alarm, and be grieved, and hate his entering in, and use the Sword of the Spirit against him, and cry unto their GOD for help, and take heed more diligently to purify themselves from those things in which an Unclean Spirit delights, and which he looks for in them. My friends, such of you as are indeed Christians will not be willing to let the Evil one have any rest whatever in you. If you have truly repented, your hearts bear witness that now, "being alive unto GOD through JESUS CHRIST," you desire to be wholly "filled" with Him, and altogether fruitful unto Him: and being now "dead unto Sin," you desire to be wholly "freed from Sin," altogether a "dry place" unto Satan! Blessed and holy are such desires. They are not found in those who do not truly repent, and do not unfeignedly believe God's Holy Gospel. Gospel. In a false Repentance there is no real change of mind, no newness of heart, no new creation within, no fervent desires after GOD, no indwelling of the Holy Ghost, no inward

workings of the good Spirit, no sowing to that Spirit, no communion with God and with His Son, no fruit unto Holiness. And if the Unclean Spirit should return, as he sooner or later certainly will, he would again find a place of rest in the heart of every false penitent.

5. For "when the Unclean Spirit is gone out of a Man, he walketh through dry places, seeking rest: and finding none, he saith, I will return unto my house whence I came out. And when he cometh, he findeth it swept and garnished." O! what is the use of a swept and garnished house, without a good tenant? If you had a hundred houses, and all you could say of them was that they were swept and garnished, what could your boasting do for you? What profit would your houses be? Empty houses, however clean, are unprofitable. It would be a poor and foolish boast to hear a farmer say, My fields are all clean," if at the same time he could shew us no good fruits growing in them, and no harvests springing from them.

Clean, but empty, fields are starving property: and their owner may well be in a state of poverty and ruin. For empty fields, however free from rank weeds they may be to day, if left to themselves, will soon be again naturally filled with them. And empty houses, however well swept and garnished, must if left to themselves, become quickly the places of decay and filth and robbery, and dwelling places for unclean creatures. When the Unclean Spirit is gone out of a Man, that Man is like a House out of which a bad, filthy, and ruinous tenant has been forced to go. Now is the time to be active. Let the empty House by all means be swept and garnished: but do not stop there : let every means be also tried to have it immediately occupied by a good tenant, who shall keep it clean, and fill it with good and useful things. Let not the empty house remain empty:-lest a worse thing happen to it. When the Unclean Spirit is gone out of a Man,

that Man is like a Field, out of which a large crop of rank weeds has been pulled. Now then is the time for ploughing and cleaning it. But be not content with doing only that. Let the field be also well sown with good seed, and all proper means used to make sure of a plentiful harvest in its season. Let not the field emptied of weeds remain empty of corn: lest through your own slothfulness it become in a worse state than before.

6. By the words "swept and garnished," we may certainly understand our Lord to mean, that the Unclean Spirit on returning to his house, found it an empty" house. For if we turn to Matthew, Chap. xi. we have these words,

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He saith, I will return into my house, from whence I came out: and when he is come, he findeth it empty, swept, and garnished." Alas, for that House! Much precious time had been wasted by the Man, to whom the charge of the House had been committed. He had

done something after the old and bad tenant was gone: for he had "swept" it and "garnished" it. But that was all. He did not go on in well doing. neglected to get a new and a good tenant in. The former occupier, after a season, came back-found his old house

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He

empty," and seeming by its very emptiness to invite him to come again and take possession. He was very willing to do so: for he had been walking through "dry places, seeking rest;" he had been knocking at many a new door, and even making his way into many a new house, but he could find no rest in them: they were already filled, and the occupiers gave him no welcome, allowed him no rest, but were alarmed at his entrance in among them, and resisted him, till he fled from them. "I will return (saith he) unto my house whence I came out. And when he cometh he findeth that house empty, swept, and garnished." "Then goeth he, and taketh to him seven other spirits more wicked than