where the inward temptations of the devil, and the discipline of God's Spirit, and Bunyan's varied acquaintance with men, and knowledge of his own heart, and experience in the business of preaching, and experimental knowledge of the gospel, and of the power, blessedness, and fitness of God's word, had just fitted him for the composition of precisely such a work. I say, just at the point when God had fitted his chosen instrument for this work, he permitted the malice of his infernal enemy, and the wrath of his earthly adversaries, to put him in a quiet cell, where he would have heavenly retirement to meditate upon it, and uninterrupted leisure to accomplish it. Was there ever a more perfect and delightful illustration of that promise, "Surely, thou wilt cause the wrath of man to praise thee, and the remainder of wrath thou wilt restrain?"

And now as to these Satanic temptations:-having followed Bunyan to prison, we must perforce leave him there till such time as we can, God willing, dwell more particularly on the manner in which he was brought there, and the way in which the light and loveliness of the creations of his Pilgrim arose like the sun in his soul out of that imprisoned darkness. But a few words as to these Satanic temptations. It is a deeply interesting and important subject; one on which we would much rather devote a whole lecture. We do not suppose that any man who, in spite of the testimony of the Scriptures, is a disbeliever in the existence of the devil and his angels, will be brought to believe on the testimony of Bunyan; and yet, in the providence of God there might be such a thing; at any rate, the strong and simple experience and testimony of Bunyan might lead such a man to review with more candour and less doubt the scripture argument and evidence. And we say that the murky experience of Bunyan cannot philosophically be accounted for on any other principles than those laid down in the Scriptures, nor in any other way so rationally, so probably, so truly, as Bunyan himself under the light of the Scriptures has taken to illustrate it. Refer it to Satanic agency, and all is plain, consistent, and full of the deepest, most solemn interest. Reject that agency, and all is unaccountable, absurd, prodigious; unless, indeed, you make Bunyan a downright madman, a lunatic; which conclusion, in regard to a man whose whole life, from the time when that madness commenced, was one bright career of goodness, and who in thể midst of it wrote the most sensible, excellent, and delightful book in the language, would be the most absurd of all conclusions. Indeed, there was more "method in his madness" than there is in most other men's sanity. But his own deliberate conclusions concerning the workings of his mind, and the influences brought to bear upon him, formed fifteen years or more after his own personal passage through the Valley of the Shadow of Death, formed in the midst of light from heaven, formed with the most careful adherence to the words and principles of the Scriptures, formed with the help of much observance of the conflicts of others, and formed by a mind not at all inclined to fanaticism, but remarkably liberal, tolerant, free from extremes, and cautious in asserting a supernatural interposition, as in some remarkable cases we have seen he was; I say, the conclusions of such a mind, after such a period of thoughtful, prayerful examination, are invaluable, and to be relied upon.

They even form an important addition to our external testimony for the truth of the Scriptures, and the manner of their interpretation. How often do we have to resort to existing realities to explain texts of Scripture otherwise inexplicable, and which to the infidel vulgar, to men of the kin of Voltaire and Tom Paine, serve for ignorant and senseless ridicule ? For example, to take one of the very simplest instances, if a man meet with the passage, “I am become like a bottle in the smoke," or the passage about putting new wine into old bottles, he must go to an external reality to determine its meaning; and if he does not know (as most infidel writers have not known enough even about the Scriptures to know) that bottles were made out of goat-skins, he may, perhaps, like Voltaire or Tom Paine, exercise his wit upon these passages. But if he be a believer, and come for the first time upon such an illustration, he will say, How delightful is this! I bless God for this! Now I know the meaning of a passage of which before I was ignorant. And just so, if what is said in the Scriptures in many passages about the temptations of the devil, were perfectly inexplicable to one who had never met with those temptations, and he should for the first time meet the tale of Bunyan's trials, he would say, when he sees such experience, now I know how to interpret those Scriptures; now I see the meaning of things which I did not see before; now I know the meaning of those fiery darts of the Wicked One. Poor Bunyan!-his suffering was, as it were, vicarious; he was tried, that I might be instructed.

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Suffer me to illustrate this matter still further, for it is important. Among the difficulties brought against the Scriptures, it had, at one time, often been alleged as an objection to the historical accuracy of the New Testament, that it gave the title of Proconsul to the Governor of Cyprus, (Acts xiii. 7,) when, in strict propriety, he could only have been styled Prætor of the Province. So strongly did this apparent inaccuracy weigh with Beza, observes Mr. Benson, that he absolutely attempted to remove it by translation; and our own translators have used the term Deputy, instead of the correct title of Proconsul. Now, it is a fact, that a medal has since then been discovered, on which the very same title is assigned, about the same period, to the governor of the same province, and so that difficulty vanishes for ever. But, as Benson well remarks in his Scripture Difficulties," it does not vanish without leaving stronger evidence for the truth. Now, as to these difficulties about Satanic temptations, about the devil, and his agency with the mind, a man may say, it is inexplicable, incredible, not to be taken as strict history, but something figurative, a mythos. But suppose, in a really candid and inquiring frame of mind, this inexperienced man lights upon the personal history of Luther, or upon this thrilling story of Bunyan's temptations, a hundred years afterwards, is it not just as if he had found a medal, struck in the same sacred treasury where the words of scripture were engraven, with the very image of the devil on one side, and the inscription SATANIC TEMPTER above it? And now ought not the difficulty to vanish for ever? And are not discoveries like these of incalculable importance to the believer in the evil hour of temptation? Yea, it is like Christian himself hearing a human voice before him in the Valley of the Shadow of Death, where it seemed as if no living creature ever could pass safely.

Now, on this point there is a wonderful coincidence between the experience of men recorded in the word of God, and those out of it; and these two things illustrate each other. Take Job, for example. If a man say, this experience of Bunyan is all a delusion, it is merely his own imagination tormenting him, there never was or could be such a reality. We say, beware; this experience of Bunyan has its original in the word of God itself; it is countersigned, as it were, in Job's own history. Or if a man say, this experience of Job is figurative; no man ever experienced such dealings in reality; we say, so far from this, other men have experienced such discipline; it is countersigned, as it were, and illustrated, in the experience of a modern Christian. It is true, that in the account of Job, the steps are marked by the Divine hand; but in the account of Bunyan, also, the steps are just as clear, with that single exception. They are almost as clear as if it had been said, as in the case of Job, There was a man in the land of England whom God would take and prepare for the greatest usefulness of all men living. And Satan said, Let me take Bunyan, and I will tempt him from his integrity, and make him curse God, and deny his very being. And God said, Let Satan try his uttermost upon this man, and the awful discipline shall only prepare him for greater usefulness and glory. So Satan went forth, and by the space of two years filled the soul of Bunyan with distresses and temptations, and the fiery darts of the Wicked One. Is not this the very truth of the matter? You may say, that with Job, Satan's temptations were all external, while with Bunyan they were mostly inward. Yes, but let it be remembered that Job had a bosom companion, a treacherous, unbelieving, discontented wife, who would, in the place of the devil, do all the whisperings, and the blasphemous suggestions that were needed. Yea, while Job was passing through the valley of temptation, this woman was as a fiend at his ear, "Curse God and die," to make it as the Valley of the Shadow of Death! Bunyan, on the other hand, had a godly wife, who would do no part of the work of the tempter, but would shield her husband, and help him on to God. As to many matters the cases are wonderfully similar, especially if in Bunyan's imprisonment likewise you trace the malice of the devil, as assuredly you ought.

Now, if you pass from the Old Testament to the New, the very experience of our blessed Lord at the very outset confirms this view. Before entering on his great work, he was led of the Spirit into the wilderness, to be tempted of the Devil!

To be tempted of the Devil! And for what cause? What ineffable mystery is this! Nay, it is indeed a mystery, and yet in part it is so brightly, so sweetly, so lovingly explained to us, that nothing could be more delightful to the soul than this very fact. Turn, then, in your Bibles, to those precious passages in the Epistle to the Hebrews, which explain our blessed Lord's temptations, and the reason for them, and in some respects the manner of them. They tell us that it became Him, for whom are all things,

and by whom are all things, in bringing many sons unto glory, to make the Captain of their salvation perfect through sufferings. And, therefore, as the children are partakers of flesh and blood, he also himself took part in the same, that through death he might destroy him that had the power of death, that is, the devil. Wherefore, in all things it behoved him to be made like unto his brethren, that he might be a merciful and faithful High Priest, to make reconciliation for the sins of the people. FOR IN THAT HE HIMSELF Where

HATH SUFFERED, BEING TEMPTED, HE IS ABLE TO SUCCOUR THEM THAT ARE TEMPTED.

fore, people of God, rejoice! For we have not an High Priest which cannot be touched with the feeling of our infirmities, but was in all points tempted like as we are, yet without sin. Let us, therefore, come boldly unto the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy, and find grace to help in time of need.

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Now, is any further explanation needed than such a passage, so full of light, mercy, loveliness, in regard to that other passage, Then was Jesus led up of the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted of the devil?" And how could he be tempted with evil thoughts in any other way? They could not spring out of his own soul, for he was perfectly sinless. They could not come from his own imagination, for that imagination was invested with the splendours of heaven. They could not be the ravings of lunacy; for though, because of our Saviour's supremacy of goodness, because of the lightning of his countenance, his life, and his words against sin, and because of his irresistible power in casting out devils, his enemies asserted that he had a devil and was mad, yet no man now would dare the blasphemy. They could only come from the personal suggestions of the Evil One; and thus did our blessed Lord take part in our temptations; thus did that spotless being pass through a furnace of blasphemies and hell-born propositions, the very Valley of the Shadow of Death; and thus, at the very commencement of his ministry, did the Captain of our salvation begin to be made perfect through sufferings. Nor is there in all his ministry, nor, I had almost said, even in his death upon the cross, a greater, more wonderful, more affecting proof of his boundless compassion and love. The spotless Son of God consenting, for our sakes, at the very entrance on his ministry, to pass through so revolting, so awful, so hideous an ordeal; an ordeal ten thousand times worse to an infinitely holy mind than death itself! Consenting to be for forty days alone in the wilderness with Satan as a personal companion, with this blaspheming, daring, polluted, tortured fiend, dragon, devil, belching forth his hellish thoughts, and insulting our blessed Lord with the application even of sacred scripture! All this for us! that he might be in all points tempted like as we are, yet without sin! Oh, who can tell the smallest part of the infinite goodness and condescension of our Redeemer?

He was led up of the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted of the devil. Now let me say, if you will read the opening of Milton's Paradise Regained, you will find there a marvellously probable and beautiful description of the manner in which Satan would enter on this work of temptation. Nor did his disappointment, and his utter discomfiture in it, prevent him from renewing it on the eminent disciples of our blessed Lord. There were some of them that, like Bunyan, were made to know the very "depths of Satan.' There was Peter, of whom our blessed Lord forewarned him, that Satan would try him to the utmost of his malignity and power: Simon, Simon, I say unto thee that Satan hath desired to have thee, that he may sift thee as wheat." Why! this is the very renewal of the scene in the Old Testament in regard to Job. Let me but lay my hand, says this sarcastic and malignant devil, upon this Peter, this disciple so hot and zealous for his Lord and Master, and I will make him blaspheme his very Saviour. I will make him curse God and die. Yes! and the devil did succeed in making him curse God! Awful, awful truth! Fearful revelation of the meaning of our Saviour in his warning to Peter, and of the dreadful power of this Tempter of mankind! But he did not succeed in making him die, not in utterly putting out the light of faith and life within him. No, there again was Satan disappointed, and out of evil still was brought forth good. But why, how, by what agency? Ah, how beautiful, how precious is the explanation! Simon, Simon, Satan hath desired to have thee, that he may sift thee as wheat; but 1 have prayed for thee, that thy faith fail not." So thou shalt yet be saved and strengthened, even though thou shalt deny thy Lord; and when thou art converted, strengthen thy brethren! Ah yes, that was the reason, I HAVE PRAYED FOR THEE. And what saint is there that Christ does not pray for? So, if our trust be in him, we are all safe, but not otherwise. And now, who does not see that in Peter's case, just as in Bunyan's, these dreadful storms of temptation were permitted to overwhelm him, that even out of that

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terrible experience, out of those very "depths of Satan," the tempted and fallen disciple might gain a strength in the end, through the good Spirit of God, which not another of the brethren, except perhaps Paul, ever manifested. And hence you can trace in Peter's rich instructive epistles, a knowledge of the great adversary, and a warning and a vigilance against him, that sprung from Peter's own dreadful wrestlings with him. Yea, those very blasphemies that Satan made Peter utter, turned out to be the most effective weapons, in remembrance, against himself.

And now I should like to ask any man of common sense to contemplate that striking declaration of our Lord to Peter, "Satan hath desired to have thee, that he may sift thee as wheat," and tell me in what possible way he would translate or interpret it, except as a manifest absurdity, without recognising the existence and agency of fallen spirits? How, I say, shall we translate it, supposing it to mean merely an evil thought, impulse, principle of wickedness? Simon, Simon, I say unto thee, the principle of wickedness hath desired to have thee that it may sift thee as wheat! Could any thing be more ineffably absurd, paltering, emasculating, than such a mode of dealing with the Scriptures? But why desire to resort to such absurdity? Can any thing be more consistent, steadfast, and definite, than the voice of the whole Bible in regard to the personality and agency of Satan? In the very opening of the word of God he comes before us in that awful character, sustained ever since, as the Tempter of mankind, the Tempter, and by his dreadful power the conqueror of the first Adam; and in the opening of the New Testament, the very first thing we see of him again is as the great Tempter of mankind, in personal conflict with the Son of God, the Second Adam, to be by him thrown as lightning from heaven; and his very weapons are those which he used with Bunyan, a diabolical perversion of the word of God itself, and a suggestion of devilish blasphemies. And then in the closing up of all revelation, the same accursed being comes into view as the Dragon, the Serpent, the Devil and Satan, the Deceiver of the world, the Deceiver of the nations, the Tempter of mankind, the Accuser of our brethren!

I have referred you to the temptation of our blessed Lord, and to that beautiful work of Milton, in which, with so much verisimilitude, the character and reflections of the devil, in entering on that work of temptation, are drawn before us. And I say, that Satan would be likely to make the same reflections, and pursue the same measures, though on a smaller scale, whenever he saw men like Luther or Bunyan in such an attitude, under such a discipline, of such a make, that he might expect great danger to his own kingdom from their efforts. For it is characteristic of Satan, as of all the wicked, never to profit by his own experience; and though all the evil he ever did, recoils, and ever must recoil, upon his own head, still he goes on doing it, providing materials for God to display his own glory, and out of evil still to bring forth good. "Experience, like the stern-lights of a ship," only shows Satan the path that has been passed over, and on he goes, committing the same errors in crime again.

Passing, now, in this argument, from our Lord's temptation to our Lord's prayer, we find there a distinct recognition of the Satanic tempter; "Lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from the WICKED ONE." This is one of the few passages in which our translation of the Scriptures, incomparably excellent though it be, is peculiarly defective, not rendering the power and full meaning of the original. There is another passage, equally unfortunate, where the translation, in the opinion of almost all commentators, ancient and modern, ought to be the Evil One, or the Wicked One, the same word being used as in our Lord's prayer :- -"But the Lord is faithful, who shall establish you, and keep you from the Wicked One," 2 Thess. iii. 3. And yet another passage in Ephesians, concerning which there cannot be a moment's doubt:" Above all taking the shield of faith, wherewith ye shall be able to quench all the fiery darts of the WICKED ONE,' Ephes. vi. 16. And this is a passage in which the phrase fiery darts is wonderfully expressive and powerful, being taken from the use in war of those slender arrows of cane, to which ignited combustible matter was attached, which, when shot, would set on fire wood-work, tents, whatever there was that would catch fire. Just so are the fiery darts of the WICKED ONE shot into the soul, or shot at the Christian, tipped, as it were, with damnation; and if there be wood, hay, stubble, in a Christian's works, instead of prayer, self-denial, labour for Christ, and in such a case these darts fall into the soul, then what a conflagration, perhaps what apostacy, what ruin, what death! Now in war it was the aim of persons so assailed to intercept and quench these burning arrows; and a most nimble and powerful exercise in the use of the shield did it require; and in the Christian

warfare, it is nothing but the Shield of Faith, and an equally nimble and dexterous use of it, that can defend the Christian. And this Bunyan found to his cost; for his great adversary assailed him with a fierce fiery storm of those darts, when he had but very little faith; and his very experience in the use of his shield he had to gain in his conflicts with the enemy. Now, if you compare these passages with some others—such as, "I would have come to you once and again, but Satan hindered me; ""Lest Satan get an advantage of us, for we are not ignorant of his devices; "Lest by any means the tempter may have tempted you, and our work be in vain ; and other passages of the like character, you will see delineated in the Scriptures the features of that fiend who tempted Bunyan; and you cannot doubt the meaning of the declaration that " 'your adversary the devil goeth about as a roaring lion, seeking whom he may devour."

Let it be marked that I have here confined myself to one class of passages in regard to Satan, those which present him in the character in which we have to do with him in the case of Bunyan. There are multitudes of passages, which I have not touched, and shall not. In the Revelation of St. John the devil is said to be concerned in throwing saints into prison, that they may be tried there; and here is a new mark of identity between the adversary of Bunyan and the devil of the Scriptures; and a new proof that in every age his wiles and stratagems are the same. I could easily fill a whole volume with arguments drawn from Scripture, and another volume with proofs from experience, on this subject. There is one point of importance in Bunyan's experience of the wiles of the devil, which I have not noticed, and that is, the great advantage which early habits of sin give to the Tempter against our own souls. Perhaps we may note this in the case of Peter, in the readiness with which Satan could fill his mouth with profaneness in the recurrence of what were probably his oaths as a youthful passionate fisherman. You may note it much more clearly in the case of Bunyan, who used to swear so dreadfully in his childhood, so that when the devil in his manhood tempted him with blasphemies, he had a powerful advantage over him. God indeed often uses a man's own sins to be terrible scourges to him; and in this is realized what is said in Jeremiah, Thine own wickedness shall correct thee, and thy backslidings shall reprove thee; know therefore and see that it is an evil and bitter thing that thou hast forsaken the Lord thy God." The truth of this Bunyan found to his great cost under the assaults of the Tempter, opening anew the sluices of his youthful wickedness.

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