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der given that, "all the angels of God fhould worship him,” even in that nature, when he fhould bring his first-begotten into the world. He difdained to worship God in a nature inferior to his own, for which he was tumbled from heaven to hell, with all the angels that joined him in his apoftacy.

3. Being caft out of heaven, he was filled with the madness of revenge and enmity against God; and finding our first parents in paradife, crowned with the glory and dignity of the divine image, he, through his flattering hiffes, draws them into a confederacy with himself against God, by tempting them to eat of the forbidden fruit, whereby they and their whole pofterity had perished for ever with the devils, under the weight of the wrath and curfe of God, unless the Son of God had interposed to destroy the works of the devil, and to fet the captives of the mighty at liberty.

4. By virtue of the curfe of the broken law, the devil comes to have a legal title to, and dominion over, every son of Adam by nature. The hand-writing, which was issued out against us, upon the violation of the holy law, gave the devil a power from God, in a way of righteous judgement, to rule in and over every man and woman springing of the firft Adam; hence called the god of this world. So that, Sirs, till you join yourfelves to the Son of God by faith in him, you are just the devil's lackeys to ferve him according to his beck and inclina tion; you do his works, as was hinted before.

5. The enemy, into whofe hands we are fallen, is of all others the most dangerous and terrible. And that you may know your danger while under his power, and the obligations we are under to the Son of God who came to deftroy him, I will tell you in two or three words what fort of an enemy he is.

if, He is a very powerful enemy: for though he has loft his original integrity, yet he has loft nothing of his natural ftrength; if he were not under the check of the power of God, he could in a very little time devour all mankind, and hurry them wholly to hell.

2dly, He is a fubtle and cunning enemy; therefore called a ferpent, which is the most fubtle and cunning of all the beats of the field. He fuits his temptations unto every man's temper: heknows well what bait is moft ready to catch the unwary finner.

3dly, He is an experienced enemy. He has long dealt in his foul-ruining and murdering trade; he has now had about fix thousand years experience in this bufinefs.

4thly, A molt vigilant enemy. He leaves no ftone unturned, he lofes no opportunity to carry on his hellish designs against the glory of God, and the falvation of fouls.

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5thly, He is a moft fierce and raging enemy; hence we are told, that he is a roaring lion.

6thly, He

6thly, He is a numerous enemy. It is true, he is here fpoken of in the fingular number; but his name is Legion. Although there be but one Beelzebub, the prince of devils, yet he has a numerous train under him, continually carrying on the plots of his kingdom of darkness. And, Sirs, I make no doubt, if our eyes were opened, we would see swarms of evil fpirits in this company, and in this very place, all at work to divert the minds of men from giving entertainment to the gofpel-revelation. Thus I have given you fome account of the enemy the Son of God had in his view when he appeared on the stage.

Now, you may be ready to afk, What are the works of the devil which the Son of God came to deftroy? Anfw. The grand and fundamental work of the devil is fin. This is, as it were, his firft-born, and the beginning of his strength, as you fee from the former clause of the verfe; "He that committeth fin, is of the devil; for the devil finneth from the beginning." And then it follows, For this purpose the Son of God was manifefted, &c. So that the main work of the devil is fin: this is juft the poifon and venom of the old ferpent. The flood that he cafts out of his mouth, in order to destroy the church, reprefented under the notion of a woman, Rev. xii. 15. what elfe is it but a flood of fin? This is the main engine whereby the devil carries on all his other hellish works and stratagems either against God or man. If it had not been for fin, the devil had never got any power over men in the world; fo that fin is the very feat and strength of his kingdom in the world. I remember it is faid, that "juftice and judgement are the habitation of God's throne;" and I may add, that iniquity and fin is the habitation of the devil's throne and empire. And here I might tell you of a multitude of fins, which are evidently the works,of the devil, if I were not afraid of entering upon a field large and wide like the heavens. Atheism is the work of the devil; he ftudies to perfuade men that there is no God to call them to an account, no judgement to come, no no hell or heaven. Ignorance is a great work of the devil; he "blinds the minds of them that believe not, left the light of the glorious gofpel of Chrift should shine into their hearts." Hence his kingdom is called a kingdom of darkness. Unbelief is the work of the devil, which is nothing else but a "making God a liar," a difcrediting of a God of truth, fpeaking either in a way of promife, precept, or threatening, in his word. It was by unbelief that he ruined our firft parents, he brought them to doubt if God had faid fo and fo. And when once a man begins to waver and question whether this or that be a point of the truth of God, he is gone, the enemy has him fair

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before the wind. Enmity is another work of the devil: "The carnal mind is enmity against God." This is juft the poifon of the old ferpent, that has run through all the powers of the foul. Pride is a work of the devil, yea, it is the very picture of the devil. Pride was his first fin; and by telling them that they fhould be as gods, by eating the forbidden tree, "knowing good and evil," he ruined them and their pofterity. This fin of pride has fo much of the devil in it, that God cannot look near a proud man; he "beholds the proud afar off." Hypocrify and diffimulation either with God or man, that is ano ther work of the devil. He himself diffembled the matter with our first parents, he transformed himfelf into an angel of light: and so doth every hypocrite, he appears to be what he really is not. Idolatry, fuperftition, charms, witchcraft, error, fwearing, lying, Sabbath-breaking, murder, adultery, theft, covetoufnefs, perjury, and all fin that I can poffibly name, they are all the works of the devil, and they that commit them are of the devil.

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But now, to illuftrate this head yet a little further, I will tell you of fome works of the devil brought about by fin, which are just the devil's fport and recreation. 1. The difhonour of God. 2. The difturbing of the creation. 3. The ruin of man. 4. The erection of his own kingdom of fin and

darkness.

1. I fay, the devil by fin defigns the difhonour of God, every fin being a violation of his law, a contempt of his authority, a denial of his fovereignty, an affront to his juftice and holinefs, and a cafting dirt upon all his perfections. Now, what a fport and pleasure is it unto that proud and rebellious fpirit, when he can get men and women to join him after this manner in affronting God, and trampling upon his laws? hence finners are faid to be in a covenant or confederacy with hell, to difhonour God.

2. By fin he disturbs the creation, and disorders all the works of God in this lower world. You know, Gen. i. when God had made the heavens and the earth, and all the reft of the creatures, he pronounced them all good; every thing was in its proper joint and lith, fubfervient unto the great ends of their creation; not a jar or groan to be heard among all the creatures of God. But now, Satan, by fin, disturbs and diforders the creation of God. Having tempted man to break his allegiance to God, he brings the curfe of God upon the very ground, and all the inferior creatures that stood in a fubordination to man. Hence follows war between man and the inferior creatures; and the creatures that are subject to man, it is unwillingly that they ferve him; they groan under

it as a fervitude, that they should be any way useful unto man, a rebel against their great Lord and Creator; hence is that of the apostle, Rom. viii. 20-22. It is just the pleasure and diverfion of the devil, to fee that order, and beauty and harmony, that God placed in the creation at first, disturbed.

3. By fin he brings about the ruin of poor fouls, which is as great a pleasure and diverfion to the wicked fpirit, as it is for a lion to tear and devour his prey when he is hungry. To il luftrate this to you, I will tell you of fome things the devil does to you when he gets you to fin, which are just the work and fport of the devil.

1A, He takes away our fight. The god of this world blinds all his votaries by fin; fo that, though the man is as it were just upon the mouth of hell, yet does not know it. Like the Philistines, he puts out our eyes, and then makes a sport of us.

2dly, By fin he takes away our beauty. Man, before; fin entered, fhined with the beauties of holinefs; but now by fin we are become hell-hued, black like the Ethiopian, by lying among the devil's pots; and this is the work and sport of hell.

3dly, He takes away our clothing, he leaves us ftark naked. Man, before fin entered, was clothed with a robe of perfect law righteousness; but when through fin we fell into the hand of the devil, he stript us of that ornament; hence Laodicea is faid to be "wretched, miferable, blind, poor, and naked," without a rag to cover her.

4thly, He takes away our strength and ability for any good work; fo that we are not fufficient to conceive a good thought, though it could purchase heaven. "When we were without

ftrength, in due time. Chrift died for the ungodly."

5thly, He takes away our peace with God, and confidence. towards him; as you fee in our first parents immediately after the fall, they fled from the prefence of God as an enemy; the Almighty became a terror to them, that they durft not look him in the face.

6thly, He takes away peace with confcience, God's deputy in the bofom. The devil has a continual hell in his breast, through his guilty confcience; only it is fome pleasure and ease to him, to fee men and women through fin feeling his own fmart, and crying with Cain," My fin is greater than can be forgiven.".

7thly, He takes away our life; for every fin is a thrust given to the life of the foul. And the devil, who murdered himself, and who is a murderer from the beginning, he just takes plea fare to fet men and women a-work to murder both foul and

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body at once, every fin being a draught of the poison of the old ferpent put in the man's hand.

8thly, He takes away our title to God and glory, and makes us children of wrath, and heirs of hell and the curfe with himself. These are fome things that the devil works by fin, which are juft his paftime and recreation. To all which I add,

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4. In the fourth place, that another work of the devil by fin is, to establish his own kingdom and empire, in oppofition unto God's government. And indeed, by the first fin, he drew all mankind under his dominion. He takes God's viceroy in this lower world (man, I ́mean), whom God had "made a little lower than the angels, and crowned with glory and dignity;" he not only makes him his drudge and vaffal, but he arms him against God his righteous Lord, and makes him "fay to the Almighty, Depart from us, for we defire not the knowledge of thy ways." And thus you fee what are the works of the devil. All these works Chrift came to destroy. "But now I go on to,

III. The third thing, which was the manifeftation of the Son of God, in order to his deftroying these works of the devil. There is fomething in this phrafeology of the text that is exceeding fignificant and emphatic; he was manifefted to deftroy the works of the devil; importing, that the devil and his works do as it were disappear at the very fight or appearance of the Son of God, as darkness disappears and evanishes at the manifeftation of the light of the fun. The devil and his works can no more stand at the approach of Chrift, than darkness can ftand before the fun when shining in the heavens in his ftrength. Now, to clear this, I will tell you of feveral gradual manifestations of the Son of God, every one of which is a stroke given unto the devil and his works.

1. He was manifefted initially in the first promife, Gen. iii. 15. "The feed of the woman fhall bruise the head of the ferpent;" which, as I faid before, is the very fame in fubftance with this of his being manifested to deftroy the works of the devil. This first promise contained a manifestation of Chrift; and therein were three things manifested concerning the Son of God. As, (1.) That he should be clothed with man's nature, and be born of a woman., (2.) That he should have his human nature bruised by the ferpent and his feed: " Thou fhalt bruise his heel." (3.) That the head of the ferpent, or the power of Satan and his ufurped kingdom, fhould get a mortal wound by the fufferings of the human nature of Chrift. Here was the firft manifeftation of the Son of God.

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