46

ture,

"no reputation, and took on him the form of a servant, being despised and rejected of mon, not having where to lay his head!"* The treacherous insinuation" if thou be the Son of God"— the artful application of Scrip"He shall give his Angels charge concerning thee, to keep thee in all thy ways; " and in their hands they shall bear thee up, "lest thou dash thy foot against a stone, alike failed of their desired effect. The Holy Jesus suffered his divine Mission to remain in doubt, both in the breast of Satan, and of the populace of Jerusalem, rather than thus cast himself down from the pinnacle of the Temple, to satisfy their incredulity. He, who afterwards refused a sign from heaven,' and to descend from the cross,' would not now gratify his deceitful Adversary - by a display of divine power --- in itself so useless, and so vain-glorious in appearance. "It is written (said he ) Thou shalt not tempt the Lord thy God." Though he had all power given to him in heaven and in earth, he would not tempt his divine Father by the least unnecessary use of it. He would rather remain unknown, rejected, despised; than seem to arrogate to himself honours, and thus act in the least degree of opposition to his Father's perfect will.

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* Heb. i. 3. Philip. ii. 7. Ifai. liii. 3. Luke, 9. 58.

I

PART II.

HAVE proceeded thus at length into the temptations of the first and second Adam; since they may serve to lay open the great leading principles of all Satan's devices against every individual of mankind. Animal plea

sures, worldly riches and honours, are the baits by which he allures far too many to their destruction. The principles of corrupt desire, implanted in our nature, give his temptations but too much power in our breasts. He too sucessfully lulls the hearts of many asleep to the many awful declarations of Almighty God. Though God hath said “the wages of sin," of every sin, " is death; Tho' He hath declared "He will in no wise clear the impenitent guilty ;" * yet Satan still continually suggests "Ye shall not surely die. " Though the Sacred Scriptures declare that "God is of purer eyes than to behold iniquity," without just indignation; ---“ a consuming fire" to all wickedness; --- and that "it is a fearful thing to fall into his hands, for "who can dwell with everlasting burnings? "

Rom. vi. 23. See James ii. 10. Gal. iii. 10 Exod. 34. 7. Numb. xiv. 18. ‡ Habak. i. 13. See Pfalm v. 5. † Deut. iv. 24. Heb. xii. 29. Heb. x. 31. Ifaiah xxxiii. 14.

yet the great enemy of souls will still insinuate that he is merciful; so merciful as not to be. holy, just, or true; thus abusing one of the most glorious attributes of God, in order to withdraw poor deluded man from his allegi

ance.

Meanwhile, he will continue to bring forward his three great engines, either jointly or separately, as he conceives most effectual.---So that the heart be but effectually seduced from the eternal Jehovah; ----so that the mind continue carnal; ----so that the eyes of the understanding continue blinded, lest the light of the glorious gospel of Christ should shine into them; ----so that the wretched beings only continue in their natural, unregenerate, unconverted state; his end is gained.

If they thus serve and worship him, they may choose what inferior idol they think proper. They may, with the glutton, make "a "God of their belly : Or, with the covetous make an idol of their gold: ‡ Or, with Herod set up, as " Idols in their heart," their own dignity and grandeur, exulting in the blind reverence paid them by an admiring multitude.

If they will not, as he would have them, "follow

Phillp ii. 19. ‡ Col. iii. 5. + Acta xii. 20 &c.

" follow all uncleanness with greediness, "draw iniquity with words of vanity, and sin, "as it were, with a cart rope;" if they will not sink the man into a brute, by running to

excess of riot" in the commission of the grosser vices; if they will not gratify him by indulging and excercising the most wrathful temper, or the most hateful dispositions; ---if they will not become the pests of Society, the scourges of the earth, by their ambition, avarice, or sensuality, spreading distress and misery around them, and heaping tenfold additional misery and condemnation on their own heads; he will condescend to compromise the matter with them. Let them but keep their hearts true to him, and estranged from God, and he will allow them to be, to all outward appearance, good moral characters, worthy and useful members of Society, affectionate to their families, indulgent to their dependents, liberal, courteous, and humane, in all their transactions with mankind: They may like Herod, 'do many things' apparently for God, nay, he will permit them to be patterns of regularity at the Church, and at the Sacraments, at family and even at private prayer, night and morning; he will suffer them sometimes even to read the Scriptures, and study them by the B 3. help

Mark vi. 20.

help of the most learned commentaries, so that they shall be able to argue on the word of God with great learning and acuteness; being in the eyes of the deluded many, the very models of divine Science, as well as of moral virtues. Yet "the strong man armed will still keep the "house, and all his goods will be at peace. " They may go to the very extremity of their chain, but not an inch further. Satan well knows that they are still "taken captive by "him at his will, T" still occupied in his service, still his children, ---not the children of God the children of this world, ---not the Children of light subjects of the kingdom of darkness, ---not the kingdom of God's dear Son and when they have enjoyed their full reward in the tribute of applause showered down upon them by the men of the age in which they live, and if their situations should have been of a public nature, have had their names handed down with wonder and admiration to posterity; He will seize their souls to pay them the wages which they justly merit ; for the wages of sin is death:' eternal, spiritual death, separation from God, the great source and author of all spiritual life, and peace, and joy, for ever and ever.

"Yes, the wicked shall be cast into hell, "and