here the power of Satan ended: the next wonder was one of creation; and life, even the lowest order of animal life, is not his to bestow. He can kill, when permitted; but to make alive was never given to him. His agents essayed to bring up frogs, from the recesses where they were hidden, and succeeded: but when they attempted to bring forth lice from the dust of the earth, they utterly failed. It does not appear that after this they ventured on increasing the swarms of flies, as they had done that of frogs; or to smite the cattle of the children of Israel, when the Lord had destroyed those of the Egyptians and the next visitation drove them out of the royal presence, covered with loathsome sores which their infernal master had no power to heal.

How encouraging is this to us! Satan may do much to terrify, to perplex, and to afflict us; but as soon as he touches on a single attribute of the Most High, he fails, and is put to flight. Yet to make it appear that what he does is done immediately by the Lord, is almost always his plan. Thus we find, when destroying the flocks of Job and their attendants, he so managed his elements of destruction, that the terrified messenger of evil tidings described it as a divine visitation: "The fire of God is fallen from heaven, and hath burned up the sheep and the servants, and consumed them." Job i. 16. It could not but dreadfully aggravate the affliction of the righteous man, to regard these sore trials as marks of the Lord's indignation, proceeding directly

from Him: and no doubt it was so arranged to add power to the detestable suggestion conveyed through his wife. But though Job believed the lie, his faith in God's love failed not by faith he endured, and through faith he triumphed. If we do not distinctly see in what manner faith acts as a shield, or how effectually it quenches all the fiery darts of the wicked, it is because we do not sufficiently search the Scriptures. They abound with glorious illustrations; and the path of safety is so clearly laid down, that the wayfaring men, though fools, shall not err therein, if they simply attend to the indications given. To those who study it with prayer, as a book written not for the learned but for "the poor of this world," the "fools," the "babes," to whom the Lord has declared that He will make his wonders of salvation known, the Bible is of all works the most intelligible; only rendered otherwise by the foolish "wisdom of this world," holding up its rushlight to make the sun visible. Satan owes much even to the best of commentators; for they have frequently assisted to veil both his person and his devices, by their ill-judged attempts at elucidation; when, taken in their literal sense, God's words would have revealed important practical truths respecting him.

We are dwelling principally on the display of satanic presumption as the usurping god of this world: the means by which that usurpation was effected, present a fearful view of his daring self-reliance. In his very

first approach to our unhappy race, then rejoicing in sinless felicity, he deliberately contradicted the express declaration of the Most High God; and appealing, as afterwards in the case of the second Adam, to a perfectly innocent, laudable desire, he stirred up Eve to seek higher attainments in knowledge, a clearer perception of good, as opposed to evil; then stimulating this thirst for information beyond due bounds-leading it to overpass the landmark of submission to the Divine will, he accomplished at once what must have appeared to himself a most hazardous undertaking. To represent God as a liar could not but be congenial to the diabolical nature of the accursed spirit of evil; but that a creature so formed to know, to love, and to serve the Lord, sursounded on all sides with the profusion of his bounty, and continually drinking from the fountain of all spiritual, all intellectual, all physical enjoyment, under His paternal hand, that such a creature should at the first word be persuaded to credit the lie, and to rush into open transgression, must have been marvellous in the eyes of the tempter. How marvellous in our's must be the extreme daring that prompted him to the enterprize.

After such a proof of the weakness of human nature, while yet wholly untainted with sin, and the observation during many ages of the frightful depravity into which a being, originally created after the image of God, might easily be led, it becomes less inconceivable that

Satan should have availed himself of the permission given to assault the man Christ Jesus; for, be it always remembered that only by permission could he approach the Saviour. We are distinctly told, that after the baptism and public recognition from heaven of our blessed Lord, preparatory to his ministerial, or prophetical, work upon earth, "Then was Jesus led up of the Spirit into the wilderness, to be tempted of the devil." Matt. iv. 1. However high, however powerful, however privileged the great adversary may be, during the time of his yet remaining unbound, still, in the sight of God he is as helpless and contemptible, as he is hateful. He durst not even utter an extenuating word when his doom was pronounced, together with that of his wretched victims he cannot hurt a hair on the head of one of Christ's meanest followers, without a special leave so to do; and then he cannot overpass the precise boundary of his permitted machinations. "Behold, the devil shall cast some of you into prison, that ye may be tried ; and ye shall have tribulation ten days." Rev. ii. 10. Some, not all, he should have leave to cast into prison, and they only that they might be tried, not destroyed; and their trial should continue ten days, not a minute longer. His commission, no doubt, is much larger with respect to those who are still in "the snare of the devil; who are taken captive by him at his will," 2 Tim. ii. 26. and who will ultimately share his burning abode for ever, if they turn not to Christ for deliverance; but the blessed

work of the Gospel preached unto man is " to turn them from darkness to light, and from the power of Satan unto God, that they may receive forgiveness of sins, and inheritance among them which are sanctified by faith which is in Christ," Acts xxvi. 18; and when this is once accomplished, the devil is compelled to recognize the indwelling power and presence of his Conqueror in them; and without a special leave, granted for some wise purpose, "That wicked one toucheth them not."