and I shall open but one scripture that makes good this previous overcoming in hand: 1 John

2:13, 14, 'I write unto you, fathers, because ye have known him that is from the beginning. I write unto you, young men, because ye have overcome the wicked one. I write unto you, little children, because ye have known the Father.' Ver. 14, 'I have written unto you, fathers, because ye have known him that is from the beginning. I have written unto you, young men, because ye are strong, and the word of God abideth in you, and ye have overcome the wicked one.' It is attributed here (you see) to the middle sort or age of Christians to have overcome that wicked one; by which is meant the devil up and down this epistle; and that the overcoming him is spoken in respect of lusts, or temptations unto sin, is evident, because it is made the ground of an exhortation that follows, not to love the world, nor the things of the world: ver. 15, 16, 'Love not the world, nor the things of the world. If any man love the world, the love of the Father is not in him. For all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life, is not of the Father, but is of the world.'

And his argument unto these young men (of whom he says, 'they have overcome') lies thus: you have had already some experience of victory, having been in some battles and conflicts with the enemy, fighting against sin, Heb. 12:14. It hath cost you hot work, and will you now give back, and lose all you have fought for, and grow faint when the battle declines, and experience gives you so clear a hope of an assured victory? No; but on the contrary therefore, be encouraged still to fight it out. Again, you may observe that this is twice said of them with repetition, and therefore is a matter of eminency to be noticed. This for the coherence of the words of that text of Scripture; now, to explain them, let us remark that he reduceth the state of all

Christians to three sorts of degrees: babes, young men, and fathers; making the ground of his allusion the proportion that grace, or the new creature, hath with what is found in nature in the sons of men, wherein those three ages are eminently distinguishable. And look, as if a naturalist were to set out the genius, dispositions, and attainments of childhood, man's estate, and old age, he would take

that which is most proper to each of these ages, so doth the apostle here in characterising these three ages in Christianity.

1. Babes in Christianity know the Father, are taught to run to God as to a father, and to abound in expressing filial and childlike dispositions and instincts towards God as a father, and are trained up as children, and are allured with toys, and held by the arms and taught to go, and are carried in the arm rather than walk.

2. Old men in Christianity know him that is from the beginning. The property of old age in nature is to talk of things ancient and long ago done; these they are taken up withal. Now, the heathen* could say,

'Who is the most ancient?' God, whom Daniel calls 'the ancient of days.' So Christ is too, 1 John 1:1, 'That which was from the beginning,' who, ver. 2, is 'that eternal life who was with the Father.'

And for all those great mysteries of the gospel in election, and the transaction of the Father with the Son, a story ancienter than the world, these things grown Christians delight to speak of, and are taken withal, the knowledge of which is that Paul boasts most of,

Eph. 3:2.

3. Of young men, the proper excellencey is their strength, Prov.

20:29, and they boast of wrestlings and victories; and if they be military men, they have had experience of overcoming the enemy in the field, and are thereby fleshed and animated to any encounters.

Now as all true Christians are born for soldiery, and conflicts with sin and Satan, so the apostle points out that time between their being babes, and whilst they are growing up to a virility and strength, and to a spiritual manhood. And during that age is the proper season and most eminent field of a Christian's life, in which the bloodiest battles with lusts and temptations of that kind are fought, and in which time

(where there is truth of grace) there have fallen out some comfortable experiments of victories, though still the assaults may be renewed and continued; for John (you see) distinguishes them from babes by this very thing. The truth is, that in the first age humiliation

for sin hath stounded lusts; the Spirit, by John Baptist's voice and ministry, hath blown upon all flesh; hell and the curse, and fear of damnation, &c., have withered all excellencies, or things desirable, and these are succeeded with sweetness and supports, which add to the deadening of their spirits unto temptation to sin; and that present frame of spirit reduceth them often to think they shall never commit a gross sin, as Peter, that he should not deny his Master; and so they are censorious of others, and then God spares them. Babes are fed with milk, and not led unto the field unto great or notable encounters, or else the exercise of their spirits lies in point of justification, and seeking Christ's righteousness; yea, and then all the affections upon either the account of self-love, or gracious love, are stirred and run in one channel in pursuit after salvation of a man's self. But when once the soul is settled, these first stounds of humiliation and frights are over, and lusts have come to themselves again. And then when the soul is in some measure quieted by faith, and yet not assured of eternal salvation (so as wonted fears are kept under, but yet the soul attains not joys unspeakable and glorious, which should as much heighten the affections that way as fears had stirred them that other); when also those mercenary assistances and auxiliaries which self-love afforded are recalled and withdrawn, and if any sweetnesses were they are abated and gone, and so what is purely grace (which now is of itself grown up to some degree of strength) is left to shift for itself, and to fight its own battles alone; then usually come the bloody conflicts, then is the trial whether lusts and devil, or soul and Christ, should overcome, and whether Christ hath begotten truth of grace, and owns it upon some assaults or other, and in some trial and experience of victories, that it may be said, 'Ye have overcome that evil one.' For one of these two cases have fallen out, either Peter's case or Paul's, either such Christians have been kept and not foiled (we read not that Paul ever was), or if they have been foiled and overcome for some acts of sinning, yet that hath in a recovery occasioned (as it were) a new conversion, which was Peter's case, who went out and wept bitterly, and brought in a new strength and recruit. And either of these are and must be reckoned an overcoming that wicked one. It is no matter (that is, as

to this point) that thou hast been overcome; for if God recovers thee still, and renews thee by repentance, thou hast overcome. A town that hath been often besieged, and yet never won or taken (as that virgin, maiden city of Venice); and another into which the enemy hath made great entries, and yet hath been beaten out again by them that are within it, these are both of them victorious. In these cases

God accounts of it as a great matter that grace remains and is not excussed; and therefore John adds here, 'Because ye are strong, and the word of God abides in you.' The word of God abides in you both as the cause of these victories and as the signs of them, that it should still so abide after all, when the battle hath been so great and sore, and it was doubtful by the passages that fell out in the castle who had the worse or who the better. Yet this is reckoned a signal of the conqueror, that he keeps the field, and is found standing to his ground, and is where still he was, and retains and holds his standard.

That the seed of God still remains, and the word of God abides, this is an evidence of victory: and Christ so expresseth it, 'I have prayed that thy faith fail not.' For after sore, great, and many such temptations, a temporary work is worn out, and abides not; yea, when a man is strengthened to continue to maintain the battle, and not fling his weapons down, so long sin hath not the dominion, but Christ will bring forth judgment to victory.

Now, the reiterated experiments of having thus in part, and at times, overcome or continued the fight, is to men of that age a pawn and pledge that they shall finally overcome. It is so in the thing itself, and is often made such to their faith: 'Experience breeds hope, and hope maketh not ashamed,' as Rom. 5:4, 5. Soldiers that have been in many cruel battles, and are yet alive, and have their limbs whole

(though with many fears), and have fought it out, and got the victory, though perhaps often rallying and giving ground, they come to have stout or strong and resolute spirits; and whereas others' hopes

(namely, of babes) of perseverance, is built only upon God's faithfulness, these further have the experience of the issue of many a combat to cause them the more fondly to hope; and in this sense some have understood these words, namely, 'You have overcome the

wicked one;' that is, 'you shall overcome,' expressing that which is future in the time past, to shew the certainty of it for the future. But that cannot be the immediate and direct meaning, because the future overcoming is as common to believers* as to young men, that is, that they shall overcome, whereas the apostle's scope is by way of eminency and distinction to the other, to set out what is more proper and peculiar to young men; only this sense comes in in a collateral way, that that experience which that age attains to is an evidence unto them that they shall finally and in the end prevail. Even as Joshua, when they had as yet made some progress of victory over their enemies, he bade the eldest† of Israel come and set their feet on the necks of their enemies, Josh. 10:24; and in the assured confidence of the promise of God at first made, whereof they hitherto had had such experience, he speaks thus unto them, ver. 25, 'Fear not, neither be dismayed; be strong and of good courage: for thus shall the Lord do to all your enemies against whom ye fight.' And so it is here.

The second thing that belongs to this, is the glory of these victories of Christ by us, as thus they are carried on to the end of our days; which, that it may appear, the terms or laws set between God and us are to be considered. In the entrance of this discourse I proposed that our overcoming Satan was not transacted by a sole mere outward violent force or restraint, a pure arbitrary prerogative put forth by Christ on our behalf; for so he could keep him off from tempting us at all, but that Christ leaves him at times to encounter with us, and to do his worst; yet upon certain laws and terms set between us by Christ, upon which it is he puts forth that force, and so according to those laws it is we overcome. That maxim holdeth here,

2 Tim. 2:5, 'And if a man strive for masteries, yet is he not crowned except he strive lawfully.' So then laws are set between these combatants, else there were no dealing with the devil; and such as wherein his utmost skill and cunning to deceive, entice, persuade, provoke are displayed.

The first law is, that though he should prevail to blow up and inflame a man's lusts and affections with those corrupt instruments of his, he sets upon the will, yea, and the will itself be much won over and inclined, even ready to yield, yet if the major part thereof (which is the executive power in a man) keeps fixed and comes not off, so long a man is said to overcome; so as Satan must not boast that he carried it so or so far, but in that case the victory is decided to be on our part, and not on his. Every man's will is his castle, as the law speaks of a man's house, and if a man retains but 'power over his own will' (as the apostle in another case expresseth it, 1 Cor. 7:37), which is seen by a man's either not morose indulgency or actings over a sin in fancy again, or not perpetrating it outwardly; in this case God pronounces on our sides that we have overcome, though in the assault we have had our hearts much wounded and pierced through with fiery and inflaming darts, that at the instant did transport our affections: Eph. 6:13, στῆναι καὶ ἀντισῆναι, if we be able but to 'withstand and stand.' You may observe how that all the weapons there reckoned up are but defensive, as helmet, shield, &c.

We only stand and deny; and accordingly says Peter, 'whom resist, stedfast in the faith,' 1 Pet. 5:9, that is, by faith we are to retain the power of the will; so likewise 1 Cor. 7:37, 'stedfast in heart, having power over one's own will.' I observe also that in Rev. 12 our overcoming Satan is expressed by his not prevailing (ver. 8, 9, and 11 compared), namely, in the issue. I inquire not how many times he prevails, that is not the measure God goeth by. This may be set out by comparison of what befell Eve and Adam (whom Austin still styles fortissimus ille, that Samson and most strong one in comparison to us) in innocency; or rather, in the full strength of the image of God, consisting in holiness and righteousness, and that complete in them.

(1.) We have the same vertibility of will which they had (take it merely as it is a will), the strongest purpose whereof is, as I use to say, as easily diverted and turned aside as the strongest push of a rapier by a straw.

(2.) Take Adam's will, and it had perfect command over his affections, so that not a desire, not a velleity, could stir to move it, until it gave way, yea, gave forth a command unto it. As in a wellframed watch or clock, an under wheel doth not stir until the upper first themselves hath moved it. It must be so in them that the understanding and will were to begin to be seduced ere an affection waved this way or that. 'The serpent deceived Eve,' the text says. It is a slander upon God's image and workmanship as it first came out of his hands, and that absolute perfect government God set up in Adam's soul, to say, that lusts and affections (the popular part of man) had power to move themselves, which yet the Jesuits and Arminians have cast upon it. No; the will itself was as the Almighty, that had the winds in its fists. Adam then had nothing inward to tempt him or draw him aside; but we have a body of sin and death, full of life and activity as to sin, a weight that presseth us down, sin that besetteth us round, lusts that fight against the soul, and not only lusts to entice the will, but the will divided against itself, that we cannot do what we would. It was as easy for Adam to will good as it is for us to wish anything, to think or move a toe, the whole bias of the bowl led him that way;* but now at best you have flesh lusting against the spirit, that you cannot do or will what you would. But then nothing without or within should check or foreflow any good motion in him, and yet the devil overcame them.

(3.) Yea, and the devil had not power to come within him, to represent unto and fire his fancy, to inflame his affections, or suggest by inward motion and incitations (as he doth us) for why else did he take an external shape to tempt him in?

(4.) The devil overcame them the first onset he made, yea, and upon a lighter skirmish, yea, and both of them at once, and it was not long a-doing; they easily, presently, and soon yielded up all. How great then is the glory of that grace in us (who are every way so disadvantaged), that our wills should be able to withstand and to stand. The apostle in his own example hath celebrated it, 2 Cor. 12:7, a thorn in the flesh, an angel of Satan, was sent, ver. 7, to shew that

God's grace was sufficient, and that his strength is perfected in weakness, and that he hath ordained strength in babes and sucklings to still the enemy and avenger, Ps. 8:2.

2. A second law which is set by Christ between him and us, that if we do thus hold out to resist the devil, we so overcome him as he must flee from us; and that is a victory indeed, when the enemy is forced to fly for it. You have it expressly, James 4:7, 'Resist the devil, and he will' or 'shall flee from you,' for it is not put upon his will there, but what is the event and issue of such resistances. Souls that are assaulted still more fiercely every day than other, are ready to say,

Where is the promise of his fleeing, for I find his temptations doubled? Well, but God hath said it; and understand it as he hath meant it, and you shall find it true. The sense that I give of it is,

(1.) That for all fierce and set temptations there is a time limited to Satan, though we know not the measure or limits of it; sometimes, and to some, shorter; sometimes, and to some, longer. It is termed the 'hour of temptation,' Rev. 3:10; and so Christ says too, Luke

22:53, 'This is your hour, and the power of darkness.' Now during that time, and whilst it is appointed to last, Satan may, yea, doth after many renewed resistances of thine, come upon thee yet more fiercely; but there is a period, until which if thou dost hold out, he must flee from thee. Why should there not be a set time for his temptation, as well as his persecution? His commission therein is,

'for certain days;' as Rev. 2:10, 'Satan shall cast some of you into prison, and ye shall have tribulation ten days,' but then the keys are remanded and taken from him; and so it is here in this case too. Now then, (2.) The law of that concertation is, that if the soul be found resisting him at or until such a time, though perhaps with many intervening foils, that then he must be packing and gone; let him look to himself.

It seems not only to express a promise to us, but a law that concerns him, he will and shall flee: even as that in Gen. 9:6 contains both a

promise and a law, 'He that sheds man's blood, by man shall his blood be shed.'

(3.) It is expressed in the way of a military engagement, and an issue such as is in war. The words afore are, 'submit' or 'subject yourselves to God,' and then follows, 'Resist the devil, and he will flee from you.'

And he had spoken afore of their 'lusts warring in their members,' ver. 1, 2, of which lusts (as all know) the devil is the leader. He had spoken of God as the sovereign Lord, and giver of more grace, of grace opposite unto our lusts, ver. 5, 6. Now then, says James, if you would in this war prevail against your lusts, my counsel in the first and chief place is to submit or subject yourselves to God, become subject to him, as the word is, Rom. 13:1, 5, 'unto the highest powers;' that is, as weaker states use to do when they are engaged in war against an enemy too potent for them, their wisdom is to give themselves up as subjects to some other opposite prince, that may defend and protect them, and supply them with aid. So here these to God are advised to subject themselves, that he may seasonably come in with help in time of need. Now when the soul hath first thus committed itself, and put itself under God's protection, then, and upon that occasion (if you observe it), it is that he utters this, 'Resist the devil, and he shall fly from you.' It is as if such a king or prince, that is engaged for such a town or city under his protection, that is besieged and beleaguered long, should send word unto them, hold but you stoutly out your resistance, and I will come with forces myself that shall raise the siege, and cause the enemy to depart. And in such engagements there use to be the most punctual observances and trusts. Thus doth the apostle, as in the name of God, utter this here; subject yourselves to God, and resist the devil manfully, and he shall flee from you, God will enforce him to do it.

(4.) Give me leave to give in my apprehension of this promise, he shall flee from you, φέυξεται ἀφʼ ὑμῶν; I know the word is used simply to express a sudden and swift removal, for which that Mat.

10:23 is cited by Beza. 'When they persecute you in one city, flee into another;' yet usually it is a flight out of apprehension of danger (at

least) and even there the word imports danger in the cities where they are persecuted; and here it is coming after an exhortation to a warlike resistance, it seems such a flight as is out of such an apprehension. Some say it is out of pride that he goes away, as being ashamed and as scorning to be resisted so much or so often. But the devil is not wrought upon by an affection of shame; he would by his good will continue the assaulting us even to the end, to weary us and tire us. It riseth then so high, as it is some way out of a fear of some real hurt that he knows is coming upon him if he desist not; yet, alas! what can he fear of damage from us, who are but flesh and blood?

But from God (who, as was said, is engaged in it to take our parts) he may. God will come in as an assistant, with a force and power to raise his siege, if he continues his assaults longer than such a time; so as when he thus sees a stronger than he coming, he is forced to take his heels and run away. It is certain that at times God rebukes and chastiseth Satan; what else is the meaning of that prayer of the angel

Christ, Zech. 3:1, 2, and the angel Michael, Jude 9, 'The Lord rebuke thee.' The devils were in fear of a torment when cast out; or else why say they, 'Why comest thou to torment us before the time?' Mat.

8:29. Perhaps when the commission as at first granted is expired, when he is cast out at conversion, he is for a while confined to dry places, where he hath little trading for doing mischief, which makes him walk melancholy, and is a vexation to him; as also where he hath tempted men to great sins, he is confined to the place where the facts were committed, Mat. 12:22. And why may it not further be thought in this case, that as when wicked men, who are the devil's instruments, do assault the saints, and draw them before their tribunals, that if they demean themselves so as in nothing to be terrified by their adversaries, Phil. 1:28, that then as there God strikes the hearts of their adversaries with terror, as he did Pilate in the case of Christ (for it follows, 'which is in them an evident token of perdition, as to you of salvation, and that of God,' that is, as God fills your hearts with seals and tokens of his love, so others at some* time with horror). Why may not the like be thought to befall the devil, when we manfully resist him, and that of God? Sure I am, the promise is (Rom. 16:20,) that when he should have done his do (as

we say) in causing divisions in the church of the Romans, and that God had quieted those divisions, Satan is not only said to be overcome, but to be trodden under feet. He is a serpent, and fears his head to be bruised, to have a broken pate after he hath bruised our heels, and therefore flees; but this is in case we be standing out to resist him.

But in case we be overcome by him, as sometimes in such conflicts with him we are, by reason of our own lusts, and he prevail so as to lead us captive, yet two things do make a glorious victory even in this case.

1. In that this man that is overcome recovers himself again out of the snare of the devil, through the supply of the Spirit of Christ that is in him, and stronger than Satan who is without him; and this is glorious in another respect, bis vincit qui victus vincit. He is twice a conqueror, who is so after having been vanquished. It is made a glory for the people of God to take them captives, who had made them captives, Isa. 14:2. Even Christ himself, in his sphere and capacity

(though not overcome by him in sin, yet in sufferings, &c.), suffered himself to be overcome, and to be nailed to the cross, so as the devil thought he had him fast and sure, and then he removed but his foot, and crushed him all in pieces. Now then when Satan hath even devoured and swallowed up a poor saint, 1 Peter 5:8, so as he hath not only a foot in his snare, but his whole man in his belly, as to all outward appearance, as he had done Peter as well as Judas, for he was going (like Jonah) into the belly of this Leviathan, and had the weeds about his neck; then to have Christ with one look, with one cast of his eye, to break that man's heart, and to cause him to repent, so that the devil must give him up again, to have his prey thus taken out of his teeth, it doth mightily confound the devil. Yea, and further, occasionally to make use of that his sinning to provoke him (through zeal and repentance) to do the devil more mischief,—so as Peter's denial, upon his repentance, made him more stout and resolute than ever (as in the Acts you read) as being converted he was strengthened so, as he turned three thousand souls at once; and

David's murder provoked him to teach sinners, and it hindered not but that God converted many thereby, as Ps. 51—and personally working in the party sorrowing with godly sorrow, more zeal, and revenge, and desire, &c., 2 Cor. 7:11. This is perfecting God's strength in our weakness, as 2 Cor. 12:7, 8. And by the way it is strange that Satan sent to tempt should be termed a gift, as ver. 7 of that chapter,

'A thorn in the flesh was given me, a messenger of Satan,' or the angel Satan, 'to buffet me;' was it ever heard the devil was a gift? Yes; in respect of the issue of his temptations, as well as to suffer (and his temptations are termed affliction and suffering, 1 Peter 2:20, 21), the bruising of our heel was a promise, as well as the breaking of his head.

2. A second thing which in this case renders it glorious is, that often when a soul is overcome in respect of its lusts, yet at the same time it is enabled by faith to say, I shall yet overcome and be a conqueror, and in the confidence thereof to give thanks unto God aforehand.

Such a courage as this daunts an enemy exceedingly (especially when he knows he must in the end be worsted), that when he hath a man down and under him, that man yet spits in his face, and says to his teeth, I shall yet rise and tread thee down. Thus Paul in the name of believers, when he was driven to the war, and taken captain,* sighs forth, 'O miserable man that I am! Who shall deliver me?' And in the foresight of the victory, cries, 'I thank my God, through Jesus Christ,'

Rom. 7:25. Well, Satan (says the soul), thou hast me now under, but I shall up again, and say, as the church in the prophet, 'Rejoice not against me, O mine enemy, though I fall; I shall rise again, but thou shalt be trodden down as mire in the street.' God shall tread down

Satan under your feet shortly.

Christ's dealing with Peter is a strange instance, wherein you may perceive Christ's care to support his faith, though he knew he should be foully overcome. 'I have prayed,' says he, 'that thy faith fail not,'

Luke 22:32. Christ knew the effect of this promise would not be to keep him, and preserve him from falling; and he gives him an assurance he should recover; and to that end to strengthen his faith

before the sin committed, even with the same breath he foretold he should so heinously transgress, he assures him he should recover from it. There is a talk by carnal spirits that deal with God upon the terms of self-love only, and the covenant of works, that assurance of persevering hurts a man's spirit, and exposeth him the more to sins.

If this were true, then is Christ to be blamed in this; he ventures it with Peter's spirit, and the efficacy of his intercession, he lays in provision for faith beforehand to feed upon, against he should be overcome by sin, and sets a cordial by him afore the disease; so much doth he delight in the triumph of faith in falls. You know Paul's triumph, Rom. 8:37, 'We are more than conquerors through him that loved us.' And why? Because of the persuasion begotten, 'for I am persuaded neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers,' &c. He puts in to strengthen faith what needed not, what are not real, but only supposed enemies, as the good angels; nor heights, nor depths, that is, Satan (as Rev. 2:24), that is, the strangest temptation that Satan can invent, or throw us into, cannot overwhelm us. He had first said neither death nor life; and I confess I have been most pleased and comforted with the putting in of life, that that shall not separate. I have feared life and the snares of it more than death, or angels, or devils. As for death, it despatcheth a man's sins and dangers in respect of them at once; it, like Samson, pulls down an old house, that kills all the Philistines together with himself; but it is life which a Christian is most apt to fear, knowing his own weakness, and the strength of lusts, and varieties of temptations; but here is a man's life insured (as is the merchants' language), and an assurance put in for life, and so against all hazards of sinnings, and therefore we are more than conquerors, because in and during the conflicts (which in view and to sense are dubious, and hazardous which should overcome), faith persuades us we shall overcome. Yea, Vicimus! Vicimus! (as with or after prayer he cried out ere he knew the event). Ye have overcome the wicked one, 1 John

2:12. It is as good as done; yea, in ipso bellandi ingressu sumus victores. All that is born of God overcomes the world, 1 John 5:4. In all battles else men fight dubio marte: sometimes the one side carries it, sometimes another; so as they are doubtful of the event, only

relieve themselves with this disjunction; Aut mors certa, aut victoria læta, either certain death, or a happy victory. Fight the good fight of faith, with assurance of success, says the apostle. It is a good fight indeed wherein there is ground for an assurance of victory, and a man can afore view sins and temptations, as that general did a goodly army of the enemies, and go aside and laugh out to God in confidence of the victory. Thus Christ, when he was presently to enter into the field of cross and wrath, and devil: 'Now is the Son of man glorified,' John 13:31; he says it beforehand.

When Satan hath any way prevailed by tempting us, he hath an accusing power before God, Rev. 12:10. There is great joy in heaven when the accuser of the brethren is cast down, who accused them before our God day and night. I take the meaning to be this, that God professing himself, though a father to his children, yet to judge without respect of persons here in this life, in temporary judgments, his own children as well as others, and to go by the same rule therein; which you have in so may words emphatically, 1 Pet. 1:17,

'And if you call on the Father, who without respect of persons judgeth according to every man's work.' Hence therefore, when they sin, God hath given power to Satan freely to come and urge his own temporal threatenings, and his worst; professing withal, that unless they be wrought about to overcome his accusations by their repentance evangelical, he must and will proceed against them. And herein Satan pleads not before God as a mere slanderer; God would never be moved with that; but as an accuser that urgeth what the word of God saith against such and such sins, and inordinate walkings. And Satan hath upon such occasions leave to come to heaven (or elsewhere, I dispute not) and to appear with the sons of God, the good angels, as you see, Job 1:6. Christ's ears are pierced with his complaints day and night, so that text speaks. Yea, and if Satan had not power with God to do a great deal of mischief this way, there had not been such a rejoicing when Satan was overcome, as you read of, Rev. 12. And herein God deals by rule between us and Satan.

God will have Satan fairly laid on his back. He useth not mere prerogative. The good angels are grieved at your sins (as they rejoice

when they see a soul turned), but shake their heads and say nothing; we read not of their accusation. Yea, 2 Peter 2:11, 'Whereas angels, which are greater in power and might, bring not railing accusations against them before the Lord' (he had spoken of the levellers of that age, who found fault with their magistrates, and their misgovernments and callings, promising liberty, ver. 19, by rebelling against him), says Peter, you do in this that which the good angels do not do: they, when they see magistrates miscarry, they, though greater in power (both than those magistrates and than you poor earth-worms, their subjects), yet bring not an accusation, blaspheming them, βλασφημοῦντες, which is, Jude 9, interpreted by this, that when Michael strove with Satan, it is said he did not bring a railing accusation. The meaning is, he brought none, for he said no more, but this, 'The Lord rebuke thee.' He went not to God with the story of his crime, but left it to him silently; and as for them they quietly behold the face of God, to have commission from him to punish them if he think meet. So that this of Peter is spoken by way of distinction of good and evil angels. Evil angels go presently and bring accusations against men before the Lord, but the good do not complain, no, not of the devils themselves, when they oppose them.

Now Christ invalidates all these accusations of the devil by his own interceding and pleas in the force and virtue of his own blood, and therefore he is termed a righteous advocate: 1 John 2:1, 'We have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous.' An advocate is the perfect opposite to the devil his being an accuser. It is one that takes off accusations by contrary pleas before some court, and his are righteous pleas all. Of this transaction you have a representation in that vision, Zech. 3:1: when Joshua was to be brought anew into the execution of the high priest's office, the devil stood at his right hand to resist him; and what it was he spread before God against him you may understand by Christ's speech: ver. 4, 'Take away the filthy garments from him; behold I have caused thine iniquities to pass from thee.' They were all his sins. Is this man (said Satan to God) a fit man to be a priest over the house of God, that hath sinned so and so? instancing in particulars; and so he pleads against any of you,

when to be ordained or called to the ministry, or any place of eminency. Now Christ, the angel of the Lord, ver. 2, he on the other hand stands up for Joshua, 'The Lord said unto Satan, The Lord rebuke thee, O Satan.' And observe his pleas;—

1. He pleads God's election. The Lord that hath chosen Jerusalem as his people, and place of his worship, whereof Joshua was by inheritance the leader and instrument, for whose sake he was to be placed in that office.

2. Is not this a brand plucked out of the fire? ver. 2. Hath he not suffered sufficiently for those his sins already? And wouldst thou have him confounded? Such things as these Christ pleads, and take away his sins, says he, &c. Many such transactions as these pass for and against us in heaven, when we little think of it. But Christ's glory is not only to overcome him as accusing us in and by himself, but further causeth us to overcome him. I had once thought that Christ only deals with Satan in his accusing of us, and alone confounds him; but that Scripture, Rev. 12:10, 11 verses compared, 'The accuser of our brethren is cast down,' say the angels, 'which accused them before our God day and night; and they overcame him by the blood of the Lamb, and by the word of their testimony,' &c. This Scripture

(I say) plainly shews, that not Christ only, but they, overcame him, and that as an accuser. He urged their failings, and how? As in Job's case, that if tried and put to it they would deny Christ, and blaspheme him to his face; now they overcome him.

First, As to their sins, by the blood of the Lamb. They pleaded that, and confessed their iniquities. If we confess our sins, and plead

Christ's blood, God is just to forgive us, and the blood of Christ cleanseth us from all sin, 1 John 1:7, 9.

Secondly, They overcame and silenced him many of them in the other accusation by continuing constant in the testimony of the truth, and by not loving their lives unto death, which in the end

silenced Satan, and moved God to assuage the persecutions of the Christians, and turn them into a glorious liberty.

Thus when a believer hath fallen into sin and the snare of the devil for it, as again and again Paul to Timothy expresseth it, 1 Tim. 3:7, and 1 Tim. 5:14, that the devil hath occasion to reproach him unto

God and unto men (although as for his reproaches of them to men it often falls out that his commission is to use his own trade of lying, and he is restrained from what are indeed their sins), however Christ upon this sends down his Spirit (unknown to them) into their souls,

Rom. 8:25, 26, and he intercedes as fast in their hearts, urgeth such and such promises and pleas as Christ in heaven doth on their behalf. He breaks their hearts, causeth them to confess their sins, 1

Cor. 7:1, to mourn after a godly sort, gives them repentance, carefulness for time to come, revenge and hatred against them, and fear for falling again, and intermingled with apologies drawn from their own frailty, Christ's blood, intercession, &c. And thus (as there) they approve themselves clear in that matter (namely, wherein they had sinned, and for which they repented), clear, that is, before God, and according unto God's rules; and so (as was said), though God judgeth without respect of persons, yet they having thus judged themselves, they stand recti in curia, according to the equity of God's rules, not by extraordinary power, but by law; which you find, 1 Cor.

11:31, 'If we would judge ourselves, we should not be judged.' And thus the devil is baffled, and the man restored.

Thirdly, Satan hath the power of ruling and governing the carnal party of men, which the Scriptures term the world. He is therefore termed 'The prince of this world,' John 12:31; and he that deceives the world, Rev. 12:9. And the chiefest trade and design he drives, and advantage he makes of this his government over the world, is so to mould and make up the fashions of this world, as by them to persecute the saints, Rev. 12:17. For persecute them immediately he cannot by himself alone, although those other powers, as to accuse them to God, and to suggest and urge temptation, he hath of himself singly and separately assigned to him; yet to bring persecution on

them herein he must shroud himself under the power of the world, and make use thereof, and work mediately thereby; yet so as such proceedings against the saints are more attributed unto him than unto the world. Insomuch as that whole Roman empire, being acted by him to persecute the saints (ignorant of what themselves did therein), is termed the dragon and the old serpent, Rev. 12; as he that deceived the world, and was anima mundi, the soul and form of that world that then was, and so unto this day.

Now as the saints then by their prayers and tears, and holding forth the testimony of Jesus, overcame that world that then was, and thereby are said to have overcome the devil as prince of that world, so they have done it in several ages again and again since; in overcoming and working all those new and great alterations in the world in relation to religion that have been made, and the devil hath still been overcome and laid on his back by them. And therefore,

John 12:31, when Christ says, 'Now is the judgment of this world,' he adds, 'Now shall the prince of this world be cast out.' The judgment or reformation of the world (as, John 16:8, the word is used) is still the casting forth of the devil, who rules and informs it, as the soul doth the body. And so far as they overcome and make changes in the world, as it is opposite to Christ and unto them, so far do they overcome the devil also.

Take but a view of the course and proceedings of matters since Christ's time downward to this age, and you that know how the world hath gone must also acknowledge that there have been a many new worlds, and faces of things, and as the apostle terms them, 1 Cor. 7,

'fashions of this world, which pass away.' The world hath been put into a great many new dresses and shapes; and under all powers the devil still hath sought to shroud himself, and carry on his mentioned interest, which hath always been to form up the multitude of men and their spirits so, and to mould the customs and laws, and power, that he may have wherewith to persecute the saints more or less, which is his trade.

And he hath wisely applied himself still to the times and spirits of men to effect this, and sharked to do it (as I may so speak), as the saints have driven him out of his worldly works, and hath made the best of it in his losses. For the saints have unroosted him out of his former works often, and put him upon new seekings of his fortune, and altering his play many a time.

For the making forth of which you may observe how Christ and his apostles, speaking of the world which they did live in, with this indigitation or designation, 'This world.' So Christ in that John 12:31.

And so the apostles, and that not in opposition to the world to come (as, Heb. 2:5, the apostle speaks), but as in specification of that present world which was then in Christ's and the apostles' times, which, Gal. 1:4, Paul calls 'the present evil world.' Even as Peter styles the truths that were passing then, 'the present truth,' 2 Peter

1:12. Paul speaking at once both of the state of the world that then was, and also of the devil's rule in it (as it then stood), expresseth himself thus, 'That the spirit that now works,' says he, 'in the children of disobedience,' Eph. 2:2. There was a present world in Christ's and the apostles' time, the power, the swing, customs and laws of which then carried it against the saints, and Satan was in it.

There were the received laws and customs of the Jewish religion, which had a toleration throughout the Roman empire, when the Christian had not; and also the rites of the old heathenish religion, I need not tell you how prevalent, which the apostle called 'the rudiments of the world,' Col. 2:8, and 'the traditions of men,' that is of that world that then was. Now the saints they overcame that world that then was, both Jewish and heathenish, not only in their single persons swimming against the stream, and in not being entangled with the weeds at the bottom of that stream, that is the good or evil things thereof: 1 John 5:4, 'For whatsoever is born of God overcometh the world.' But they plainly overcame the whole. You all know the alteration made in Constantine's time, three hundred years after Christ. You read of a great shock and battle, Rev. 12:3, made by the great red dragon with seven heads and ten horns (which, as I may so speak, was the arms of the Roman heathenish empire, as set

out by the Holy Ghost), which cast or body of government the devil inspired, and so is called the dragon, the devil, as fortified herein; hence therefore it is plainly said, that they, the saints overcame him, ver. 11, 'And they overcame him, as there was no place found for him and his angels in heaven any more,' ver. 8. There was not one man left in some years that were seen to worship one of their heathenish gods. And in doing this (which is the glory of it), God came not down from heaven with thunderbolts and miracles to overcome, but kept to his ordinary laws of providence in ruling the hearts and spirits of men. He turns the emperor Constantine unto the Christian faith, and he turns about the world upside down, as they spake in the Acts; and now all the power was for the saints, which before was against them.

Well, the devil was unroosted, and his palace or castle (as Christ calls it), his fortifications or works, as then formed to annoy the saints out thereof, were slighted, dismantled, and himself clean turned out, and turned naked to shift to the wide world as we say. It is said immediately thereupon, Rev. 13:1, 'And he stood upon the sand of the sea.' You know it is read so by some, who make those words the close of the former chapter, and applied to the devil, who (as Mede* says) being deprived of the Roman empire, and put out of course and play, was put to his trumps; and because he could not rule and sway things thereby any more, he stands melancholy and naked on the sand of the sea, waiting to see what new form or face of a new world would arise next out of the sea. Now the sea was the multitudes of nations and people, then altered, both to a new form of government, as also turned Christian; and thus chap. 17:1, 15, the many waters, or the sea the next beast rose out of and sat upon, is interpreted. Well, the devil upon that interim observeth which way the waves tumbled, unto which he is as the wind or breath, he soon spied out a new advantage; only seeing the world was turned Christian, he applied his government of the world unto the spirits of men, and he would be a Christian too, that is, carry on his designs and affairs under the profession of Christianity. And so that corrupt, ignorant world that then was, being brooded upon by this spirit that breathed upon these waters, did in the end bring forth a new form of government, and religion of popery; the power and laws whereof, through Satan's

efficacy, the whole world that then was, went again after, and made war against the saints, and overcame them, as ver. 3, 7. And this our forefathers have told us.

Well, but the saints are born to overcome this devil, and a thousand of his worlds, if you could suppose them. Let him put himself into, and shroud himself under what worldly power soever; let him draw his lines of fortification anew, and build them as high as heaven, or as firm as the great mountains, yet they shall conquer him. And how they have overcome him in that power also, the 14th, 15th, 16th, 17th,

18th chapters, and the stories of that Reformation of religion in all these protestant countries, tell you, and they are the saints that have done, and by their prayers shall do it: Rev. 17:14, 'The Lamb shall overcome them, for as he is Lord of lords, so they that are with him are called, and chosen, and faithful.' And in doing this, he did not come down from heaven with flashes of lightning or Egyptian plagues, but kept to his ordinary rules of proceeding by which he hath governed the world in all ages, making changes in them, sometimes making use of men's lusts, as of Henry the Eighth; otherwhere turning the hearts of princes to embrace the gospel, as in Germany and Sweden; elsewhere inflaming the people unto popular tumults, and a hatred of idolatry, as in Scotland; sometimes in giving up princes to oppress them in their civil liberties as well as in their consciences, and so to move them to cast off the yoke, as in Holland; sometimes entwisting in one interest civil rights, and the interest of religion, as in France: all which, however done, and done but by the laws of providence ruling men's spirits, have been done at the prayers of the people of God.

Well, but when protestantism was set up, and the reformed religion, so as there was again a new dress or fashion of the world (as the apostle speaks of it, 1 Cor. 7:31), yet still he made a shift so to form even the truth of that religion up into a mixture of such common laws and constitutions, that had the supreme power and people so to back them, as he could still and hath still used that present world to oppress multitudes of the saints; and how the power thereof hath

been broken, and the devil again put out of trade, and made a reformado, as to the persecuting part of this our age; and it hath been the prayers of the saints have brought it about. He is half an atheist that will not acknowledge it, and say, 'Verily there is a God that judgeth in the earth.'

And in this interim the devil is, upon those great alterations we have seen, in his dumps and musings hovering over this island, and waiting how to form up a worldly party, and unite them in a common interest, such as may serve to persecute again, more than with the lash of the tongue; and this present world is as fit for it as ever any.

And as it was then, so it is now; those that are after the flesh will persecute them that are after the spirit, Gal. 4:29. And the devil waits but how to draw his line anew, and to raise up a fortification to effect it, which, whatever it will prove to be in God's just permission, yet in the mean time, know that you have overcome the devil more than men, or than that present constitution of the world forepast, and have routed the devil in subduing the power of men. In overcoming the present world, you overcame the devil much more, and this Paul knew and informs us, that we fight more against principalities and powers than against flesh and blood. And I say unto you, rejoice not that armies or nations have been subjected to your prayers, but that the spirits, the devils themselves, have been so; though above all, rejoice that your names are written in heaven.

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