Chapter VI
The third efficient cause, Satan. His special malice in this temptation, com mission. Access to, and advantage over us in this temptation, by reason
of the darkness in us.
THUS far our own hearts, upon the Holy Ghost s deserting, become authors unto us of this darkness.
3. But herein believers wrestle not alone with flesh and blood, and the dark ness thereof; but do further conflict also with those spiritual wickednesses, the princes of darkness, Eph. vi. 12, about their interest in those heavenly
privileges, as the phrase there used, li ro?g f-rou^awo/f, may be well inter
preted ; even with Satan and his angels, whom the Apostle compares to a
roaring lion, that seeks whom he may devour/ 1 Peter v. 8. And like as when God makes his natural darkness, and it is night, then the young lions
creep forth, and roar after their prey, as the Psalmist says, Ps. civ. 20, 21 : so do these roaring lions, when God hath withdrawn the light of his counte
nance, and night comes on, and those damps and fogs of jealousies and guilt begin to arise out of a. man s own heart ; then come these forth, and say, as David s enemies said in his distress, Come let us now take him, for God hath forsaken him ; let us now devour him, and swallow him up with sorrow and despair. And as God says of those enemies of his church, Zech. i. 15, I was but a little displeased, and they helped forward the affliction ; so when God is angry with his child, and but a little, and doth hide his face but for a moment, yet Satan watcheth that hour of darkness, as Christ calls
it, Luke xxii. 53, and joins his power of darkness to this our natural dark
ness, to cause, if possible, blackness of darkness, even utter despair, in us.
Now, concerning Satan s working herein, we will, as in the former, more
distinctly treat thereof by way of explication of it, (1.) more generally; (2.) more particularly
First, in general; (1.) Satan, he hath a special inclination, and a more pecu liar malicious desire, to vex and molest the saints with this sort of tempta tions, of doubts and disquietness that God is not their God ; so as all his other temptations unto sin are but as the laying in and barrelling up the
gunpowder, and making of the train, for this great plot of blowing up all. He
tempteth Peter to deny his Master, Satan desires to winnow you, but he hath a further reach, a design upon his faith, which Christ foresaw, and therefore did mainly bend his prayer against it ;
l but I have prayed that
thy faith fail not. Satan hoped by that gross sin to have drawn him into
despair. We may likewise observe how he did place this temptation in the forefront of those three assaults which he made upon Christ ; who as in his
obedience, so in his temptations, is made a complete example unto us ; for he was tempted in all things, that is, with all sorts of temptations, and also like us for the manner, only without sin, Heb. iv. 15. Now he tempted him not only to vain hopes, when he shewed him the glory of the whole world,
CHAP. VI.] A CHILD OF LIGHT WALKING IN DARKNESS. 257
and to presumption, to throw himself down headlong from an unwarrantable
ground ; but first and primarily, to jealousies and distrusts between him and
his Father, arid between his human nature and the divine. For when Christ had newly received that testimony from all the three Persons, the Father
proclaiming him to be his Son from heaven ; the Spirit descending on him at
his baptism, it being the special grace and institution of that ordinance to seal
up adoption and regeneration, then comes Satan and tempts him to question that voice, that it might be but a delusion. And Christ s human nature never
having done any outward miracle as yet, as appears John ii. 11, he would now have had him take this occasion, in the extremity of his hunger, by command
ing stones to become bread, to make trial whether he was the Son of God or
no, and hypostatically united to the second Person ; which if God should not do for him, then to question his sonship, and think all this to be but a de
lusion. This was the meaning of it, If thou be the Son of God, command
these stones to be made bread, &c. ; withal insinuating that God, leaving him
even destitute of daily bread, which parents that are evil give unto their children, and not a stone instead of bread, might seem to occasion an if whether he was the Son of God or no. The reasons of this are
[1.] Above all graces in us, he is the greatest enemy to faith; therefore,
1 Thess. in. 5, the apostle was jealous of Satan in nothing more than in this,
lest he had been dealing and tampering with, and perverting their faith : I
sent to know of your faith, lest by some means the tempter hath tempted you ; for faith in God is the greatest enemy unto Satan, it quencheth all
his darts, Eph. vi. 16. By standing stedfast in which we resist him, so
that he flies from us, 1 Pet. v. 9. As therefore faith is that TO egyov, that work of God and the master-grace, John vi. 29 ; so despair and doubting is
the masterpiece of Satan. And in faith he is envious especially at the joy of our faith, Rom. xv. 1 3. And as comfort is the most proper work of the
Spirit, and most pleasing work to him, so is discomfort and distress the proper work of this evil spirit. And again
[2.] As he is most opposite to the Holy Spirit, so he delights to blaspheme his work in our hearts to us, by persuading us that all is counterfeit.
[3.] He is called
e%Qgc>$, that envious one, and the main object and mark
of his envy is this, that God should be our God, who hath cast off him ; and therefore, when he sees he cannot separate between God and us really, he will endeavour to cast and raise up jealousies that he is not our God in
our apprehensions. He endeavoured to raise jealousies between God and our
first parents, God knows ye shall be gods, &c., as if God had forbidden them that fruit out of envy towards them of a better condition. And the
like he endeavoured between Christ s human nature and the divine, though
hypostatically united. And likewise
[4.] That God hath given us eternal life, and that life is in his Son.
This being that great truth of the gospel, so as a Christian that believes it
not makes God a liar, 1 John v. 10, 11 ; therefore Satan, being that great liar,
opposeth this great truth and our faith therein above all other. His envy at
the advancement of our nature in Christ, according to that truth, is thought by some to have been his fall and ruin, so understanding that in John viii.
44, He abode not in the truth. However, he doth now delight to make God a liar to us in our apprehensions, by questioning his promises, and
especially to enforce the persuasion thereof out of God s own dealing with
us, perverting his righteous ways.
(2.) And secondly, as Satan hath such a desire, so God may give his child
up into Satan s hand for a while thus to afflict and terrify his spirit. His
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258 A CHILD OF LIGHT WALKING IN DARKNESS. [PART I.
last commission over Job seemeth to extend thus far, for his life only was
excepted, Job ii. 6, He is in thy hand, only save his life : and therefore, after that leave given, we hear Job, although never brought to question his
estate, yet crying out of terrors, and of the sins of his youth ; for Satan
then, as he smote his body with boils, so buffeted his spirit. And though Satan hath will of himself, and a desire to it, and power physical enough, and abilities, to inflict this at all times, yet he must further have power moral, or leave and commission from God. And God sometimes gives to Satan power over the sons and daughters of Abraham, Luke xiii. 1 6, even
as well as others ; and as their bodies to be vexed by him, so their spirits ; and as to provoke them unto sin, so much more to terrify for sin, there
being more of punishment than of sin in that. Thus he left David to Satan, to provoke him unto sin, as well as Judas. Therefore that provocation to number the people, as it is imputed to Satan and his malice, 1 Chron. xxi. 1; so also to God and his anger, in giving leave first to Satan, 2 Sam. xxiv. 1. And as an evil spirit from the Lord troubled Saul s mind, 1 Sam. xvi. 14; so a messenger of Satan was sent to buffet Paul s spirit, 2 Cor. xii. 7. Wherein yet God doth no way help Satan with any further power than what
as an angel he furnished him with at his creation; nor with any assist ance or information of our secret sins against us, to enable him the more
to assault us, this I find not in Scripture, but permissive power only. Which is either
[1.] Obtained and given at Satan s motion and request first made ; so that
phrase, Luke xxii. 31, Satan hath requested and petitioned to winnow you, as that also, Job ii. 3, Thou movedst me against him, doth imply ; and as
it may seem by singling out and calling forth some one for this combat ; as he did him more especially, to whom therefore Christ addresseth that pre monition, and the word egyrfaaro implies as much. So also Job was singled out for this duel both by God and Satan. Or else
[2.] This is done through the ordinance of excommunication and censures of the church duly administered, clave non errante, for gross and scandalous
sins. The proper inward effect that accompanies that ordinance which casts men out of the church, being inward affliction and distress of conscience by Satan, which of all afflictions is the greatest punishment, JflVTV/t/a, as the
Apostle calls it, 2 Cor. ii. 6, thereby to bring a man to repentance. Even
as, on the contrary, the special work of baptism, to such as were fideles adulti and believers already, was by joy in the Holy Ghost to seal up their adop tion and regeneration unto him ; as to the eunuch, Acts viii. 39. This we may see in the excommunication of the incestuous Corinthian ; whose excom munication is therefore expressed to be a delivering him up unto Satan, in the name of the Lord Jesus, 1 Cor. v. 4, 5 ; that is, he was to be cast out
by a commission from Christ, which going forth in his name, when they published it on earth, he signed it in heaven. Upon which, rightly admi
nistered, doth ensue, first, that as the church doth cut them off from com munion with them, so God cuts them off from communion with himself, and
hides and withdraws the light of his countenance, the witness of his Spirit, and his comfortable presence. And not only so, but delivereth them up to
Satan, that being the consequent of it ; which therefore, because it implies the former, is put to express the whole proceeding. Which delivery of him unto Satan was not a giving him a commission to carry him. on to more sin, though that often be indeed the effect of it in hypocrites, as in Alexander, 1 Tim. i. 19, for the end propounded by the Apostle was to destroy the
* the spirit might be
flesh, that is, corruption and the body of sin ; and that
CHAP. VI.] A CHILD OF LIGHT WALKING IN DARKNESS. 259
saved/ ver. 5, that is, that contrary principle of grace which yet remained, but was ready to die, as it is Kev. iii. 2, might be saved and kept from death and destruction : but it was to terrify and afflict his conscience, and to stir up in him the guilt of his sin, with terrors for it, which God sanctifieth to humble and to mortify the flesh. And thus, when that Corinthian was ex communicated, did Satan accordingly deal with him ; for in the next epistle, 2 Cor. ii. 7, we find him well-nigh swallowed up of sorrow, which was Satan s doing ; for, ver. 11, We are not ignorant, saith the Apostle, in refer ence partly to this, of his devices. And thus Satan continued still to handle him, even now when he began to be truly humbled, and was a fit
subject to receive forgiveness and comfort, ver. 7 ; when, though he feared God and obeyed him, yet he walked in darkness till the church received him. Or else
[3.] When this ordinance is not in the case of such sins administered, then God himself, who works without an ordinance sometimes the same effects that with it, doth excommunicate men s spirits from his presence, and gives them up to Satan, by terrors to whip them home to himself. So that God
gives him leave to exercise power over both godly men and wicked men, only with this difference : wicked men God gives up unto him as unto their ruler and their head ; they are therefore called the rulers of the darkness of this
world, Eph. vi. 12, who therefore work effectually in the children of dis
obedience, Eph. ii. 2; or else as captives to a prince, he taking them
* captive at his will, 2 Tim. ii. 26, so as they are captived and led away, 1 Cor. xii. 2. But his own, God gives up to him but as prisoners to a jailor, as a magistrate may do his child, to commit him ; who hath not a power over his prisoner to do anything with him, but only by appointment for a time, with a limited commission, and therefore cannot put him on the rack or into the dungeon, but when and how far God pleaseth
: even as when Satan is said to have cast them into prison, Rev. ii. 10, his commission was but for ten days, and then God rebukes him.
(3.) Satan having thus obtained leave, now to shew how able and powerful he is to work darkness in us, I need not much insist on. His physical and natural power to work upon our spirits, by his creation as he is an angel, is
exceeding great. We are a middle sort of creatures between them and beasts ; beasts being merely corporeal, they merely spiritual, man between both. He made us a little inferior to the angels, Heb. ii. ; though but a little, yet inferior ; and in respect of that inferiority, we are exposed to their working and crafty wiles. The great advantage they have hereby over us, the Apostle insinuates when he says,
( We have not to do with flesh and blood, but spiri tual wickednesses, Eph. vi. 12; that is, with spirits, in abilities transcending the power of the flesh and blood ; for flesh is used to express weakness when
it is thus compared, as here, with spirit : so Isa. xxxi. 3. Therefore they are there also called, as principalities for their authority, so poivers for their natural abilities ; and that to work upon us, for it is spoken in that relation. All which power, how great soever in him at his first creation, is now be come the power of darkness ; and so called because most powerful that way ; namely, to cause and work darkness in us. And though he can for a need transform himself into an angel of light, by deluding his deceived enthu
siasts with false joys, yet therein he doth but act a part, it is but forced. But to shew himself an angel of darkness, by terrifying and affrighting weak
consciences, this is natural now to him ; his power lies most in this. There
fore his title further is the ruler of darkness ; and also he is called that
strong man, strong, as to keep peace, Luke xi. 21, in those he deceives with
260 A CHILD OF LIGHT WALKING IN DARKNESS. FPAET I.
a false peace, so to make war and commotions in us when he is cast out. We are bidden, therefore, to stand upon our guard, and to look that we have on the whole armour of God, that we may be able to stand against his
wiles, Eph. vi. 11.
(4.) Only, in the fourth place, though Satan hath never so much power, yet the advantage and exercise of this his power to work those disquietments in us is by reason of that sinful darkness which is in us. We may say, that as unless he had power from above, that is, from God, so nor unless he had furtherance from beneath, even from those principles of guilt and darkness in us before-mentioned, he could not disquiet us. Satan cometh, saith
Christ, but hath nothing in me. A commission he had, and therefore came ; but he had nothing of his image, or of the guilt of any of his works, to work upon in Christ ; and therefore could effect nothing at all upon his
spirit. That, therefore, which gives him privilege, scope, and matter to work thus upon us is something within us ; there being, even in the best, something which doth belong to his jurisdiction, which maketh their spirits fit subjects for his temptations to take upon. In Eph. vi. 12, they are called the
( rulers of the darkness of this world ; and, Col. i. 12, 13, their power is called the power of darkness ; so as darkness is his territories, dominion, and jurisdic tion : for it is his work and his image, without which he could have no power at all with us.
(5.) But by reason of this remaining darkness he hath a double advantage over us :
[1.] An advantage of more near, intimate, and immediate access to our
spirits, to close with them, to suggest unto them, and to work upon them; and to tempt not only, as one man tempts another, by the outward senses, but by the inward also, which is an exceeding great advantage. And though it is true that, as he is an angel, he hath naturally by creation ability thus to do ; yet as he is now a devil and an unclean spirit, were we but perfectly
holy, as in innocency, he should be debarred all such near communication to
us. To this purpose it may be observed, that in that his temptation of Adam
in innocency, he was not permitted, in his first assault, till he had sinned, to come within him to work upon his fancy and affections indiscernibly; but
only mediately and externally, by an audible voice in the body of a serpent. And likewise, as touching the second Adam, we read not that he had access
to his inward senses and spirit j but only by an external suggestion by voice, and by visible representations ; as when he shewed him the glory of the world
in visible landscapes of his own making, which were represented to the eye. What else was the reason why he took the advantage of a mountain ? If it had been by working on his inward senses, any place would have served for
that. But the devil then appeared in a visible shape, and so tempted him, for he would have had him fall down to worship him. Cceterum mains ille ex-
trinsecus, ac non per cogitationes, Christum adortus est, quemadmodum et Adamum. Nam ne ilium guidem per immissas cogitationes, sed per serpentem
* Another time we find him crept into one of his apostles, to assault our Saviour by him, Matt. xvi. 23, Master, spare thyself, says he ; when
impetivit.
therefore Christ says to him, Get thee behind me, Satan : thou art an offence
to me. So as still Satan was kept at a distance, and could come no nearer. And that he should yet come thus near to him, made Christ also, in that
great temptation in the wilderness, with so much vehemency and indignation at last say to him, Avoid, Satan, Matt. iv. 10, as loathing the nearness of so
foul a spirit. For what fellowship, that is, such thus near, should ligbt * Damasc. Ortho. Fidei, lib. iii., cap. 20.
CHAP. VI.] A CHILD OF LIGHT WALKING IN DAKKNESS. 261
have with this angel of darkness 1 Nor should he have such more near and inward access to our spirits, but for that darkness in us, by reason of which he thus comes within us ; and as darkness mingleth with darkness, so he with our spirits. So that as the light of grace in us begun doth fit us for God s drawing nigh to us, so this darkness, remaining in part unexpelled, ex-
poseth us to Satan s drawing nigh so near as to mingle with our spirits, and, as it were, to become one spirit with us.
[2.] As hereby he hath this advantage of access to get within us, so this darkness in us is also as fit fuel and as tinder to his fiery temptations, that
presently enkindleth and inflameth. So as all those effects of the principles of darkness mentioned he can both increase and augment, and so add black ness to that darkness in us. And darkness being his dominion, therefore so much darkness as is in us, so great a party he hath in us to work upon. Hence, therefore, all the effects that he worketh in unregenerate men, who are
nothing but darkness, he may work in regenerate men, according to the pro portion of the remainder of darkness in them, to a certain degree, and for a limited season ; as to delude their reason, falsely accuse and terrify their
consciences, &c. Only final despair and revenge against God, which is that sin unto death, this the Apostle excepteth ; for having occasionally mentioned that sin, 1 John v. 16, he adds, ver. 18, that he that is born of God sinneth
not, that is, not that sin; and he subjoineth, but keeps himself that that
evil one touch him not, that is, not with the least infusion of the venom of that sin which is properly his sin, John viii. 44, and which he toucheth their
spirits with who become the serpent s seed. And therefore all such instances as we find, that shew how he hath wrought on the spirits of carnal men by reason of their total darkness, may be alleged to shew in a proportion what he may also work on regenerate men for a season by reason of their dark ness in part remaining
: all things happening alike to all. Thus in general.
262 A CHILD OF LIGHT WALKING IN DARKNESS. [PART I.