November 5

Let us alone: what have we to do with thee, thou Jesus of Nazareth? art thou come to destroy us? I know thee who thou art,-the Holy One of God. - Luke 4:34.

SOME have supposed that it was the design of the unclean spirit to interrupt and disturb the Saviour when he thus “cried out;” and, indeed, the wicked are continually saying, by their tempers and lives, “We desire not the knowledge of thy ways;” “We will not have this man to reign over us.”

When conscience would accuse or upbraid them, they endeavour to stupefy it with an opiate or to curb it back with a gag. When God employs the rod, and would speak to them by it, they turn away their ears from hearing. When God’s ministers are faithful, then they are ready to “say to the seers, See not; and to the prophets, Prophesy unto us smooth things, prophesy deceits, cause the Holy One of Israel to cease from before us.” When friends admonish, and entreat, how often do they say, “Pray, keep your religion to yourselves; be as religious as you choose; you go your way to heaven, and leave us to go ours. Why should you intermeddle with us?” We may always judge of the spirit of Satan in persons by their aversion to Christ and having any thing to do with him; and we may always judge of the Spirit of God being in us by our loving to approach him, and his approaching us, and having much continually to do with us.

Then it expressed fear:-“Art thou come to destroy us?” Satan has now a degree of permission which he will not always possess. He is not yet judged, but “reserved in chains under darkness unto the judgment of the great day.” His misery is nothing, therefore, to what it will be. “The devils,” says James, “believe and tremble:” they have faith enough to make them miserable. And this is the case with many of their followers. They have faith enough to make them very unhappy. They have the faith of assent, but not of consent; not of acquiescence, nor of dependence; not of application, never giving themselves to him. They believe and tremble; the first Christians believed and rejoiced. “Believing,” says Peter, “we rejoice with joy unspeakable and full of glory.” David said, “My meditation of him shall be sweet;” “I will rejoice in the Lord.” The church said, “His name is as ointment poured forth;” it is most fragrant and delightful.

It expressed commendation. “I know thee who thou art,-the Holy One of God.” Here, we see, Satan not only believed much, but talked well. How conversant is he with the Scriptures! How he quoted it in his address to our Saviour! Every thing he said was expressed in the language of inspiration. How he must have read the Bible! How attentive he must have been to it when it was preached! Yes; “Satan,” says the apostle, “can transform himself into an angel of light.” Heretics are all his mouth: they speak many good things, but these are only to sanction the bad ones, and thus render them the more mischievous.

Truth is the substratum of all error; and every truth taken out of its place, or pushed too far, or improperly applied, becomes error. We cannot depend upon good talking, but we should always “love one another, not in word and in tongue, [the devil can do this,] but in deed and in truth.” Let us look at the Author of this miracle, and we shall see how the enemy of souls is under the dominion of the Lord Jesus; that, though an adversary, yet he is restrained and chained. He could not injure Job till he had obtained leave. Satan would never leave any of his subjects unless he was compelled to do it. The “strong man armed keepeth his palace and his goods in peace,” but a stronger than he cometh, and binds the strong man, and spoileth his goods. Therefore the Saviour rebukes him and expels him.