The Armour We Use Against Satan Must be Divine by Constitution

[The armour we use against Satan  must be divine by constitution.]

 Observe Second.  The Christian's armour must be of God in regard of its make and constitution.  My meaning is, it is not only that God must appoint the weapons and arms the Christian useth for his defence: but he must also be the efficient of them, he must work in them and for them.  Prayer is an appointment of God, yet this is not armour of proof, except it be a prayer of God flowing from his Spirit, Jude 20.  Hope, that is the helmet the saint by command is to wear, but this hope must be God's creature; ‘who hath begotten us to a lively hope,’ I Pet. 1:3.  Faith, that is another principal piece in the Christian's furniture, but it must be faith of God's elect, Titus 1:1.  He is to take righteousness and holiness for his breastplate, but it must be true holiness: ‘Put on the new man, which after God is created in righteousness and true holiness,’ Eph. 4:24.  Thus you see that it is not armour as armour, but as armour of God, that makes the soul impregnable.  That which is born of God overcometh the world—a faith born of God, a hope born of God.  But the spurious adulterous brood of duties and graces, being begot of mortal seed, cannot be immortal.

             Must the soul's armour be of God's make?  Be exhorted then to look narrowly whether the armour ye wear be the workmanship of God or no.  There is abundance of false ware put off now-a-days; little good armour worn by the multitude of professors.  It is Satan's after-game he plays, if he cannot please the sinner with his naked state of profaneness, to put him off with something like grace, some flighty stuff, that shall neither do him good, nor Satan hurt.  Thus many [are] like children, that cry for a knife or dagger, and are pleased as well with a bone knife and wooden dagger, as with the best of all.  So they have some armour, it matters not what.  Pray they must, but little care how it be performed.  Believe in God? yes, they hope they are not infidels.  But what [the armour] is, how they came by it, or whether it will hold in an evil day, this never was put to the question in their hearts.  Thus thousands perish with a vain conceit [that] they are armed against Satan, death, and judgment, when they are miserable and naked, yea, worse on it [their conceit] than those who are more naked, those I mean who have not a rag of ci­vility to hide their shame from the world's eye; and that in a double respect,

First.  It is harder to work on such a soul savingly, because he hath a form, though not the power, and this affords him a plea.  A soul purely naked, nothing like the wedding garment on, he is speechless.  The drunkard hath nothing to say for himself, when you ask him why he lives so swinishly; you may come up to him, and get within him, and turn the very mouth of his conscience upon him, which will shoot into him.  But come to deal with one who prays and hears, one that is a pretender to faith and hope in God; here is a man in glittering armour, he hath his weapon in his hand, with which he will keep the preacher, and the word he chargeth him with, at arm's length.  Who can say I am not a saint?  What duty do I neglect?  Here is a breastwork he lies under, which makes him not so fair a mark either to the observation or reproof of another; his chief defect being within, where man's eye comes not.  Again, it is harder to work on him, because he hath been tampered with already, and miscarried in the essay.  How comes such a one to be acquainted with such duties—to make such a profession?  Was it ever thus?  No, the word hath been at work upon him, his conscience hath scared him from his trade of wickedness, into a form of profession, but, taking in short of Christ, for want of a thorough change, it is harder to remove him than the other.  He is like a lock whose wards have been troubled; which makes it harder to turn the key than if never pottered with.  It is better dealing with a wild ragged colt, never backed, than one that in breaking hath took a wrong stroke; [with] a bone quite out of joint than false set.  In a word, such a one hath more to deny than a profane person. The one hath but his lusts, his whores, his swill, and dross, but the other hath his duties, his seeming graces.  O how hard it is to persuade such a one to light, and hold Christ's stirrup, while he and his duties are made Christ's footstool.

             Second.  Such an one is in deepest condemna­tion.  None sink so far into hell as those that come nearest heaven, because they fall from the greatest height.  As it aggravates the torments of the damned souls in this respect above devils, [because] they had a cord of mercy thrown out to them, which devils had not so, by how much God by his Spirit waits on, pleads with, and by both gains on [one] soul more than others, by so much such a one, if he perish, will find hell the hotter.  These add to his sin, and the remembrance of his sin in hell thus accented will add to his torment.  None will have such a sad parting from Christ as those who went half-way with him and then left him.

             Therefore, I beseech you, look to your armour.  David would not fight in armour he had not tried, though it was a king's.  Perhaps some thought him too nice.  What! is not the king's armour good enough for David?  Thus many will say, Art thou so curious and precise?  Such a great man doth thus and thus, and hopes to come to heaven at last, and darest not thou venture thy soul in this armour?  No, Chris­tian, follow not the example of the greatest on earth; it is thy own soul thou venturest in battle, therefore thou canst not be too choice of thy armour.  Bring thy heart to the Word, as the only touch-stone of thy grace and furniture; the Word, I told you, is the tower of David, from whence thy armour must be fetched; if thou canst find this tower stamp on it, then it is of God, else, not.  Try it therefore by this one scripture-stamp.  Those weapons are mighty which God gives his saints to fight his battles withal.  ‘For the weapons of our warfare are not carnal, but mighty through God,’ II Cor. 10:4.  The sword of the Spirit hath its point and edge, whereby it makes its way into the heart and conscience, through the im­penitency of the one and stupidity of the other (wherewith Satan, as with buff and coat of mail, arms the sinner against God) and there cuts and slashes, kills and mortifies lust in its own castle, where Satan thinks himself impregnable.  The breastplate which is of God, doth not bend and break at every pat of temptation, but is of such a divine temperament, that it repels Satan's motions with scorn on Satan's teeth. Should such an one as I sin, as Nehemiah in another case; and such are all the rest.