for God than an hypocrite that is clad in fleshly annour ? I will tell you what the world saith, and if you be Christians, clear yourselves, and wipe off that dirt which they throw upon your glistening armour ; they say, These professors indeed have God more in their talk than we, they are oftener in the mount of duty than we ; but when they come down into their shops, relations, or worldly employments, then the best of them all is but like one of us ; they can throw the tables of God's commandments out of their hands as well as we ; come from a sermon, and be as covetous and griping, as peevish and passionate, as the worst ; the)' show as little love to Christ as others, when it is matter of cost, as to relieve a poor saint, or maintain the gospel ; you may get more from a stranger, an enemy, than from a professing brother. O Christians, either vindicate'the name of Christ, whose ensign you seem to march after, or throw away your seeming armour, by which you have drawn the eyes of the world upon you. If you will not, Christ himself will cashier you, and that with shame enough, ere long. Never call that armour of God, which defends thee not against the power of Satan. Take, therefore, the several pieces of your annour and try them, as the soldier before he fights will set his helmet or headpiece as a mark, at which he lets fly a brace of bullets, and as he finds them, so will wear them or leave them : but be sure thou shootest Script\ire bullets. Thou boastest of a breast-plate of righteousness ; ask thy sold, Didst thou ever in tliy life perform a duty to please God, and not to accommodate thyself? Thou hast prayed often against thy sin ; a great noise of these pieces have been heard coming from thee by others, as if there were some hot fight between thee and thy corruption ; but canst tliou indeed show one sin that thou hast slain by all thy praying ? Joseph was alive, though his coat was brought bloody to Jacob ; and so may thy sins be, for all thy mortified look in duty, and outcry thou makest against them. If thou woiddest thus try every piece, thy credulous heart would not so easily be cheated with Satan's false ware.
Object. But is all armour that is of God thus mighty ? We read of weak grace, little faith ; how can this then be a trial of our armoiu-, whether of God or not ?
Ans. I answer. The weakness of grace is in respect of stronger grace ; but that weak grace is strong and mighty in comparison of counterfeit grace. Now I do not bid thee try the truth of thy grace by such a power as is peculiar to stronger grace, but by that power which will distinguish it from false ; true grace, when weakest, is stronger than false, when strongest. There is a prm- ciple of Divine life in it, which the other hath not. Now life, as it gives excel- lency, (a flea, or fly, by reason of its life, is more excellent than the sun in all its glory,) so it gives strength. The slow motion of a living man, though so feeble that he cannot go a furlong in a day, yet coming from life, imports more strength than is in a ship, which, though it sails swiftly, hath its motion from without. Thus possibly a hypocrite may exceed the true Christian in the bulk and outside of a duty, yet because his strength is not from life, but from somewind and tide abroad that carries him, and the Christian's is from an inward prin- ciple, therefore the Christian's weakness is sti-onger than the hypocrite in his greatest enlargements. I shall name but two acts of grace, when weakest, whereby the Christian exceeds the hypocrite in all his best array. You will say, then grace is at a weak stay indeed, when the Christian is persuaded to commit a sin, a great sin ; such a one as possibly a carnal person would not have it said of him for a great matter, so low may the tide of grace fall ; yet true grace at such an ebb, will appear of greater strength and force than the other.
First, This principle of grace will never leave, till the soul weeps bitterly with Peter, that it hath oflended so good a God. Speak, O ye hypocrites! can you shew one tear that ever you shed in earnest for a wrong done to God? Possibly ye may weep to see the bed of sorrow which your sins are making for you hi hell ; but ye never loved God so well, as to mourn for the injury ye have done the name of God. It is a good gloss Augustine hath upon Esau's tears, Heb. xii., Flevit quod perdidit, iion quod vendidit. He wept that he lost the blessing, not that he sold it. Thus we see the excellency of the saint's sorrow above the hypocrite's. The Christian, by his sorrow, shows himself a conqueror of that sin which even now overcame him ; while the hypocrite, by
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3g PUT ON THE WHOLE ARMOUR OF GOD.
his pride, shows himself a slave to a worse lust than that he resists. While the Christian commits a sin, he hates it ; whereas the other loves it while he forbears it.