seed that was sown, (Luke viii. 12.)

He

(John viii. 44;

that it is the devil that taketh away the that men receive not the word of life. calleth wicked men the children of the devil. 1 John iii. 10.) He tells us that all that commit sin are of the devil, so far as they are sinners; and if sin prevail, Satan prevails; and tells how the two families may be known asunder. (1 John iii. 8-10.) In this the children of God are manifest, and the children of the devil: whosoever doth not righteousness is not of God, neither he that loveth not his brother. He is said to sin from the beginning, and to be that wicked one, and Cain who killed his brother, to be of that wicked one. (1 John iii. 8, 12.) When Paul, a leader in Christ's army, doth charge one of Satan's champions, Elimas the witch, (Acts xiii. 10,) he doth it so as to charge his general through him: 'O full of all subtlety and mischief; thou child of the devil, thou enemy of all righteousness; wilt thou not cease to pervert the right ways of the Lord!' When Judas was disposed to betray him, Christ telleth us the reason, the devil put it into his heart, and entered into him. (John xiii. 2, 27.) And before saith of him, (John vi. 70,) that he was a devil, as being on his side, and to do his work. Do but mark the Scripture expressions, and you will see through all a constant war carried on between Christ and Satan; and a hostility in all Christ's words and actions to Satan and his kingdom. It was Satan that filled the heart of Ananias to lie to the Holy Ghost. (Acts v. 3.) The man of sin, and son of perdition, is the servant of Satan, and his coming is after the working of Satan, with all power, and signs, and lying wonders, and with all deceiveableness of unrighteousness in them that perish. (2 Thess. ii. 8-10.) This is one of Satan's chief commanders, and therefore an antichrist. All those fugitives that forsake their colours, and turn from Christ, do turn aside after Satan. (1 Tim. v. 15.) When Christ cashiereth any, and turneth them out of his church, and delivereth them to destruction, he is said to deliver them to Satan. (1 Cor. v. 5; 1 Tim. i. 20.) When Paul was hindered from coming to the Thessalonians, once and again he saith it was Satan that hindered him. (1 Thess. ii. 18.) And when the churches of Smyrna were to be persecuted, it is said that the devil shall cast some of them into prison. (Rev. ii. 10.) The congregations and company of heretics and ungodly men, who are the church's enemies, he calleth the 'Synagogues of Satan.' (Rev. ii. 9, and iii. 9.) For they are those societies by whom

Satan's work is done, and those assemblies in which he is served publicly, as by the witches in their assemblies he is more secretly.

Yea, when rulers of nations are drawn into sin and misery, it is by the malice of this common enemy. It was he that "stood up against Israel, and provoked David to number Israel." (1 Chron. xxi. 1.) It was he that "was a lying spirit in the mouth of Ahab's prophets." (1 Kings xxii. 22.) And when judgment is to be executed, especially on the people of God, it is he that is commonly permitted to be the executioner, for God will employ his creatures according to their own natures and offices; when he will burn, it shall be usually with fire; when he will drown, it shall be with water; and so, when he will destroy, he will send a destroying angel, whose nature doth more incline him to destroy; when the Israelites murmur, he sendeth evil angels among them, and they are destroyed of the destroyer. (1 Cor. x. 10; Psalm lxxviii. 49.) These are the dogs that God sendeth to drive home his sheep.

The idols also of the heathen, and idolaters, are called devils, and being God's greatest enemies, and to which he beareth the greatest hatred. (Lev. xvii. 7; Deut. xxxii. 17.) "They sacrifice to devils, and not to God, to new gods, newly come up, whom their fathers feared not." (Chron. xi. 15.) When Jeroboam had made him priests of the meanest of the people for his calves, and had expelled the priests of the Lord, it is said that he "made him priests for the high places, and for the devils, and for the calves that he made :" and "they are said to sacrifice their sons and daughters to devils." (Psalm cvi. 33.) These things are spoken to the reproach of devils, by the Spirit of Christ in his prophets before his coming, conformable to which are his own and his apostles' speeches since.

By all this, Christ's enmity to Satan is most evident, he having done and said so much to his disgrace, and making his name odious to all his disciples, that thereby he may fortify them against his temptations, and encourage them to the war to which he calleth them.

13. Moreover, to testify this enmity yet further, Christ listeth all his servants in their baptism, of purpose to fight under him against Satan and his kingdom: so that it is essential to a disciple of Christ to be a soldier against the devil. How full an evidence is this to shame all blasphemous suggestions, as if Christ, were on Satan's side, and borrowed his power! No won

der if the devil would have men to renounce their baptism; for it is the very entrance into an engagement to fight under Christ against him to the death. This the church hath used generally to express in baptism; and therein to require that the baptised do renounce the devil with the world and the flesh, his instruments and agents: so that so many baptisings as there are in the world, so many solemn engagements are there to oppose the devil, and so many abrenunciations of him.

14. And the laws that Christ Jesus giveth his people do yet more fully discover this enmity, and put all perfectly out of doubt. For, 1. He commandeth them in general to resist the devil, and do all that they can against him; (James iv. 7;) not to give place to the devil, (Eph. ii. 27,) but to stand against his wiles: (Eph. vi. 11:) and he pronounceth such open hostility, that if his followers will not abstain from all wilful correspondence with Satan, they shall be no servants of his. He will have them defy him, and hate all his ways, and not to have familiarity with any of his open, known servants. They must cast such out from among them, and not so much as eat with them, nor receive them into their houses, or bid them God speed, lest by so doing they be partakers of their evil deeds. They must rebuke a brother if he do that which is pleasing to Satan, and withdraw from him, if he do not hear and amend, that he may be to us as a heathen, or a publican: (1 Cor. v. 10, 11, 7; 2 John x. 11; 2 Thess. iii. 6, 14; Matt. xviii. 15-17 :) and he is to be delivered to Satan, in some cases, as is aforesaid: and, lest any should think they may play on both sides, Christ assureth them of the contrary, that they cannot serve him, unless they will set themselves against the devil and his works; for there is no possibility of reconciliation or communion, "The things which the gentiles sacrifice, they sacrifice to devils, and not to God; and I would not that ye should have fellowship with devils. Ye cannot drink the cup of the Lord, and the cup of devils: ye cannot be partakers of the Lord's table, and of the table of devils. Do we provoke the Lord to jealousy? Are we stronger than he ?” (1 Cor. x. 20-22.) And we must not join in marriage with the known servants of the devil, because of this enmity and necessary distance. "Be ye not unequally yoked with unbelievers: for what fellowship hath righteousness with unrighteousness; and what communion hath light with darkness; and what concord hath Christ with Belial? or what part hath he that believeth with an infidel; and what agreement hath the temple of

God with idols? for ye are the temple of the living God; as God hath said, I will dwell in them, and walk in them, and I will be their God, and they shall be my people. Wherefore, come out from among them, and be ye separate, saith the Lord, and touch not the unclean thing; and I will receive you, and will be a father unto you, and ye shall be my sons and daughters, saith the Lord Almighty." (2 Cor, vi. 14, &c.)

This is the discipline of Christ's army, and this is one of hi laws of war, that no man shall have familiarity or converse with the enemy, upon pain of his displeasure.

:

More particularly the laws of Christ are most expressly contrary to the will and interest of the devil. It would be too long a task particularly to survey them, though it is our best and most cogent evidence of the point in hand. The devil's work is to rob God of his glory, and of the hearts and service of the sons of men; Christ's laws do enjoin us to love God with all our heart, and soul, and might. It is the devil's employment to go up and down, and compass the earth to draw men from honouring God, and even to draw them to curse him to his face. (Job i. 6-9, and ii. 2-6.) The Lord Jesus condemneth all blasphemers and despisers of God, and commandeth us the greatest reverence to his majesty. He will neither permit us to take his name in vain, or swear rashly by it; nor yet to swear by any creature, that we give not away his glory to another. He will not have us worship so much as an angel, much less the souls of men, and much less stocks, and stones, and images; or sun, or moon, or stars, and, least of all, the devils; whereas, it is Satan's design to draw the world to worship the creature instead of the Creator, and change the truth of God into a lie, and the glory of the incorruptible God into an image made like corruptible man, and birds, and beasts, and creeping things. (Rom. i. 23, 25.) Satan would draw men to routs, and riots, and profane assemblies, and keep them from the assemblies where God is truly worshipped. Christ hath appointed the first day of every week to this end, that in the solemn assemblies we might learn our duty, and send up our requests to heaven, and give God the homage of praise which we owe him (in our measure). Satan is an enemy to all good order and government, and human society. Christ commandeth us order, and obedience, and telleth us that God is not a God of confusion. Satan is the prince of malice, hatred, contention, and divisions. Christ is the prince of peace, and love, and

unity, and concord, and strictly chargeth his soldiers to maintain these among themselves, and to avoid all mutinies and schisms; and tells them that this is the second commandment like to the first, that we love our neighbour as ourselves, and that this is his new commandment, that we love one another, and that in so doing we shall be known to all men to be his disciples, and shall please him, and be like to God, who is love. Yea, he commandeth us to love our enemies, bless them that curse us, and pray for them that hurt and persecute us, if ever we will be the children of our heavenly Father, and so his true disciples. How perfectly contrary is all this to Satan, his disposition, and will, and way, who delighteth in blood, desolation, and misery, and is always putting his servants to seek revenge, and kindling thoughts of malice, censoriousness, and bitterness in their breasts?

The devil tempteth men to do hurt to one another, and to murder: Christ condemneth those that shall but be rashly angry with their brother, or call him fool, or use any such railing and reproachful words. Satan is a spirit of uncleanness, and a tempter to uncleanness and filthy lusts: Christ condemneth as much as an unruly eye, even looking on a woman to lust after her. Satan is a robber, and a tempter of others to stealing and robbery Christ condemneth the coveting of that which is another's, and the very desiring to be rich. (1 Tim. vi. 9; Prov. xxiii. 4, and xxviii. 20, 22.) In a word, there is nothing in all the world more perfectly contrary to the will of Satan than is the law of Christ; whatever his wicked nature doth desire, or commend, or endeavour after, it is here discommended and strictly forbidden.

Yea, further note, the exceeding enmity appeareth in the exceeding strictness of these laws of Christ; he will not allow us so much as to speak one word that is pleasing to the devil, nor to think one evil thought. Though he will pardon our infirmities, of his grace, yet will he not allow the least; yea, he makes us know, that without the sacrifice of his blood, the least could not be pardoned.

See here, by the way, a most full testimony for Christ out of the mouths of his very enemies. Do they not reproach his laws for being so precise and strict, and taking them so much off from their sinful pleasures. Here, then, is a witness that Christ is no friend to sin, or the spirit of iniquity that tempteth men to sin. Of those that I have known turn infidels, some of