Selected quad for the lemma: work_n
Text snippets containing the quad
|
ID |
Title |
Author |
Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication) |
STC |
Words |
Pages |
|
A06063
|
The spirituall armour With which being furnished, a Christian may be able to stand fast in the euill day, and time of tryall; and to quench all the fiery darts of the wicked. Written by that godly and learned man, Paul Baine; sometime Preacher of Gods word at S. Andrewes in Cambridge.
|
Baynes, Paul, d. 1617.
|
1620
(1620)
|
STC 1647; ESTC S116770
|
71,493
|
320
|
others vvhen the evill spirit doth annoy them they make resistance but as Saul call for musick this or that company and employ themselues more busily that one naile may driue out another in a vvord so resisting that evill one troubling themselves that they make themselues twofolde more the children of the Diuell 4. There are some who when they are so troubled will not sticke to goe to wisards when the Diuell doth wound them they will seeke to him for a plaister that cure will bee well done when the murdering spirit must play the Surgeon Now followeth the end that yee may bee able to stand Two things must bee vnfolded 1. What this meanes to stand Ans A souldier standing orderly to his fight doth neither run forth to his perill nor retyre through cowardise neither is beaten downe through violence So that standing is holding their course without hurt receiued Assaults of the Diuell are of two sorts forcible or politike Now this Text speaks of those subtle stratagems the worde signifying one principall kinde to witte ambushmeÌ„t that put for the other the sense then of the words is that you may bee preserued harmelesse notwithstanding the Diuell do practice all his stratagems against you Thus you see what is the benefite of our Christian furniture it doth put vs out of danger this is tryed proofe we neede not feare any shot if it bee well buckled vnto vs thus Christ being with this harnessed the Diuell could not fasten any thing on him for euen some peeces are of no lesse force much more the whole 2. Pet. 1. He thay ioyneth faith vertue knowledge which all is but the brestplate of righteousnes shall not fall Iohn saith faith which is but our shield is our victory Now if one peece bee of such vse how beneficiall is the whole Againe in the falls of the Saints it may be seene how they caught their wipes for lacke of their armor Vse 1 Which must teach vs first to prise and get vs this furniture We see how going to warres we esteeme more then life such an armour as can secure vs that wee need not take care for gunshot how much more should wee count of this which keepeth the life of God from being wounded in the soule Which if we were fully clad with vve might fight at the Cannons mouth secure from danger 2. It doth let vs see what we must blame when wee are wounded our want to our selues in not putting on this armour for hence it was caused 2. Wee see that the Diuell doth vse policie in assaying vs Thus from the beginning he shewed more of the Serpent then of the LioÌ„ 2. Cor. 11.3 He did through deceit beguile Euah 2. Thes 2.8 His working is not in all power onely but in all deceluablenes of vnrighteousnesse he is the father of common Machiauelisme hee knoweth the Lions skin wil not come where the Foxes may enter and if hee were strength without subtilty he were the lesse to be feared For vvhat is the Poets Poliphemus vvhen his eyes are vvanting what is strength if wisedome and policie bee vvanting or absent But for our further instruction wee must search out vvhat these subtill stratâ—gems are whervvith hee doth circumuent vs not that vvee can finde them all out but that wee may point at the fountaines of further meditation These may be considered generally or more particularly Generally his policy in fight is that he obserueth all circumstances for his aduantage as person place time and as hee set vpon Christ in the Desart when hee was now hungry the condition of the party whether in prosperity or in aduersity religious or otherwâ—se his weapon in choosing and vsing of which hee haâ—h great sâ—ill and two things are here remarkable and most eminent First that hee will then redouble his forces when after God is ready to remooue him as men that besiege a Citie if they haue intelligeÌ„e of any power comming to remoue their siege they will put forth all their courage trying if they may make breach or scale the walls and enter Reuel 12.12 Hee can so watch opportunity that he can be ready to hurt vs with our owne weapons As 2. Cor. 27. hee would haue swallowed vp the Corinthian in his repentant sorrowe The more particular conflicts and assaults some are lesse seene some are more openly hostile The lesse manifest assayling of vs is when hee dissembleth his person or his strength For Satan often commeth in the person of a friend sometimes in an Angels of light sometimes in the persons of Saints departed and hee is like that policy of the Gibeonites Ios 9 9. Like the King of Israel who fought with Aram in other apparell 1 King 22.30 or like as if a Man of warre meeting an enemy should hang out the same colours with them and set men speaking the selfe same language and of the selfe same habite with their enemies and so should board them and sinke them at vnawares these therfore must a little bee opened First hee commeth and closeth as a friend insinuating as if hee bare vs more good will then God Genes 3. God knoweth if your eies should be opened c. so to Christ Master spare thy selfe but mark what Christ replyeth Goe behinde me Satan So hee commeth to another What he hath abused thee doe not let him doe thee that wrong others will bee heartened to doe thee the like So when he perswades couetousnes You must haue some thing more then this You haue and may haue a great charge so to him that would double his diligence What neede you so disease your selfe God forbid none but such great paines takers should com to heauen Thus hee would with a friendly parlie with a Ioabs kisse vtterly betray vs. Secondly he hath sometimes taken on him the person of an Angel of light in wordes which hee can speake good Marke 1.24 and 5.7 Thou art the Son of God The maid with the spirit of diuination saith You are the seruants of the most high God Acts 16.16 but he profaneth the words and vseth them vnto euill ends to win himselfe credit in his lying or weaken the truth of them by his confessing so in nomine domini beginneth much wickednesse Secondly hee will set vs vnseasonably and busie vs about good works and thus hee did Martha Luke 10.40 making her so busie in the entertainement that shee had no leasure for the better worke that which Mary chose This is his wickednesse and he alwaies doth it either to iustle out a better work or to draw-in with that good som greater euill So in the Church many reade often and are thinking of good things but the Diuell doth draw them to this that they might not attend the worke in hand Thirdly hee will perswade to euill vnder the shew of good thus hee will make vs vnder the pretence of discretion and moderation be like those who were neither hotte nor colde fit for nothing but to be spued
22.32 But I haue praied for thee that thy faith faile not Yet compared with the end Peters confession vvhich was the worke of faith failed in his mouth and yet the grace was safe in his heart for Christ was heard in that hee praied for So that if the reason he thus framed That faith which faileth in the worke is a false faith this is a false sentence If hee say to mee Thine faileth in the grace it is falsly spoken to a true beleeuer to make his grace extinct when the work faileth for vve might aswell say a man is dead when hee sleepeth And for his threatning that it shall faile vvee must remember that hell gates shall not preuaile Hee hath praied c. Ob. 8 Eightly the diuell he will from sense and reason vveaken our beleefe Thus hee kept Sarah in vnbeleef Gen. 18.12 She laughed because the thing spoken was against reason Ans For answer vvhereof vvee must knovve They are blessed that beleeue and see not Iohn 20.29 that vve vvalk by faith not by sight Againe Heb. 11.1 Faith is the euidence of things not seene vvee must therefore shake hands vvith this follovving sense and reason if vvee vvill make vvay to beleefe Lastly the divel vvill muster many troubles against vs and thus labour to shake our faith Luke 22.31 Hee vvinnovved Peters faith by bringing him into ieopardy of his life So vvhen many beleeue he stirs the tongues of naughty ones to vvhippe them if God giue leaue he crosseth them in their substance and othervvise not that he plaieth so smal games as to blot their name or careth for their money but he shooteth at this to vnsettle them in the vvay of faith which they haue entred But we must resist thus by getting knowledge that Christ vvill not let our smoking vveek be put out that these things shall vvorke to our good Rom. 8.28 I but vve feele the contrarie they vvorke so vpon vs. Ans He that beateth a torch seemeth to put out the light for a season yet it maketh it burne more cleerly the shaking of trees maketh them root deeper Secondly by learning the means of holding our faith vvhich follovv These are his more violent practises vvresting of our faith from vs novv his more subtill sleights are his making vs to presume on outward helps withdrawing our hearts by them Thus 2. Chron. 16.7 he did preuail against Asa for vvhen hee seeth vs hould the rocke where vve are safe from him hee vvill set before vs other things sutable to our corrupt natures knovving that so much as vve come to leane on these so much vve come to leaue our GOD. Thus hee houldeth out our Lady Saint Peter and Paul in the Romish Church and by the creature vvithdravveth the hearts of the people from their Creator In which and other like practices the divell is like a Fovvler that hath calls so like the natural notes that birds come vnto them so these speake our mother tongue and haue a note so liking to the reason and sense of vs that we cannot heare it but wee are ready to flee vnto it But wee must preuent this mischiefe by christian caution the diuells exchange will proue robbery wee shall change a rocke for a splitted reed which wil hurt vs in the end Hee that leaveth his God forsaketh his mercy Ionah 2.8 They that wait vpon lying vanities forsake their owne mercy Againe Ier. 17.5 Cursed is hee that maketh flesh his arme trusting in any outward thing Secondly vve must know that these things cannot do ought for vs further then the Lord of Hosts shall command them he vseth them at pleasure The horse and chariot is prepared but victory is from the God of battell many seeke the face of the Iudge but iudgement is from the Lord men rise vp early but GOD builds the city we may vse meat and medicine but God is our life and length of our daies and it is seen the swift hath not the race the vvise wanteth bread Secondly the diuell will labour to supplant our faith by indirect wayes leading to a release and seeming to put an end to our euils for seeing that vvee are weary in enduring and would fain see rest from troubles he then will open postern doors indirect vvaies of deliuerance like Fowlers when all is hard frost and snovve they shew meat that birds sharply set may flee on murder Thus Sarah Gen. 16.2 And Sarah sayd Behold novv the Lord hath restrained mee from childe-bearing I pray thee go-in vnto my maid it may be that I shall receiue a child by her Dauid 1. Sam. 27.1 Is it not better for me that I saue my selfe in the land of the Philistines c Christ Mat. 4 Command these stones to bee made bread by miracle novv thou art hungry We must therefore take heed that vvee often thinke on that in Esay Hee that beleeueth maketh not haste and consider againe that the ease of such meanes is like to a draught of drinke to a hot ague it maketh the fire burne worse after your issue in this kinde is but breaking the iaile which maketh vs subiect to double punishment Now followeth the fourth consideration how we may keep our faith against all assaults encrease it First by expelling self-confidence and vnbeleefe Secondly by considerations that lead directly to the strengthening of our faith Thirdly rules of either First he that will beleeue must deny all trust in his owne wisdome for selfe-confidence is a choak-weed of beleefe Pro. 3.5 Trust in the Lord with all thy heart and leane not to thy owne wisedome We are the circumcision vvho haue no confidence in the flesh but reioyce in Christ Iesus And as we can growe downe denying our wisedome and all strength wee can make so shall faith on our great God growe vp 2. Wee must strike at vnbeleef with the sword of the spirit taking vp our selues for halting with such like places as these Heb. 10 Now the iust shall liue by faith but if any vvithdrawe himselfe my soule shall haue no pleasure in him As the murmuring and vnbeleeuing Israelites who would not beleeue the Lords oath giuen them that he vvould make them dwell in the temporall Land Canaan were accordingly shut out of it so faithlesse ones who beleeue not Gods promises concerning the true Land of Canaan the heauenly kingdome shall be barred from entring that holy place See Numb 14.29.30.31.32 Chewing on such words will tame the fiercenesse of vnbeliefe Thirdly wee must consider the iniurious effects vvhich this sinne doth to God and vs. For vnbeliefe giveth God the lie 1. Ioh. 5.10 Hee that beleeveth not in God maketh him a lyer then which what can bee more reproachfull and it doth vs all the harme for nothing could hurt vs if this were not Heb. 4 vlt. They could not enter for vnbeleefe they were a churlish lewd people besides other distempers but this did them the mischiefe for it reiecteth the medicines that would cure vs