is observable, that many of those mentioned in Scripture, who are called lunatics by one of the evangelists, are termed demoniacs by another. One of the most eminent physicians I ever knew, particularly in cases of insanity, the late Dr. Deacon, was clearly of opinion, that this was the case with many, if not with most, lunatics. And it is no valid objection to this, that these diseases are so often cured by natural means: for a wound inflicted by an evil spirit might be cured as any other, unless that spirit were permitted to repeat the blow. 66 9. May not some of these evil spirits be likewise employed, in conjunction with evil angels, in tempting wicked men to sin, and in procuring occasions for them? Yea, and in tempting good men to sin, even after they have escaped the corruption that is in the world? Herein doubtless they put forth all their strength; and greatly glory if they conquer. A passage in an ancient author may greatly illustrate this: (although I apprehend, he did not intend that we should take it literally :) Satan summoned his powers, and examined what mischief each of them had done. One said, 'I have set a house on fire, and destroyed all its inhabitants.' Another said, 'I have raised a storm at sea, and sunk a ship, and all on board perished in the waters.' Satan answered, Perhaps those that were burned or drowned were saved.' A third said, 'I have been forty years tempting a holy man to commit adultery; and I have left him asleep in his sin.' Hearing this, Satan rose to do him honour; and all hell resounded with his praise." Hear this, all ye that imagine you cannot fall from grace! 10. Ought not we then to be perpetually on our guard against those subtle enemies? Though we see them not, "A constant watch they keep: Lest they should lose their prey." Herein they join with "the rulers of the darkness [the intellectual darkness] of this world;" the ignorance, wickedness, and misery diffused through it, to hinder all good, and promote all evil! To this end they are continually "working with energy, in the children of disobedience." Yea, sometimes they work by them those lying wonders that might almost deceive even the children of God. 11. But, meantime, how may we conceive the inhabitants of the other part of hades, the souls of the righteous, to be employed? It has been positively affirmed by some philosophical men, that spirits have no place! But they do not observe, that if it were so, they must be omnipresent: an attribute which cannot be allowed to any but the Almighty Spirit. The abode of these blessed spirits the ancient Jews were used to term paradise: the same name which our Lord gave it; telling the penitent thief, "This day shalt thou be with me in paradise." Yet in what part of the universe this is situated who can tell, or even conjecture; since it has not pleased God to reveal any thing concerning it? But we have no reason to think they are confined to this place; or indeed to any other. May we not rather say, that, "servants of his," as well as the holy angels, they "do his pleasure;" whether among the inhabitants of earth, or in any other part of his dominions? And as we easily believe, that they are swifter than the light; even as swift as thought; they are well able to traverse the whole universe in the twinkling of an eye, either to execute the divine commands, or to contemplate the works of God. What a field is here open before them! And how immensely may they increase in knowledge while they survey his works of creation, or providence, or his manifold wisdom in the church! What depth of wisdom, of power, and of goodness, do they discover in his methods of “bringing many sons to glory!" Especially while they converse on any of these subjects, with the illustrious dead of ancient days! With Adam, first of men; with Noah, who saw both the primeval and the ruined world; with Abraham, the friend of God; with Moses, who was favoured to speak with God, as it were, "face to face;" with Job, perfected by sufferings; with Samuel, David, Solomon, Isaiah, Daniel, and all the prophets; with the apostles, the noble army of martyrs, and all the saints who have lived and died to the present day; with our elder brethren, the holy angels, cherubim, seraphim, and all the companies of heaven; above all the name of creature owns, with Jesus, the mediator of the new covenant! Meantime, how will they advance in holiness; in the whole image of God, wherein they were created? In the love of God and man; gratitude to their Creator, and benevolence to all their fellow creatures. Yet it does not follow, (what some earnestly maintain.) that this general benevolence will at all interfere with that peculiar affection which God himself implants for our relations, friends, and benefactors. Oh no! Had you stood by his bed side, when that dying saint was crying out, “I have a father and a mother gone to heaven; (to paradise, the receptacle of happy spirits ;) I have ten brothers and sisters gone to heaven; and now I am going to them, that am the eleventh! Blessed be God that I was born!" Would you have replied, "What, if you are going to them? They will be no more to you than any other persons; for you will not know them." Not know them! Nay, does not all that is in you recoil at that thought? Indeed skeptics may ask, how do disembodied spirits know each other? I answer plainly, I cannot tell. But I am certain that they do. This is as plainly proved from one passage of Scripture, as it could be from a thousand. Did not Dives and Lazarus know each other in hades, even afar off? Even though they were fixed on different sides of the "great gulf?” Can we doubt then, whether the souls that are together in paradise shall know one another? The Scripture, therefore, clearly decides this question. And so does the very reason of the thing: for we know, every holy temper which we carry with us into paradise, will remain in us for ever. But such is gratitude to our benefactors. This, therefore, will remain for ever. And this implies, that the knowledge o our benefactors will remain, without which it cannot exist. 12. And how much will that add to the happiness of those spirits, who are already discharged from the body, that they are permitted to minister to those whom they have left behind? An indisputable proof of this we have, in the twenty-second chapter of the Revelation. When the apostle fell down to worship the glorious spirit which he seems to have mistaken for Christ, he told him plainly, "I am of thy fellow servants, the prophets;" not God, not an angel, but a human spirit. And in how many ways may they "minister to the heirs of salvation ?" Sometimes by counteracting wicked spirits whom we cannot resist, because we cannot see them; sometimes by preventing our being hurt How often may it please by men, or beasts, or inanimate creatures. "Oh may thine angels, while I sleep, Their love angelical instil, Stop all the consequence of ill. May they celestial joys rehearse, And thought to thought with me converse; Or in my stead, the whole night long, Sing to my God a grateful song." And may not e Father of spirits allot this office jointly to angels, and human spirits waiting to be made perfect? 13. It may indeed be objected, that God has no need of any subordinate agents, of either angelical or human spirits, to guard his children, in their waking or sleeping hours, seeing" he that keepeth Israel doth neither slumber nor sleep." And certainly, he is able to preserve them by his own immediate power. yea, and he is able, by his own immediate power only, without any instruments at all, to supply the wants of all his creatures, both in heaven and earth. But it is, and ever was, his pleasure, not to work by his own immediate power only, but chiefly by subordinate means, from the beginning of the world. And how wonderfully is his wisdom displayed in adjusting all these to each other! So that we may well cry out, "Oh Lord, how manifoid are thy works! In wisdom hast thou made them all!" 14. This we know, concerning the whole frame and arrangement of the visible world. But how exceeding little do we now know concerning the invisible! And we should have known still less of it, had it not pleased the author of both worlds to give us more than natural light, to give us "his word, to be a lantern to our feet, and a light in all our paths." And holy men of old, being assisted by his Spirit, have discovered many particulars of which otherwise we should have had no conception. 15. And without Revelation, how little certainty of invisible things did the wisest of men obtain! The small glimmerings of light which they had were merely conjectural. At best, they were only a faint, dim twilight, delivered from uncertain tradition; and so obscured by heathen fables, that it was but one degree better than utter darkness. 16. How uncertain the best of these conjectures was, may easily be gathered from their own accounts. The most finished of all these accounts, is that of the great Roman poet. Where observe how warily he begins, with that apologetic preface?-Sit mihi fas audita loqui ?— 'May I be allowed to tell what I have heard?"—And in the conclusion, lest any one should imagine he believed any of these accounts, he sends the relater of them out of hades, by the ivory gate, through which he had just informed us, that only dreams and shadows pass. A very plain intimation, that all which has gone before, is to be looked upon as a dream! 17. How little regard they had for all these conjectures, with regard to the invisible world, clearly appears from the words of his brother poet; who affirms, without any scruple, "Esse aliquos manes et subterranea regna "That there are ghosts or realms below, not even a man of them now believes." So little could even the most improved reason discover concerning the invisible and eternal world. The greater cause have we to praise the Father of lights, who hath opened the eyes of our understanding, to discern those things which could not be seen by eyes of flesh and blood; that he who of old time shined out of darkness, hath shined in our hearts, and enlightened us with the light of the glory of God, in the face of Jesus Christ, "the author and finisher of our faith;" "by whom he made the worlds;" by whom he now sustains whatever he hath made: for, "Till nature shall her Judge survey, The King MESSIAH reigns." These things we have believed upon the testimony of God, the Creator of all things, visible and invisible: by this testimony we already know the things that now exist, though not yet seen, as well as those that will exist in their season, until this visible world shall pass away, and the Son of man shall come in his glory. 18. Upon the whole, what thanks ought we to render to God, who has vouchsafed this "evidence of things unseen" to the poor inhabitants of earth, who otherwise must have remained in utter darkness concerning them? How invaluable a gift is even this imperfect light, to the benighted sons of men! What a relief is it to the defects of our senses, and, consequently, of our understanding; which can give us no information of any thing, but what is first presented by the senses. But hereby a new set of senses (so to speak) is opened in our souls: and, by this means, "The things unknown to feeble sense, Unseen by reason's glimmering ray, Faith lends its realizing light: The clouds disperse, the shadows fly; London, January 17, 1791. SERMON CXXVII.-The Deceitfulness of the Human Heart. "The heart of man is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked: who can know it?" Jer. xvii, 9. 1. THE most eminent of the ancient heathens have left us many testimonies of this. It was indeed their common opinion, that there was a time when men in general were virtuous and happy: this they termed the "golden age." And the account of this was spread through almost all nations. But it was likewise generally believed, that this happy age had expired long ago; and that men are now in the midst of the "iron age. At the commencement of this, says the poet,— Irrupit venæ pejoris in ævum "Immediately broke in, With a full tide, all wickedness and sin: Shame, truth, fidelity, swift fled away, And cursed thirst of gold bore unresisted sway." 2. But how much more knowing than these old pagans are the present generation of Christians! How many laboured panegyrics do we now read and hear on the dignity of human nature! One eminent preacher, in one of his sermons, preached and printed a few years ago, Joes not scruple to affirm; first, That men in general (if not every individual) are very wise: secondly, That men in general are very virtuous and thirdly, That they are very happy :-and I do not know, that any one yet has been so hardy as to controvert the assertion. 3. Nearly related to them, were the sentiments of an ingenious gentleman, who being asked, "My lord, what do you think of the Bible?" answered, "I think it is the finest book I ever read in my life. Only that part of it which indicates the mediatorial scheme, I do not understand: for I do not conceive there is any need of a mediator' between God and man. If indeed," continued he, "I was a sinner, then I should need a mediator: but I do not conceive I am. It is true, I often act wrong, for want of more understanding; and I frequently feel wrong tempers, particularly proneness to anger: but I cannot allow this to be a sin; for it depends on the motion of my blood and spirits, which I cannot help. Therefore it cannot be a sin: or if it be, the blame must fall not on me, but on him that made me." The very sentiments of pious lord Kames, and modest Mr. Hume! 4. Some years ago a charitable woman discovered, that there was no sinner in the world, but the devil. "For," said she, "he forces men to act as they do; therefore they are unaccountable: the blame lights on Satan." But these more enlightened gentlemen have discovered, that there is no sinner in the world but God! For he forces men to think, speak, and act as they do; therefore the blame lights on God alone. Satan, avaunt! It may be doubted, whether he himself ever uttered so foul a blasphemy as this! 5. But whatever unbaptized or baptized infidels may say concerning the innocence of mankind, He that made man, and that best knows what he has made, gives a very different account of him. He informs us, that "the heart of man," of all mankind, of every man born into the world, "is desperately wicked;" and that it is "deceitful above all things" so that we may well ask, "Who can know it?" I. 1. To begin with this: "The heart of man is desperately wicked." In considering this, we have no need to refer to any particular sins; (these are no more than the leaves, or, at most, the fruits, which spring from that evil tree;) but rather to the general root of all. See how this was first planted in heaven itself, by "Lucifer, son of the morning;" till then undoubtedly "one of the first, if not the first archangel :" "Thou saidst, I will sit upon the side of the north." See self will; the first-born of Satan! "I will be like the Most High." See pride; the twin sister of self will. Here was the true origin of evil. came the inexhaustible flood of evils upon the lower world. When Satan had once transfused his own self will and pride into the parents of mankind, together with a new species of sin,-love of the world, the loving the creature above the Creator,-all manner of wickedness, soon rushed in; all ungodliness and unrighteousness; shooting out 30* Hence |