(2.) Secondly, Some are secretly his servants. They come to the devil, as Nicodemus did to Christ, by night. They will not openly profess him, but yet their hearts are wholly his. Such are called by the name of hypocrites. The pharisees and scribes seemed to declare for God, called themselves Abraham’s seed, fasted, gave alms, made long prayers, and yet were a ‘generation of vipers,’ and ‘of their father the devil.’ The secrecy of this underhand engagement to hell is such, that many who are in a league with the devil, and at an agreement with death, do neither know nor believe it concerning themselves. For,
[1.] First, This private covenant may be where there are the greatest seeming defilements of Satan and high professions of service to God. The pharisees, as have been said, were the devil’s servants, under all the fair show they made of religion and zeal for the law, and yet when Christ plainly told them that they were not Abraham’s seed but the devil’s seed, they with high indignation and scorn throw back the accusation to Christ, ‘Thou art a Samaritan, and hast a devil; we are Abraham’s children,’ [John viii. 48,] so little believed they the truth when it was told them.
[2.] Secondly, This may consist with some designment and intention to give God glory. The Jews, though they submitted not to the righteousness of God, yet, by the testimony of Paul, they had a zeal to God. The very heathens that sacrifice to devils had not formal intentions so to do, as appears by their inscription on the altar at Athens, Acts xvii. 23, ‘To the unknown God.’ The true God, though unknown, they propounded as the object of their worship; yet falling into those ways of devotion which the devil had prescribed, these intentions could not hinder but that they became his servants.
[3.] Thirdly, Men may be servants to Satan under great assurances and confidences of their interest in God. Many go to hell that have lived with Lord, Lord in their mouths. Those mentioned in Isa. xlviii. 2, that had no interest in truth and righteousness when they solemnly sware by the name of the Lord, ‘yet they called themselves of the holy city, and stayed themselves upon the God of Israel,’ [Isa. xlviii. 2.]
Obj. If it seem strange to any that these professions, intentions, and confidences are not enough to secure men from this charge, but that they may be secretly slaves to hell, I answer,
Ans. 1. First, That those do not necessarily conclude that the heart of such men is right with God. Formality, natural conscience, and the power of education may do much of this; for though we grant that such are not conscious to themselves of any real design of serving Satan, yet they may either so far miss it in the way of their service, offering that as well-pleasing to God, which indeed he hates, and that through wilful and affected ignorance, as those of whom Christ speaks, John xvi. 2, that should think the killing of God’s children a piece of acceptable service; or they may be so mistaken as to the sincerity of their hearts that they may think they have a design to please God in doing of what he requires in order thereunto, when indeed it may not be singly for God but for themselves that they work, in a self-gratification of their natural zeal for their way; or their esteem, credit, and advantage may privately influence them, rather than a spirit of life and power.
Ans. 2. Secondly, The work which they do, and the ends they serve, will be evidence against professions and intentions. It is a sure rule, that the work shews to whom men are related as servants, and it is laid down as a certain standard to measure the hearts of men by, when pretences and persuasions seem to carry all before them: Rom. vi. 16, ‘His servants ye are to whom ye obey;’ 1 John iii. 8, 10, ‘He that committeth sin is of the devil: in this the children of God are manifest, and the children of the devil’—that is, when it becomes a question to whom a man belongs, whose child and servant he is, it must be determined by the works he doth. If he engage in the ways of sin, he is of the devil, let him profess what he will to the contrary. This same balance Christ useth to try the truth of the Jews’ pretences to God: John viii. 34, ‘Whosoever committeth sin, is the servant of sin;’ they boasted high, but he shews them that seeing their designs and works were hatred, envy, murder, &c., which are apparently from Satan, it was evident they had learned these of him; and he concludes by this proof, ver. 44, ‘that they were of their father the devil.’ Thus may we say of those that pretend they honour God, they deify the devil, they intend well, if yet they give themselves up to the pleasing of the flesh, if worldly-minded, if they live in pride, strife, envy, maliciousness, &c.,—which are works of the devil,—it is not all their pretences that will entitle them to God, but they are, for all this, the devil’s servants, as doing his works.
Applic. This may put men upon inquiries, Who are ye for? whose servants are ye? There are but two that can lay claim to you, and these two divide the whole world betwixt them. There is no state of neutrality: you are either God’s servants or the devil’s. Ye cannot serve them both; ‘now if the Lord be God, serve him.’ Satan’s service is base, dishonourable, slavish; the service of God, freedom, honour, life, and peace; there is indeed no comparison betwixt them. Happy, then, is that man that can say the Lord is his lot and portion; that can come into God’s presence, and there in his integrity avouch the Lord for his God—that can stand upon it. ‘My soul hath said unto the Lord, Thou art my God, and I have none besides thee; other lords have had dominion over us, but we will make mention of thy name only,’ [Isa. xxvi. 13.]
This temptation, though it were in itself horrid, and as a brood of vipers knotted together, which at once could send out several stings, and make many wounds,—as hath been noted,—yet in the way of propounding, Satan seems to insinuate the largeness of his proffer, and the smallness and inconsiderableness of the service required, as if he should say, ‘See how free I am in my kindness; I will not stick to give thee the kingdoms of the world, and the glory of them, and all this for so small a matter as bowing before me, or doing me a little reverence.’ This gives us to observe,
Obs. 9. That when Satan doth design no less than to enslave men to his service, yet he will propound sin as a small thing, or but one act of sin, as a thing not valuable, to engage them to him. Not but that he desires to run men to excess in wickedness, and delights to see them with both hands earnestly work iniquity with greediness; yet where he sees the consciences of men squeamish, and that they cannot bear temptations to open and common profaneness without danger of revolt from him, there he seems modest, and requires but some small thing, at least at first, till the ways of sin become more familiar to them, and then when they can better bear it, he doubles the tale of bricks, and with greater confidence can urge them to things of greater shame and enormity. That this is his way appears,