A85783:87
The Christian in Complete Armour
The Christian in complete armour. Or, A treatise of the saints war against the Devil, wherein a discovery is made of that grand enemy of God and his people, in his policies, power, seat of his empire, wickedness, and chief design he hath against the saints. A magazine opened: from whence the Christian is furnished with spiritual arms for the battle, helped on with his armour, and taught the use of his weapon, together with the happy issue of the whole war. The first part. / By William Gurnall, Minister of the Gospel in Lavenham. Imprimatur, Edmund Calamy.The Christian in compleat armour. Or, A treatise of the saints war against the Devil, wherein a discovery is made of that grand enemy of God and his people, in his policies, power, seat of his empire, wickednesse, and chiefe designe he hath against the saints. A magazin open'd: from whence the Christian is furnished with spiritual armes for the battel, help't on with his armour, and taught the use of his weapon, together with the happy issue of the whole warre. The first part. / By William Gurnall, Minister of the Gospel in Lavenham. Imprimatur, Edmund Calamy.
London: printed for Ralph Smith, 1655
Modern spelling is a reading aid: the words are the author’s, only the spelling is modernized. Original shows the page as printed, with the transcription marks.
Reas. 1 First, because it is no easy work to make use of this truth, (how plain and clear soever it now appears,) in great plunges of temptation, that God is Almighty; To vindicate this Name of God from those evil reports, which Satan and carnal Reason raise against it, requires a strong faith indeed. I confess this principle is a piece of natural divinity; That light which finds out a Deity, will evince (if followed close) this God to be Almighty; yet in a carnal heart, it is like a rusty sword, hardly drawn out of the scabbard, and so of little or no use. Such truths are so imprisoned in natural conscience, that they seldom get a fair hearing in the sinners bosom, till God gives them a Goal-delivery, and brings them out of their house of bondage, where they are shut up in unrighteousness with a high hand of his convincing Spirit. Then and not till then the soul will believe God is holy, merciful, Almighty; nay, some of Gods peculiar people, and not the meanest for grace amongst them, have had their faith for a time set in this slough, much ado to get over those difficulties and improbabilities, which sense and Reason have objected, so as to rely on the Almighty Power of God, with a notwithstanding. Moses himself, a star of the first magnitude for grace, yet see how his faith blinks and twinkles, till he wades out of the temptation, Numb. 11.21. The people among whom I am are six hundred thousand, and thou hast said, I will give them flesh that they may eat a whole month, shall the flocks and the herds be slain for them to suffice them? This holy man had lost the sight for a time of the Almighty Power of God, and now he is projecting how this should be done; as if he had said in plain terms, How can this be accomplished? for so God interprets his reasoning, v. 23, And the Lord said unto Moses, Is the Lords hand waxed short? So Mary, John 11.32. Lord, if thou hadst been here, my brother had not died. And her Sister ⟨p. 26⟩Martha, v. 39. Lord, by this time he stinketh. Both gracious women, yet both betrayed the weakness of their faith on the Almighty Power of Christ, one limiting him to place; If thou hadst been here he had not died; as if Christ could not have saved his life absent as well as present, sent his health to him as well as brought it with him. The other to time, Now he stinketh.