3. We are his Servants by his Deliverance of us from our Spiritual Enemies, Satan, Sin, and Death. Since the Devil obtained a woeful Victory over us in the Fall of Adam, great was the Triumph ⟨p. 71⟩of Hell: And though he be an Usurper of God's Right, which could never be extinguished, yet by our Overthrow he has a kind of a Title to us, and keeps us as the Spoils of his Victory: And having revolted from God, we are justly though miserably under the Powers of Darkness. We are chained in the lowest and the vilest Bondage: The Soul and Body are under his tyrannous Dominion, and suffer the deepest Wounds of Infamy and Cruelty. He fetters our Minds with dangerous Delusions, our Wills with divers Lusts and Passions, and leads Men Captives in the ways of Sin, till they fall into Hell the Centre of Misery. Now as in redeeming a Captive, there must be the paying the Ransom, and the breaking his Chains, that he may be restored to Liberty: So, besides the Price that was payed to God ⟨p. 72⟩the Supreme Judg, for our Discharge, our Saviour has broken our Chains; he by the sanctifying Spirit dispels the Darkness of our Minds, softens the Hardness of our Hearts, subdues the Rebellion of our Wills, rectifies the Disorder of our Affections, that we may be freed from the Dominion of Sin, as well as from the Obligation and Terrors of the Law. He has broken the Powers of Darkness that conspired to keep us fast in the Entanglements of our Iniquities, he has freed us from the spiritual Pharaoh, 1and his cruel Task-Masters, the imperious violent Lusts that are seated in the Heart, and restores us to the glorious Liberty of the Sons of God; By dying he destroyed him that had the Power of Death, and triumphed over Principalities and Powers on the Cross. We have Freedom of Pardon and of Grace, and the natural and necessary ⟨p. 73⟩Consequence is, that we cheerfully serve him that set us free. This is expressed by Zechariah in his divine Thanksgiving, that being delivered from the Hands of our Enemies, we might serve him without Fear in Holiness and Righteousness all the Days of our Lives. In what a holy Ecstasy does the Psalmist break forth, O Lord, truly I am thy Servant, I am thy Servant, and the Son of thy Handmaid, thou hast broken my Bonds: Yet this was but the rescuing of him from some temporal imminent Danger:
3. We are his Servants by his Deliverance of us from our Spiritual Enemies, Satan, Sin, and Death. Since the Devil obtained a woful Victory over us in the Fall of Adam, great was the Triumph ⟨p. 71⟩of Hell: And though he be an Usurper of God's Right, which could never be extinguished, yet by our Overthrow he has a kind of a Title to us, and keeps us as the Spoils of his Victory: And having revolted from God, we are justly though miserably under the Powers of Darkness. We are chained in the lowest and the vilest Bondage: The Soul and Body are under his tyrannous Dominion, and suffer the deepest Wounds of Infamy and Cruelty. He fetters our Minds with dangerous Delusions, our Wills with divers Lusts and Passions, and leads Men Captives in the ways of Sin, till they fall into Hell the Centre of Misery. Now as in redeeming a Captive, there must be the paying the Ransom, and the breaking his Chains, that he may be restored to Liberty: So, besides the Price that was payed to God ⟨p. 72⟩the Supreme Judg, for our Discharge, our Saviour has broken our Chains; he by the sanctifying Spirit dispels the Darkness of our Minds, softens the Hardness of our Hearts, subdues the Rebellion of our Wills, rectifies the Disorder of our Affections, that we may be freed from the Domion of Sin, as well as from the Obligation and Terrors of the Law. He has broken the Powers of Darkness that conspired to keep us fast in the Intanglements of our Iniquities, he has freed us from the spiritual Pharaoh, 1and his cruel Task-Masters, the imperious violent Lusts that are seated in the Heart, and restores us to the glorious Liberty of the Sons of God; By dying he destroyed him that had the Power of Death, and triumphed over Principalities and Powers on the Cross. We have Freedom of Pardon and of Grace, and the natural and necessary ⟨p. 73⟩Consequence is, that we cheerfully serve him that set us free. This is expressed by Zacharias in his divine Thansgiving, that being delivered from the Hands of our Enemies, we might serve him withour Fear in Holiness and Righteousness all the Days of our Lives. In what a holy Extasy does the Psalmist break forth, O Lord, truly I am thy Servant, I am thy Servant, and the Son of thy Handmaid, thou hast broken my Bonds: Yet this was but the rescuing of him from some temporal imminent Danger:
- 1Luke 11.21.
