[Footnote D:  Rev. 20:8.]

  [Footnote E:  Eph. 6:11.]

5. He is a liar. The first thing recorded of him is the lie which he told our first parents, to persuade them to disobey God.  Hence our Saviour calls him a “liar from the beginning."[F]

  [Footnote F:  John 8:44.]

6. He is malicious. As Satan is the enemy of God, so he hates everything that is good.  He is continually bent on mischief.  If his power were not restrained, he would introduce general disorder, anarchy and confusion, into the government of God.  He loves to ruin immortal souls; and he takes delight in vexing the people of God.  Hence he is called Destroyer,[G] Adversary, Accuser, Tormentor, and Murderer.[H]

  [Footnote G:  Abaddon signifies destroyer.]

  [Footnote H:  Rev. 9:11; I Pet. 5:8; Rev. 12:10; Matt. 18:34; John 8:44.]

Now, since we are beset by an adversary of such knowledge and power, so sly and artful, so false, and so malicious, it becomes us to be well acquainted with all his arts, that we maybe on our guard against them.  The apostle Paul says, “For we are not ignorant of his devices.”  O, that every Christian could say so!  How many sad falls would be prevented!  I Will mention a few of the devices of Satan, which are manifest both from the Holy Scriptures, and from the experience of eminent saints who have been enabled to detect and distinguish his secret workings in their own hearts.  It is the opinion of some great and good men, that the devil can suggest thoughts to our minds only through the imagination.  This is that faculty of the mind by which it forms ideas of things communicated to it through the senses.  Thus, when you see, hear, feel, taste, or smell anything, the image of the thing is impressed upon the mind by the imagination.  It also brings to our recollection these images, when they are not present.  It is thought to be only by impressing these images upon the imagination, that he can operate upon our souls.  Hence, we may account for the strange manner in which our minds are led off from the contemplation of divine things, by a singular train of thought, introduced to the mind by the impression of some sensible object upon the imagination.  This object brings some other one like it to our recollection, and that again brings another, until we wander entirely from the subject before us, and find our minds lost in a maze of intellectual trifling.

Satan adapts his temptations to our peculiar tempers and circumstances.  In youth, he allures us by pleasure, and bright hopes of worldly prosperity.  In manhood, he seeks to bury up our hearts in the cares of life.  In old age, he persuades to the indulgence of self-will and obstinacy.  In prosperity, he puffs up the heart with pride, and persuades to self-confidence and forgetfulness of God.  In poverty and affliction, he excites feelings of discontent, distrust, and repining.