§. 148. Of Christs vanquishing the Devil for our deliverance.
And deliver them who through fear of death were all their life time subject to bondage.
BOth the Copulative particle a And, and also the setting down of this verb b de∣liver, in the same mood and tense that the other verb c destroy in the former verse was, sheweth, that that act of destroying the devil, and this of delivering us, do both tend in generall to the same purpose; namely to declare the ends of Christs assuming our nature, and subjecting himself therein to death: One was to destroy the devil; the other to deliver us.
This latter is set down in the latter place, because it is also an end of the former: For this end did Christ destroy the Devil, that he might rescue and free us from the power of the devil: as Abraham destroyed those enemies that had taken Lot cap∣tive with the rest that dwelt in Sodom, that he might deliver Lot and the rest of the people from those enemies, Gen. 14. 14. And as David destroyed the Amalekites, that he might deliver his wives and children, and others that were taken by them out of their hands, 1 Sam. 30. 9, &c. Man by yeelding to the devils temptations (Gen. 3. 6.) became his slave and was in bondage under him, as the Apostle sheweth in the words following. It was therefore for our liberty that Christ vanquished the devil, in the manner that he did, rather then for his own glory.
So implacable and unsatiable an enemy was the devil, as he would not let us go but per force. Christ therefore thought it not enough to satisfie Gods justice, and pacifie his wrath; but he would also vanquish that implacable enemy, and so deliver us out of his hands. This therefore was an end of the former end. Our deliverance was the end of destroying the devil, Christs death was for us and our good (See §. 83.) Thanks therefore to thee O Saviour that hast destroyed so mighty an adver∣sary of ours by thine own death.