and the sinner feed on earth and eartlily things, to which he is staked down by his carnal heart; hut the Christian hath a hope in liis bosom of possessing greater glory than this peddling world can pretend to ; yea, a faith that is able to entertain him at present with some of heaven's joys, it being the nature of that grace to give existence to the good things of the promise. This helmet on, and shield lifted up, would keep olf a whole shower of such arrows from hurt- ing a Christian. God hath reason to take it the worse at his hands to yield, that might have stood, would he but have made use of those graces which God had given him for his defence, or called in help from heaven. ' Hast thou eaten,' saith God to Adam, ' of the tree whereof I conunanded thee that thou shouldest not eat?' Gen. iii. 11. The accent lies in thou. It was not sure for hunger ; thou hadst a whole paradise before thee : hast thou eaten, that wert provided so well to have withstood him? Hast thou, may God say to the Christian, eaten of the devil's dainties, who hast a key to go to my cupboard ? Does thy heavenly Father keep so starved a house that the devil's scraps will go down with thee ?
3. The Christian's safety lies in resisting. All the armour here provided is to defend the Christian fighting, none to secure him flying; stand, and the day is oiu's ; fly or yield, and all is lost. Great captains, to make their soldiers more resolute, do sometimes cut ofl:" all hope of a safe retreat to them that nm away : thus the Norman conqueror, as soon as his men were set on English shore, sent away his ships in their sight, that they might resolve to fight or die. God takes away all thought of safety to the coward. Not a piece to be found for the back in all God's armoury. Stand, and the bullets light all on your armour ; fly, and they enter into yom* hearts. It is a tenible place, Heb. x. 38 : ' The just shall live by faith ; but if any man draw back, my soul shall have no pleasiu-e in him.' He that stands to it believingly, comes off" with his life; but he that recoils, and runs from his colours, as the word iiposteiletai imports, God will have no pleasure in hiir>, except it be in the just execution of his wrath on him. And doth he not make a sad change, that, from fighting against Satan, engageth God as an enemy against him ? There is comfort in striving against sin and Satan, though to blood ; but none to lie sweating under the fiery indignation of a revenging God. What Satan lays on, God can take ofl"; but who can ease, if God lays on? What man would not rather die in the field fighting for his prince, than on a scaffold by the axe for cowardice or treachery ?
4. The enemy we have to do withal is such as is only to be dealt with by re- sisting. God is an enemy that is overcome by yielding ; the devil only by force of arms.
First, He is a cowardly enemy; though he sets a bold face on it in tempting, he carries a fearful heart in his breast. The work is naught he goes about ; and as a thief is afraid of , every light he sees, or noise he hears, in the house he would rob, so Satan is discouraged where he finds the soul waking, and in a posture to oppose him. He fears the Christian more than thou needest him. ' Jesus I know, and Paul I know,' said the devil, Acts xix. 15. That is, I know them to my shame; they have both put me to flight, and if ye were such as they, I should fear you also. Believe it, soul, he trembles at thy faith ; put it forth in prayer to call for help to heaven against him, and exert it vigorously by rejecting the motions he makes, and thou shalt see him run. Did soldiers in a castle know that their enemies besieging them were in a distracted con- dition, and would certainly, upon their sallying out, break up and fly away, what metal and courage would this fill them withal? The Spirit of God (who knows well enough how affairs stand in the devil's camp) sends this intelli- gence unto every soul that is beset by his temptations. Jam. iv. 8, ' Resist the devil, and he will flee from you.' He cannot hurt us without our leave. The devil is not so good a drawer, but when he finds it comes not, the soul yields not, his heart then fails hini, at least for the present; as in Christ's combat, it is said, ' he departed from him for a season.' When the devil continues long the same suit, it is to be feared that person, though he hath not fully promised him, yet he hath not given him a peremptory denial. He is a suitor that listens for something to drop from the creature that may encourage him to prosecute his motion ; no way to be rid of hiin, but to shut the door
lyg STAND THEREFORE.
upon him, and deny all discourse with him ; which prompts to the second character.