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There be two parts, beloved, of the fortification and strengthening of the Christian, in his Christian warfare. One is outward—without ourselves; and this is, “To be strong in the Lord, and in the power of his might.” The other armour, again, it is inward, and inherent within ourselves. And of these two parts the apostle Peter speaks in 1 Peter 1. In his thanksgiving, in the beginning thereof, he says, “Blessed be the God and I’ather of our Lord Jesus Christ, which according to his aboundant mercy hath begotten us again unto a lively hope by the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, to an inheritance incorruptible, and undefiled, that fadeth not away, reserved in heaven for us.” Now, how describes he them to whom this inheritance belongs? “Who are kept by the power of God, through faith, unto salvation.” So ye see, the one part of their strength whereby they are kept to it is the power of God, and the other part of their fortification is faith: the one, which is the power of God, being an external strength, the other again, which is faith, being an internal strength. And soit is by these two great strengths, he says, they are kept to salvation. And the Apostle Paul, he joins these same two fortifications and strengthenings together here in this place. He speaks of the outward strength; “Finally, (or furthermore), my brethren, be strong in the Lord:” that is your great outward strength, even to be strong in the Lord Jesus Christ, denying your own strength, and everything that is in you. And what is it that we should look to in him, when we would be strong? “To the power of his might;” for his power and might is great enough, and sufficient to be opposed to all who can be against us. In the other part, again, he speaks of inward strength, when he says, “Put on the whole armour of God:” we must put it on not without us, but within us. For, albeit, the comparison be taken from bodily armour, and so it would seem that this armour should be without us by that, as bodily armour is, yet the spiritual armour, it must be within us; and so it clothes and defends the soul from all enemies. First, he exhorteth them to their duty; “Put on the whole armour of God,” or the complete armour of God. So we must have our armour; we must put it on; and we must put on complete armour—no part must be bare. And then the armour we put on, it must be the armour of God. Whether we look to him who is the maker of it, it must be of God’s making, or whether we look to the metal of it, it is spiritual, not bodily. So we must “put on the whole armour of God.” Then he shows for what end it is that we must put on this armour, and this is the end, “That we may be able to stand out against the wiles of the devil.” As if he said, We have ado with a wily, a subtle, and a cruel enemy; and therefore, that we may be free of his wiles, and overcome his cruelty, we must put on this armour. And the reason that he gives to move us the more unto this is, “For we wrestle not against flesh and blood.” He takes in himself as a wrestler in this combat; he says, We wrestle not. Then he calls this fight that we have against Satan, “wrestling.” When we are warring and wrestling against others, as against flesh and blood, it is not them principally and chiefly against whom we wrestle; but we wrestle principally against Satan, according to that place, “They have not rejected thee, but they have rejected me;” that is, in rejecting thee they have rejected me. So, “We wrestle not against flesh and blood,” that is, Not only have we to wrestle against men; no, not principally are we to look to them, although they be the greatest men upon earth, even kings and monarchs: for all these enemies, they are like the stalking horse that comes before, and Satan, he is lying covertly behind them, setting against us. Although the greatest power in earth be against us, yet there is a greater power against us than they are, who has greater strength than they have: and so the Christian he must look to invisible enemies that are not seen; and this is the power and privilege of faith to doso. And so we must consider “that we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities and powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places:” We wrestle, then, against an enemy who has greater power and policy with him. I told you that these names were used to be applied to persons in the most eminent rooms and places in the world, and so described by their power. And we wrestle against spirits; and so we have them described by their quality. Then we have them described by the place of their residence. Though it’s true, indeed, their proper place, and the place where they must be eternally, is in that lake that burns with fire and brimstone, where their worm never dies, and the fire never goes out, and they must be tied and tethered there for ever, yet by the Lord’s permission, and in his wise providence, he will have them to remain in the air above us, beholding us: for the air, it is called a “heavenly place,” because it is heaved up above us. There these ill spirits are looking upon us and beholding us always; and so they have the advantage of us mn respect of the place, that they do always mark and observe our ways—where away we are going, and what we are doing.
Now, in the words that I have presently read unto you, in the beginning of them, he touks (beats) the drum again, and sounds the trumpet a second time. He had said to them before, “Put on the whole armour of God,” and told them the end of it, “that they might stand out against the wiles of the devil.” And he gives them a reason for it; “for we wrestle not against flesh and blood,” but we have to do with mighty, with malicious, and with dangerous enemies, with principalities and powers, with spirits and rulers of darkness, and with spiritual wickedness in high places; so they have the advantage of the place of us, which is a great matter in war. And therefore I would exhort you again to get this armour; and because it may be ye think ye have not wherewith to get it, take it to you for nought. But when ye have taken it, then ye must resolve to resist and stand out in the ill day; and so ye must resolve not to be a flier, but still to hold your face to the battle and resist; that so, when ye have endeavoured to the uttermost of your power to stand out, and ye have outwrestled all these ills, ye may be found standing in your place, not having yielded one foot of ground to your enemies: ay, that it may be seen that ye have gotten advantage of your enemies, because ye bave kept the field as the last victor, and made your enemies to flee, and has gotten strength to stand still. And if ye shall meet with another conflict again, after that is ended, ye must not yield then neither, but still wrestle and fight on till ye get a full, a final, and a perfect victory over all enemies, till ye overcome the last enemy, and ye be freed from the last enemy, and so freed from all their malice and cruelty.
That ye may consider of the purposes that are contained in this first verse that I have read the better, ye shall look upon it. 1. As it is a repetition; for as I told you now, he gives them a second alarm and a second blast to make them [prepare themselves] for the battle. 2. Consider of the duty he exhorts them unto. 3. Consider of the twofold end, for the which this duty must be performed. The first end is, “That ye may be able to stand out in the ill day.” And so they must make them for conflicts again and again. The second end is, “That having done all,” perfected all, foughten out against all difficulties and overcome them,1 that then ye may be found standing in your place, where ye were set by your general and commander, and not one foot removed for all of them.
First, then, for the repetition, there is a necessity of that; for such is our disposition naturally that we love security, and ease, and peace, but we mistake what peace and security is. We have no will not so much as to hear of war; the very name of peace is a sweet and refreshful thing to us. And surely, to speak the truth of it, there is no eloquence mor science can express how great a benefit, or how comfortable a thing peace is. For if so be that a man had the rents of a king, and had all other private contentments within himself2 that he could wish and desire, if so be that he have not peace, wherefore do they all serve to him? For if he be sitting at his meat into his own house, if so be that he be not at peace, he knows not how soon he shall be thrown out of it; and if he be at his pleasures, or taking pleasure in anything, the very shaking of a leaf will fear him: and so while it is so, what comfort can he have in these things while he has them? And so peace is a very pleasant, it is a very profitable, and it is a very acceptable thing. But we take this peace to be a quiet condition and estate of life here, wherein we are free of all enemies to molest or to trouble us; whereas it is only spiritual peace that makes us safely secure, and that is, to be assured of favour and reconciliation with God in Christ. And having this peace, it makes thee so, that, albeit thou have many enemies against thee, that they may well trouble thee, but they shall not harm thee; they may well pursue thee, but they shall not overcome: in the hinder end of the day, thou shall have the advantage of them, and overcome them. And so this is our true peace and security, and not that which we esteem to be our peace. And therefore we have to learn by this repetition, that we should still rather look to that which is our need, than to that which is our desire. For our desire naturally is that we may have peace, and have no enemies to trouble or molest us; which is a thing impossible to be attained unto while we are in this world, which is a warfare. But our need is, because we have enemies, and we of ourselves are naked, and we are ready to be wounded by them, and since we know that these our enemies are wily, strong, and they are evermore assaulting us and setting upon us; and therefore, since it is so, it is best for us to resolve upon this our estate and condition of life, and not to live in security here. For this is a foolish and a mad thing, for any to say, I shall have peace, though I walk in the imaginations of my own heart; it cannot be so: thy peace, if it be true, it must come only from God. But how can it be possible that thou shall have mighty, strong, and wily enemies, and thou art but a weak silly creature, and thou art continually in their danger (power),—how canst thou then think to have peace, but that it is most necessary for thee to be advertised, and again to be advertised, to make thee for a warfare and a fight? But thy peace, it is this, that albeit thou has enemies, yet they shall do thee no scathe, they shall not overcome thee; they will molest and trouble thee for a time. It is good for us to think upon preparations for enemies of both kinds, and not to think that there is no enemies who will come against us of any kind. It is not so, nor it will never be so, for it is certain that all has enemies; but let us prepare ourselves against these enemies when they come against us, and have all our armour in readiness to defend ourselves against our enemies: and that is only our truest security.
Now for the duty he exhorteth them unto. He said before, “Put on the whole armour of God;” now he says; “Wherefore take unto you the whole armour of God.” Then he would say, There is no more ado but to take this armour unto us freely, and having taken it, to put it on. And, indeed, there is no more ado; for God, he has a munition house and armory,—he has prowsnon enough lying beside him for us: whatever piece of armour thou needs, it is into his kirk, and he has sent his servants to give it out anto thee, Needs thou a headpiece? it is there; needs thou a sword? it is there; or a shield? or thy feet shod? etc., all these are there in his house. And what will they cost you? Picks (pikes) or muskets are not so dear but any of you has spent as much needlessly and unworthily, yea sinfully, as might have furnished you of these; but this armour that is here, it will cost you nothing: ye may get faith, hope, the knowledge of the word of God, assurance of salvation, righteousness, etc., for nothing. And were it not a sweet thing, if so be ye would come to the kirk as poor, naked, weak creatures, and silly bodies, and say, Lord, I am naked, and therefore I come to thee that thou may clothe me; I have many strong and mighty enemies, and thou has bidden me put on armour to fight against them; Lord, let me see what this armour is, and what part of me is naked? And then beseech the Lord that he would put that armour upon you, that so ye may go away again as clothed and armed men, and may see the thing that ye saw not before into yourselves,—faith, hope, love, knowledge of God’s word, righteousness, etc. 0 but this were a sweet thing, if so be ye would do this; and ye would find it to be comfortable! And ye who has gotten some pieces of this armour, and through want of use they are begun to roust (rust) upon you, or if ye would have any piece supplied that is wanting, then come to this armory and get it dressed, and get your wants supplied. Let all come here, both these who wants altogether, these who has any and is not fairdie (fit for use), and these who has some, but wants the rest. This should be our exercise, always to be about these. Our clothes must be our armour, and we must still be putting on more: if we were never so weIl clothed, there must still be a “furthermore.” Albeit thou had rlghteousness and justification by the blood of Christ; albeit thou had holiness and sanctification, and should endeavour thyself to do all the duties that the Lord requires of thee, and which thou ought (owed) to others; all will be but lost labour if so be thou seek not after more.
Now what is the first end wherefore he would have them to take unto them this armour? “Take unto you the whole armour of God,” says he; the end is, “That ye may be able to withstand in the evil day.” Ye may see it clearly, what ye should learn here—the end wherefore there has been set down to us such an ample and a large description of the power, of the malice, of the craftiness and wickedness of Satan in the former verse. “For,” says he, “we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities and powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places.” Wherefore does this description serve to us? Even that we may resolve to resist them, and to fight against them. And so the end wherefore this is set down is not to feed our curiosity—that we may know there are ill spirits, that they are dangerous and powerful, and has their residence in the air; it is not done that we may delight ourselves in the contemplation of these things; for the wicked and natural man and the philosopher can make a large description of the nature of the devil, his power, and the place of his residence. Neither is this description set down to us of him, that out of fear of him we may run to seek his favour, as many in the world thinks. Oh, say they, it is not good to anger the devil, nor is it good to anger witches, who are limbs of the devil, for they may do us much ill, for they are very powerful and crafty, and therefore we will rather seek for their favour. Is this told you, that Satan has power, and that his malice is great, that he is a spirit, and that he has the advantage of the place of you, that either ye should feed your curiosity upon these things, or for this end, that ye may seek his favour and fleitch with (fawn on) him and these who are his instruments, or that ye should become slaves and servants to him? No, no; but the end wherefore this is told you is, “that ye may be able to withstand him in the evil day.” “Satan goes about continually like a roaring lion, seeking whom he may destroy;” and what subjoins he? “Whom resist, steadfast in the faith.”3 As if he said, If so be that Satan be a lion seeking to devour you, guard yourselves against him the surest way ye can. He says not that he is a lion, to that end that ye may hide yourselves from him, or that ye may flee away and turn your backs upon him, when he is pursuing you; or that ye may flatter him and seek his kindness; but he says it for that end that ye may resist him. And what is the surest way to get him resisted? Even to be steadfast in the faith; for that is sure, we must either fight against him and resist him, or otherwise we must yield ourselves to be his slaves perpetually. And so we must resolve, when we hear of the power, of the malice, and of the cruelty of Satan and of his instruments, we must not feed our curiosity, in thinking upon these, nor must we fawn upon him, because he is mighty, malicious, and wily; but that which we are to do, is to withstand him, and to resolve to fight against him.
And, beloved, to help us in this fight, and that we may have the more courage in it, consider of the two parties that strives, each against other. We have upon our side, in this army, God himself with his army and power; he is the Lord and general of the hosts. And we have upon our side our Lord Jesus Christ, who is greater than Joshua, who took upon him to go out against thirty-one kings;4 for as much as was spoken of their greatness and power, he is able to stand out against principalities and powers. And we have the Spirit of God upon our side also; this says the apostle John in his first epistle,5 “The Spirit that is in you, is mightier than the spirit that is in the world.” And so ye have the great Lord God upon your side, who is the Lord of hosts and armies, who goes out before his people unto battle, and who has evermore hithertils (hitherto) been triumphant and victorions. Ye have the Son of God upon your side, who has overcome death, and all these principalities and powers. And ye have the Holy Spirit with you, who is stronger than any spirit that is against you. And ye have also the good angels waiting upon you, who are appointed of God to wait upon, and to minister comfort to them who are heirs of salvation. “He has given his angels charge over you, to keep you always, lest at any time ye should dash your foot against a stone.” And therefore, since ye have God, Christ, the Holy Spirit, and the good angels to wait upon you, why may ye not be strong? Then see and consider who they are who are against you. It’s true they are called “principalities and powers;” these are high styles; but if ye will compare these principalities and powers with God himself, with the Son of God, Jesus Christ, or with the Holy Spirit, ye will see them to be but very weak. Has not our Lord said, “The seed of the woman shall tread down the head of the serpent”? And, moreover, he has said to the serpent, “Thou shalt bruise his heel, but he shall break thine head.” And therefore the seed of the woman must be the greatest power, who shall tread upon Satan’s head and break it. And the apostle Paul to the Romans6 says, “He has tred (trodden) Satan under foot.” Ay, Satan he has no power over the least thing that thou has, albeit (let be) over thyself. He has no power over Job’s cattle or his sheep, or over the life of his sons and of his daughters, to take it from them, but only by the Lord’s permission; and he dare go no farder than he is permitted. Ay, moreover, I may say farder, that he can do nothing to thee against thy own will. He may well trouble and molest thee against thy will; but all these troubles shall turn to thy good, except thou give thy consent and will; for that is certain, there is none who succumbs and yields to the tentations of sin but these who succumbs willingly. For, when thou commits sin, it is not against thy will that thou commits it, but with thy will. I resolve not now upon this, to make any curious distinction and difference between that sinning sin of original corruption, before sin be come so far on as to the consent of the will, and other sins; but I speak now only of actual sins. We cannot be overcome, and fall into an actual sin, without the consent of our will. And, albeit there may be for a while a wrestling against any sin, so that in that respect it is against thy will, yet still the last reluctation, before thou be overcome by it, is of thy own will. If we could keep our own will free, that we willed not to commit such a sin, albeit we had principalities and powers against us, they were able to do us no harm; but through all his onsets we might get good, if we consented not to them with our own will. And so, from the consideration of the two parties that fights against other, we may take courage to stand out, and to fight this battle to the end.
“That ye may be able to withstand in the evil day.” What an evil day is this? Ye must remember that all our days, they may be called ill days, for from once that sin has entered into the world, it has brought so many ills with it as are inexpressible; and it has brought such ills with it that, whatever be the estate or condition of life that any takes them unto, or are in, whether they be rich or poor, honourable or base, in sickness or in health, and so whatever be the estate or condition of their life, and also whatever country or kingdom they live into, all the days men live are but only ill days. All our lifetime is full of miseries, and the life of all who lives since the fall of Adam has been so. And the days of all may be called ill in respect of the sins that they commit in their days, even of the most righteous, since the creation, that ever lived, Jesus Christ only excepted, who was free of sin. Yet albeit he was free of the ills of sin, yet in respect of the ills of misery, his days were as il as any; for he was a man of sorrows from his birth to his burial; his life was nothing else but a web of sorrows. And, beloved, in respect of these ill days, some men who has considered of them, that the ills of a man’s days are like the waves of the sea, one still following at the back of another, they have thought that it was the only best for one never to be born, and if they were born and come into the - world, the next best was to die soon. And Pliny, that great naturalist, when he is describing the life of man, he wonders at it, how miserable it is, and how many ills are joined with it; and he makes the life of man to be worse than the life of the inferiour creatures. And, indeed, were it not for life everlasting—these endless joys and that happiness that is prepared for the children of God after this life— it were much better not to be, than to be at all; or if we gat any being, then to be soon taken from it; and the life of the brute beasts were better than our lifeis. For whatever contentment any can find in anything that is here, it is nothing else but such as strong drink is to a man who is in a raging fever—he gets a little ease for the present by it, but incontinent his thirst begins, and his pain is as great, yea, rather greater than it was before he gat it. And moreover, beloved, as our life has many ills in it, and all our days are full of ills, so our hearts within us, they make us to apprehend more of grief, sorrow, and miscontentment, than they do of joy and contentment; for we feed much more upon the thoughts of the one than we do upon the thoughts of the other. And our soul or heart within us is compared to a sharp sword, that at the drawing out thereof it cuts the scabbard, and so it is painful; and so we are given still to multiply scruples and causes of sorrow to ourselves, and adding sorrow upon the back of sorrow. And so all our days, this way they may be called ill days.
But there be some days that may be called evil days, after a special manner, for the kirk of God, when Satan is letten louse, or when his chain is made long, and so he gets leave to trouble and to persecute the kirk of God, either by open persecuting enemies, or by secret enemies to arise within herself, and to eat her up by heresies and errours. And, indeed, these are very ill, any of them—either persecutions or heresies; but worst of all, when they go both together. As the true kirk of Christ may be said to be under both these in respect of the Roman Antichrist; for he persecutes the true kirk by cruelty, and defiles all, so far as he can, by heresies and errours.
Then, beloved, I would have you to consider of this. All of you are complaining, and says, Lord, but our days be both few and ill, and many troubles bide we in them? and what is all our lifetime but a fighting and a wrestling to win through this false world? It’s true, I grant, your days may be called evil, but there is another sort of evil than ye have seen yet. If the Lord shall be pleased to send days of bloodshedding amongst [us], so that each one shall be sheathing his sword into his neighbour’s side, then ye will be forced to confess that all the days ye have hitherto had has been good days in respect of these, and to acknowledge that we have not been thankful enough to the Lord for the good days that we have hitherto enjoyed. And, indeed, I may say from sundry reasons that we in this kirk and land may justly look for ill days, wherein Satan shall kythe (show) himself to be mighty and strong in pursuing us. The first reason that I give for it is this. There is no other reformed kirk in Christendom but only we of this land, but they have had ill and sore days. Even these that were the most truly reformed kirks in Germany, France, Sweden, etc., all of these has had ill days of great wars and troubles; and yet once they had greater peace than we have. And they had greater plenty also; they had stronger walls and better fortified towns and castles, to defend themselves withal, than any that we have; and yet, nevertheless, these has been taken away from them. And they have had ill days—they have had wars, and all the calamities that follows war: and it has lasted with them for a very long time. And since the Lord has gone about this way, and given every one of the Reformed kirks about us a taste of the cup; since Germany, France, Sweden, all of them has had their ill days with the gospel, then Scotland, thou must have thy ill days next. A second ground whereupon I say this is, because we have justly deserved it at the Lord’s hand, that it should be so. For the Lord our God, he has been bountiful and beneficial to us, even by (above) other Reformed kirks, in bestowing the word and the sacraments upon us in such plenty and in such purity; and yet, nevertheless, we have far exceeded all of them in sin. But especially we are guilty of this sin, that, for as clear a light as we had, yet we are altogether almost ignorant, for the most part of us, in the grounds of our religion, in serving of God, and saving of our own souls. And, indeed, there cannot be a worse nor a more heinous sin than this is, to have the light of the truth clearly revealed unto us, and yet to be ignorant of the grounds thereof. Ay, moreover, I may say, what sin has there been in any nation, since the beginning, which has not been in Scotland, and that in a very high measure? either ungodliness, profanity, uncleanness, etc.? And, beloved, a third cause that makes me to think that the Lord will afflict us, and suffer ill days to be amongst us is,—Of late, ye know, within these twelve months by-past, there are many in this land who has given up their names, and has holden up their hands before him and sworn to him and to his covenant, and has put to their names to it, and subscribed it. Now all, for the most part, in this land (has done this. Were it not just, therefore, with the Lord that he should put them to a trial, and let it be seen who has done it in truth and in their hearts, and who has done it but only for a fashion? Were it not just that he should take a fan in his hand, and let it be seen who are the chaff, and who are the con? And therefore of necessity we must conclude that there must be an ill day of this kind. It will be the strangest and the most wonderful thing that ever was heard or read of, if so be that the Lord shall establish the truth of religion into this land, and we shall not find some ill days or (ere) then, of whatever sort they may be. And therefore, it is good for us that we should not dream to go to heaven sleeping; it will not be so with us: ay, our ill day may come upon us, when we have but little mind of it. We have hithertils seen good days; it’s truth, I grant, they may be called ill days also, but they are good in this respect, that we may see worse than ever we have seen yet. For what is a little touch of famine, or a little of the pestilence, to that, if the Lord shall be pleased to send the sword amongst us, and every man to sheath his sword into his neighbour’s side? Then there shall be nothing but howling and crying among people; and they shall be forced to acknowledge then, suppone they will not do it now, that they have not been thankful enough to the Lord for the good days that they have had, and be forced to say that these are ill days indeed.7
Now, for this ill day whereof he speaks, ye see he would have them to be armed against it, and prepared for it—“Put on the whole armour of God.” Then ye must have your armour dressed before the ill day come, that so when the ill day comes upon you, all of you may be ready, and able to stand out in it. So then, this is the wisdom and prudence and foresight of the godly, that when the ill day comes upon them, they make all things in readiness for it while they are in peace, because they have no certainty that that shall continue with them; and therefore they make themselves for a change. Job says, “The evil that I feared is come upon me:”8 there is no wise man but he projects (forecasts) this, that ill may come upon him. Not that he distrusts, either; but because he deserves it because of his sins, and because God’s providence, it is so towards others: it is because of these that Job did beforehand fear the ill that came upon him at last. And the apostle Paul says, Acts 20:23, that he knew that bands and afflictions abode him in every city: so he looked for afliction all the days of his life, and he looked for it in every place he came unto; and he resolved to stand out against them all. Even so should we do—be as sojourners and pilgrims here, and be prepared, and resolve to stand out against whatever we can meet with in the way to heaven. It is a pitiful thing when the ill day comes upon us, and we are not prepared for it: for we get peace for that end, that we may be prepared for war. The silly emmet and the bee, while the summer and hot weather lasts, they provide themselves for the cold storms of winter; and shall such beasts as these be appointed for masters to us, and shall not we learn our lessons at them? And what is this that we ourselves do in summer and in harvest, when God furnishes all things unto us, but provides ourselves against these times and seasons when he furnishes them not? So that if we will lay our count that there is an ill day coming, albeit it should not be till the day of our death, yet we may assure ourselves that at the fardest it shall come then. And therefore, it is good for us that we have many of our ill days by our hand (over), before the day of death come upon us. They who has had many sour days, and many bitter and sharp showers all the time of their life, they will readily (likely) have a quiet and a peaceable end, and a sweet calm death.9 Whereas, if their life has been clean of all sort of trouble, so that they never knew what the anger of God was, or the crying of their consciences for sin, they may look for that, either in a moment to be flung into hell, or otherwise that at their death they shall abide sore and grievous conflicts, and that they shall find enough ado to win (get) through it. And therefore, albeit we had no more ado but only that, against the day of our death, we should still be furnishing and providing ourselves for it, for then there may arise [a sore] storm upon us, which will give all our tackling enough ado, and that will give us use for all our pieces. And the children of God, they are evermore preparing themselves for such onsets as these: and when they do so beforehand, then the Lord himself, he leads them to such points in that day, as will be most comfortable to them. Even things, that there is a long time passed since they thought upon them, the Spirit brings them to their remembrance, so that they will be forced to say, I see that God has a providence in such things as these; and I see his wisdom in preparing me for such conflicts as these, while I had but little mind of them. O if they be not in an evil case, who are not prepared for the day of tentation and trial, especially when the devil sets,upon them to try them, that then they have nothing to say to him! If it be so, then of necessity they cannot choose but perish.
The second end wherefore he would have them to take with them the whole armour of God is, that “Having done all, ye may stand.” That is, That ye, having perfited your combat, and made strong opposition to all your enemies, ye may then be found standing in your place.
“All” What all is this? That is, having outwrestled all your enemies, and bidden all the cold storms of trouble that could come upon you, yet ye are found standing. Whereby he would bring us to the consideration of this point, that in our walking in the way to heaven we will [meet] with many ills and enemies. Job says, “Thou has multiplied thy witnesses against me:” in the own (original) language it is, “Thou has multiplied thy plagues upon me.”10 As if he said, I had once a fair and very pleasant day, wherein all things went well with me, and I had no trouble; but now I find that to be changed, and [there] is a shower come upon me, and it has heavy drops, and many of them. And Ecclesiastes 12:1, “Remember thy Creator in the days of thy youth.” Ay indeed, it is good for us to remember the Lord in time, and therefore is it that he subjoins, “while the ill days comes not, and the years draw near, when thou has no pleasure in them.” And sicklike (in the same manner,) ye see our Lord and Saviour, after the ill day of his first tentation was past, there was still one ill day came upon him after another, and a second, and a third: and then there came a little calm, but it lasted but for a short time; and the greatest and the heaviest shower of all came in the end. And these, indeed, are ordinarily the two principal times wherein the Lord gives trouble to his children. First, when God calls thee first from nature to grace; then he will let thee find a storm. Secondly, when he is to call thee to himself out of this miserable life here unto a life of glory. These are ordinarily the hours and times of greatest and sorest tentations for the children of God. It is spoken of the wicked, Isaiah 24:18, and Amos 5:19 it is spoken of them also, When God is pursuing them, they shall be “as if a man did flee from a lion, and a beer (bear) met him; or went into the house, and leaned his hand on the wall, and a serpent did bite him.”11 But certainly, this is in something like in the godly also, that no sooner have they done with wrestling with one trouble, but another comes presently and meets them in the teeth again, even as Job’s messengers came upon him. “And while he was yet speaking, another came; and while he was yet speaking, another came,” etc.; tells him this ill, and this ill, comes unto thee, and would not tell him all at once, nor would they give him a space between every one of them. When the Lord is dealing thus with any, he is trying their faith, hope, patience, etc.: and yet even then [when?] the Lord deals so, he can give strength to stand. And therefore, if it shall please the Lord to assay thee thus, then prepare thyself for them. News comes to Job that his oxen and his asses were taken away; then word comes that his sheep and his servants were taken away; then his camels; then his children are slain. So when the evil day comes upon thee, prepare thee to have every hour of it worse than another, and aye the last to be the worst, whill (till) the calm come. And yet thou must resolve to stand out against these; for it is but a day that they last, not a year, nor a lifetime, nor to all eternity; even as aflliction is termed a cup, and not a tun nor a barrel. And Christ himself, he has drunken the greatest part, and the bitterest of this cup; and therefore what should need us to be feared to taste it next? So that we may see there are ill days prepared for the godly, even days wherein they looked not for such strong tentations as these that come upon them; “for we wrestle against principalities and powers.” God will of necessity have us put unto a trial; and therefore we must take heed unto ourselves, and prepare ourselves for this. For God will have all to suffer ill days, and happy are they who are prepared for it, and gets the Lord’s special grace and assistance to bear them through, till the storm be past over their heads, and they get a peaceable calm.
Now we must “do all,” and so we must “stand.” We must overcome all our enemies; and when we have overcome all of them, then we must be found standing. For it is but a little matter to fight against one, two, or three enemies, and to overcome them, and then we shall be overcome by the fourth: or wherefore serves it that we shall fight well all the day, and when night comes, or in the evening, we shall yield and give over? But thou must think, I have spent so much pains and travel upon this; and shall I now at the hinderend give it over, and lose all that I have done? I have sailed long, and endured many hazardous and sore storms; and now when [ am come to the mouth of the harberie (harbour), shall I make shipwrack of my ship? So I may say to you, what ye have done even in the cause that is presently in hand, we deserve that we should tine (lose) all, if we give it over now, when matters are come to a point: we must resolve to endure to the end. There were ill days threatened to come upon us, even of taking away the purity of the gospel from us; and we have done what we can to prevent them hithertils: but if so be that we withdraw now, and we go not on as we have begun, it were better for us that we had never put our hand to the work. We must not by any means fall away again; but let our motions in this be as natural motions, and not as artificial motions: the longer that we go on, let us go fordward the more fordwardly and speedily. Artificial motions, the longer they move they are the more slow, but motions that are natural, the longer they last they are the more swift. As a man who is running, because in a manner it is artificial, the longer he runs he runs the more slowly; but that which is narural, if it be a thing that is heavy, the farder down it go it is the more swift, and if it be a thing light that ascends, the farder up it be it ascends the faster. So must it be with the motions of the Christian in the ways of God; the longer they last they must be the more vehement and fervent. And so by all means possible let us strive for perseverance to the end.
Now we must so do all, and persevere, that when the battle and the conflict is ended, and death is come upon us, then we must stand. There is a twofold station of a Christian. The Apostle Paul, who was eloquent enough, and so needed not to make repetitions, nor was he a man who delighted in babblings and in idle speeches,12 he repeats this word thrice, “to stand;” and he has also another word very like unto it, albeit it be not the same. First, he bids them “put on the whole armour of God, that they may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil;” and that which is presently before, to take unto them the whole armour of God, that they may be able to withstand the wiles of the devil; which is very like to that word, “stand.” And here he says, “That having done all, ye may stand:” and in the next words, “Stand therefore, having your loins girt about, etc.” For it is a thing that sets (becomes) a soldier very well, to stand fast and sure, that he will not remove his foot for no craft nor violence of his enemies, ay, albeit he should lose his life by it, yet he will stand. I say, there is a twofold station of a Christian. The first is in respect of his general vocation: for in respect of that, even of his first general vocation, he is one of the soldiers of the Lord’s army; and therefore it becomes him to stand. Now, men departs from their station this way, when they depart from the kirk, and the society of the godly. The second station is in respect of thy particular calling, whatever it be: and when thou art placed in that stance, thou should keep it, and not leave it, nor remove to another man’s room. Now, thou leaves this thy room and station which the Lord has put thee in, when thou takes thee to the discharging of another man’s place. As if a magistrate should take upon him to discharge the office of a minister, or a minister should take upon him to discharge the office of a magistrate. If a magistrate should take upon him to prescribe a service-book for the use of the kirk, which office should allanerly (only) belong to the minister, to be done by him according to the Word of God, being directed by his Spirit; or when a minister takes upon him to be a Lord of Council, or a Justice of Peace,13 or any such offices as these, which belongs to the civil magistrate, that is for a man to leave his place and his station, wherein the Lord has placed him. And Satan, he gets a double advantage by this manner of dealing, when there is a defection of this sort, and men begins to change their places thus; for so both kirk and commonwealth are neglected and corrupted. And this same, I am sure, was a sensible and an evident fault in this land. For God had gathered a kirk together here, and had appointed each one their own place into it, and ordained that all things should be ruled in it according to his word; and did cast out all other officemen out of the kirk, whom God had not allowed to be in it: and what were we doing for all that? Even running back again to Rome with all our might, and taking us unto that Roman hierarchy that we had formerly abjured, and was condemned by the word of God and this Reformed kirk. And then magistrates were appointing services to be used in the worship of God, and ministers were advanced to the highest and chiefest places of state in the kingdom,—to be Chancellor, Thesaurer, Privy Seal: all these men of kirk were aiming at.14
And what is it that we are aiming at now at this time again? Nothing else but that we may be brought back from Rome again, whereunto we were brought so far on, and that men who has come out of their places both in kirk and common weal may be brought back to their own places again. We are domg nothing else but crying back upon these who were running back with all their might to the enemy’s army, even to the Antichrist, and crying to them to come in to Christ’s army again, and that each one who are out of order in the army may be brought back to their own stations again. And we are crying upon them in a friendly manner to come back. This is a great cumber indeed, to get this done; and it is no wonder that it is so. When an army is marching, and some begins to lie behind, some to change their places, and some to fall back to the enemy, they will soon go out of order; but it is long before they can be gotten in so good order again. It will take much pains, and it will require great skill, to get them right again, and every man in his own place. And therefore, think not this a strange thing, that the reformation of religion should take us the space of a year before it can be gotten done: I wish to God from my heart that it were well done in seven years.
I thought to have spoken a little to you concerning the several pieces of this spiritual armour; but I will not stay upon it now, but will refer (defer) it till the afternoon. And then, God willing, we shall speak something of every one of them severally. But it is regretful that the most part of you thinks yourselves holy enough, if ye come to the kirk once on the Sabbath, and that ye are overholy, if ye come twice to it. Always (however), I will not stay to speak of these pieces of armour particularly now. But this much I may say; if ye knew what these pieces of armour were, and for what use they did serve, ye would strive by all means to get them on. First, for to get an honest heart; secondly, to get a righteous conversation; thirdly, to be prepared and enabled to go through all dangers and difficulties; fourthly, to have the shield of faith, that when Satan shoots his fiery darts at you, ye have your shield to defend you. Then, to have on you the helmet of salvation, and the sword of the Spirit, both to defend yourself and to offend your enemies. And then there is your using of these pieces of armour, when ye have gotten them put upon you: “Praying always with all prayers and supplications in the Spirit, and watching thereunto with all supplications and perseverance for all saincts.” As, indeed, there is a mustering and a showing of all these pieces of armour, when we go about prayer aright, strive to know these things, to know that ye want them; and believe that they are to be gotten in the Lord’s armoury; that so ye may come with a disposition to seek them and get them. And having gotten them, say, Lord, here I am, armed with thy own armour, which thou has made and given unto me, ready to fight against all thy enemies and my enemies; and therefore go thou before me as my Lord and leader, till I be victorious over all my enemies, and so get the reward promised, through Jesus Christ. To whom, etc.