CHAPTER XVIII: Victory of Christ and his saints over the devil before and at the day of judgmen
CHAPTER XVIII
The last and complete victory which Christ and his saints have over the devil, both before and at the day of judgment.
The third sort of Christ's proceedings against this common enemy are more open and judicial. For when he hath let him try his skill and power every way (as hath been shewed) to annoy us, and that in all sorts of attempts, as against us made, Christ hath for thousands of years still baffled and confounded him by us; which, because it is but invisibly done, he is not ashamed at it, but would persist to eternity in this way (if the world should last so long), therefore Christ hath resolved to deal with him more openly and visibly. And so it became him, that when he had enabled us to overcome him in a regular way, then to fall upon him in a hostile and judiciary way. And this hath two degrees.
1. When the world, the time and seat of his rule, shall grow towards a conclusion, then a strict restraint shall be clapped on him.
2. There will be a bringing him to open judgment.
1. A strict restraint shall be clapped on him towards the end. It is time; he had chains clapped on him from his very fall, 2 Peter 2:4, and yet he hath been hitherto as a prisoner at large, that hath had liberty to walk up and down with his chains, to take the air, as he is
'the prince of the power of the air,' says the apostle, Eph. 2:2. Well, but when the world draws to an end, he shall be bound up in chains, so as (at least) his ruling power over this world (which hath been the fairest flower in his crown) shall be taken from him, whilst he yet sees (to vex him) the world of men on earth continue to go on in its succession before his face. How far his tempting power will be taken away I will not argue, but that he will towards the end be universally restrained of his ruling the nations (as he had wont) to persecute the
saints, I think there is ground for it; Rev. 20:1, 2, 3, 'And I saw an angel come down from heaven, having the key of the bottomless pit and a great chain in his hand. And he laid hold on the dragon, that old serpent, which is the devil, and Satan, and bound him a thousand years, and cast him into the bottomless pit, and shut him up, and set a seal upon him, that he should deceive the nations no more, till the thousand years should be fulfilled.' You might, without much hesitation to your thoughts, think when this is to be done. If we had no more, it is enough signified in Rev. 20, that the time is the last hour or two before the dawning of the great day, and shutting up of the darkness of this world. And what is this revelation but a prophecy of the fates of the church and world? Rev. 1:1 and chap. 4:1. The world, therefore, now that is a-drawing on its last scene, is not yet so to end but there shall be a little time for the devil to play his pranks a little while, ver. 3. But more particularly, whereas it hath been shewn how in his ruling power the devil, the old serpent, was beaten out of his holes; and we have seen how this mountebank, who deceives the whole world, in his several stages he hath set up in the world, hath still been beaten down, and been forced to build new. First he had
Judaism, then heathenism, in the room of which he hath set up popery, Rev. 12:13.* We have seen how, when all the world turned
Christian, an antichristian beast rose up, and all the world went wandering after him, for ver. 4, the dragon gave him his power, and his seal, and great authority, and they worshipped the dragon that gave power to the beast; and you read of this new beast's rule until the 19th chapter, ver. 19, 20, 'And I saw the beast, and the kings of the earth, and their armies, gathered together to make war against him that sat on the horse, and against his army. And the beast was taken, and with him the false prophets that wrought miracles before him, with which he deceived them that had received the mark of the beast, and them that worshipped his image. These both were cast alive into the lake of fire burning with brimstone.' Now, when Christ and his army (which are the saints) have clean defeated and made an end of this last beast and his power, so as that they have had a fair and open victory in the view of men over the devil, and all this world, and this the last trial of skill assigned him, for Christ resolves to lay
all the powers of the world—opposing his kingdom—fairly, and in a human way of conquest, on their backs (according unto that chap. 13,
'He that killeth with the sword shall be killed with the sword), so as the devil that had acted all these is now left a naked devil, beaten out of all his fortresses; what then immediately follows? Rev. 20:1, 2, 3,
'And I saw an angel come down from heaven, having the key of the bottomless pit,' &c. Now, says Christ, yourself, the great actor in all these tragedies, your time is come, your turn is next at last, that 'he who led into captivity should be led into captivity,' that yourself must be bound otherwise than you have been; and bound from what?
Why, from deceiving the nations: ver. 3, 'That he should deceive the nations no more,' either by tempting or ruling them any more. And he never deceived the nations more than in the time of popery, therefore this his binding must be after all; and then, to make sure of him, casts him into the bottomless pit, shuts him up with a seal upon him; here is the devil fast, and so it is as a restraint before his last fatal trial and judgment.
I will not prosecute this further; you know where else to find it argued. To convince you that there is to be a kingdom of Christ and of the saints for a thousand years, read the following verses; during which time it is meet, yea necessary, the devil be in hold, as you see he is.
2. The last scene, or final proceedings of Christ against him, is his bringing him and his angels into personal and open judgment before God, angels, and men. And herein, to make this victory and destruction full and complete, you that are the saints thus opposed by him shall be his judges. And there cannot be supposed a fuller victory than this, that after you have overcome him, all sorts of ways related, and God hath trodden him under your feet, that then at last you should sit and be his lawful judges, of all his wickednesses, enmities, and temptations acted against yourselves. Now, look, as Christ triumphed over him openly, visibly, Col. 2:15, before angels, and the spirits of just men made perfect, so shall you then with Christ more visibly and openly, even before the world. This you have,
1 Cor. 6:2, 3, 'Do you not know that the saints shall judge the world?
Know you not that we shall judge angels?' This judging of Satan I shall explain and prove by these steps.
(1.) That the devil as well as men shall be brought to open judgment; this is plain both by Jude 6 and 2 Peter 2:4, 'The angels that kept not their first estate, he cast them down to hell,' so Peter, 'and reserved them in everlasting chains under darkness to the judgment of the great day;' so Jude; 'or delivered them into chains of darkness to be reserved into judgment,' so Peter. I understand the transaction of it to have been thus.
[1.] That upon the angels' first sinning, there was a present throwing of them into hell, namely that place and state they shall for ever be in after the great day, as a taste of what in a greater fulness they after judgment should be condemned unto; yet so as,
[2.] They were presently let out again into the air, by reason of which they have liberty and freedom of spirit, and they rule this world, which if in full torments they could not do, Luke 8:31. They, as dreading that place of hell, besought him he would not command them into the deep, that is, their former hell.
[3.] Yet in the mean time, whilst they are at liberty, they are as prisoners in chains, suffered to walk up and down, and thereby marked out as reserved to an assize or judgment of the great day.
And under this allusion, their condition seems to me to be different from that of men, wicked men, with whom God is yet in treaty, for they go under bail of Christ's death, that hath purchased this forbearance for them, as space to repent. These, I say, were never yet actually cast into hell (as the devils upon their first sin were), so as these are not actually prisoners, as those are that are entered into prison, and belong to it, although they have permission to go abroad.
And to shew they are so, they carry chains of that prison about them (which what they are I stand not now to determine), which chains are badges that they are reserved unto a more open visible judgment
of the great day. The conclusion of all is this; look, as hell itself is said to have been prepared for the devil and his angels, originally for them, so they sinning first go into hell fire, prepared, &c., and so the judgment of the great day was appointed for them first. They in both are the mensura and pattern of wicked men, and therefore both Jude and Peter mention their judgment first in the head and van; and then of wicked men, the old world, and Sodom, &c.
(2.) We are, secondly, to take notice that during this vacation or time of liberty to them, the account and score of their sinning runs on, and is daily added unto, so as they heap up thereby matter of judgment, which shall be brought forth, and charged upon them at that great day. Herein is one difference between the case and condition of the spirits of wicked men deceased, and of these devils. The spirits of such men are said to be in a strict sense in prison, 1 Peter 3:19; and so the spirits of those in Sodom are said by Jude to have been made an example, 'suffering the vengeance of hell fire'; so as men's souls shall answer but for the sins they have done in the body, 2 Cor 5:10.
Cain shall answer for no more sins than what his soul did in his body; his score of sinning runs not on since he was in hell; he is not only truly and actually a prisoner, but detained in prison, and suffers a fulness of wrath, as there a man's soul is sure to do, and that takes away the demerit of sinning; but with the devils that go abroad as prisoners in chains, and as belonging only to that prison, it is otherwise. What sins they commit personally, or in tempting us, shall then be accounted for, which is proved.
[1.] Because the devil is cursed for having tempted both Eve and Adam, thus it is pronounced, 'Cursed shalt thou be above all the herd or cattle of the field,' Gen. 3:24. So that not his own first sin in falling from heaven shall be reckoned to him only, but also all his tempting of us.
[2.] And again he in after times should bruise the heel of Christ (which was four thousand years after), and of the whole seed of Christ; therefore his head is to be broken, namely, in vengeance for
his bruising Christ's heel there is a total breaking of his head. Now if he be cursed for those, and his head to be broken for those, then he is to be judged and cast into hell for those as reckoned sins done by him, which are matter of judgment. For in that he says, 'Cursed shalt thou be above all cattle,' &c., he designs his punishment in hell, and his meaning is, thy punishment shall be greater than of all wicked men, the cattle of the field. And our saviour's words of them are, 'Go ye cursed into hell fire, prepared for the devils.' He is cursed, therefore, with hell fire for his sin, and that as the pattern of sinners, and all other that are cursed and punished in like manner.
[3.] It is expressly said, 1 John 3:18, that he sinneth from the beginning, as continuing so to do, and what he doth being reckoned and imputed to him, it is not only that he sinned at the beginning, but he sinned continually from the beginning; and this suits his scope, which was to shew that that man that continued in a course of sinning was of the devil; that a worker of iniquity was of the devil as his father; for lo! says he, in like manner the devil thus sins in a perpetual constancy.
(3.) You the saints are to be his judges, so 1 Cor. 6:2, 3. Christ had first declared this to be the privilege of the twelve apostles, to sit, and to judge the twelve tribes of Israel; this Paul enlargeth to all the saints, ver. 2, 4. 'Know you not the saints shall judge the world,' all the world, yea the angels? And he speaks of judging in a time* and proper sense, then when the whole world is to be judged at the judgment-seat of Christ; as when causes are heard and judged in courts, and persons are condemned or acquitted, according to the nature of the fact. For he brings it as an argument why they should not carry or transfer the civil controversies amongst them about matters of this life to earthly judicatures, but rather to end and decide them among themselves. Ver. 1, 'Dare any of you, having a matter against another, go to law before the unjust, and not before the saints?' And in the chapter afore he had shewn how God had given power to them as a church to judge them that are within, and so to cast out that wicked person. His argument to this had not been
proper, if he had not intended the like time* and proper way of judicature at that great judgment to be committed to them; where though Christ shall be the great judge, yet they shall sit judging, as Christ says, as co-assessors, discerning the guilt, and carrying in the sentence, Luke 22:30, Mat. 19:28. And ἐν ὑμῖν is by you, ver. 2; the world shall be judged by you, ver. 4. His inference is from hence set them, καθίζετε, put them to the chair, that are least esteemed in the church, for at the latter day they shall sit and judge. And that he speaks it of all saints is plain; for, he saith, 'We shall judge the angels, and know you not that the saints shall judge the world;' and not the greater saints only, but small and great; for he infers from it, 'set them to judge who are least esteemed in the church,' having before founded it on this, 'that if the world shall be judged by you, are you not worthy to judge the smallest matters?' And to heighten their dignity herein, he first says, 'they shall judge the word,' namely, of men; and then I tell you more, yea, the angels. As Christ's glory is, that God made two worlds for him, visible and invisible, Heb. 1, Col.
1, so our glory is, that we are constituted commissioners to judge two worlds, visible and invisible, such two large circuits we have. Thus much for the explanation and proof of it.
Now, then, my brethren, let us lift up our hearts, and raise up our thoughts, in the expectation of this 'great day,' as still the New
Testament styleth it. It is termed great in respect of those great things which shall be done in it. A great and glorious day it will be, not only in respect of the splendour of the concourse of all of mankind unto one assembly, all that have been from Adam, all angels and saints will be there, 1 Thess. 3:13, but also it is great in respect of the things and matters to be judged. All the human affairs of this world, which the apostle calls things of this life, ver. 4, which the great ones of the world are the judges of, he reckons among the smallest matters; so he terms them, ver. 2, in comparison of the things that then should be transacted in a way of judicature, which will be the exact scanning and trial of all actions as they pertain to eternity, that is, the spiritual good or evil that is in them, and as they tended to the honour or dishonour of the great God. These are the
proper subjects that belong to the cognisance of that day. And now to have all the affairs of the whole world, of men, of all their thoughts, plots, counsels, actions, and that under the consideration, as good or evil, to have them all under this cognisance, laid open and committed to the censure of the saints with authority, what an infinite dignity must this be to them! Yet so he heightens it, 'If the world shall be judged by you, are you unworthy to judge the smallest matters?' ver.
2, by which he means all those things that are brought before human courts, of what kinds soever; and then thereupon he rises higher, ver.
3, 'Know you not that we shall judge angels?' as those whose story and transactions afford higher and greater matters by far than the story of this whole world will do?
Now, then, how and in what manner the world of mankind shall be judged, in the same kind and manner shall the angels also be, for he casts the same line over both. Now, how shall the world of men be judged? Why, every work, whether it be good or evil, shall have an exact trial: Eccles. 12:14, 'For God shall bring every work into judgment, with every secret thing, whether it be good or evil;' and, 1
Cor. 4:5, 'Judge nothing before the time; the Lord will come, who both will bring to light the hidden things of darkness, and will make manifest the counsels of the hearts;' importing that at that time all will so be discovered by the Lord, who is ready to judge the quick and the dead, as every saint shall be able to judge too.
Now, then, think with yourselves, if you knew but all the affairs of this present age, all the secrets of states, state ends, maxims, rules, principles, lusts of all the monarchs, of all the nobles in the world, to have (as he told the Assyrian king) all that is said in the king's chamber revealed, yea, that are in his thoughts, which are unsearchable, by which they rule and reign, and you had all the story of this age, past and present, nakedly spread before you, what infinite delight would this afford you! To have a prince's cabinet, a few letters or transactions published, how greedy are men of them!
Now, you know (says the apostle) you shall have a greater story one day, and of infinitely higher worth and elevation; you shall judge the
angels, 2 Pet. 2:10, 11. The apostle, comparing earthly magistrates and dignities (and in his time they were the greatest that ever were, namely, those in the Roman empire), he says of the angels, that they are greater in power and might; and as the good, so the bad; for they contend each with other upon all occasions, as appears by the story of Daniel, chap. 10 and chap. 11, and by that passage between the devil and Michael in Jude. The devil's monarchy is the greatest that ever was. The apostles and Christ, that had a prospect into that invisible world, termed him the prince of the world, greater than
Cæsar, than the great Turk or Mogul, &c.; they are but as petty constables, as one comparing the power and state of our European princes with those eastern monarchs speaks. The angels they are the rulers of the world: Eph. 6:12, 'So as we fight not against flesh and blood' (in comparison of them our contentions against the world are not considered), 'but against principalities and powers.' Men are but as the puppets above the stage, when these act all. And again, the transactions between God and Satan are many, as the story of Ahab and Job shews; and also those between the good and bad angels are great and various. Now, then, as these grandees of this invisible world excel in power and wisdom all the petty rulers of this world, so the passages and transactions amongst them and by them, their policies, enmities, animosities, &c., must needs excel all other. Satan is renowned for his stratagems, his wiles. He outwitted Eve, and soon deceived her; yea, and the whole world too, Rev. 12:9. We are not ignorant of his devices, says Paul, 2 Cor. 2:11. And further, his wickednesses are spiritual, sublimated wickednesses. The worst of earthly tyrants and monarchs are but carnal wickednesses unto them; and all these shall be laid open, and sentenced to a suitable punishment. All the secret counsels of his heart, his over-reaching and going beyond poor souls, the utmost and extremity of that malice and envy he acted all with, shall be detected, and thou a poor believer shalt be a judge of all these. Then shalt thou see Beelzebub the great devil, and all hell with him (that is, his angels), brought forth in chains, and Christ opening all their sins, even here in this world, where they did all the mischief. What a glorious and triumphant sight (think you) will it be to the primitive Christians to
see Nero or Julian stand forth, led and haled before the judgmentseat of Christ! How much more to see this dragon and his angels, that inspired all these in all their rage and malice, and to have all the stories of their actings ripped up for six thousand years' continuance.
In Isa. 14:10–13, when the king of Babel was brought down to the grave, it is said all hell went forth, all kings and nations he had tyrannised over went out to meet him, so great a spectacle it was:
'How art thou fallen, O Lucifer, son of the morning!' And even that is an allusion (as the ancients have conceived) of Satan's fall and ruin.
Particularly for thy comfort, O thou tossed, and bruised, and weather-beaten soul, how will it rejoice thee if it were but to hear
Christ as on thy behalf openly to rebuke Satan, and to say thus to him, Didst thou, Satan, spite, malign, vex, and provoke unto sin this poor saint; those thoughts didst thou dart in, this train didst thou lay for him, as the fowler doth for a silly bird; and no sooner hadst thou drawn him into thy net to commit the sin, but thou didst run to God and accuse him of that which thou seducedst him to do, whilst he, poor soul, went weeping bitterly, as Peter when he had done evil?
And now will Christ say, I will save him, and damn thee; and that for all the sins which he committed through thy instigation, of all which thou art the father more than he. And then how comfortable will it be to hear Christ excuse thee also, that the spirit was willing but the flesh was weak; and then to lay the load on him, and adjudge him to so much the greater torment because of what he did to thee; this will be much and great joy. But further will Christ say, Come thou, even thou, weak soul, up hither, sit down here by me, thou shalt be his judge, thou shalt sit on my throne with me; yea, more, as I triumph over him, so do thou now, and not as over one vanquished only to thy hand, but as over one instantly to be condemned and adjudged to hell; and thou shalt see it enrolled before thy face ere thou stirrest off this bench, and when thy sentence hath concurred with mine, I have in readiness here about me, to revenge all their disobedience, the good angels, armed with another manner of power than ever before, who shall throw them down to hell, and take and burn them with fire