woven doctrine. Narrative speaks of it without surprise. It is not reserved for poetry and description. It is wrought into the whole composition. Every act of simple intervention which has been, may be. "Whatsoever things were written aforetime were written for our learning, that we through patience and comfort of the Scriptures might have hope." These acts are, then, the warrants for our continued belief. They are still in procedure. The sensible signs have been presented: with them the evidence has closed. But that evidence remains. It only devolves on us to rest upon it. The great system of angelic auxiliaries is in operation. Every end intended by the sensible sign, save that of miracle, is in unbroken operation. What did these celestial envoys that they do not still? What assistance was ever granted which we do not now receive? Unseen hands minister to us, but it is "the hand beneath the cherub's wing." And we discover in the Text every proof that we can desire. If our faith might require the most perfect kind of statement, we here possess it. It is not laboured proof. It is not straitened argument. The doctrine is taken for granted. Appeal supplies the place of controversy. It is left for us to answer. We of our ownselves must judge. Can it be denied? Does it admit of question? Is it reducible to even a supposititious, a momentary, dispute? "Are they not all ministering spirits, sent forth to minister for them who shall inherit salvation ?"-If our faith might require a solution of an obvious difficulty, it is furnished to us. We think of the children of God scattered abroad. How remote their habitations! How multiplied their wants! How can these attentions be vouchsafed to each and all? to dismiss our fears. We survey the countless throng of these intelligences. All their clouds of number, all their flights of activity, are on our side. Not one of them is released from the behest. Not one of them refuses the service. "Are they not all ministering spirits ?"—If our faith might require the strictest confirmation that this is a present, an actual, conduct,—that it is in constant evolution,-it is declared. It is not record of the past. It is not prophecy of the future. At this hour, it is true. At this instant, it is in force. The world is shadowed with their P P We are taught wings. Their goings forth are of an unwearying benevolence. "Are they not all ministering spirits ?"-If our faith might require a divine allegation, like unto a promise, it is declared. We "obtain a promise," a promise exceeding great and precious! "Thus saith the Lord," who "sendeth forth" all that host! Enquire now of the Lord! We are thus prepared to take a large view, and to experience a constant enjoyment, of this most interesting truth. We would bring no doubt, no reservation, to it. We give it our ready, entire, confidence. We not only "see the Lord sitting on his throne, and all the host of heaven standing by him on his right hand and on his left," to that host we have free access. We "are come to them." We seem to behold them, as in the strain of the bard, "Along the ground gliding meteorous." We are united in common bonds. We share their sympathy. We yield to their guidance. We lean on their friendship. They encouraged our first tears of repentance, and shall not forego their hold of us until we be confessed before them at the last great day. "The tongues of men and of angels" shall sweetly blend in the notes of eternal praise. We need not go even unto the sanctuary to find them, as of old their eyes gazed on the ark and their wings fanned the mercy-seat,—the archetypes of those figures are with us. We have boldness to enter into the holiest, which they love to penetrate,—and we find it whenever devotion raises the veil and draws near to the Presence and the Glory. We may cherish more familiar thoughts, we may return to our own vine and figtree, we may prepare our home,-and, amidst its quiet piety and cheerful vow, "entertain angels unawares." SERMON XXIII. THE FAITH OF DEVILS. JAMES ii. 19. "THE DEVILS ALSO BELIEVE, AND TREMBLE." If LITTLE apology would be sought, were I now to marshal before you the hosts of heaven,-thrones, dominions, principalities, authorities, powers, in their mighty orders and burning files, with all their heraldry and harmony,-radiant with purity, bursting into song, plumed for flight! For what objects of attention are they, and how does their nature challenge our enquiry! beauty has aught to attract, if worth to charm, if benevolence to endear,—if beings so glorious can raise our amazement, if intelligences so piercing can excite our curiosity, if spirits so holy can win upon our hearts,-then, assuredly, are these blessed creatures deserving of our study and admiration. What objects are they, likewise, of complacency! With pleasure may we turn from the spectacles of violence and pollution which fill our earth, and contemplate these existences of light and joy. In such meditations our minds find a repose, we catch the kindred love of virtue, we yearn with new-sprung sensibilities, we "are come to an innumerable company of angels," as to exemplary associates and friends. For what objects are they, above all, of imitation! They surround the seat of Deity,-they wait upon the guidance of his eye, they stand with outstretched wings to obey his behest,— each look and attitude reveals the ardent readiness of their service, they glance as the lightning with intensity and speed,they return as the sunbeam with unsullied brightness and undiverted course, their offices are their delight, their ministrations are their reward," they bless the Lord, doing his command ments, hearkening unto the voice of his word; they are his ministers that do his pleasure." But will not explanation, not to say excuse, be required, when from the skies where these glad supernals dwell, when from the glorious hierarchy of heaven, when from "the solemn troops and sweet societies" with whom is endless praise and jubilee, I transport your thoughts to an abode far distant and far different, where angels, once fair and happy as these sons of God, once celestials themselves, but who kept not their lofty estate, lie in chains of darkness and despair? When I throw open the gate which shuts in the outcasts who fled from the thunder of the Omnipotent, and who now await, with dread expectation, the infliction of their final doom? When I unveil not only the caverns of their prison but the recesses of their bosom, the convulsed pangs which tear them, the dire agitations which consume them? "A Dungeon horrible on all sides around As one great furnace flames, yet from those flames Serves only to discover sights of woe, Regions of sorrow, doleful shades, where peace And rest can never dwell, hope never comes Still urges and a fiery deluge Such place eternal Justice has prepared For those rebellious."* Ah, for no fierce pictures of the imagination,-for no delight, strange but conceivable, in the terrible and the appalling,-for no intense thrill and shock of tragic fright and consternation,for no breaking up of that mental vacancy which is far more painful than any excess of feeling,-for no panic-excitement, which every man prefers to that stupor which nothing can arouse and that apathy which nothing can move,-is this scene to be now impressed. Why, then, shall this revelation be made? Why let escape the smoke of the pit? Why pourtray these images of woe? Why evoke from the fiery deep those lapsed, lost, spirits whose sufferings fancy might tremble to describe and Milton. silence learn to forbear?-That you may revise your scheme of doctrine by their creed! That you may assimilate your practice to their conduct! You shall learn of them how you ought to regard truth, how to judge divine dispensation, how you should be affected as well as convinced, how you should feel as well as think! Strange Example, and yet one which we must follow,- Hateful Standard, but still one which we must consult! Fiends rebuke all unbelief, all frivolity, all obduracy! Fiends shame the sceptic, the trifler, the callous! Fiends warn us not to doubt and not to bravado! Fiends adjure us not to disobey and not to mock! We may cast off fear,-we may make our hearts as the adamant-stone,-we may talk exceeding arrogantly, we may lift up our horn on high,—but fiends were never proof against the influence of fear, and never so hardened themselves in the day of their most guilty provocation as not to tremble! We, thus, advance to the recognition of a portion of creatures whose character is most revolting and whose history is most dread. "The angels that sinned" is the simple account which we possess of their apostacy: they were "cast down to hell," is the simple account of their doom. There is a Chief who incited them to rebellion and still rules them," the angel of the bottomless pit, whose name in the Hebrew tongue is Abaddon, but in the Greek tongue hath his name Apollyon." Painful preeminence! He keepeth his palace, but it is a prison: he is chained to his throne. To suppose that these are representations, poetic and figurative, of mere evil,-that they are abstractions,—is to confound every quality of style and every province of truth. When the sacred writers speak of "the devil and his angels,' they invariably attach to them personal attributes. They call him "the spirit which now worketh in the children of disobedience:" they speak of them as "spirits," with various epithets of wicked and unclean, this being their common nature. Such high nature may, then, be turned to a greater depravity by sin. We see in it, as it exists in them, but "spiritual wickedness." "We wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers," then these principalities and powers are not |