4. By virtue of the curse of the broken law, the devil comes to have a legal title to, and dominion over, every son of Adam by nature. The hand-writing, which was issued out against us, upon the violation of the holy law, gave the devil a power from God, in a way of righteous judgment, to rule in and over every man and woman springing of the first Adam; hence called the god of this world. So that, sirs, till you join yourselves to the Son of God by faith in him, you are just the devil's lackeys to serve him according to his beck and inclination; you do his works, as was hinted before.

5. The enemy, into whose hands we are fallen, is of all others the most dangerous and terrible. And, that you may know your danger while under his power, and the obligations we are under to the Son of God who came to destroy him, I will tell you in two or three words what sort of an enemy he is.

1st, He is a very powerful enemy: for though he has lost his original integrity, yet he has lost nothing of his natural strength; if he were not under the check of the power of God, he could in a very little time devour all mankind, and hurry them wholly to hell.

2dly, He is a subtle and cunning enemy; therefore called a serpent, which is the most subtle and cunning of all the beasts of the field. He suits his temptations to every man's temper: he knows well what bait is most ready to catch the unwary sinner.

3dly, He is an experienced enemy. He has long dealt in his soul-ruining and murdering trade; he has now had about six thousand years' experience in this business.

4thly, A most vigilant enemy. He leaves no stone unturned, he loses no opportunity to carry on his hellish designs against the glory of God, and the salvation of souls.

5thly, He is a most fierce and raging enemy; hence we are told, that he is a roaring lion.

6thly, He is a numerous enemy. It is true, he is here spoken of in the singular number; but his name is Legion. Although there be but one Beelzebub, the prince of devils, yet he has a numerous train under him, continually carrying on the plots of his kingdom of darkness. And, sirs, I make no doubt, if our eyes were opened, we would see swarms of evil spirits in this company, and in this very place, all at work to divert the minds of men from giving entertainment to the gospel revelation. Thus I have given you some account of the enemy the Son of God had in his view when he appeared on the stage.

Now, you may be ready to ask, What are the works of the

Answ. The

devil which the Son of God came to destroy? grand and fundamental work of the devil is sin. This is, as it were, his first born, and the beginning of his strength, as you see from the former clause of the verse: "He that committeth sin, is of the devil; for the devil sinneth from the beginning." And then it follows, For this purpose the Son of God was manifested, &c. So that the main work of the devil is sin: this is just the poison and venom of the old serpent. The flood, that he casts out of his mouth, in order to destroy the church represented under the notion of a woman, Rev. xii. 15, what else is it but a flood of sin? This is the main engine by which the devil carries on all his other hellish works and stratagems either against God or man. If it had not been for sin, the devil had never got any power over men in the world; so that sin is the very seat and strength of his kingdom in the world. I remember it is said, that "justice and judgment are the habitation of God's throne;" and I may add, that iniquity and sin is the habitation of the devil's throne and empire. And here I might tell you of a multitude of sins, which are evidently the works of the devil, if I were not afraid of entering upon a field large and wide like the heavens. Atheism is the work of the devil; he studies to persuade men that there is no God to call them to an account, no judgment to come, no hell nor heaven. Ignorance is a great work of the devil; he "blinds the minds of them that believe not, lest the light of the glorious gospel of Christ should shine into their hearts." Hence his kingdom is called the kingdom of darkness. Unbelief is the work of the devil, which is nothing else but a "making God a liar," a discrediting of a God of truth, speaking either in a way of promise, precept, or threatening, in his word. It was by unbelief that he ruined our first parents, he brought them to doubt if God had said so and so. And when once a man begins to waver and question whether this or that be a point of the truth of God, he is gone, the enemy has him fair before the wind. Enmity is another work of the devil: "The carnal mind is enmity against God." This is just the poison of the old serpent, that has run through all the powers of the soul. Pride is a work of the devil, yea, it is the very picture of the devil. Pride was his first sin; and by telling them that they should be as gods, by eating the forbidden tree, "knowing good and evil," he ruined them and their posterity. This sin of pride has so much of the devil in it, that God cannot look near a proud man; he "beholds the proud afar off." Hypocrisy and dissimulation, either with God or man, is another work of the devil. He himself dissembled the matter with our first parents, he transformed himself into an angel of light: and so does every hypocrite, he

appears to be what he really is not. Idolatry, superstition, charms, witchcraft, error, swearing, lying, Sabbath-breaking, murder, adultery, theft, covetousness, perjury, and all sin that I can possibly name, are all the works of the devil, and they that commit them are of the devil,

But now, to illustrate this head yet a little farther, I will tell you of some works of the devil brought about by sin, which are just the devil's sport and recreation. 1. The dishonour of God. 2. The disturbing of the creation. 3. The ruin of man. 4. The erection of his own kingdom of sin and

darkness.

1. I say, the devil by sin designs the dishonour of God, every sin being a violation of his law, a contempt of his authority, a denial of his sovereignty, an affront to his justice and holiness, and a casting dirt upon all his perfections. Now, what a sport and pleasure is it to that proud and rebellious spirit, when he can get men and women to join him after this manner in affronting God, and trampling upon his laws? hence sinners are said to be in a covenant or confederacy with hell, to dishonour God.

2. By sin he disturbs the creation, and disorders all the works of God in this lower world. You know, from Gen. i. when God had made the heavens and the earth, and all the rest of the creatures, hè pronounced them all good: every thing was in its proper joint and lith, subservient to the great ends of their creation; not a jar or groan to be heard among all the creatures of God. But now, Satan, by sin, disturbs and disorders the creation of God. Having tempted man to break his allegiance to God, he brings the curse of God upon the very ground, and all the inferior creatures that stood in a subordination to man. Hence follows war between man and the inferior creatures; and the creatures that are subject to man, it is unwillingly that they serve him; they groan under it, as a servitude, that they should be any way useful to man, a rebel against their great Lord and Creator; hence is that of the apostle, Rom. viii. 20-22. It is just the pleasure and diversion of the devil, to see that order, and beauty and harmony, that God placed in the creation at first, disturbed.

3. By sin he brings about the ruin of poor souls, which is as great a pleasure and diversion to the wicked spirit, as it is for a lion to tear and devour his prey when he is hungry. To illustrate this to you, I will tell you of some things the devil does to you when he gets you to sin, which are just the work and sport of the devil.

1st, He takes away our sight. The god of this world blinds all his votaries by sin; so that, though the man is as it

were just upon the mouth of hell, yet does not know it. Like the Philistines, he puts out our eyes, and then makes a sport of us.

2dly, By sin he takes away our beauty. Man, before sin entered, shined with the beauties of holiness; but now by sin we are become hell-hued, black like the Ethiopian, by lying among the devil's pots; and this is the work and sport

of hell.

3dly, He takes away our clothing, he leaves us stark naked. Man, before sin entered, was clothed with a robe of perfect law righteousness; but when through sin we fell into the hand of the devil, he stripped us of that ornament; hence Laodicea is said to be "wretched, miserable, blind, poor, and naked," without a rag to cover her.

4thly, He takes away our strength and ability for any good work; so that we are not sufficient to conceive a good thought, though it could purchase heaven. "When we were without

strength, in due time Christ died for the ungodly."

5thly, He takes away our peace with God, and confidence towards him; as you see in our first parents immediately. after the fall, they fled from the presence of God as an enemy; the Almighty became a terror to them, that they durst not look him in the face.

6thly, He takes away peace with conscience, God's deputy in the bosom. The devil has a continual hell in his breast, through his guilty conscience; only it is some pleasure and ease to him, to see men and women through sin feeling his own smart, and crying with Cain, "My sin is greater than can be forgiven."

7thly, He takes away our life; for every sin is a thrust given to the life of the soul. And the devil, who murdered himself, and who is a murderer from the beginning, just takes pleasure to set men and women at work to murder both soul and body at once, every sin being a draught of the poison of the old serpent put in the man's hand.

8thly, He takes away our title to God and glory, and makes us children of wrath, and heirs of hell and the curse with himself. These are some things that the devil works by sin, which are just his pastime and recreation. To all which I add,

4. In the fourth place, that another work of the devil by sin is, to establish his own kingdom and empire, in opposition to God's government. And indeed, by the first sin, he drew all mankind under his dominion. He takes God's viceroy in this lower world (man, I mean,) whom God had "made a little lower than the angels, and crowned with glory and dignity;" he not only makes him his drudge and vassal, but he arms

him against God, his righteous Lord, and makes him "say to the Almighty, Depart from us, for we desire not the knowledge of thy ways." And thus you see what are the works of the devil. All these works Christ came to destroy. But now I go on to,

III. The third thing, which was the manifestation of the Son of God, in order to his destroying these works of the devil. There is something in this phraseology of the text that is exceedingly significant and emphatic; he was manifested to destroy the "works of the devil: importing, that the devil and his works do, as it were, disappear at the very sight or appearance of the Son of God, as darkness disappears and vanishes at the manifestation of the light of the sun. The devil and his works can no more stand at the approach of Christ, than darkness can stand before the sun when shining in the heavens in his strength. Now, to clear this, I will tell you of several gradual manifestations of the Son of God, every one of which is a stroke given to the devil and his works.

1. He was manifested initially in the first promise, Gen. iii. 15: The seed of the woman shall bruise the head of the serpent;" which, as I said before, is the very same in substance with this of his being manifested to destroy the works of the devil. This first promise contained a manifestation of Christ; and in it were three things manifested concerning the Son of God. As, (1.) That he should be clothed with man's nature, and be born of a woman. (2.) That he should have his human nature bruised by the serpent and his seed; "Thou shalt bruise his heel." (3.) That the head of the serpent, or the power of Satan and his usurped kingdom, should get a mortal wound by the sufferings of the human nature of Christ. Here was the first manifestation of the Son of God, To the same purpose was that manifestation of him made to Abraham, "In thy seed shall all the nations of the earth be blessed" and upon this manifestation did the patriarchs feed for the space of about two thousand years; and all the following manifestations of Christ, were but farther and gradual openings of the mysteries of the grace and love of God. contained in these two promises.

2. He was manifested typically to the children of Israel in the Mosaic economy. The tabernacle, the temple, the passover, the manna, the rock that followed them, the sacrifices and ceremonies of that dispensation, what else were they but the "shadows of good things to come?" The apostle calls them the "rudiments of the world," by which they were let in to the knowledge of Christ, in his person, natures, and offices. And,