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their white horses him whose name is the Word of God, faithful and true, who, clothed in a vesture dipt in blood, rides forth prosperously on his white horse, "in righteousness, judging and making war, conquering and to conquer.' Like him, wherever they are, according to the facilities afforded by their circumstances, they are to be constantly engaged in destroying the works of the devil. Thus, then, are Christians to resist their adversary the devil.1

CHAP. II.-WHAT THE CHRISTIAN IS TO DO, THAT HE MAY RESIST HIS GREAT ENEMY.

The apostle not only enjoins this duty of resistance, he also instructs Christians how they are to be enabled to perform it. If they would successfully resist the devil, either in their own hearts, or in the church and the world, they must "be sober, vigilant, and steadfast in the faith." Let us shortly explain these exercises, and show how necessary they are, and how well fitted they are, to enable the Christian to resist his adversary the devil.

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When we read these words, we feel that the injunctions contained in them have already been given; the first of them more than once. The reiteration of such precepts in so short an epistle, teaches a lesson both to ministers and people, both to the teachers and the taught. It says to the first, "for you to say the same things should not be grievous," for the second, "it is safe;" ay, it is necessary. Precept must be on precept, line upon line; here a little, and there a little." "It were easy," says Archbishop Leighton, "to entertain men's mind with new discourse, if our task were rather to please than to profit; for there be many things which, with little labor, might be brought forth as new and strange to ordinary hearers. But there be a few things which it chiefly concerns us to know and practise, and these are to be more frequently represented and pressed. This apostle, and other divine writers, drew from too full a spring to be ebb of matter; but they rather choose profitable iterations than unprofitable variety, and so should we." Yet we shall find that, though substantially the same exhortations are repeated, it is always with a peculiar adaptation to the connection in which they occur. They are not mere repetitions; they are examples of the applications of general principles, or precepts, to particular cases. It is obviously so in the instance before us.

§ 1.-He must be sober.

The word here translated "be sober," is the same which, in the seventh verse of the preceding chapter, is rendered be vigilant. Its proper signification is to be abstinent from, or temperate in the use of, wine or other intoxicating drinks. It designates a state directly the reverse of a state of intoxication. The word may be understood

The motives to resistance are strongly put by Tertullian: "Stat conflictus conspector, et victoria Agonothetes, Deus vivus: Xystarches, Spiritus Sanctus: Epistates, Christus Jesus; Corona, æternitatis brabium, angelicæ in cœlis substantiæ politia, gloria in secula seculorum."-Lib. ad Martyr. iii.

either literally or figuratively. If understood literally, we are here taught that temperance, in reference to intoxicating drinks, is necessary in order to our resisting the devil. And, certainly, nothing can be more obviously true than this. The natural tendency of intoxicating drinks is to diminish the power of conscience and reason, and to increase the power of the lower principles of our nature, animal appetite and irascible feeling. It increases the strength of what needs to be restrained, and weakens the strength of what is fitted and intended to restrain. It delivers the man, in one point of view, bound hand and foot, so far as resistance is concerned, into the devil's hands; and, in another, presents him a willing soldier, appropriately armed for his service. An intoxicated man would be ill fitted to take care of himself, if exposed to the attacks of subtle, powerful beasts of prey; and he is certainly not better fitted to guard himself against that crafty and active, strong and cruel spiritual enemy, who is here represented as prowling about like a roaring lion. While this is undoubtedly true, and, highly important, as the corresponding term "be vigilant," that is, wakeful, is plainly to be understood in a figurative sense, we apprehend the expression before us must also be interpreted figuratively; an interpretation which substantially includes the literal meaning, while it includes much more.

"Things seen and temporal," the pleasures, the riches, the honors of this world, are apt to intoxicate the mind. Men under their su preme influence are regulated more by imagination and appetite than by conscience and reason. What is present and sensible, occupies the whole mind. What is unseen and future, is overlooked and forgotten, and treated as if it had no existence. Time is everything, eternity is nothing. This is mental intoxication; and sobriety, in opposition to this, is just the sound estimate which enlightened conscience and reason form of the comparative value of things seen and unseen, things temporal and eternal, with a habitual state of feeling and action corresponding to this estimate.

He is sober who reckons that the ever-enduring holy happiness which can be found only in possessing the favor, and being conformed to the image of God, is of more true value to man than all else which the created universe contains; that the certainty of attaining the greatest earthly good is too dearly purchased by the slightest hazard of losing this happiness; that no sacrifice, no suffering, is to be much counted on if necessary in order to its attainment; and that what has no tendency to secure this, cannot be a matter of very much importance to a being like man. Such a man shows a mind free from intoxication. He judges of things as they really are. His maxims are obviously the words of truth and soberness. God is more excellent than the creature. The soul is more valuable than the body. Heaven is better than earth, far better than hell. Time is shorter than eternity.

The man who is thus sober is prepared for resisting the devil, in both the ways illustrated above. The devil is the god of this world, and all his power is derived from it. The sum of what he has to say in the way of temptation is, All earthly good is delivered to me, and to whomsoever I will I give it. All earthly evil is in my power, and on whomsoever I will I inflict it.' It is by the hope of worldly good,

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or the fear of worldly evil, that he prevails on men to neglect duty, and to commit sin. But the truly sober man has his spiritual senses too well exercised to believe either the implied or the express falsehood. He knows that God has not relinquished the government of the world, or so committed it into the hands of his great enemy, as that he has the disposal either of the good or the evil of life; and though it were otherwise, he knows that there is a more valuable good which compliance with his suggestions would forfeit; a more dreadful evil to which compliance with his suggestions would expose him. So far as he is influenced by this sober judgment, he "keeps himself, and the wicked one toucheth him not." And the same sober judg ments of the value of the soul, and of the importance of eternity, nat urally lead to strenuous, persevering exertions to resist the devil, in his attempts to introduce error and superstition into the church, and to perpetuate ignorance, idolatry, and wickedness in the world.

§ 2. He must be vigilant.

But that Christians may effectually resist their adversary the devil, the apostle calls on them to be not only sober, but "vigilant." The literal meaning of the word is in opposition to falling asleep, to keep awake as shepherds do when watching their sheep by night, or sentinels when keeping watch on the walls of a city; it indicates a state of watchfulness, in opposition to a state of sleep or drowsiness. Some would interpret the words literally; and it is on this ground, among others, that Roman Catholics prescribe watching as well as fasting as a means of spiritual advantage, and of successfully resisting our ghostly adversaries.

There can be no reasonable doubt, however, that here, and wherever else in the New Testament, watching is prescribed as a general christian duty, the word is used figuratively. A state of security, inattention, and inactivity, is naturally emblematized by a state of sleep; and a state of consciousness of existing hazards, attention to them, and active employment of the means to escape them, by a state of watching or wakefulness.

To be watchful, with a reference to the resistance of the evil one, implies that the individual is aware of the existence and reality of the hazards to which, from malignant spiritual influence, his highest interests are exposed; that he is on the alert to notice all the movements of the subtle, active, cruel, and powerful foe; and that not ignorant of, or inattentive to, his devices, he looks around him, walks circumspectly, aware that in any quarter the enemy may make his appearance; and that he so disguises himself, and varies his form, that it requires spiritual sagacity, in its most awakened state, to detect him; and, finally, that when he does discover him ready to deceive or to devour, to delude or destroy, he is ready, broad awake, in full possession of his spiritual faculties, prepared to employ the proper means for counter-working him, and disappointing his nefarious purposes.

It is not enough that a man be sober, that is, not intoxicated, round whom a powerful crafty beast of prey is prowling. He must be

wakeful. However sober, if he fall asleep, he is in imminent hazard of being dangerously wounded, if not devoured. Indeed, he is not acting like a sober man, if in these circumstances, he allows himself to fall asleep. In like manner, the Christian must not only have a just estimate of the transcendent importance of things unseen and eternal, but his spiritual senses must be habitually exercised; the eyes of his mind "must look right on, and his eyelids look straight before him." He must "ponder the path of his feet," and especially "keep his heart with all diligence; for out of it are the issues of life." 1 He must, like a watchful sentinel, take good heed, that through none of the external senses, the gates, as Bunyan represents them, of the good town Mansoul, the great adversary, under any disguise, find his way to the citadel of the heart. He must be watchful, for his enemy

is so.

The influence which this vigilance is calculated to exert on the resistance of the wicked one in his attack both on us as individuals, and on the cause of Christ, is so obvious, that I may safely leave you to follow out this train of thought in your private meditations.

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The third and principal means by which Christians are to be enabled to resist the great adversary, is the being "steadfast in the faith." We call that the principal means; for it is as necessary to the right use of the other means as to the gaining of the common end: as necessary to the being "sober and vigilant" as to "the resisting of the devil."

The apostle takes for granted that the persons whom he addressed were "believers." They were "in the faith;" and he calls on them to be "steadfast in the faith." Had he been speaking to unconverted men, the first thing he would have called on them to do, would have been to believe; for, till they believed, they could neither see their danger, nor use the means which were necessary for their safety. They to whom he writes had believed the truth respecting their natural condition as the willing, helpless slaves of the wicked one, bound in the fetters of guilt and the cords of depravity. They had believed the truth respecting Jesus the great deliverer, who, by the blood of his covenant, had made provision for the deliverance of the prisoners out of the pit in which there was no water; who proclaims liberty to the captive, and the opening of the prison doors to them who are bound; who takes the prey from the mighty, and delivers the captive of the terrible one. They had believed that those who refuse to be released by him, must, along with their enslaver, be shut up under everlasting chains in the prison of hell, and that they who accept of the freely offered deliverance shall, under the protection and guidance of their redeeming Lord, be preserved, amid all the attempts of their former oppressors to bring them again into slavery, and ultimately placed by him in circumstances of perfect, holy happiness, while Satan shall be forever bruised under their feet.

It is the belief of these things that has sobered their minds, and 1 Prov. iv. 23, 25, 26.

roused them to spiritual vigilance. This has wakened them, and it is this only that can keep them awake; and for this purpose they must be "steadfast in the faith." They must hold fast the truth as it is in

Jesus.

It is not enough that they have believed; they must continue believing. The truth and its evidence must be habitually before their minds. Everything depends on that. They are safe "if they keep in memory what has been preached to them;" not otherwise. The truth works effectually towards the resistance of the wicked one, but only in him who believes it, and only in the degree in which he beIt is faith that makes the Christian strong for combat. Let him lose sight of the truth and its evidence, and, like Samson shorn of his locks, he is weak as another man. Whenever he staggers through unbelief, he becomes powerless in resisting the great adversary. It is he only who puts on the whole armor of God that can stand in the evil day; but it is the believer alone who can put on and wear and wield that armor. It is the girdle of truth believed that can alone gird up the loins of the mind. The breastplate, is the righteousness which is of God by faith. The well-roughed shoes, of the preparation of the gospel of peace, which are necessary to enable the spiritual soldier to stand firm in the slippery field of temptation, can be worn only by them who believe that gospel. The shield, which enables him to quench all the fiery darts of the wicked one, is the shield of faith. The hope, which is the helmet of salvation, can grace no brow but the brow of the believer, for hope rests on faith; the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God, can be wielded only by the arm of the believer; and the prayer which is necessary to secure the right and the effectual use of all those pieces of spiritual armor, is the prayer of faith.

Had our first parents been steadfast in faith, they had never fallen. They became the prey of unbelief in the shape of doubt, before they became the victims of the devil. God said, "Ye shall surely die;" they doubted him. The devil said, "Ye shall not surely die;" they believed him and then were befooled and enslaved by him. It was by being steadfast in faith that the great Captain of our salvation successfully resisted the wicked one, and blunted all his fiery darts. To them all he presented the shield of faith in a specific Divine declaration, and the most envenomed of them fell harmless at his feet. By faith all the elders who have received a good report turned to flight the alien armies of their infernal as well as mortal enemies; and still is it true, and it will continue true till the last spiritual conflict has taken place on earth, "This is the victory that overcometh the world," and the God of the world, "even our faith." Here, as in the former case, I leave it to yourselves to follow out more fully the manner in which steadfast faith operates in enabling Christians to resist the adversary in his attacks on themselves individually, and on the great cause of their Lord and King.

1 1 John v. 4.

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