result of intellectual conviction, but a disposition of heart. Hence it must be produced by the operation of God. Isaiah intimates that "the arm of Jehovah" must be " revealed," before men will believingly receive the evangelical "report." St. Paul compares "the exceeding greatness of His power to us-ward who believe," to "the working of His mighty power" when He raised Christ from the dead.* This gracious agency is the chief thing wanting in order to remove the unbelief of professed infidels. For, though books and arguments have their use, yet perhaps more sceptics have been conquered by immediate exertions of Divine power than in any other way. Was it not thus that Saul was converted ? Were not the conversions in the primitive church generally of this kind? "If all prophesy, and there come in one that believeth not, or one unlearned, he is convinced of all, he is judged of all: and thus are the secrets of his heart made manifest; and so falling down on his face he will worship God, and report that God is in you of a truth." Let me not be thought to undervalue the importance of rational proof. In the cases here mentioned, the conviction suddenly produced is still rational, and in some sense the effect of evidence. It is not for want of evidence, but for want of a heart disposed duly to investigate and weigh it, that infidels remain as they are. The Holy Ghost operates chiefly in such a way as tends to remove those worldly prejudices and dispositions which prevented the proper impression of evidence on the mind. He strengthens the mental eye to contemplate the truth, and disposes the will and affections to embrace it as soon as it is discerned. So that in such instances faith in Christianity is still founded on argument, though effected by Divine agency. And in all other cases faith is in the same sense the gift of God,-wrought by the immediate energy of Him whose good Spirit is essential to its production and exercise. He only can remove the blindness,

Ephesians i. 19, 20.

† 1 Corinthians xiv. 24, 25.

hesitation, and reluctance of the carnal mind, so as to make unbelief give place to filial confidence,-so as to embolden us to claim our own part in the general promises of Scripture, and to rest assured that our claim will not and cannot be rejected.

3. With these two inferences is connected a third,—viz., the duty of humbling ourselves before God for past unbelief, and of earnestly imploring the Holy Spirit, that He may take of the things of Christ and reveal them unto us. Let us penitently confess and resolutely resist this most unreasonable and fatal tendency to distrust of the Divine testimony and faithfulness. Let us honour God by believing His word. To this end, let us say with the disciples, "Lord, we believe; help Thou our unbelief." Accomplish in us all the good pleasure of Thy will, and the work of faith with power. Cleanse us from all remaining corruption. Take full possession of our hearts, and perfect us in love. So shall unbelief die ; and we shall henceforward be strong in faith, giving glory to God. If we thus ask, we shall assuredly receive. God will not refuse the Spirit to any who humbly wait upon Him. May He save us all from the sin of "quenching the Spirit," and "alway resisting the Holy Ghost,"-which are the true causes why sinners remain impenitent, and mourners under the power of unbelief.

SERMON XXI.

THE BELIEVER SIFTED BY SATAN.

LUKE Xxii. 31, 32.

BEHOLD, SATAN HATII DESIRED TO HAVE YOU, THAT HE MAY SIFT YOU AS WHEAT: BUT I HAVE PRAYED FOR THEE, THAT THY FAITH FAIL NOT.

AMONG the many scriptural representations of the duty and office of God's ministers, one of the most instructive is that contained in Ezekiel xxxiii. 7:-"O son of man, I have set thee a watchman unto the house of Israel; therefore thou shalt hear the word at my mouth, and warn them from me.” The business of a watchman is to guard those over whose interests or property he is placed in trust, against any danger which may threaten them. Of the dangers of which it is our office to warn you, my brethren, that which arises from Satanic malice is not the least alarming or formidable. You "wrestle not" merely "against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places." Not only earth, but hell, is plotting your ruin. We have solemnly to admonish you, as our Lord and Master here admonished Simon and His other disciples, that “Satan hath desired to have you, that he may sift you as wheat: " that, being forewarned, you may be forearmed.

" so

In applying this weighty admonition, I shall not now stop to examine with critical accuracy its primary import and bearing, but shall consider it a general truth which concerns all mankind. For, brethren, as religion is always the same,

so are its enemies. We have to seek the same Lord, and serve the same Christ, whom the apostles sought and served. And many other passages of holy writ assert, in terms still more explicit than those of our text, that we have to contend with the same hellish adversary. Satan, who once "desired to have" the apostles, still "goeth about as a roaring lion, seeking whom" of us "he may devour."

I shall call attention,

I. To the great enemy of souls, here denominated Satan. II. To the nature and objects of that desire to have us, which the text ascribes to him. And then,

III. To the means by which this desire may be frustrated, and Satan's malice defeated.

I. The great destroyer of souls is here denominated Satan. I am aware that there have been men, in various ages of the world, who denied the existence of any such beings as we call devils, and the reality of that agency which we ascribe to them. This will not appear surprising, when we consider that there have also been men, by David termed "fools," who have had the still greater hardihood to "say in their heart, There is no God." Indeed, it is a remarkable fact in the history of human opinions, that a close and intimate connection has been found to subsist between the belief of the being of a God, and that of the existence of a wicked spirit who thinks and acts in opposition to God. For those who have disputed the one have usually disputed the other also; and where the one is seriously believed, there is, generally, no doubt as to the reality of both. Hence, to characterize an atheist, we are wont to say, "He believes in neither God nor devil."

But, whatever may be the notions of men, all who form their opinions from holy Scripture will soon be convinced both of the existence and of the agency of Satan. This Hebrew term literally signifies an adversary. It is applied to the

devil, the chief of the powers of darkness, by way of eminence; because he and his apostate legions are emphatically the adversaries of God and man. probable, was exceedingly glorious. supposed, he was

His original state, it is
Perhaps, as Milton has

"of the first,

If not the first archangel, great in power,

In favour and pre-eminence." *

But he kept not his first estate of innocence and dignity. The particular nature of his crime is not revealed to us,unless, indeed, we may be allowed to found upon the words of St. Paul, "Lest being lifted up with pride he fall into the condemnation of the devil," † a conjecture that the sin of Satan was pride. Whatever it was, it certainly amounted to high treason against the King eternal, immortal, invisible. In this foul and unnatural war against God, he was, of course, unsuccessful; and being, with his host of rebel angels, expelled from heaven, "reserved in everlasting chains under darkness unto the judgment of the great day," and having lost together with his innocence all his moral beauty and splendour, he has become the enemy-vanquished indeed, but implacable and determined-of everything good and godlike. But, though he be driven from his former throne of glory, he still retains superior rank and influence among the degenerate seraphs who shared in his apostasy and fall. These are now called his angels, over whom (no longer permitted to serve in heaven) he reigns in hell. His commands they receive, his orders they execute; and by bonds of invincible hatred to God and man they are firmly united to him, and to each other.

II. The desire to have us, here ascribed to Satan, will, I trust, receive some illustration from the following remarks. 1. It is a mischievous desire. Its aim is our ruin. It implies,

(1.) A wish to tempt us severely and closely. In allusion to *Paradise Lost,'book v. 1 Timothy iii. 6.