llie power and savour of tliem in his spirit, as when sugar is dissolved in wine, you cannot see it, but you may taste it ; when meat is eaten and digested, it is not to be found as it was received, but the man is cheered and strengthened by it, more able to walk and work than before, by which you may know it is not lost : so you may taste the truths the Christian heard, in his spirit, see them in his life. Perhaps if you ask him what the particidars were the minister had about faith, mortification, repentance, and the like, he cannot tell you ; yet this you may find, his heart is more broken for sin, more enabled to rely on the pro- mises, and now weaned from the world. As that good woman answered one, that coming from the seiinon, asked her what she remembered of the sermon, said, She could not at present recall much, but she heard that which should make her reform some things as soon as she came home.
Secondly, Meditate on what thou heare§t ; by this David got more wisdom than his teachers. Observe what trutli, what scripture is cleared to thee in the sermon more than before, take some time in secret to converse with it, and make it thereby familiar to thy understanding. Meditation is to the sermon what the harrow is to the seed, it covers those truths which else might have been picked or washed away. I am afraid there are many proofs turned down at a sermon, that are hardly turned up and looked on any more when the sermon is done ; and if so, you make others believe you are greater traders for your soul s than you are indeed ; as if one should come to a shop and lay by a great deal of rich ware, and when he hath done, goes away and never calls for it. O take heed of such doings. The hypocrite cheats himself worst at last.
Thirdly, Discharge thy memory of what is sinful. We wipe our table-book, and deface what is there scribbled, before we can write new. There is such a contrariety betwixt the truths of God and all that is frothy and sinful, that one puts out the other ; if you would retain the one, you must let the other go.
CHAPTER VI.
or TUE SPiraXUALITY OF THE DEVILs' NATURE, AND THEIR EXTREME WICKEDNESS.
Against sjnritnal wickedness.
These words are the fourth branch in the description, ' Spiritual wicked- nesses ;' and our contest or combat with them as such, expressed by the adver- sative particle ' against,' in the Greek, pros ta jmeumatica tes ponerias, vford for word, ' against the spirituals of wickedness,' which is, as say some, ' against wicked spirits;' that is true, but not all. I conceive with many inter- preters, not only the spiritual nature of the devil, and the wickedness thereof, to be intended, but also, yea, chiefly, the nature and kind of those sins which these wicked spirits do most usually and vigorously provoke the saints unto, and they are the spirituals of wickedness, not those gross fleshly sins, which the herd of beastly sinners, like swine, wallow in, but sin spiritualised, and this, because it is not pneiimata, but pneumatica, not spirits, but spirituals. The words present us with these three doctrinal conclusions.
First, The devils are spirits.
Secondly, The devils are spirits extremely wicked.
Thirdly, These wicked spirits do chiefly annoy the saints with, and provoke them to spiritual wickednesses.
Section I. — First, They are spirits. Spirit is a word of various acceptation in Scripture. Amongst other used often to set forth tlie essence and nature of angels, good and evil, both which are called spirits. The holy angels, Heb. i. 14 : 'Are they not all ministering spirits ?' The evil, ' There came forth a spirit and stood before the Lord, and said, I will persuade him,' 1 Kings xxii. 21 ; that spirit w'as a devil. How oft is the devil called the unclean spirit, foul spirit, lying spirit, &c. Sin did not alter their substance ; for then, as one saitli well, that natin-e and substance which transgressed could not be punished.
i""irst. The devil is a spirit ; that is, his essence is immaterial i'.iid simple, not compounded (as corporal beings are) of matter and I'oim : 'Handle and sec nu',' (saith Christ to his disciples, that thought they had ^.cen a spirit,) 'a spirit hath not flesh and bones as ye see me have,' Luke xxiv. '69. W they were not
AGAINST SPIRITUAL WICKEDNESS. 105
thus immaterial, how could tliey enter into bodies and possess them, as the Scripture tells us tliey have, even a legion into one man ? Luke viii. 30. One body cannot thus enter into another.