Chapter IX
How able Satan is to work upon that third principle, the passions and
corrupt affections, and bring home his false conclusions with terrors.
THUS we have seen how able Satan is to work upon those two forementioned
principles, of carnal reason, and abuse it with false majors; and also upon
conscience, in laying our sins to our charge, with misrepresentations of our
estates. It remains now only, that we shew how he can stir and work upon the passions and corrupt affections in us, and make use of them ; and so set
on all those false conclusions that we are hypocrites thence deduced, with
hideous and horrid fears and terrors.
1. And in respect to these terrors, as he is called a serpent, as was said,
for sleights, and cunning reasonings, and wiles; so likewise a lion, of all
beasts the strongest, Isa. xxxviii. 13.* A roaring lion, of all the terriblest, and most terrible in his roaring; whose roaring is therefore often in Scrip ture put to express the working of dreadfulness and horror : The lion roars, who will not tremble ? Amos iii. 8. And, as some have observed, and the
Psalmist seems to intimate it, Ps. civ. 21, by his roaring he strikes such
horror and amazement into all other beasts, as they stand still as exanimated, and so he seizeth and preys upon them as he pleaseth. And in this respect
also of his working on the passions is it th?,t those darts beforementioned
are principally called fiery; namely, for that dolour, and anguish, and in
flammation, and combustion they cause through the distempering the affec
tions. Those fears which our own hearts engendered within us were but as smoke ; these darts of his put a fire into them, and do cause them to flame and blaze. The allusion is to the poisoned darts which the Scythians of old, and other nations now, use in war, dipped in the blood and gall of asps and
vipers ; the venomous heat of which, like a fire in their flesh, killed the wounded by them, with torments the likest hell of any other. Which Job
* The arrows of the Almighty are within me : the
also alludes to, chap. vi. 4,
poison, or, as others read it, the heat and fervour ; we may use both, and
read, the hot poison thereof drinks up my spirit, even as fire preying upon moisture. And what were those arrows he speaks of there but terrors? So it follows, the terrors of God, &c. In the same phrase of which that
Corinthian is said to have been in danger to have been drunk up xara<ro&f as the word signifies, with over-much sorrow, when Satan had to do with
him, 2 Cor. ii. 7 ; and the same word is again used of the devil, 1 Pet. v. 8,
seeking whom to drink up. So that as Satan inflames other members, and
the inordinate lusts in them, with a superadded natural vehemency and
violence; as the tongue, which, though of itself full of poison, is said to be set on fire from hell, James iii. 16, that is, from Satan, (who is called hell, as in
that speech, the gates of hell; as the good angels, the noblest creatures, are
* It seems clearly to be not Satan, but God himself, that is so designated in this .ED.
280 A CHILD OF LIGHT WALKING IN DARKNESS. [PART I.
called heavens, Heb. vii. 26,) lie inflaming men s tongues with an overplus of venom and malice, to wound men s names with; even as on the contrary the Holy Ghost did set on fire the apostles tongues with zeal. As, I say, he doth thus inflame other members, so in like manner he can and doth put fire into those darts he wounds the conscience with; and thereby augments our fears and griefs, and causeth such disquietments and pangs, as that hell-
fire, as it were, begins to flame in a man s conscience. As Christ is that brazen serpent, so Satan is that fiery serpent that can sting us by the
guilt of sin.
And here I must bring in the like caution as I used in the former chapter; namely, that he works not these terrors by immediate impressions upon the conscience, which in that respect is subject to God s stroke alone, as to his knowledge alone. Which, as I intimated, I take to be that other prin cipal part of the drift of those words, Heb. iv. 11, 12, The word of God
is quick and powerful, &c. For there he sets forth Christ to us, as was shewed, as a judge completely enabled for vengeance against us, not only in
respect of an omnisciency to find us out in all our shiffcings, but also, because a judge would not be much feared if he had only skill and knowledge, though never so much, to search and find out the guile and guilt of malefactors, if he were not armed with power to avenge and torture them ; therefore withal, the Apostle s scope is to strike terror into their hearts in respect of that ven
geance he can execute. And therefore his aim is to exhort them not to dally with God, or with his word ; in which he had sworn, of those that believed
not, they should not enter into his rest, in the former verse. So as the
purport of the words must necessarily also be supposed to be to shew the dreadful power of God, and of his word, in avenging itself upon the contemners of him and it, and not merely to describe his conscience, and know
ing of the heart, but as joined also with power to pierce as deep in wounding of the soul as in knowing of it. Yea, and that so large an illustration of his knowledge is brought in but as a clearer demonstration of his power to pun
ish, who can dive so deep into our hearts. As from whence we might argue and fear the stroke of that sword in his hand whose eyes are so piercing. And accordingly to set forth the dreadfulness of this his power, all those his
expressions there used do as fully tend, as to set forth the other ; and he like wise useth such a comparison as, both in the nature of the things and accord
ing to the more usual phrase of Scripture, doth more properly and abun
dantly intimate this slaying and wounding of men s souls that should be dis
obedient, by this his sword, than that other of searching the soul and spirit. As
(1.) This word, says he, is quick and lively; so called not in respect of dura tion only, as abiding ever, but in respect to working and execution. Things that are exceeding operative, though inanimate, we call quick; so quick
silver, which runs through a man s bowels like hail-shot : and so oppositely, drugs and drinks that have lost their virtue, and are ineffectual, we call dead. And in respect to this energy and power to work upon men s hearts, is that in John vi 63 to be understood.
< The words I speak, says Christ, are
spirit and life : that is, are fall of an operative principle. For an active working principle we use to call the spirit, as the spirit of wine, &c. In that therefore he says the word is quick, he notes out that that word is in
spired with a principle, most quick, spiritual, and active, and fit to work as occasion is; that is, even with the Holy Spirit, who is as the internal form of
it. And therefore
(2.) Having thus intimated this internal form of working, he adds eve
CHAP. IX.] A CHILD OF LIGHT WALKING IN DARKNESS. 281
powerful and mighty in operation, as noting out that power which flows
from thence that ability to produce strange effects upon the soul. These
expressions carry report of more than of a skill and dexterity to search and know the heart only. And then
(3.) He further instanceth in such operations of it, as the effects of that
power, which are most dreadful, as the comparisons he useth do import
: more piercing than any two-edged sword. Now, as elsewhere the word is
compared to an armoury of all sorts of weapons, and engines for war and
vengeance, The weapons of our warfare are mighty, &c., 2 Cor. x. 4, in
like manner here he more particularly resembles it to a sword, the most
usual and most terrible of all the instruments of death which were then in
use; the brandishing of which strikes paleness and horror into a man ere
the stroke comes at him ; which is usually put in Scripture to express ven
geance, and more especially in the prophecy of Ezekiel. And also Ps. vii.
13, If he turn not, God hath whet his sword, and prepared his instruments
of death; that is, to inflict torments, and eternal torments also, as Deut.
xxxii. 42. And indeed, whatsoever doth torment, or cause dolour and
anguish, is in Scripture called a sword ; and the piercing with a sword is
used to express the most exquisite dolours : as Luke ii 35, Yea, a sword
shall pierce through thy soul also ; speaking to the blessed mother of Christ, and of that her anguish and grief, wherewith she should be cut even to the
heart, when she should behold her Son upon the cross. Of whose dolours
upon the cross likewise, the same expression is used, Ps. xxii. 20, when he
prays, Deliver my soul from the sword. And in this respect the word in
Christ s hand is still, when he is spoken of as a judge, compared to a sword,
Ps. xlv. 3 ; Rev. xix. 15; Isa. xlix. 2, and so here. And we may further observe, how, thus to strike the more terror into their
hearts in respect of the wounds and torments it inflicts, he goes further on
to exaggerate the dread thereof. He says not only that it is as sharp, but more sharp, not than a sword of one edge, but than a two-edged sword ; not
than some, but than any two-edged sword. And further, to shew that he
speaks it in relation unto wounding, and anguish, and torment it causeth in
the soul, he mentioneth the division of such parts as are not only most hid
and inward, in relation to discovery, for such the marrow is, being covered
with the bones, and the ligaments covered with flesh, but which are also of
most exquisite sense, and the wounding of which causeth the greatest dolour. He saith, it pierceth to the dividing the marrow, and therefore cuts through the bones; for so it must needs be supposed to do, when it is said to reach
unto the marrow. Now the breaking of the bones is still put to express those exquisite and unsupportable terrors and dolours of conscience, and
woundings of the spirit, which a man cannot bear or sustain ; for when the
bones are broken, a man cannot stand nor support himself. And the like is
also the cutting of the ligaments, the nerves, sinews, and arteries,* those
agfAoi that knit the joints, which are the organs of sense and motion. Again, he says, it divideth not only the soul, that is, the sensual part, the passions of the mind, as wounding them, but rs KO.I wsvparof, that is, the spirit also, which is with an emphasis expressed ; and his meaning is not so much that
it divideth the soul from the spirit, as some have understood it, but the soul and spirit also. It is a two-edged sword, and can at one blow strike through both ; this
( axe strikes at the root, at the spirit, which, when wounded, who can bear? says Solomon. And then he concludes, ver. 13, that, as
* It can scarcely be necessary to point out, that the author s deficiency of anatomical
knowledge in no way vitiates his argument. ED.
282 A CHILD OF LIGHT WALKING IN DARKNESS. [PART I
before him all things are naked ; so also rgrgap^X/o/Agi/a, that is, they lie with their throats cut, if he but strike them dead and speechless at his feet, as Theodoret expounds that word, which is translated opened. Now thus
far that is, to this spirit in man no created sword can reach ; they turn
edge at it : but even this the word reacheth, and that alone. So as the sum mary drift of all herein is the same which Christ expressed elsewhere in other
words, to exhort them to fear that God, whose sword and powerful word is able thus alone to wound ; and not to fear those who can only wound and
kill the body, and but reach to the sensual soul that is drenched in it, but cannot wound or kill the spirit, which God alone can do, and no mere crea
ture whatsoever. And therefore, in all our thoughts and fears of Satan s
power of knowing our sins, or troubling or disquieting our spirits, as also
throughout this discourse, we are to set such bounds as that this incom municable royalty of God, and of his word, may be reserved unentrenched
upon ; namely, that he alone knows, and can immediately wound the spirit and conscience. Both which at once this place held out unto us, which made me the largelier to insist upon the opening of it.
2. But yet although Satan cannot immediately wound the conscience, and make impressions of God s wrath upon it ; for as no creature can shed abroad God s love, and cause the creature to taste the sweetness of it, so nor the
bitterness of his wrath, but God is his own reporter of both ; yet
(1.) When the Holy Ghost hath lashed and whipped the conscience, and made it tender once and fetched off the skin, Satan then may fret it more and more, and be still rubbing upon the sore, by his horrid suggestions and
false fears cast in. And
(2.) He can, by renewing the experimental remembrance of those lashes which the soul hath had from the Spirit, amaze the soul with fears of an
infinitely sorer vengeance yet to come ; and flash representations of hell-fire
in their consciences, from those real glimpses they have already felt, in such a manner as to wilder the soul into vast and unthought-of horrors. And then
(3.) He can bring home all the threatenings that are thundered forth in the word against hypocrites and men unregenerate, and discharge them all with much violence and noise upon a poor doubting soul. He can and doth
present and shew his prisoners those terrible chains, and racks, and other
* instruments of death, as the Psalmist calls them, Ps. vii. 1 3, which God hath prepared against sinners, and hath stored up in that great armoury of
his word, which he hath in a readiness to revenge all disobedience, 2 Cor.
x. 6. With the rattling of which chains, &c., Satan can make a noise in the
conscience of a poor sinner, to affright him. Which he is the more enabled
to do, out of experience of such terrors in himself; being bound up in
chains everlasting, under darkness, to the judgment of the great day, Jude
6. And as a son of consolation and child of light is enabled to comfort
others the more, by the comfort wherewith he hath been comforted of God ; so this prince of darkness is the more powerful to terrify weak consciences
that are ensnared with the cords of their own sins, by reason of the terrors which he hath received from the Lord. And therefore in Scripture, as a
power in sin is attributed to him, so the power of death, as Heb. ii. 14; where by death is meant not so much that bodily as that eternal death, to
which, as the proper punishment of sin, the guilt of it doth bind us over. Which power of his is not that of the judge in sentencing to death, or cast
ing men to hell, which is a special flower of Christ s crown ; who, Rev. i. 18,
hath the keys of hell and death at his girdle ; and of God s, who is there-
CHAP. IX.] A CHILD OF LIGHT WALKING IN DARKNESS. 283
fore only to be feared, because he only can cast body and soul into hell. Nor is it as if he were the main tormentor and executioner of men s souls, after that great day, seeing that they are to be tormented by that fire which in common was prepared for the devils themselves. And who is it that doth torment them? It is therefore principally meant, [1.] of that power and advantage he obtained over sinners when he had seduced them ; so as to come boldly as a pleader against them, enabled with authority to urge God s righteous law and word, and to call upon, and to provoke his justice to condemn poor sinners, and adjudge them unto death : until Christ, that
righteous advocate, despoiled him of those his pleas and power, by that satis faction of his, which before the law had put into his hands ; and so he
destroyed him that had the power of death, enervating all his pleas arid
terrors. And, [2.] the meaning is, that as he hath this power in God s court over the sentence of death upon poor sinners, so also in our consciences, to
urge the law upon us, and to plead all that the law says against them that are under the law, and to put us into the fears of that death threatened therein ; and to increase in us the fears of that death, by presenting to us the terrors of the law, unto which, in respect of natural conscience, men of themselves are subject all their life long. And unto this latter power hath that power of death there especial reference ; for those words,
* and deliver them who through fear of death were subject to bondage all their life long, follow in the next verse, ver. 15. And because the children of God, whilst in
this life, as they know but in part, so they love but in part, and so far as
love remains imperfect, so far fear, which hath torment, keeps possession ; for it is perfect love only that casts out all fear, 1 John iv. 18: hence
therefore, so far as slavish fear remains, so far they may be subject to be
terrified by him that hath power of death ; and that over all those that are in
any degree subject to the fear of it whilst in this life. And
(4.) He can immediately, by his own power, stir the passions of fear and grief, &c., excite them beyond nature, as the winds can raise the billows
in the sea, and make the floods to make a noise ; so can he a tumult in the
affections, and put all the soul into a hurry and violent perturbation. He is the prince of the airy part of the little world in man, as well as of that ele
mentary region in the great world ; and so can raise unnatural storms and
vapours that shall darken reason, and cause such thunders and lightnings as
shall hurl all into a black confusion, such as if hell and the soul would pre
sently come together. And though it is true that he cannot turn the stream and current of our affections back, God only can turn this Jordan back, yet he can drive them faster, and cause them to swell above their natural channels ; that as a man possessed hath the strength of ten men in him, (as that man, Luke viii. 29,) so shall the affections have that are blown up by him, as we may see in David. What a strong mind do we find in him, so
needlessly to number the people, 2 Sam. xxiv., against all reason as well as
religion, and the persuasion, yea, opposition, not of Joab only, but others
also of his counsellors, the captains of the host ! A man would wonder that a man so holy and wise should be so transported to do an act so foolish, as
himself saw afterwards : I have done very foolishly, says he, ver. 10 ; yea, and so grossly sinful, as that it was abominable in the eyes of Joab, 1 Chron.
xxi. 6, one that seemeth by his other carriages to have had but nature in Mm. But the devil was in it ; so ver. 1, Satan provoked David to num ber the people, by raising up such an affection and inclination in him.
The like appears in the affection of love ; which how strongly hath Satan drawn forth in some, even to madness, towards such as before, and also after
284 A CHILD OF LIGHT WALKING IN DAKKNESS. [PART I.
his fascination was overpast, they have loathed and hated above all others,
is evident in stories by many instances. And as he can raise up other pas sions in us, so also fears and terrors, jealousies and distrusts ; to fear where no fear is. And thus he handled Saul, when God left him to him : An
evil spirit from the Lord troubled him/ or, as most read it, and our margin varies it, terrified him, 1 Sam. xvi, 15. And in the raising up of these
affections of fear, and the like, he works more than simply morally, that is,
tlian by bare propounding such objects as shall move them, which men can
only do, but, further also, physically, by stirring such humours in the body, which such passions do act and stir in. And so those humours in the body, which shall put a man into a timorous and trembling disposition, he can
electively work upon as he pleaseth.
And then also, he can disturb the phantasms in the head, the organs of
the understanding ; as in him, Luke viii. 35, who, through Satan s working,
is intimated not to have been in his right mind. And when he hath thus
distempered and disordered all in a man, and put a man to such dispositions, to fears, &c., then he comes with his suggestions, and speaks nothing but of wrath and terrors, and of the threatenings, and of the heinousness of a man s
sins, the fearfulness of God s wrath, unto that conscience that is troubled. And then look, as when a man s choler is up, every small thing provokes him ; so now, when fear and melancholy are excited, every suggestion, every surmise doth strike the soul through and through with horrid fears and
jealousies. And thus, though not immediately, yet through the means of
these mists and vapours, and fogs raised, which environ and darken this sun, he works upon the conscience ; and therefore we see, by experience, that he
prevails most in this sort of temptations with melancholy tempers, whom,
dwelling in dark shops, he much deceives with false colours and glosses. And when once affections are up and do cloud the mind, then multitudes of
troublesome thoughts arise, and every suggestion suitable to that passion takes and prevails with a man s spirit ; as appears by that speech of Christ, Luke xxiv. 38, Why are ye troubled, or afraid, and why do thoughts arise
in your hearts 1 Passions, like to heavy weights hung upon a clock, do not
only make the wheels, the thoughts, move faster, but also pervert them and
wrest them the wrong way ; so as to a heart thus distempered all things come to be presented amiss, even as to a bloodshot eye all things seem red.
In a word, as he deludes his enthusiasts by setting on and backing their
false opinions and illusions with joys and ravishments of spirits, which differ
as much from the joys of the Holy Ghost, which are unspeakable and glori
ous, as heaven from earth ; so he can and doth back his false reasonings and
accusations to holy men about their estates with abundance of terror and
disturbance, which also differs as much from the impressions of God s wrath made immediately by the Spirit upon the conscience, as those joys are found
*o do.
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