Page:The Christian's Last End (Volume 2).djvu/319
SIXTY-SECOND SERMON.
THAT THE DEVIL IS NOT TO BE FEARED ON THE WAY TO HEAVEN.
Subject.
1. On the way to heaven we have no worse or greater enemy than the devil. 2. And yet if we are only firmly determined, there is no enemy we need fear less than the devil.—Preached on the feast of St. Michael the Archangel.
Text.
Factum est prœlium magnum in cœlo: Michael et angeli ejus prœliabantur cum dracone.—Apoc. xii. 7.
“And there was a great battle in heaven: Michael and his angels fought with the dragon.”
Introduction.
What? Is then heaven, the dwelling-place of God, not free from those rebellious spirits? Have they then the audacity to attack their Almighty Creator and His heavenly princes? Alas! if so, how will it be with me, and other poor, weak mortals like me? You have misled us on that other occasion, when you told us always to rejoice and be glad in the Lord, because we are on the right road to heaven, and can with childlike confidence abandon the care of our salvation to the Providence of God. But how could you speak of rejoicing, as if the devil were not there to rob us of all? Such, pious servants of God, will probably be your thoughts. But I repeat again the words of St. Paul: “Rejoice in the Lord always; again, I say, rejoice.”[1] “Serve ye the Lord with gladness,”[2] and do not let the devil disturb you in this respect. And I mean to show in this sermon that you need not fear him.
Plan of Discourse.
It is true that we have no worse or greater enemy on the way to heaven than the devil; this I shall show in the first part.