come to us: how often, how very often. It is fearful to think of; yet be comforted; Jesus Christ is far more surely, far more intimately near than he: He is with you not often but always; not at hand, but within your hearts; and you by His grace may keep yourselves that that wicked one touch you not. I will notice in conclusion one very aweful thought inseparable from what has been said. Those of whom I have spoken, our two invisible companions on the journey through life, Jesus Christ and the evil spirit: we shall meet both of them, face to face in the clear light of the last great day; and Satan will be for accusing us and witnessing against us; but all in vain, if we shall have kept good watch against him and walked dutifully before our Lord. If Christ plead for us, vainly will Satan plead against us; the word will be spoken to him: "get thee hence," once and for ever. He will leave us, departing to his own place, and the good angels will come rejoicing, and minister unto us. Amen. SERMON XVIII. THE WILES OF THE DEVIL. THIRD SUNDAY IN LENT. 2 Cor. ii. 11. "Lest Satan should get an advantage of us: for we are not ignorant of his devices." S. PAUL in this verse puts clearly before us all this circumstance in the condition of Christians, that from their Baptism till their lives' end, they are continually being plotted against by Satan; he is daily trying to take them in: he is full of devices, which it greatly concerns them not to be ignorant of. And our Lord in the Gospel for the day, tells us the reason why it is so. Satan is peculiarly desirous to harm Christians, because, as Christians they have been taken out of his hands, and he cannot bear to be so baffled. By nature we were born subject to him, as truly so as the unhappy persons of whom we read so much in the Gospels, who had unclean spirits dwelling in their souls and bodies. But as our Blessed Lord used to come in and cast out those spirits with a word, so the devil was driven away from us, and we withdrawn from his power, by His word spoken to us in Holy baptism, "In the Name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost." Again, as when our Saviour and His Apostles had dispossessed any devil, that evil one was sure to try to return, and if he could do so, would torment and vex the unhappy person more than ever; so if the Christian permits Satan to return after Baptism, he will by no means return alone, but with seven other spirits more wicked than himself, and they will enter in and dwell there, and the last state of that man is worse than the first. A wicked Christian is more wicked and miserable than any other man, for this reason among others, that he is more under the power of the devil. And a good Christian, as long as he is in this world, has this particular danger to contend with, that the devil has his eye continually upon him, putting mischief into his way and trying to cast him down. In any case it is quite plain, that we entirely misunderstand our own condition, we never can do right or live in safety, except we keep ourselves continually on our guard against Satan, and knowing his devices, take care to give them no advantage. Nor are there wanting grave reasons, why the Church teaches us this doctrine in Lent particularly. Our Saviour's fasting led in some way to His temptation: when He had gone without food forty days and forty nights, and was afterwards a hungered, then we read in particular the tempter came to Him, and wanted Him to make the stones bread. Somewhat in the like manner we may well believe, that when Satan sees a Christian bent on keeping himself in order, and desirous really of being a good penitent, he will of course lie in wait for him, and earnestly seek occasion to hurt him. If he could, he would have hindered our Saviour from completing His work upon the cross: and if he can, he will hinder us from making the most of our Lent, by daily preparing ourselves to take up our cross in Passion week. Therefore it is quite necessary for a true penitent to watch against Satan and his devices, not to forget that he has such an enemy, full of all malice and subtlety. Nothing, you may be sure, is so desired by him, as that people should forget or make light of him: just as the wolf, if he could reason so far, would be glad for the sheep not to know or think of him at all, for then they will be far more likely to throw themselves in his way. Our Lord in the Gospel makes mention of several sorts of persons, different cases, with which Satan has to deal and for all sorts it is highly needful that they think very much of Satan. First Christ speaks of our natural state, how men seemed to be left at his mercy. "When a strong man armed keepeth his palace, his goods are in peace:" i.e., while we were in our natural corrupt state, with our weak and fallen flesh such as we had it from Adam, the devil possessed us without hope or help: his goods were in peace he had it all his own way with us. wicked one is the strong man armed, and we unhappy, were his palace, i.e., the place where he abode: and if Christ had not mercifully interfered to deliver us from that sad condition, we should have gone on quietly and without remorse in the course which would have been our souls' ruin. But Christ did interfere: "He was made flesh and dwelt among : That us:" He died and rose again: He went up into Heaven, and sent down from thence His Holy Spirit to unite us to Himself: that good Spirit took possession of our souls and bodies in holy Baptism; thus a stronger than he came upon the strong man armed, and overcame him, and stripped him of his armour. Christ who is stronger than the devil did once for all put him down and his power within us; and now if we will let Him, He will go on dividing his spoils: that is the Spirit of Christ ruling in us will help us gradually to get the better of all the remains of the old Adam, wholly to subdue the flesh to the spirit. This is the best and happiest supposition we can make it is the case of those in whom grace triumphs, of those who are going on to perfection: God grant it may be your case and mine. But we must not forget that our Lord in the very same discourse gives an account of another case also, a very sad and dismal one: the case of the unclean spirit, returning after he had been driven out, and finally prevailing against the Spirit of God. He warns us that when a Christian falls back into the ways of the heathen, into presumptuous and deadly sin, it is as if the devil, whom Christ had driven out of a man, should find opportunity to return: he would not return singly; he would take to himself seven other spirits more wicked than himself; they would enter in and dwell there; it will be seven sins for one, or one sin multiplied seven fold; and the last state of that man will be worse than the first very much worse, as sinning more against light, and despising the exceeding riches of God's goodness and forbearance. |