terrific judgment inflicted on thy fall, the dreadful doom which thrust you out of heaven and hurled you down to hell, sufficient check to stop thy rash presumption, but that thou with daring perseverance treasurest up wrath against the day of evil, which now is come upon thee, and which will now destroy thee with a double destruction? (Jer. xvii. 18.) Not that thou, thief and robber as thou art, couldst have had the smallest power of climbing up into my lower sheepfold, and like a murderous wolf catching the feeble sheep which I had penned therein, had it not been permitted thee of God. Thou, devouring lion, hadst never been allowed to pursue thy guileful way, (Jer. iv. 7,) had not God left thee to follow thine own malign devices, thereby to prove probationary beings. (Judges iii. 1.) But He knew thy going out, thy coming in-thy rage against him; therefore put He his hook in thy nose, and his bridle in thy lips, and turned thee back by the way by which thou camest. (Isa. xxxvii. 28, 29.) Thou never wast allowed to tempt intelligence above what it was able to bear: God will know how to deliver the godly out of every temptation. Those blessed beings who now on my right-hand are triumphing in glory stood many a painful conflict with thee: much didst thou buffet and afflict them during their state of trial. But they instant sought for help, and by seeking found that help was laid on one that was almighty; and through this help overcame thee as I their Lord have done, and now there fails not aught of any one good thing which I had

spoken unto them; all is now come to pass. (Josh. xxi. 45.) Those unwise and wretched beings placed on my left hand, take: they now are thine, not mine; for all that work iniquity I utterly disclaim; they regarded not my works, neither considered they the operations of my hands. Therefore hell hath enlarged herself, and opened her mouth without measure; and their glory, and their multitude, and their pomp, and those that once rejoiced, shall descend with thee in it; their lofty looks shall be humbled, their haughtiness bowed down. (Isa. v. 12, 14.) The sinners in Zion shall dwell with everlasting burnings, (Isa. xxxiii. 14,) and the righteous shall tread down the wicked, for they shall be ashes under the soles of their feet, saith the Lord of hosts. (Mal. iv. 3.) But the Lord of hosts shall be exalted in judgment, and God that is holy shall be sanctified in righteousness. (Isa. v. 16.) The decreed consumption shall overflow with righteousness. (Isa. x. 22.) And the work of righteousness shall be peace, and the effect of righteousness, quietness and assurance for ever. (Isa. xxxii. 17.) Father of lies and falsehood, black origin of exemplified evil, pride was thy fall, and pride is now thy punishment! Over you now is spread that heavy night of darkness that waiteth to receive you; but still thou wilt be unto thyself more grievous than the darkness. (Wisdom xvii. 21.) None but thyself can know the pangs that thou endurest. Tortured by thwarted pride, burning with maddened rage, thyself the framer and defeater of thy malignant schemes, loaded

with ignominious chains, thine impious impotence now openly displayed, at my tremendous bar thou standest, before the assembled universe the abhorred spectacle of general detestationthe most wicked, most miserable, most hateful, hating, hated being in the creation of God: an astonishment, an hissing, an everlasting reproach, and a perpetual shame. (Jer. xxiii. 40.)

66

How art thou fallen from heaven, O Lucifer, son of the morning!" (Isa. xiv. 12.) Thou canst not plead thou wast not warned of this appalling hour. Thy supplication to myself, when wrapped in that weak nature wherein I bled and died, has fully proved that fact. Thou then with a loud voice didst cry, Let us alone, thou Son of God most high: Art thou come to destroy us? I know thee who thou art, the holy one of God; I beseech thee torment me not. Art thou come hither to torment us before the appointed time? (Matt., Mark, Luke.) But how did the short respites then allowed thee operate upon thy base apostate mind? Did they produce the smallest symptom of relenting sorrow? one wish of reconcilement with thy adored Former? No; far different was the result on the inexorable obduracy of thy selfnurtured malice: thou camest down unto the inhabitants of these my lower heavens, having great wrath, because thou knewest that thou hadst but a short time.* (Rev. xii. 12.) Thus didst thou dare my vengeance. Despair eternal

* That evil beings are the agents now permitted by God to administer those trials which constitute probationary states, we have already endeavoured to prove. And as to their great

seize thee, and "perdition catch thee, hell gapeth to receive thee:" I throw you down unpitied, (Lam. ii. 17,) with your infernal host, into that boiling furnace, which ever burneth with "corrosive fire," prepared for thee and thy rebellious angels: I now consume you with the spirit of my mouth, destroy you with the brightness of my coming; (2 Thess. ii. 8;) remand you, encom

Lord and high opponent upon earth they had occasional access, so also by some passages in Scripture they appear to have had occasional access to Him who is present everywhere. This is elicited by the question put by the Almighty in the book of Job, From whence comest thou, Satan? (Job i. 7.) And also by the vision of Micaiah. "And he said, Hear thou, therefore, the word of the Lord: I saw the Lord sitting on his throne, and all the host of heaven standing by him, on his right hand and on his left. And the Lord said, Who shall persuade Ahab that he may go and fall to-morrow at Ramoth-gilead? and one said on this manner, and another said on that manner. And there came forth a spirit and stood before the Lord, and said, I will persuade him. And the Lord said unto him, Wherewith? and he said, I will go forth, and I will be a lying spirit in the mouth of all his prophets. And He said, Thou shalt persuade him, and prevail also; go forth and do so." By perusing the verses preceding and subsequent to the quotation just inserted from 1 Kings xxii., we perceive that the wicked king Ahab patronized and encouraged false prophets, who, only considering their own interest, foretold, or spoke, what they knew was flattering and pleasing unto him, while his faithful servant and prophet Micaiah was afflicted and imprisoned for telling him the truth. That evil beings were occasionally allowed to hold converse with good ones, is again elicited, Zech. iii. 1: "And He showed me Joshua the high priest standing before the angel of the Lord, and Satan standing at his right hand to resist him. And the Lord said unto Satan, The Lord rebuke thee, O Satan; even the Lord that hath chosen Jerusalem rebuke thee."

passed with my terrors, (Lam. ii. 22,) to the regions of deep sorrow and impalpable gloom; consign you to augmented misery, accumulated woe, and everlasting despair. "For there is no healing of thy bruise, thy wound is grievous all that hear the bruit of thee shall clap the hands over thee; for upon whom hath not thy wickedness passed continually?" (Nahum iii. 19.) "Behold, my servants shall sing for joy, but ye shall cry for sorrow of heart, and howl for vexation of spirit.” (Isa. lxv. 14.) The deepness of thy sorrows none but thyself must know. Remembrance of thy former glory, and of thy former bliss, will unceasingly gnaw thy vitals with unutterable anguish, in these dread realms wherein the pride of all glory will be for ever stained: (Isa. xxiii. 9:) where all who are therein immured are sunk into unending shame, and everlasting contempt, (Dan. xii.) where the terrific fate of the once strong and mighty, who once caused terror, will ever speak from out the midst of hell. (Ezekiel xxxii. 21.) Here fixed for eternity, thou wilt thyself eternally remain the eternal monument of the woe of him whose proud presumption dared to strive with him who is great in counsel and mighty in operation; whose eyes are open upon all, to give to every one according to their ways. (Jer. xxxii. 19.) And I heard a loud voice saying in heaven, Now is come salvation, and strength, and the kingdom of our God, and the power of his Christ. For the accuser of our brethren is cast down, which accused them before our God day and night. (Rev. xii. 10.)