the enterprise another while he is apt to put us upon bold hazards, with a contempt of fear or danger, that we may be guilty of our own miscarriage. He often works suspicion in love, and suggests misconstructions of wellmeant words or actions, to cause heart-burning between dear friends; and then under a pretence of favour, he kills the soul with flattery. He stirs up our charity to the public performance of some beneficial works, to win us to vain glory; or to avoid the suspicion or censure of singularity, he induces us to conform to the vicious habits of our sociable neighbours. Sometimes he persuades us to rest in the outward act done, as meritorious; at others, under a colour of humility, he dissuades us from those duties in which we might be exemplary to others. He encourages us to get wealth under a pretence of doing good, and then he closes our hands in a rigorous forbearance of needful mercy, under a fair colour of justice. At one time he incites us, under a pretence of zeal, to violate charity, in unjust censures and violent executions; at another, under pretence of mercy, to bear with gross sins. He stirs us up, under a colour of charitable caution, to wound our neighbour with a secret detraction; and then out of carnal affections, he would make us the panders of other men's vices. He sets on the tongue inordinately, that many words may let fall some sin; or he restrains it in a sullen silence, out of an affectation of commendable modesty. From a pretended honest desire to know some secret and useful truth, he hooks a man into a busy curiosity, and unawares entangles the heart in unclean affections; while he brooks many a sin, with only the bashfulness of enquiry. He injects such pleasing thoughts of fleshly delights, as may at the first seem safe and inoffensive; but which, by a delayed entertainment, prove dangerous and inflaming. At another time he fills the heart with such swarms of obscene suggestions, that when it should be taken up with holy devotion, it hath work enough to repel and answer those sinful importunities. He moves us to an ungrounded confidence in God for some deliverance, that upon our disappointment, he may work us to impatience; or upon our prevailing, to a proud and over-weening opinion of our mistaken faith.

In other cases he casts into us glances of distrust, where we have sure ground of belief. He often throws needless scruples into the conscience, to create perplexity, and to hinder lawful actions; and then he labours so to widen the conscience, that even gross sins may pass down unfelt. He will seem friendly in suggesting advice to listen to good counsel, which yet he more strongly keeps us off from taking; and then he moves us to slight all the good advice of others, out of a persuasion of our own self-sufficiency, that we may be sure to fall into evil. Sometimes he smooths us up in the good opinion of our own gracious disposition, that we may rest in our attainments; at another time he beats us down with a disparagement of grace, that we may be heartless and unthankful. He feeds us with a sweet contentment, in the appearance of devotion, that we may not care to work our hearts to a solid piety and then he endeavours to freeze up our hearts with dulness and sadness in holy services, that they may prove irksome, and we become negligent. He injects lawful, but unseasonable notions of requisite employments, to take off our minds from prayer, hearing or meditation; and then he is content we should over-weary ourselves with holy tasks, that they may grow tediously distasteful. He allures a man to glut himself with some pleasing sin, upon pretence that it may breed a loathing of it; and then he makes this spiritual drunkenness an occasion of further thirst. He will allow us to pray long, that we may love to hear ourselves speak, and languish in our devotion; and then he tells us there is no need of vocal prayers, since God hears our thoughts.

Shortly, for it were easy to exceed in instances, one while he casts undue fears into the tender hearts of weak believers, of God's just desertions, and of their own sinful deficiencies; another while he puffs them up, with ungrounded presumptions of present safety and future glory. These and a thousand more such acts of deceit, do the evil spirits practise upon the soul of man, to betray it to everlasting destruction. And if at any time they pretend to be smooth and fair, we may be certain that the devils of consolation are worse than those that bring affliction.

Oh my soul, what vigilance can be sufficient for thee, while thou art beset with such a variety of contrary temptations.

SECTION 5.

The Vehemence of Satan's last Conflicts.

EVIL spirits being neither capable of sleep or weariness, are therefore ever busy and restless in their assaults, and in their last conflicts are most vehement. Whether it be that the soul is now passing out of their reach, as we find they did most tear and torture the demoniac, when they saw themselves upon the point of being ejected; or whether it be that the painful agonies of death yield them more hopes of advantage, since the soul in struggling with those last pangs, must needs have her powers distracted in her resistance. Cruelty, where it would prevail, would be sure to lay most load upon the weakest.

Hence it is that holy men have been most careful to arm themselves against those last conflicts, and to bend all the forces of their souls upon their safe dissolution. Some have besought God with great fervency, that these envious spirits may not hinder them in their last passage; and the devout Bernard, when he drew near his end, sued to his friend for his earnest prayers, that the heel of his life might be kept safe from the Serpent, so that he might not find where to fix his sting.

Oh

Oh God, I know that Satan wants no malice or will to hurt. I should be his, if I looked for favour from him. He must and will do so much of his worst to me, as thou wilt permit. Whether thou wilt be pleased to restrain him, or strengthen me, thy will be done. lead me not into temptation; and when thou doest so, shew thyself strong in my weakness. Arm me for the last conflict; stand by me in my last combat; make me faithful to the death, that thou mayest give ine a crown of life.

SECTION 6.

How to Guard against Evil Spirits.

As we may not yield to that evil One, so our next thought must be how to oppose him. Our skilful Leader hath prescribed both for our defence and victory: The helmet of salvation, the breast-plate of righteousness, the girdle of verity, the sword of the Spirit; and above all, the shield of faith, wherewith we may be able both to quench and beat back the fiery darts of that wicked one. These well put on and well managed, shall both secure us, and foil our adversary.

The disciples of Christ and their primitive successors ejected devils by command, and could rejoice to see those evil spirits subjected to their overruling charge; but the same persons also healed diseases, were perfect poison proof, and spake divers languages. Why then should any in these latter times challenge a right of succession in one of these, and not claim it in the other? All these were given with one and the same breath, continued by the same power, called in and restrained by the same providence. But though these miraculous powers are now withheld, yet the good providence of God hath not left us without means of freedom and deliverance. Whilst we can pray, we cannot be remediless. When the disciples' power failed in the dispossession of a demoniac, they heard from our Saviour, This kind goes not out but by fasting and prayer. Whence it is plain, that as there are several kinds of devils, one worse and more powerful than another; so the worst of them are to be vanquished by prayer, sharpened with abstinence.

What a difference then there is of times and means! At the first it was a greater work to dispossess devils by prayer and fasting, than by command; now it were far greater to do it by a mere command, than by prayer and fasting. That which was then ordinarily done, were now strangely miraculous; and that which is in the ordinary course now, was then rare and unusual. The power of an adjuring command ceased; the power of fervent prayer

can never be out of date. This and this only is the remedy of both bodily and mental possession: thus, if we will resist the devil, he shall flee away from us. Upon the ground of this scripture it was, as myself was witness, that Mr. Dayrel, a godly and zealous preacher, undertook, and accordingly through the blessing of God upon his faithful devotion, performed those famous ejectments of evil spirits, both at Nottingham and in Lancashire, which exercised the press, and raised no small envy from the gainsayers.

Shortly, all that we have to do concerning malignant spirits is to repay them with hatred, to persuade our heart of their continual effort to do us mischief, to arm ourselves with constant resolutions of resistance, diligently to watch the ways of their temptations, to keep the strongest guard upon our weakest part, to fortify ourselves by prayer; and by the virtue of our faith, to make him ours, who is able to strengthen us, and to make us more than conquerors.

SECTION 7.

The woeful Condition of the Damned.

IT is not for our discourse to sever those whom the divine justice will have put together; devils and damned souls. Wherever any are, they carry their hell about with them, though there are different degrees of torment. Art thou come to torment us before our time, said those devils to our blessed Saviour and how do they beg not to be commanded to the deep!

Reprobate souls are no less partners of their pain, than objects of their fury. No sooner is the living spirit dislodged from the body, than it is presented, as in a privy sessions, to her Judge; from which she receives a speedy doom, of life or death. The sentence is instantly seconded with an answerable execution. The good angels are glad actors. in the happy instalment of the just in