Now, there are two ways whereby the blood of Christ thus brake the power of Satan, that he shall not lead those always captive at his pleasure, nor rule in them, as children of disobedience, in the behalf of whom his power was so broken : —
[1.] He subdues him by taking away all that right and title which he had by sin to rule over them : I speak of the elect of God. By the entrance of sin, the devil entered upon a twofold rule in re- ference to sinners: — 'ist. A rule over them with the terror and dread of death and hell. They are in bondage by reason of death all their days, Heb. ii. 14, 15 ; and the devil hath the power of that death upon the world whereunto they are in bondage. The death that is in the curse is put into his hand to manage it, to the dread and terror of sinners; and by it he hath always kept many, and to this day doth keep innumerable souls in unexpressible bondage, putting them upon barbarous inhumanities to make atonement for their sins, and forcing some to inflict revenge and destruction upon themselves, thinking to prevent, but really hastening, that which they fear. As of old this power of his lay at the bottom of all the abominations Avherewith men provoked God when they thought to atone him,^ as by burning their children in the fire, and the like, Mic. vi. 6, 7,^ so at present is it the principle of all that superstitious will-worship and religious drudgery which is spread over the antichristian world.
» John xvi. 33; Gal. i. 4; 1 John v. 4, 5. 2 Diat. de Just. Divin. » Lev. xviii. 21; Deut. xviii. 10; 2 Kings xxi. 6, xxiii. 10; 2 Chron. xxxiii. 6; Jcr. xxxii. 35.
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Yea, the inventions of men ignorant of the righteousness of God, and convinced of their own insufficiency to perform, work out, and estabhsh, a righteousness of their own, that shall perfectly answer the exact, holy demands of the law, as far as to them is discovered, to deliver themselves from under this dread of death, wherewith he that hath the power of it terrifies them all their days, are indeed the foundation and spring, the sum and substance, of all religions in the world, and the darling of all religious persons, in and with whom Christ is not all and in all. And herein have the Papists gone one notable step beyond all their predecessors in superstition and devotion ; for whereas they universally contented themselves with sac- rifices, purifications, purgations, lustrations, satisfactions, recompenses, to be in this life performed, these latter, — more refined, sublimated, mercurial wits, — observing that nothing they could here invent would settle and chaim the spirits of men haunted with the dread of death we speak of, but that instantly they came again, with the same disquietness as formerly, and renewed mention of sin, upon the insufficiency of the atonement fixed on for its expiation, they found out that noble expedient of the future purgatory, which might maintain the souls of men in some hopes in this life, and secure themselves from the cries and complaints of men against tlie in- sufficiency of their remedy which they do prescribe. 2dly. As he rules over men by death, and hell that follows after, so also he ndes in men by sin: he " ruleth in the children of disobedience," Eph. ii. 2. And to this end, to secure men to himself, — he being that strong man armed who hath the first possession, and labours to keep what he hath got in peace,^ — he sets up strongholds, ima- ginations, and high things, against God, 2 Cor. iv. 4. Now, this twofold power of Satan, over men and in men, doth both arise from sin, whereby men are first cast out of God's love and care, becoming obnoxious to death, and, secondly, are alienated from God in will- ing subjection to his enemy. And both these parts and branches of his dominion are, in reference unto the elect, cast down and destroyed, and taken away; for, first, Christ by his death cashiers the title and claim that Satan laid to tlie exercise of any such power, in refer- ence unto the elect. When men cast down any from rule, they may interrupt and put by their exercise of any power, but they cannot take away their title unless it be of their own giving. Christ by his death takes away the very bottom, foundation, and occasion, of the whole power of Satan. All the power of Satan in the first sense consists in death, and those things that either conduce to it or do attend it. Now, death entered by sin, and therewithal the power of Satan." The Lord Jesus taking away sin and putting an end there-
• Matt. xii. 29 ; Mark iii. 27; Luke xi. 21. » Gen. iii. 8; Dcut. xxvii. 2G; Rom. v. 12.
VII.] THE MEDIATION OF CUEIST. 807
unto, as was manifested, the whole title of Satan falls and comes to nothing, Heb. ii. 9-15. And this was really done in the cross, its manifestation by the gospel ensuing thereupon, according to the ap- pointment of God, Col, ii. 15; Tit. i. 3.