ing and to conquer, in his strength and to his praise. Help me to look upon the world, and to treat it as he did, that, feeling the emptiness of its offered happiness, I may with a single heart cleave to my Father in Jesus, and may be saved from the spirit of the world. Keep me waiting for my appointed time, sitting quite loose and free to the things about me; and let heavenly and eternal things be always present to my faith, in their reality and blessedness, that I may grow more alive to them, and more dead to every thing else. Preserve my heart, O my gracious God, that I may be simple with thee when I am in my worldly business. Enable me to cast all my cares and burdens on thee, believing thou carest for me. O daily crucify the world to me, and me to it, that, when its offers stand in competition with thy love, I may have grace to reject them. In this holy war carry me on glorifying him who hath called me to be a soldier. Grant me this for Jesus' sake. Amen, and amen. CHAPTER XIII. The Believer marches on, resisting and overcoming the wiles and assaults of the Tempter. SATAN is a continual adversary. He rebelled against the sovereign will of the Most High in hea ven, and was cast out. As soon as man was formed, he began to tempt him to rebel against God, and he succeeded. Ever since the revelation was made of the divine purpose to redeem sinners, he has set himself up against it, and with impotent rage opposed it. He is always trying to hinder sinners from coming to the Saviour; and when they are come to him, to hinder them from living by faith upon his fulness. On the side of Satan are principalities and powers, combined armies and united legions of apostate spirits -formidable to man for their number-more so for their subtlety and cunning: they have stratagems and wiles, depths of skill to deceive-in which they are so successful that they have deceived the whole world. Their courage is desperate-they fear nothing; for they were mad enough to take up arms against the Almighty. No wonder, then, that they should be unwearied in their attacks against man. They are always upon the watch-ready, as one temptation fails, to present another. Their strength is very great: they are called principalities and powers, rulers and princes, yea, the god of this world, because they work as they please in the children of disobedience, whom they keep so fast bound in the chains of sin, that no human arm can break them asunder. And it is the only joy they know-the joy of hellto rivet the chains of sin upon these poor captives, till they bind them in everlasting chains of darkness. These, O my soul, are thine enemies. They had drawn thee into their rebellion, and they are still trying to draw thee into their torments. They have free access to thy fallen nature. They know how to make use of the objects in the world to work thy senses, and to stir up evil thoughts. They have fiery darts always at hand to throw at thy faith, and rest not night and day in attacking thy peace and happiness in Jesus. upon Bless the Lord, O my soul, and all that is within me bless his holy name, for undertaking to save thee from those enemies. The love of the Father gave his Son to be the woman's seed-Jehovah incarnate -for his people. In their nature he was to bruise the head of the serpent: his cunning, his poison, and all his power to hurt, lie in his head; when this is bruised, he is defeated. The battle to be fought was foretold, and the victory to be won was promised to Adam; and by faith in it, he and all the redeemed in the Old Testament conquered Satan. In the fulness of time God was manifest in the flesh: he came to destroy the works of the devil. Sin is his great work; by it he drew man from God, and by it he keeps man from God. Emmanuel began the destruction of the works of the devil by taking human nature. His manhood was perfectly holy-it had not, it could not have any sin; because God was in Christ. There was every thing in his holy life which the law could require. He obeyed all its precepts with uninterrupted conformity; and, being co-equal and co-eternal with the Father, his obedience was therefore Divine, absolutely complete, and infinitely sufficient to justify for ever. He was tempted, indeed, but he overcame every temptation. He defeated Satan in all his attempts, insomuch, that when he was entering on the last scene of his life, he could declare "The prince of this world cometh, and hath nothing in me." He did come, and the great pitched battle was fought, which was to decide for ever, whether the seed of the woman or the serpent should be crowned conqueror. The battle began in the garden of Gethsemane, and was finished upon Mount Calvary. Every stratagem of infernal policy was then tried; every assault of devilish malice was exerted against the Captain of our salvation: but he conquered them all, as it was foretold-"Thou shalt tread upon the lion and adder; the young lion and the dragon shalt thou trample under thy feet." He the serpent's head, and crushed it; but, at the same time, the serpent bit his heel. trod upon The heel is his lowest part-his body; this fell in the conflict: but he completed his victory by the loss of his life. The apostle speaks of the cross upon which he bled and died, as the great scene of this engagement, and on which he vanquished and triumphed for ever over the powers of hell-having spoiled principalities Cand powers, and taken away all their armour wherein they trusted, he made a show of them openly, triumphing over them upon the cross, leading them as you would captives in chains; rebels still, but unable to rob the Lord Christ of the glory of any part of his conquest. Thus through death he conquered death, and him that had the power of death, that is, the devil. O blessed and almighty Jesus! eternal thanks are due to thee for this most glorious victory. Satan is now a vanquished foe. He is under thy feet, thou high exalted Head of the redeemed. Thou hast for them, and in their stead, overcome all his wiles and assaults. He may tempt, but he cannot conquer them. He has no right to accuse them— thou hast made an end of sin. He has no power to torment them-thou hast brought in everlasting righteousness. He cannot pluck them out of thy hands-they are dear to thee, and kept as the apple of thine eye. Glory be to thee! thou wilt soon bring them out of the reach of his temptations, and thou wilt be to them an eternal and infinitely perfect Saviour. In this faith, O my soul, thou art called upon to take up arms against the old serpent. Thou art to fight against him under the banner of Jesus—a name terrible to the devil and his angels. Trusting to the victory of Jesus for thee, and to the strength of Jesus working in thee, thou art daily to bring him honour and renown. How safe, how blessed is such a warfare ! Thou hast the wisdom of thy God and Saviour to discover to thee the wiles of Satan. Trust to it, O my soul. Leave thyself simply to his direction; and although Satan be subtle and cunningalthough he has depths of policy, and plans out of number-yet thou shalt be ignorant of his devices. Thy all-knowing Saviour will detect his plots, and turn the counsel of that Ahithophel into folly. And if he attack thee as a roaring lion, yet fear him not. Thy Redeemer is strong. He has bruised the serpent's head; resist him in faith, and thou shalt bruise it also. Lean on the arm of thy Jesus; depend on his promised strength; follow his orders, and thou shalt tread Satan under thy feet daily. But, above all, remember that thou canst only conquer him by faith-by faith in the victory of Jesus, built upon thy faith in the word of Jesus; for this the Scripture testifies of the conquerors now round the throne," that they overcame the devil by the blood of the Lamb, and by the word of their testimony." They overcame him by depending upon the atoning blood, and by trusting to what the word says of its all-sufficiency to save; and they found, by |