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by those very means which Satan employed to fully the one and to diminish the other.

2. The death of Chrift is no lefs effectual to purchase and secure the falvation of men, in spite of all Satan's attempts to ruin them. This partly appears from what hath been already fuggefted. His blood is the price which redeems the foul; it expiates the guilt of fin, and gives full fatisfaction to divine juftice: fo that now the grand obstacle is removed, which obftructed the finner's accefs to God, and excluded him, from any fhare in the fruits of his beneficence. But this is not all: The death of Chrift doth likewife afford the moft perfualive and effectual motives to that bolinefs," without which no man shall fee "God;" and thus directly deftroys the works of the devil. Here we behold the frightful afpect of fin. Hell itself doth not furnish fuch an awful representation, either of its intrinsic malignity, or its heinous demerit. How deep, how black, must that stain have been, which nothing could wash away but the blood of Chrift?-How deadly the difease which no other medicine could cure?How

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How tremendous that juftice, which nothing less could fatisfy than the death of him who created the worlds? In vain doth Satan tempt us to prefume, if we duly attend to this. Here fin is made to appear exceeding finful; and Chrift from the cross proclaims God's infinite abhorrence of that accurfed thing, and his resolution to punish it, with a louder and more alarming voice than even the howlings of the damned themselves can do. And then what an effectual remedy have we here against defpair? This is another engine which the enemy of our fouls feldom fails to employ. When he cannot hold us bound with the cords of prefumption, he will next attempt to plunge us into the gulph of defpair, and will be ready to fay to us, (as Joshua faid to the Jews with a very different aim), "Ye cannot ferve the Lord, for he is a "holy God." Your fins are fo multiplied, and your bad habits fo ftrong, that it is a vain thing to think of amending now. But the cross of Chrift fuggefts to the believer a fufficient anfwer to this objection. True it is, can he fay, that my fins have

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been many and great; but here is blood that "cleanfeth from all fin." My corrupt paffions are indeed strong; but then my Redeemer is" mighty to fave." He would not purchase an inheritance for me which I could not be rendered capable of poffeffing. He who died to prepare a heaven for his people, is certainly able to prepare his people for heaven. He knows my weaknefs, and yet calls upon me to follow him; and therefore I cannot, I dare not, defpair of his help. I will go forward in his name, and he will make his grace fufficient for me. Thus doth the death of Chrift destroy the works of the devil, inafmuch as it furnifheth his people with the strongest arguments against fin, and the most perfuafive motives to faith and holy obedience; and hath moreover merited for them that fupernatural affiftance, by which they are encouraged to attempt, nay, (as the Apostle Paul affures us from his own experience), by which they are actually enabled to do all things. Which leads me to men

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Fourth and principal means, by which

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the Son of God deftroys the works of the devil; namely, the divine efficacy of the Holy Spirit, regenerating the fouls of men, filling them with light, and love, and strength; cafting down thofe proud imaginations which exalt themfelves against God, and . bringing every thought into captivity to the obedience of Chrift. The Holy Spirit is Chrift's vicegerent upon earth, fent forth by him to fupply his place, and to erect his throne in the hearts of men, upon the ruins of Satan's kingdom. This he doth, by opening their understandings to understand the Scriptures, and leading them to the knowledge of all neceffary truths; by convincing them of their fin and misery, enlightening their minds in the knowledge of Chrift, and renewing their wills, whereby he not only perfuades, but effectually enables them to embrace Christ as he is offered; by fhedding abroad the love of God in their hearts; furnishing them with ftrength to refift temptations, to overcome the world, to mortify the deeds of the body, and to crucify the flesh with the affections and lufts.These are some of the effects whch

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which the Scriptures attribute to the Spirit of Chrift. By thefe the ftrong man armed is driven out of his palace; he is stripped of his armour, and his goods are fpoiled. Thus the foul is rescued from the bondage of Satan; and the finner is made willing by a day of power to yield himself unto God, and to walk in newness of life.

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5thly, The Son of God will finally destroy the works of the devil, when he fhall come the fecond time to judge the world in right teoufnefs. Then fhall the kingdom of darknefs be plucked up by the roots; then fhall the ranfomed of the Lord be confirmed in a ftate of unchangeable purity and happiness, Satan fhall no more vex and feduce them ; but he, with all the workers of iniquity, fhall be thruft down into thofe everlasting burnings, which the wrath of God, like a ftream of brimstone, doth kindle and enflame; the fmoke whereof afcendeth for ever and ever.

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THUS have I illuftrated the doctrine of my text, and taken notice of fome of the principal means by which the Son of God,

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