PUBLIC-DOMAIN CHRISTIAN BOOK
The Christian in Complete Armour
William Gurnall, 1617–1679 · 726,331 words · 834 reading sections
A-Q ABOVE ALL, TAKING THE SHIELD OF FAITH.
First, The saint's enemy described, that in three particulars. First, In its nature, 'wicked.' Secondly, In their imity, 'wicked,' or wicked one, in the singular niunber. Thirdly, Their warlike furniture and provision, M'ith which they take the field against the saints, darts, and they iiery. First, Here is the saint's…
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happiness of serving a holy God, surely then thou hast an answer ready by thee, against this wicked one comes to draw thee to sin. Canst thou think of fouling thy hands about his base, nasty drudgery, after they have been used to so pure and fine work as the service of thy (iod is ? Listen not to Satan's motions, ex- c…
892 wordsSECTION 483CHAPTER XIII.
God's voice. Job cries out, ' The arrows of the Ahnighty ! ' how the poison of them drank up his spirit, and of the terrors of God that did set themselves in array against him, Job vi. 4 ; when it was Satan all the while that was prac- tising his malice and playing his pranks \ipon him. God was friends with this good m…
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Doct. That faith will enable a soul to quench the fire of Satan's most pleasing temptations. First, We shall shew you, that these enticing temptations have a fiery quality in them. Secondly, That faith is able to quench them. First, of the first, They have an inflaming quality. There is a secret dispo- sition in the h…
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are said, * to be inflamed witli their idols,' Isa. Ivii. 5, as much as any lover with his minion in her wliorish dress. And the drunkard he enkindles his neighbour's lust, 'putting the bottle to him,' Hab. ii. 15. Oh! what a base work are these men employed about ! By the law it is death for any wilfully 10 set fire o…
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and brings hell with it. Now let Satan come, if he please, and present a lust never so enticing, the Christian's answer is ready : Be not cheated, O my soul, saith faith, with a lying spirit. He shews thee a fair Rachel, hut he intends thee a blear-eyed Leah; he promises joy, but he will pay thee soitow. The clothes th…
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Section II. — Secondly, The lusts of tlie eye, these are quenched by faith ; by the lust of the eye, the apostle means those temptations which are drawn from the world's pelf and treasiu-e, called so, first, because it is the eye that connnits adultery with these things ; as the unclean eye looks upon another man's wif…
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conscience, tliat boggled more than tlie ass he rode on, till the blood came. The Jews, when convinced of Christ's person and doctrine, yet were snch slaves to their hononr and credit, that they part with Christ rather than hazard that, John xii. 43 : 'For they loved the praise of men more than the praise of God.' Now …
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world's empire, with all bowing before thee, this would not add to thy stature one cubit in the eye of God. But thy sin which thou paycst for the piu'chase, blots thy name in his thcnights, yea, makes thee odious in his sight ; God must first be out of love with himself, before he can love a sinner as such. Now wilt th…
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Faith purifies the heart, Acts xv. 9. Now, none of their conquests reached the heart. Their longest ladder was too short to reach the walls of this castle ; they swept the door, trimmed a few outward rooms, but the seat and sink of all (in the corruption of man's nature) was never cleansed by them ; so that the fire of…
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In a word, tliou hast faith, and yet drivest a trade of sin in the very face of it. O, God forbid that any should be under so great a dehision, to carry such a lie in their hand, and think it a saving faith ! Will this faith ever carry thee to heaven, which is not able to bring tliee out of liell? for there thou livest…
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O, let not your souls (who see your need of Christ, and are pinched at your very heart for want of hini) be lean from day to day through your unbelief; but come, eat, and your souls shall live. Never was child more welcome to his father's table than tliou art to Christ's, and that feast which stands on the gospel-board…
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this is ? Ans. First, Dost thou know what it is to presume 1 He presumes that takes a thing before it is granted. He wofe a prcsuiiiptuous man indeed that shouUl take your meat oft' your table wlio never was invited; but 1 hope your guest is not over bold who ventures to eat of what you set before him. For one to break…
898 wordsSECTION 494CHAPTER XVII.
The expecting act of faith must produce an endeavouring act to set tlie soul •on work, in the confidence of that succour it expects from God. When Jehoshaphat had prayed, and estahlished his faith on the good word of promise, then he takes tlie field, and marches out under this victorious banner against his enemies, 2 …
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now he labours to set the soul on fire, by his affrighting temptations; much more doth he labour to do it, when Christ hath got the castle out ofhis hands and keeps it by the power ofhis grace. It is very observable, that all the darts shot against Job were of this sort ; he hardly made any use of the other, when God g…
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rather than reason, Heb. xi. 6: ' He that cometh to God, must believe that he is.' Mark that, — •' he must believe.' Now faith goes upon the credit of the word, and takes all upon trust from its authority : he ' nnist believe that he is ;' which, as Mr. Perkins, on the place, saith, is not nakedly to know there is a Go…
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But some may say, Is there no use of reasou in such principles as this, which are within its sphere? May I not make use of my reason to confirm me in this truth, that there is a God .' It is heyond all doubt that there is ; wherefore else did God set up such a light, if not to guide us ? But it must keep its place, and…
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bitterness,' Acts viii. 23 ; that is, in a state of sin. Every unbeliever hath a bitter spirit against God, and all that bears his name. There is no trusting the tamest of them all. Let the lion out of his cage, and he will soon shew his bloody nature. An unbeliever hath no more in him to quench such a temptation than …
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the evil that the creature receives from God, faitli shows more good received than evil. Thus Job quenched this dart, which Satan sliot at him from his wife's tongue : ' Shall we receive good at the hand of God, and shall not we receive evil V Shall a few present troubles be a grave to bury the remembrance of all my pa…
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love him by making love to it, could, after all this, frame any plot of real iinkindness against it. No ; this thought, though Satan may force it in a man- ner upon the Christian, and violently press for its entertainment under the advantage of some frowning providence, yet it can never lind welcome so far as to be cre…
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that he clave, while he is crying for pardoning mercy with a trembling heart, block up the way to his own prayers, and harden God's heart into a denial of them, by such horrid sins as these? In a word, does it not seem strange, that all the while he was a stranger to and an enemj' against God, he durst not venture on t…
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to kill them ; draw out thy hreast to nurse and suckle them, than the sword of the Spirit to destroy them ? And if so, saith faith, that these he Satan's brats, why then art thou troubled because he lays them at thy door ? Is the chaste woman unchaste because some foul tongue calls her so? Have patience a little, poor …
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poison in sweet wine, tliey are down before he is aware, and do diffuse apace in liis affections, poisoning the Christian's spirits, but tliose of blasphemy are like poison in some bitter potion ; either it is spit out before it is down, or vomited by the Christian before it hath spread itself far into his affections. …
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answer and repel them ; but I shall content myself with one, which is the chief of all Satan's strength, and that is taken from the greatness and multitude of the creature's sin, which, when it is enlightened to see, and hath the hrawni- ness of its conscience pared off, and made to feel with remorse, then if God hut a…
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and thow wilt cast all their sins into the depths of the sea.' This is faith's language ; lie will pardon with an overflowing mercy. Cast a stone into the sea, and it is not barely covered, but buried many fathoms deep. Cod will pardon thy greatest sins, saith faith, as the sea doth a little pebble. A few pins poiu-ed …
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We come to the second attribute, which scares the tempted soul, and seems so little to befriend this pardoning act of God's mercy ; and that is justice, which proves often matter of amazement to the awakened sinner, rather than encouragement, especially when the serious thought of it possesses his heart. Indeed, the na…
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ness of God, I am sure, may be vindicated in the conscience of the greatest sinner on earth ; yea, the devil liimself is but a faint disputant, when faith pinches liim with this arginnent : it is a trencli which he is not able to climb. Indeed, God laid out salvation in this method, that even we weak ones might be able…
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to your thoughts tliat f should pardon all your iniquities : yoti think, because I am a righteous God, that I will sooner damn a thousand worlds of sinners than asperse my justice and bring my name under the least suspicion of un- righteousness ; and that thought is most true. I woixld indeed damn them over and over ag…
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advance tlie honour of his justice hy pardoning the believing soul more than in damning the impenitent sinner. And surely God had no less design in the gospel covenant than this, that he would not the death of a sinner, but to vindi- cate his justice. He would not certainly have consented to the death of his only Son, …
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and a sacrifice to God,' Ephes. v. 2; suffering as willingly for us, as ever we sinned against liim ; and also from believing souls who now sing praises to the mercy and justice of God who redeemed them ; and will for ever in heaven. Now by how much the voluntary sufferings of Christ are better than the forced torments…
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tremble at the threatcniiigs, which roll like thunder over liis head, ready to fall every moment in some judgment or other upon him ; when he sees from whence they are sent, the perfect hatred that God bears to sin, and infinite wrath with which he is inflamed against the sinner for it. In a word, then the poor trembli…
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in his eye, -when lie promiseth pardon to poor sinners. Now, which exalts this most, to pardon little or great sinners? Whose voice will be highest in the song of 2>raise, thinkest thou ? Surely his to whom most is forgiven ; and, therefore, God cannot but be most ready to pardon the greatest sinners, when tnily penite…
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which he counts so forniiclablc, as they would do a wrangling sophist out of tlie* schools, when he boldly and ridiculously denies some known principle, acknow- ledged by all for a truth. But I would not be here mistaken : God forbid, that while I am curing despair, I shoidd cause prcsinnption. These two distempers of …
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whelmed with fears from the greatness of their sins, may see and read what God hath done for these, and be relieved and comforted with these examples, ' by God intended to be as a memorial of what he had done for others in time past, and a sign what he can still do, yea, will, for the greatest sinners to the world's en…
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Section I. — Despair opposetli God in tlie greatest of all liis commands. The greatest command, beyond all comparison, in the whole Bible, is to believe. When those .Tews asked our Lord Jesus, Jolin vi. 28, ' What shall we do that we might work the works of God?' mark the answer, ver. 2i), 'This is the work of God, tha…
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them than to confirm it in its own desperate tlioughts of its damnation, and to tell it that hell-iire is kindled in its conscience, which no mercy in God will or can quench to eternity. As the bloody Jews and Roman soldiers exercised their cruelty on every part almost of Christ's body, crovvninj^ his head witli thorns…
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God's licart is hardened against thco, tliy heart will not be long hardening against him. And this, by tlic way, may administer comfort to the thoughts of some gracious but troubled souls who cannot lind that tlicy have any faith, yea, who are often reckoning themselves among despairers. Let me ask thee who art in this…
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Secondly, All the pieces are to defend the Christian from sin ; — none to secure him from suffering. They are to defend him in suffering, not privilege him from it. He must prepare the more for suffering, because he is so well furnished with armour to bear it. Armour is not given for men to wear by the fire-side, but i…
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with the sight of thy sins, as also in firing thee with revenge against them, as those enemies which drew thee into rebellion against God ; yea, as the bloody weapons with which thou hast so often wounded the name, and murdered the Son of God. Behold, the grace thou lookest for stands before thee. What is love to Go…
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First, Let it learn thee, Christian, this wisdom, whenever thou findest any grace weakened, either through thy negligence in not attending to it, or Satan's temptations wounding it, speedily to endeavour the recovery of it ; because thou dost not only lose the comfort which the exercise of this one grace might bring, b…
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Section I. — We shall, first, shew the nature of this grace of hope, which will be best done by la3'ing down a plain description of it, and briefly explicating the parts. Hope is a supernatural gi-ace of God, whereby the believer, through Christ, expects and waits for all those good things of the promise, which at pres…
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Now, because God is only enjoyed fully and securely in heaven's blissful state, therefore it is called ' the hope of glory,' Col. i. 27 ; ' of eternal life,' Tit. iii. 7 ; ' of salvation,' 1 Thess. v. 8. Lastly, The object of hope is the good of the promise, not in hand, but yet to be performed. ' Hope that is seen is …
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are now at an end, and must look for no favours to come from him ; this pre- pares them to receive every impression of disloyalty that any enemy to the king shall attempt to stamp them with ; as in the Israelites, who thinking the men of Judah (of whose tribe the king was) had got a monopoly of his favour, and themselv…
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promise to heaven's door, where they deliver up his soul into the hands of love and joy, which stand ready to conduct him into the blissful presence of God. But that I may speak more particularly of hope's serviceableness to the Chris- tian, and the several offices it performeth for him, I shall reduce all to four head…
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now and then in the prosecution of them; but. alas! the swords they draAv against them are soon in their sheaths again, and all the seeming fray comes to nothing in the end. They, like Esau, go out full and angry, but a present comes from their lusts which bribes them from hurting them ; yea, so reconciles them to them…
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hope ; and if it hath no hope for heaven, it must of necessity have a hope for earth, such as it can afford. What can suit. an earthly heart better than an earthly hope? And that which is a man's hope, though poor and trifling, is highly prized, and with difiiculty parted with ; as we see in a man who is likely to be d…
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waits for all, and will not let the soul sit down contented till all the dishes be on the board, till the whole harvest that stands on the field of the promise be reaped; yea, the more the Christian liath received in partial payments, the deeper groans hope makes the soul fetch for what is behind ; and that, First, Bec…
913 wordsSECTION 528SHEWETH HOW HOPE MAKES THE CHRISTIAN CONTENT WITH AND FAITHFUL IN THE MEANEST PLACE AND LOWEST EMPLOYMENT THAT GOD ORDERS FOR HIM.
this needs bring to thee, poor heart, in thy fears and faintings. Paul had many enemies at Ephesus to oppose him ; but having ' an effectual door opened unto him,' for his encouragement, he went on undauntedly, 1 Cor. xvi. 9. As an army after stubborn resistance by the eneni}', who labour what the}^ can to keep them ou…
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we bestow more abundant honour on those members of our body, which we think less honourable ; so doth Christ with those members of his body, which, by reason of their low place in the world, may be thought to be most despised ; he puts an abundant honour upon them in his promise ; and where hope is raised, the Christia…
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Section I. — But more particularly I shall shew what powerful influence hope hath on the Christian in affliction, and how. First, it stills and silenceth him under affliction. It keeps the king's peace in the heart, which else would soon be in an uproar. A hopeless soul is clamorous : one while it chargeth God, another…
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hearts, and imconstant actings of our graces, which are as often ebbing as flowing ; and so our joy could not be constant, because our graces are not ; but as these springs lie high or low, so would this rise and fall ; yea, we were sure to drink more water than wine, oftener want joy than have it; whereas now the Chri…
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And again, ver. 14, 'Is not Aaron the Levite thy brother? I know that he can speak well; and also, behold, he conieth forth to meet thee.' Thus God animated him to like that liard providence which he was called to. Methinks I hear hope, as God's messenger, speaking after the same sort to the drooping soul, oppressed wi…
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to lis. Afflictions understood with this notion, that they are as necessary for our waftage to glory, as water is to carry the ship to her port, (which may as soon sail witliout water, as a saint land in heaven, without the subserviency of afflictions ;) this well understood, would reconcile the greatest afflictions to…
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which the Christian's burdens are canied, and hope the pillow between the back and the burden to make it sit easy. Now patience hath two shoiUders ; one to bear the present evil, and another to forbear the future good promised. And as hope makes the burden of the present evil of the cross light, so it makes tlxe longes…
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promises are the saint's poi-tion, saith one, but I cannot find them performed to nie, therefore I am not a saint; many a prayer I have sent to heaven, but I hear no news of them ; the saints are conquerors over their hists, but I am often foiled and worsted by mine ; there is a lieaven of comfort in tlie promise, but …
927 wordsSECTION 536SHEWETH A THREEFOLD ASSURANCE WHICH HOPE GIVES THE CHRISTIAN, AND THEREBY QUIETS HIM IN WAITING FOR THE PERFORMANCE OF PROMISES, WHEN GOD STAYS LONG.
and the performance, and is the main end why he forbears the paying it hastily. Jacob served seven years for Rachel, and God surely may make us wait be- fore the promise is given to our embraces by its full accomplishment : ' Ye have need of patience, that, after ye have done the will of God, ye might receive the promi…
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Section I. — Hope assures the sovil, that God will not delay, though he luay stay. 'The vision is yet for an appointed time, but at the end it shall speak, and not lie ; though it tarry, wait for it, because it will surely come, it will not tarry,' Hah. ii. 3. How is this? Though it tarry, it will not tarry! How shall …
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promise while in prison. But God's promise is never out of his thoughts ; he remembers his covenant, Psa. cv. 8 : his people and their affairs are engraven on the palms of his hands, and their walls are always before him, Isa. xlix. 16. Though the preferment at Pharaoh's court made the butler forget his promise to Jose…
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' Trust ye in the Lord for ever; for in the Lord Jehovah is everlasting strength,' Isa. xxvi. 4. His strength is such as needs not another's strength to uphold it. One man's ability to perform his promises depends on other's ability to pay theirs to him : if they fail, he is forced to fail. Thus, we see, the breaking o…
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monly die in the cradle : they are like some fruit gathered green, which soon rots. Is it riches that is thus got ? Some are said to make haste to get rich, Prov. xxviii. 20. They cannot, by a reasonable diligence in their particular calling, and exercise of godliness, wait upon God ; no, the promise doth not gallop fa…
904 wordsSource & rights
Public-domain historical work by William Gurnall, 1617–1679. OCR from an original historical scan hosted by Internet Archive; OCR may contain recognition errors.
Project Gutenberg source record →
Historical Christian writing; not Scripture.