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faid "to be turned from the power of Satan unto God." Acts, xxvi. 18. And again, Col. i. "God hath delivered us from the power of darkness, and hath tranflated us into the kingdom of his dear Son." Sinners are not now where God at first fet them down, they are tranfported into another kingdom; like the prodigal, they have left their father's houfe, and gone into a far country, where they have fpent their fubftance, Luke, xv. 13. They are far from God, his covenant, and his Son. Thou art in Satan's kingdom, O unconverted foul! a black and difmal kingdom,. where fin, darkness, and death reign, where there is no gleam of faving light or life; and if thou wert awakened out of thy dream, thou wilt fee matters fo fituated; a kingdom with which God will have war for ever; and thou art an unhappy fubject of that kingdom.

2. They are plundered and robbed of all that is valuable, as captives ufed to be: Rev. iii. 17. "They are wretched, and miferable, and poor, and blind, and naked." The light of the mind, the righteoufnefs of the will, the holiness of the affections; all is loft, all has become a fpoil, and a prey to the hellish conqueror. Now thou art a poor captive, who haft nothing truly good left thee, nothing which the bands of hell have not made thee render up.

3. They are ftripped, as has also been an ancient custom of dealing with captives. Thus, as the prophet Haiah, ch. xx. 3. 4. walked three years naked, for a fign and wonder upon Egypt and Ethiopia; fo did the king of Affyria carry away thefe nations captive, naked and bare-foot. What a melancholy fight is it, to fee brave mèn, who were glittering in fhining apparel and arms

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at the commencement of an engagement, when fallen into the hands of their enemies, ftript and driven away naked before the conquerors. But yet more melancholy to fee precious fouls stript by Satan of their original righteousness, and driven away before him, without any covering but rags, filthy rags, Rev. iii. 17. This, O finner! is the fhameful and dangerous cafe, which thou art in as Satan's captive.

4. They are no more mafters of themfelves, but under the power of the conqueror: 2 Tim. ii. 26. "They are taken captive by him at his will." Their liberty is gone, and they are flaves to the worst of masters. Wonder not that many a poor finner is at Satan's beck, over the belly of reason and confcience, to ferve the devil, to their own visible ruin. Alas! they are captives, not at their liberty, but muft go as he commands them: Rom. i. 23. "There is a law in their members, which bringeth them into captivity to the law of fin and death."

5. If they get any thing that is valuable, they cannot get it kept, it is torn from them by the conqueror. As the Babylonians wafted and in-' fulted the Ifraelites, when they carried them away captives, fo does Satan wafte and infult his captives, Pfal. cxxxvii. 3. Sometimes the natural man gets a conviction of fin or duty darted in on him, and this produces relentings for fin, and refolutions to amendment of life; but they do not continue. Alas! how can they, while they are Satan's captives, who will not fuffer them to think of entertaining them, more than Pharaoh would endure the Ifraelites to think of leaving his fervice. Nay, he refts not till they have thrown them away.

6. They

6. They are fo fecured, as that they cannot get away, they are kept by the strong man under the power of darknefs, Col. i. 13. There is a gulf fix. ed between them and all fpiritual good, fo that they cannot pafs. Satan has his guards on them, whom they cannot escape to come back to the Lord. He has them fettered with divers lufts, which they cannot shake off. And, in a word, nothing less than a power ftronger than all the powers of hell, can make way for the deliverance of a captive.

Lastly, If they but offer to make escape, they are more narrowly watched, ftronger guards fet on them, and more work put in their hands; as Pharaoh did with the Ifraelites, the devil does with his captives, Rom. vii. 9. 10. II. Hence many never go fo far wrong, as on the back of communions, convictions, or times of more than ordinary seriousnefs, the powers of hell being joined together to ftop the fugitive. -We now proceed,

III. To speak of the properties of this captivity. Here we obferve, that it is,

1. A fpiritual captivity, a captivity of the foul. The foul is the most precious part of the man: and therefore the captivity of it must be the most deplorable. All the captivity of men, if they were captives to the Turks or the most barbarous nations, extends but to the body. He whose body is in the power of another, his foul and thoughts are as free as those of any. But Satan lays his bands upon the inner man, and, go the body as it will, he holds faft the man, in fo far as he holds faft the foul. And,

2. It is univerfal. It extends to all the powers

and

The

and faculties of the foul, the inner man. natural man's mind is Satan's captive: 1 Cor. ii. 14. "The natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God; for they are foolishness unto him; neither can he know them, because they are fpiritually difcerned." The Lord formed the mind of man in him, and endowed it with knowledge, to be the guide of the whole man in the way of happinefs; to be the eye of the foul, to diftinguish be twixt fin and duty; and the pilot, to direct his courfe through the several rocks and quickfands that lay betwixt him and the fhore of the upper Canaan. But in the engagement betwixt Satan and mankind, being wounded by the deceit of the tempter, Gen. iii. 5. it fell into the hands of the enemy, who robbed it of its light, and fhut up finners in darknefs. Hence they are faid to be darkness, Eph. v. 8. They cannot fee the way to escape: and withal, there is ftruck up a falfe light in the mind, which, like wild-fire, leads the foul into pits and fnares, caufing it to put fweet for bitter, and bitter for fweet, good for evil, and evil for good. They thus "glory in their fhame, and mind earthly things," Phil. iii. 19.-Again, the will is his captive. They have a ftony heart, Ezek. xxxvi. 16. The Lord having endowed this faculty with righteousness, and ftraightness with his own will, for, Eccl. vii. 29. " God made man upright," gave the will dominion over the man, that nothing, good or evil, could be done by him without it. But behold it fell likewife into the enemy's hands, who hath given it such a fet to the wrong fide, that no created power can again straighten it: Hence, 2 Thef. iii. 5. "The Lord direct your hearts into the love of God." He only can do it. Satan holds it so fast, that it cannot move without the VOL. III. circle

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circle of evil he has drawn about it, nor can it will any thing truly good in a right manner: Phil. ii. 13. "It is God that worketh in us, both to will and to do of his good pleasure." Satan hath loaded it with fuch heavy chains, that it cannot come to Christ at his call, more than a mountain of brafs can come to a man at his call. "No man," faith Jefus, "dan come unto me, except the Father who fent me draw him."-Farther, the affections also are Satan's captives: Gen. vi. 5. "And God faw that the wickedness of man was great in the darth, and that every imagination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually." The affections being made perfectly holy, were fubjected to the guidance of the mind, and the command of the will, and were set in the foul to execute its holy contrivances and will. But they also were taken in this war with hell; loofed from this bond of fubjection to the understanding and will in these things, but nailed to Satan's door-posts to ferve him and his work in the foul for ever; fo that they have no heart for the price put into their hand to get wisdom, and can have no heart to it. But the natural man's joys and delights are arrefted within the compaís of carnal things, together with his defires, forrows, and all his other affections.

3. It is a hard and fore captivity. The Egyptians and Babylonians never treated their captives at the rate Satan does his. They are held bufy, and even bufy working their own ruin, kicking against the pricks, digging for the grave as for hid treasures. It is their conftant work to feed their lufts, to ftarve their fouls; and the defign of their master is, that the one may ruin the other. It is their daily employment, to weave fnares for

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