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fellow creature. But there is nothing more common in our day than to palm the sacred name of charity upon natural affections and upon dissembled love, and even upon corrupt and inordinate affections, which are members of the old man, but not of the new.

XIII.

THE SON OF GOD IN TRIUMPH, AND SATAN'S

WORK IN RUINS.

COL. ii. 15.

"And having spoiled principalities and powers, he made a shew - of them openly, triumphing over them in it."

1 JOHN iii. 8.

"For this purpose the Son of God was manifested, that he might destroy the works of the devil."

I WILL endeavour, from these words, to show,
1. The origin of the devil.

2. The devil's works.

It is the opinion of some that there is no such creature as the devil; which appears to have been the notion of Muggleton and Reeves, two impostors that preached in the days of Oliver Cromwell. They held that the evil nature in man is that which is called the devil. But then it is a wonder where that evil nature came from. I once knew a woman, a shining professor, who held this opinion through all her profession: her husband was a minister of the gospel. However, at length she fell into soul distress, and wished much to see me. I visited her, and soon after received a letter from her, saying she had long denied the exist

ence of Satan, and God had now given her into his hands that she might know there is a devil. This circumstance undeceived her in that particular, and yet she went on to be deceived; for, after she had been for some time deranged, she got better, and then she put off the mask and cloak of religion.

It is thought by some, and, if I mistake not, Milton was of this opinion, that angels were created long before this world was made; and that the angels fell in eternity before ever time began, But the word of God seems plainly to contradict this; "For in six days the Lord made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that in them is, and rested the seventh day." If the heavens, and the earth, and the sea, and all that dwell in them, were made in six days, angels, the inhabitants of heaven, must be included in the work of those six days; and perhaps the angels were the first living creatures that God made. For in God's speech to Job he asks, "Where wast thou when I laid the foundations of the earth? declare, if thou hast understanding. Who hath laid the measures thereof, if thou knowest? or who hath stretched the line upon it? whereupon are the foundations thereof fastened? or who laid the corner stone thereof; when the morning stars sang together, and all the sons of God shouted for joy?" It appears to me that the angels are called stars because of their glorious and shining appearance, and morning stars because first made in the morning of the world,

even as the time of Christ's second coming is called midnight, being at the end of it. And they are called the sons of God, as all rational creatures are by creation: We have all one father; one God hath made us all. Hence one of the angels said to John, who was going to worship him, "See thou do it not: I am thy fellow-servant, and of thy brethren that have the testimony of Jesus: worship God: for the testimony of Jesus is the spirit of prophecy." And, if I am not much mistaken, the anthem of the angels, which was sung in the morning of the creation, is still extant in the oracles of God. This I gather from its being altogether expressive of creating power, but not a word in it of redeeming love. "Thou

art worthy, O Lord, to receive glory, and honour, and power: for thou hast created all things, and for thy pleasure they are and were created," Rev. iv. 11. Though I do not imagine this song to be now sung by angels to the exclusion of the saints, for elect men as well as elect angels have cause enough to praise creating power as well as redeeming grace; but the choicest matter of the saints' song must be touching the King; and their sweetest anthem, and which shall be sung on the highest key, and that to all eternity, must be this, "Salvation to our God which sitteth upon the throne, and unto the Lamb," Rev. vii. 10. And again: "Blessing, and honour, and glory, and power, unto him that sitteth upon the throne, and unto the Lamb, for ever and ever." Now, as redemp

be

tion is expressly called a new song, it shews that the hymn of the creation was an old one, the new song making the first old.

Desperate, rebellious, implacable, treacherous, deceitful, false, cunning, vile, foul, filthy, impure, and unclean, as the devils now are, sure I am that they never came out of the hands of their great Creator in so vile a condition, and in such a perilous state; for, when the whole creation was finished, the following is the testimony which God gives of his works: "And God saw every thing that he had made, and, behold, it was very good; and the evening and the morning were the sixth day."

That the devil was once an archangel, or one of the first rank and higher order of angelic spirits, I have no doubt; because, fallen as he is, he still keeps up his dignity, and claims a kind of sove- · reign power and authority over the rest of the fallen angels: and this our Lord intimates when he distinguishes him from them, calling the leader the devil, and the rest his angels: "Depart from me, ye cursed, into everlasting fire, prepared for the devil and his angels."

None of the names by which our arch-enemy is now called, seem to be his original one, for all his present names are big with mischief, and are such as he obtained by his rebellion, apostacy, and enmity against God. He is called a roaring lion, being king of devils, as a lion is of beasts, seeking

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