precisely what is most needed. Hence |

Where now shall we go for this heavenwe hear whispers among the separating inspired strain? Many such ministers congregations, not of conscience-stricken there doubtless are whose rule of teachsorrow for sin, not of awakened praise for ing is "Christ exalted, and self-abased;" salvation, not of deep desire for the con- but we may more readily find the thing tinued presence of him who has been (or which Satan fears in the pages of John ought to have been) visibly set forth cru- Bunyan, or John Flavel, than from the cified among them; but " What a splendid lips of eloquent pastors in our own day. discourse! How great Mr. was to If Paul should come to hold a visitation of day! What eloquence, what imagery, what we have reason to believe was once what clear views he takes! Certainly a part of his own wide diocese, surely he our pastor has no equal among his breth- would be constrained to put the searching ren." Hence that system of sermon- question, "Are ye not carnal ?" hunting, which as Cecil well remarked, is little better than fox-hunting; hence the Sabbath desecration, the carriage called out to bear its owner to some favourite place of worship; the horses robbed of their assigned season of repose, the attendant domestics either excluded from, or cruelly curtailed in their share of religious ordinances; and so, too often, carnality is insensibly substituted for spirituality.

We are now writing of Satanic wrath as his permitted day shortens, and his wrath does not always vent itself in explosions of rage. It works sometimes in secrecy and darkness; fierce, indeed, and cruel always but never devoid of skilful cunning to direct it. There is as much of his wrath in the speaking of smooth things, and the prophesying of peace to those with whom the Lord has a controversy, as in the greatest tumult of violence.

Who shall tell the extent of that wrathful hatred against God and his fair creation, which prompted the bland insinuating lie, "Ye shall not surely die." Oh that ministers and congregations would bear in mind, equally bear in mind how great a stake the enemy has in drawing away their minds from the unadorned simplicity that is in the doctrines of the cross.

This ought not to be: an adversary hath done it, and the same adversary well knows what immense advantage he must gain by the system, when he succeeds in drawing one of these popular men aside from the straight path. Many of those who think they only follow the teacher, because he follows Christ, will be betrayed into still following him, when he has turned his back upon the Lord. Satan first infected man with his own diabolical disease-pride; and the whole turn of But the doctrine of the crown is another the gospel of Christ is to provide an anti- which he now struggles with all his inferdote for that venom. And first, the nal might to suppress. A crucified Sapreaching of the cross is a cross to the viour, an atoning sacrifice, a mediating preacher, if he do it aright; for he must High Priest in heaven, he loathes to think be content to forego much of what is on, or to suffer his bond-slaves to hear of; highly esteemed among men, and to be but a reigning king, about to rescue the nothing that Christ may be all. Line earth from all his usurpations, to plant his upon line, line upon line; precept upon throne in righteousness in the midst of his precept, precept upon precept; the weari-people, to send forth his word from Zion, some repetition of that one story, "Jesus Christ came into the world to save sinners;" that one warning, "He that believeth not the Son shall not see life; but the wrath of God abideth on him :" that one direction, "Repent, and be converted, that your sins may be blotted out:" such a mode of dealing with a world dead in trespasses and sins, will never give the preacher undue pre-eminence among men, but it will glorify his master, and save souls.

This is the and his law from Jerusalem. very knell of Satan's departure; and to stifle the sound he will foster humility itself, or any grace by the perversion of which he may hope to seal the preacher's lips on that fearful topic. For eighteen centuries he has heard the petition resounding on all sides, "Thy kingdom come;" and he cares not how often it is reiterated, (as witness the Papacy with its everlasting repetition of Pater-nosters.) so long as men do not inquire into the nature of that

coming kingdom, or watch for its ap- to him; we are apt to fancy that the blow proach. An imperfect Gospel he can tol-miraculously inflicted on him during the erate, and in our day that is an imperfect early years of the New Testament church, Gospel which omits the great truth of a speedy manifestation of the Lord from heaven. The sound of his conqueror's chariot wheels is a fearful sound to Satan; and knowing that nothing will so surely turn the attention of the Church upon himself as the heralding of Christ's approach, he will strike almost any bargain, of which a condition is the silencing of that ominous voice.

has crippled him forever; and we therefore look for nothing more, in the things that are coming on the earth, than a peculiar readiness on the part of bad men, to act upon his cunning suggestions. The consequence of this unguarded state of mind will be, that when leaders appear, assuming new ground, and confirming their assumptions by doing real marvels in our sight, we shall be tempted to re

failed in performing any really miraculous work. Attempts were made to raise up the dying, and to revive the dead; and their open failure cooled the zeal of some very anxious inquirers: should a similar delusion be brought forward, and such things actually effected, are we prepared to resist the evidence of sense, and to cling to the word of God alone? We shall be better armed for such a trial, by giving serious heed to what the Bible testifies in the passages here cited, and receiving the predictions in their simple, literal acceptation.

In connexion with this part of the sub-ceive them as Simon Magus was received ject, we may call to mind the parable of of old by the people whom he bewitched our Lord, where he describes the proceed- with his sorceries: "To whom they all ings of the unclean spirit, who has left for gave heed, from the least to the greatest, a time his habitation, as distinguished from saying, This man is the great power of that effectual expulsion which God only God." Acts viii. 10. Not a few of those can accomplish. "When the unclean who held out against the Irvingite heresy spirit is gone out of a man, he walketh in the days of its success, did so, as they through dry places, seeking rest; and acknowledged, only because its apostles finding none, he saith, I will return unto my house, whence I came out: and when he cometh, he findeth it swept and garnished. Then goeth he, and taketh to him seven other spirits, more wicked than himself; and they enter in, and dwell there and the last state of that man is worse than the first. Luke xi. 24-26. We may be assured that attempts at such re-entrance, under aggravated forms, into every person who may appear to have been delivered from the power of Satan, will be made as the time shortens, and the enemy's rage increases; and hence the cruel treachery that Christ's people must look for at the Popery is now heaping up its stately hands of their nearest connexions and piles of architecture throughout the land, dearest companions. Many an Ahithopel fitted, no doubt, in their secret recesses, will be found; many a Judas to revolt with a vast machinery for the exhibition from his friend, and to betray his master; of "lying wonders" on a grand scale, by and many an unsuspecting Christian will which many will be snared and taken: have to take up the prophetic complaint, "It but though a principal, still Popery is not was thou, a man, mine equal, my guide, likely to be the sole manifestation of Saand mine acquaintance; we took sweet tan in these coming horrors. Forms of counsel together, and walked unto the error less openly revolting than the gross house of God in company." Psalm lv. 13, 14. idolatry of that system, but not less fatal It is of the first importance that we to the soul if persisted in, will be supplied, should be prepared not only for an out- for those who would hurl the anathema at burst of Satanic malignity and cruelty, an angel from heaven, if he dared to such as was never before permitted to de- preach up the mass. Some will be led vastate our world, but also for a manifes- astray, but not finally; for it is plainly tation of Satanic potency, such as men are said, "Some of them of understanding fast losing all belief in. We do not give shall fall, to try them, and to purge, and to the enemy credit for possessing such pow-make them white, even to the time of the ers as the word of God distinctly ascribes end." Dan. xi. 35. And to this the apos

tle seems to refer, where he says of the sins and judgments of Israel, "Now all these things happened unto them for ensamples, and they are written for our admonition, upon whom the ends of the world are come. Wherefore, let him that thinketh he standeth, take heed lest he fall." 1 Cor. x. 11, 12. No vain speculation should mix itself up with this solemn subject: It is one where each believer must seek instruction how to arm himself for the great battle, in which he may expect ere long to be engaged: the word of God alone, prayerfully studied and practically applied, will show to each of us the might, the wrath, and the purpose of our adversary. It will also show us how that adversary is to be met and conquered; even by the blood of the Lamb, and by the word of our testimony.

SECTION X.

THE DOOM OF SATAN AND HIS ANGELS.

flicted; and he, with all his legions of accursed spirits, are cast into a pit of sulphurous flames, there to abide forever and ever.

The intimations given of this final judgment are many and explicit. Jude, with whose words we commenced our proofs, in those words declared the end: "The angels that kept not their first estate, but left their own habitation, he hath reserved in everlasting chains under darkness, unto the judgment of the great day." Jude 6. They are, themselves, perfectly well aware of what is coming upon them; as St. James implies when speaking of a faith that works not by love, an acknowledgment of God's being, power, and justice, without any sense of redeeming mercy, any conformity to his will. "Thou believest that there is one God; thou doest well: the devils also believe and tremble." James ii. 29. They made the same admission themselves, when terrified by the sudden appearance of their dreaded Judge. The "legion" saw him coming:-" And behold they cried out, saying, What have we to do with thee, Jesus, thou Son of God? Art thou come hither to torment us before the time?" Matt. viii. 29. And again the unclean spirit in the synagogue, “Let us alone; what have we to do with thee, thou Jesus of Nazareth? Art thou come to destroy us? I know thee who thou art, the Holy One of God." Mark i. 24. On another occasion one of the devils "besought him much that he would not send them away out of the country ;” (Mark v. 10;) or as St. Luke expresses it, "They besought him that he would not command them to go out into the deep;" (Luke viii. 31;) by which must be understood the bottomless pit; since, on having their request granted, they immediately entered the swine, and of their own accord, rushed down into the sea.

In the sentence pronounced upon the ɛerpent, it was declared that the seed of the woman should bruise his head. A blow inflicted on the vital part indicates final destruction; and in accordance with this, the apostle tells us that our Lord Jesus became partaker of flesh and blood, "that through death he might DESTROY him that had the power of death, that is the devil." Heb. ii. 14. We find the great enemy, first an angel, not keeping his holy estate, but becoming rebellious, transformed into a liar and a murderer, composing the ruin of this beautiful creation, and drawing a creature, made in the image of God, into deadly transgression against his merciful and glorious Maker. Our Lord has foreshown their dreadful Still having occasional access to heavenly doom; in which all who remain under the places, we find him availing himself of it dominion of Satan, must likewise partake: to accuse before God those whom he had "Depart from me, ye cursed, into everlasttempted into sin, and to resist the work of ing fire, prepared for the devil and his anmercy towards man. Then, cast wholly gels." Matt. xxv. The constant contemout of heaven, we learn that he vents his plation of this their certain end, must great wrath upon the inhabitants of earth, greatly aggravate the malignity of evil and for a limited time plunges them in spirits: nothing is so hardening as defearful woes. Lastly, the doom for which spair. Their sin was unpardonable; and he knows himself to be reserved is in- Christ "took not on him the nature of