Tremble rather, O my soul, at the thought of this woeful condition of the evil angels; who, for one only act of apostacy from God, are thus perpetually tormented: whereas, we sinful wretches multiply many and presumptuous offences against the Majesty of our God. And withal admire and magnify that Infinite Mercy to the miserable generation of man, which, after this holy severity of justice to the revolted angels, so graciously forbears our heinous iniquities, and both suffers us to be free for the time from these hellish torments, and gives us opportunity of a perfect freedom from them for ever. Praise the Lord, O my soul, and all that is within me praise his holy Name; who forgiveth all thy sins, and healeth all thine infirmities; who redeemeth thy life from destruction, and crowneth thee with mercy and compassions.

There is no time, wherein the evil spirits are not tormented; there is a time, wherein they expect to be tormented yet more: Art thou come to torment us, before our time? They knew, that the Last Assizes are the prefixed term of their full execution; which they also understood to be not yet come. For though they knew not when the Day of Judgment should be, (a point concealed from the glorious angels of heaven,) yet they knew when it should not be; and therefore they say, Before the time. Even the very evil spirits confess, and fearfully attend, a set day of Universal Sessions. They believe less than devils, that either doubt of or deny that Day of Final Retribution,

Oh the wonderful mercy of our God, that both to wicked men and spirits respites the utmost of their torment! He might, upon the first instant of the fall of angels, have inflicted on them the highest extremity of his vengeance; he might, upon the first sins of our youth, yea of our nature, have swept us away, and given us our portion in that fiery lake: he stays a time for both; though with this difference of mercy to us men, that here not only is a delay, but may be an utter prevention of punishment, which to the evil spirits is altogether impossible. They do suffer; they must suffer: and, though they have now deserved to suffer all they must, yet they must once suffer more than they do.

Yet, so doth this Evil Spirit expostulate, that he sues; I beseech thee, torment me not. The world is well changed, since Satan's first onset upon Christ. Then he could say, If thou be the Son of God; now, Jesus, the Son of the Most High God: then, All these will I give thee, if thou wilt fall down, and worship me; now, I beseech thee, torment me not. The same power, when he lists, can change the note of the tempter to us. How happy are we, that have such a Redeemer, as can command the devils to their chains! Oh consider this, ye lawless sinners, that have said, Let us break his bonds, and cast his cords from us. However the Almighty suffers you, for a judgment, to have free scope to evil, and ye can now impotently resist the revealed will of your Creator; yet the time shall come, when ye shall see the very masters whom ye have served, the powers of darkness, unable to avoid the revenges of God. How much less shall man strive with his Maker! man, whose

breath is in his nostrils, whose house is clay, whose foundation is the dust!

Nature teaches every creature, to wish a freedom from pain. The foulest spirits cannot but love themselves; and this love must needs produce a deprecation of evil. Yet what a thing is this, to hear the Devil at his prayers? I beseech thee, torment me not. Devotion is not guilty of this, but fear. There is no grace in the suit of devils, but nature; no respect of glory to their Creator, but their own ease. They cannot pray against sin, but against torment for sin. What news is it now, to hear the profanest mouth in extremity imploring the Sacred Name of God, when the devils do so? The worst of all creatures hates punishment, and can say, "Lead me not into pain:" only the good heart can say, Lead me not into temptation. If we can as heartily pray against sin, for the avoiding of displeasure, as against punishment, when we have displeased, there is true grace in the soul. Indeed, if we could fervently pray against sin, we should not need to pray against punishment, which is no other than the inseparable shadow of that body; but if we have not laboured against our sins, in vain do we pray against punishment. God must be just; and the wages of sin is death,

It pleased our Holy Saviour, not only to let fall words of command upon this spirit, but to interchange some speeches with him. All Christ's actions are not for example. It was the error of our grandmother, to hold chat with Satan. That God, who knows the craft of that Old Serpent and our weak simplicity, hath charged us, not to inquire of an evil spirit. Surely, if the disciples, returning to Jacob's well, wondered to see Christ talk with a woman, well may we wonder to see him talking with an unclean spirit.

Let it be no presumption, O Saviour, to ask upon what grounds thou didst this, wherein we may not follow thee. We know that sin was excepted in thy conformity of thyself to us; we know there was no guile found in thy mouth, no possibility of taint in thy nature, in thine actions: neither is it hard to conceive how the same thing may be done by thee without sin, which we cannot but sin in doing. There is a vast difference in the intention, in the agent. For, on the one side, thou didst not ask the name of the spirit, as one that knew not, and would learn by inquiring; but that by the confession of that mischief, which thou pleasedst to suffer, the grace of the cure might be the more conspicuous, the more glorious: so, on the other, God and man might do that safely, which mere man cannot do without danger. Thou mightest touch the leprosy, and not be legally unclean; because thou touchedst it to heal it, didst not touch it with possibility of infection. So mightest thou, who, by reason of the perfection of thy Divine Nature, wert uncapable of any stain by the interlocution with Satan, safely confer with him, whom corrupt man, predisposed to the danger of such a parley, may not meddle with without sin, because not without peril. It is for none but God, to hold discourse with Satan. Our surest way is, to have as little to do

with that Evil One, as we may; and, if he shall offer to maintain conference with us by his secret temptations, to turn our speech unto our God, with the archangel, The Lord rebuke thee, Satan.

It was the presupposition of him that knew it, that not only men but spirits have names. This then he asks, not out of an ignorance or curiosity; nothing could be hid from him, who calleth the stars and all the hosts of heaven by their names: but out of a just respect to the glory of the miracle he was working, whereto the notice of the name would not a little avail. For if without inquiry or confession our Saviour had ejected this evil spirit, it had passed for the single dispossession of one only devil; whereas now it appears there was a combination and hellish champertie in these powers of darkness, which were all forced to vail unto that Almighty command.

Before, the Devil had spoken singularly of himself, What have I to do with thee? and I beseech thee, torment me not. Our Saviour yet, knowing that there was a multitude of devils lurking in that breast, who dissembled their presence, wrests it out of the spirit by this interrogation, What is thy name? Now can those wicked ones no longer hide themselves: he, that asked the question, forced the answer; My name is Legion.

The author of discord hath borrowed a name of war: from that military order of discipline by which the Jews were subdued, doth the Devil fetch his denomination.

They were many; yet they say, My name, not, "Our name:" though many, they speak as one, they act as one, in this possession. There is a marvellous accordance, even betwixt evil spirits. That kingdom is not divided, for then it could not stand. I wonder not, that wicked men do so conspire in evil, that there is such unanimity in the broachers and abettors of errors, when I see those devils, which are many in substance, are one in name, action, habitation. Who can too much brag of unity, when it is incident unto wicked spirits? All the praise of concord is in the subject: if that be holy, the consent is angelical; if sinful, devilish.

What a fearful advantage have our spiritual enemies against us! If armed troops come against single stragglers, what hope is there of life, of victory? How much doth it concern us, to band our hearts together in a communion of saints! Our enemies come upon us, like a torrent: oh, let us not run asunder, like drops in the dust. All our united forces will be little enough, to make head against this league of destruction.

Legion imports order, number, conflict.

Order: in that there is a distinction of regiment, a subordination of officers. Though in hell there be confusion of faces, yet not confusion of degrees.

Number: those, that have reckoned a legion at the lowest, have counted it six thousand: others have more than doubled it. Though here it is not strict, but figurative; yet the letter of it implies multitude. How fearful is the consideration of the number of apostate angels! And, if a legion can attend one man, how many

must we needs think are they, who, all the world over, are at hand, to the punishment of the wicked, the exercise of the good, the temptation of both? It cannot be hoped, there can be any place or time, wherein we may be secure from the onsets of these enemies. Be sure, ye lewd men, ye shall want no furtherance to evil; no torment for evil. Be sure, ye godly, ye shall not want combatants, to try your strength and skill. Awaken your courages to resist, and stir up your hearts: make sure the means of your safety. There are more with us, than against us. The God of Heaven is with us, if we be with him; and our angels behold the face of God. If every devil were a legion, we are safe. Though we walk through the valley of the shadow of death, we shall fear no evil. Thou, O Lord, shalt stretch forth thine hand against the wrath of our enemies, and thy right hand shall save us.

Conflict: All this number is not for sight, for rest; but for motion, for action. Neither was there ever hour since the first blow given to our first parents, wherein there was so much as a truce betwixt these adversaries. As therefore strong frontier towns, when there is a peace concluded on both parts, break up their garrison, open their gates, neglect their bulwarks; but when they hear of the enemy mustering his forces in great and unequal numbers, then they double their guard, keep centinel, repair their sconces: so must we, upon the certain knowledge of our numerous and deadly enemies in continual array against us, address ourselves always to a wary and strong resistance. I do not observe the most, to think of this ghostly hostility. Either they do not find there are temptations, or those temptations hurtful; they see no worse than themselves: and if they feel motions of evil arising in them, they impute it to fancy, or unreasonable appetite, to no power but nature's; and those motions they follow without sensible hurt, neither see they what harm it is to sin. Is it any marvel, that carnal eyes cannot discern spiritual objects? that the world, who is the friend, the vassal of Satan, is in no war with him? Elisha's servant, when his eyes were opened, saw troops of spiritual soldiers, which before he discerned not. If the eyes of our souls be once enlightened by supernatural knowledge and the clear beams of faith, we shall as plainly descry the invisible powers of wickedness, as now our bodily eyes see heaven and earth. They are, though we see them not: we cannot be safe from them, if we do not acknowledge, not oppose them.

The devils are now become great suitors to Christ; that he would not command them into the deep; that he would permit their entrance into the swine. What is this deep, but Hell; both for the utter separation from the face of God, and for the impossibility of passage to the region of rest and glory? The very evil spirits then fear and expect a further degree of torment. They know themselves reserved in those chains of darkness, for the judgment of the Great Day. There is the same wages due to their sins and to ours: neither are the wages paid till the work be done. They, tempting men to sin, must needs sin grievously, in tempting,

not?

as with us men, those, that mislead into sin, offend more than the actors. Not till the upshot therefore of their wickedness, shall they receive the full measure of their condemnation. This day, this deep, they tremble at: what shall I say of those men, that fear it It is hard for men, to believe their own unbelief. If they were persuaded of this fiery dungeon, this bottomless deep, wherein every sin shall receive a horrible portion with the damned, durst they stretch forth their hands to wickedness? No man will put his hand into a fiery crucible, to fetch gold thence, because he knows it will burn him. Did we as truly believe the everlasting burning of that infernal fire, we durst not offer to fetch pleasures or profits out of the midst of those flames.

This degree of torment they grant in Christ's power to command; they knew his power unresistible: had he therefore but said, "Back to Hell, whence ye came," they could no more have staid upon earth, than they can now climb into heaven. O the wonderful dispensation of the Almighty; who, though he could command all the evil spirits down to their dungeons in an instant, so as they should have no more opportunity of temptation, yet thinks fit to retain them upon earth! It is not out of weakness, or improvidence of that Divine Hand, that wicked spirits tyrannize here upon earth; but out of the most wise and most holy ordination of God, who knows how to turn evil into good, how to fetch good out of evil, and by the worst instruments to bring about his most just decrees. Oh, that we could adore that awful and infinite power; and cheerfully cast ourselves upon that Providence, which keeps the keys even of hell itself, and either lets out, or returns the devils to their places.

Their other suit hath some marvel in moving it, more in the grant; That they might be suffered to enter into the herd of swine. It was their ambition of some mischief, that brought forth this desire; that, since they might not vex the body of man, they might yet afflict men in their goods. The malice of these envious spirits reacheth from us to ours. It is sore against their wills, if we be not every way miserable,

If the swine were legally unclean for the use of the table, yet they were naturally good. Had not Satan known them useful for man, he had never desired their ruin. But as fencers will seem to fetch a blow at the leg, when they intend it at the head; so doth this devil, while he drives at the swine, he aims at the souls of these Gadarenes by this means he hoped well, and his hope was not vain, to work in these Gergesenes a discontentment at Christ, an unwillingness to entertain him, a desire of his absence; he meant to turn them into swine, by the loss of their swine. It was not the ⚫rafters or stones of the house of Job's children, that he bore the grudge to, but to the owners; nor to the lives of the children so much, as the soul of their father. There is no affliction, wherein he doth not strike at the heart; which while it holds free, all other damages are light: but a wounded spirit, whether with sin or sorrow, who can bear? Whatever becomes of goods or limbs, happy