Apostles language to be able to do their duty in all relations in all times and in all conditions and circumstances of life The second supposes that their own natural courage or mere Philosophical Resolution called Fortitude would not be sufficient to carry them through all difficulties but upon some occasions their spirit would quail unless they were supported by a diviner sort of Vertue which he calls being strong in the Lord. By the Lord meaning our Blessed Saviour who bred in his Disciples souls a new kind of valour which men were not acquainted withal before or of which we read nothing in the Books of mere Philosophers For as they do say little or nothing of that trust and confidence which all good men ought to repose in God and of a vigorous application of their mind to Him for strength and resolution to be truly vertuous so they could say nothing of such devoute addresses to our Lord for it Who sending his Apostles into the world to propagate his Religion which was sure to meet with mighty opposition furnished them with a suitable courage which they indeavoured to infuse into all others who by entertaining their Doctrine might have need of the like vertue Which is this here in my text of a quite different sort from those now named For it arises not from natural heat or from the mere soundness of our natural principles of reason and the honest resolution which we have firmly built thereupon but from a far higher original the mighty invincible power of the Lord Jesus which was always in their eye and on which they stedfastly relyed As there was very great need having other kind of enemies to grapple withal than mere natural men thought of not meerly with flesh and blood as it follows after my text that is with humane powers and their savage malice and cruelty but with the Devil and his Angels who did all they could to dishearten them and hinder their spreading of this Religion For which end they instigated both the Jewiâ—â— Rulers and Heathen Kings and Princes to persecute them with the greatest rage and the most Diabolical fury And the very same powers of Hell we have reason to think are now at work to confound us and our Religion The Reformation of which was little less wonderful in one regard than the first publication of the Gospel For it flew like lightning and on a sudden all these northern Countries purged themselves from the Romish pollutions with a marvellous consent as swiftly and in as short a space of time as the Gospel at its first Preaching ran among the Gentiles and excited them to free themselves from Pagan Idolatries And immediately the Devil set his Agents at work to disgrace and spoil the Reformation by Sects and Heresies and to deter men from embracing it by the most dreadful punishments just as when the Gospel broke out he laboured to uphold his Authority by the like arts and instruments of deceit and cruelty And now the powers of darkness seem to be making their very last attempt in these Countries to overthrow that which was so happily and by such an extraordinary hand of God established And who knows but their fury may proceed to such violence as without an extraordinary courage we shall not be able to stand fast in the Faith to quit our selves like men and to be strong as the Apostle exhorts in the 1 Cor. xvi 13 We had best therefore fortifie our selves beforehand with a good stock of this Divine Vertue which we shall have great use of upon other occasions though by the merciful Providence of God that trial of it should be prevented for which we humbly pray and hope to inable us to do as well as to suffer all things that would hinder our doing the will of God I am not able to say to which of these my Text most relates whether to the words foregoing or to those that follow But which way soever we take them there will be little or no difference and it will be best to refer them to both Because the power of Christ is as necessary for us to enable us to discharge those Christian duties before mentioned as to withstand those trials which he tells the Ephesians in the Verses following would discourage and dishearten them in their obedience Now to the end that we may be furnished with a sufficient strength for both I shall do these two things First Shew you wherein this duty consists of being strong or strengthening our selves in the Lord and in his mighty power Secondly What our work is or what we have to do that we may be indued with this mighty Vertue I. For the first of these by the LORD being meant as I said our blessed Saviour who laying down his life for us is raised again and made the Lord of all all power in Heaven and in Earth being given to him as he himself told his Apostles and afterward was proved by sensible effects to be strong in him consists in these three things 1. First To be possessed with a lively faith of the Power and Glory which our Lord now hath at Gods right hand 2. Secondly To keep this Faith alive in our hearts that it may make us on all occasions repair to Him representing Him always as actually present to us by the Power of his might to aid and succour us 3. Thirdly In this Faith to be stedfastly resolved to stick to him and not to stir from the duty He enjoins us notwithstanding any thing that may oppose us to discourage nay indanger us in the doing of it Of these we have such frequent occasion to treat at some time or other that it may be sufficient now only to repeat them 1. We must represent the Majesty and Power wherein our Lord reigns at Gods right hand so strongly to our souls that they be possessed with a pregnant and lively sense of it and be disposed thereby to depend upon him continually as an Almighty Saviour 2. And then this Faith when it is settled in our hearts we must actuate and excite that it may make us look upon Him as present with us at all times by his Almighty Power to aid and assist us to support and comfort us as well as able at last Eternally to reward us 3. And lastly This Faith must settle in us a firm resolution and purpose to adhere to his service and resist all temptations to the contrary till by his Power we overcome them and remain faithful to the very death expecting from him the Crown of Life This He expects from us and this we must charge our selves withal and be faithful to it and stedfast in it For if we doubt not of His Power why should we not depend upon it and by the force of it do that for which He communicates it unto us Hath He not made us many pretious Promises that by them we may be partakers of a Divine Nature Hath He not said He will be
with us and give his Holy Spirit to them that ask it and never leave us nor forsake us but be our helper and deliverer Hath He not bid us not fear them that can do no more but kill the body but fear Him that can throw both Soul and Body into Hell and repeated it again that we should fear this great Lord fear to offend Him fear to lose His favour and the glorious hope He hath set before us Hath He not bid us lay hold on this hope and hold fast our confidence and the rejoycing of our hope unto the end Hath He not bid us trust to this that stronger is He that is in us than he that is in the world than the Devil and all his partakers and instruments who have no power to hurt us unless He consent to it and in that case the thing we account a hurt shall work together for our good We are not Christians if we believe not this And what is there more to be believed but that He hath power to make good his word And how can we question that when we remember that He is the LORD whose power is no less large than his desire So that He cannot be inclined by his good will to design or to promise any kindness to his Servants which He hath not equal ability actually to perform He doth not merely wish us well nor can He be suspected ever to find any impotency in himself whereby He should be disabled from expressing the love which we think He bears us And therefore He cannot be more forward either to conceive good intentions towards us or to make us promises of the good He intends than He is ready and able to do to the full what He purposes and what He promises The consideration of which power of his is the great support of our Faith when we read any of his exceeding great and pretious promises in the Holy Scriptures and should make us heartily depend upon them and with a settled resolution go about our duty in an unshaken confidence of their performance To this Power of God it was that Abraham the Father of the Faithful had respect when God promised to give him an heir though an impossible thing in Nature He staggered not at the promise through unbelief but was strong in Faith giving glory to God being fully perswaded that what He had promised He was able also to perform iv Rom. 20 21. The object of his faith was the promise of God who as He had never deceived him so he knew could not be worse than his word But that which preserved him from staggering at such a Promise as this was his laying hold on the Power of God which made him strong in faith And the Glory he gave to God was his conceiving so highly and magnificently of his Power as nothing to doubt of what He had said nor in the least to imagine the thing He promised was beyond it but to rest fully perswaded that He was no less able to perform than He was willing to promise it The like strong Faith we ought to have in the power of our Lord Christ from whose Majesty we shall extreamly derogate if we think there is any thing too hard for Him to do But to think He cannot do what He hath promised to do for us is to blemish Him with such a weakness that there cannot be a greater disparagement to Him For though it be no discredit to one of us not to be able to do every thing that another man can do yet to put our Friends in hope and expectation by promises of what we know is without the reach of our abilities is such a dishonour that it reflects scorn and contempt in the face of those who are guilty of it And therefore if it could be conceived which we ought not in the least to admit that our Blessed Lord hath any weakness or defect of Power in Him yet so great a defect as this to promise things which He cannot make good to those that believe them and depend upon them must need be far removed from Him And we being sure that the same Goodness and Love which moved Him to make those promises of Grace and strength to us will move Him to imploy his Power to communicate them we ought to trust to this and with an assured Faith depend upon His powerful Goodness and in that Faith stedfastly and couragiously perform most constant obedience to Him who we are sure cannot fail us II. But that we may not deceive our selves with a false dependance on Him nor vainly trust to his Almighty Power for our aid let us always remember which will bring me to the second thing I propounded that it is such a Faith in Him and dependance on Him as makes us use all the means which He hath appointed in conjunction with our trust in his might for our preservation Else it is not a right Faith in the power of his Might nor will derive the communications of it into our souls for He that bids us confide in that requires us also to do many other things in the exercise of which He tells us we may be confident his Power will give us the better And if we believe as we ought we shall take his word as much for the one as for the other According to which Doctrine the Apostle who could best explain his own mind immediately adds this injunction in the words after my Text Put on the whole Armour of God that ye may be able to stand against the wiles of the Devil It was not enough it seems barely to confide in the invincible strength of the Lord Jesus but they must put their own hand to the work and prepare themselves for the incounter and valiantly when occasion was enter into it and sustain it For opposition we must expect as the Apostle shows vers 12. and great opposition from very powerful very subtil very industrious and likewise invisible Enemies For we wrestle not against Flesh and Blood but against Principalities and Powers against the Rulers of the darkness of this world against spiritual wickednesses in high places Who among other ways they have to trouble us stir up the spirits of evil men to give us all the disturbance and do us all the mischief that is in their power and stir them up to so high a degree of rage that they persecute us many times with such inhumane malice and cruelty as flesh and blood could not invent were it not acted by a Diabolical fury This mighty and frightful opposition we are apt to make an Argument why we cannot hold out but should despair of being able to do our duty But the Apostle quite contrary makes it an Argument why we should be strong and resolved and watchful and ready arm'd against all temptations and able to stand because we have to do with such potent and crafty Enemies who are so much above us in high places from whence
of Salvation vers 17. which in the 1 Thess v. 8. is called the Hope of Salvation This he compares to a Helmet which you know is the Armor of the head because the blessed hope of immortal Glory hereafter and of Gods special favour love and protection here makes a Man erect himself and lift up his head as we say with confidence and boldness in the midst of the greatest terrors and dangers knowing they shall not hurt him but rather bring Salvation to him With this Hope therefore we must fill our hearts which is the fruit of Faith when Faith works by love and makes us faithful unto God Then we may have a lively hope in him and this Hope will make us not only strong and so full of courage that we shall not quail or be cast down by any dreadful appearance of dangers but inable us to rejoyce in Hope of the Glory of God VI. To which he adds The Sword of the Spirit which is the Word of God or the Holy Scriptures For they are the Treasury of those Sacred Promises which are the great support of our Souls the Repository or Magazine as I may call them wherein are laid up those Truths spoken of in the beginning which we must oppose to all the temptations which either assault our Faith and Hope or would seduce us from our Obedience And therefore our business must be to study the Holy Scriptures diligently till we be well skill'd in them and have learnt to wield this weapon aright and thereby cut in sunder all objections as our Blessed Saviour did when the Devil tempted him in the Wilderness And by no means suffer any body to wrest this Sword out of our hand for if they do they have so effectually disarmed us that we may in time yield to any thing They may make us believe what they please having our Faith in their keeping and likewise do what they please perswading us the best service we can do to God is to be the greatest Enemies disturbers and destroyers of mankind VII Lastly All these will be the more effectual if by ardent Prayer as the Apostle advises vers 18. we call in the assistance of Heaven Praying alway with all Prayer and supplication in the spirit watching thereunto with all perseverance and supplication for all Saints For as it is not enough to be thus armed and appointed for the combate unless God be present with us which we ought to believe He will as I told you at first because he hath said He will so it is not sufficient to rely upon his word and stedfastly believe it but He expects to be solicited for his aid by our earnest Prayers and Supplications This He hath commanded as much as for the other we have his promise And our very Prayers make us strong by giving us a more lively sense of God if they be not cold and careless and a more vigorous apprehension of his love and of our Heavenly Country to which they lift up our minds And besides they derive more strength from Him when we faithfully importune Him that he will inable us to discharge all the duties of good Christians in every condition And they intitle us also to his powerful protection when we commend our selves intirely to His Providence and trust all we have with Him Which likewise mightily raises our spirits and gives us a higher degree of strength confidence and courage when we think we have made Him our friend by thus intrusting Him and relying wholly upon Him to make us happy in what way He himself pleases And if all Christians made a Conscience also to Pray one for another it might still be of greater force and avail more toward our Salvation For so the Apostle would have us make supplication for all saints that is Christians that they also may be indued with the power of Christ and get the victory over their spiritual Enemies And these Prayers would be still more prevalent did we all persevere as he says in our Supplications and Pray always at all times of prayer and that in the spirit very ardently and with such fervent desires for spiritual aid from Heaven as we feel for those things we most need for this mortal life And this also with so great care and solicitude that we watch for opportunities of Prayer and when great dangers press us take some time from our sleep or other occasion for this Heavenly converse with God our Saviour This is a thing wherein we are too defective and so find our selves faint and weak in the performance of the rest of the duties of Christian life because we languish in our Devotion especially in our COMMON PRAYER when we meet together to Pray not only for our selves but for one another for the King particularly the Royal Family the great Council of the Kingdom the Clergy and all People of whatsoever order or condition they be Whom if we did commend to God with greater earnestness and true fervour of affection we should find I am confident as happy effects of our Prayer as we our selves desire We should either for instance prevail with God to turn from us all those evils which we most righteously have deserved or to enable us so to put our full trust and confidence in his mercy as notwithstanding any troubles to serve him evermore in holiness and pureness of living to his honour and glory To summe up all that hath been said The Apostle in this Discourse compares Christians unto Souldiers who being to conflict with their Enemies took care as not to want weapons themselves so not to leave any part of their bodies uncovered and exposed to the weapons of their Adversaries The middle of their body they girt about with a Belt upon their Brest they wore a Brest-plate upon their Head a Helmet Greaves as they are called in the story of Goliath upon their legs a shield they carried in their left hand and a sword in their right and being thus appointed they called upon their Gods for help and succour Such a complete Armour must we Christians put on if we will conflict successfully with our spiritual Enemies who are of little force to do us any harm if they always find us armed with Truth in our mind with Integrity to our heart with Purity and peaceableness in our affections with Faith in Gods promises and hope of his Salvation working both in mind and heart and affections with the word of God often in our hand and with devout Prayers and Supplications in our mouth proceeding from our very heart and most intimate desires whereby we constantly implore both for our selves and our fellow Christians the gracious assistance of Him who is the Captain of our Salvation and by these means got the victory and won the Crown which He now wears at God's right hand And be you well assured that in this way by being trained up in Christian knowledg and sincere love to what you know to be