Hebrews 2:14-15

The union of Christ and the children, in their relation unto one common root and participation of the same nature, being asserted, the apostle proceeds to declare the ends, use, and necessity of that union, in respect of the work which God had designed him unto, and the ends which he had to accomplish thereby. Of these, two he layeth down in these two verses, namely, the destruction of the devil, and the delivery thereby of them that were in bondage by reason of death; neither of which could have been wrought or effected but by the death of the captain of salvation; which he could not have undergone, nor would what he could otherwise have done been profitable unto them, had he not been of the same nature with the children; as will appear in the opening of the words themselves.

Hebrews 2:14. ᾿Επεὶ ου῏ν τὰ παιδία κεκοινώνηκε σαρκὸς καὶ αἵματος, καὶ αὐτὸς παραπλησίως μετέσχε τῶν αὐτῶν, ἵνα διὰ τοῦ θανάτου καταργήσῃ τὸν τὸ κράτος ἔχοντα τοῦ θανάτου, τουτέστι, τόν διαβολον, καὶ ἀπαλλάξῃ τούτους, ὅσοι φοβῳ θανάτου διὰ παντὸς τοῦ ζῇν ἔνοχοι η῏σαν δουλείας.

᾿Επεὶ ου῏ν. V. L., “quia ergo;” Bez., “quoniam ergo;” “because therefore.” Syr., מֶטול גֵּיר, “for seeing,” or, “for because;” Eras., “posteaquam igitur;” ours, “forasmuch then.” ᾿Ετεί is sometimes used for ἐφ᾿ ου῏, “postquam,” “ex quo tempore,” “from whence;” so as to express no causality as to that which follows, but only the precendency of that which it relates unto. But it is not in that sense used with ου῏ν , which here is subjoined, but [in the sense of] “quoniam,” “quandoquidem;” the particle ου῏ν, “therefore,” plainly expressing a causality. They are well rendered by ours, “forasmuch then,” or “therefore.”

Τὰ παιδία κεκοινώνηκε σαρκὸς αἵματος. V.L. “Pueri communicaverunt carni et sanguini;” “The children communicated in flesh and blood.” Syr., בְּנָיִּא, “The sons were partakers,” or “do partake.” Eras., “Commercium habent cum carne et sanguine;” “Have communion” (or “commerce”) “with flesh and blood.” Bez., “Pueri participes sunt carnis et sanguinis;” “The children are partakers of flesh and blood ;” as ours. The Vulgar expresseth the time past, which the original requireth. Ethiopic, “He made his children partakers of his flesh and blood;” with respect, as it should seem, to the sacrament of the eucharist.

Καὶ αὐτὸς παραπλησίως μετέσχε τῶν αὐτῶν. V.L., “Et ipse similiter” (“consimiliter,” A.M.,) “participavit eisdem.” Bez., “Ipse quoque consimiliter particeps factus est eorundem;” as ours, “He also himself took part of the same.” And the Syr., א הָו בָּח כדְמוּתָא אֶשְׁהַּיְהַּ בְּהֵין בְּהָלֵין; “He himself also, in the same likeness” (or “manner”), “was partaker” (or “partook”) “in the same,” (or “self-same things.”) Arab., “He also, like unto them, partook in the properties of the same;” that is, truly partook of flesh and blood in all their natural or essential properties. Ethiop., “And he also was made as a brother unto them.”

῞Ιςα διὰ θαςάτου. Syr., דְּמַיְתָה “ut per mortem suam,” “that by his own death;” properly as to the sense. Καταργήοη, V.L., “destueret;” all other Latin translations, “aboleret” “that he might destroy;” so ours. But to destroy respects the person; “abolere,” in the first place, the power. Τὸν τὸ κράτος ἔχοντα τοῦ θανάτου. “Eum qui tenebat mortis imperium,” Syr., Eras., Vul.; “Him that held” (or “had”) “the rule of death.” Bez., “Eum penes quem est mortis robur;” “Him that had the power of death.” Ethiop., “The prince of death.” Τουτέστι τὸν διάβολον. Syr., דִּאיתַוְהִי סָטָנָא, “which is Satan.” Καὶ ἀπαλλάξῃ (some copies read ἀποκαταλλάξῃ) τούτους ὅσοι. V., “et liberaret cos;” Bez., “et liberos redderet eos;” “and free them,” “and make them free.” Syr., “and loose them.” Διὰ παντὸς τοῦ ζῆν. “Per omne vivere suum,” “whilst they lived,” “all their lives.”

῎Ενοχοι η῏σαν ὸουλείας. “Obnoxii erant servituti,” Bez.; “Mancipati erant servituti;” properly, “Damnates erant servitutis;” “obnoxious,” “subject unto bondage.”

“Forasmuch then as the children are partakers of flesh and blood.” This expression is not elsewhere used in the Scripture. Κοινωνέω is to have any thing whatever in common with another; ἀκοινώνητος is he who hath nothing in fellowship or common with others. And this word is used in reference unto all sorts of things, good and bad; as nature, life, actions, qualities, works. Here it intimateth the common and equal share of the children in the things spoken of. They are equally common to all. These are σάρξ καὶ αἷμα, “flesh and blood;” that is, human nature, liable to death, misery, destruction. Some would have, not the nature of man, but the frail and weak condition of mankind to be intended in this expression. So Enjedinus, and after him Grotius, who refers us to Hebrews 5:7; 1 Timothy 3:16; 1 Corinthians 4:11, for the confirmation of this sense. But in none of those places is there mention of “flesh and blood,” as here, but only of “flesh;” which word is variously used both in the Old Testament and New. Yet in all the places referred unto, it is taken, not for the quality of human life as it is infirm and weak, but for human nature itself, which is so. As concerning that of 1 Timothy 3:16, it hath at large been declared. And the design of this place rejects this gloss, which was invented only to defeat the testimony given in these words unto the incarnation of the Son of God: for the apostle adds a reason in these verses why the Lord Christ was so to be of one with the children as to take upon himself their nature; which is, because that was subject unto death, which for them he was to undergo. And “flesh and blood” are here only mentioned, though they complete not human nature without a rational soul, because in and by them it is that our nature is subject unto death. We may only further observe, that the apostle having especial regard unto the saints under the old testament, expresseth their participation of flesh and blood in the preterperfect tense, or time past: which by proportion is to be extended to all that believe in Christ; unless we shall say that he hath respect unto the common interest of all mankind in the same nature, in the root of it; whence God is said of “one blood” to have made them all. Παραπλησίως, we see, is rendered by interpreters “similiter,” “consimiliter,” “eodem modo,” “ad eandem similitudinem;” that is, ὁμοίως, or τὸν αὐτὸν τρόπον “ likewise,” or, “after the same manner.” And παραπλήσιος is as much as κατὰ πάντα ὅμοιος, Hebrews 2:17, “every way like.” Here it is restrained by τῶν αὐτῶν, “the same;” that is, flesh and blood, human nature. As to the human nature, he was every way as the children.

Μετέσχε, “partem habuit,”” particeps erat,” “he took part.” And in the use of this word the dative case of the person is still understood, and sometimes expressed. So Plato, ῞Ινα δὴ μετέχοι τῶν τπαγμάτων αὐτοῖς, “That he might share” (or “partake”) “in the same acts with them.” And it is here also understood, ‘That he might partake with them of flesh and blood.'And the apostle purposely changeth the word from that which he had before used concerning the children, Κεκοινώνηκε τὰ παιδία, they had human nature in common; they were men, and that was all, having no existence but in and by that nature. Concerning him, he had before proved that he had a divine nature, on the account whereof he was more excellent than the angels; and here he says of him, μετέσχε, existing in his divine nature, he moreover took part of human nature with them which makes a difference between their persons, though as to human nature they were every way alike. And this removes the exception of Schlichtingius, or Crellius, that he is no more said to be incarnate than the children.

“That by death καταργήοῃ.” This word is peculiar to Paul; he useth it almost in all his epistles, and that frequently. Elsewhere it occurs but once in the New Testament (Luke 13:7), and that in a sense whereunto by him it is not applied. That which he usually intends in this word, is to make a thing or person to cease as to its present condition, and not to be what it was. So Romans 3:3, Μὴ ἡ ἀπιστία αὐτῶν τὴν πίστιν τοῦ Θεοῦ καταργήσει; “Shall their unbelief make the faith of God of none effect?” cause it to cease, render the promise useless. And Romans 3:31, Νόμον οὗν καταργοῦμεν διὰ τῆς πίστεως; “Do we make the law void by faith?” take away its use and end. Romans 4:14, Κατήργηται ἡ ἐπαγγελία “The promise is made ineffectual.” Romans 7:2, ᾿Εὰν δὲ ἀποθάνη ὁ ἀνὴρ, κατήργηται ἀπο τοῦ νόμου, “If her husband is dead, she is freed from the law,” the law of the husband hath no more power over her. So Romans 7:6; 1 Corinthians 13:8; 1 Corinthians 13:10-11; 1Co 15:24; 1 Corinthians 15:26; 2 Corinthians 3:11; 2 Corinthians 3:13; Galatians 3:17; Galatians 5:4; Galatians 5:11; Ephesians 2:15. The intention of the apostle in this word is the making of any thing to cease, or to be void as to its former power and efficacy; not to remove, annihilate, or destroy the essence or being of it. And the expression here used is to the same purpose with that in Psalms 8:3, לְהַשְׁבִּית איֹיֵב וּמִהְנַקֵּם, “to quiet” or “make to cease the enemy and self-avenger.”

Τὸν τὸ κράτος ἔχουτα τοῦ θανάτου. Κράτος is properly “vis,” “rebur,” “potentia,” “force,” “strength,” “power,” like that of arms, or armies in battle. And sometimes it is used for role, empire, and authority. ᾿Εν κράτει εἷναι, is to be in place of power; and κράτος ἔχειν, is to be able to dispose of what it relates unto. And in both senses we shall see that the devil is said to have κράτος τοῦ θαςάτου, “the power of death.”

Now, there is not any notion under which the devil is more known unto or spoken of among the Jews, than this of his having the power of death. His common apellation among them is, מלאךְ המות, the angel of death;” and they call him Samael also. So the Targum of Jonathan, דמותא והזת אתתא סמאל מלאךְ, Genesis 3:6, “And the woman saw Samael, the angel of death.” And Maimon. More Nebuch. lib. 2, cap. 30, tells us from the Midrash that Samael rode upon the serpent when he deceived Eve; that is, used him as his instrument in that work. And most of them acknowledge Satan to be principally intended in the temptation of Eve, though Aben Ezra denies it in his comment on the words, and disputes against it. And he adds, that by Samael, the angel of death, they understand Satan: which he proves from the words of their wise men, who say in some places that Satan would have hindered Abraham from sacrificing of Isaac, and in others that Samael would have done it; which proves that it is one and the same who by both names is intended. And hence they usually call him ראש כל השדים סמאל הרשע, “the wicked Samael, the prince of all the devils;” and say of him, סמאל גרים מותא לכל עלמא, “Samael brought death upon all the world.” So that by this Samael, or angel of death, it is evident that they intend him who is termed ὁ διάβολος, as the prince and ruler of the rest. So also they speak expressly in Bava Bathra, Distinc. Hashatephir: הוא יצר הרע אר שמעון הוא שטן הוֹא מלאךְ המות; “Rabbi Simeon said, the same is Satan, and the angel of death, and the evil figment;” that is, the cause and author of it. And they call him the angel of death on many accounts, the consideration whereof may give us some light into the reason of the expression here used by the apostle. The first is that before mentioned, namely, that by his means death entered and came upon all the world. His temptation was the first occasion of death; and for that reason is he termed by our Savior, ᾿Ανθρωποκτόνος ἀπ᾿ ἀρχῆς, John 8:44, “A murderer from the beginning.” And herein he had the power of death, prevailing to render all mankind obnoxious to the sentence and stroke of it. Secondly, Because he is employed in great, and signal judgments to inflict death on men. He is the head of those מלְאֲכֵי רָעִים, “evil angels,” who slew the Egyptians, Psalms 78:49.

So in Psalms 91:5, these words, “Thou shalt not fear מֵחֵ׃ יָעוּ יוֹמָם ” “from the arrow that flieth by day,” are rendered by the Targum, מותא דשדי ביממא מן גרר א דמלאךְ, “from the arrow of the angel of death, which he shooteth by day.” And in the next verse these words, מִקֶּטֶב יָשׁוּד צָהַרָיִם, “from the destruction that wasteth at noonday,” they render, מסיעת שידין דמחבלין בטיהדא, “from the troop of devils that waste at noonday;” the psalmist treating of great and sudden destructions, which they affirm to be all wrought by Satan. And hence the Hellenists also render the latter place by δαιμόνιον μεσημβρινόν, “the devil at noonday;” wherein they are followed by the Vulgar Latin, Arabic, and Ethiopic translations. And this the apostle seems to allude unto, 1 Corinthians 10:10, where he says that those who murmured in the wilderness were destroyed ἀπὸ τοῦ ολοζρευτοῦ “by the destroyer;” ὁ ἄγγελος ὀλοθρευτὴς, that מלאךְ המות, “the destroying angel,” or “the angel of death;” as in this epistle he terms him ὁ ὀλοθρεύων Hebrews 11:28. And it may be this is he who is called בְּכוֹר מָיֶת, Job 18:13, “the first-born of death,” or he that hath right unto the administration of it. They term him also אשמודי, that is, ὀλοθοευτής, “the waster” or “destroyer;” and שד, from שוד, “to waste” or “destroy;” as also אבדון, which, as John tells us, is the Hebrew name of the angel of the bottomless pit, Revelation 9:11, as his Greek name is ᾿Απολλύων that is, מלאךְ המות, and ὀλοθρευτὴς.

Thirdly, The later Jews suppose that this angel of death takes away the life of every man, even of those who die a natural death. And hereby, as they express the old faith of the church, that death is penal, and that it came upon all for sin through the temptation of Satan, so also they discover the bondage that they themselves are in for fear of death all their days; for when a man is ready to die, they say the angel of death appears to him in a terrible manner, with a drawn sword in his hand, from thence drops I know not what poison into him, whereon he dies. Hence they woefully howl, lament, and rend their garments, upon the death of their friends; and they have composed a prayer for themselves against this terror. Because also of this their being slain by the angel of death, they hope and pray that their death may be an expiation for all their sins. Here lies “the sting” of death, mentioned by the apostle, 1 Corinthians 15:55. Hence they have a long story in their Midrash, or mystical exposition of the Pentateuch, on the last section of Deuteronomy about Samael's coming to take away the life of Moses, whom he repelled and drove away with the rod that had the Shem Hamphorash written in it. And the like story they have in a book about the acts of Moses, which Aben Ezra rejects on Exodus 4:20. This hand of Satan in death, manifesting it to be penal, is that which keeps them in bondage and fear all their days.

Fourthly, They suppose that this angel of death hath power over men even after death. One horrible penalty they fancy in particular that he inflicts on them, which is set down by Elias in his Tishbi in חבוט הקבר, out of the Midrash of Rabbi Isaac, the son of Parnaer; for when a man, as they say, departs out of this world ויושב על קביו בא מלאךְ המות, “the angel of death comes and sits upon his grave.” And he brings with him a chain, partly of iron, partly of fire, and making the soul to return into the body, he breaks the bones, and torments variously both body and soul for a season. This is their purgatory; and the best of their hopes is, that their punishment after this life shall not be eternal. And this various interest of Satan in the power of death both keeps them in dismal bondage all their days, and puts them upon the invention of several ways for their deliverance. Thus one of their solemn prayers on the day of expiation, is to be delivered from הביט or this punishment of the devil in their graves; to which purpose also they offer a cock unto him for his pacification. And their prayer to this purpose in their Berachoth is this, רזזן והעילנו מגזירות רעות ומנדלית מעיות מכל מיני פועניות ומדינה של גהגם ומחבזט של קבר יהי; “That it may please thee (good Lord) to deliver us from the evil decrees” (or “laws,”) “from poverty, from contempt, from all kind of punishments, from the judgments of hell, and from beating in the grave by the angel of death.” And this supposition is in like manner admitted by the Mohammedans, who have also this prayer, “Deus noster libera nos ab angelo interrogante tormento sepulchri, et a via mala.” And many such lewd imaginations are they now given up unto, proceeding from their ignorance of the righteousness of God. But yet from these apprehensions of theirs we may see what the apostle intended in this expression, calling the devil “him that had the power of death.”

Καὶ ἀπαλλάξῃ τούτους ὅσοι, “Et liberaret ipsos,” “hos,” “quotquot,” “quicunque,” “and free those who.” ᾿Απαλάττω is “to dismiss,” “discharge,” “free;” and in the use of the word unto the accusative case of the person, the genitive of the thing is added or understood: ᾿Απαλάττω σε τούτου, “I free thee from this.” Ταύτας ἀπαλλάξειν σε τῆς σ᾿φθαλμίας, Aristoph. “To deliver thee from this eyesore.” And sometimes the genitive case of the thing is expressed where the accusative of the person is omitted: ᾿Απαλλάττειν φόβου, that is, τινά, “to free or deliver one from fear;” as here the accusative case of the person is expressed and the genitive of the thing omitted: ᾿Απαλλάξῃ τούτους, that is, φόβου or θανάτου, “to deliver them,” that is, from death or from fear because of death. ῎Ενοχοι ἧσαν δουλείας. ῎Ενοχος is “obnoxious,” “obstrictus,” “reus,” “damnas.” He that is legally obnoxious, subject, liable to any thing; that is, law, crime, judge, judgment, punishment, in all which respects the word is used. He that is under the power of any law is ἔνοχος τῷ νόμῳ, “subject unto its authority and penalty.” See Matthew 5:21-22; Matthew 26:66; Mark 3:29; 1 Corinthians 11:27; James 2:10. Now the δουλεία, “servitude,” or “bondage,” here mentioned, is penal, and therefore are men said to be ἔνοχοι, “obnoxious” unto it. [6]

[6] READINGS. Tischendorf, on the strength of a considerable preponderance of MS. authorities, reads αἵματος καὶ σαρκός. EXPOSITION. He, in order to make us partakers in his sonship to God, has first taken part in our sonship to Adam. TRANSLATIONS. Καταργ. Render powerless. Craik. Subdue him. Stuart. Undo him. De Wette. ED.

Hebrews 2:14. Forasmuch then as [or, seeing therefore that] the children are [were in common] partakers of flesh and blood, he also himself likewise [after the same manner] took part [did partake] of the same; that through [by] death he might destroy [make void the authority of] him that had the power of death, that is, the devil; and deliver [free, discharge] them who through fear of death were all their lifetime subject to bondage.

In the former verses, as was showed, the apostle declared the necessity that there was on the part of God, intending to bring many sons unto glory, to constitute such a union between them and the captain of their salvation as that it might be just for him to suffer in their stead. In these he proceeds to manifest in particular what that nature is in the common participation whereof the union desired did consist, wherein they were all of one, and what were the especial reasons why the Lord Christ was made partaker of that nature. This coherence of these verses Chrysostom briefly gives us: Ει῏τα δείξα; τὴν ἀδελφότητα, καὶ τὴν αἰτίαν τίθησι τῆς οἰκονομίας, “Having showed the brotherhood” (that was between Christ and the children) “he lays down the causes of that dispensation;'' and what they are we shall find here expressed.

There are sundry things which the apostle supposeth in these words as known unto and granted by the Hebrews; as, first, that the devil had the power of death; secondly, that on this account men were filled with fear of it, and led a life full of anxiety and trouble by reason of that fear; thirdly, that a deliverance from this condition was to be effected by the Messiah; fourthly, that the way whereby he was to do this was by his suffering. All which, as they are contained in the first promise, so that they were allowed of by the Hebrews of old we have fully proved elsewhere. And by all these doth the apostle yield a reason of his former concession, that the Messiah was for a little while made lower than the angels, the causes and ends whereof he here declares. There are in the words,

First, A supposition of a twofold state and condition of the children to be brought unto glory:

1. Natural, or their natural state and condition; they were all of them in common partakers of flesh and blood: “Forasmuch then as the children were partakers of flesh and blood.”

2. Moral, their moral state and condition; they were obnoxious unto death, as it is penal for sin, and in great bondage through fear of it: “Them who through fear of death were all their lifetime subject to bondage.”

Secondly, There is a double affirmation with respect unto this supposition, on the part of Christ, the captain of salvation:

1. As to their natural condition, that he did partake of it, he was so to do: “He also himself did partake of the same.”

2. As to their moral condition, he freed them from it: “And deliver them.”

Thirdly, The means whereby he did this, or this was to be done, evidencing the necessity of his participation with them in their condition of nature, that he might relieve them from their condition of trouble; he did it by death: “That by death.”

Fourthly, The immediate effect of his death, tending unto their delivery and freedom, and that is the destruction of the devil, as to his power over and interest in death as penal, whereof their deliverance is an infallible consequent: “That he might destroy him,” etc.

In the first place the apostle expresseth, as by way of supposition,

1. The natural condition of the children, that is, the children whom God designed to bring unto glory, those who were given unto Christ; they were in common “partakers of flesh and blood.” I shall not stay to remove the conceit of some, who yet are not a few among the Romanists, who refer these words unto the participation of the flesh and blood of Christ in the sacrament; whereunto also, as we have observed, the Ethiopic version gives countenance: for not only is there not any thing in the expression that inclines unto such an imagination, but also it enervates the whole design of the apostle's discourse and argument, as from the former consideration of it doth appear. “Flesh and blood” are, by a usual synecdoche, put for the whole human nature; not as though by “blood” the soul were intended, because the life is said to be in it, as not acting without it; but this expression is used, because it is not human nature as absolutely considered, but as mortal, passible, subject unto infirmities and death itself, that is intended. And it is no more than if he had said, ‘The children were men subject unto death;'for he gives his reason herein why the Lord Christ was made a man subject unto death. That he and the children should be of one nature he had showed before. Forasmuch, then, as this was the condition of the children, that they were all partakers of human nature, liable to sufferings, sorrow, and death, he was so also. And this is thus expressed to set forth the love and condescension of Jesus Christ, as will afterward appear.

2. The second thing in these words is the moral condition of the children. And there are sundry things, partly intimated, partly expressed, in the description that is here given us of it; as,

(1.) Their estate absolutely considered, they were subject to death:

(2.) The consequences of that estate,

[1.] It wrought fear in them;

[2.] That fear brought them into bondage:

(3.) The continuance of that condition, it was for the whole course of their lives.

(1.) It is implied that they were subject, obnoxious unto, guilty of death, and that as it was penal, due to sin, as contained in the curse of the law; which what it comprehendeth and how far it is extended is usually declared. On this supposition lies the whole weight of the mediation of Christ. The children to be brought unto glory were obnoxious unto death, and the curse and wrath of God therein, which he came to deliver them from.

(2.) [1.] The first effect and consequent of this obnoxiousness unto death concurring unto their state and condition is, that they were filled with fear of it: “For fear of death.” Fear is a perturbation of mind, arising from the apprehension of a future imminent evil; and the greater this evil is, the greater will the perturbation of the mind be, provided the apprehension of it be answerable. The fear of death, then, here intended, is that trouble of mind which men have in the expectation of death to be inflicted on them, as a punishment due unto their sins. And this apprehension is common to all men, arising from a general presumption that death is penal, and that it is the “judgment of God that they which commit sin are worthy of death,” as Romans 1:32; Romans 2:15. But it is cleared and confirmed by the law, whose known sentence is, “The soul that sinneth it shall die.” And this troublesome expectation of the event of this apprehension is the fear of death here intended. And according unto the means that men have to come unto the knowledge of the righteousness of God are, or ought to be, their apprehensions of the evil that is in death. But even those who had lost all clear knowledge of the consequences of death natural, or the dissolution of their present mortal condition, yet, on a confused apprehension of its being penal, always esteemed it φοβερῶν φοβερώτατον, the most dreadful of all things that are so unto human nature. And in some this is heightened and increased, until it come to be φοβερὰ ἐκδοχὴ κρίσεως, καὶ πυρὸς ζῆλος, ἐσθίειν μέλλοντος τοὺς ὐπεναντίους, as our apostle speaks, Hebrews 10:27,

“a fearful expectation of judgment and fiery indignation, which shall devour the adversaries.”

And this is the first thing that is in this description of the estate and condition of the children to be brought unto glory. Being obnoxious unto the sentence of death, they could not but live in fear of the execution of it.

[2.] They are by this means brought into bondage. The troublesome expectation of death as penal brings them into bondage, into the nature whereof we must a little inquire. Sundry things concur to make any state a state of bondage; as,

1 st . That it be involuntary. No man is in bondage by his will; that which a man chooseth is not bondage unto him. A man that would have his ear bored, though he were always a servant, was never in bondage; for he enjoyed the condition that pleased him. Properly all bondage is involuntary.

2 dly . Bondage ingenerates strong desires after, and puts men on all manner of attempts for liberty. Yokes gall, and make them on whom they are desire ease. So long as men are sensible of bondage, which is against nature (for that which, is not so is not bondage), they will desire and labor for liberty. When some in the Roman senate asked an ambassador of the Privernates, after they were overthrown in battle, if they granted them peace, how they would keep it, what peace they should have with them? he answered, “Si bonam dederitis, et fidam et perpetuam; si malam, hand diuturnam.” Whereat some in the senate stormed, as if he had threatened them with war and rebellion; but the wiser sort commended him as one that spake like a man and a freeman, adding as their reason,

“An credi posse, ullum populum, aut hominem denique in ea conditione, cujus eum poeniteat, diutius quam necesse sit mansurum,” Liv., lib. 8 cap. 21.

So certain it is that bondage wearieth and stirreth up restless desires in all, and endeavors in some after liberty.

3 dly . Bondage perplexeth the mind. It ariseth from fear, the greatest perturbation of the mind, and is attended with weariness and distrust; all which are perplexing.

4 thly . Where bondage is complete, it lies in a tendency unto future and greater evils. Such is the bondage of condemned malefactors, reserved for the day of execution; such is the bondage of Satan, who is kept in chains of darkness for the judgment of the great day. And all these things concur in the bondage here intended; which is a dejected, troublesome state and condition of mind, arising from the apprehension and fear of death to be inflicted, and their disability in whom it is to avoid it, attended with fruitless desires and vain attempts to be delivered from it, and to escape the evil feared. And this is the condition of sinners out of Christ, whereof there are various degrees, answerable unto their convictions; for the apostle treats not here of men's being servants unto sin, which is voluntary, but of their sense of the guilt of sin, which is wrought in them even whether they will or no, and by any means they would cast off the yoke of it, though by none are they able so to do: for,

(3.) They are said to continue in this estate all their lives. Not that they were always perplexed with this bondage, but that they could never be utterly freed from it; for the apostle doth not say that they were thus in bondage all their days, but that they were obnoxious and “subject” unto it. They had no ways to free or deliver themselves from it, but that at any time they might righteously be brought under its power; and the more they cast off the thoughts of it, the more they increased their danger. This was the estate of the children whose deliverance was undertaken by the Lord Christ, the captain of their salvation. And we may hence observe that,

I. All sinners are subject unto death as it is penal. The first sentence reacheth them all, Genesis 2:17; and thence are they said to be “by nature children of wrath,” Ephesians 2:3, obnoxious unto death, to be inflicted in a way of wrath and revenge for sin. This passeth upon “all, inasmuch as all have sinned,” Romans 5:12. This all men see and know; but all do not sufficiently consider what is contained in the sentence of death, and very few how it may be avoided. Most men look on death as the common lot and condition of mankind, upon the account of their frail natural condition; as though it belonged to the natural condition of the children, and not the moral, and were a consequent of their being, and not the demerit of their sin. They consider not that although the principles of our nature are in themselves subject unto a dissolution, yet if we had kept the law of our creation, it had been prevented by the power of God, engaged to continue life during our obedience. Life and obedience were to be commensurate, until temporal obedience ended in life eternal. Death is penal, and its being common unto all hinders not but that it is the punishment of every one. How it is changed unto believers by the death of Christ shall be afterward declared. In the meantime, all mankind are condemned as soon as born. Life is a reprieve, a suspension of execution. If during that time a pardon be not effectually sued out, the sentence will be executed according to the severity of justice. Under this law are men now born; this yoke have they put on themselves by their apostasy from God. Neither is it to any purpose to repine against it or to conflict with it; there is but one way of delivery.

II. Fear of death, as it is penal, is inseparable from sin, before the sinner be delivered by the death of Christ. They were in “fear of death.” There is a fear of death that is natural, and inseparable from our present condition; that is but nature's aversation of its own dissolution. And this hath various degrees, occasioned by the differences of men's natural constitution, and other accidental occurrences and occasions: so that some seem to fear death too much, and others not at all; I mean of those who are freed from it as it is in the curse and under the power of Satan. But this difference is from occasions foreign and accidental; there is in all naturally the same aversation of it. And this is a guiltless infirmity, like our weariness and sickness, inseparably annexed unto the condition of mortality. But sinners in their natural state fear death as it is penal, as an issue of the curse, as under the power of Satan, as a dreadful entrance into eternal ruin. There are, indeed, a thousand ways whereby this fear is for a season stifled in the minds of men. Some live in brutish ignorance, never receiving any full conviction of sin, judgment, or eternity. Some put off the thoughts of their present and future estate, resolving to shut their eyes and rush into it, when as they can no longer avoid it. Fear presents itself unto them as the forerunner of death, but they avoid the encounter, and leave themselves to the power of death itself. Some please themselves with vain hopes of deliverance, though well they know not how nor why they should be partakers of it. But let men forego these helpless shifts, and suffer their own innate light to be excited with such means of conviction as they do enjoy, and they will quickly find what a judgment there is made in their own souls concerning death to come, and what effects it will produce. They will conclude that it is “the judgment of God, that they which commit sin are worthy of death,” Romans 1:32; and then their own consciences do accuse and condemn them, Romans 2:14-15; whence unavoidably fear, dread, and terror will seize upon them. And then,

III. Fear of death, as penal, renders the minds of men obnoxious unto bondage; which what it is we have in part before declared. It is a state of trouble, which men dislike, but cannot avoid. It is a penal disquietment, arising from a sense of future misery. Fain would men quit themselves of it, but they are not able. There is a chain of God in it not to be broken. Men may gall themselves with it, but cannot remove it; and if God take it from them without granting them a lawful release and delivery, it is to their further misery. And this is, in some measure or other, the portion of every one that is convinced of sin before he is freed by the gospel. And some have disputed what degrees of it are necessary before believing. But what is necessary for any one to attain unto is his duty; but this bondage can be the duty of no man, because it is involuntary. It will follow conviction of sin, but it is no man's duty; rather, it is such an effect of the law as every one is to free himself from, so soon as he may in a right way and manner. This estate, then, befalls men whether they will or no. And this is so if we take bondage passively, as it affects the soul of the sinner; which the apostle seems to intend by placing it as an effect of the fear of death. Take it actively, and it is no more than the sentence of the law, which works and causeth it in the soul; and so all sinners are inevitably obnoxious unto it. And this estate, as we observed, fills men with desires after, and puts them upon various attempts for deliverance. Some desire only present ease, and they commonly withdraw themselves from it by giving up themselves wholly unto their hearts'lusts, and therein to atheism; which God oftentimes, in his righteous judgment, gives them up unto, knowing that the day is coming wherein their present woeful temporal relief will be recompensed with eternal misery. Some look forward unto what is to come, and according to their light and assistance variously apply themselves to seek relief; some do it by a righteousness of their own, and in the pursuit thereof also there are ways innumerable, not now to be insisted on; and some do it by Christ, which how it is by him effected the apostle in the next place declares.

Two things, as was showed, are affirmed of the Lord Christ, in consequence unto the premised supposition of the children's being partakers of flesh and blood, and of their obnoxiousness unto death and to bondage:

1. That of their natural condition he himself partook.

2. That from their moral condition he delivered them; which that he might do, it was necessary that he should partake of the other.

1. “He himself likewise did partake of the same.” The word

παραπλησίως, “likewise,” “in like manner,” doth denote such a similitude as is consistent with a specifical identity. And therefore Chrysostom from hence urgeth the Marcionites and Valentinians, who denied the reality of the human nature of Christ, seeing that he partook of it in like manner with us; that is, truly and really, even as we do. But yet the word, by force of its composition, doth intimate some disparity and difference: ‘He took part of human nature really as we do, and almost in like manner with us.'For there were two differences between his being partaker of human nature and ours:

First, In that we subsist singly in that nature; but he took his portion in this nature into subsistence with himself in the person of the Son of God.

Secondly, This nature in us is attended with many infirmities, that follow the individual persons that are partakers of it; in him it was free from them all. And this the apostle also intimates in the word μετέσχε, changing his expression from that whereby he declared the common interest of the children in the same nature, which is every way equal and alike. The whole is, that he took his own portion, in his own manner, unto himself.

And this observation removes what is hence objected against the deity of Christ.

“Cum Christus,” saith Schlichtingius, “hominum mortalium et fragilium dux et fautor sit, propterea is non angelus aliquis, multo vero minus ipse Deus summus qui solus immortalitatem habet, sed homo suo tempore malis, et variis calamitatibus obnoxius esse debuit.”

It is true, it appears from hence that Christ ought to be a man, subject to sufferings and death, and not an angel, as the apostle further declares in the next verse; but that he ought not to be God doth not appear. As God, indeed, he could not die; but if he who was God had not taken part of flesh and blood, God could not have redeemed his church “with his own blood.” But this is the perpetual paralogism of these men: “Because Christ is asserted to have been truly a man, therefore he is not God;” which is to deny the gospel, and the whole mystery of it.

He proceeds with his exceptions against the application of these words unto the incarnation of the Lord Christ; the sum whereof is, ‘That the words παραπλησίως μετέσχε denote a universal conformity or specific identity between Christ and the children, not only as to the essence, but also as to all other concernments of human nature, or else no benefit could redound unto them from what he did or suffered.'But,

(1.) The words do not assert any such thing, as hath been declared;

(2.) It is not true.

The children were partakersof human nature either by creation out of the dust of the earth, as Adam, or by natural generation; the Lord Christ was conceived of a virgin, by the power of the Holy Ghost; and yet the benefit redounds unto the children. It is evident, then, thatthe similitude urged by the apostle is confined to the substance of flesh and blood, or the essence of human nature, and is not to be extended unto the personal concernments of the one or the other, nor to the way whereby they became partakers of the same nature. Nor is the argument for the incarnation of Christ taken merely from the expressions in this verse; but whereas he had before proved him to be above and before the angels, even God over all, and here intimateth his existence antecedent to his participation of flesh and blood, his incarnation doth necessarily ensue.

2. The necessity of this incarnation of Christ, with respect unto the end of it, hath before been declared, evinced, and confirmed. We shall now stay only a little to admire the love, grace, and mystery of it. And we see here,

IV. That the Lord Christ, out of his inexpressible love, willingly submitted himself unto every condition of the children to be saved by him, and to every thing in every condition of them, sin only excepted.

They being of flesh and blood, which must be attended with many infirmities, and exposed unto all sorts of temptations and miseries, he himself would also partake of the same. His delight was of old in the sons of men, Proverbs 8:31, and his heart was full of thoughts of love towards them; and that alone put him on this resolution, Galatians 2:20; Revelation 1:5. When God refused sacrifices and burnt-offerings, as insufficient to make the atonement required, and the matter was rolled on his hand alone, it was a joy unto him that he had a body prepared wherein he might discharge his work, although he knew what he had to do and suffer therein, Psalms 40:7-8; Hebrews 10:5-9. He rejoiced to do the will of God, in taking the body prepared for him, because the children were partakers of flesh and blood. Though he was “in the form of God,”

equal unto him, yet “that mind,” that love, that affection towards us, was in him, that to be like unto us, and thereby to save us, “he emptied himself, and took on him the form of a servant,” our form, and became like unto us, Philippians 2:5-8. He would be like unto us, that he might make us like unto himself; he would take our flesh, that he might give unto us his Spirit; he would join himself unto us, and become “one flesh” with us, that we might be joined unto him, and become “one spirit” with him, 1 Corinthians 6:17. And as this was a fruit of his eternal antecedent love, so it is a spring of consequent love. When Eve was brought unto Adam after she was taken out of him, Genesis 2:23, to manifest the ground of that affection which was to be always between them, he says of her, “This is now bone of my bones, and flesh of my flesh.” And by this condescension of Christ, saith the apostle, we are “members of his body, of his flesh, and of his bones,” Ephesians 5:30; whence he infers that he loves and nourisheth his church, as a man doth his own flesh. And how should this inexpressible love of Christ constrain us to love him and to live unto him, 2 Corinthians 5:14; as also to labor to be like unto him, wherein all our blessedness consisteth, seeing for that end he was willing to be like unto us, whence all his troubles and sufferings arose! Here also we see that,

V. It was only in flesh and blood, the substance and essence of human nature, and not in our personal infirmities, that the Lord Christ was made like unto us.

He took to himself the nature of all men, and not the person of any man. We have not only human nature in common, but we have every one particular infirmities and weaknesses following that nature, as existing in our sinful persons. Such are the sicknesses and pains of our bodies from inward distempers, and the disorder of the passions of our minds. Of these the Lord Christ did not partake. It was not needful, it was not possible that he should do so; not needful, because he could provide for their cure without assuming them; not possible, for they can have no place in a nature innocent and holy. And therefore he took our nature, not by an immediate new creation out of nothing, or of the dust of the earth, like Adam; for if so, though he might have been like unto us, yet he would have been no kin to us, and so could not have been our Goel, to whom the right of redemption did belong: nor by natural generation, which would have rendered our nature in him obnoxious to the sin and punishment of Adam: but by a miraculous conception of a virgin, whereby he had truly our nature, yet not subject on its own account unto any one of those evils whereunto it is liable as propagated from Adam in an ordinary course. And thus, though he was joined unto us in our nature, yet as he was “holy, harmless, and undefiled” in that nature, he was “separate from sinners,”

Hebrews 7:26. So that although our nature suffered more in his person than it was capable of in the person of any mere man, yet, not being debased by any sinful imperfection, it was always excellent, beautiful, and glorious. And then,

VI. That the Son of God should take part in human nature with the children is the greatest and most admirable effect of divine love, wisdom, and grace.

So our apostle proposeth it, 1 Timothy 3:16, a mystery which the angels with all diligence desire to look into, 1 Peter 1:11-12. See John 1:14; Isaiah 9:6; Romans 9:5. Atheists scoff at it, deluded Christians deny it; but the angels adore it, the church professeth it, believers find the comfort and benefit of it. “The heavens,” indeed, “declare the glory of God, and the firmament showeth his handy-work,” Psalms 19:1; and

“the invisible things of God from the creation of the world are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made, even his eternal power and Godhead,” Romans 1:20.

In particular, man himself is “fearfully and wonderfully made.” These works of God's power and providence do greatly manifest the glory of his wisdom, omnipotency, and goodness, and are like the light, which was created on the first day, at the beginning of all things, as we have showed. But in this instance, of assuming human nature into personal subsistence with himself, that scattered light is gathered into one sun, giving out most glorious beams, unto the manifestation of his infinite excellencies far above all other things. And this surely was not done but for the greatest end that can be conceived; and such is the salvation of sinners.

But we must proceed with our apostle; and he gives the reason and end of this wonderful dispensation. The end is, the delivery of the children from the condition before described. And, first, the means whereby he wrought and brought about this end is proposed unto us: “By death,” he was to do it by death.

“That by death he might deliver them;” that is, by his own death. This, as it is placed as one principal end of his being made partaker of flesh and blood, so it is also the means of the further end aimed at, namely, the delivery of the children out of the condition expressed. Some translations add, “By his own death,” which is evidently understood, though it be not literally in the text, the death which he underwent in the nature of man, whereof he was partaker. His death was the means of delivering them from death. Some distinguish between death in the first place which Christ underwent, and that death in the close of the verse which the children are said to be in fear of; for this latter, they say, is more extensive than the former, as comprising death eternal also. But there doth not any thing in the text appear to intimate that the captain of salvation by death of one kind should deliver the children from that of another; neither will the apostle's discourse well bear such a supposition. For if he might have freed the children by any way or means as well as by undergoing that which was due unto them for sin, whence could arise that indispensable necessity which he pleads for by so many considerations of his being made like unto them, seeing without the participation of their nature which he urgeth he might have done any other thing for their good and benefit, but only suffer what was due to them? And if it be said that without this participation of their nature he could not die, which it was necessary that he should do, I desire to know, if the death which he was to undergo was not that death which they were obnoxious unto for whom he died, how could it be any way more beneficial unto them than any thing else which he might have done for them, although he had not died? There is no ground, then, to pretend such an amphibology in the words as that which some contend for. How, as we observed before, the death of Christ is here placed in the midst, as the end of one thing, and the m eans or cause of another, the end of his own incarnation, and the means of the children's deliverance. From the first we may see,

VII. That the first and principal end of the Lord Christ's assuming human nature, was not to reign in it, but to suffer and die in it.

He was, indeed, from of old designed unto a kingdom; but he was to “suffer,” and so to enter into his glory, Luke 24:26. And he so speaks of his coming into the world to suffer, to die, to bear witness unto the truth, as if that had been the only work that he was incarnate for. Glory was to follow, a kingdom to ensue, but suffering and dying were the principal work he came about. Glory he had with his Father “before the world was,” John 17:5; and therein a joint rule with him over all the works of his hands. He need not have been made partaker of flesh and blood to have been a king; for he was the King eternal, immortal, invisible, the King of kings and Lord of lords, the only Potentate, from everlasting. But he could not have died if he had not been made partaker of our nature. And therefore, “when the people would have taken him by force, and made him a king,” he hid himself from them, John 6:15; but he hid not himself when they came to take him by force and put him to death, but affirmed that for that hour, or business, he came into the world, John 18:4-5; John 18:11. And this further sets forth his love and condescension. He saw the work that was proposed unto him, how he was to be exposed unto miseries, afflictions, and persecutions, and at length to “make his soul an offering for sin,” yet, because it was all for the salvation of the children, he was contented with it and delighted in it, And how, then, ought we to be contented with the difficulties, sorrows, afflictions, and persecutions, which for his sake we are or may be exposed unto, when he on purpose took our nature, that for our sakes he might be exposed and subject unto much more than we are called unto!

There yet remain in these verses the effects of the death of Christ: “That he might destroy sin, and deliver,” etc.; wherein we must consider,

1. Who it is that had the power of death;

2. Wherein that power of his did consist;

3. How he was destroyed;

4. How by the death of Christ;

5. What was the delivery that was obtained for the children thereby.

1. He that had the power of death is described by his name, ὁ διάβολος, “the devil;” the great enemy of our salvation; the great calumniator, make-bate, and false accuser; the firebrand of the creation; the head and captain of the apostasy from God, and of all desertion of the law of the creation; the old serpent, the prince of the apostate angels, with all his associates, who first falsely accused God unto man, and continues to accuse men falsely unto God: of whom before.

2. His power in and over death is variously apprehended. What the Jews conceive hereof we have before declared, and much of the truth is mixed with their fables; and the apostle deals with them upon their acknowledgment in general that he had the power of death. Properly in what sense, or in what respect, he is said so to have it, learned expositors are not agreed. All consent,

(1.) That the devil hath no absolute or sovereign, supreme power over death; nor,

(2.) Any ἐξουσία, or “authority” about it, “de jure,” in his own right, or on grant, so as to act lawfully and rightly about it according unto his own will; nor,

(3.) Any judging or determining power as to the guilt of death committed unto him, which is peculiar to God, the supreme rector and judge of all, Genesis 2:17; Deuteronomy 32:39; Revelation 1:18.

But wherein this power of Satan doth positively consist they are not agreed. Some place it in his temptations unto sin, which bind unto death; some, in his execution of the sentence of death, he hath the power of an executioner. There cannot well be any doubt but that the whole interest of Satan in reference unto death is intended in this expression. This death is that which was threatened in the beginning, Genesis 2:17, death penally to be inflicted in the way of a curse, Deuteronomy 27:26; Galatians 3:10; that is, death consisting in the dissolution of soul and body, with every thing tending penally thereunto, with the everlasting destruction of body and soul. And there are sundry things wherein the κράτος, or power of Satan in reference unto this death doth consist; as,

(1.) He was the means of bringing it into the world. So is the opinion of the Jews in this matter expressed in the book of Wisdom, written, as is most probable, by one of them not long before this epistle. They tell us, Wis 1:13, ῾Ο Θεὸς θάνατον οὐκ ἐποίησε, “God made not death,” it belonged not unto the original constitution of all things; but, Wis 2:24, Φθόνῳ διαβόλου θάνατος εἱσῆλθεν εἰς τὸν κόσμον, “By the envy of the devil death entered into the world.” And that expression of εἰσῆλθεν εἰς τὸν κόσμον is retained by the apostle, Romans 5:12; only he lays the end of it on the morally-deserving cause, the sin of man, as here it is laid on the efficiently-procuring cause, the envy of the devil. And herein consisted no small part of the power of Satan with respect unto death. Being able to introduce sin, he had power to bring in death also; which, in the righteous judgment of God, and by the sentence of the law, was inseparably annexed thereunto. And, by a parity of reason, so far as he yet continueth to have power over sin, deserving death, he hath power over death itself.

(2.) Sin and death being thus entered into the world, and all mankind being guilty of the one and obnoxious unto the other, Satan came thereby to be their prince, as being the prince or author of that state and condition whereinto they are brought. Hence he is called “the prince of this world,” John 12:31, and the “god” of it, 2 Corinthians 4:4; inasmuch as all the world are under the guilt of that sin and death which he brought them into.

(3.) God having passed the sentence of death against sin, it was in the power of Satan to terrify and affright the consciences of men with the expectation and dread of it, so bringing them into bondage. And many God gives up unto him, to be agitated and terrified as it were at his pleasure. To this end were persons excommunicate given up unto Satan to vex them, 1 Timothy 1:20. He threatens them as an executioner with the work that he hath to do upon them.

(4.) God hath ordained him to be the executioner of the sentence of death upon stubborn sinners unto all eternity; partly for the aggravation of their punishment, when they shall always see, and without relief bewail, their folly in hearkening unto his allurements; and partly to punish himself in his woeful employment. And for these several reasons is Satan said to have the power of death. And hence it is evident that,

VIII. All the power of Satan in the world over any of the sons of men is founded in sin and the guilt of death attending it. Death entered by sin; the guilt of sin brought it in. Herewith comes in Satan's interest, without which he could have no more to do in the earth than he hath in heaven. And according as sin abounds or is subdued, so his power is enlarged or straitened. As he is a spirit, he is mighty, strong, wise; as sinful, he is malicious, subtle, ambitious, revengeful, proud. Yet none of all these gives him his power. He that made him can cause his sword to pierce unto him, and preserve man, though weak and mortal, from all his force as a mighty spirit, and his attempts as a wicked one. And yet these are the things in him that men are generally afraid of, when yet by them he cannot reach one hair of their heads. But here lies the foundation of his power, even in sin, which so few regard. Then,

IX. All sinners out of Christ are under the power of Satan. They belong unto that kingdom of death whereof he is the prince and ruler. “The whole world lies τῷ πονηρῷ,” “in the power of this wicked one.” If the guilt of death be not removed from any, the power of the devil extends unto them. A power it is, indeed, that is regulated. Were it sovereign or absolute, he would continually devour. But it is limited unto times, seasons, and degrees, by the will of God, the judge of all. But yet great it is, and answerable unto his titles, the prince, the god of the world. And however men may flatter themselves, as the Jews did of old, that they are free, if they are not freed by an interest in the death of Christ, they are in bondage unto this beastly tyrant; and as he works effectually in them here, he will ragingly inflict vengeance on them hereafter.

3. He is destroyed: “Destroy him.” The sense and importance of the word here used was before declared. It is not applied unto the nature, essence, or being of the devil, but unto his power in and over death; as it is elsewhere declared, John 12:31, “Now is the judgment of this world, now is the prince of this world cast out.”

That which is here called the destroying of the devil, is there called the casting out of the prince of this world. It is the casting him out of his power, from his princedom and rule; as Colossians 2:15,

“Having spoiled principalities and powers, he made an open show of them, triumphing over them in his cross;”

as conquerors used to do when they had not slain the persons of their enemies, but deprived them of their rule, and led them captive. The destruction, then, here intended of “him that had the power of death,” is the dissolution, evacuation, and removing of that power which he had in and over death, with all the effects and consequences of it.

4. The means whereby Satan was thus destroyed is also expressed. It was “by death,” by his own death. This of all others seemed the most unlikely way and means, but indeed was not only the best, but the only way whereby it might be accomplished. And the manner how it was done thereby must be declared and vindicated. The fourfold power of Satan in reference unto death, before mentioned, was all founded in sin. The obligation of the sinner unto death was that which gave him all his power. The taking away, then, of that obligation must needs be the dissolution of his power. The foundation being removed, all that is built upon it must needs fall to the ground. Now this, in reference unto the children for whom he died, was done in the death of Christ, virtually in his death itself, actually in the application of it unto them. When the sinner ceaseth to be obnoxious unto death, the power of Satan ceaseth also. And this every one doth that hath an interest in the death of Christ: for “there is no condemnation unto them that are in Christ Jesus,” Romans 8:1; and this because he died. He died for their sins, took that death upon himself which was due unto them; which being conquered thereby, and their obligation thereunto ceasing, the power of Satan is therewith dissolved. The first branch of his power consisted in the bringing of sin into the world. This is dissolved by Christ's “taking away the sin of the world,” John 1:29; which he did as “the Lamb of God,” by the sacrifice of himself in his death, typified by the paschal lamb and all other sacrifices of old. Again, his power consisted in his rule in the world, as cast under sin and death. From this he was cast out, John 12:31, in the death of Christ. When contending with him for the continuance of his sovereignty, he was conquered, the ground whereon he stood, even the guilt of sin, being taken away from under him, and his title defeated. And actually believers are translated from under his rule, from the power of darkness, into the kingdom of light and of the Son of God. Nor can he longer make use of death as penal, as threatened in the curse of the law, to terrify and affright the consciences of men: for “being justified by faith” in the death of Christ, “they have peace with God,” Romans 5:1. Christ making peace between God and us by the blood of his cross, Ephesians 2:14-15; 2 Corinthians 5:19-21, the weapons of this part of his power are wrested out of his hand, seeing death hath no power to terrify the conscience, but as it expresseth the curse of God. And, lastly, his final execution of the sentence of death upon sinners is utterly taken out of his hand by the death of Christ, inasmuch as they for whom he died shall never undergo death penally. And thus was Satan, as to his power over death, fully destroyed by the death of Christ. And all this depended on God's institution, appointing the satisfactory sufferings of Christ, and accepting them instead of the sufferings of the children themselves.

The Socinians give us another exposition of these words, as knowing that insisted on to be no less destructive of their error than the death of Christ is of the power of the devil. The reason hereof, saith Schlichtingius, is,

“Quia per mortem Christus adeptus est supremam potestatem in omnia; qua omnes inimicos suos quorum caput est diabelus, coercet, eorum vires frangit, eosque tandem penitus abolebit.”

But if this be so, and the abolishing of the Power of Satan be an act of sovereign power, then it was not done by the death of Christ, nor was there any need that he should partake of flesh and blood for that purpose, or die. So that this exposition contradicts both the express words of the apostle and also the whole design of his discourse. No proposition can be more plain than this is, that the power of Satan was destroyed by the death of Christ; which in this interpretation of the words is denied.

5. And hence it lastly appears what was the delivery that was procured for the children by this dissolution of the power of Satan. It respects both what they feared and what ensued on their fear; that is, death and bondage. For the delivery here intended is not merely a consequent of the destruction of Satan, but hath regard unto the things themselves about which the power of Satan was exercised. They were obnoxious unto death, on the guilt of sin, as penal, as under the curse, as attended with hell or everlasting misery. This he delivered the Children from, by making an atonement for their sins in his death, virtually loosing their obligation thereunto, and procuring for them “eternal redemption,” as shall afterwards be fully declared. Hereon also they are delivered from the bondage before described. The fear of death being taken away, the bondage that ensues thereon vanisheth also. And these things, as they are done virtually and legally in the death of Christ, so they are actually accomplished in and towards the children, upon the application of the death of Christ unto them, when they do believe. And we may now close our consideration of these verses with one or two other observations; as,

X. The death of Christ, through the wise and righteous disposal of God, is victorious, all-conquering, and prevalent.

The aim of the world was to bring him unto death; and therein they thought they had done with him. The aim of Satan was so also; who thereby supposed he should have secured his own kingdom. And what could worldly or satanical wisdom have imagined otherwise? He that is slain is conquered. His own followers were ready to think so.

“We trusted,” say they, “that it had been he which should have redeemed Israel,” Luke 24:21.

But he is dead; and their hopes are with him in the grave. What can be expected from him who is taken, slain, crucified? Can he save others, who it seems could not save himself? “Per mortem alterius, stultum est sperare salutem;” “Is it not a foolish thing to look for life by the death of another?” This was that which the pagans of old reproached the Christians withal, that they believed in one that was crucified and died himself; and what could they expect from him? And our apostle tells us that this death, this cross, was a stumbling-block unto the Jews and folly to the Greeks, 1 Corinthians 1:18; 1 Corinthians 1:23. And so would it have been in itself, Acts 2:13, had not the will, and counsel, and wisdom, and grace of God been in itself, Acts 4:28. But he ordered things so, that this death of Christ should pull out that pin which kept together the whole fabric of sin and Satan, that, like Samson, he should in his death pull down the palace of Satan about his ears, and that in dying he should conquer and subdue all things unto himself. All the angels of heaven stood looking on, to see what would be the end of this great trial. Men and devils were ignorant of the great work which God had in hand; and whilst they thought they were destroying him, God was in and by him destroying them and their power. Whilst his heel was bruised he brake their head. And this should teach us to leave all God's works unto himself. See John 11:6-10. He can bring light out of darkness, and meat out of the eater. He can disappoint his adversaries of their greatest hopes and fairest possibilities, and raise up the hopes of his own out of the grave. He can make suffering to be saving, death victorious, and heal us by the stripes of his Son. And, in particular, it should stir us up to meditate on this mysterious work of his love and wisdom. We can never enough search into it, whilst our inquiry is guided by his word. New mysteries, all fountains of refreshment and joy, will continually open themselves unto us, until we come to be satisfied with the endless fullness of it unto eternity. Again,

XI. One principal end of the death of Christ, was to destroy the power of Satan: “Destroy him that had the power of death.” This was promised of old, Genesis 3:15. He was to break the head of the serpent. From him sprang all the miseries which He came to deliver His elect from, and which could not be effected without the dissolution of his power. He was

“anointed to proclaim liberty to the captives, and the opening of the prison to them that were bound,” Isaiah 61:1.

To this end he was to conquer him who detained them; which he did by his death, Colossians 2:15, and so led captivity captive, Psalms 68:18, stilling this enemy and self-avenger, Psalms 8:2, binding the strong man, Matthew 12:29, and dividing the spoil with him, Isaiah 53:12. And this he did by the merit of his blood, and the atonement he made for sin thereby. This took away the obligation of the law unto death, and disarmed Satan. And moreover, by the power of the eternal Spirit, whereby he offered himself unto God, he conquered and quelled him. Satan laid his claim unto the person of Christ; but coming to put it in execution, he met with that great and hidden power in him which he knew not, and was utterly conquered. And this, as it gives us a particular consideration of the excellency of our redemption, wherein Satan, our old enemy, who first foiled us, who always hates us, and seeks our. ruin, is conquered, spoiled, and chained; so it teacheth us how to contend with him, by what weapons to resist his temptations and to repel his affrightments, even those whereby he hath been already subdued. Faith in the death of Christ is the only way and means of obtaining a conquest over him. He will fly at the sign of the cross rightly made