Armour Warfare Quotes

Silena appeared out of the woods, her sword drawn. Her Aphrodite armour was pink and red, colour coordinated to match her clothes and makeup. She looked like Guerilla Warfare Barbie.

Many lose heaven because they are ashamed to go in a fool's coat thither.

Another part or piece,' said Diabolus, 'of mine excellent armour, is a dumb and prayerless spirit, a spirit that scorns to cry for mercy, let the danger be ever so great; therefore be you, my Mansoul, sure that you make use of this.

Prayer is a great heart-easer; it breathes out those distempered passions which, being bound up in others, break out when God at any time crosseth them in their wills.

It is true, Christian, the debt thou owest to God must be paid in good and lawful money, but for thy comfort, here Christ is thy paymaster. Send

one affirmative from God's mouth for thy pardoned state, carries more weight, though of old date, than a thousand negatives from Satan's. David's

Faith hath an incarnating virtue, as they say of some strengthening meat; it feeds upon the promise, and that ‘is perfect, converting’—or rather restoring —‘the soul,’ Ps. 19:7. Though

Above all sins, guard against bold or arrogant ones. You are not beyond the danger of such. If caught in the web of presumptuous sin, call quickly to God for help. If you hesitate, you only give Satan time to entangle you more tightly. But if you cry out to God in true repentance, He will come at once to rescue you. The sooner you yield to the Spirit, the less damage is done to your soul.

Every single sorrow in my heart came about as a result of my forgetting who I am. Every single catastrophe that has happened in my life was designed to cause me to forget who I am. If there is one weapon you need to repeatedly pick up and continuously hold onto, that is the sword and shield and armour of KNOWING THYSELF. Know your soul, see your spirit, look at who you are and breathe it. This is your mission in life. This is the treasure your enemy wants to steal.

Jehoshaphat cried when in the throng of his enemies, and the Lord helped him; much more mayest thou promise thyself his succor in thy soul combats.

When afflicted, love can allow thee to groan, but not to grumble.

Till he be merciful to pardon our sins through Christ, he cannot bless or look kindly on us sinners.

The news which the gospel hath in its mouth to tell us poor sinners is good. It speaks promises, and they are significations of some good intended by God for poor sinners.

Gospel peace comforts the soul, and that strongly, when it hath no other comfort to mingle with it.

We are to choose affliction rather than sin, yea, the greatest affliction before the least sin. Moses

What have we Bibles for, ministers and preaching for, if we mean not to furnish ourselves by them with armour for the evil day? In

Meditate of Christ’s coming to judgment. Surely thou wilt not easily sleep while this trumpet, that shall call all mankind to judgment, shall sound in thy ear.

If ever you would have a blessed issue of this evil day, so as to stand in judgement before the great God, rest not till thou hast got into a covenant-relation with Christ.

apply thyself to the use of those means which God hath appointed for the strengthening grace. If

The providences of God to his saints here, while on this low bottom of earth, are mixed and parti-coloured, as was signified by the ‘speckled’ horses, Zech. 1:8, in

Confession of the mouth without faith in the heart is gross hypocrisy.

Christ is a prince that loves to see his people thrive and grow rich under his government. This

Christian, hath not God secretly instructed thee by his Spirit from the Word, how to read the shorthand of his providence? Dost

They say stars have greatest influences when they are in conjunction with the sun; then sure the graces of a saint should never work more powerfully than in prayer, for then he is in the nearest conjunction and communion with God. That

Jerusalem above is a city whose builder and maker is God." Every grace, yea, every degree of grace, is a stone in that building, the topstone whereof is laid in glory, where saints shall more plainly see, how God was not only Founder to begin, but Benefactor also to finish the same. The glory of the work shall not be crumbled and piece-mealed out, some to God and some to the creature, but all entirely paid in to God, and he acknowledged all in all.

There is no doubt that 'force multipliers' - squad automatic weapons - have changed the character of warfare once again, just as their predecessors did during the First World War, if perhaps not to quite the same degree. In the immediate future it seems that most armies will be using some form of 5.56mm machine-gun at squad level, be it a box-fed LSW or belt-fed SAW. If there is a cloud on the horizon where modern light machine-guns are concerned it is that they are not powerful enough for long-range work, or for penetrating cover and light armour. Nevertheless, the new generation of light machine-guns will remain in use well into the next century, not least because they are popular with the soldiers who operate them, the machine-gunners. Likewise, there will still be a place for the heavier GPMG, which does have the 'punch' that the LSW lacks. Machine-guns themselves have become lighter, and their operating principles both more secure and more efficient; the ammunition they use has shrunk to a quarter of its original size and become almost 100 percent reliable. The one important thing which has not changed dramatically is the human component; the attitude with which man faces the prospect of death in battle, and how he prepares himself to face that possibility quite deliberately, for it was the original invention of the machine-gun which reformed that. More than any other single 'advance' in weapons technology, the machine-gun allowed an individual (or actually, a small team of men) to dominate a sector of the battlefield. They had an inhuman advantage which simply had to be exploited if they were to be on the winning side, whether their opponents were Zulus, Sioux, or Dervishes, or other industrialized nations to be beaten into last place in the race toward economic supremacy. Whether the machine-gun has been as important, in any sense at all of the word, as it near-contemporary, the internal combustion engine - or even, date one say it, the bicycle or sewing machine - is still to be decided, but there is one clear, irrefutable fact connected with its short history: it has killed tens of millions of men, women and children and blighted the lives of tens of millions more.

Like the old knights, always in warfare, not always on their steeds dashing forward with their lances in rest to unhorse an adversary, but always wearing their weapons where they could readily reach them, and always ready to encounter wounds or death for the sake of the cause which they championed. Those grim warriors often slept in their armour; so even when we sleep, we are still to be in the spirit of prayer, so that if perchance we wake in the night we may still be with God. Our soul, having received the divine centripetal influence which makes it seek its heavenly centre, should be evermore naturally rising towards God himself. Our heart is to be like those beacons and watchtowers which were prepared along the coast of England when the invasion of the Armada was hourly expected, not always blazing, but with the wood always dry, and the match always there, the whole pile being ready to blaze up at the appointed moment. Our souls should be in such a condition that ejaculatory prayer should be very frequent with us. No need to pause in business and leave the counter, and fall down upon the knees; the spirit should send up its silent, short, swift petitions to the throne of grace. A Christian should carry the weapon of all prayer like a drawn sword in his hand. We should never sheathe our supplications. Never may our hearts be like an unlimbered gun, with everything to be done to it before it can thunder on the foe, but it should be like a piece of cannon, loaded and primed, only requiring the fire that it may be discharged. The soul should be not always in the exercise of prayer, but always in the energy of prayer; not always actually praying, but always intentionally praying.1

Such is the weak constitution of grace, that it can neither well bear smiles or frowns from God without a snare; as one said of our English nation,[2] it cannot well bear liberty nor bondage in the height.  So neither can the soul.

Patience enrageth indeed the wicked, but meekens the saints.

All things are yours who are Christ's.  He hath given life to be yours, hath given death also.  He that hath given heaven for your inheritance—Paul and Cephas, his ministers and ordinances to help you thither—hath given the world with all the afflictions of it, yea, the prince of it too, with all his wrath and power, in order to the same end.  This, indeed, is love and wisdom in a riddle, but you who have the Spirit of Christ can unfold it.

But O! what desperate madness is it of sinners then, not to endure a little hardship here, but [to] entail on themselves the eternal wrath of God here after, for the short feast and running banquet their lusts entertain them here withal; which often is not gaudium unius horœ—a joy that lasts an hour.

None but Christ can give thee a new heart, till which, thou wilt every day grow worse and worse.  Sin is an hereditary disease that increaseth with age.  A young sinner will be an old devil.

Thou must bestow some time for thy diligent search after truth.  Truth lies deep, and must be digged for.  Since man was turned out of paradise, he can do nothing without labour except sin (this follows his hand indeed), but this treasure of knowledge calls for spade and mattock.  We are bid ‘search the Scriptures.

David's sin was great, yet [he] found mercy.  Peter fell foully, yet [is] now in heaven.  Why sittest thou here, O my soul, under the hatches of despair?  Up and call upon thy God for mercy, who hath pardoned the same to others.

None will handle poor souls so gently as those who remember the smart of their own heart sorrows.  None [are] so skilful in applying the comforts of the Word to wounded consciences, as those who have lain bleeding themselves; such know the symptoms of soul-troubles, and feel others' pains in their own bosoms, which some that know the Scriptures, for lack of experience do not, and therefore are like a novice physician, who perhaps can tell you every plant in the herbal, yet wanting the practical part, when a patient comes, knows not well how to make use of his skill.  The saints' experiences help him to a sovereign treacle made of the scorpion's own flesh—which they through Christ have slain—and that hath a virtue above all other to expel the venom of Satan's temptations from the heart.

Thou art a dead man if thou think to answer thy sin with proportionable sorrow; thou wilt soon be above thy depth, and quackle[12] thyself with thy own tears, but never get over the least sin thou committedst.

Sometimes thou hearest one pray with a moving expression, while thou canst hardly get out a few broken words in duty, and thou art ready to accuse thyself and to admire him, as if the gilt of the key made it open the door the better.

Thus you find God represented to you as merciful and gracious, but not to such a great sinner as you. to have power and strength, but not able to save thee; you may say, Avaunt, Satan, thy speech betrayeth thee.

The Christian’s life is a continual wrestling.  He is, as Jeremiah said of himself, born ‘a man of strife.’  Or what the prophet [said] to Asa, may be said to every Christian; ‘From hence thou shalt have wars:’ from thy spiritual birth to thy nat ural death; from the hour when thou first didst set thy face to heaven, till thou shalt set thy foot in heaven.

The great subject and theme of his thoughts in what he is, and what he hath above others, applauding himself; as Bernard confesseth, that—when one would think he had little leisure for such thoughts—even in preaching; pride would be whispering in his ear, Bene fecisti Bernarde—O well done, Bernard.  Now have a care, Christian, of chat ting with such company.  Run from such thoughts as from a bear.

This doth lively set forth the saint's march to heaven; God brings a soul out of spiritual Egypt by his converting grace, that is, the ‘day of his power,’ wherein he makes the soul willing to come out of Satan's clutches.  Now when the saint is upon his march, all the country riseth upon him.  How shall this creature pass the pikes, and get safely by all his enemies' borders?  God himself enfolds him in the arm of his everlasting strength.  ‘We are kept by the power of God through faith unto salvation.’ I Peter 1:5.  The power of God is that shoulder on which Christ carries his sheep home, rejoicing all the way he goes, Luke 15:5.  These everlasting arms of his strength are those eagles' wings, upon which the saints are both tenderly and securely conveyed to glory, Ex. 19:4.

The dear love he beareth to his saints engageth his power.  He that hath God's heart cannot want his arm.

Be strong in the faith of this truth, make it an article of your creed; with the same faith you believe that there is a God, believe also this God's almighty power is thy sure friend, and then improve it to thy best and advantage.

In the strict command he lays on his people to give him the glory of his power.  ‘Neither fear ye their fear, nor be afraid,’ but ‘sanctify the Lord of hosts himself,’ Isa. 8:12, 13; that is, in this sad posture of your affairs, when your enemies associate, and you seem a lost people to the eye of reason, not able to contest with [those] united powers which beset you on every side, I charge you, sanctify me in giving me the glory of my almighty power.  Believe that your God is able of himself, without any other, to defend you, and destroy them.

Therefore labour to be sound rather than brave Christians.

And what is the gospel of all this—for surely God hath an eye in that our marching to heaven, and our fighting with these cursed spirits and lusts that stand in our way—but that we should fight lawfully, using those means which we have from his mouth in his Word?

It is a good gloss Augustine hath upon Esau's tears Heb. 12:16, 17.  —Flevet quòd perdidit, non quòd vendidit —he wept that he lost the blessing, not that he sold it.

Therefore, I beseech you, look to your armour.  David would not fight in armour he had not tried, though it was a king's.

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,

Fides pinguescit operibus—‘faith fattens or becomes strong on works,’ Luther.

Fighting arts have evolved in to two distinct areas since it stopped being appropriate to practice them for the purposes of warfare – tanks, guns and armoured strike drones have kind of pissed all over that parade.

Now, Christian, keep the plains and thou art safe.  It is plain, we are not to make election a ground for our faith, but our faith and calling a medium or argument to prove our election.

When Satan chargeth thee for a sinner, perhaps thou interposest thy repentance and reformation, but soon art beaten out of those works, when thou art shown the sinful mixtures that are in them: whereas this truth would choke all his bullets, that thou believest on him who hath said, Not unto him that worketh, but unto him that believeth on him that justifieth the ungodly, his faith is imputed for righteousness, Rom. 4:5.  Get therefore into this tower of the gospel covenant, and roll this truth (as she that stone on the head of Abimelech) on the head of Satan.

Take heed therefore, sinners, how you use the Spirit when he comes knocking at the door of your hearts.  Open at his knock, and he will be your guest; you shall have his sweet company. Repulse him, and you have not a promise he will knock again.  And if once he leave striving with thee, unhappy man, thou art lost for ever; thou liest like a ship cast up by the waves upon some high rock, where the tide [will] never come to fetch it off.  Thou mayest come to the Word, converse with other ordinances, but in vain.  It is the Spirit in them, which is both tide and wind, to set the soul afloat, and carry it on, or else it lies like a ship on dry ground which stirs not.

Mercies should draw, afflictions drive.

Few are made better by prosperity, whom afflictions make worse.

It is a good speech of Bernard:[28] ‘The study of the word, and the reading of it differ as much as the friendship of such who every day converse lovingly together, doth from the acquaintance one hath with a stranger at an inn, or whom he salutes as he passeth by in the street.

Too many are, as Tertullian saith in another case,[29] more tender of their reputation than their salvation: who are more ashamed to be thought ignorant, than careful to have it cured.

This affords a reason why God suffers his dear children to fall into temptation, be cause he is able to outshoot Satan in his own bow, and in the thing wherein he thinks to outwit the Christian to be above him.  God will not only be admired by his saints in glory for his love in their salvation, but for his wisdom in the way to it.  The love of God in saving them will be the sweet draught at the marriage-feast, and the rare wisdom of God in effecting this, as the curious workmanship with which the cup will be enamelled.

Now wisdom being that which the creature chiefly glories in, and that which was chosen by Satan for his first bait, [when he] made Eve believe she should be like God in knowledge and wisdom, therefore God, to give Satan the more shameful fall, gives him leave to use his wits and wiles in tempting and troubling his children, in which lies his great advantage over the saints, that so the way to his own throne—where his wisdom shall at last, as well as his mercy, sit in all its royalty—may be paved with the skulls, as I may so speak, of devils.

in his house, than turn him out of it to become a prey to Satan. O sinners, did you know—which you cannot till you come over to Christ, and embrace him as your Lord and Saviour—what the privileges of Christ’s servants are, and what gentle usage saints have at Christ’s hands, you would say these are the only happy men in the world which stand continually before him.

The grave was never intended to be a sanctuary to defend sinners from the hand of justice, but a close prison to secure them against the day of trial, that they may be forthcoming.

Faith and repentance will be good doctrine to preach and hear to the end of the world; you may as well quarrel with God, because he hath made but one heaven, and one way to it, as with the preacher, for preaching these over and over.  If thy heart were humble, and thy palate spiritual, old truths would be new to thee every time thou hearest them.

Dost thou not betray some of this spiritual pride working in thee?  O, if thou couldst pray without wandering, walk without limping, believe without wavering, then thou couldst rejoice and walk cheerfully.

Dost thou not betray some of this spiritual pride working in thee?  O, if thou couldst pray without wandering, walk without limping, believe without wavering, then thou couldst rejoice and walk cheerfully.  It seems, soul, thou stayest to bring the ground of thy comfort with thee, and not to receive it purely from Christ.  O how much better were it if thou wouldst say

A man may outlive many wounds received in the arms or legs, but a stab in the heart or other vital parts is the certain messenger of death approaching. Thus righteousness and holiness preserve the principal part of a Christian —his soul and conscience.

Never can we truly recover our courage, till we recover our holiness—‘If

That he who means to be a Christian indeed, must endeavour to maintain the power of holiness and righteousness in his life and conversation.

A false heart yields when sin comes with a bribe in its hand.

There is no more difference betwixt a hypocrite and an apostate, than betwixt a green apple and a ripe one; come a while hence, and you will see him fall rottenripe from his profession.

A sinner truly convinced is not only convinced of this sin or that sin, but of the evil of all sin.

It is faith on Christ that alone can purify thy heart. Without it thy washed face and hands—external righteousness I mean— will never commend thee to God.

Every sin thou committest is a new line that the devil draws on thy soul.

this spiritual war of the Christian lies chiefly on the defence, and therefore requires arms most of this kind to wage it.

Assurance rather is the fruit of faith. It is in faith as the flower is in the root.

Christ did not redeem and save poor souls by sitting in majesty on his heavenly throne, but by hanging on the shameful cross, under the tormenting hand of man’s fury and God’s just wrath.

It is faith stills the storm which sin had raised—faith that changed his doleful note into joy and gladness.

he hath no cause to complain for being cast out of man’s society that gains Christ’s presence by the same.

And so when thou art tempted to any sin, look not on it as a single sin, but as having all other sins in its belly.

Second.—The Christian is to walk singularly, not after the world's guise, Rom. 12:2. We are commanded not to be conformed to this world, that is, not to accommodate ourselves to the corrupt customs of the world.

It is not, indeed, the bare knowing the truths of the gospel saves; but the gross ignorance of them, to be sure, will damn souls.

Truth lies deep, and must be digged for. Since

When thou art come to thyself to own and blush at the brutish ignorance of thy mind, thou art fit to be admitted into Christ’s school. If

And they cannot be solid Christians, that are not instructed in the grounds of Christianity. The

But as for thee, poor soul, who art persuaded to renounce thy lusts, to throw away the conceit of thy own righteousness, that thou mayest run with more speed to Christ, and art so possessed with the excellency of Christ, thy own present need of him, and salvation by him, that thou pantest after him more than life itself, in God’s name go and speed, be of good comfort; he

Unhappy man he, that hath no surer portion than what this variable world will afford him. The

Heaven is a kingdom that cannot be shaken—Christ an abiding portion—his graces and comforts, sure waters that fail not, but spring up into eternal life. The

Labour to get Christ, and through him hopes of heaven, and thou takest the right road to content; thou

Faith and repentance will be good doctrine to preach and hear to the end of the world; you

Grace in a decay is like a man pulled off his legs by sickness; if some means be not used to recover it, little service will be done by it, or comfort received from it. Therefore

The Christian must trust in a with draw ing God, Isa.  50:10.  Let him that walks in darkness, and sees no light, trust in the name of the Lord, and stay upon his God.

The believer is to persevere in his Christian course to the end of his life: his work and his life must go off the stage together.

O, this persevering is a hard word! this taking up the cross daily, this praying always, this watching night and day, and never laying aside our clothes and armour, I mean indulging ourselves, to remit and unbend in our holy waiting on God, and walking with God.  This sends many sorrowful away from Christ, yet this is a saint's duty, to make religion his every-day work, without any vacation from one end of the year to the other.

Indeed there is no duty in the Christian's whole course of walking with God, or acting for God but is lined with many difficulties, which shoot like enemies through the hedges at him, while he is marching towards heaven: so that he is put to dispute every inch of ground as he goes.

It requires more prowess and greatness of spirit to obey God faithfully, than to command an army of men; to be a Christian than a captain.

First.—The Christian is to proclaim and prosecute an irreconcilable war against his bosom sins; those sins which have lain nearest his heart, must now be trampled under his feet.

No, the Christian must stand fixed to his principles, and not change his habit; but freely show what countryman he is by his holy constancy in the truth.

We read of no dispatches sent to court to procure his liberty; but many to the churches, to help them to stand fast in the liberty wherewith Christ had made them free.

In a word, Christians, God and angels are spectators, observing how you quit yourselves like children of the Most High; every exploit your faith doth against sin and Satan causeth a shout in heaven; while you valiantly prostrate this temptation, scale that difficulty, regain the other ground, you even now lost out of your enemies' hands.

Thus long did God forbear to commit his will to writing, because it, passing through so few, and those trusty hands, it might safely be preserved.

So that now all those ways whereby God directly made known his mind to this people, are resolved into this one of the Scriptures, which we are to receive as the undoubted word of God, containing in a perfect rule of faith and life, and to expect no other revelation of his mind to us.

So in the Christian there are many graces, but one new creature.

The more the soul loves the word, the more craving it has after it.

But none are so safe from sin as they that fear the falling into it most.

Pray often rather than very long at a time. It is hard to be very long in prayer and not slacken in our affections. Those watches which are made to go longer than ordinary at one winding do commonly lose towards the end.

The saddest consequence which attends the prosperity and success of God’s enemies in the world, is their pride and blasphemy against God, his truth, and church.

That prayer is a necessary duty to be performed by the Christian, and used with all other means in his spiritual warfare.

It hath been the constant practice of the saints in all their dangers and straits, whether from enemies within or without, from sin, devils, or men, to betake themselves tot he throne of grace, and draw a line of prayer about them; accounting this the only safe posture to stand in for their defence.

so to make a good Christian, there is required a conscientious care to use all appointed means.

Neither did the Pharisees in truth believe what Moses wrote, because they opposed Christ, who did but verify what Moses before from God’s mouth had spoke.

They are all such notions as never came into the heart of the wisest sophists in the world to conceive of; and therefore it is no wonder that a little child, under the preaching of the gospel, believes these mysteries which Plato and Aristotle were ignorant of, because they are not attained by our parts and industry, but communicated by divine and supernatural revelation.

The word of God hath the power of conversion, which none but God—who is the ‘God of all grace’—can produce.

The heart itself is no safe sanctuary for sin to sit in. The word will take it thence—as Joab from the horns of the altar—to slay it.

The Spirit is the only true interpreter of the word. Hence that known passage of Bernard: quo spiritu factæ sunt Scripturæ, eo spiritu legi desiderant, ipso etiam intelligendæ sunt—the Scriptures must be read, and can be understood, by that Spirit alone by whom they were made.

All error dreads the light of the word, and fears more to be examined by that, than a thief does to be tried before a strict judge.

Bless God for the translation of the Scriptures. The word is our sword. By being translated, this sword is drawn out of its scabbard.

Be not Christians by halves, but go through with it; the thorough Christian is the true Christian.

The Christian is a born conqueror, the gates of hell shall not prevail against him.

Satan comes as a serpent in the persons of false teachers, and by them labours to put a cheat on us, and cozen us with error for truth.

Him that hath not God before he dies, the devil shall have when he dies.

That it is the saint’s duty, and should be their care, not only to get an established judgment of the truth, but also to maintain a steadfast profession of the truth.

Thou art by nature a covenant-servant to sin and Satan.

How canst thou put thy head into the other world without horror, if thou hast not solid ground that Christ will own thee for his? Heaven

use all means for the discovery of sin, and as it breaks forth to be humbled for it, and be chopping at the root of it with this axe of mortification, and thou shalt see by the blessing of God what a change for the better there will be in the constitution of thy grace. Thou

The bloodiest tragedies in the world have been acted on the stage of the church; and the most inhuman massacres and butcheries committed on the harmless sheep of Christ.

O loosen the roots of thy affections from the world, and the tree will fall more easily.

The more our life has been corrupted with hypocrisy and unfaithfulness, the weaker our faith will be in a dying hour.

It is not the nature of grace, but the salt of covenant, keeps and preserves the purity of it. In

Cowards never won heaven. Do not claim that you are begotten of God and have His royal blood running in your veins unless you can prove your lineage by this heroic spirit; to dare to be holy in spite of men and devils.” J.

Great and small, minister and people, all must wrestle; not one part of Christ’s army in the field, and the other at ease in their quarters, where no enemy comes. Here

Satan’s power is ministerial, appointed by God for the service and benefit of the saints. It

No more, then, shall he infest the saints, no, nor rule the wicked, but he with them, and they with him, shall lie under the immediate execution of God’s wrath. For

There is no less wickedness potentially in the tamest sinner on earth, than in the devils themselves, and that one day thou, whoever thou art, wilt show to purpose, if God prevent thee not by his renewing grace. Thou

God will not only be admired by his saints in glory for his love in their salvation, but for his wisdom in the way to it. The

If all the devil's wits and wiles will not serve him to overcome one single soldier in Christ's camp, much less shall he ever ruin the whole army. These

Satan with all his wits and wiles, shall never vanquish a soul armed with true grace; nay, he that hath this armour of God on shall vanquish him. Look

the Christian who seems to be so overmatched, is yet so unconquerable, II Cor. 12:9; James 5:11.

Satan, in tempting the saint to sin, labours to make a breech between God and the soul. He hates both, and therefore labours to divide these dear friends. If

False faith, indeed, once foiled, seldom comes on again; but true faith riseth and fights more valiantly, as we see in Peter and other Scripture examples. Temptation

And here is all the devil gets; instead of destroying his faith which he aims at, he is the occasion of the refining of it, and thereby adding to its strength.

His subject thou art whom thou crownest in thy heart, and not whom thou flatterest with thy lips.

Christ and satan divide the whole world. Christ will bear no equal, and Satan no superior; and therefore, hold in with both thou canst not.

Others wrestle with sin, but they do not hate it, and therefore they are favourable to it, and seek not the life of sin as their deadly enemy. These

there are two nations within thee, two contrary natures, the one from earth, earthly, and the other from heaven, heavenly; yea, for thy further comfort, know though thy corrupt nature be the elder, yet it shall serve the younger.

Were there no devil, yet we should have our hands full, in resisting the corruptions of our own hearts; but

It is more honour to take one soul alive out of the devil's clutches, than to leave many slain upon the field. Erasmus

the devil is the merchant, and the sinner but the broker to trade for him, who at last puts all his gains into the devil's purse. Time,

As Christ had his saints in Nero’s court, so the devil his servants in the outward court of his visible church. Thou

They love truth flourishing, who do not love it when it is confuting. They dare handle and look on the sword with delight when in a rich scabbard, who would run away to see it drawn.

Bless God, O ye saints, who upon the former trial, can say you are translated into the kingdom of Christ, and so delivered from the tyranny of this usurper. There

Thou art translated into the kingdom of Christ, but thou art a great way from his court. That

Art thou a magistrate? now it will be soon seen on whose side thou art. If indeed thou hast renounced allegiance to Satan, and taken Christ for thy prince, declare thyself an enemy to all that bear the name of Satan, and march under his colours. Study

This is thy birth-day; thou wert before, but beganst to live when Christ began to live in thee. The

Let me ask thee, poor soul, hast thou seriously considered who Christ is, and what his sweet government is? and couldst thou find in thy heart—out of an inward abhorrency of sin and Satan, and a liking to Christ—to renounce sin and Satan, and choose Christ for thy Lord? Doth

Knowledge doth not make the heart good, but it is impossible that without knowledge it should be good. There

Christ counts it his honour, that he is a king of a willing people, and not of slaves. He comes to make you free, not to bring you into bondage, to make you kings, not vassals. None

You see when a soul comes over from Satan’s quarters unto Christ, and has but once the experience of that sweetness which is in his service, there is no getting him back to his old drudgery; as

God brings his grace into the heart by conquest.

The state of unregeneracy is a state of impotency.

Bernard compares the study of the Word and the mere reading of it to the difference between a close friendship and a casual acquaintance. If you want genuine knowledge, he says, you will have to do more than greet the Word politely on Sundays or nod reverently when you chance to meet it on the street. You must walk with it and talk with it every day of the week. You must invite it into your private chambers, and forego other pleasures and worldly duties to spend time in its company.

O how true are poor sinners to the devil's trust!

equipped with 60mm-thick armour and 76.2mm main armament that had been used against the Finns in December 1939; this was the SMK prototype, which the Germans erroneously labeled as the T-35C. Although Kinzel was clearly aware that the Soviets had fielded a prototype heavy tank eighteen months prior to Barbarossa, he assessed that existing German anti-tank weapons could defeat it.6

This eye, beholding its sin piercing Christ, and Christ pardoning its sin, affects the heart. The

Election indeed is first in order of divine acting, God chooseth before we believe; yet

Satan perplexeth the tender consciences of doubting Christians, with obscure scriptures, whose sense lies too deep for their weak and distempered judgements readily to find out, and with these he hampers poor souls exceedingly. Indeed

The wicked hath no peace, but when his conscience sleeps, and that sleeps but brokenly, awaking often with sick fits of terror; when he hath most prosperity, he is scared like a flock of birds in a corn-field, at every piece going off.  He eats in fear, and drinks in fear; when afflicted, he expects worse behind, and knows not what this cloud may spread to, and where it may lay him, whether in hell or not, he knows not, and therefore trembles, as one in the dark, not knowing but his next step may be into the pit.

The gate into Christ's school is low, and these cannot stoop. The Master himself is so humble and lowly, that he will not teach a proud scholar.  Therefore first become a fool in thine own eye.  A wiser man than thyself hath confessed as much: ‘I am more brutish than any man, and have not the understanding of a man.  I neither learned wisdom, nor have the knowledge of the holy,’ Prov. 30:2, 3.

Study may make one a great scholar in the Scriptures, but prayer makes a wise Christian, as it obtains sanctified knowledge, without which it is no perfect gift, but —a gift and no gift.

Let God know from thy mouth whither thou art going, and what thy fears are.  Never doth the soul march in so goodly order, as when it puts itself under the conduct of God.

If thy thoughts be not broadly wicked, then inquire whether they be not empty, frothy, vain imaginations, that have no subserviency to the glory of God, thy own good or others’; and if so, leave not till thou hast made thyself apprehensive of Satan’s design on thee, in them.  Though such are not for thy purpose, yet they are for his; they serve his turn to keep thee from better.

O sirs, what a sweet silence and peace was there among Christians a dozen years ago.  Me thinks the looking back to those blessed days in this respect—though they had also another way their troubles, yet not so uncomfortable, because that storm united, this scatters the saints' spirits—is joyous, to remember in what unity and love Christians walked.  The persecutors of those times might have said, as their predecessors did of the saints in primitive times, ‘See how they love one another,’ but now, alas, they may jeer and say, See how they that loved so dearly, are ready to pluck one another’s throats out.

He is the best student in divinity that studies most upon his knees[26]

When the spirit is low through unbelief, every threatening from man makes sad impression.  Let thy faith take but a deep draught of the promises, and thy courage will rise.

It is a notable passage in Anselm, [in which he] compares the heretic and the persecutor to the horse, and the devil to the rider.  Now, saith he, in battle, when the enemy comes riding up, the valiant soldier ‘is[13] angry not with the horse, but horseman; he labours to kill the man, that he may possess the horse for his use; thus must we do with the wicked, we are not to bend our wrath against them, but [against] Satan that rides them, and spurs them on, labouring by prayer for them as Christ did on the cross, to dismount the devil, that so these miserable souls hackneyed by him may be delivered from him.’  It is more honour to take one soul alive out of the devil's clutches, than to leave many slain upon the field.

And therefore, if ever, Christian, thou hadst need to watch, then is the time—when comforts abound, and God dandles thee most on the knee of his love—when his face shines with clearest manifestations; lest this sin of pride, as a thief in the candle, should swale[43] out thy joy.

The manifestations of God's love are to fit us for our work.  It is one thing to rejoice in the light of our comfort, and another to go forth in the power of the Spirit com forting us—as giants refreshed with this wine—to run our race of duty and obedience with more strength and alacrity.

Occumenius, is as much as if the apostle had said,[45] ‘We wrestle not for small and trivial things, but for heavenly,’ yea, for heaven itself, and our adoption, as he goes on.

Are not heaven and happiness things desirable, and to be preferred before sin and misery?  Why then do you not embrace them?  Or are they the worse because they come swimming to you in the blood of Christ?

The time of mourning for the departure of all earthly enjoyments is at hand.  We shall see them, as Eglon’s servants did their lord, fallen down dead before us, and weep be cause they are not.

Heaven’s way is paved with grace and mercy to the end.

That is the sweet frame of heart indeed—to lie low in the sense of your own vileness, yet to believe; to renounce all conceit of worthiness in ourselves, yet not therefore to renounce all hope of mercy, but the more speedily to make haste to Christ that woos us.  All

Zanchy tells of one in Geneva, who being desired to go hear Calvin, answered his friend, ‘If Paul were to preach, I would leave Paul himself to hear Calvin[35].’  And will pride in the gifts of another so far transport, even to the borders of blasphemy, what work will then pride make when the gifts are a man's own?

It was a notable speech of Erasmus, if spoken in ear nest, and his wit were not too quick for his con science[47]—he said he desired wealth and honour no more than a feeble horse doth a heavy cloak-bag.  And I think every Christian in his right temper would be of his mind.

The manifestations of God's love are to fit us for our work.

vices.’[34]  This minion pride will stir up the soul to resist, yea, in a manner kill, some sins, that she may boastingly show the head of them, and blow the creature up with the conceit of himself above others. As the Pharisee, who through pride bragged that he was not as the publican—so that pride, if not looked to, will have to do everywhere, and hath a large sphere it moves in.  Nothing indeed (without divine assistance) the creature hath or doth, but will soon become a prey to this devourer.  But I am not to handle it in this latitude.

It maketh use of that which is good.  It can work with God’s own tools, his ordinances, by which the Holy Spirit advanceth his kingdom of grace in the hearts of his saints.  These often are prostituted to pride.  A man may be very zealous in prayer, and painful in preaching, and all the while pride is the master whom he serves, though in God’s livery. It can take sanctuary in the holiest actions, and hide itself under the skirt of virtue itself.  Thus while a man is exercising his charity, pride may be the idol in secret for which he lavisheth out his gold so freely.  It is hard starving this sin, because there is nothing al most but it can live on—nothing so base that a proud heart will not be lift up with, and nothing so sacred but it will profane; [it will] even dare to drink in the bowls of the sanctuary, nay, rather than starve, it will feed on the carcases of other sins.  ‘That sin is with great difficulty avoided which springs from a victory of our

Pride of gifts hinders the Christian’s trade—at least [its] thriving by their commerce, two ways.  First. Pride of gifts is the cause why we do so little good with them to others.  Second. Pride of gifts is the cause why we receive so little good from the gifts of others.

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

What foolish braving language shall ye hear drop from the lips of the most profane and ignorant among us!  They trust in God, hope in his mercy, defy the devil and all his works, and such like stuff, who are yet poor naked creatures without the least piece of God's armour upon their souls.

When the Son made thee free, thou becamest free indeed.

Thou art translated into the kingdom of Christ, but thou art a great way from his court. That is kept in heaven, and that the Christian knows, but as we [know] far countries which we never saw only by map, or some rarities that are sent us as a taste of what grows there in abundance.

He is not a good subject, that is all for what he can get of his prince, but never thinks what he may do for him; nor he the true Christian, whose thoughts dwell more on his own happiness than on the honour of his God.

Godliness is the child of truth, and it must be nursed, if we will have it thrive, with no other milk than of its own mother. Therefore we are exhorted to ‘desire the sincere milk of the word, that ye may grow,’ I Peter 2:2[33]; if this milk be but a little dashed with error, it is not so nutritive.

Thus, great gifts lift a saint up a little higher in the eyes of men, but it occasions many temptations which thou meetest not with that art kept low.

It is one thing to have armour in the house, and another thing to have it buckled on; to have grace in the principle, and grace in the act.  So that our instruction will be,

Satan knows what orders thou keepest in thy house and closet, and though he hath not a key to thy heart, yet he can stand in the next room to it, and lightly hear what is whispered there.

You know what a confusion there is in a town at some sudden alarm in the dead of the night, the enemy at the gates, and they asleep within.  O what a cry is there heard! One wants his clothes, another his sword, a third knows not what to do for powder.  Thus in a fright they run up and down, which would not be if the enemy did find them upon their guard, orderly waiting for his approach.  Such a hubbub there is in a soul that keeps not his armour on; this piece and that will be to seek when he should use it.

This indeed makes it easy for Christ's sheep to be infected with the scab of error, because that weed which breeds the rot is so like the grass that nourisheth them.

If one workman should tell you your house is rotten, and must be pulled down, and all new materials prepared; and another should say, No such matter; such a beam is good, and such a spar may stand —a little cost will serve the turn: it were no wonder that you should listen to him that would put you to least cost and trouble.  The faithful servants of Christ tell sinners from the Word, that man in his natural state is corrupt and rotten, that nothing of the old frame will serve, and there must needs be all new; but in comes an Arminian, and blows up the sinner's pride, and tells him he is not so weak or wicked as the other represents him.  If thou wilt, thou mayest repent and believe; or, at least, by exerting thy natural abilities, oblige God to superadd what thou hast not. This is the workman that will please proud man best.

O Christian, give not place to Satan, no, not an inch, in his first motions.  He that is a beggar and a modest one with out doors, will command the house if let in.  Yield at first, and thou givest away thy strength to resist him in the rest; when the hem is worn, the whole garment will ravel out, if it be not mended by timely repentance.