a complete confutation of so infamous a charge. It was this:" Every kingdom divided against itself shall be brought to desolation, and house shall fall upon house; and if Satan also be divided against himself, how shall his kingdom stand?" The strength and import of this sententious argument may be thus elucidated. It can not surely be supposed that the devil would take an active part in the subversion of his own empire. This, however, he would unquestionably do, if he enabled Christ to expel his agents from the posts of which they had taken possession. He would become a confederate with his most decided and irreconcileable enemy, in promoting the interests of truth and virtue, which Jesus laboured indefatigably to advance, and which are diametrically opposite to his own interest; and thus, like a kingdom divided against itself, or a house which is a prey to internal discord, his dominion would unavoidably experience its downfall. Our blessed Saviour then proceeded, with his usual address, to turn against themselves the very arms which they had employed for his defeat. For he intimated that the pretence which they urged against him, would also, if admitted, militate against those, who, amongst themselves, exercised the power casting out devils, and whom they were accustomed to hold in the highest veneration. He therefore confidently appealed to them to decide, by what influence they succeeded in that extraordinary operation, claiming in his own regard, as

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in equity he well might, the advantage of the decision which they should give in answer to that appeal. Thus, leaving the point at issue between them to the determination of their own exorcists, and anticipating a verdict in his favor, he fairly concluded that it was by the power of God, and not by that of Beelzebub, the prince of the devils, as the Pharisees pretended, that he had restored speech to the dumb man, whence it followed that his mission was clearly from above. "Now if I cast out devils by Beelzebub, by whom do your children cast them out? Therefore they shall be your judges. But if I by the finger of God cast out devils, doubtless the kingdom of God is come upon you." Far from acting, either in concert with, or in subordination to, the prince of darkness, he asserted at once his opposition and superiority to him. In proof of which he represented to them the devil, under the image of an armed warrior, guarding the fortress in which all his treasures were deposited, with vigilance and strength, and retaining undisturbed possession, till attacked and defeated by our Saviour's superior force; as in the instance of his expulsion from the dumb man, he was constrained to abandon his strong-hold, and despoiled of all the effects which it contained. "When a strong man armed guardeth his court, those things which he possesseth are in peace, but if a stronger than he come upon him, and overcome him, he will take away all his armour wherein he trusted, and will distribute his spoils." Finally,

reminding them of the proverb, which appears to have been current among them, "he that is not with me is against me, and he that gathereth not with me, scattereth;"-which implied, that not to defend was to oppose,-that neutrality was to be regarded as constructive hostility, he left them to consider, if the decided opposition which he, by his conduct, had uniformly manifested to error and vice, could possibly be viewed in any other light than that of the most unequivocal and avowed enmity to him who was the chief promoter of both, and by whose influence they pretended that he had acted.

Having thus repelled in the most victorious manner the horrid imputation of the blasphemous Pharisees, he delivered the parable of the unclean spirit; who, having abandoned his human habitation, finding it afterwards swept and garnished, as it is described in the text, returns with a reinforcement of others more wicked than himself, who establish in it their permanent abode, and thus render the condition of the soul in which they fix their residence, more wretched than it was before. This parable I conceive to be connected with the miracle which Jesus had performed, and designed to caution all those who, like the dumb man in the Gospel, may have the happiness to be delivered from the slavery of the devil, against every indulgence of vicious propensities, which may induce him to return with augmented force, and reduce them to a state of aggravated servitude. That the

solemn, dignified, and convincing language, which Jesus held on the present occasion, must have greatly contributed to exalt his character in the estimation of all who heard him, there cannot be a doubt. Of this indeed, there is a remarkable instance given in the Gospel. It is that of a woman, herself, probably a mother, who, in order to express her admiration of him, adverted to that exquisite, and sentimental satisfaction, which a mother only could feel, in having given birth to such a son. "Blessed," said she, "is the womb that bore thee, and the breasts which thou didst suck." But to this spontaneous burst of maternal feeling, Jesus calmly replied in words which indicated his preference of the blessing derived from a faithful observance of the commands of God, to that which is the result of the finest feelings of natural sensibility: "But he said, yea rather, blessed are they who hear the word of God, and keep it."

The Gospel which I have thus expounded to you, furnishes us, in the first place, with an unanswerable argument against modern infidels, who call in question the miraculous power of the Divine founder of our holy religion. That Jesus had operated a most extraordinary cure in restoring to a dumb man the faculty of speech, is evident, from the astonishment it excited in the minds of all who beheld it. "And the multitude," observes the sacred text, "were in admiration at it." That the Pharisees, who were his bitterest and most determined enemies, were unable to dispute so

notorious a transaction, is clear also from the anxiety they expressed to remove the impression which it produced in his favor. That they could not shew it to have been the work of fraud, of artifice, collusion, or any other human means, is equally certain. For could they have done this, could they have proved, that in the cure which Jesus had performed, there was nothing that exceeded the limits of natural ability, is it credible they would have had recourse to so miserable a subterfuge to put down his reputation in the estimation of the multitude, as that of attributing it to the infernal interposition of the prince of darkness? a subterfuge, which Jesus, with his accustomed sagacity, so triumphantly refuted. Here then, we have the most unexceptionable testimony to the reality of that supernatural power which the votaries of Christianity ascribe with confidence to its Divine Author. For it is the testimony of men who were themselves eye witnesses to the exercise of it, and who, with the most ample means, must also have had the strongest dispositions to disprove it, if possible. Now, which of the two, may I be permitted to ask, are the more deserving of attention, and credit, the contemporaneous enemies of Jesus, who saw with their own eyes the actual display of his supernatural power,-a power, which the irresistible evidence of their senses, compelled them reluctantly to confess,or they, who at the present day, that is to say, 1800 years later, obstinately persist in denying

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