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Ye were first of all exhorted in the conclusion of this epistle, because we have no strength of our own, and we have much ado with strength, “To be strong in the Lord, and in the power of his might.” Draw once the Lord to be upon our side, and then we shall be strong enough against all our enemies, and we shall be sure to prevail over them. Next, there is a duty proponed—“Put on the whole armour of God.” The end is, “That ye may be able to stand out against the wiles of the devil.” And the reason that he gives to move us to put it on is, “For we wrestle not against flesh and blood,” at least we wrestle not chiefly and principally against them, even when we have flesh and blood for our enemies, but we wrestle against these who are described hereafter after so wonderful and strange a manner, “Against principalities and powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places.” And then the apostle, he repeats his warning again, and desires them “to take unto them the whole armour of God.” And he does this for two ends especially, which are both set down in the words. First, “That ye may stand out in the evil day.” That is, ye know not how soon evil days may come upon you, and therefore it is fitting for you to take unto you the whole armour of God, that so ye may not be overcome then. The second end wherefore he would have them to take unto them this armour is, That they may persevere, and keep their station to the end; that when they have wrestled against all their enemies, and has overcome even the last enemy, which is death, they may be found standing in their own room and station unremoved.
Now, in these words that presently I have read to you, he comes to the description of the particular pieces of this armour. Now, what I shall do to you in this purpose shall be only this. Without diversity of interpretations, I shall show unto you what is likeliest, and what to my judgment is meant by every one of these pieces severally. 1 shall then give unto you some general properties and qualities of the whole pieces of this armour together. And so I shall close this purpose, not being minded to insist curiously upon it; for it would require a long time.
First, he would have them belted about with the girdle or belt of truth; he begins at that. Now when ye hear of this truth, I am sure ye have either one thought or other what this truth can be. The word of God is called truth; but that cannot be the thing that is meant here, for the word of God is that piece of armour which is called the sword of the Spirit. And therefore this belt or girdle must be some other thing than to be girded with the truth of God’s word; for a sword and a girdle cannot both of them be one thing. Neither can this girdle of truth, the meaning of it be the verity of our speeches, which is truth; for being clothed with this armour of God, we are armed against him who is a liar and the father of all lies; and so by being clothed with this armour it is that we speak the truth, and so that cannot be the meaning of it. And so this truth, it must be the soundness of the heart, uprightness, godly simplicity, and honesty in all our actions, striving to do everything as in the sight of God. And this truth is the thing which every one thinks they have, and they think they do all things with an honest heart; but when the godly begins to examine themselves whether they have this truth or not, they find themselves to be scarce enough of it. And he calls this truth a girdle or a belt, taking a comparison from soldiers; even as if there were a gaping between the upper part of their armour, which covereth the head and the breast, and that which covers their belly, their thighs, their legs, etc.; this belt or girdle, it covers that part which is naked there. And this belt or covering, in old times it served also for ornament or decoring. So it was studded with brass, or silver, or gold, or some finer things than any of these, as precious stones and so the belt was put about them to decore (adorn) them. And it served also for buckling of their armour together, that it should not get low, to fall sundry (asunder), and for strengthening them; so it was not only requisite for armour to fight, but also in a journey.
And therefore ye must get an honest, upright, and a pure heart, aiming in all things ye do principally and chiefly at the honour of God, and denying yourselves in all things, or seeking of your own pleasure, gain, or ease, or reputation; which is contrair to hypocrisy. For hypocrisy neglects that part,—to seek after the honour of God, and seeks only itself, and after credit and estimation in the world. And therefore get that belt or girdle, and it shall be a guard to that part which is bare, and the enemy will get advantage at it, if it be not covered. It shall also serve for an ornament to thee; and it shall serve for buckling of thy armour together, that it go not sundry.
The second piece of this armour is “The breast-plate of righteousness.” The breast, it has very great need to be kept and defended; for there lies all the noble parts of a man, and a small wound at the breast will kill a man, especially if he get but the least wound in the heart, for the heart lies in the breast. Now the piece of armour that he ordains, or I may say the Spirit of God ordains, for defending of it, is “righteousness.” Now, ye may not think that this righteousness, which is here spoken of, is the righteousness of faith; for the shield of faith, it follows after this, as another several piece of this armour. Nor can I call this, chiefly and properly, that inherent righteousness which we receive at our first regeneration, for that is it which makes a man first to be a Christian, and to enter to be a soldier of Christ; whereas here he is spoken of as one who is a Christian and a soldier already, and is bidden put on this armour to defend himself, as a Christian soldier. But this righteousness is a holy and unblamable conversation, and a good conscience. When he looks upon his by-gane sins, he is heartily sorrowful for them; and when he looks upon the tentations that he may have to sin, he purposes to strive against them. And he is busied in trying of his sins, aud confessing them before God; and is earnest in begging strength from the Lord, that he may hereafter serve him, in holiness and in righteousness, all the days of his life. And this righteousness, it is a breastplate to him, because it fences the heart and the noble parts many times. For a man who has seen his by-gane sins, and been sorrowful for them; has been busied in striving against them, and purposes to strive against all tentations to sin for times to come; and is aye purging out sin as fast as he can, and when he sees it, confesses it to God; when Satan begins to assault any man, and to tempt him to sin, this beats back his tentation again. For come to a man who has gotten a sight of his sins, and has found grief and sorrow of heart for them, when Satan or any of his instruments comes to tempt him to do anything that is wrong, he will answer with Joseph, Shall such a man as I am commit such a sin, and offend God? Sin has already brought me to great grief and sorrow; I have confessed my sins to God, and I have purposed, and promised to him to strive against them; and so it will be a shame for me to offend my God in committing more sins, and bring more guiltiness, and so more grief and sorrow to my own soul. Secondly, a man who has this inward testimony of his own righteousness, when he meets with reproaches into the world, and men are lying against him and calumniating him, he comforts himself with this, even with that testimony that he has of his own righteousness. And albeit it is true he be guilty in many cases before God, yet he comforts himself with this, even with that testimony that he has of his own righteousness in that cause. For there be many who are guilty in their persons, and yet will be righteous as concerning that cause wherefore they are challenged as guilty. Thirdly, when Satan begins to cast up that to them (upbraid them with that), and to brangle (disturb) them in that point, that they are not the chosen nor elect of God, this righteousness, it is a breastplate to ding (beat) back that tentation in his teeth, and to repel all these. When they have a conscience telling them that they hate every sin, and strives against all sins, and so it keeps them from committing of many sins which otherwise they would commit, it saves them from being discouraged by the calumnies of the world and the devil, and it is a testimony and seal to them of their election.
The third piece of this armour is, “Having your feet shod with the preparation of the gospel of peace.” For while we are in this world, fighting in this warfare, still we are in danger; and there is even danger for our feet. For there are many high mountains and many rough pieces in this way; and therefore we had need to have our feet and our legs armed, as well as any of the rest of our members. And surely, in our whole pilgrimage in this world, we are in a rough and thorny way, so that we cannot set down our feet but upon stones, thorns, or briers, or something of that kind. But there is a promise made unto the godly, that they shall be led over the hole of the asp and of the cockatrice, and shall not be harmed. Now this could not be done if they were barefooted, but they must kep (catch) skaith (harm) by walking there; but they get on shoes upon their feet, and so it is that they walk and are safe. And in the Canticles, the spouse there is said to be cled with badgers' skins, typifying this same, to have her feet shod.1 Now to make it plain to you what the meaning of this is, to have our feet shod with the preparation of the gospel of peace, this is it;—when I am prepared by this gospel of peace to go through every hard trouble, and to oppose every adversary that can encounter me, coming from the devil, and the world, and my own flesh. For the gospel of peace, it does this;—it prepares a man in peace to go through all troubles peaceably, that he can meet with. And he goes through them all on these two grounds. 1. By this gospel of peace I get assurance that all my sins are done away through the blood of Jesus Christ; and this makes me willing to undergo all troubles. 2. By this gospel of peace I am assured that all things work together for the best to them that love God: and if all things work for their best, then afHlictions work for their best also. It’s true, if it were to my choose (choice), I could choose fewer afflictions; but when God gives many afflictions and crosses into the way, the more of them that I meet with into this way, there is the more good for me. Why then should not I undergo them willingly, seeing they tend for my good? And so that is the preparation of the gospel of peace, when I am persuaded by it of the favour of God, through Jesus Christ,~—that through him all my sins are done away; and when I am persuaded that everything he does to me is in love and for my good, and not from hatred and to my destruction; and everything that I can meet with into this way, although it were never so crooked and never so troublesome, yet it serves for the honour of God, and for my eternal happiness, and now and then, albeit not always, for my comfort in this life, and for everlasting comfort in the life to come. By these it is, that a man is prepared to go through all troubles patiently.
The fourth piece of this armour is, “Above all, taking the shield of faith, wherewith ye shall be able to quench the fiery darts of the devil.” Faith is a thing that is often spoken of, and O but there be much spoken concerning faith, both in preaching and otherwise! Will ye come to any preaching, wherever it be, but ye will hear of faith? but it is a pitiful thing that the most part both of preachers and hearers understands not what faith is; and because we understand it not, therefore we get it not into our hand, as a shield to defend us. And by reason of the want of this shield, Satan lends out many lashes and straikes (strokes) at us, by himself and by his instruments; and by them wounds our souls deep, and often deadly. This is faith;—when I hear of Christ, of the promises made by him in the gospel, I believe in him, and believes his promises; and not only do I believe his promises, but all other things that are contained in his word,—threatenings and precepts and all, by one and the same faith. For there is not one faith for believing the promises, another for believing the threatenings, and a third for believing the precepts; there is not one faith whereby I believe for life, and another whereby I believe the promises of life. There is but one faith for all, even as it is one and the same soul and spirit that works both in reason, in sense, and vegitation (velitation?),2 and not three diverse souls. Even so it is faith, and one and the same faith, that takes hold of all things in the word of God. This faith, it is a shield to the soul, so that whenever Satan comes with his tentations, presently faith repels it, and it quenches all the fiery darts that he can cast at thy soul. When Satan casts a fiery dart, if it be for sin, if this faith be inlaking (deficient), it makes the soul to burn into despair; and if it be a fiery dart of tentation to sin, it will burn for a long time, if there be not faith, so that hardly can it be gotten extinguished. But if so be that there be faith in the soul, it is like water cast upon fire, to quench all these. If so be that the fiery dart that is casten be for sin committed, then it runs to the blood of Jesus Christ, and so it gets that fiery dart slockened (quenched); and if so be that it be a tentation to sin, then it runs to the Spirit of Christ, to get the bloody issue of its corruptions cured, that so they may not commit sin. So that there is in tentation no dart, albeit it were never so fiery, that it would even threaten to burn and to destroy the soul, but if thou have faith, and hold it as a shield into thy left hand, it shall be able to quench all these fiery darts.
The fifth piece of this armour is “The helmet of salvation.” The apostle, writing to the Thessalonians, he has eased us of the pains we might have in exponing what this is; he calls this helmet of salvation, “hope.”3 And so we may see that this helmet is salvation hoped for: and this piece of armour, it is put upon the head, as being the principal part of the body. For faith, it is the mother of hope, and hope is the daughter of faith; for where there is true faith, there is hope also. And this hope is not only, that the Lord will give to his own life everlasting, and a crown of glory in heaven; but this hope, it is also this,— they who have sound and upright faith, they hope also that the Lord will do good to them all the days of their life, while they are here. And this is as a helmet to the head, which keeps them many times from being harmed by Satan.
The sixth piece of this armour is “The sword of the Spirit.” Now the exposition of this also is set down in the next words, “which is the word of God.” And this sword, it is not enough for you to have it in the scabbard, or in a book lying in your windows, at the back of your buird (table), or anywhere else, but ye must have this sword into your hand; and ye may not have this sword rousted, but it must be clear; it must be always in readiness to guard and defend ourselves, and to offend and hurt Satan and his instruments, whensoever they assault us.
And then, in the last roum (place), follows “prayer,” which, as I told you before, is a matter of fact, and a mustering of all our armour. And it is diversely expressed, and that in very pithy words here. First, “Praying always.” This is not to pray at every time, but the meaning of it is to pray at every occasion. It is not that we should do no other thing but pray, but we must pray and do the works of our calling, eat, drink, etc.; howsoever, indeed, 1 grant, we should not at any time make ourselves unfit for prayer, but be ready for it always when the Lord offers occasion; and albeit we be not always about express prayer, yet we should still have holy ejaculations, and be lifting up our souls inwardly to God. If we would do this we would find the blessing of God more sensibly upon everything we take inhand than we do. Secondly, we must pray “with all manner of supplications.” In everything we must pray to God, both to remove all our ills from us, and to supply all our wants, etc.; even for everything let us pray to God. Thirdly, we must pray “in the Spirit;” that is, we must pray with the heart, sensibly, and not use lip-labour only, for that will not do the turn; but there must be a presenting of the heart, without the which, even without a present heart, our words cannot be free, without wandering here and there. And this present heart, it will be only when thou art touched with a sense of the presence of God, who is looking upon thee, and with a sense of thy own vileness, and of thy need and necessity. But having these, it will make thee to be hearty and earnest in prayer, even to pray with the spirit. Fourthly, we must pray “with all watchfulness.” So in prayer we must always watch, both before prayer, in the time of prayer, and when we have ended our prayer, that so thou may walk worthy ot thy calling, and accordingly as such a matter requires of thee. And then he enjoins them to pray for all saints, and for him in particular. This is the description of these several pieces of armour shortly.
If so be that ye would fight against Satan, ye must have honest and upright hearts, in all things seeking the glory and honour of God, and not seeking yourselves, or your own glory, ease, or pleasure. 2. Ye must have a good, a peaceable, a calm and quiet conscience, upon good grounds. 3. Ye must have such a knowledge of the gospel of peace, that by it ye may be persuaded of the remission of your sins, as also that everything that the Lord sends unto you is out of love, and that all things work together for the best to them that love him. 4. Ye must have faith to believe, both for the pardon and remission of your sins and that the ‘Lord will provide every necessary thing for you—for grace here, and for glory hereafter. 5. Ye must have hope, not only for life everlasting, but even that the Lord will bestow good things upon you here. 6. Ye must be well acquainted with the word of God, that so, ye being well acquainted with it, ye may be as our Saviour Chiist was, when he was invaded and tempted by Satan; he used only this piece of armour against him, and by that same it was that he did beat back his tentations. Even so ye must do also, when Satan tempts you any way; say as our Lord did, “It is written, it is written.” And then, because it is prayer that makes all these pieces ferdy (ready for use), it is a mustering of our armour, and that which holds us always upon our guard, therefore strive to have the right form of praying to God. Pray at all occasions, in everything pray, pray in the Spirit, with all watchfulness: and with thyself remember all the rest of God’s children. which sort of prayer will only be acceptable to God, and comfortable to thy own soul.
By this ye may perceive (It is a pitiful thing to see you so senseless that when I am speaking to you of armour wherewith to defend yourselves, and whereby to offend your enemies, that yet ye will not leave your sleeping: and I speak it after such a manner for that end that ye may take up (comprehend) things, that I am even almost ashamed of myself; and yet ye will not take heed to that which is spoken, and hold up your heads from sleeping). Always (nevertheless) I say, by this ye may perceive how pitiful and lamentable a case that soul is in, who wants these spiritual weapons and this armour. Now if ye would consider of this aright, and know how doolful a case it is, look upon the contraries of these, and think upon that, what it is to have them. First, that thou has a counterfeit, false, and hypocritical heart, that did never mind the honour of God. but does ever mind thy own honour in everything thou does, as is too evident in many in the world. Ye will never hear them discourse of anything but a part of their discourse will be of themselves, and for themselves, while it may be many times there will not be one word of it for the honour of God. Then to have [an evil] and an accusing conscience crying to thee night and day, telling thee that thou had never a purpose to serve God, and to save thy own soul, by anything that thou did. And when any evil comes upon thee, thou not having the assurance of the pardon and remission of thy sins, thou takes it as a punishment for sin, and has no assurance that it shall tend for thy good. And then, when Satan casts his fiery darts at thee, thou has no faith to repulse them, and so they burn and torment thy soul. And then thou lives without hope in the world, and so lives without any good thing; for thou lives without God, without faith, and without hope. And then thou knows not what the sword of the Spirit means. Thou has not a sentence of the word of God in readiness when thou has ado with it, either to defend thyself or to offend thy enemies. And then, for prayer, thou may well for a fashion say on the ten commandments, the belief, and the Lord’s prayer, morning and evening, and in the morning for a fashion seek God’s blessing to thy work, etc.; but thou knows not what this is, to pray at every occasion, to pray to God for everything, to pray in the spirit as well as in word, and to pray with all watchfulness, both before prayer, in the time of prayer, and after prayer, and [lastly] to pray for others as well as for thyself, Now, when the soul is thus, and is naked of all these pieces of armour, then the devil may do with thee what he likes. He may muster thy sins before thee, and make thee to despair because of them; and he can lead thee on from one sin to another, till the cup be full; and so thou be delivered to him, and be cast in hell by him. And what wonder is it that he lead thee thus, when he is so strong and well armed, and thou are so weak and unarmed? It’s even as (as if) a giant, who were strong and well armed, should set upon a weak unarmed man to destroy him; how should the poor weak man escape? For him to flee, the strong man is swifter than he is, and so he will overtake him: he is not able to defend himself, and so he is forced to stand still, and come under the enemy’s power, and be in his will; and there he overcomes him, wounds him deadly, and taketh him captive. Even so is it with Satan; when thou art naked, and he pursues thee, thou art in his power for want of this armour; and so comes of thee, whoever thou be, for he spares none.
It were good for us, therefore, that we should labour always to have on this armour,—to get it on, and to hold it on. Beseech the Lord that he would give unto you an honest and an upright heart, that he would give unto you a sound and a quiet conscience, that he would certify thee that thou has had repentance for thy by-gane sins, that thou has purposed, and striven, and still resolves to strive against all tentations to sin, and avoideth all occasions thereof, confesses thy sins to God, and beggeth strength from him to serve him better hereafter. And beseech him also to give thee shoes upon thy feet, that thou may be able to go through all rough and perilous ways. Beseech him also to give thee the shield of faith, that thou may be able to stand out against all tentations either to sin or for sin; and thou may have thy head covered with the helmet of hope. And beseech him to give thee the sword of the spirit in thy hand, that thou may stand as the soldier of God, ready to fight against all enemies whatsoever; and that he would pour out the spirit of prayer upon thee, according to his promise. And, having on that complete armour, thou may be sure to overcome all enemies that can come against thee.
One thing there remains that would be (should be) marked here, and ye may see it clearly from the words. And this is it, that all the several pieces of armour that are set down here, they are all of them for defence of the fore part of a man, and none of them are appointed for the back. At least, negatively we may say that none of them are ordained for the back. The shield of faith, the sword of the Spirit, the breastplate of righteousness, and all armour of that kind, are for the fore part, and not for the back. And the reason of this, it may be taken from these words that the apostle James uses in his epistle.4 He says there, “Resist the devil, and he will flee from you.” So when the devil is pursuing us, we must5…