Captives bound in chains made free

Poor captivated souls! are you thus in the hands of your enemies, and not one piece of spiritual armour to safe-guard your selves? Captives lye at the mercy of those whose slaves they be; but Satan hath no such thing as mercy or pity to the souls of men; malice enough, but no mercy; cruelty enough, but no favour. If God should have no mercy for you, the Devil will have none. Except the God of mercy, and pity, and patience had restrained the enemies of your souls, they would have dragged you down to the bottomless pit long before this day. There is no armour of proof against those that have taken you captive, but the armour of God: but this is your misery, you have not one piece thereof, neither the girdle of truth, nor the breast-plate of righteousness, nor the helmet of salvation; and though you may have the Sword of the Spirit, the word of God in your hands, yet you know not how to use it against the assaults of your spiritual adversaries. Think then of this, Captives are naked and unarmed men.

2. Captives lose the riches they had, when taken Captives. That though they were rich before, yet are made poor, and are stripped of all. If a rich Merchant at Sea have many goods ⟨p. 17⟩in a Ship, costly Jewels, precious Pearls, and be taken prisoner, and carried captive, he is spoiled of all, and loseth all. Man at first was exceeding rich, rich in the knowledge of God, rich in love and likeness to God. The holiness of man was his riches, the enjoyment of God was his riches, the spiritual endowments of man at first, were not to be valued with the gold of Ophir, with the precious Onyx or the Sapphire; Gold and Crystal could not equal them, they were not to be exchanged for Jewels of fine Gold, the Topaz of Ethiopia could not equal them, neither were they to be valued with pure Gold, Coral or Pearls were not worthy to be mentioned with them, for their price was above Rubies, as Job setteth forth the excellency of wisdom, Job 28. 15, to the 20th verse. But when man was overcome by the Devil, and taken captive by him, he was spoiled of all, all was taken from him, that he became miserably poor, lost his knowledge of God, the image of God, the favour of God, communion with God, the gracious comfortable presence of God, his abode in Paradise; and though before he was Lord of all, and had dominion over all inferior creatures; yet being captivated by the Devil, he lost his right to all, and was turned out of all. So it is with all unregenerate men, whatever be their outward riches and worldly enjoyments, as to spirituals they are miserably poor, very beggars indeed,