time of his judgment was now come. The fact is told in the language of a vision, which very much resembles the opening chapter of the book of Job. There, as in the present instance, spirits both good and evil are represented as presenting themselves before the throne of God, and the evil crave permission of Him to exercise their power upon mankind. It is added that the permission is granted, but so as that it may appear from both stories that evil is made an instrument of God's purposes, and that He suffers it to go so far as He sees fit, and no farther.

Again the multitude of considerations which these passages of Scripture suggest, can scarcely be confined within the limits of a single sermon. Again there is room for explanation on the one hand, for practical improvement on the other; and I shall try, as shortly as possible, to give something of either sort.

First, in these visions, and in all other passages of Scripture which relate to things invisible, to the things, that is, of another world: it is of great consequence to remember that the descriptions are but the shadow of unseen things, and not the very image of them; that the language is not to be taken as literally true, but as intended, like a parable or story, to convey a truth through the means of fiction. The very words," the throne of God," or," God sitting on his throne," which occur so

often in Scripture, are seen, the moment that our attention is drawn to them, to be merely figurative; and "the spirits standing by on the right hand and on the left," is an image of the same character. All that we can conclude safely from these visions is the general truth, that God allows us to be tempted, allows us to be deceived; and that both the one and the other may serve for our trial or for our punishment: it is for us so to use them that they may become the former only, and not the latter.

In the next place, in these stories and in many others in the Scripture, there is but one difficulty; and this difficulty would not be lessened though the doctrine taught by these passages were false instead of true. The difficulty is simply that great one,—I had well nigh said,—that only one of our condition; "Why there is any evil at all in the world?" It is always right to say plainly on the one hand that this is a difficulty which no human understanding can explain; and to show on the other hand, that, allowing this one difficulty to be inexplicable, as it must be equally, whether we believe the Scriptures or no,-and trusting at the same time that it will be explained to God's faithful children hereafter as one of the greatest rewards of those who believed though they did not see, that then the truths in the Scripture which many cavil at are not only true, but most profitable; that we

need not be afraid of the passages which contain them, nor try to explain away their meaning, but that we should consider them and study them attentively, and that then we shall find, if I may be allowed to repeat words which I have used before, that the deepest difficulties and the most blessed truths are to be found hard beside one another.

Are we then offended to hear that the Lord hath put a lying spirit into the mouth of any man? Let us confess indeed, that how there should be such a thing as a lying spirit in the universe, where the God of truth is Lord, passes all our comprehension; but that this being so-though how or why we know not-and our own experience telling us too certainly that it is so, it is no wonder that God should not leave it utterly running wild; that He should subject it in some sort at least to his dominion, and make it, evil as it is in its own proper nature, the instrument at least to others, since He sees fit not to destroy its nature, of His own purposes of good.

And if we say again, What purposes of good?for that this lying spirit was put into the mouth of the prophets not to benefit Ahab, but to help forward his ruin; the answer is,-and we were all at once fit for heaven if we felt the truth as well as expressed it with our lips,-the answer is, that the existence of evil is indeed a mystery, but that the punishment and destruction of evil is one of

the greatest of goods. And if we laboured in this work where alone we can labour at it quite purely and safely, that is, at the utter destruction of all evil within our own hearts:-for while destroying it in others evil passions so mix in the work that we create as much as we destroy ;-but if we did labour heartily and intensely at the destruction of our own hearts' evil, if we did feel how great it was, how entirely God abhors it, and how blessed a thing it must be to destroy it, then indeed we should share the mind of the Spirit of God, and be fit for communion with Him. It is indeed a solemn truth, that the destruction of evil should be so great a good; for it is one which is our own condemnation. Yet so it is, and it is an attribute no less closely connected with the nature of God, than His unfailing mercy to the good.

God then makes evil the instrument of good, when He makes it the instrument of the destruction of evil. And this was the case when He put the lying spirit in the mouth of the prophets, because the time of judgment upon Ahab was come. Only here is God's long suffering, that He is slow to consider any man as evil, and therefore fit for destruction; He suspends His judgment upon them till the very hour of death; till then even His punishments are not without something of chastisement; that is, they may be used for the destruction of the evil that is in the man, so that he himself

may be saved.

And this was the case with Ahab. For when Micaiah opened the secret of God's counsel against him, the opportunity was given him of turning it to good. God had resolved to encourage to his ruin the wicked and hard-hearted Ahab; but Ahab, humbled and penitent, became another man, and the judgment against his evil self was revealed to him, that he might become another self, and so escape from it. For so it is ever true, that God desireth not the death of a sinner, but

rather that he should be converted and live.

I have dwelt upon points which will not be generally interesting, but yet it was right to mention them, as there are some to whom it would have appeared unnatural to pass them over unnoticed; and as uninteresting and obscure as they are to those who have never thought on them at all, so are they in proportion full of interest to those whose minds have once become alive to them. But what remains is of a different character, and concerns us all. The same thing may happen now, does happen in a degree to all of us. An evil spirit is sent into the mouths of the prophets, and it tempts us continually to our ruin.

I notice the circumstance of its being put "into the mouths of the prophets;" not into the mouths of the prophets of Baal, but of the very prophets of the true God; for the sake of remarking that we are tempted to evil, not always by those who might