"But, if I, with the finger of God, cast out devils, no doubt the kingdom of God is come upon you," Luke, xi. 20.

SIN entered into the world by Satan, and death entered by sin. Sin separated between God and our souls: but the incarnation of the Son of God brought our nature back to God, which sin had separated; and the blood of Christ made us nigh, whom wicked works had made far off. Sin had its beginning by the tree of knowledge, and it had its end on the accursed tree. Adam sinned and died, and Paradise was lost; Christ was made sin and died, and a better Paradise was gained. The woman, being first in the transgression, was condemned to sorrow in child-bearing, and that sorrow brought forth the woman's great deliverer. Sin is the sole cause of all our misery, and a sense of this misery renders us proper objects of God's mercy. By sin and death Satan aimed at the eternal destruction of men, and sin and death will be the eternal destruction of Satan. Nothing pleased Satan so well as bringing mankind under the sentence of death; and that sentence executed upon Christ bruised Satan's head, and he himself and his works were destroyed in the same nature that he had ruined. By the incarnation of Christ grace and mercy come to men, and by the death of Christ honour is brought to the justice and holiness of God. Satan is degraded, sin is condemned in Christ's flesh, and the sinner is saved; and yet God appears just when he justifies the ungodly. Sin is freely pardoned, and yet vengeance is taken of our inventions; forgiving and cleansing is of free grace, and yet God is faithful and just in forgiving and cleansing; the sinner is bought with a price, and yet saved and glorified by free grace. Sin brought us all under the wrath of God, but in pouring that wrath upon Christ everlasting love was displayed to men. All the works of devils have been to destroy human nature, and by a judge in human nature shall all devils be judged and destroyed. Devils are the accusers of the brethren, and the brethren shall be the judges of the devils. Men, aspiring to be like gods, fell under the dominion of fallen angels; Christ, by being made a little lower than the angels of light, raised us to an honour above them.

Christ spoiled principalities; and therefore some 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,

First, By the light of his countenance,

Secondly, By the edge of the sword. "The 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. i. 13.

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, that 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 too. Satan's rage at the light rises from a fresh remembrance of the devil and the sinner too. Satan's rage at the light rises from a fresh rememberance of his former state bliss and happiness, which for a monent softens him; but the consideration of all being irrecoverablv lost, and the thoughts of future and endless torment, rekindle all his rage and desperation; and, finding the poor sinner, who has long been his lawful captive, 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 tbe Spirit shall slay the souls of those that cleave to them; "For the mystery of iniquity doth already work: only he that 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 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 me, and see if there be any wicked way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting." Yea, he comes willingly to the light, that his deeds may he made manliest 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 in 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 veil. 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 iniquisitor-general, an envious observer, a malicions 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; they entered not themselves, and such as were going they hindered. And it is plain that the praying publican in the temple, and Mary Magdalen the harlot, went into the kingdom of God before them. This pillar of the devil's kingdom, this grand idol of vain imagination which the papists and the world worship, is destroyed in the hearts of God's elect.

First, By an application of the law of God.

Secondly, By the quickening influences of the Holy Ghost. The entrance of the law, with all its fears, bondage, terrors, and wrath, will not do of itself; for a sinner in black despair, and given up to a fearful looking-for of judgment, will sometimes plead his merits before men, though he dare not plead his cause before God. I have known instances of this myself. There is such a thing as desperate pride, and the devil often influences the most awfill apostates with iit, insomuch that, when they are in dispute with the children of God, they will even pervert the scriptures, plead their own worth, and bring forth their strong reasons against the King of Jacob. But when God applies the law to a chosen vessel he attends the application with the awakening, alarming, quickening, self-emptying, self-abasing, and soul-plercmg operations of the Holy Spirit of promise, which gives life to the soul, and makes it feel hunger, thirst, long, crave, cry, pray, search, seek, watch and wait at wisdom's gate till the door of mercy and of hope be opened. A soul under such circumstances is condemned on all hands - by the law, by the gospel, by conscience, by every saint, by the self righteous pharisee, by the refined hypocrite, by every impostor in the pulpit, by the common worldling, and by every possessor of a seared conscience that is past feeling, and even by the beasts of the field; for he would sooner be a brute, a fowl, a reptile, or an insect, than a human creature; any thing rather than a condemned and guilty sinner, accountable to a just and holy God. And he will honestly tell you that every creature that God has made answers some good end in the creation, and in some way or other glorifies God; but he of himself never did, nor ever can, except God glorify his truth and justice in his eternal damnation: this he sees, this he feels, and this he will honestly own and confess before God or man. It was such convictions as these that turned Daniel's comeliness into corruption, Paul's brilliant performances into dung and dross, and Zion's splendid righteousness into filthy rags. All convictions, unattended by the spirit of life, terminate in self-pity, in hatred to truth, in hatred to the saints, in dishonesty at heart, in enmity to God, in love to human applause, in worldly grief, in infernal pride, and in desperate sorrow. All of which are fruits unto death, or dead works. But the spirit of life from God quickening the soul and making intercession with unutterable groaning for it, and the wrath and terrors of God by the law blasting and withering all human glory, soon strips the sinner of his rags, if it does not strip him of all reliance on his own arm, and always brings him to hunger and thirst after righteousness, and he labours hard to work one out; but, as soon as he hears from the gospel of Christ that there is such a thing as imputed righteousness, O how he longs for it! And sure I am that this divine life in the soul, which makes the sinner hunger and thirst, shall terminate in his justification unto life. "For, if by one man's offence death reigned by one, much more they which receive abundance of grace, and of the gift of righteousness, shall reign in life by one, Jesus Christ," Rom. v. 17. Self-righteousness is the boast and glory of every class of professors of natural religion; and nothing but an application of the law, attended with life and convictions by the Spirit, will ever stain this pride of human glory. "The grass withereth, the flower fadeth, because the Spirit of God bloweth upon it." Satan will prop up and swell with pride every soul that trusts in himself that he is righteous, for such are his own children. All the scribes and pharisees among the Jews, whom Christ declared were of their father the devil, were such as went about to establish their own righteousness; but the righteousness of faith the hypocrite cannot endure: he is an enemy to God who provided it, to Christ who wrought it out, to the gospel which reveals it, to the Spirit who applies it, to faith which apprehends it and puts it on, to those ministers of righteousness which preach it, and to all that seek it or follow after it. In this best robe the Father embraces the returning son; in this wedding-garment Christ receives his spouse; and the devil knows this and hates the match. If God justifies who can condemn? This makes Satan's accusations and charges groundless, and saps the very foundation of his kingdom. Grace shall reign, but then it is "through righteousness, unto eternal life, by Jesus Christ our Lord," Rom. v. 21. When justification is past, glorification is sure; whom God justifies, them he also glorifies: and where the Sun of Righteousness rises, there he never goes down. All the time that Joshua stood before the Lord in the filthy garments of his own righteousness, Satan stood at his right hand to accuse him, reproach him, calumniate him, tempt him, confound him, and resist him. You may see here the insolence of the devil, in presuming to take the upper hand even of God's high priest, and when in the presence of God, and when attending upon his function. But Satan pays no regard to sacred offices nor ecclesiastical orders; whether it be Joshua the high-priest under the law, or Judas the apostle under the gospel, he will have the pre-eminence as long as the filthy rag of human righteousness is kept on and trusted in; for "as many as are of the works of the law are under the curse." And "he that believeth not is condemned already." And this Jack Ketch will have the ascendency over malefactors. But, when the Lord said, "Take away the filthy garments from him;" and added" Behold, I have caused thine iniquity to pass form thee, and I will clothe thee with change of raiment;" this made the devil knock under and relinquish all claim to his prey. "The Lord rebuke thee, O Satan; is not this a brand plucked out of the fire?" Zech. iii. 2. A brand plucked out of the fire, a rotten lamb of a barren, corrupt, and dry tree, half burnt up: but now plucked out of the fire of divine wrath, and out of the fire of Satan's rage, and from the fire of hell. Hence it is plain that the devil hath no better column to his empire than self-righteousness. Witness the many thousands that Satan has raised up to preach it among the Papists, among the Arminians, among those of the estblishment, and among a great number of the dissenters: and no wonder, for, "if Satan be divided against himself, how shall his kingdom stand?" Another prop of Satan's kingdom, which the Lord demolishes, is False confidence. Satan pays particular attention to this branch of his empire, for he knows that unbelief and damnation are inseparably connected; and that wherever this pillar stands fast Satan is secure in his strong hold. This was the first seed of Satan, that Eve conceived in her mind, and by this Satan usurped his Power and authority, and where this stands fast Satan hath full Possession: "He that believerb not is condemned already, and the wrath of God abideth on him." False confidence credits every lie that Satan applies, and gives the lie to all that God says. When God gives a man up to false confidence, it is that he may believe a lie and be damned, 2 Thess. ii. 11. And this is evident, look which way you will. Let Simon Magus give out to the city of Samaria that he is the great power of God, and the whole city believe it and respect the impostor; let Barcocab tell the Jews that he is the Messiah, and he is received; let the pope out promise absolution and heaven to a whole nation of natural men, and there are but few doubts or scruples about it; let the soldiers which kept watch over the Saviour's tomb tell Pilate, that when they were fast asleep they saw the disciples of Christ steal away the body of our Lord, and he believes it as soon as the high priest begins to persuade him. But, though this false confidence never staggers at a lle, yet it can give no credit to what God says. It makes God a liar, 1 John, v. 10. Yea, and speaks it out too. Elisha told the Shunamite she should embrace a son, and she said, "Nay, my lord, thou man of God, do not lie unto thine handmaid." The same prophet predicts a measure of fine flour for a shekel, and two measures of barley for a shekel, in Samaria; and an infidel replied, "If the Lord would make windows in heaven, might this thing be." Jesus said," I am the light of the world, he that foiloweth me shall not walk in darkness:" the Jews replied, "Thou bearest record of thyself, thy record is not true," John. viii. 12, 13. God told Eve, in the day that she ate of the tree of knowledge she should surely die; the devil told her she should not, but she should be as God - she cast away all the cofidence she had in God's threatening, but embraced both the lies of Satan. This is one of the high things in Satan's strong hold that exalteth itself against God, and against the knowledge of him; but Christ by the spiritual weapons of our warfare, pulls down Satan's strong hold, and this barrier if it among the rest. Whatever God sends with a divine energy to the souls of his elect, the grace of faith, by the Spirit, is one ingredient in that divine energy or power: "Faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the word" of God. When God, by the ministry of his servants, sends his word with power, so that the sinner is judged, condemned, and the thoughts of his heart made manifest, he will fall down on his face and worship God, and report that God is in that servant of a truth. This is strong faith in terrible tidings; here are terrible sensations and terrible things in righteousness, and a strong confidence that this power is of God, and he reports it of a truth. What a man feels that he believes; faith and power always go together; faith stands not in the wisdom of men, but in the Power of God. When Peter charged the blood of Christ upon his audience, all that felt the dint of the sword believed the charge, and cried for quarter. Faith, when wrought in the soul, is a general receiver of all that God sends; nor shall the power of unbelief, however strong in a chosen vessel, make either the faith of God or the word of without effect.

Every notion that a careless sinner entertains of God is false, and unworthy of him. He talks of his mercy and goodness, pity, and compassion; but he cannot endure to hear of his sovereignty, holiness, justice, truth, immutabillty, or terrible majesty. None of the subjects of Satan's kingdom hold these things in their creed, unless it be here and there one who hath been lifted up with pride till he is fallen into the condemnation of the devil, and then he is obliged to do as the devil does, "believe and tremble." But this is a desperate faith which attends the entrance of the devil when he returns to take possession of the house from whence he came out, which is the enemy's last stage, and the sinher's worst end. It was this faith that influenced the heart of Judas when Satan entered into him, and which Satan labours to strengthen and confirm, and often eases himself of some part of his burden by spending the shafts of his rage on the trophy of his victory.

But the convictions of God's elect are attended with the incessant groanings of a spirit of supplication, and an insatiable thirst for the mercy of God; a continual fear of his convictions leaving him, or of their going off the wrong way; a fear of being left to himself, and of being given up to the hardness of his own heart; so tired is he of his own way, and so sick of himself. And that soul that would carry his burden to the grave, if he might obtain hope in his death, rather than be given up to carnal ease and a worldly spitit, is the man that hears the rod, Micah, vi. 9; and the man that accepts the punishment of his iniquity, Leviticus, xxvi. 41-43: he is the hungry soul to whom every bitter thing is sweet; and to such the promise is made, "They shall come that were ready to perish."

Christ Jesus, who is the omnipresent God, when he comes to set up his kingdom in the heart of a poor sinner, does not discover or manifest himself all at once. It is as the spouse explains. It is first the voice of my Beloved. The life-giving word of reproof and rebuke, piercing, searching, and trying our hearts, comes first; this sinks us, and salvation for such appears impossible; but "Behold he comes, leaping upon the mountains and skipping upon the hills." Mount Sinai stands sadly in our way. Election (called a mountain of brass, Zech. vi. 1), Satan's power, and the huge catalogue of our sins, are all in our way as so many mountains. But "every mountain and hill shall be made low, and the crooked shall be made straight, and the rough places plain; and the glory of the Lord shall be revealed," Isa. xl. 4. The next view the spouse had of him was somewhat nearer than the last. "He standeth behind our wall," Song ii. 9. The ceremonial law was a wall that hid Christ: the substance was obscured by the shadow: but when he discovered himself to the spouse the shadows fled, and when he came in the flesh he broke down the middle wall of partition, and made Jew and Gentile one; and gives us both access by one Spirit unto the Father, and even communion with himself. Moreover, our own supposed merit stands sadly in our way. "The rich man's wealth is his strong city, and as a high wall in his own conceit." But Christ always sends the rich empty away, and never relieves us till we become poor in spirit: the kingdom of God is promised to such. When the above wall is down he comes a little closer - "He looketh forth at the windows," Song ii. 9. These windows are, first, the doctrines of the gospel, in which Christ appears as the subject matter of them. In this glass the natural man sees his face, and his heart too; and in the same glass the Lord is to be seen. "We behold, as in a glass, the glory of the Lord; and are changed into the same image from glory to glory, as by the Spirit of the Lord," 2 Cor. iii. 18. Zion's windows are the brilliant and illustrious perfections of God shining in Christ Jesus, and reflected on the word of his grace. "I will make thy windows of agates, and thy gates of carbuncles, and all thy borders of pleasant stones: and all thy children shall be taught of the Lord," Isa. liv. 12. Hence it appears that these windows and gates are a display of the glory of God when a poor sinner enters into the presence, grace, favour, and joy of the Lord, and is favoured with an unctuous experience of his glorious grace. When these windows from on high are opened by the ministry of the word, Isa. xxiv. 18, how do poor sensible sinners fly to them when the report of it is spread abroad. "Who are these that fly as a cloud, and as doves to their windows?" Isa. Ix. 8. Furthermore, the mind and understanding of a man are the windows of the soul, even as the eyes are of the body; and every time he shines into the soul, like the sun, he illuminates us and warms our hearts. These are the soul-ravishing discoveries that he makes of himself when he looketh in at the windows: thus we see through a glass darkly, but in time to come we shall see him face to face. The last view the spouse had of him was flourishing through the lattice, Song ii. 9. A lattice is a wooden or iron window, cross-barred; some parts of it are entirely open, but where the bars go it is entirely dark and obscure. There is a glorious ray of light at times that shines upon every grace of the Spirit in the heart; but there is an inbred corruption, like the wooden bars of a lattice, which sadly intervenes and obscures the light: the light shines in darkness (in this sense), but the darkness comprehends it not. Sometimes we are wonderfully indulged with the light of his countenance, which fills us with joy and gladness; but these are sure to be followed with desertions. "He hideth his face, and then who can behold him?" He kept back the face of his throne, and spreads his cloud upon it: where he shines, grace flows out; when he is hid, corruptions struggle hard. Through this lattice-work he shews himself; for when the bridegroom visits us what a heavenly banquet doth the soul enjoy! But when the bridegroom is taken away, then we fast in those days; for the children of the bride-chamber cannot fast while the bridegroom is with them. The Lord's absence and the stirrings of our corruptions sharpen our appetite, and the Lord's visits and revivals of his work afford us infinite fulness and satisfaction. Thus by degrees does the Lord discover himself, and by slow advances approach the hearts of the darlings of his soul, when he comes to east out the strong man armed, and to assume the throne of our affections. Hence it appears, also, that convictions by the law, and divine life by the Spirit, together with sore temptations, are sent to debase and humble us, to soften and meeken us, to mortify and empty us, that the kingdom of God may be much longed for, sought after, and sensibly needed; for "whosoever shall not receive the kingdom of God as a little child shall in no wise enter therein."

The kingdom of God stands in power, in righteousness, peace, and joy in the Holy Ghost. This power dethrones Satan, mars the reign of sin, and delivers us from the fear of death; righteousness justifies us from all sins, all things, and all charges; peace is the blessed effect of pardon, and a sure pledge of favour and friendship with God; joy springs from a sense of divine love and a hope of future glory: and it is under the influence of the Holy Spirit that these thing are seen, known, felt, and enjoyed; and all these things bear an everlasting date. In the King of Zion the believer finds everlasting strength: Jesus brought in for us everlasting righteousness, he bestows upon us everlasting peace, and promises that we shall return to Zion with everlasting joy, and that grace shall reign to everlasting life: and grace is nothing less than everlasting love.