dency to these ends, and not by carnal pleasure and prosperity, which are ordinarily our greatest adversaries. In patience we must possess our souls, if we would secure them against the storms of Satan. (Luke xxi. 19.) It was this way that Christ himself did conquer, who is the author and finisher of our faith, who, for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is set down at the right hand of the throne of God. And we must consider him that endured such contradiction of sinners against himself, lest we be wearied and faint in our minds. (Heb. xii. 2, 3.) We must follow him bearing our cross if we will conquer: for we have need of patience, besides doing God's will in actual obedience, that we may inherit the promised crown. (Heb. x. 36.) It is not by conquering kingdoms, and becoming masters of other men's possessions, but by taking joyfully the spoiling of our own goods, knowing in ourselves that we have in heaven a better and an enduring substance, (Heb. x. 34,) when for his name' sake we are killed all the day long, and counted as sheep to the slaughter, when we suffer tribulation, distress, persecution, famine, nakedness, sword; in all these things we are conquerors and superconquerors, through the Captain of our salvation that hath led us this way. (Rom. viii. 35, 36.) For as this our Captain was himself made perfect by suffering, (not in his nature and holiness, for that was before perfect, but in his military work, and actual obedience, and righteousness therein consisting, and his aptitude to be the leader and deliverer of others,) and this for the bringing of many sons to glory, (Heb. ii. 10,) so will he have us follow him in the way that he hath trod, and through many tribulations to enter into his kingdom; and to suffer with him, that we may reign with him, way he will not be ashamed to brethren. (Heb. ii. 11-13.) be made partakers of the sufferings of Christ, that when his glory shall be revealed, we also may be glad (as triumphing victors) with exceeding joy. And if thus we are reproached for Christ, we are happy; for the Spirit of God and of glory resteth on us. (1 Pet. iv. 14-16.) Blessed, therefore, is he that thus endureth temptation: for when he is tried he shall receive the crown of life, which the Lord hath promised to them that love him. (James i. 12.) Here is the patience, and faith, and victory of the saints.

(Rom. viii. 17,) and in this call us his fellow-soldiers or Thus must we in ourselves

I know the carnal heart will be ready to say, 'If this be your

victory, I desire none of it; any one may so conquer, as to be trodden down and ruined.' Whereto, I answer, the power and victory of Christ is still manifest, in these particulars following.

1. In that it is not in the power of the tempter to conquer the graces of the saints, nor to separate them from the love of God in Christ, (Rom. viii. 38, 39,) which he had rather do if he could, than to trample upon their bodies, or keep them in poverty or trouble for a time. He can be content to let you have dignities and honours, so he could but rob you of the dignity of saints, and cast out the image of God again from your souls. He can let you enjoy the pleasures of sin for a season, that thereby he might deprive you of the celestial pleasures. He will let young men rejoice, and their hearts cheer them in the days of their youth, and walk in the ways of their own heart, and the light of their eyes, if they will but forget that for all these things they must come to judgment. (Eccl. xi. 9.) He judgeth not himself, as he persuadeth blind infidels to judge, that it is better to win the world than to save our souls; he would let you have the kingdoms and glory of the world, if it were in his power, so you would but give him the worship due to God. (Matt. iv. 9.) Our victory, therefore, lieth in maintaining our innocency, and not obeying his wicked seducements, and this may be as well and better done in adversity than in prosperity: adversity, therefore, is no sign that Satan is the conqueror.

2. Moreover, the business of Satan is to keep men from God; if Christ, therefore, do bring men nearer to God by adversity, he conquereth the tempter that would keep them from him but it is clear by experience, that the souls of the faithful are kept closer to God in suffering times, than in prosperity; they are then more sensible of the vanity and emptiness of all worldly things, and weaned from them, and do fly to God with more earnest desires, and more sensible of the folly of sinning than at other times and, sure, the soul is most victorious against Satan, that is nearest God, and hath most of his love, whatever befall the body in the mean time.

3. If an incrcase of all graces appear on the soul in time of affliction, then is it not very hard, to an opened eye, to see Christ's victory in the afflictions of his people; for that which makes a man better, is the best condition, in the judgment of Seneca himself, and of reason: but grace useth to increase in affliction, therefore we may well account it our victory.

4. If God be most honoured by his people in adversity, when they suffer for his cause, then we may well see, that, even in our sufferings, Christ may be conquering, for it is God's dishonour that the tempter doth endeavour; but, it is certain, that God is usually more honoured at such times, when his graces are exercised in the eye of the world, and when his servants confess him in the midst of persecution. How hath Christ been more honoured on earth than by the martyrdom of his followers, and their confessing him in the midst of the most cruel torments?

5. If Satan be most confounded, dishonoured, and disappointed in the sufferings of the faithful, then may they well be said to conquer in their sufferings; but it is certain, by all experience, that Satan hath been never so confounded, shamed, and disappointed, as when his cruelty and wickedness is most manifestly discovered, and his way thereby the more abhorred, and yet the righteous the more confirmed. The histories of heathenish and popish persecution, that are upon record for the view of posterity, will give a greater wound to the cause of Satan in their hands, than ever it had been like to have received by our prosperity. How many thousands among ourselves have been confirmed in a hatred of popery, by the French massacre, the Spanish Inquisition, the cruelty in Queen Mary's days, the Gunpowder Plot, the Irish butcheries, &c., that have known little of the arguments that are used by either side in disputation.

6. If Christ's kingdom thrive by his people's sufferings, he may well be said to conquer by them. But that his kingdom hath thriven by our sufferings always in purity, frequently in numbers of his true disciples, the experience of all suffering ages can bear witness.

You see now that there are two armies in the field of this world, one under Christ, and the other under Satan, and what are their several interests and designs, and what it is to conquer, and by what means Christ and his soldiers overcome, and how you may judge rightly of the issue of the fight, who hath the better, and who the worse.

Sect. XIV.

We shall next a little consider of the history of Christ's conflicts with Satan, and the success, and show you by how many ways he hath fully discovered to us, that he is the chief enemy

of hell. And I will, for brevity, overpass all the history of the Old Testament, and begin at the New.

1. Before he came in the flesh, the angels are sent from heaven to acquaint men that he came on this very business, and to this end, to conquer Satan, and rescue his captives, and save his people. (Matt. i. 21.) "Thou shalt call his name Jesus, for he shall save his people from their sins." (Luke i. 30-35; Luke i. 68-80.)

2. Before he was born himself, John the Baptist is sent into the world as his forerunner; and before Christ doth solemnly set upon his great work, John must be sent to prepare his way. He is sent to bid Satan defiance, and to proclaim and begin the hotter part of the war, being " filled with the Holy Ghost even from the womb, to turn many of the Children of Israel unto God to go before Christ in the spirit and power of Elias; to turn the hearts of the fathers to the children, and the disobedient to the wisdom of the just; to make ready a people prepared for the Lord :" (Luke i. 15-17 :) to give knowledge of salvation to his people for the remission of their sins, through the tender mercy of God, to give light to them that sit in darkness and the shadow of death. (Luke i. 77, 78.) For it was his office to be the voice crying in the wilderness, saying, "Prepare ye the way of the Lord :" and to bid them "Repent, for the kingdom of God is at hand," and to tell them of the promised salvation which was raised up, "That we might be saved from our enemies, and from the hands of all that hate us; that we being delivered from the hands of our enemies, might serve him without fear, in holiness and righteousness before him, all the days of our life." (Luke i. 70-76.) This man hath the honour to initiate Christ into the solemn entrance upon his military work by his baptism, which had the same general nature with our baptism, but not the same in special. was not to convey to him the remission of sin, as it is to us, for he had none; nor was it to engage him to himself, as we are engaged to him: but it was to engage him solemnly in the same military work against sin and Satan; as the general may glory in wearing the same colours which he gives his soldiers, to signify that they are of a party, and go all on one and the same design; only one as general, and the rest as common soldiers. Though we be not to do the same works against Satan in all things as Christ, yet are we to fight against him in our ranks and places, as Christ did in his. He is entered as general and king by his baptism, and we as soldiers and subjects, by ours.

It

At this his baptismal engagement, and taking the field, John gives him his testimony, "Behold the Lamb of God that taketh away the sins of the world." And the Father giveth him his testimony by a voice from heaven: "This is my beloved Son in whom I am well pleased." (Matt. iii. 17; Luke iii. 22.) And the Holy Ghost beareth witness in descending on him in the form of a dove. (Luke iii. 22.) Thus you see Christ take the field in his own personal engagement.

3. Being thus engaged himself, he is immediately set upon personally by the tempter, being led into the wilderness by the Spirit, and purposely submitting himself hereunto. The reason of this conflict I told you before. As the first Adam being assaulted quickly after his entrance into paradise, and institution of the sacramental trees was overcome by the tempter, so must the second Adam overcome the tempter, and that in a like conflict hand to hand, presently after his baptism. Satan must lose his prisoners in the way he got them, and Christ must do what Adam could not. The victory must be got by the public person in our nature before it be got by each man individually in his own person; for so was it lost. Here was the first great overthrow of the adversary. Here was the serpent's head broken as he is the tempter, as on the cross it was afterwards broken, as he is the tormentor, as is said before. And as Adam lost the day before he had any offspring, so Christ wins it in his own person, before he doth solemnly begin to preach the Gospel, or calleth any of his disciples, as far as I can find in the text.

That this was a solemn combat, and a considerable part of Christ's work, appears by the solemn preparation and management: for though Christ's fasting forty days in the wilderness was a preparation to all his after-performance, as well as this one, yet more immediately for this as a special part of it.

It was not merely a fantasm, as some have imagined, that Christ was thus assaulted and used; and yet it seems to be in the spirit, though real, as Paul was taken up into the heavens; how far in the body, or out of the body, I think we cannot judge.

Nor should it be matter of offence to any, that Satan should have so much power of Christ as to carry him, as is there expressed, seeing it was but in order to the temptation, and by Christ's own submission and consent, and did but prepare for the greater conquest; and the enemy departed as overcome, at his command. This was the issue of this leading conflict, between the two generals hand to hand.