the impious wisdom of sinners cometh not from above. Nor is there the least possible ground for the distinction that Paul makes, when he ascribes all virtuous and good exercises to the spirit as the fruit of his operation, and places the works of the flesh in contrast to those, as what are not to be considered as the effect of his operation on the hearts of men. See James iii 14-17. Gal. v, 19-23.

SECTION VIII.

THE POWER AND INFLUENCE, WHICH THE SCRIPTURES ASCRIBE TO SATAN IN THE PRODUCTION OF MORAL EVIL, UTTERLY IRRECONCILABLE UPON JUST AND SOBER PRINCIPLES OF INTERPRETATION, TO THIS MODERN NOTION OF DIVINE EFFICIENCY.

SOME have supposed, there was no such real intellectual spiritual agent, as Satan. All that is said of him is in conformity to Jewish prejudices, or a mere personification of the wicked passions or lusts of men. Others admit there is such an intelligent agent but seem almost to deny his influence upon the moral state and character of man.

But the following texts settle this point, and abundantly prove, that there is such a being, or personal agent.

"Again the Devil taketh him up into the Holy City, and setteth him on the pinnacle of the temple, and saith unto him, If thou be the Son of God, cast thyself down; for, &c." "Again the Devil taketh him up into an exceeding high mountain, and sheweth him all the kingdoms of the world, and saith unto him, All these things will I give unto thee, if thou wilt fall down and worship me."

"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. When he speaketh a lie, he speaketh of his own, for he is a liar and the father of it."-"And all the devils besought him, saying, Send us into the swine, that we may enter into them; and forthwith Jesus gave them leave; and the unclean spirits went out and entered into the swine, and the herd ran violently down a steep place into the sea, (they were about two thousand,) and were choaked in the sea." Mark v, 12.

Now what is the plain obvious sense of these passages? Certainly, that there is really such a being, agent, or person, as the Devil. If this is all mere allegory, and not plain history; if there never was any real tempter, who spake to Christ as here represented; if there never was any such being as the Devil, who abode not in the truth; if there was no reality in the devils entering into the swine, and then running them down violently into the sea, &c. then nothing can be known by the Scriptures. We may as well say, every thing that is said of the sufferings, death, resurrection, and ascension of Christ, is all mere figure, or allegory.

With respect to the extent of Satan's power to produce evil of any kind, the following limitations of it, are most plainly taught in the divine word.

1. Satan, together with all his angels, is a created being, and is no less dependent on the power of God, for the continuation of his being, his powers and faculties, than the minutest object of all God's works.

Here all creatures, great and small, stand upon a level.

2. Satan, however great and powerful, is absolutely under the all-wise government and control of Jehovah. He is bounded and limited, by the infinite power and goodness of God, and can no more go beyond these limits, than the feeblest insect that inhabits the dust. We read that God raised up Pharoah, that he might declare his glory in or by him.

In like manner, in his providential government, he hath raised up the Devil and all his angels, that he might make them the means of declaring his glory, his power, wisdom, justice, and goodness.

But notwithstanding the Devil is thus dependent and under divine control, he may still be a great being, and have a great and powerful agency in the production of evil in this world. We know not how great a person Satan is. For aught we know, he may be as great a creature as the Arians make Christ to be. No bounds can be set to the power of God, as to the degree of essence and capacity he may give to a created dependent being. We would by no means ascribe to so malignant an agent, more power than he really possesses. But certain I am, it is no mark of a deep understanding of the word of God, or of sound wisdom, to treat the idea of Satan's power to do evil with contempt. He has power to bring natural evil upon men, and is sometimes permitted to do it, to a great extent; as Job was given into his hand, and was dreadfully afflicted by his power and malice.

But it is the reality and extent of his power to produce moral evil, that we are here concerned to state. And here the Scriptures furnish us with the following conclusions.

1. The introduction of sin and wickedness into this world, is ascribed to his agency.-The Scriptures mention no other agent or cause, in this lamentable affair.-The woman herself said, "The serpent beguiled me, and I did eat." God himself charged the mischief upon the Devil, and cursed him for it.

Upon what is said of the agency of the Serpent, or Devil, in the 3d chap, of Gen. effecting the fall of man, we take the words of Christ and St. Paul to be the most proper comment. Matt. xiii, 38. "The field is the world; the good seed are the children of the kingdom; but the tares are the children of the wicked one. The enemy that sowed them is the

Devil." 2 Cor. xi, 3. But I fear lest by any means, as the Serpent beguiled Eve through his subtilty, so your minds should be corrupted from the simplicity that is in Christ."-But this account of the fall of man, does not satisfy the curious research of many. They seem to think there is a difficulty here, which ought to be solved, and which all that Moses, Christ, and Paul, have said about it, does not reach. They have not said enough.-No agency is here brought into view, sufficient to account for the rise of sinful exercises in an heart previously perfectly pure and holy. I conceive, it is a conclusion warranted by the Scriptures, that means, motives, instruments, second causes, &c. without a positive, immediate, divine efficiency, are sufficient to the temptation and seduction of a creature perfectly holy, or hitherto sinless; although they are insufficient to restore again the image of God to one who has become an apostate, a rebel, a slave to sin. If I am not able to defend this thought on the ground of revelation, I apprehend no one can disprove it on that ground. When Christ says of the Devil, "When he speaketh a lie, he speaketh of his own, for he is a liar and the father of it." Does he mean no more by "his own and the father of it," than, that such an exercise was his own exercise, and not that of another creature? Does it not appear, that it was our Lord's design to caution his disciples against looking beyond the agency of second causes, to account for the existence of falsehood and wickedness? it possible any candid sober man on earth, can think that the Son of God would have us to believe, that, notwithstanding what he has here said, God works immediately in the heart of the Devil, every lie, and is the real father or author of it? Regardless of all that philosophy may suggest respecting the absurdity of a self-determining power, and the impossibility of motives being efficient causes, &c. I imagine we are bound by what our Lord here says, not to go beyond the power of second causes, as

Is