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aken uway ; inM>much that when Paul received higLcf revelations, the Lord saw it good to lay upon him stronger temptations, and to continue the affliction of that thorn in the fle^h which he would fam have had removed. For how were the church any more the chuKh militant. unless she had an enemy to dispute it withal? Think you the heathen alone is that enemy? Or think you that Satan who overleaped llie v(^rdurou*i wall of paradise, cannot overleap the bounds of every visible church t Think you that any sect is defended against fiirn by iU sectarian fences, or anychurch by lU mighty bulwarks? Ah, brethren, deceive oot yourselves. Ah. if my dear brother, in whose church ! this night preach, or if the unworthy preacher who now ujietis lo you the mystery of Satan's forms, did fondly conceive that' our churches were like Goshen, free from plagtie and darknc&s, as like Goshen they should he free, we should soon be taken in the snare of spiritual pride, and consumed with the foul exhalations which are bred fram spiritual ciuietism, confidence, nd security. We hold our being by op|>ovng 3 L n 874 TH£ TUUCK UXCLtAN SPIRITS, [DA. forces : controversy and resist&nce at all times, and LD every scosou is our clement, out of which la-e cannot for a moment exist. Or \i\ after ha Btruggliug» of faith and prayer, we be at tim raised to the summits of ttie detectable mountain and get a dUlant riew of the land of promise, it is as mea who liavc laboured through imminent perils, of precipices and chasms, of icy paths and aralanchcs of &now, to the summit of Mont Blanc where indeed a wt^rld licth at their feet, and ^ky is ahove their heads, like the azure tliroiieo God ; but withal they pant, they labour ia all their iuwanl parti*: switDiningj; and vwoonings threaten them: a few minutes,* at most a few hours, is all which they cart bear, and faiu, right faiDt are they to hasten duMoi again to the htimble village and cloudy atmosphere, and prring cou teraclions of manH present ahotJe. Surely, tliei' fore, it is mo»t true, uk w»i£ said above, that the time of Abraham, till the captivity, the churc wail but working out the i-mblem of her own hi tory, and embodying a type of the rcahty of b future experience, which I may say be^n wi the oppression of Nebuchadnezzar, and cantinu under that spirit of autucratic and universal ui narchy, until the Mtlchizedec usurpation, whic ia the spirit of tbe Papacy, assumed the rule of the heavens, and ft>r an equal space of time hath bonu: the asecndaut. Very vain then,