whom he may devour, the souls of men being his only prey.

The sea-dragon, and the old serpent, because he once abused that creature in his seduction of man; and because of his subtlety, craft, and cunning; and because of the venom of sin, which he has instilled into mankind, and upon which he works, and by which he tempts men to evil, and then accuses them of it; and, finally, because all his ways are crooked and perverse, always counteracting the will, the work, and the ways, of God; and they are unwearied at it, being spirits, immaterial; and their agility is great.

He is called Abaddon, and Apollyon, both which signify a destroyer. He has destroyed all mankind; and all the reprobate part of mankind are finally destroyed. He has destroyed all the angels that were seduced by him; and he has ultimately destroyed himself, being the author of sin, death, and misery; and these will reign in him, and over him, to all eternity; and as he is supreme in sin, so he will be in death, misery, and in suffering, and that for ever; and this he believes, and at this he trembles.

He is called the wicked one, that steals the word away from the careless hearer; and the evil one, being originally, independently, ultimately, unalterably, and eternally evil.

He claims second sovereignty, as a rival to the Almighty, and is therefore called the god of this world, that blinds the minds of them which be

lieve not; and has been exalted, adored, reverenced, revered, and worshipped, as God. Temples have been erected, and altars built, and sacrifices, both human and brutal, have been offered to him: "They sacrificed unto devils, not to God."

The prophet Isaiah, in his funeral oration upon the king of Babylon, seems to borrow some of his materials from the brilliant appearance which this angel made before he fell; and, if the king of Babylon's fall from all his glory and majesty into a state of desperation and madness are included in the oration, the fall of Satan is included also. I mean, when Nebuchadnezzar was removed from his kingly throne, and stripped of all his glory; when a beast's heart was given unto him, and when he fancied himself a brute, went upon his hands and feet, all-fours, like a beast, and ran wild in his own forest among the cattle, eating grass as the ox, and wet with the dew of heaven and the showers of the mountains; till, in a long seven years' apprenticeship, he could learn this short lesson, To know that the heavens do rule, Dan. iv. 26. The fall of that proud monarch, both into madness and into death, appears to be taken from the fall of Satan: "How art thou fallen from heaven, O Lucifer, son of the morning how art thou cast down to the ground, which didst weaken the nations! for thou hast said in thine heart, I will ascend into heaven, I will exalt my throne above the stars of God:

I will sit also upon the mount of the congregation, in the sides of the north: I will ascend above the heights of the clouds; I will be like the Most High. Yet thou shalt be brought down to hell, to the sides of the pit," Isaiah xiv. 12-15. In this sublime and elegant speech I think we have Satan's original name; it is Lucifer, which signi fies bringing light, or day-star, and serves to show us the shining lustre of glory that was upon all the angels when God made them; a shining glory attended them wherever they went, as it does attend on all the elect angels to this day. Hence we read of the glory of the holy angels, Luke ix. 26. Now, as there is nothing evil in the name of Lucifer, which is, as some say, day-star, or bringing light, it bids fair to be his original one; his present names he obtained after his fall, as they are all big with mischief; but this he bore before he fell.

Moreover, it is apparent that the whole apostacy from God, both of angels and men, originated or began with one of the angels; for our Lord himself ascribes it to one only, and he is now called the Devil and Satan. "Ye are of your father the devil, and the lusts of your father ye will do. He was a murderer from the beginning, and abode not in the truth, because there is no truth in him." All which seem to show us that Satan was the ringleader of all the apostacy, and is spoken of in the singular number, and as such

called a murderer, the father of all murderers, and the father of lies, and of all liars.

The first sin which took rise in the mind of Lucifer, according to the word of God, appears to be pride. "Pride goeth before destruction, and a haughty spirit before a fall." And it was pride that went before the destruction of Lucifer, and a haughty spirit procured his fall. Paul, in his advice to Timothy, about the choice of a minister, tells him not to choose a novice, lest, being lifted up with pride, he fall into the condemnation of the devil. According to this text the procuring cause of the devil's ruin and destruction was the pride of his mind; and, when this sin was by himself conceived, he went on from bad to worse, from sin to sin, or from pride to rebellion; for he is charged by our Lord himself with a departing from the truth, &c. Christ says that Satan was a murderer from the beginning, and abode not in the truth, because there is no truth in him, John viii. 44. There is one thing very observable in the above text, that is, Satan being called a murderer from the beginning; which seems to intimate that the non-elect angels stood but a very little while. For, if the heavens and the earth, and all that are in them, angels and men, were made in those six days, and the first appearance of the creation be called, as it most certainly is, the beginning; "In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth," so in the above text Christ calls Satan a murderer from the beginning; it

plainly indicates that the fallen angels and our first parents stood but a very little while; and no wonder, for they stood alone; they had not momentary support; and "Wo to him that is alone when he falleth; for he hath not another to help him up."

The devil's malice and murder of mankind were from the beginning; and, as for the time of Adam's standing, it was so short, that not one word expressive of time is so much as once mentioned to denote it; neither year, month, week, day, hour, or minute; all that is said of him is, that he was and is not; he was a glorious creature, and then a brute. "Man being in honour abideth not: he is like the beasts that perish."

The next thing observable in our Lord's assertion is, that the devil abode not in the truth. Then it may be asked what this truth is that the devil departed from? "The secret things," says Moses, "belong unto the Lord our God: but those things which are revealed belong unto us, and to our children for ever. The things which were then revealed and made known, and which are to be found in the scriptures of truth, appear to me to be these:

1. When Adam stood before his Maker as the sovereign ruler of the world, as the head and representative of mankind, and as the heir of all things which this world affords, all which, even to the green herb, was bestowed on him, I say, Adam, then standing in the image of God, is declared,