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praising God at his birth. (Luke ii. 9-14.) So far were they from disdaining their incarnate Lord, or his service for lost sinners, that the heavenly army, or host, do praise God for it, saying, Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace; good will towards men ;" and when in this warfare one captivated sinner is recovered, there is joy in heaven among these angels. (Luke xv. 7, 10.) They are present with us in our assemblies, which are the well-ordered troops and companies of this army; and their presence we must regard. (1 Cor. xi. 10.) nesses of our good or ill behaviour; (Eccl. v. 6; 1 Tim. v. 21;) and, therefore, to be reverenced as the chief of our fellow-soldiers or servants, but not worshipped. (Col. ii. 18.) "See thou do it not, for I am thy fellow-servant, and of thy brethren, the prophets, and of them which keep the sayings of this book; worship God." (Rev. xxii. 8, 9.)

They are wit

You see, then, that the angels are a chief part of the army of Christ, and serve under him for the saving of sinners from the devil; and, therefore, you find them contending with the devil, though with the meekness of the lamb, saying, "The Lord rebuke thee." (Jude 9.) They convey the departing souls of the righteous unto Christ; (Luke xvi. 22;) they encamp round about them that fear the Lord, and deliver them, (Psalm xxxiv. 7,) even as they carried Lot from the flames of Sodom, and could do nothing till he were come forth. (Gen. xix. 15, 16, &c.) And no wonder that they stoop to the help of man; for it is to the angelical similitude or dignity that Christ doth advance us, and join us to them, by making us like them or equal to them. (Luke xx. 36.) We are now their particular charge, (Matt. xviii. 10,) that we may be hereafter their companions. (Acts xii. 15.) They help to the increase, preservation, and defence of the church. (Aets viii. 26; x. 7, 22; xi. 13, and xii. 11; Dan. iii. 28, and vi. 22; Isa. lxiii. 9.) When the whole army are drawn forth in their glory they are a principal part: you may také a view of all in Heb. xii. 22.: "We are come to Mount Sion, unto the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, and to an innumerable company of angels; to the general assembly and church of the first-born, which are written in heaven, and to God the Judge of all, and to the spirits of just men made perfect, and to Jesus the Mediator of the new covenant, and to the blood of sprinkling," &c. And in the head of this army will Christ appear at the end of the world, when he hath won the field and comes in triumph to confound his conquered enemies, and to be glorified

in his redeemed, delivered saints, that they who have now passed through this warfare "in patient, enduring tribulations and persecution, may, in that righteous judgment of God, be counted worthy of the kingdom of God for which they suffered; it being the righteous thing which God will then do to recompense tribulation to them that trouble us, and to us that are troubled rest with the saints, when the Lord Jesus shall be revealed from heaven with his mighty angels, in flaming fire, taking vengeance on them that know not God, and that obey not the Gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ; who shall be punished with everlasting destruction from the presence of the Lord, and from the glory of his power, when he shall come to be glorified in his saints, and to be admired in all them that believe in that day." (2 Thess. i. 5-10.)

And as the angels are one part of his army, so are the saints another, who must fight for themselves under Christ's conduct, of whom we shall have occasion to say more anon.

Thus you see the Redeemer's army moulded, and of what members it is composed. We should next observe their progress and exploits; but lest you mistake in the matter of their success, by mistaking the design and nature of the fight and conquest, mark well these things following, by the way, before we go further.

1. That it pleased God in his sentence of sinful man, to lay on him unavoidably certain temporal calamities, and to enable the serpent to bruise his heel. So that we must eat our bread in the sweat of our brows, and the earth must be cursed for our sakes, and we must return to dust from whence we came, as to our flesh.

2. And, therefore, it is none of the Redeemer's undertaking to prevent these sufferings and death.

3. But his work is to save us from our sins, (Matt. i. 21,) and from the wrath to come, (1 Thess. i. 10,) and to reconcile us to God, (1 Cor. v. 19, 20,) and justify, sanctify, and glorify us. (Rom. viii. 30; 1 Cor. vi. 11.) And to sanctify our present sufferings to these ends, (Rom. xxviii. 18,) and to moderate their sufferings in order thereunto. (Heb. xii.)

4. And the way of our conquest is not always nor principally in a visible prosperity and worldly greatness and dominion: but ordinarily by patience and contentedness in our sufferings: it being grace and the prosperity of the soul that we fight for, it must be done by that way that hath the true and certain ten

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, (Rom. viii. 17,) and in this way he will not be ashamed to call us his fellow-soldiers or brethren. (Heb. ii. 11-13.) Thus must we in ourselves 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.

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 pròsperity ; 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