Chapter XVI
How it was Christ s (jreat concern and interest to destroy the power of Satan.
The conquest which he had over him by his death, and his open and glorious triumph after the victory, expressed in Col. ii. 15.
The second part of this discourse is of Christ s part in destroying all the
power of the devil. And therein we are to regard, First, the ground of the quarrel betwixt Christ and him ; and how Christ came to be engaged in it. The ground of this quarrel was either, 1. Per sonal ; or, 2. On our behalf.
1. Personal, as he was God s Son, and natural heir. What was Satan s
sin ? It was the setting up a kingdom against God, and Christ his Son. He left his habitation for it, Jude 6. It is mentioned not as his punish ment only, but as his sin. He and his angels shook off God s dominion, and betook themselves to seek their fortunes, and set up for themselves in * See Ainsworth on the place.
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this airy and visible world. Thus in Mat. xii. 26, the bottom reason Christ
gives why one devil opposeth not another, is, for how then shall his kingdom stand ? You may observe there is a kingdom of his mentioned, consisting in one common general interest, wherein they all agree. Now if there were no other reason but that it is the quarrel of the Godhead, in Father, Son, and Spirit, Christ is sufficiently in person interested in it on his own, yea, his Father s, behalf. For if any rebel against a prince, who is so fit to
suppress and subdue them as the son in his father s behalf (when himself
also is the heir), who so fit as he to fight his father s battles, and to put him
into the throne again ? But,
2. It is more than whispered, it is talked out by some great and good
divines, * that the spirit and edge of their first sin was pointed against the Son of God, as he was to be God-man, and so in our nature declared to be ordained an head to angels and men ; and if so, the quarrel was personal indeed, for it more particularly touched Christ s propriety and prerogative. Whether these things were so or no, or that they be sufficiently proved by these intimations in the Scriptures, I leave every reader to his own judg ment ; only if I had not inclined thereto, I had not at all proposed this.
I add,
3. That it properly and personally concerned Jesus Christ to come and
destroy the devil ; in that Satan s kingdom (which upon his turning head
against God he was in actual possession of) was that which letted or stood
in the way to that of Christ s kingdom, and took up much of the room of
it. This kingdom Christ as God-man was appointed unto (Heb. i. 2) ; and it was only as God-man that he was appointed to it, for as mere Son
of God, or second person, he hath it by nature, and not decree. The ap pointment also was, that he must win it ere he wears it, as Ps. ii., Ps. ex., and 1 Cor. xv. shew. He must destroy therefore this his opposite, to make way for the possession of this his own kingdom, and therefore, Mat.
xii. 28, Christ gives this as a manifest undeniable evidence, that the king dom of God, which the prophets had foretold the Messiah, the Christ, should (-as come from God, and for God) possess and administer, was be
ginning to be set up upon his coming into the world, and that himself was
the appointed heir therefore, yea, apparent heir, by this probation, that he
did by the Spirit of God cast devils out : But if I cast out devils by the
Spirit of God, then the kingdom of God is come unto you. The evidence
lies in this, that whilst he did it, he did profess himself to be that very Messiah to whom that kingdom did belong, and that the rising of his king dom was the downfall of Satan s. And so that first promise and prophecy, Gen. iii., began to be fulfilled, in and by his own very person, viz.,
* He
shall break the serpent s head. Which (saith Christ) you see manifestly with your eyes ; for with the same breath, at the same instant, he com mands the devils forth, and so proclaims himself to be that king to whom Satan must give way.
But the second ground of the quarrel was on our behalf, and this for
sureness in the text. The verse afore, the 13th, doth bring in Christ speak
ing himself as a father of many children, committed to his trust and charge by God, Behold I and the children which God hath given me. Christ
* everlasting Father, Isa. ix. 6, and these children were given to him in and at God s first election, both of Christ himself as mediator, and them as members, both at the same time, and election of the one was
is and was an
* chosen in * Zanchy, Willet, Suarez, Catharinus.
involved in the election of the other. Eph. i. 4, They were
CHAP. XVI.] OF CHRIST THE MEDIATOR. 301
him before the foundation of the world ; thus long afore the fall of man, or Satan s sinning or kingdom, so as Christ was plainly thus long afore
entrusted to be their guardian ; and such and so great an estate of glory was
long afore bequeathed to him. Therefore these children being by that curse and righteous law (they sinning) become now vassals and slaves of Satan,
forasmuch then as his children were partakers of flesh and blood, he also himself likewise took part of the same, that through death he might destroy him that had the power of death, that is, the devil. It is the very account
given in the text, and imports in the coherence of these words with the former immediately foregoing, that these his pupils and children having been
long afore given him, and now fallen into the devil s power, that moved
therewith, he came to rescue and deliver them (as the next words carry it
on, ver. 15). Thus zealous was Christ for these his children, and to dis
charge his trust ; and thus, Eph, v. 23, Christ being originally and primi
tively constituted an head to them, this drew him to be a Saviour. The words there are, Even as Christ is the head of the church (a head first), and
* he is the Saviour of the body. These things, as thus relating to Satan, to have been much in Christ s heart, his speeches up and down the Gospel of John and elsewhere shew. In which you may observe him discoursing, as great princes use to do of their
grand opposites, so he of Satan, and the confusion he was sent to put him
into ; by all which, what his heart was intimately set upon in man s salva tion doth eminently appear, as you may read, John xii. 27-32, wherein he mentions this confusion of Satan with somewhat an equal affection he had
to that of the salvation of men ; and both as those two eminent grand matters in which both God and Christ aimed most to be glorified. You find him at the 27th verse struck with the thoughts of his approaching sufferings, * Now is my soul troubled, and what shall I say ? Father, save me from
* but for this cause came I to this hour ; as if he had said, this was the business I came into the world for, and I must disannul all, if I now withdraw. But then further he cheers himself up with the great and general end which his death and coming into the world and all served to, verse 28, Father, glorify thy name ; unto which God from heaven gave answer, I have both glorified it, and will
this hour ; and yet then checks himself,
glorify it again. Then he specifies two things wherein God was thus to be greatly glorified, by the foresight and prospect of which he further recovers his spirit ; namely, 1. Satan s overthrow, Now is the judgment of this world : now shall the
prince of this world be cast out, ver. 81.
2. Man s salvation : ver. 32, And I, if I be lifted up from the earth, will draw all men unto me, and both these at once accomplished by the
cross; ver. 33, This he said, signifying what death he should die ; which
falls in with what the text saith, That through death he might destroy him that had the power of death, that is, the devil. And with all which also that of John i. 14 doth correspond, The Word was made flesh and
(sffx^vwtrs) he pitched a tent amongst us, as a soldier, for it is a military word ; for his end of dwelling in flesh was to destroy the devil in open and plain field, by conquest ; and suitably in this Heb. ii. 10, you have him called the Captain of our salvation, then when his destroying of Satan
is spoken of.
I pursue next the several proceedings and passages of the victory (where of the most eminent and fundamental to all the rest is that of his death, as
all the places already handled do shew).
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I reduced them at first under two general heads, having divers particu lars under them.
1. Christ s overcoming Satan in himself,* that is, in his own person. 2. His overcoming him in us and by us. Or thus, there is Christ s over
coming Satan for us, and there is Christ s overcoming him in us and by us. The account of this distinction you will easily perceive by comparing two
* spoiled Satan and triumphed over him, Iv avrti (cum aspiratione) in himself, and
texts together ; the first, Col. ii. 15, where he is said to have
so the margin varies it ; the second is 1 John iv. 4, Stronger is he that
is in you than he that is in the world. He that is in the world is the
devil, who tempts us with the world ; and in overcoming the world we over come that wicked one (as expressly it is twice said, 1 John ii. 13, 14), and
this is Christ s overcoming the devil in us, as these words, stronger is he
that is in you, do evidently shew. What he did in his own person for us are two.
, (1.) The great and total rout Christ gave Satan at his death. And, 2. His triumph over him thereupon. Which you have thus distinguished, Col. ii. 15, how, first, Christ having spoiled principalities and powers, he
then made a show of them openly (or made them an open example), triumphing over them in himself. The first was done at his death, or
upon the cross. For his cross is that which the apostle had mentioned
just afore, as that public open place unto which he had affixed the law as
cancelled. And then in coherence with it next follows this, that he did at
the same time, to the executioners of the law, the devils, in those words, having spoiled, or disarmed, principalities and powers (namely, on the
cross), he overcame the devil : first in the plain and open field, which field was the cross, and the place where it stood, so that the battle was fought there on the cross whereon Christ died. And the text says, through death he destroyed him, which comes to one andf to say on the cross he
destroyed him, or wrought his destruction. The word in Col. ii. 15, trans
lated having spoiled him, is d-Ttx^ytfds^frof, which is properly to disarm J (to put on armour, iv3u<ra<r&w, is oppositely used, Rom. xiii. 12), and is a mani
fest allusion unto what conquerors use when they have gotten the victory ; they strip the conquered of their weapons, and therefore it is here put to
express the victory itself by. Though the victory itself is supposed ante cedent to this disarming, and the manner of such victors was to erect
pillars on which to hang those weapons as trophies, and this sometimes on the very place, either on trees that grew nigh, or upon pillars fixed on the
ground. And so he had begun this allusion in the former words in saying, that he nailed the law, as cancelled, to the tree of the cross ; and then
pursues it in saying, that through and upon his death he hung up all the
devil s armour thereon also ; which, Luke xi. 22, is called naytwrX/a, his whole armour, as it is translated. And this he did as spoils (as our trans
lators here have rendered it). You have this signally expressed, Isa. liii.
12. Piscator reads the words thus, Therefore for his part or portion I
will give him the great ones, and he shall divide the strong as spoils ; that is (saith he), he shall have a victory over those evil spirits, principali-
* In himself is added, says Strigelius, ad differentiam victoriarum humanarum, in
quibus partem sibi vendicat dux, partem milites. Nam films Dei sine auxilio ullius crea
tures contrivit caput serpentis. Strigelius in locum. t That is, as. ED.
I Metaphora a bellatoribus victoribus desumpta, qui, liostium spoliatorum armis
pro trophaso fixis, &c. Beza, in locum.
CHAP. XVI.] OF CHRIST THE MEDIATOR. 303
ties and powers, so as to be in his power as a spoil, to carry captive, and use as he pleaseth ; and this
* because (as it follows) he poured forth his
soul unto death. And that other reading of our translators comes all to one : he shall divide the spoil with the strong, or in the strong. That
noting out the persons that were the object of that his dividing them, and
is all one as to say, he shall take their power from them. So then in and
by his death meritoriously because he poured forth his soul unto death he destroyed him wholly ; and Satan and all his power was given up as
lawful spoil. Thus our Lord, whilst himself was stripped naked, and they cast lots for his garments, then it was he strips and spoils Satan, and made him wholly naked, without all weapons.
And here comes now to be inquired into the just ground upon which it came to pass, that through or by Christ s death Satan should be bereft of
that power which he had (upon the terms formerly mentioned) given unto him. And to be sure he lost it upon Christ s death upon a far more fair and legal right than at first or than ever it was given to him : Isa. xlix.
24, 25 it is thus written, Shall the prey be taken from the mighty, or the
lawful captive delivered ? But thus saith the Lord, Even the captives of
the mighty shall be taken away, and the prey of the terrible shall be delivered :
for I will contend with him that contendeth with thee, &c. Be it liter
ally spoken of Babylon s captivity and redemption, or whatever else, yet this is certain, that that and other were shadows of this of ours by Christ, and therefore applicable in the general thereunto. Now, how far we were
lawful captives unto Satan you heard, and God (though the devil be his
enemy) will overcome him fairly
: non vi sed justitia, not by force only, but injustice. The lawful captives (as it is in Isa.) shall be delivered, and that lawfully. It is also a rule fetched from the law of arms, and
concertations in games or the like, that if a man strive for masteries, he
* unless he strive
is not crowned (and so is not reckoned to overcome)
lawfully, 2 Tim. ii. 5. The truth is, first, that Satan ran into a pramunire, or a forfeiture of all
his power, by his assailing of Christ (and if there were no other ground, it were sufficient for the loss of all) ; he in assailing of Christ, and plotting and contriving his death, went beyond his commission, and God on pur pose permitted him to do it, to catch him in his snare. Satan s power over sinful man was not a natural, but an accidental, judicial power, and
so perfectly limited by commission, which, if he exceeded, especially if so
transcendently (as it fell out in this), he instantly made a forfeiture of it. Know this, then, that Satan s power was over sinful man only ; he was not so much as to touch or come near the man Jesus, who was holy and
* in the likeness of sinful flesh, Rom. viii., this lion, that
harmless, and separate from sinners. Now, he coming into the world
* seeks whom he may devour, boldly ventures on him, and persecutes him to death ; for it was Satan that contrived Christ s death : This is the hour, saith Christ,
* and the power of darkness, Luke xxii. 53. Your hour (speaking to the
Pharisees) ; now you are in the ruff of your power, having me under. But know, says he, you are but the devil s instruments herein, who hath a
greater and deeper hand in it than you. This is the power of darkness, which is a further addition, to shew that
* the rulers of the darkness of this world (as Eph. vi. 12) were also chiefly in it; yea, the utmost of his power concentrated in it, to effect what was in Pilate s, the people s, and the rulers hearts. The prince of darkness, and the ruler of this world, acted the princes of this world when they crucified the Lord of glory.
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* You seek to kill me ; you do the
But more express^, John xii. 40, 41,
deeds of your father therein, who was a murderer from the beginning, Yer. 44. And Christ seems to give a hint of this very reason : John xiv.
80, 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 punish ment 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 ser
* led as a sheep, by Satan, unto the slaughter, until Satan should have done his worst, and then as a lion coucliant, a lion asleep (as Gen.
vant,
xlix., and Kev. v. 5, 6, a lamb and a lion both), he should rouse up him
self 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. quaest. 49.)
CHAP. XVI.] OF CHRIST THE MEDIATOR. 305
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 ob served 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.f 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, hav ing spoken de Victoria in cruce, nunc de triumpho. So Rollock on that place. t Angeli viderunt traductos diabolos et triumphantem Christum. Rollock on the place. Manifestissima erat et illustrissima coram omnibus ccelestibus. Musculus. So also Zanchy.
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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
Edziy/jsdnfftv here, which is all one with craga6s/7//,ar/f/v, 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 com
pany 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, sv iratirjffia, 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 trans
action, 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. Ixviii. 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,
(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
* The chariots of God are twenty thousand, even thou sands of angels
twenty thousand ;
: 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
* He gave gifts unto men. Thus David, being a prophet, and foreseeing things as they fell out con
triumphed, that
cerning Christ (as Acts ii. 30) spoke afore, as ver. 31, both of the crucify
ing of Christ, which was a death proper to the Eomans, or at least to be
brought in among the Jews with the Roman conquerors, and not known * Significat aliquando per publicum coetum spectatorum trabere, vel ducere. Zan-
chius in locum. ; Drusws ; Grotius.
CHAP. XVII.] OF CHRIST THE MEDIATOR. 307
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 posses sion 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.