they have no just ideas of their need of Christ and his salvation, and of the beauty and excellence of true holiness. They hold the truth in unrighteousness; a great deal of error is mixed. with it; or if their notions are just, yet there is one grand truth of which they have no conception at all, and that is the infinite importance of these things. And so these persons may be said not to understand the word of the kingdom.-But if they do in a sense understand it, yet,

7. It makes not any abiding impression on the heart. The seed, as Luke expresses it, was trodden down, and that instantly, by the next passenger. So divine instructions are treated by these persons with contempt, or at best, with indifference. They are not laid up in the memory and seriously considered and reflected upon, but are quickly forgotten and lost. These hearers. of the word are like unto a man that beholdeth his natural face in a glass, and goeth his way, and straightway forgetteth what manner of man he was a.'—And this leads us to what is principally observable in the text, and that is,

8. And lastly, Our Saviour's account of the manner in which these impressions are effaced, and all their salutary effect defeated. The fowls of the air came and devoured the seed,' which had thus fallen on the way-side, or beaten path; which our Lord explains of the wicked one's coming and catching away that which was sown in the hearts' of them that heard, lest, as Luke adds, they should believe, and be saved.'-Here three things are to be considered,

6

I. Who this wicked one is, and why he is so called.

II. What is meant by his catching away the seed, and how this is done. And,

III. What is the malevolent end proposed—that they might not believe, and be saved.

I. Who is this wicked one, and why is he so called?

The wicked one is Satan, as Mark expresses it b; and the devil, as Luke has it c. To deny that such a spirit can exist, merely because our eyes do not behold him, is most unreasonable, and in effect to deny the being of God himself. And to deny that he actually does exist, is to deny the truth of the Scriptures. But I am not here debating with either atheists or c Chap. viii. 12.

a James i. 23, 24.

b Chap. iv, 15.

deists. It is admitted that there is such an one as Satan, or the devil.

Now, for our account of him we must be indebted to the Bible. And what does that tell us concerning him? It tells us that he is the chief and leader of that numerous host of angels which waged war against heaven, and for their rebellion were driven thence into the mansions of the damned, where they are reserved in everlasting chains, under darkness, unto the judgment of the great day a. He is endowed with powers which far transcend those of mankind; and these, stimulated by unsufferable pride and desperate malevolence, are exerted with all possible energy to oppose the counsels of God and the interests of men. Hence he is called Satan, that is, the adversary; and the devil, that is, the accuser. It was he that seduced our first parents from their allegiance to Heaven, and so introduced sin and death into our world: where, having thus set up his standard, he still exercises his usurped authority. He is the prince of this world b, the prince of the power of the air c. It was he that solicited the destruction of the patriarch Job d. It was he that stood up against Israel, and provoked David to number the people e. It was he who by becoming a lying spirit in the mouth of all his prophets, persuaded Ahab to fight with the Syrian king to his ruin f. It was he that stood at the right hand of Joshua the high priest to resist him g. It was he, in fine, that tempted our Saviour in the wilderness, most virulently opposed his ministry, and was the chief actor in the last sad catastrophe of his sufferings and death.

Wicked men, styled in Scripture the children of the devil, are his ministers; sometimes openly executing his commands, and at others, like their master, who transforms himself into an angel of light, assuming the character of ministers of righteousness h. So, with all power, and signs, and lying wonders, he propagates through our world error, vice, and discord, with a long train of the most tremendous evils i. And so this once peaceful and pleasant spot is become an aceldama, a field of blood. Horrid monster! to thy influence all the calamities our

eyes behold and our hearts lament, are to be traced back; and upon thy devoted head it is fit the wrath of incensed justice, and the curse of injured innocence, should fall.

Further, he not only carries on his designs by instruments employed to that end, but has himself access to the hearts of men; and though he cannot force them to act against their will, yet he knows how by a thousand arts to catch their intention, play upon their imagination, inflame their desires, and rouse their passions. He, the god of this world, blinds the minds of them who believe not a;' works in the children of disobedience b;' 'put it into the heart of Judas to betray' his Master c; fills the heart of Ananias to lie to the Holy Ghost d;' lays snares for some, in order to lead them captive e; and walks about, like a roaring lion, to devour' others f; beguiles the former through his subtilty, using a variety of wiles and devices, in order to get advantage against them g;' and violently assaults the latter, now by his messengers buffeting them, and then discharging his fiery darts at them h. In fine, he, the old serpent called the devil and Satan, deceiveth the whole world i;' and having so done, accuseth them before God day and night k.'

From this short scriptural account of Satan, it appears with what propriety he is here, and in many other passages, styled emphatically the wicked one. He is wicked himself in the highest degree, for as he exceeds all others in subtilty and power, so also in impiety and sin: a spirit the most proud, false, envious, turbulent, and malignant among all the various orders of fallen spirits. He too is the author of all wickedness, the contriver and promoter of every species of iniquity. Whence the infinitely numerous evils that prevail in our world are called the works of the devil l.' Such is the character of this first apostate archangel, the grand, avowed enemy of God and man,-And thus are we led to our second inquiry,

II. What is meant by his catching away the seed; and how this is done?

6

Immediately (as Mark has it a,) upon the seeds falling on the ground, the fowls of the air came and devoured them up.' So, as our Saviour interprets this circumstance, the wicked one cometh, and catcheth away the word of the kingdom that hath been sown,' or hath loosely fallen on the hearts of those just now described.

6

When the sons of God,' as we read in the story of Job, came to present themselves before the Lord, Satan came also among them to present himself before the Lord b.' In like manner, wherever the gospel is preached, he watches his opportunity to prevent the due effect of the word upon those who hear it. To give a physical account of the manner in which he exerts his influence to that end, is not my business. It is enough to observe, that if we have modes of communicating our ideas to one another, and of exercising the powers of persuasion over the minds and passions of men, there is no absurdity in supposing that Satan, though not clothed in a human body, or visible to a natural eye, may have access to the heart. And the language of our Saviour is so directly and strongly to the point, that it is scarce possible to give it a meaning that can any way justify a denial of the fact. If it were downright enthusiasm to suppose that Satan can have any intercourse with the human mind, how is it imaginable that our Lord, who was a clear decisive reasoner upon every subject, would expressly tell us, in the explanation of the parable, and without the least caution to beware of misinterpreting him, that the wicked one cometh and catcheth away the word from the heart?' He spoke to plain people, and did not mean to ensnare them with enigmatic or figurative language. Besides, the opinion that then prevailed of the influence of Satan in our world was so general, that if there had been no ground for the fact, such language as this in our text, and in those other passages just cited, where Satan is said to have put it into the heart of Judas to betray his master; to have filled the heart of Ananias to lie unto the Holy Ghost; and to work in the children of disobedience; such language, I say, could not in that case be

a Chap. iv. 15.

b Job i. 6. ii. 1.

excused of the charge of disingenuity and a disposition to temporize.

No doubt the doctrine I am defending has been abused by enthusiasts, on the one hand, and impostors on the other. But if men would attend to the calm dictates of reason and Scripture, they would be in no danger from either of these quarters. For no more is meant by the influence which Satan is supposed in certain cases to exert over the mind, than what is similar to the influence which wicked men are acknowledged to have over others; to allure them by persuasions to sin, and to dissuade them by menaces from their duty. It cannot force them into sin, against the consent of their will; or, in other words, so operate on their minds as to deprive them of that freedom which is necessary to constitute them accountable creatures. And in no case is it exerted but by the permission and under the control of an infinitely superior being.—To return:

This mighty adversary watches his opportunity to prevent the salutary effect of the word upon those that hear it. And considering what is the character of the sort of hearers we are here speaking of, it is not to be wondered at that he is permitted to catch away the seed sown in their hearts, or that he succeeds in the attempt. For if their motives in attending upon divine service are base and unworthy, if they address themselves to the duties of religion without any previous preparation, if they hear in a careless desultory manner, and if prejudices against the truth are cherished rather than opposed, all which, as we have seen, is the case; how righteous is it in God to permit Satan to use every possible artifice to defeat the great and good ends to which religious instructions are directed! Here then let us consider what these artifices are, at the same time remembering that they take effect, and can only do so, by falling in with the false reasonings and perverse dispositions of those on whom they are practised. How does Satan "catch. away the good seed from the heart ?" That is our inquiry. I answer-by diverting men's attention from the word while they are hearing it, or while they seem to hear it-by exciting prejudices against it—and by preventing their recollecting it afterwards.

1. Satan uses his utmost endeavours to divert men's attention. from the word while they are hearing it.