But more expressly, John xii. 40, 41, 'You seek to kill me;' 'you do the deeds of your father therein, who was a murderer from the beginning,' ver. 44. And Christ seems to give a hint of this very reason: John xiv. 30; The prince of this world comes, and hath nothing in me,' as matter for him, by virtue of which he should have authority to have anything to do with me. The devil thus foolishly and sillily lost all, and God took the wise in his own craftiness; and Christ suffered him to go on and to have his whole will upon him, but then took him thereby captive at his will. So God in his righteous judgment ordered that Satan should lose the power that he had, because he exercised that upon Christ which he had not.*

(2.) Consider that it was man's sin which was the sole and only ground of God's giving Satan that power at first; it was done by way of punishment and curse. Now, if Christ pays by his death (as it was transacted betwixt God and him) a price and ransom for sin, and undergoes all the punishment due to it, then doth Satan's power fall instantly; for it was wholly judicial, and but part of the curse and punishment upon man.

There was this concatenation or derivation of power: the power of Satan lies in sin, the power that sin hath over us lay in the law (the strength of sin is the law,' saith the apostle). Now, he, by paying a price or sufficient ransom unto God for sin, the power of the law and devil all fell at once flat, and perished together.

And the chain of these you have in that Colossians ii., where, first, in the 13th verse, 'And you, being dead in your sins, and the uncircumcision of your flesh, hath he quickened together with him, having forgiven you all your trespasses.' There is sin gone, both in the power and demerit of it. Secondly, verse 14, follows, A blotting out the handwriting of ordinances that was against us, which was contrary to us, and took it out of the way, nailing it to his cross.' There is the law cancelled and made void. Thirdly, verse 15, and 'Having spoiled principalities and powers, he made a show of them openly, triumphing over them.' The devil falls with these, as his power stood by these.

(3.) Add to these that this Christ, as a common person, stood in the room of us all, and therefore Satan justly lost his power over us all, in that he that represented us all did overcome him.

And here, ere we go any farther, let us stay a while and stand astonished at the glory of God's design herein. There was never any romance ever feigned so strange a story, joined with such a confusion to the person that was conquered, as this represents; and it is to be taken notice of here, in our transition to that other part, viz., his triumph as a preparation to the glory of it, that Christ a lamb, 'the Lamb of God,' should lie still and perdu, having all our persons and sins under that lamb's skin, and form of a servant, led as a sheep,' by Satan, unto the slaughter,' until Satan should have done his worst, and then as a lion couchant, a lion asleep (as Gen. xlix., and Rev. v. 5, 6, a lamb and a lion both), he should rouse up himself from his sleep, and take that very cross that Satan had brought him unto, and hung him upon; and (as one expresseth it) baculo crucis, with the staff, the beam of the cross, break all the devil's bones in pieces, when he had not with all his malice broke one bone of his; what more glorious? To overcome then, when himself is overcome!

Thus much for Christ's spoiling, yea, destroying him, virtually and *Sic Deo judicante, amisit potestatem quam habuit, quia exercuit quam non habuit, saith Aquinas out of Austin.-(Sum., part. iii. quæst. 49.)

meritoriously, at his death. His triumph over him next follows. For into those two parts the particulars in this Col. ii. 15 are reduced;* even as conquerors first stripped the captives, then led them as examples, tied to the chariot wheels, or else they were driven afore them. In the first, the devil's nakedness appears, in this other his shame and ignominy publicly.

Christ's triumph is thus set forth. He made them an example and show of them openly, triumphing over them;' both these expressions falling in to signify the same thing, the allusion is manifestly unto that Roman custom mentioned, after victories obtained, when the chief leader rode in triumph, leading the chieftains of the conquered enemy as an open spectacle. There hath been a question among commentators and other divines, whether or no. Look, as Christ's affixing the law to his cross, and his overcoming and disarming Satan thereon, was an invisible transaction, not seen or observed by any but by God and himself (the reality thereof consisting only in virtue and efficacy), that so, in like manner, this his triumph over the devils should have been but virtual and invisible, and so this his triumph, as those other, all of them wholly transacted on the cross alike. Or whether there was not after that victory mentioned on the cross, a public and open show made, in way of triumph, afore a world of spectators applauding of it. For the decision of this.

1. Therein this difference may be considered between the abolishing sin and the law at his cross, and this other of triumph over the devil; that those first must needs be only spiritually and virtually understood, for sin and the law are not intelligent persons, but only things to be destroyed, and so were capable but of a virtual abolition, as Heb. i. 3.

But the devils themselves, that were the founders of sin, and heads of this rebellion, they were rational and intelligent creatures, and so were capable of being made a real and visible open shame, which was a punishment suited to such. And the manner of the triumphs was to lead the persons and the chieftains, as heads, in open view, to give demonstration of the perfection and completeness of the victory over any prince or nation; now, such were the devils.

2. Although neither this over those damned spirits, as neither that over sin, was visible to the men of this world we live in, yet there is another world, invisible indeed to us, unto whom the shame and ignominy done to these devils might be (as it was) made visible, namely, God and angels, and the spirits of just men, which is the greatest stage.+ Christ's birth and nativity was known and seen by the angels, when but to one or two in our world; as also his ascension. Now both every word here leads unto this sense, as also the thing considered in itself, and the comparing this with the other.

(1.) The nature of a triumph (to which the allusion manifestly is) was to be a public sight or show, and to have the greater pomp there was a company of spectators to behold it, or it lost what it pretended to be, and was not that which it is said to be. So Tully speaks of the Roman triumphs, that ambassadors were present on horses, the soldiers crying out Victory, whilst the conquered were led afore or after the chariots of the conqueror, and this for the glory of the conqueror, and the confusion of the conquered.

* So Rollock, entering upon that word, 'Made a show of them,' divides them, having spoken de Victoria in cruce, nunc de triumpho.-So Rollock on that place.

† Angeli viderunt traductos diabolos et triumphantem Christum-Rollock on the place. Manifestissima erat et illustrissima coram omnibus cœlestibus.-Musculus. So also Zanchy.

VOL. V.

If there were none there that at present took notice thereof, it were not a triumph, but merely a concealed and stolen victory.

(2.) It is said he made them a public example, and so the word Εδειγμάτισεν here, which is all one with παραδειγματίζειν, is used by the Septuagint, Num. xxv. 4, when Moses hung up those kings before the sun; and so by the New Testament, Mat. i. 19 and Heb. vi. 6; it signifies also to make one publicly infamous, yea, to draw and drag him through a company of beholders and spectators.*

All which (if no more were added) argues that some public ignominy was done unto the devils before this solemn assembly.

(3.) The apostle (to fix his meaning) adds 'openly,' v zaggnoía, which word the Jews have taken into their language to signify a thing done openly, in opposition to what is secretly or hiddenly; and so it is used, John xi. 34, and chap. vii. 4, and chap. vii. 13, and Mark viii. 32. Now, this is that which I urge, that for a thing to be done by way of triumph, on purpose to make infamous, dragging the person made such through a company of spectators, and openly, yet to say it was some invisible transaction, to be viewed by faith only, these things are a contradiction.

3. Thirdly, compare this transaction specified here with other scriptures, and it will resolve, when and how this public ignominy was inflicted on Satan and his angels. And this, added to all the former, satisfieth me most of all.

We read, Eph. iv. 8 (and that epistle is parallel in most things to this of the Colossians, as many have observed), that Christ, when he ascended, led the devils in triumph: When he had ascended up on high, he led captivity captive.' This David had prophesied of, Ps. lxviii. 17, 18, and in these scriptures compared, there are two things more particularly expressed.

(1.) That it is an allusion to the triumphs used among the Gentiles, especially among the Romans, with whom they were in their greatest glory; for in their triumphs they led at their chariot wheels their captives; so it is said here in both places, he led captivity captive.' And,

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(2.) The sixty-eighth psalm speaks of the thousand chariots, who also were those spectators afore-mentioned: ver. 17, The chariots of God,' which God commanded to wait upon him at his ascension, ver. 18, 'are twenty thousand; The chariots of God are twenty thousand, even thousands of angels: the Lord is among them, as in Sinai, in the holy place.'

You see, then, how expressly he speaks of the angels who were his chariots, which he rode up in and accompanied him, and he in the midst of them.

When he came down to mount Sinai to give the law, then thousands of angels did accompany him, for it was the law given by the angels. And so those were the spectators of this triumph; and what now is wanting to make it a visible triumph, not to faith only, but the angels ?

And further, to carry on the allusion to a triumph, as they had their missilia scattered among the people, so of Christ it is said, when he thus triumphed, that He gave gifts unto men.'

Thus David, being a prophet, and foreseeing things as they fell out concerning Christ (as Acts ii. 30) spoke afore, as ver. 31, both of the crucifying of Christ, which was a death proper to the Romans, or at least to be brought in among the Jews with the Roman conquerors, and not known * Significat aliquando per publicum cœtum spectatorum trabere, vel ducere. Zanchius in locum.; Drusius; Grotius.

afore unto the Jews; and also of the triumph of his ascension, under the similitude of a complete Roman triumph, as their stories have transmitted the manner of them down to us.

Now, the difference of these two victories, the one at his death on the cross, the other at his ascension, is, that in the first, Christ dealt as a redeemer, with God as a judge; Cum Deo tanquam cum judice redemptor. In the other, he dealt, ut bellator adversus Satanam, as a warrior against Satan. The first conquest was over Satan's works, weapons, power, doing that for which God gave them up to him as spoils. The other was over his person, as an evidence God had given all his weapons and power into his hands.

Well, but when Christ had given him this terrible strappado, hauling him up after his chariot wheels, and then letting him fall again, a fall as bad as the first, Christ goes to heaven, and leaves the devil still in actual possession of power; still, for all he had thus chastised him, and had used him as the vilest varlet that ever was, Christ lets him go like a wretch (though we may not call him so ourselves, yet in relation to Christ, and his usage of him, we may), with possession of all his power, as god of this world, ruling in men's hearts, both elect and others, because he is to have another bout with him; and he suffers him to hold his possession on still in the world, reserving him for a further victory.

CHAPTER XVII.

The victory which Christ obtains over the devil, in us, and by us.-How he not only redeems us, but delivers us from his dominion and power.-That not only Christ in his own person should conquer the devil, and break his power, but that we should bear a part in it with him, is implied in that first promise in Gen. iii., that the seed of the woman should break the serpent's head. That in all the several parts of that power which Satan hath, and acts in the world, believers, by the virtue and strength of Christ, are conquerors over him.—That in the issue they conquer him as to that power which he hath to tempt them to sin.-The several ages of Christians considered from 1 John ii. 13, 14.-That by Christ believers prevail against Satan as to the accusations of them, which he brings before God.-That Christ, and the saints at last, defeat Satan's designs, and projects, and enterprises, as he is prince of this world.

I come now to the second part or degree of this victory, namely, Christ's destroying and confounding him in us and by us.

1. In us. The devil had still all the elect of God then alive, among all the Gentiles, whom the apostle wrote to and converted, and most of them converted by the apostles in Judea also, fast under lock and key, shut up under sin and wrath, so as Christ must win every soul from him whom he meant to save. Therefore at the conversion of every soul converted (which is expressly a turning a man from Satan to God, a delivering out of the power of darkness, Acts xxvi. 18, and elsewhere), he then comes and begins to bind Satan, and to take his weapons from him, Luke xi. 21. He speaks in relation to throwing Satan out of men's hearts, as well as out of their bodies. For so he applies it, ver. 23, 24; and then it is that Christ begins to execute what virtually he did on the cross, and what at triumphing: he gave a specimen, a public show of that he had power to do. Now,

First, I observe from that place, that the devil, for all the bangs and blows he had at Christ's ascension, that he remains still in possession in men's hearts, and is at peace; and possesseth an elect child of God his heart as his palace, and reckons all his powers and faculties to be his goods and furniture, to use at pleasure.

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Well, but Christ having virtually redeemed him on the cross, and spoiled Satan for him and on his behalf then, and triumphed over him in that person's stead, and as representing him, comes now with a writ of execution for all his goods detained from him; with a habeas animas, to possess himself of all, and actually to take Satan's power. And when Christ comes, he finds him armed' (so ver. 21) still, for all he was spoiled on the cross, and as strong' in us as ever. For what was then done was but spiritually, and in merito; but now he binds' him (Mat, xii. 29) to his good behaviour; that is, as in relation to his possessing of, and working in that man, so as Satan is in a chain. Christ claps irons on him, that whereas Satan acted in him afore, as lord in his own house, and he was his jailor; now himself is become Christ's prisoner, bound hand and foot, so as he cannot stir or do anything against us, but with his leave. Then Christ takes possession of all his armoury; so Tavorλía is to be interpreted, ver. 22 (for ver. 21 he is presented armed), so then all Satan's tempting, accusing power, and the things by which he tempts and works, do all fall now into Christ's hands, as his spoils paid for afore; and now Christ becomes actually possessed of them; and as he is King and Lord (to allude to what Christ said from another more general occasion), takes to himself the power and reigns, Rev. xi. 30. Satan lies bound; his power, rule, his wit, cunning, force, whatever, is at Christ's feet, to order as he shall give leave, and no otherwise; and he is to have commission from Christ ere he act or tempt.

I conceive thus of it, that as at first conversion, Phil. iii. 12, Christ is said to apprehend, or to take our persons actually, to accomplish in us all that he purchased for us (which made Paul desire to have the whole given him that Christ had apprehended him for, and received then for him of the Father, by a renewed act of donation, the graces, gifts he shall ever bestow and give forth), so doth Christ now by a renewed act take possession of all Satan's power and weapons; so as he cannot use a threatening, he cannot blow up a lust, but by Christ's consent and permission, not in the ordinary providential way only, but by special leave and license; as the attachment of nobles, at least the execution, is by special commission from the prince, but all other persons are left to the ordinary course of the laws, which are to be put in execution by inferior magistrates as they see occasion. And this actual possession of all Satan's power as a spoil is perfect also on Christ's part, as a king, to have it let forth at his dispose; and is perfect in this sense, that Christ takes all, once for all, in our behalf, and to be let out but as shall be for our good; and therefore conversion is called a translating us out of the power of darkness into the kingdom of his Son. We come now under Christ's actual jurisdiction, who hath taken to himself the government of us. The difference the apostle holds forth, 2 Tim. ii. 25, 26, speaking of saving repentance, If peradventure God will give them repentance to the acknowledgment of the truth, that they may recover themselves out of the snare of the devil, who are taken captive by him at his will;' whereof the meaning is, that they may not be under Satan's jurisdiction, as afore, at his will,' but be so freed as to be able to recover themselves out of his snare.

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And because even this first work is a renewed triumph of Christ's over