never emptied from vessel to vessel, they settle on their lees; they are not in any trouble as others, nor are they plagued like other men. This is the devil's state-bed; and Satan has got more to guard it, and to keep him in quiet possession of it, than ever Solomon had in all his glory: every ambassador from the infernal regions is sent with the same cry to the sinner's ears as that which the devil maintains in the sinner's heart. If any judgment, sudden fear, or unexpected calamity come on, so as to arouse the sinner but in the least degree, these ambassadors are called in: as it is written, "Thus saith the Lord concerning the prophets that make my people err, that bite with their teeth, and cry, Peace: and he that putteth not into their mouths, they even prepare war agaist him," Micah iii. 5. Ahab was a great admirer of these good tidings. The devil had taught all his four hundred and fifty prophets to send Ahab to Ramoth Gilead in the possession of this peace. Only one prophet belonging to another master stood out; but they prepared war against him, and God prepared war against Ahab and them too. These ambassadors are generally called builders up, and they certainly are great supports to the devil's kingdom, and labour hard to stop up every breach that Christ makes in it; and of this God complains: "For every one, from the least even to the greatest, is given to covetousness; from the prophet even unto the priest every one dealeth falsely. For they have healed the

hurt of the daughter of my people slightly, saying, Peace, peace; when there is no peace," Jer. viii. 10, 11. These are Satan's messengers and Jezebel's rockers. He sent four hundred and fifty to that daughter of his, and she kept them at her own expence. Many remedies also, as well as messengers, are made use of to keep conscience composed and Satan in quiet; such as kerchiefs and pillows; untempered mortar, and daubing with it; Ezek. xiii. 10. 18; biting and stamping; waging war with every one that sounds an alarm, or cries fire; forms of prayer, and daily and hourly tasks; the sacrament at a dying hour; salt fish in Lent; and innocent amusements, cards and plays; concerts of sacred music and holy water; extreme unction, human absolution, and ecclesiastical authority; fastings and pilgrimages. All these, and the power of the strong man too, are little enough at times to keep Satan's court in peace.

The sixth pillar of Satan's kingdom is a false hope. There are no hypocrites in the world, except those few in black despair, but what are buoyed up with a false hope; which hope centers in the flesh, and is founded on human performances; and as a man abounds in dead works, so he abounds in hope; and, when he obtains a vain supposition that he exceeds all others in human merit, this raises him to the full assurance of hope; and they, in their expectation of the great reward, exceed in firmness one half of the children of God; nor is their hope clogged with

those doubts and fears which are often raised about the state of those endowed with a good hope through grace; for, although Satan often suggests to such that they are hypocrites, and that their faith and hope are vain, yet he never preaches this doctrine to those to whom alone it is applicable, for he is not divided against himself; if he was, how should his kingdom stand? Established in this false hope, and equipped with this expectation, many will approach even the gate of life, and that with boldness: "Strive to enter in at the strait gate; for many, I say unto you, will seek to enter in, and shall not be able," Luke xiii. 24. The foolish virgins had no other anchor than this when they cried, "Lord, Lord, open to us." If ever such hypocrites have any doubts or fears about them, it is when the clamours of conscience, through the judgments of God, sound too loud to be drowned by the cry of, Peace, peace; but even then, when the alarm is past, they appear the more steadfast. A false hope is the cockatrice egg, and human merit is the spider's web, Isa. lix. 5. But, when the wrath of God enters the conscience, the egg will be crushed, and then out comes the viper; the curse of God will break the egg, and the flames of hell will consume the web. "The hypocrite's hope shall perish; whose hope shall be cut off, and whose trust shall be a spider's web," Job viii. 14.

The seventh bulwark, by which the devil supports his empire in the heart, is human wisdom.

Satan has no fools in his kingdom, though God hath few else in his. "We are fools for Christ's sake," says Paul; yea, and all must become fools before they are made wise, and fools afterwards too, for they know nothing of themselves. But not so the subjects of Satan, "For the children of this world are in their generation wiser than the children of light," Luke xvi. 8. There are no more than two succeeding generations, the children of God, and the children of the devil; so that it is in the generation of vipers that this wisdom lies. All the followers of Christ which he had blessed fell under the sentence of these wise men among the Jews: "This people that know not the law are cursed." "Thou wast altogether born in sin, and dost thou teach us? and they cast him out.", These wise ones can tell you the origin of the world better than he who made it, if you can believe them; they will give you a description of the eternity of matter, though they will not allow him to be eternal that made the world, John i. 3. They have found out that every star is a habitable world, and they have multiplied heavens as fast as the papists have multiplied mediators, which never had any existence but in their brains; they have given to the globe of the earth such velocity of motion as all the weights and machinery in the world could never give to a wheel, nor all the nitre upon earth give to a shot; they have ascribed such intelligence and influence to the planets, that they can tell you at Christmas when it will rain and when it

will shine all the year round; nay more, they will cast your nativity by them, and read your fate or destiny, so that you may know your end from the beginning without going to the gypsies; so profound in knowledge are those whose wisdom is earthly, sensual, and devilish.

And, if Satan sows a crop of these tares among the Lord's wheat, in order to answer some future purpose, their wisdom is still retained; they are no less than the children of the wicked one, though they are mixed among the children of the kingdom. They may be known by their noise, for they are swift to speak and slow to hear, James i. 19; by their station also, for there is none of this sort that are servants of all, or servants of any; they are all masters, that they may receive the greater condemnation, James iii. 1. This sort must not be sought for in the lower room, but in the highest seat. Satan sends no understrappers, such as helps or fellow-helpers to the truth; those that he sent into the church in Paul's days were all apostles, 2 Cor. xi. 13; Rev. ii. 2. They are like Pharaoh's statesmen, the sons of the wise, the sons of ancient kings, Isa. xix. 11; and true enough, for we know of no kings upon earth so ancient as devils. A subject of Christ's kingdom must compare himself with the scriptures, and he that doth so finds himself foolish enough; but Satan's subjects compare themselves with themselves, and Paul says they are not wise; but I say they are wiser than seven men that can render a reason.