vice; their confidence could venture the risk both of themselves and their pofterity: "Let his blood be on us, and on our children." Difcourfes from

a pulpit, that would make a hundred real believers tremble, would never undeceive one thus given up and strengthened by Satan to believe a lie: you may make him ftorm, but you will never make him ftagger: "A wife man feareth, and departeth from evil; but the fool rageth, and is confident." Prov. xiv. 16. There are none more fure of heaven than fuch, nor are there any farther from it. It was a proverb among the Jews, that, if but two were faved, the one would be a fcribe and the other a pharifee. If this was the common people's opinion, what muft be their own? But they were farther from it than publicans and harlots. In their own account they are fure to be first, but in God's account they are always laft. "There are laft that fhall be first, and first last; for many be called, but few chofen." The full affurance of faith in the brightest faint never stands fo unmovcable as the falfe confidence of a hypocrite; for the best of men have been ftraitened and bound in fpirit at times, and fometimes even on their death-bed: but not fo this fubject of Satan's kingdom; "for there are no bands in their death, but their firength is firm." Pfal. lxxiii. 4. And well may their ftrength be firm, when the ftrong man armed keeps the palace. Satan is not divided against himfelf-all his defire of fifting

the

1

the faints is only to fhake, weaken, or blow away the grace of faith; but he exerts all his might in the fupport of a faith that is of his own begetting. Does the faith of a faint lay hold of a treasure in the heavens, the hypocrite will rife nearly as high in imagination as the faint does in confidence. "The triumphing of the wicked is fhort, and the joy of the hypocrite but for a moment; though his excellency mount up to the heavens, and his head reach unto the clouds, yet he shall perish for ever." Job xx. 5, 6. And it is often seen that the confidence of fuch

men lives as long as they

do: "His confidence is rooted out of his tabernacle when he comes to the king of terrors;" Job xviii. 14; but not till then: nor do I believe that this king of terrors is temporal death, for fome of them have no bands in that; but the fecond death, or eternal death, muft root up every refuge of lies; for in hell they lift up their eyes, and, being in torment, they are obliged to caft away their confidence.

Fifthly, Another bond of iniquity, that binds the fubject of Satan to his fovereign, is carnal fecurity or falfe peace; for, fo fure as the faints keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace, fo fure does Satan hold his subjects to himself in the cords of their fins, and in a peaceable confcience: and to this agrees the Saviour: "When a ftrong man armed keepeth his palace, his goods are in peace. But, when a ftronger than he shall come

upon

apon him and overcome him, he taketh from him
all his armour wherein he trufted, and divideth
his fpoils." Luke xi. 21, 22. Here we may fee
that Satan uses all the armour and artillery that
he is master of in keeping his poffeffion of the
finner; and he maintains his hold by keeping his
confcience in a falfe
peace which
confifts
peace
of hardness of heart, he is paft feeling; in blind-
nefs of mind, he fees not his danger; and in
compofing the foul with a benumbing stupidity,
which keeps it infenfible; fo that, as the prophet
fays, "they are caft into a deep fleep, they lie
down and love to flumber." Ifa. lv. 10. Thefe
are either at eafe in Zion, or at cafe in the
world: they are never emptied from veffel to
veffel, they fettle on their lees; they are not in
any trouble as others, nor are they plagued like
other men. This is the devil's ftate-bed; and Sa-
tan has got more to guard it, and to keep him in
quiet poffeffion of it, than ever Solomon had in
all his glory: every ambaffador from the infernal
regions is fent with the fame cry to the finner's
ears as that which the devil maintains in the fin-
ner's heart. If any judgment, fudden fear, or
unexpected calamity come on, fo as to aroufe the
finner but in the leaft degree, thefe ambaffadors
are called in as it is written, "Thus faith the
Lord concerning the prophets that make my peo-
ple err, that bite with their teeth, and cry, Peace:
and he that putteth not into their mouths, they

even prepare war against him." Micah iii. 5. Ahab was a great admirer of these good tidings. The devil had taught all his four hundred and fifty

Ramoth Gilead in the
Only one prophet be-

For

prophets to fend Ahab to poffeffion of this peace. longing to another mafter ftood out; but they prepared war against him, and God prepared war againft Ahab and them too. Thefe ambaffadors are generally called builders up, and they certainly are great fupports to the devil's kingdom, and labour hard to ftop up every breach that Chrift makes in it; and of this God complains: "For every one from the leaft even to the greatest is given to covetousness; from the prophet even unto the priest every one dealeth falfely. they have healed the hurt of the daughter of my people flightly, faying, Peace, peace; when there is no peace." Jer. viii. 10, 11. Thefe are Satan's meffengers and Jezebel's rockers. IIe fent four hundred and fifty to that daughter of his, and the kept them at her own expenfe. Many remedies alfo, as well as meffengers, are made use of to keep confcience compofed and Satan in quiet; fuch as kerchiefs and pillows; Ezek. xiii. 18; untempered morter, and daubing with it; Ezek. xiii. 10; biting and ftamping; waging war with every one that founds an alarm, or cries fire; forms of prayer, and daily and hourly tasks; the facrament at a dying hour; falt fish in Lent; and innocent amusements, cards and plays; concerts

of

of facred mufic and holy water; extreme unction, human abfolution, and ecclefiaftical authority; faftings and pilgrimages. All these, and the power of the firong man too, are little enough at to keep Satan's courts in peace.

The fixth pillar of Satan's kingdom is a falfe hope. There are no hypocrites in the world, except thofe few in black defpair, but what are buoyed up with a falfe hope; which hope centers in the flesh, and is founded on human performances; and as a man abounds in dead works, fo he abounds in hope; and, when he obtains a vain fuppofition that he exceeds all others in human merit, this raifes him to the full affurance of hope; and they, in their expectation of the great reward, exceed in firmnefs one half of the children of God; nor is their hope clogged with thofe doubts and fears which are often raifed about the fate of thofe endowed with a good hope through grace; for, although Satan often fuggests to fuch that they are hypocrites, and that their faith and hope are vain, yet he never preaches this doctrine to thofe to whom alone it is applicable, for he is not divided againft himfelf; if he was, how fhould his kingdom ftand? Eftablifhed in this falfe hope, and equipped with this expectation, many will approach even the gate of life, and that with boldnefs: "Strive to enter in at the ftrait gate; for many, I fay unto you, will feek to enter in, and fhall not be able." Luke xiii.