shall be ". very sharp in the heart of the king's ene- mies V and all nations shall be subdued unto the obedience of faith c.
This is the weapon with which the Christian is armed ; and with which he shall conquer. To the eye of sense, indeed, he goes forth only like David, with his sling and a stone against Goliath d: but, like him, "he shall be strong, and do exploits6." With this he is " thoroughly furnished unto all good works f;" " nor shall any of his enemies be able to stand before himg."
To illustrate the virtues of this sword, we shall proceed to shew,
II. Its usefulness to him in all his combats —
It is needless to make any remarks on the utility of a sword in general, since every one must of neces- sity be well acquainted with it. But the particular manner in which the Scriptures answer the end of a sword to the Christian, is not so obvious. We may well therefore examine this point with care and ac- curacy, in order that we ourselves may be enabled to " handle the weapon" provided for us, and use it with dexterity and success.
The Christian's enemies are the world, the flesh, and the devil. And the Scripture enables him to defeat them : first, by its clear directions. Does the flesh plead for any unhallowed indulgence ? the Scripture says, " Abhor that which is evil ; cleave to that which is goodh." Does the world solicit his embrace ? the Scripture says again, " Love not the world, neither the things that are in the world1." Does Satan exert his wiles in order to deceive ? the Scripture says, " Him resist k." And it is worthy of remark, that it was by means of the directions of Scripture that our Saviour himself vanquished his wicked adversary. Did Satan recommend him to turn stones into bread for his support 1 he answered,
b Ps. xlv. 3 — 5. c Ps. lxxii. 9—11. a 1 Sam. xvii. 40.
e Dan. xi. 32. »' 2 Tim. iii. 17. k Josh. x. 8.
h Rom. xii. 9. ! 1 John ii. 15. * 1 Pet. v. 9.