The second observable in tbe exhortation is taken from the verb which the apostle iisetli, analamhanefe, which signilies not only to take, but to take again, or recover a thing which we have lost, or reassunic a thing which for the present we have left. Now the apostle writing to the saints at Ephesus, who (at least many of them) were not now to put on this armour by a conversion, or the first work of faith, which no doubt had already passed u])on many among them, he, in regard of them and believers to the end of the world, hath a further meaning, i. e. that they would put on more clothes where this armour hangs loose, and they would recover where they have let fall any duty, or decayed in any grace. So that the note is,
Doct. That the Christian should have an especial care to repair his broken armour, to recover his decayed graces. This armour may be battered ; I might shew sad exam])les in the several pieces. Was not Jacob's girdle of truth and sincerity unbuckled, when he used that sniful policy to get the blessing? lie was not the plain man then, but the supplanter; but he had as good have stayed God's time; he was paid home in his own kind: he puts a cheat on his father, and did not Laban put a cheat on him, giving Leah for llacliel ? What say you of David's breastplate of righteousness, in the matter of Uriali ? Was it not shot through, and that holy man feai-fuUy wounded, who lay almost a year (for aught we read of him) before he came to himself, so far as to be thoroughly sensible of his sin, till Nathan, a faithful surgeon, was sent to search tlie wound, and clear it of that dead flesh which liad grown over it ? And Jonah, (otherwise a holy prophet,) when God wovild send him on an errand to Nineveh, he hath his shoes to seek, I mean that preparation and readiness with which his mind should have been shod, to have gone at the first call. Good Hezekiah, we find how near liis helmet of hope was of being beat off his head, who tells us himself what his thoughts were in the day of his distress ; that he ' should not see the Lord in the land of the living,' expecting that God would never let go his hold, ' till like a lion he had bi'oke his bones, and at last made an end of him.' Even Abraham himself, famous for faith, yet had his fits of unbelief, and distrustful qualms coming over his valiant heart. Now in this ease, the Christian's care shoiUd be to get his armour speedily repaired ; a battered helmet is next to no helmet, in point of present use ; 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 Christ gives the church of Ephesus (to whom Paul wrote this epistle) this coimsel, to ' remember from whence she was fallen, to repent and do her first works.' How many does a declining Christian wrong ac once !
Eirst, He wrongs God, and that in a high degree, because God reckons upon more honour to be paid him in by his saints' grace than by all other talents which his creatin-es have to trade with in the world. He can in some sense better bear the open sins of the world, tlian the decays of his saints' graces : they, by abusing tlieir talents, rob him of his 'oil, flax, and wool ;' but the Christian by the otlier bereaves him of the glory which should ])c paid him from his faith, zeal, patience, self-denial, sincerity, and the rest. Suppose a master should trust one servant with his money, and another with his child to look to ; would be not be more displeased to see his dear child hurt, or almost killed, by the negligence of the one, than his money stolen ])y the carelessness of the other ? Grace is the new creature, the birth of the Spirit; when this comes to any harm by the Christian's careless walking, it nuist needs go nearer the heart of God, than the wrong he hath from the world, who are trusted with nothing like this.
Secondly, lie that declines in grace, and labours not to repair 'it, he wrongs his brethren, who have a share in one another's grace : he wrongs his whole body, that seeks not cure for a woimd in any member. We are bid ' to love one another,' 2 John, ver. 5. But how shall we shew our love to one another? The very next words will direct us; ' And this is love, tliat we walk after his connnaiulments.' Indeed, we shew little love to our !)rethren by sinning, whereby we are sure either to ensnare them, or grieve them : and how to let
Jg(J WHEREFOliE TAKE UNTO YOU
grace go down, and sin not go np, is a riddle to any that know what they both are.