guished. The man who does not see and consider that he is come into this world to be saved by Jesus Christ, is an ideot to all intents and purposes in the sight of God. If he is upon his defence against the power of the gospel, and puts it from him with those words of the demoniac, "Why art thou come to torment us?" he is a madman of the first class, to whom the poor lunatic, with a sceptre of straw, is an hopeful character. Miserable is the condition of men under temptation or possession from evil spirits: but the power of grace sets us free from their terrors, with those comfortable words, Who is he that shall harm you if ye be followers of that which is good? As a pledge to assure us of which, our Saviour gave to his apostles an evident superiority over the powers of darkness: Behold I give you power to tread on serpents and scorpions, and over all the power of the enemy, and nothing shall by any means hurt you*. Who is this enemy? The enemy of Christians is the devil; and such poisonous vermin as serpents and scorpions are the emblems of him and his children. A miraculous power over these creatures which hurt the body, was an outward assurance to the world, that he who Q 3 wounds * Luke x. 19. wounds the soul shall have no power to hurt a Christian. When the viper fastened on the hand of Paul, he shook him off into the fire from whence he came : and thither, into the element prepared for him, shall the devil be shaken off by the faith of those whom he assaults. Another great miracle, and the last I shall take notice of, is that of our Saviour stilling the raging of the sea, and delivering his disciples in a storm. We, like them, are embarked with Christ in the ark of his church, and are subject to many dangers and terrors upon the waves of this troublesome world. So long as we are in the world, we shall be ex, posed to the cares and troubles of this mortal life. Sometimes the elevations of pride and ambition lift us up toward the heaven; at other times disappointment and despair oppress us, and the deep threatens to swallow us up: while the Saviour in whom we have trusted seems to sleep, as if he were leaving us to perish in the storm. But the prayer of faith will at last awake him: we are therefore to trust in the worst of times, that he who rebuked the winds and the sea, when his disciples. cried out, Lord save us, we perish, will after the same example save us when we pray to him; that he will lessen our cares, and quiet Our our passions, and restore us to peace, so that there shall be a great calm: the winds shall drop, the sun shall shine out, and there shall be peace of conscience, which is the greatest calm in this world. Thus it appears that all the miracles of Christ have a figurative acceptation. From them we learn all the distempers of our souls, and where we are to apply for the cure of them. To open this subject still farther, I desire you will observe what a curious opposition there is between the miracles of Christ, and the workings of Satan. As the power of Christ was exercised in such works of salvation as were proper to his character as the Saviour of Souls; so there is a surprising agreement between the outward works of the devil on the persons of men, and his inward works upon their minds; insomuch that his character, as a destroyer, is not less evident in the scripture, than that of Jesus Christ as a Saviour. From some opportunities satan had of shewing his power, we see how it is exercised. When some strolling Jews took upon them to deliver one that was possessed, the man, in whom the evil spirit was, leapt upon them, as a lion would leap upon his prey, and they fled out of that house naked and wounded. He who here strips men, and tears off their clothes, is the same that left Adam naked in paradise; who delights still to repeat the same act, or even to see the shadow of it in nakedness and wretchedness: therefore the poor demoniac, who resided among the tombs, ware no clothes*. When the evil spirits went into the herd of swine, the whole herd ran headlong into the sea and perished. After the same form doth the devil drive men headlong into the gulph of perdition, when he gets the direction of them. He was permitted to possess this unclean herd, that we may thence learn how an unclean life will prepare us to be driven into hell itself by the destroyer. Temperance, sobriety, and devotion prepare our bodies to be the temples of the Holy Ghost; but impure manners prepare the heart for unclean spirits, and give them the opportunity they desire. We have heard of certain arts to call up the devil: but a man need only live like a swine, and he will be sure to have his company. A woman who was bowed together for eighteen years, and could in no wise lift up herself, is said to have had a spirit of infirmity, and to have been bound of Satan: whence it appears, that he is the instrument for inflicting unaccountable Luke viii. 27. unaccountable diseases. It is his will that none should be able to lift up their minds to heavenly things; and as a sign of it he bows their bodies towards the earth. : Those extreme cases, in which men raged and were thrown about, and torn, and tormented of the devil, were permitted, to shew us what his inclinations are toward the souls of all men living that he would deprive them of all reason; disturb their imaginations with fancies of horror and despair; inspire them with cruelty toward themselves; and drive them from the living God into the regions of the dead. Such are the works of Satan; contrary in every respect to the works of Jesus Christ; and men, as their nature now is, being subject to his power, exorcism, or the casting out of the evil spirit, was admitted as a part of the office of baptism in the primitive church. I would desire. you to observe farther, in regard to our present subject, that the very same images are used in the 107th Psalm as in the miracles of Christ, to express the redemption of men's souls from the effects of sin by the goodness of God. The redeemed of the Lord are there called upon to praise him for gathering them out of a wilderness, and satisfying their souls when hungry and thirsty: For break |