A85783:9
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
Dedication: To my Dearly Beloved Friends and Neighbours, the Inhabitants of LAVENHAM.
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.
To my Dearly Beloved Friends and Neighbours, the Inhabitants of LAVENHAM.
My Dear Friends,
Solomon saith, The desire of a man is his kindness, and a poor man is better then a liar, Prov. 19.22. If you be of his mind, I dare promise these Notes, (which I here devote to your service) a kind acceptance at your hands. You will find me to be the poor man, by the mite I present you with; but the hearty desire of your eternal happiness from which it comes, will (I hope) clear me from being the liar. I never could be so serviceable to you, as many Ministers are to their people, having been with you in much weakness, and still it is the good pleasure of God, I should be staked down to a short tether of strength and other abilities; I have reason therefore, (that I may, though not recompense that want, yet express my deep sense thereof) to crowd the more love into the little I can do for you. And truly my heart is enlarged to you, and to God for you. If any thing makes me loath to be gone into another world, (which my dropping house bids me above many prepare for) it is not the least, to think I shall leave no more of you walking in the way to eternal life, and you who are on your way thither, in no closer Gospel-order for your mutual help and comfort in your journey: yea, while I am among you, little do ⟨image 4⟩you think how much of your poor Ministers life lies at your mercy. If I should measure my life by the joy of it, (as indeed who doth not?) Then in some uprightness I can say with Paul, I live as I see any of you stand fast in the Lord, and die as I see others stand fast in their sins, not to be moved with all the entreaties of the Gospel which have wooed you. And why (my dear friends) should not the life of your souls be much more precious in your own sight then mine? But I forbear, I would not willingly be thought, as some husbands are, to be kinder to you abroad before strangers, then I am at home.