liberty, but must go as he commands them; Rom. i. 23. "There is a law in their members, which bringeth them into captivity to the law of sin and death."

5. If they get anything that is valuable, they cannot get it kept, it is torn from them by the conqueror. As the Babylonians wasted and insulted the Israelites, when they carried them away captives, so does Satan waste and insult his captives, Psalm cxxxvii. 3. Sometimes the natural man gets a conviction of sin or duty darted in on him, and this produces relentings for sin, and resolutions to amendment of life; but they do not continue. Alas! how can they, while they are Satan's captives, who will not suffer them to think of entertaining them, more than Pharoah would endure the Israelites to think of leaving his service. Nay, he rests not till they have thrown them away.

6. They are so secured as that they cannot get away, they are kept by the strong man under the power of darkness, Col. i. 13. There is a gulf fixed between them and all spiritual good, so that they cannot pass. Satan has his guards on them, whom they cannot escape to come back to the Lord. He has them fettered with divers lusts, which they cannot shake off. less than a power stronger than all the way for the deliverance of a captive.

And, in a word, nothing powers of hell can make

Lastly, If they but offer to make escape, they are more narrowly watched, stronger guards set on them, and more work put in their hands; as Pharoah did with the Israelites, so the devil does with his captives, Rom. vii. 9, 10, 11. Hence many never go so far wrong, as on the back of communions, convictions, or times of more than ordinary seriousness, the powers of hell being joined together to stop the fugitive. We now proceed,

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

1. A spiritual captivity, a captivity of the soul. The soul 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 soul 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 fast the man, in so far as he holds fast the soul. And,

2. It is universal. It extends to all the powers and faculties of the soul, the inner man. The 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 spiritually discerned." 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 happiness; to be the eye of the soul, to distinguish betwixt sin and duty; and the pilot to direct his course through the several rocks and quicksands that lay betwixt him and the shore 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 shut up sinners in darkness. Hence they are said to be in darkness, Eph. v. 8. They cannot see the way to escape, and withal, there is struck up a false light in the mind, which, like wild-fire, leads the soul into pits and snares, causing it to put sweet for bitter, and bitter for sweet, good for evil, and evil for good. They thus "glory in their shame, and mind earthly things," Phil. iii. 19. Again, the will is his captive. They have a stony heart, Ezek. xxxvi. 16. The Lord having endowed this faculty with righteousness, and straightness 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 likewise into the enemy's hands, who hath given it such a set to the wrong side, that no created power can again straighten it; hence, 2 Thes. 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 circle of evil he has drawn about it, nor can it will anything 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 such heavy chains, that it cannot come to Christ at his call, no more than a mountain of brass can come to a man at his call. "No man," saith Jesus, can come unto me, except the Father who sent me draw him." Farther, the affections also are Satan's captives; Gen. vi. 5, “And God saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every imagination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually." The affections being made perfectly holy, were subjected to the guidance of the mind, and the command of the will, and were set in the soul to execute its holy contrivances and will. But they also were taken in this war with hell; loosed from this bond of subjection to the understanding and will in these things, but nailed to Satan's door-posts to serve him and his work in the soul for ever; so 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 arrested within the compass

of carnal things, together with his desires, sorrows, and all his other affections.

3. It is a hard and sore captivity. The Egyptians and Babylonians never treated their captives at the rate Satan does his. They are held busy, and even busy working their own ruin, kicking against the pricks, digging for the grave as for hid treasures. It is their constant work to feed their lusts, to starve their souls; and the design of their master is, that the one may ruin the other. It is their daily employment, to weave snares for their own feet, twist cords to bind themselves over to destruction, and dig pits into which they may fall, and never rise again. In so far as sin is their work, they wrong their own souls, Prov. viii. 36, and shew themselves in love with death. This captivity is,

4. A perpetual captivity. A few years captivity among men, how grievous is it! And men will do what they can to be ransomed. But this conqueror will never quit his captives, unless they be taken from him by Almighty power. Death at farthest looses other captives; "For in the grave," says Job iii. 18, 19, "the prisoners rest together, they hear not the voice of the oppressor; and the servant is free from his master." But those who die Satan's captives are so far from being free, that they are ensured to him for ever and

ever.

Lastly, It is a voluntary captivity, and thus the more hopeless; 1 Tim. ii. 26, "They are taken captive by Satan at his will." They need not to be driven. They do not only go, but they run at his call: Rom. iii. 15, "Their feet are swift to shed blood." Though they were taken in war, and born captives, yet now he is their master, by their own consent and choice, while they choose to serve the devil, and cannot be brought to give themselves to the Lord. It is a bewitching captivity. The sinner once captive to Satan, never cares for his liberty, unless grace changes his heart. He glories in the badges of his slavery; loves his work heartily, and is well pleased with his condition. The gracious proclamation of liberty by Christ sounds in his ears; but he says, I love my master, I will not go out free. We are now,

IV. To make some practical improvement,

First, In a use of conviction. Know then, and be convinced, O unconverted sinner, that thou art the devil's captive. Are there not many who have never troubled their heads about their state, who never have had anything like a work of grace or conversion upon their spirits? many in whom their hopeful beginnings have been all marred? I would say to every such one, thou hast been hearing of the case of the devil's captives, and thou art the man, thou art

the woman, as fast in his power as ever prisoners of war were in the hands of their conquerors. You will not believe it, and this is your sin, and also your misery, Rev. iii. 17. You will be ready to sign yourselves, and defy the devil; though you have never been, by regenerating grace, delivered from the power of darkness, and translated into the kingdom of God's dear Son, Col. i. 13. But this is Satan's way with his captives, to put out their eyes; 2 Cor. iv. 4. "He blinds the minds of them who believe not, lest the light of the glorious gospel of Christ, who is the image of God, should shine unto them;" that they cannot know where they are, or who it is that has got hold of them. Do you think that it is only witches and wizards who are the devils captives? No, no, Satan may have a full possession of thy soul, though his name with thee be not Legion. Even praying people, and great pretenders to religion, to righteousness, and sobriety, and those who have turned to a strict course of life, much more to making a profession of religion, may still be children of hell, as our Saviour called the Scribes and Pharisees, Matth. xxiii. 15. And all unregenerate ones are children of wrath, and the devil's captives. He is "the spirit that now worketh in the children of disobedience;" and they are "the children of wrath," Eph. ii. 2, 3. Will you apply what was spoken before for your conviction ?Try yourselves.

1. Art thou not, O unconverted sinner! carried off from God's gracious presence, into the kingdom of Satan, the kingdom of darkness? What knowest thou of the light of God's countenance shining on thy soul? Certainly thou wast once darkness, Eph. v. 8. Has there any spiritual saving light broke up in your soul yet? Has the long night of thy natural state had a morning yet? Or are you not in the state in which you was born? If you be not in darkness, what means your works of darkness, and your not discerning the transcendent excellence of Christ?

2. Are you not robbed and stripped of your spiritual ornaments? Where is the light of the mind, the righteousness of the will, the holiness of the affections, which man had before he fell into the enemy's hands, and which are restored in some measure to the ransomed of the Lord?

3. Are you free to righteousness? are you not under the power of the conqueror? How is it then that you have no power to resist a temptation, that Satan can so easily carry you the way you know to be wrong, over the belly of reason and conscience? Nay are not your lusts upon you like fetters, that you cannot move away from carnal things God-ward?

4. Are you not quickly spoiled of any beginnings of good which you sometimes meet with? You hear the word, but do not the fowls

pick it away from you? Have not all your convictions and resolutions gone off by degrees like a morning cloud? How quickly has all the noise within your breast been hushed, and you as much again in love with your lusts as ever!

Admit the conviction, then, for they who never saw themselves Satan's captives, are never yet made Christ's free men, John viii. 32, 33, 44, 45. What think you, is the work of grace carried on in the soul as a morning dream? Are the devil's captives brought away, and never know that they were his captives? What way can a soul embrace the proclaimed liberty to the captives, who never saw itself in this condition ?-Consider, that this will be the first step to your liberty. The gospel is sent " "to open your eyes, and to turn you from darkness to light, and from the power of Satan unto God, that you may receive forgiveness of sins, and an inheritance among them which are sanctified by faith that is in Christ," Acts xxvi. 18. Christ's Spirit begins his work with conviction of sin and misery. He makes the captives to see where they are, whose they are, and what is their case. This rouses them out of their lethargy, makes them prize this liberty; it makes them glad to come away with their deliverer; "O Israel thou hast destroyed thyself, but in me is thine help."-This subject may be improved,

Secondly, In an use of exhortation.

O captive exiles! hasten to be loosed, that you may not die in the pit, and that your bread may not fail, Isa. li. 14. Stir up yourselves to regain your liberty, and remain no longer at ease in your captive condition. Consider,

1. That a short time's continuance in this state will put you beyond a possibility of liberty: Eccl. ix. 10, "Whatsoever thy hand findeth to do, do it with all thy might; for there is no work, nor device, nor knowledge, nor wisdom, in the grave, whither thou goest." Thy life is uncertain, and if death carry thee off in this condition, thou wilt be carried to the lower prison, and then farewell liberty for ever and ever; Luke xiii. 24, 25, "Strive to enter in at the strait gate, for many, I say unto you, will seek to enter in, and shall not be able. When once the master of the house is risen up, and hath shut the door, and ye begin to stand without, and to knock at the door, saying, Lord, Lord, open to us, and he shall answer and say unto you, I know you not, whence ye are." The servant under the law, though he refused his liberty at the end of six years, yet received it in the year of jubilee. But whoso in this life refuse to come away from Satan's service, shall never see a time after for it. And when thou art closed up in the net, it must be without remedy; it will be no comfort to think that you did not imagine it would have come to this. Consider,