(2.) Satan hath a tn'annical usurped power. So the devils are called ' rulers of the darkness of this world,' Eph. vi. 12, the blind, idolatrous, superstitious world ; and Satan is called ' The prince of this world,' John xiv. 30, and ' The God of this world,' 2 Cor. iv. 4. God made him an executioner, but we make him a prince, a ruler, and a God, Now Christ, as a priest, disannulleth his legal power by his death and the merit of his sacrifice ; and Christ, as a true king, and head both of men and angels, pulls down Satan as an usurper, delivers the poor captive souls out of his power ; and as a prophet he dis- covereth his cheats and delusions.
[2.] His works. There is a twofold work of Satan — the work of the devil without us, or the work of the devil within us.
(1.) The work of the devil without us is a false religion, or those idolatries and superstitions by which Satan's reign and empire is upheld in the world. This is destroyed by the doctrine of the gospel, accom- panied with the all-powerful Spirit of God. And therefore, when the gospel was first preached by Christ's messengers, the devil fell from that great and unlimited power which he had before in the world :
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Luke X. 18, * I beheld Satan as lightning fall from heaven.' It is an allusion to his first fall ; as lightning flasheth and vanisheth, and never recollecteth itself again, so ' Now shall the prince of this world be cast out,' John xii. 31. When Christ did first set upon the redemption of mankind, the apostles went abroad to beat the devil, and hunt him out of his territories ; and they did it with great eff"ect. Therefore this is made one argument by which the Spirit doth convince us of the truth of the gospel : John xvi. 11, 'He shall convince the world of judgment, because the prince of this world is judged.' The silencing of his oracles, the suppressing of his superstitions, the destroying of the kingdom of wickedness and darkness, was an apparent evidence of the truth of the gospel. The old religion, by which the devil's kingdom was supported everywhere, went to wrack , no moi-e the same temples, the same rites, the same gods ; all was made to stoop and bow before God as worshipped in Christ.
(2.) There is the work of the devil within us. This concerneth the recovering particular persons out of the snare of the devil, who were taken captive by him at his will and pleasure. Here we must dis- tinguish between the purchase and application. The purchase was made when Christ died : Col. ii. 15, ' Having spoiled principalities and powers, he made a show of them openly, triumphing over them in it ; ' that is, on his cross. Christ's death was Satan's overthrow ; then was the deadly blow given to his power and kingdom. This was the price given for our ransom, and the great means of disannulling all that power Satan had before. The application is begun in our conversion ; for then we are said to be turned from Satan unto God : Acts xxvi. 18, ' To open their eyes, and to turn them from darkness to light, and from the power of Satan unto God.' Then we are rescued out of the devil's clutches, and adopted into God's family, that, being made children, we may have a child's portion.
III. That in this conflict his heel was wounded, bitten, or bruised by the serpent.
1. Certain it is that Christ was bruised in the enterprise ; which showeth how much we should value our salvation, since it costs so dear as the precious blood of the Son of God incarnate : 1 Peter i. 18, 19, ' Forasmuch as ye know that ye were not redeemed with corruptible things, as silver and gold, &c., but with the precious blood of Christ, as of a lamb without blemish and without spot,' He thought not his "whole humiliation, from first to last, too much for the overthrowing of the devil's kingdom, nor any price too dear to redeem poor captive souls.
2. But how was he bruised by the serpent ? Certainly on the one hand Christ's sufferings were the effects of man's sin and God's hatred against sin and his governing justice ; for it is said, Isa. liii. 10, 'It pleased the Father to bruise him.' Unless it had pleased the Lord to bruise him, Satan could never have bruised him. On the other side, they were also the effects of the malice and rage of the devil and his instruments, who was now with the sword's-point and closing stroke with Christ, and doing the worst he could against him. In his whole life he endured many outward troubles from Satan's instruments ; for all his life long he was a man of sorrows, wounded and bruised by Satan
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and his instruments : John viii. 44, * Ye are of your father the devil, and the lusts of your father ye will do ; he was a murderer from the beginning, and abode not in the truth, because there is no truth in him.' But the closing stroke was at last ; then did the serpent most eminently bruise his heel. When Judas contrived the plot, it is said, the devil entered into him : Luke xxii. 3, ' Then entered Satan into Judas Iscariot, being one of the twelve.' When the high priest's servants come to take him, he telleth them, Luke xxii. 53, ' This is 3'our hour, and the power of darkness.' The power of darkness at length did prevail so far as to cause his shameful death ; this was their day.