after the flesh, persecute them that are born after the Spirit." 66 The cruelty of Satan is exercised exclusively towards men; for although God may be, and is, an object of his malice, he is not, neither can he be, an object of his cruelty. How consummately cruel do the descriptions of him contained in the Scriptures represent him to be!" a roaring lion, seeking to devour,"- a murderer from the beginning!" And how painfully do facts recorded in Scripture confirm these descriptions! How mercilessly did he destroy, or cause to be carried away, the property of Job; slay his children; and afflict and torment his person! How cruelly did he buffet Paul! And how ferociously did he, in the days of our Lord's personal ministry, lacerate many who were possessed by his influence! His malice towards the servants of God has been invariably accompanied by cruelty, and the instances of it to which we have already had occasion to refer, were especially characterized by it. Our Lord was not dispatched in the most ready and easy manner, but by a lingering, and excruciating, and ignominious death:-He was CRUCIFIED between two thieves! Of the Old Tes tament saints it is testified, that "some had trial of cruel mockings and scourgings, yea, moreover, of bonds and imprisonment: they were stoned, they were sawn asunder, were tempted, were slain with the sword: they wandered about in sheep-skins and goat-skins; being destitute, afflicted, tormented; they wandered in deserts, and in mountains, and in dens and caves of the earth!" -- Instances of the cruelty of Satan are to be found even among ourselves, and in our personal experience. To what are we to attribute many of the sufferings endured by the wounded spirit? many of the desponding fears and terrible forebodings, experienced by convinced and penitent sinners? and many of the perplexing doubts, and much of the horrible darkness of soul, by which the children of God have been, and still are visited? Are they not attributable to the malice and cruelty of him, who, hating every trace of the image of God, determines to obliterate it? who, because he cannot obliterate the trace of God's image, determines to destroy the subject of it? who, because he cannot destroy the subject of God's image, maliciously and unceasingly annoys him? Are they F not all, to a greater or lesser extent, the acts of a being who takes a malignant delight in the sufferings of others? Sixthly, He possesses very extensive influence. From the preceding observations it appears that Satan is a most wonderful being. His understanding is prodigious, his skill is consummate, his power, immense! He is, however, still a creature; and, as a creature, he is confined to place. As he cannot occupy two places at the same time, it is questionable whether he can tempt two souls at the same time. But, if he cannot occupy two places, personally, at the same time, he can, by his agents, occupy as many places as he wishes; he can also, by the same agents, tempt at the same time as many souls as he wishes. That Satan suffers no lack of agents, is evident from the fact, that he could, on a certain occasion, possess one soul with a multitude of them. The agency occupying the man that had his dwelling among the tombs, Jesus asked, “What is thy name? And he answered, saying, My name is Legion: for we are many." Mark v. 9. Who the agents of Satan are, whether angels, like himself, who kept not their first estate, but left their own habitation, and are reserved in ever lasting chains under darkness unto the judgment of the great day; or wicked spirits that once, like ourselves, dwelt in bodies on the earth; is a question that cannot be determined by us; neither, indeed, is it important that it should be determined by us. But, perhaps, they comprehend both for it is not at all improbable that those who were employed by him here, so readily on their part, should still be employed by him there; and the probability is the greater from the fact, that saints, after their departure from the body, are sometimes employed by God in offices connected with his church on earth: "And I John fell down to worship before the feet of the angel that showed me these things. Then saith he unto me, See thou do it not: for I am thy fellow-servant, and of thy brethren the prophets, and of them that keep the sayings of this book." Rev. xxii. 8, 9. The influence of Satan, from his possessing so great a multitude of agents, is most widely extended. By means of his agents, he is constantly going to and fro in the earth, and walking up and down in it; and wheresoever there is a human being, he is endeavouring to draw him off from his allegiance to his Creator. CHAPTER III. THE MODE OF TEMPTATION. FROM what we have seen of the character of the tempter, we conclude, necessarily, that his mode of tempting is exactly that which is most adapted to give his temptation effect. His sagacity will enable him to ascertain, not only the character of the temptation, but the season when it may be employed, and the means by which it may be carried on; his vigilance will ascertain when that season exists, and where those means are to be found; his subtilty will thwart the measures taken to resist him; his power will give energy to an attack upon us, when his other qualtities would fail to do it; his malice will give perseverance to all his designs upon us; while the extent of his influence will leave none of us exempt from his attacks. In describing the manner in which Satan tempts, we remark that, |