Reprobates for 't is one thing to be Reprobate concerning the faith pro tempore at present and another thing to be a Reprobate Manasses Paul and those 1 Corinthians 6.11 were lewd enough for the time yet at last were called These that are now 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 reproveable and unapproved as the word signifies 2 Cor. 13.7 Heb. 6.8 1 Corinthians 9.27 yet in Gods due time they may be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 accepted and approved This must teach us to keep our judgements pure and our understandings clear for 't is our guide and if that mislead us we must needs fall into the ditch Corruption in judgement in some respects is worse then corruption in manners especially when the mind hath been enlightned with the knowledge of the truth for this is the root of those corrupt manners that are amongst us In the time of the Law the Leprosie in the head was of all other Leprosies the most dangerous and destructive the man that had it in his hand or feet was unclean but if it were in his head then he was to be pronounced utterly unclean Lev. 13.44 Hence the scripture gives so many caveats against errors and erroneous ones Deut 13.3 Philip. 3.2 Colos. 2.8 2 Pet. 3.17 Matthew 7.13 Beware of false Prophets the word implies a diligent study and singular care lest we be caught by such subtle adversaries Keep your judgements pure then the pure Word of God will delight you Micah 2.7 you will delight to come to the truth that your deeds may be discovered Iohn 3.21 Part not with a good conscience and a good conversation lest you make ship-wrack of the faith and a gap be opened in your breasts to all sinne and errour that the Lord knowes where you will rest it may be not till you come to the highth of sin and depth of misery Count therefore a corrupt judgement a sore plague and if God have given thee a sound judgement able to discern the truth and a mind ready to receive it and approve of it when 't is propounded this is not a common mercy but calls for speciall Thankfulness Psal. 16.7 Proverbs 28.5 1. Observe There have been false Teachers in all Ages to oppose the Truth and the Professors of it As Iannes and Iambres here oppose Moses a meek a learned a faithfull servant in all Gods House So there were four hundred and fifty fals Prophets against one zealous Elijah four hundred against good Michaiah 1 Kings 18.18 and 22.6.14 Hananiah against Ieremy Amaziah against Amos 7.10 false brethren against Paul Hymeneus Philetus and Alexander oppose him 1 Tim. 1.20 The Church shall never want enemies to war withall whilest the seed of the Serpent abides in the world As Pharaoh had his Magitians who hardned him in his sin and deluded him to his destruction so the World will ever have its false Prophets to blinde and harden them in sin to their ruine Thus in the Primitive times there was a Simon Magus Scribes Pharisees Sadduces Essens Herodians Nicolaitans Elymas Ebion Cerinthus the Gnosticks and many others 2 Peter 2.1 Thus when Luther began to reform thirty severall Sects arose to hinder the worke We should not therefore be despondent or discouraged as if some strange thing had happened to us but comforted rather in that we are made conformable to Christ the Prophets and Apostles Matthew 5.11 Luke 6.22.23 This was is and will be the condition of the Church Militant from her youth up she must looke to be plowed and persecuted by malicious men Psalm 129.2 3. Besides 't is the condition of Truth in this World to meet with opposition we can no sooner publish it but it's enemies appear Galathians 4.16 Truth brings hatred men cannot endure to have Vngues in Vlcerre they are unsound and would not be touched Truth is a Light which discovers the intents of mens hearts Hebrewes 4.12 and layes open the evill of mens wayes and this makes the wicked not simply to oppose but to rise in open rebellion against the Truth Iob 24.13 which reproves their deeds and exposeth them to the view of themselves and others Hence they have alwayes been esteemed the Pests and troublers of a Land that publish Truth as we may see throughout the Acts of the Apostles where we finde some disputing against the Truth Acts 6.9 others blaspheming Acts 13.45 some secretly undermining it and seeking to draw men from embracing it Acts 13.8 others openly rayling against it Acts 17.18 19. and 24.5 Some have opposed it out of ignorance and blind devotion as Paul before his conversion 1 Timothy 1.13 and some of the Jewes Acts 3.17 and 13.50 Others deliberately against conviction and out of malice have resisted the Truth as Alexander 2 Timothy 4.15 these are given up to a reprobate sense the Devil having blinded their eyes 2 Corinthians 4.4 Some oppose it for their gain and for their bellies Rom. 16.17 18. 1 Tim. 6.5 2 Pet. 2.3.15 16. Others from fleshly lusts 2 Peter 2.18 and 3.3 Others out of pride loving the preheminence 3. Iohn 9.10 1 Timothy 6.3 4. yet should not we distaste the Truth because of those oppositions which are made against it for however some prophanely scorn at the name of Truth and say with Pilate what is Truth Iohn 18.38 Yet wisedome is justified of her children and they that are of the Truth hear his voyce who came into the world to beare witnesse of the Truth They come with love and teachable hearts to it and so are made to know the Truth Iohn 8.52 Let not the great host of Truths enemies make us despair but know there are more with us then are with them 2 Chronicles 32.7 8. and the more they are that oppose the Truth the more illustrious will our conquest be If I must have an adversary let it be a wicked one and then be he never so potent he cannot stand long because God is against him Iob 27.7 Truth may be opprest but never conquered Praemi potest opprimi non potest yea oppositions advance and clear it Veritas impugnata magis elucet Bern. 2. Observe That as the Devill hath his Iannes and Iambres to oppose the Truth so God hath his Moses and Aaron to uphold it As the Devill hath his Domestick Chaplains so God hath his armed Champions and as the Devill raiseth up oppressors so God sends Saviours Obadiah 21. If he raise hornes to gore the Church God will raise Carpenters to saw off those hornes Zachary 1.19 20 21. The same day that Pelagius was born in Brittain the same day was Saint Augustine born in Africa that did confute him God hath an Athanasius to oppose Arrius Chrysostome against the Manichees Basil against Macedomus Prosper against the Massilians Salvian against the Libertines Fulgentius against Faustus Christ against the Pharisees Simon Peter against Simon Magus Paul against false Apostles Luther Calvin Beza c. against the
Pope and in these dayes of liberty God hath something to witness against Heresie Thus the Lord in his Wisedom hath so ordered it that there shall be not onely Schismes but Heresies to exercise the Gifts and Graces of his people and to discover the rottenness and filthyness of graceless ones that they who will not believe the Truth may be given up to the efficacy of errour This is some comfort and may help to uphold our spirits in this day of Iacobs trouble 3. Observe A corrupt head and a corrupt heart usually go together no sooner are mens minds corrupted but presently it follows they are Reprobate concerning the faith and if once men make shipwrack of faith they will soone part with a good Conscience too 1 Tim. 1.19 Corrupt Principles breed corrupt Practises and corrupt practises teach men to invent corrupt Principles When men grow lawless and profane then they turn Antinomians and deny the Law if Mortalists then they deny the resurrection if Libertines then they cry down the power of the Magistracy and cry up one Universal Toleration Hence when Christ had spoken of false Prophets he presently adds and iniquity shall abound Mâ—tthew 24. When people go a whoring from God then follows corporall whoredom Hos. 4.12 13. We see this experimentally true in our days How many before they were Sectaries were civilly just pious and in the judgement of charity were thought to be sincere Christians yet now are turned Anabaptists Socinians Libertines Proud Censorious Idle Atheisticall Unclean These lusts lay unmortified in their bosomes and now they rejoyce that they have a time of Liberty to vent them so that a corrupt life attends on corrupt Principles both as a Punishment and a just judgement of God upon men for resisting the truth and in the nature of the thing for as a foul moist head causeth distillations of corrupt matter upon the lungs so loose Principles dispose men to a loose conversation the doctrine of Godlinesse reproving their Ungodlinesse makes them cast it off as you may see in the Epistles of Peter and Iude who describing false Teachers and their false Doctrines presently adde their wicked lives their filthinesse covetousnesse licentiousnesse turning the Grace of God into wantonnesse Be sure then to keep your heads pure from errour if ever you would have your hearts and hands pure from sin 4. Observe That false Teachers are very dangerous persons they are not such meek innocent harmlesse persons as some imagine The Apostle here tells us that they are impudent fraudulent resisters of the truth men of corrupt Heads Hearts and Hands and what could he say more unlesse he should call them Devills and so he doth verse 3. in the last dayes men especially seducing men for all these 19. sins are appliable also to the false Teachers of the last times as appeares by the context verse 5 6. shall be slanderers or in plain English Devils and he here compares them to Iannes and Iambres two Egyptian Sorcerers who were Limbs of the Devill and verse 13. in expresse Terms he calls them Sorcerers evill men and Seducers the words in the Originall are evill men and Sorcerers 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 incantatores praestigiatores besides their Heresies are called damnable and their ways pernicious 2 Pet. 2.1 and themselves are likened to Balaam the witch 2 Pet. 2.15 'T is true at first they make a shew of extraordinary Sanctity and Self-deniall the better to deceive the simple and thereupon they rayle on all the Churches of Christ amongst us as being mixt with wicked men yet after a little time these painted Sepulchers appeare in their proper colours and the vilenenesse of their lives and doctrine is made known to all The Anabaptists in Germany at their first arising pretended extraordinary Sanctity but in a short time their Villanies Murders Polygamies blasphemies Heresies Adulteries c. appeared to the world These are worse then the Sword or Plague men are afraid and fly from those but they are naturally prone to embrace these 2. Those hurt but the body these destroy the soule 3. God is glorified in his judgements but he is exceedingly dishonoured by seducers 4. By the sword and persecution the Church increaseth but by subtle Hereticks the Church diminisheth Hence Luther calls Hereticks Peccatorum poenam summam Dei indignationem Luther in Hos. 9. The greatest Plague and a sign of Gods indignation against a people And the Scripture calls them devouring Wolves who come to kill and drink the blood of souls Iohn 10.8 9 10. Matth. 7.15 such as make their disciples two-fold more the children of the Devil then themselves Mat. 23.15 Such as subvert whole houses Titus 1.11 whose word doth eat as a Gangrene 2 Tim. 2. which suddenly over-runs the Parts takes the Brain and if not quickly cured by cutting off the part infected kills the Patient Heresie is of a spreading Nature if it be not speedily and carefully supprest it runs from one man to another from one City to another and from one Kingdome to another Error begets error such fall from evil to worse Verse 13. Hence false doctrine is compared to a Leaven Mark 8.15 which secretly and suddenly diffuseth it selfe through the whole lump till all be leavened Sometimes seducers are compared to an overflowing flood which carries down all before it Revelations 12.15 and anon to Cheaters that beguile silly souls with their flesh-pleasing doctrine they catch freshly people Ephesians 4.14 and to dogs Philippians 3.2 beware of dogs i. beware of false Prophets who are like unto dogs Go not unarmed get a sword or a staffe to defend your selves against them If there were ten thousand mad dogs in the Land you would keep within doores or go armed and use all means to destroy them Now they resemble dogs in 14. particulars 1. A dog is a base contemptible creature hence the Scripture calls vile persons dogs 1 Samuel 17.43 1 Kings 8.13 Matthew 15.26 So such as go about to draw men from the Truth are vile men however they may have high conceits of themselves yet God esteems no more of them then we do of a dog and though he may throw them some off all and bones to picke as he doth to the blasphemous Turk that great Dog of a great part of the World yet his soul abhors both them and their services Isay 66.3 2. 'T is an unclean creature and might not be offered in sacrifice Deut. 23.18 So these being themselves unclean all they do is unclean Titus 1. ult 3. 'T is a libidinous impudent creature Hence unclean persons are called dogs Deut. 23.8 Revelations 22.15 without are dogs who are those Whoremasters are set in the front this made Abner say to Ishbosheth am I a dogs-head i. shamelesly libidinous that I should commit whoredom with my Fathers Concubines 2 Samuel 3.8 yet such unclean ignorant and impudennt Cynicks we have who though they want Arguments yet want
Holy Exact Obedient c. But continue thou Note Gods servants must continue constant in the Truth received They must not play fast and loose be off and on but they must be still the same like well-tuned Bells which have the same Note in foul weather as they have in fair Ioh. 1.21 we must hold fast the Truth 1 Thes. 5.21 abide in it and walk in it Rev. 3.3 1 Iohn 2.19.24 and 2.6 7 9. we must part with our lives rather then part with the Truth of God Revel 6.9 no frownes or flatteries must drive or draw us from it we must lose all rather then lose it Prov. 23.23 buy it at any rate sell it at no rate To this end consider 1. This Constancy is a note of Sincerity then are we Christs disciples indeed when we abide in the Truth Iohn 8.32 Iob 2.3 when no Storms nor Tempests can remove us from it but we stand like Mount Sion which never moves and like seasoned Timber never warps nor yields As that Divine Poet sweetly sings Onely a sweet and Vertuous soule Like seasoned Timber never gives But though the whole world turne to coale Then chiefly lives 2. All the promises of Heaven and Happinesse run only to such as are faithfull to the death Rev. 2.10 endure to the end Mat. 24.13 and continue in the faith Rom. 2.7 Matth. 10.22 Colos. 1.22 23. Heb. 3.6.14 See what a cluster of precious promises are made not to such as only begin well but to such as presevere and overcome their spiritual enemies faithfully fighting the battles of the Lord against sin and Satan Revel 2.7.10 11.17.26 27 28. and 3.5.12 and 22.7 He that is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 still fighting by the power of Christ against the enemies of his salvation though he cannot overcome them so perfectly as Christ did by way of Equality yet if by way of conformity we resemble him we shall raign with him We must win the garland before we can wear it we must conquer before we can Triumph and strive before we can get the Crown 2 Tim. 2.5 we must run sincerely chearfully and constantly if ever we would obtain 1 Cor. 9.24 3. A damn◠1. Such loose all their labour let a man watch fast pray hear read run yet if he fall away all 's lost Ezek. 18.24 Gal. 3.3 4. 2 Iohn 8. Frustra agitur quod non peragitur as good never awhit as never the better 't is the end that crowns the work A man may go far yet for want of perseverance lose all Moses came to the fortieth year yet mist of going into Canaan A man may dig within a yard of a golden mine and yet for want of a little more pains misse of it 'T is said of King Henry the Eighth that if he had gone on as he began and as he had crakt the Popes crown so he had clean dispossest him of all as he had got the victory so if he had pursued it as 't was preacht before him and as he had unhorst the Pope and put him out of the Saddle so if he had also taken away the Trappings and Stirrups whereby the Prelates went to set him on horse-back againe he had cured all 2. Such bring an evill report and scandal on Religion they disparage the Lords Pastures as if there were no vertue sweetnesse excellency and life in them and therefore they forsake them 3. Satan will deal worse with such then with others he 'l lay more irons on you as the Jaylor doth on a fugitive prisoner He will seek to recover the time that he hath lost by making thee run more furiously in the wayes of sinne so that thy latter end will be worse then thy beginning 2 Pet. 2.22 4. God abhors thee Heb. 10.38 his soul will take no pleasure in thee i. e. he exceedingly hates thee 'T is a Meiosis if any man draw back flye from his colours and forsake God God will forsake him as he did backsliding Saul the Israelites Iudges 2.12 13. Ieremy 5.19 Zeph. 1.26 Spira and Lucian a Professor who after became a scoffer and persecutor and was tore in pieces by Dogs How sad then is the condition of those Seekers Shakers Quakers that are altogether unsetled and have no foundation that are still seeking for New-Apostles and New-Light i. e. for false Apostles and old Errors These Sceptical Atheists have a New Religion every week yea almost every day in the week 'T is said of the Northern Quakers I suppose the Southern are of the same temper that in a Moneths time they so changed their Principles that a man could not know them to be the same men but onely by their faces Lately they were for Episcopacy then for Presbytery now for Independency anon for Anabaptisme and then for any thing If this unconstancy and mutability in Religion had been a vertue then must we condemne the generation of Martyrs in all ages who chuse rather to sacrifice all they had then to part with any part of parcel of Gods truth As 't is said of Athanasius maluit mutare sedem quà m Syllabam He had rather lose his Episcopal Seat then part with a Syllable of Truth To what end are all those Precepts if this ficklenesse were lawful to stand fast in the faith to contend for it Coles 1.2.23 Philip 1.27 Iude 3. to beware of false Prophets Matth. 7.15 Gal. 1.6.8 not to be carried away with strange doctrines 1 Cor. 16.13 1 Tim. 6.13 14. As for those that have put their hands to Gods plough they must in no wise look back but break through all difficulties and discouragements Constans contraria spernit True grace breaks through all Iacob will have the blessing though he halt for it David will yet be more vile The woman of Canaan though Christ call her a dog yet can pick somewhat from that debasing term Let the wicked deride Gods people yea and kill them yet will they forget their God nor deal falsely in his Covenant Psal. 44.16 and 119.51 It was Iohn Baptists high Commendations that he was a rock not a reed shaken to and fro with the wind of every tentation Matth. 11.7 no fear nor favour could make him conceale the truth but with the hazard of his life he reproves Herod and Zachary and Elizabeth how constant were they not in talking but in walking the wayes of Gods commands Luke 1.5 6 7. They did not take a turn or two for pleasure but they walked on 2. They walked not in one or two but in all the Commandements of God 3. Though they were not without sin yet were they without blame no man could justly charge them 4. They did not onely beginne well but they persevered even to old age v. 7. when they were stricken in yeares 5. 'T was in a dangerous time when they did thus walk with God V. 5. 't was in the dayes of Herod a bloody Tyrant It 's a comely
us with such certainty as they have been kept in Scripture and delivered to us So that what David said of himselfe is true of all the Pen-men of Holy Scripture the Spirit of the Lord spake by me and his Word was in my tongue 2 Samuel 23.2 it is he that spake by the mouth of his Holy Prophets Luke 1.70 And bid them Write Revelations 14.13 They spake not what pleased themselves but they spake and writ as they were moved by the Holy Ghost 2 Peter 1.21 they were powerfully moved acted and carried out of themselves to write say and doe what God would have them Nehemiah 9.30 Micah 3.8 Acts 28.25 Hebrewes 13.7 2. He commends the Scriptures for their usefulnesse and profit which they bring both to Teacherâ— and Hearers which is foure-fold whereof two are Theorerical pertaining to the information of our judgements in matters of Doctrine 1. Teaching the Truth 2. Confuting Errours Two are Practical pertaining to the direction of our lives viz. First for Correction or Reformation of Vice And secondly for instruction in Paths of Righteousnesse 1. They are profitable for Doctrine and Instruction they teach men what to know and believe they instruct us in all Truth necessary to salvation viz. concerning God Man Christ Law Gospel Heaven Hell He first begins with Doctrine which in Order must goe before all the rest for it is in vain to reprove or exhort unlesse we first teach a man inform him of his duety 2. For reproof of Errour and Confutation of false Doctrine A right thing is a sufficient judge of its own straitnesse and the crookednesse of another thing There is an Elencticall power in the Scripture to stop the mouths of gain-sayers and to discover the by-Paths of wicked men Titus verse 9. We need not run to General Councils or send for Ancient Fathers to determine Controversies or confute Errours We have the Holy Scriptures that enable the Man of God and furnish him richly for that purpose 3. For correction of sin and evil manners which is done by admonition and reproof denouncing Gods judgements against them that those which go astray may be brought into the way by Repentance 4. The Scripture teacheth us how to lead an Holy and Righteous life according to the Will of God and so is profitable for instruction in Righteousness and good workes it being the most perfect Rule of Righteousnesse 5. The Scripture allures us to Piety by the sweet promises of the Gospel and so is profitable for consolation Romans 15.4 which is comprehended either under Doctrine or Instruction for he that will comfort another must first inform him of the Wisedome and Goodnesse of God to his Elect and how all things work together for good to those that are good There is no internal tentation nor any external affliction but you may finde a Medicine for it in the Scriptures So that in these 4 branches is contained â—he summe of Christianity Before I proceed any further it will be necessary to remove a block or two out of the way Bellarmine himself confesseth that this is one of the chiefest places that we have to prove the Scriptures perfection and therefore both he and Estius have invented all the wayes they can to invade the force of it 1. Say they the Apostle speaks here of the Old Testament for the New Testament was not yet added to the Canon nor some part of it written as the Epistles and the Revelation of Saint Iohn especially when Timothy was an Infant Now if the Old Testament say they were a perfect Rule then the New Testament would be superfluous and void Answer By Scripture here is meant not onely the Old Testament but also the New say some because all the Books of the New Testament were then extant when Paul writ this latter Epistle to Timothy which was the last of all Pauls Epistles as is gathered from 2 Timothy 4.6 So that then there were extant all Pauls Epistles all the Evangelists and all the Books of the New Testament excepting the writings of Iohn and as some conceive the writings of Luke 2. To omit conjectures let us grant that the Apostle speaks of the Old Testament and that he acknowledgeth they were able to make a man wise to salvation 'T is true they were so neither doe the writings of the Apostles adde any thing as to the substance of the Old Testament they onely explain the Law and the Prophets clearly shewing that Christ is come according as the Prophets foretold Acts 28.23 3. What was written in every Age was sufficient for that Age and the Books which were extant in these times were a sufficient Rule for the Church in those dayes Thus the five Books of Moses till the other Books of Scripture were extant were a perfect Rule So the Books of the Old Testament which were extant when Timothy was a child were a sufficient Rule yea and before there was any thing written Tradition alone was sufficient neither was any thing written so necessary but they might be saved without it But now since God hath revealed his mind in the Holy Scriptures we must to the Law and to the Testimony 4. I Answer by way of Retortion if the Parts of Scripture as they were delivered were sufficient for the Instruction of those to whom they were delivered then the whole Scripture à fortiori which now we have must needs be most sufficient for us and for all the Churches of God to the end of the world if the Old Testament were so proâ—itable how great is the profit and perfection of both Old and New together 2. Objection A second Cavil is this That the Scripture is not a Total and sufficient Rule but onely a Partial one and though it be profitable yet 't is not sufficient without unwritten Traditions They are not here excluded no more then Second Causes are excluded saith Bellarmine from the generating of things in the World as the Sun c. Answer If the Scripture contain all things necessary to salvation then 't is a perfect and not a partial Rule But it doth contain all things necessary to salvation Ergo The Minor I prove thus If the O. T. did contain all things necessary to salvation and were sufficient without Traditions then à fortiori both Testaments together must needs be sufficient But the Antecedent is true and therefore the consequent The Scripture alone is able saith the Apostle to make us wise to salvation and therefore it must needs be sufficient 2. The comparison from the Sun holds not because unto generation second causes must necessarily concur but for Regeneration here is such a full enumeration of all things to be done that no more needs be added and therefore Traditions are vain Besides 't is well observed that the word in the Original signifieth not onely profit and conveniency but also perfection and sufficiency the Scriptures have an All-sufficiency in
in Prayer for their Ministers warriours had need of Prayers and if I must pray for mine enemy then sure much more for my Minister and if Christ prayed for them shall not we Iohn 16.26 and 17. 1. Consider we are men and so subject to like Passions as other men and therefore we have need of your Prayers 2. We are Brethren and in respect of this Relation we may justly challenge your prayers Whom will you pray for if you will not pray for your Brethren This made the Apostle so earnest with the Romans 15.30 I beeseech you Brethren for the Lord Iesus Christs sake and for the love of the Spirit that ye strive together with me in your Prayers to God for me See with what earnestness this great Apostle begs for Prayers So Ephes. 6.19 2 Cor. 1.11 1 Thess. 5.15 He doth not say Brethren commend us or Brethren maintain us but Brethren Pray for us In this the poorest may be helpful to us Pray that our number may be increased Matthew 9.35 Atheists cry it was never good world since there was so much Preaching I say the world would be better if there were more Pray that they may be continued it s a special mercy when our eyes can see our Teachers and they be not removed into corners Isay 30.20 Pray that we may be restored Hebrewes 13.18 19. Prayer hath a Vertue in it to bring back those banisht ones Pray for us in our Temptations and Afflictions that God would sweeten and sanctifie them and uphold us under them The Devil winnowes all but he sifts Christs Peters as men do wheat which they sift most accurately he shooteth his sharpest arrowes and chooseth out the smoothest stones to throw at these Leaders of Gods Host. Pray that God would give us abilities and hearts to improve these abilities that he would give success to our labours and enable us to persevere in despight of all discouragement whatsoever 3. Consider we are your spiritual Fathers 2 Kings 2.12 Nature teacheth men to pray for natural Fathers and grace for spiritual 4. They pray for you great reason then that you should pray for them Yea in praying for them you pray for your selves for they are your servants in Christ. Now if we must pray for those to whom we are related but as men how much more should we pray for our Ministers in whom all these Relations concenter and meet who are Men Brethren Fathers Watchmen Shepherds Nurses Warriours 1 Timothy 1.18 and 2.4 that fight for the Churches safety Woe to those that in stead of Praying for us they Carp at us and Curse us and cry they are covetous proud graceless giftless c. vain man when thou seest such thou shouldest pitty them and pray for them that God would give them free humble gracious spirits and thou revilest them because they cross thy sin and errours as if Meroz should curse the Angel because the Angel cursed him for his neutrality These shew what spirit leads them Now the life of man is compared to a warfare in eleven respects 1. In war there is watching souldiers must stand on their guard continually for fear of a surprisal to the loss of all So every Christian being surrounded with spiritual enemies must watch and pray continually Matthew 26.41 It is the way to blessedness Matthew 24.46 2. In warring there must be arming another man may go unarmed but he that is a souldier must be armed Capape as they say from top to toe if any part be unarmed it may cost him his life as it did Ahab who was wounded between the joynts of the harness 1 Kings ult 34. So a Christian must gird on his spiritual armour for the weapons of our warfare are not carnal such as swords staves crosses pictures c. but spiritual and mighty to throw down the Devils strong holds 2 Cor. 10.4 that is armour of darkness this is armour of light Romans 13.12 such as shineth to the glory of God and the good of our Brethren We must not content our selves with one or two pieces of this armour but we must put on the whole Armour of God which consisteth of six pieces Ephes. 6.11 c. 1. We must get the girdle of truth we must be all Nathaniels not onely Israelites in name and profession but Israelites in deed and truth There must be sincerity and truth in our judgement affections words and actions He that is thus ungirt is unblest and will never endure in a day of trial painted armour is good for little 2. The Breast-plate of Righteousness Get a gracious life and a good conscience this is armour of proof against all the assaults of the Devil 3. Patience V. 15. We must pass through many thorny temptations and persecutions so that unless we be well shod with patience we shall tire and faint in our warfar there is no running our heavenly race without it Heb. 10.36 and 12.1 4. The shield of faith V. 16. This grace leads us out of our selves to Christ whose righteousness covers all our unrighteousness and whose perfection covers all our imperfections and so defends us against all the fierce assaults and fiery darts of Satan 5. The Helmet of Hope This expects what faith beleeves and keeps the soul from fainting a head without an helmet is exposed to danger 6. The Sword of the Spirit which is the Word of God of all the peeces of armour this must not be forgotten no sword like this 't is two-edged 't is both offensive and defensive with this Christ cut off Satans temptaions thrice together Matth. 4. These are those weapons of righteousness on the right hand and the left with which we must war against all the enemies of our Salvation 2 Cor. 6.7 See more in Dr. Gâ—wge on Ephes. 6. Mr. Gournall Mr. Râ—binson and Dr. Arrowsmith Tactica Sacra l. 2.1 to 11. 3. He must have Skill and knowledg how to manage his weapons his hands must be taught to war and his fingers to fight 'T was the commendation of Davids Champions that they were men of might fit for the Battle that could handle shield and buckler whose faces were like the faces of Lions and they were swift as Roes 1 Chron. 12.8 Here were men fitted and accomplisht with skill and courage for their work they were apti nati as we say cut out for Souldiers Raw untaught untrained men will either fly before the enemy or dy by his sword Solomon therefore would have us with counsel and good advice to make war Prov. 20.18 For wisdom is better then strength Eccles. 9.18 He must have the Art of fighting as there is an Art of Holy living and an Art of Holy dying so there is an Art of Holy fighting which every Christian must learn he must have skill to know the Methode depths and periods of that old serpent the Devil and his Agents the Jesuits and Sectaries who are as subtle as the Devil can make them their