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
they can more easily assault us This he repeats again vers 13. Wherefore take unto you the whole armour of God that is because you have so many so great and dangerous Enemies to conflict withal take unto you to put it on that is that Divine Armour which God himself furnishes you withal and let no part of it be wanting but be intirely at all times covered with it that so you may be able to withstand or to resist with constancy and patience in the evil day or the time when you must indure many calamities for Christs sake And having done all to stand that is having compleated your resistance by an unyielding resolution to consent to nothing against your duty you may remain as conquerours over all those Enemies that assaulted you Stand therefore vers 14. he repeats it a third time the more to imprint their Duty in their mind and to excite and encourage them unto it He would not have them doubt of getting the better but be confident they should be able to withstand all manner of opposition provided they put on intirely that compleat Armour which he was about to recommend to them from God himself Without that their confidence even in Christ and his mighty Power would not keep them in safety but they were to trust in Him imploying those weapons which He had given them for their defence and security Let me therefore briefly explain them that you may see what you have to do if you would be strong in the Lord and in the power of his might In which it is impossible that any body should be able to direct you so well as the Apostle himself and therefore I shall seek for no other means of attaining this Divine strength but those which he hath set down in the remaining part of the Epistle for this day 1. And first you must take care to have your loyns girt about with truth vers 14. that is with a true understanding of all things that concern our duty safety and happiness Which we can receive from no place so certainly and so amply as from the Revelation our Lord hath made of the mind of God to us in his Gospel which is called the word of truth teaching us both what is true and false and what is good and evil so fully that we want no necessary Information Direction or incouragement in our Christian warfare Only we must make it our business throughly to understand the mind of God and to let it sit close to our hearts for that is to have it girt about us This will make us ready against all assaults and they will find us better prepared to receive them we shall be the more at liberty and have nothing interpose to intangle our mind and hinder us from doing our duty For that was the end of a Souldiers girding up his cloaths about his loyns that he might be the more nimble and expedite in action when he was not incumbred by his garments hanging loosely about his heels Such will the clear knowledge of things especially of the Truth as it is in Jesus render our minds Which will find themselves fit for any service and able to perform it with ease and freedom when they are delivered by this illumination from all vain opinions about those things which we call Good and Evil in this world from all false principles from causeless doubts and scruples from confusion of thoughts and uncertainty of mind which weaken and discourage the hearts of men in any incounter with their spiritual enemies Whose great advantage lyes in our ignorance and folly mistakes and false perswasions which this Divine Light shining in us will chase away and let us see through all the thin pretences whereby we are tempted to commit any Sin or to neglect our duty and make the vanity of them so transparent that we shall never be cheated by them any more For Truth is great and will prevail not indeed unless it be seated and rooted in our minds but if it have taken fast hold there it hath the Lord on its side whose mighty power resides there where his sacred Truth doth which being the sense of his own mind is something of himself residing in us There would not for instance be so many deserters and revolters from their Religion so many cowardly and timerous spirits who will do nothing for it so many cold and indifferent persons who care not what becomes of it if we understood the truth of it better and its principles did not hang loose in our minds but we had a lively sense of its excellency purity simplicity and Divine original Which would preserve us also from doing any thing unbecoming our Religion while we make profession of it and pretend to admire it and love it and to endeavour to preserve it For who could act contrary to its principles whose heart were affected deeply with this single truth that he who knows his Masters will and doth it not shall be beaten with many stripes It will go exceeding hard with that man and he will lye under the severest lashes of his own Conscience as well as under the heavy displeasure of his Lord and Master who taught him the way of God in truth if he would have taken care and set his heart to walk in it Which leads me to the next II. Unto this clear knowledg of the truth as it is in Christ we must add the Brest-plate of Righteousness Which is nothing else but integrity of heart and loyal Affection to our blessed Lord and Master Christ a sincere and unfeigned love to the business of Christianity which we understand to be the will of God For a Brest-plate you know is the defence of the region of the heart and Righteousness I take here to be as much as uprightness and sincerity in what we pretend and therefore both put together signifie the unfeigned bent of our will the cordial consent of our heart and affection to all that we know to be the mind of Christ aiming at nothing in the world but to keep a good Conscience and thereby to preserve the love of God and at last to obtain favour with Him in the day of the Lord. Which besides that it is most highly esteemed by our blessed Saviour above all knowledge and wisdom in the world and may certainly depend upon His power for the maintenance of that which is so dear unto Him hath many singular advantages in it to make us successful in our Christian warfare For a constant sense of our fidelity to our Lord naturally gives us a stronger confidence that He will be faithful unto us This makes us also as bold and fearless as Lyons when we have nothing within to dismay us but all the reason in the world to be secure and confident that we shall still attain our end which is to approve our selves to our Lord and Master whatsoever befals us And on the other side nothing more daunts all opposers
or strikes such a terror into our Enemies who are in dread of those alone who fear nothing but to lose their integrity If this be the sole thing we resolve to preserve and upon no terms part withal we shall have this advantage also by it that we shall the more clearly discern what is the surest way to safety in dangerous times if it may be had together with innocence Whereas they that bend every way and sail with every wind where they think their worldly interest lyes are alwayes blinded so much by that as never to see the rocks upon which they run and are split at last Now the surest mark of this integrity is an equal uniform zeal for all manner of goodness and vertue diffusing it self like the spiritous blood from the heart through the whole body of our Christian duty though never so cross to our natural inclination or worldly interest And as this is the surest mark of it so the surest way to preserve it is to give daily proofs of it to our selves upon all such occasions as continually present themselves which will wonderfully incourage and animate us to go on when we meet at any time with more dangerous opposition This will make us undaunted in case any hard service be put upon us when we are not conscious to our selves of any hypocrisie or base design or unworthy behaviour in lesser trials of our Christian resolution in the daily common course of our life Or if at any time we have prevaricated our Repentance for it hath been so sincere that in those instances especially wherein we did not keep our Faith with God we since have approved our selves better unto Him and given testimony of our renewed settled purposes by no means to displease Him This will arm us against the most terrible impressions that can be made upon us by the enemy of mankind against the sorest sufferings of which the Apostle here particularly speaks even against Death it self the last and greatest Enemy we have to conflict withal in whatsoever shape it shall approach us To be conscious then to our selves of no enormous crime or to call to mind how solicitously we have made our peace with God and what full satisfaction we have given for any injury done to our neighbour to have nothing then to agast us nothing to fill us with pale fears no guilt unrepented of to stare us in the face and threaten us will be as good a Brest-plate as if we were inviron'd with a wall of Brass Take a man that is just and upright unmoveable from his honest purpose that hath setled a firm love to Goodness in his Soul and neither the rage of the People nor the countenance of stern Tyrants commanding him wicked things will shake his solid mind but though the world should be supposed to crack and break in pieces and fall about his ears the ruin of it will oppress a fearless person Thus an Ancient Poet could boast inspired only with a natural sense which he had of the courage and strength that true integrity and sincere love to vertue gives the heart of him in whom it dwells He hath inward peace and tranquillity as an upright Christian feels more lively than any other man can do which makes him less regard all outward accidents Whereas if a mans heart correspond not with what he knows to be the truth what contentment can he have to suffer any thing for that which doth him no good Who can doubt but the covetous man will rather forsake the Truth than his Riches which he takes to be infinitely more pretious and an ambitious man rather quit it than his preferment and an intemperate man abandon it than forego his pleasure For they have corrupted his Soul and thereby made it weak and feeble and deprived it of that Breast-plate which a man that intirely loves the Truth and follows it is armed withal In one word if we have not sincerely practised that which we understand to be our duty or if we have done it lamely and by halves this will give us the most grievous wound when we reflect upon it and so gall our Consciences that we shall find it to be the sharpest Enemy we have in a day of trial III. But the Apostle further advises them if they would be strong in the Lord to have their feet shod with the preparation of the Gospel of peace vers 15. In which advice he supposes that they who believed the Truth and heartily loved it would be desirous to propagate their belief and perswade others to entertain it For all men are naturally inclined to endeavour to make others of their opinion and the more necessary they apprehend any thing to be with the greater earnestness they press to have it generally received But he would have them be sure not to forfeit the reputation of true wisdom nor to lose their integrity which he had spoken of before by being turbulent in this business but dispose themselves to go for that is the end of putting on shoes and endeavour to spread the Gospel or Christianity among their neighbours after a peaceable manner Which are two counsels that contribute much to the securing our Christian Resolution For he that designs sincerely to promote Religion in others will not easily forsake it himself And the more good any man doth the more he is like to receive from the hand of the Lord. But we shall do little good unless we do it in a peaceable manner with the spirit of meekness and love and quietness without which a man can neither be thorougly Religious himself nor make others so For nothing more takes us all off from the business of true Religion than contentions and quarrels though they be about Religion Therefore we must follow Peace as well as that Purity without which no Man shall see the Lord and be readily prepared rather to suffer any thing than to make a bustle and a stir about that which teaches us all to study to be quiet and is very much dishonoured and indangered too by our unnatural and unseasonable contentions For Souldiers to whose warfare the Apostle here alludes are never safe but when they all agree and are in unity one with another as well as with their chief Commander whose great lesson is this in the Christian discipline be at Peace among your selves By Christian Love Charity and friendly Communion we shall be much stronger against all assaults whether from the Devil the Flesh or the World than if we fight single against them or which is worse be divided and at last perhaps fight one with another For to omit other reasons we shall invite more of the Divine power into our hearts when we live in Unity and Peace and brotherly accord wherein He delights but shall weaken our selves extreamly and lye open and exposed to the common Adversary both to the Devil and all his instruments when like quarrelsome Souldiers we fall out and are at fewds