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furprized when she heard the ferpent speak; and there is fome probability in both the one and the other; fo that the ferpent might be condemned, both to be mute and creep upon his belly for the future; but of these conjectures I fhall fay no more; only we are affured, that the ferpent was more fubtle than any beast of the field which the Lord God had made, * and that the wisdom and cunning of the ferpent is often mentioned in the bible; also the poison which attends their bite is very fatal; hence many of the Ifraelites died by reafon thereof. + David speaking of the malignity of his enemies, fays, their poison is like the poifan of a ferpent. ‡ Solomon speaking of intoxicating wine, fays, that it biteth like a ferpent and ftingeth like an adder. § As the poison of a ferpent is often alluded to, fo is the wisdom and cunning; hence our Lord fays, be ye wife as ferpents, and harmless as doves. || St. Paul fays, I fear, leaft by any means as the ferpent beguiled Eve through his fubtilty your minds should be corrupted.¶ And to fhew that the prince of darkness has not his name for nothing, it is faid, that he deceived the whole world. () And, alas, experence makes the affertion but too true. Howmany does he deceive by pernicious doctrines; and herein transforming himself into an angel of light. So it was in the beginning; he did not then appear as an enemy but as a friend to the first human pair, pretending that he would point

them

Gen. iii. 1. + Numb. 21. Pfalms lviii. 11. § Prov. xxiii. 32. 2 Cor. xi. 2. () Rev. xii. 9.

Matt. x. 16.

them out the way of becoming Gods, that thereby they might shake off the bondage which he would infinuate they laboured under.

6. He deceives by worldly, gain, and by worldly pleasure, feting the world before them as he did before our Saviour, and promifing them the happiness of the fame. He deceives with the enchanting pleasures of the world; and millions are thereby destroying precious time, and consuming their fubftance, and bringing to deftruction, with great speed, both body and foul. Hence almost innumerable inventions are fought out to please fome, or all, of our vitiated fenfes, and many of the pleasures are both of a cruel and indelicate nature, and calculated to banish all humanity, modefty, and purity out of the world.

7. HE deceives by the falfe notions of honour; hence, among the great, pomp and parade are in great queft, and the noife and clamour of a few poor elevated worms have, in all ages filled the world with confufion, rapine, fpoil and violence. How feelingly does Solomon defcribe the groans of fuch as are deftreffed by the tyrants of the world, so I returned and confidered all the oppreffions that are done under the fun: And behold the tears of fuch as were oppressed, and they had no comforter; and on the fide of the oppreffors there was power, but they had no comforter.* Now, what is the end these sturdy rebels have in view? Doubtless the aggrandizing themselves, to advance

Ecclef. xiv. s.

thier

their own honour, and thus treading in the steps of the first arch apoftate, they want to be like God. In all these and many more ways does he deceive the nations, and thus, blinding the minds of them that believe not. *

8. HE is called in the text the devil: + the word means an accufer, or a calumniator, and is the common name by which he goes in the New Testament. This title alfo he makes good; for he accufes God to man; and again, he accuses man to God. For what was his vile infinuation to our firft parents, but a fly accusation against God, as if he dealt hardly with them, and a flat contradiction of what God had faid? God faid ye fhall die, if ye eat of that fruit; the Devil says, ye shall not die, for God doth know in the day yê eat thereof then fhall your eyes be opened, and ye shall be as gods, knowing good and evil.

a daring accufation against God,

What was this but

as if he dealt hardly

and craftily with the work of his hands? that he accufes man to God is alfo evident, as in the well known instance in Job, § fo that he is truly and properly filed, the accufer of the brethren, who accufeth before God day and night. \|

9. As his Greek name, diabols, which we render Devil, fignifies a calumniator or an accufer, and therein bears fome refemblance to the cunning ferpent;

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fo his hebrew name, Satan, a hater, or an adver-. fary, bears some reference to the dragon, full of hatred and enmity against God, and every thing which he hath made. He is a restless, raging adversary, hence St. Peter faith, Be fober, be vigilent; because your adversary, the devil, as a roaring lion, goes about seeking whom he may devour. † His having both Greek and Hebrew names, may intimate to us, that he is the common enemy of all the human race, as all the world is usually divided into Jews and Greeks. Such is this grand Abaddon, the dire Apollyon, this general destroyer, and never fatisfied devourer of humankind, and who has been making this difmal havock amongst mankind, for near fix thousand years; but his end draweth nigh; for he hath but a fhort time to live. t

II. THIS therefore brings me to the second branch of the text, to wit, the binding of this deftroyer of the nations, which is spoken of in the text; and to fhew the certainty of it, the evangelift fpeaks of it as a thing already done. The auguft perfonage to whom this business is affigned, is stiled an angel; and if compared will with fimilar texts, appears to be the angel of the everlasting covenant. It was very early foretold, that he that is ftiled the feed of the woman should bruise the ferpent's head. § For as Satan firft foiled the human kind, it seems reasonable that one cloathed

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a hater, or adverfay, from the Hebrew verb, to hate or oppoft.
† Peter v. 8. ↑ Rev. xii. 12.

§ Gen. iii. 15.

with the fame nature fhould be his binder, bruifer, and final overcomer. I hope I need not inform you, here prefent, that God was manifest in the filefh, and that he who took on him the feed of Abraham, is the feed of the woman, and the bruifer of the ferpent, and is properly. ftiled God over all blessed for ever.

2. I look upon feveral of the tyrants of old, to have been types and images of this grand tyrant of whom I am speaking. In this light I look upon Pharoah, who kept the chosen race in heavy bondage, and made them groan under his oppreffive yoake for many years, and made their lives bitter, partly by deftroying their children, and partly by the unreasonable tasks imposed upon them. In the height and bitterness of their calamity they cry unto the Lord, and he heard their cry; and even when they saw nothing but destruction before their eyes, then did the lion of the tribe of Judah aroufe himself and overthrow both Pharoah and his hoft. * He had cruelly boasted I will pursue, I will overtake, I will divide the spoil; my luft shall be fatisfied upon them, I will draw my fword, my hand Shall destroy them. Even them he funk as lead in the

mighty waters. +

To this awful circumftance the church alludes, when in deep diftrefs in after ages, and cries out, Awake, awake, put on ftrength O arm of the Lord; awake as in the ancient days, in generations of old.

* Exod. xiv. + Exod. xv. 9. 10.

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