in it. However this ferves to fhew us that the rays of divine light difcover him, and remove his mask from the understanding, and himfelf from his dark abode; and this is evident by the violent temptations that follow: for what call has he to tempt, entice, allure, terrify, and threaten us with his future fuccefs and advantage over us, if he reigned in the heart and could take us captive at his will? His fruitless attempts and terrifying threatenings are fufficient to convince us that the Lord Jefus has crushed his power, bound him by his providence, and difarmed him of the panoply by which he kept his goods in peace. By the light of the Lord's countenance, and by the fword of the Spirit, fhall the kingdom of the beast be destroyed, which is faid to be full of darkness. Light fhall discover the damnable deceptions of popery, and the fword of the Spirit fhall flay the fouls of thofe that cleave to them; "For the mystery of iniquity doth already work : only he that now letteth will let, until he be taken out of the way. And then shall that wicked be revealed, whom the Lord fhall confume with the fpirit of his mouth, and shall destroy with the brightness of his coming." 2 Theff. ii. 7, 8. Thus is Satan dethroned: "And if I, by the finger of God, caft out devils, no doubt the kingdom of God is come upon you."

Secondly, The Lord, by the power of his Spirit, fubdues the carnal enmity which hates the

1

way

in me,

light; he bows the finner's will and makes him willing; he fearches the reins, wounds the fpirit, and makes the heart honeft; and one of an honeft heart will cry, "Search me and try me, and fee if there be wicked any and lead me in the way everlafting." Yea, he comes willingly to the light, that his deeds may be made manifeft that they are wrought in God. Thus the enmity is flain, and a most earnest defire after reconciliation with God is kindled in the foul; he is made willing and made honeft; he accepts the punishment of his iniquity, and had rather lie under the rod than be in carnal ease; and would feed upon ftripes and bitter reflections rather than be given up to enjoy the pleasures of fin for a season. "The kingdom of God is not in word, but in power." Thus it appears that the fubjects of darkness are all blinded by the god of this world, and their hearts are filled with enmity and hatred against the light; and this their enmity difcovers itself at every foul which God illuminates, or into which the true light fhineth and thus the Jews rejoiced in John's light for a feason, and then faid "He hath a devil." And, when the Sun of Righteousness visited them, then they faid he had a devil and was mad. Thus Satan labours to blind the eyes, and arms the foul with malice, at every heavenly ray that darts upon his vail. But, if God fhines into a finner's heart; and fearches, tries, and difcovers

the

.

the evil of it, and by wounding the fpirit makes the heart honeft, leads the foul to the light, and puts a cry into the poor finner for mercy, fuch an one the devil labours to baffle, confufe, puzzle, perplex, confound, tempt, accufe, reproach, and even ridicule him for hypocrify in every thing he does. It is Satan's work to applaud the hypocrite, to fondle his deceitful heart, to prop up his feared confcience and lead him to felf-admiration. But the foul that God difplays his power in is always wrong and never right; all is guile, nothing fincere; all feigned, nothing real; all is deceit, nothing found; if he speaks he takes him to task for every word; overhales him, and accufes him of infincerity and falfehood in every thing he has faid. To the pharifee in his forms, and to the hypocrite in Zion, Satan is a fimooth-tongued prophet, a dauber, a reformer, an healer of the breach, and a builder up; but to the mourner in Zion he is a reprover, an accufer, an inquifitor-general, an envious obferver, a malicious overfeer, a laborious puller down, and a defperate deftroyer of God's heritage. This is his work, whether he labour at the heart by suggestions, or by his minifters in the pulpit. Satan is not divided against himself; if he was, how should his kingdom stand?

Thirdly, Self-righteoufnefs ftands in the way of God's kingdom, and must be demolished before the empire of Chrift can be fet up.

up. Satan

propped

propped up the Jewish fcribes and pharifecs in this web; they not only juftified themselves before men, but they pleaded their worth, and will plead it before God; they fought righteousness by the works of the law, and went about to establish it, and were the greateft oppofers of the kingdom of God, for they fhut it up against men; they entered not themselves, and fuch as were going they hindered. And it is plain that the praying publican in the temple, and Mary Magdalen the harlot, went into the kingdom of God before them. This pillar of the devil's kingdom, this grand idol of vain imagination which the papifts and the world worship, is deftroyed in the hearts of God's elect.

First, By an application of the law of God.

Secondly, By the quickening influences of the Holy Ghof. The entrance of the law, with all its fears, bondage, terrors, and wrath, will not do of itself, for a finner in black defpair, and given up to a fearful looking-for of judgment, will fometimes plead his merits before men, though he dare not plead his caufe before God. I have known inftances of this myfelf. There is fuch a thing as defperate pride, and the devil often influences the moft awful apoftates with it, infomuch that, when they are in difpute with the children of God, they will even pervert the fcriptures, plead their own worth, and bring forth their firong reafens against the King of Jacob.

But

But when God applies the law to a chofen veffel he attends the application with the awakening, alarming, quickening, felf-emptying, self-abaseing, and foul-piercing operations of the Holy Spirit of promife, which gives life to the foul, and makes it feel, hunger, thirft, long, crave, ery, pray, fearch, feek, watch and wait at wildom's gate till the door of mercy and of hope be opened. A foul under fuch circumftances is condemned on all hands-by the law, by the gofpel, by confcience, by every faint, by the self-righteous pharifee, by the refined hypocrite, by every impoftor in the pulpit, by the common worldling, and by every poffeffor of a feared confcience that is paft feeling, and even by the beafts of the field; for he would fooner be a brute, a fowl, a reptile, or an infect, than a human creature; any thing rather than a condemned and guilty finner, accountable to a juft and holy God. And he will honeftly tell you that every creature that God has made anfwers fome good end in the creation, and in some way or other glorifies God; but he of himself never did, nor ever can, except God glorify his truth and justice in his eternal damnation: this he fees, this he feels, and this he will honestl own and confefs before God or man. It was fuch convictions as thefe that turned Daniel's comeliness into corruption, Paul's brilliant per formances into dung and drofs, and Zion's fplendid righteoufnefs into filthy rags.. All con

victions,