permitted to exercise; of the mode of their present existence, whether purely intellectual or united to some subtile vehicle; of the means by which they communicate with, and tempt the soul, and the influence which they exert over the material frame of nature; whether any portion of God's threatened wrath has already been poured out on them; or whether they have tasted as yet no more than the expectation of judgment to come, too little is revealed in Scripture to enable us to decide, and they are subjects on which we may well continue ignorant. It is enough for us to know, and thus much, may be thought, is clearly communicated in Scripture, that our dangers are great, and our adversaries mighty and numerous.

it

For as we cannot impute to the inspired teachers of our faith a design to scare us into our duty by disproportionate descriptions of our peril, we must conclude that the alarming language which the Holy Ghost employs on this subject, is more, far more, than an ornament of rhetoric or poetry. "The prince of the power of the air," "the great dragon," the "god of this world;" these are no words of common terror; and that fury which is compared to “a roaring lion," that tyranny from which we daily pray to "be delivered," must needs be one, to cope with which the best exertions of our natural and celestial strength are no more than sufficient.* And since seven of these spirits are, in

* Ephes. ii. 2. Rev. xii. 3. 2 Cor. iv. 4. 1 St. Pet. v. 8. St. Matt. vi. 13.

Scripture, assigned to the affliction of a single obscure individual; since over another so mighty a company kept watch as to deserve the name of "legion," we may well conclude that the entire army is great when such detachments as these are allotted to so trifling enterprises*. The parts, indeed, of tempter and accuser, which are, of all others, most frequently ascribed to Satan by the Holy Ghost, inasmuch as they imply, if not the continual, at least the very frequent, presence, and prompting, and superintendence of such an agent with every one of us, may convince us (since ubiquity is the property of God alone) that the name of Satan is, as I have observed, applied to many individuals, and that these individuals are sufficiently numerous to lay siege to every heart, and keep a watch over every action of mankind.

From these persuasions, however, many important consequences follow, and many thoughts may be suggested by them, which cannot but be extremely useful in the government of our lives and tempers. The assurance that our wrestling is “not with flesh and blood," may dispose our hearts to forgive those visible and mortal adversaries, who are, in fact, nothing more than the tools of that immortal and malignant being, who reaps his horrible harvest of sin and misery alike by their injustice, and by our immoderate resentment. Fling a stone at a dog and he will bite the stone; surely, no less irrational is our behaviour when, permitting

*St. Luke viii. 2. St. Mark v. 9.

ourselves to be overcome of evil, we rage against such of our brethren as the tempter employs to buffet us; who are, by so much the more worthy objects of our pity, by how much the more unjustly he has induced them to hate and injure us. Our warfare is not with flesh and blood, nor can we better prepare ourselves for the struggle than by a careful distinction, both in our thoughts and our prayers, between our apparent and our actual enemies.

It may, secondly, tend, in no inconsiderable degree, to unmask the danger and deformity of sin, if we steadily bear in mind whose counsels they are which seek to draw off our souls from God, by what motives those offers of pleasure and power are dictated, by which the tempter appears to consult our present ease or to provide for our future gratification. The advice and caresses of an enemy are, to a prudent man, an additional motive for distrust and circumspection; and when a thought is suggested to us which would lead to a compromise or desertion of our duty, it may often be useful to ask the question of our hearts," Who is it that is urging me thus, and wherefore does he urge me? Can I believe that he has my comfort or advantage in view? that he can really desire to make my task of duty easier, or to smooth my road to heaven ?" Surely in vain the net is spread in the sight of any bird," and a deep-rooted conviction of Satan's presence and agency in those gilded and flowery

*Prov. i. 17.

toils which he daily spreads before our path, would in itself be almost sufficient to deliver" our souls from the snare of the fowler."

When, thirdly, we acknowledge the number and power of those tempters to whom the name of Satan is applied, how strange and awful a prospect of things is opened to our mental view! How populous, how vital is the world! By what a cloud of witnesses are our most secret actions observed, and our most lonely hours begirt by how many unseen companions! Not a thought passes over our minds which may not be prompted by some unseen adviser; not a breeze fans our cheek but it may bring some airy visitant. Many of these, no doubt, are faithful servants of God, and fellow-servants of those who bore the testimony of Jesus; but how many are there also who hover round to work our ruin, and who exult, with hideous joy, over every crime we commit, and every misfortune which befalls us!

And surrounded by so many and so great dangers, by enemies so numerous and so powerful, is it not our duty, nay, are we not in common prudence called on, to betake ourselves to religion and the protection of Christ, not only as the surest means of pleasing God, but as a present refuge and sanctuary? If we desire that the adversary should have no advantage over us, with how great earnestness should we seek that God who is a strong tower of defence to all that trust in Him; and the shelter of that name to which all things in Heaven and on earth, and under the earth, do bow down?

VOL. I.

Let no man mistake my apprehensions! No slavish fears, no trifling superstition can follow from such views, when regulated by reason and Scripture. The sense of His power and presence, in whose sight both men and angels are as nothing, will at once extinguish, in a well-regulated mind, all idle dread of what either men or angels may meditate against us; while the notions which His word has taught us to entertain of evil spirits are, of themselves, sufficient to discredit the ordinary tales of witchcraft and apparitions. These warriors of darkness, these princes of the power of the air, will they lend their strength to the caprices of an earthly enchanter? Will they stoop from their whirlwind to rustle in a hermit's cell? Their schemes of destruction are, surely, on a sublimer scale; and, if it be true, (which I will not either assert or deny) that their agency extends to the material as well as the moral world, we may expect, at least, to trace it in actions widely different from those which cannot be heard without disdain. Nor is there any circumstance which has contributed more than these idle legends to a habit, of which the impropriety is too little felt, even by the devout and virtuous; the habit, I mean, of speaking of the destroyer in terms of pleasantry and ridicule; of mingling his name with our mirth and with our familiar and idle conversation.

Such language, to say the least of it, betrays a light and inadequate view of the danger from which we daily pray to be delivered; and by diminishing