spoils out of the devil's kingdom the Lord Jesus Christ must have, according to an ancient stipulation. These are the objects of his love, the purchase of his blood, and therefore must be the trophies of his victory. He is not to have them without a price, nor will they submit to him without conquest. "He shall see of the travail of his soul, and shall be satisfied; by his knowledge shall my righteous servant justify many; for he shall bear their iniquities. Therefore will I divide him a portion with the great, and he shall divide the spoil with the strong; because he hath poured out his soul unto death,” Isa. liii. 11, 12. A portion with the great, is some few selected subjects out of the kingdoms of the great potentates upon earth; and the spoil that he is to divide with the strong, are God's own elect, which were given unto him, and which he takes by the dint of his sword from the strong man armed. He begins his conquest,

"The

First, By the light of his countenance. Secondly, By the edge of the sword. people that walked in darkness have seen a great light: they that dwell in the land of the shadow of death, upon them hath the light shined," Isa. ix. 2. This is the first attack upon the strong man's palace, and is called the sinner's translation; for so it is written, "Who hath delivered us from the power of darkness, and hath translated us into the kingdom of his dear Son," Col.

Secondly, The edge of his sword. "In that day the Lord, with his sore and great and strong sword, shall punish leviathan, the piercing serpent, even leviathan, the crooked serpent; and he shall slay the dragon that is in the sea," Isa. xxvii. 1. This light enrages the devil, and it likewise shews the sinner his awful state; and the sword of the spirit wounds the devil and the sinner two. Satan's rage at the light rises from a fresh remembrance of his former state of bliss and happiness, which for a moment softens him; but the consideration of all being irrecoverably lost, and the thoughts of future and endless torment, rekindles all his rage and desperation; and, finding the poor sinner, who has long been his lawful capture, going into that light and bliss which he by his pride and rebellion had lost, provokes him to jealousy, and pierces every power of that infernal intelligence; and this he makes the poor sinner know and feel, for he hurls at him all the foul, filthy, obscene, desperate, rebellious, and blasphemous oaths, curses, imprecations, and invectives, that he is master of, and all against God; and then accuses the poor sinner of it, to sink him in despair; though, at the same time, it is the devil's own sin; for such things never entered the sinner's heart till the devil lodged them in it. However this serves to shew us that the rays of divine light discover him, and remove his mask from the understanding, and himself from his dark abode; and this is evident by the

violent temptations that follow: for what call has he to tempt, entice, allure, terrify, and threaten us with his future success and advantage over us, if he reigned in the heart and could take us captive at his will? His fruitless attempts and terrifying threatenings are sufficient to convince us that the Lord Jesus has crushed his power, bound him by his providence, and disarmed him of the panoply by which he kept his goods in peace. By the light of the Lord's countenance and by the sword of the Spirit, shall the kingdom of the beast be destroyed, which is said to be full of darkness. Light shall discover the damnable deceptions of popery, and the sword of the Spirit shall slay the souls of those that cleave to them; "For the mystery of iniquity doth already work: only he who now letteth will let, until he be taken out of the way. And then shall that wicked be revealed, whom the Lord shall consume with the spirit of his mouth, and shall destroy with the brightness of his coming," 2 Thess. ii. 7, 8. Thus is Satan dethroned: “And if I, by the finger of God, cast out devils, no doubt the kingdom of God is come upon you."

Secondly, The Lord, by the power of his Spirit, subdues the carnal enmity which hates the light; he bows the sinner's will and makes him willing; he searches the reins, wounds the spirit, and makes the heart honest; and one of an honest heart will cry, "Search me and try any wicked way

me, and see if there be

in me,

and lead me in the way everlasting." Yea, he comes willingly to the light, that his deeds may be made manifest that they are wrought in God. Thus the enmity is slain, and a most earnest desire after reconciliation with God is kindled in the soul; he is made willing and made honest; he accepts the punishment of his iniquity, and had rather lie under the rod than be in carnal ease; and would feed upon stripes and bitter reflections rather than be given up to enjoy the pleasures of sin for a season. "The kingdom of God is not in word, but in power." Thus it appears that the subjects of darkness are all blinded by the god of this world, and their hearts are filled with enmity and hatred against the light; and this their enmity discovers itself at every soul which God illuminates, or into which the true light shineth; and thus the Jews rejoiced iu John's light for a season, and then said "He hath a devil." And, when the Sun of Righteousness visited them, then they said he had a devil and was mad. Thus Satan labours to blind the eyes, and arms the soul with malice, at every heavenly ray that darts upon his vail. But, if God shines into a sinner's heart, and searches, tries, and discovers the evil of it, and by wounding the spirit makes the heart honest, leads the soul to the light, and puts a cry into the poor sinner for mercy, such an one the devil labours to baffle, confuse, puzzle, perplex, confound, tempt, accuse, reproach, and even ridicule him for hypocrisy in every

thing he does. It is Satan's work to applaud the hypocrite, to fondle his deceitful heart, to prop up his seared conscience and lead him to self-admiration. But the soul that God displays his power in is always wrong and never right; all is guile, nothing sincere; all feigned, nothing real; all is deceit, nothing sound; if he speaks he takes him to task for every word; overhales him, and accuses him of insincerity and falsehood in every thing he has said. To the pharisee in his forms, and to the hypocrite in Zion, Satan is a smooth-tongued prophet, a dauber, a reformer, an healer of the breach, and a builder up; but to the mourner in Zion he is a reprover, an accuser, an inquisitor-general, an envious observer, a malicious overseer, a laborious puller down, and a desperate destroyer of God's heritage. This is his work, whether he labour at the heart by suggestions, or by his ministers in the pulpit. Satan is not divided against himself; if he was, how should his kingdom stand?"

Thirdly, Self-righteousness stands in the way of God's kingdom, and must be demolished before the empire of Christ can be set up. Satan propped up the Jewish scribes and pharisees in this web; they not only justified themselves before men, but they pleaded their worth, and will plead it before God; they sought righteousness by the works of the law, and went about to establish it, and were the greatest opposers of the kingdom of God, for they shut it up against men;