reliefe to deale with your enemies as David did your faith is your victory whereby you overcome the world 1. Iohn 5.4 that is in Christ it is the power of his might that makes us strong Christ hath a might a mighty abilitie hee is endowed with power from above which being put forth in us gives us a power to be strong and to stand our ground as ver 10. for in those words the habit seemes to be distinguish't from the energy and operation when a man is acted by the Divell either by an immediate possession or some eminent strong way of lusting that hee is strong in the Divell and in the power of his might that is you shall finde a power full operation of the might of the Divell upon him so as did wee not see a humane shape wee should thinke it were the Divell indeed so greatly is his might acted upon men with power Now after this manner should wee be strong in the Lord by the influence of his spirit by the strength of his armour other strengths will proove but weaknesse so much for that point Secondly it is not without its observation that it is called heere and before the whole armour of God 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 There is no man pretends so little to religion but hee will doe a little hee will pretend to some graces hee will make some sallyes as if hee would fight but the difficulty and the wisedome and the strength lyes in the universality there is a chaine in graces you loose all if you loose one as Iames saith Hee that breakes one command is guilty of all and God that gives you armes not to clog you but to defend you hath given you nothing to much it is not the beauty but the use of an armed man which hee considers That place which is open to be sure the Divell will strike in for hee knowes the bare places and one open place will serve to kill you aswell as an hundred therefore God hath made a defence for all therefore the Scripture calls for a growing up in all grace or in all things Eph. 4.15 2. Pet. 1.5 Therefore Peter calls for an addition of one grace to another till you be compleate Adde saith hee to your faith vertue c. For if these things be in you and abound that is if you have all those parts and that in a way of height and eminency if they be not scanty and narrow then you will abound also that is you will neither be barren nor unfruitfull I beseech you consider this it is the universality it is the whole armour of God that will alone serve our turnes and which alone wee sticke at All difficulty lyes in exactnesse in bringing things to their end and their perfection every one is a beginner and a pretender to learning to knowledge to arts to religion it self but the exactnes the universality is the portion but of a few let us doe otherwise How good is God who hath given us a whole armour let us not shew our selves at once enemyes to our selves and unthankfull to him unlesse wee feare neither God nor the Divell on the other side let this comfort us that there is a whole armour there is a whole Divell that nature is improoved to the utmost capacity of a rationall nature for ill for hurt if there were not a whole armour wee were undone Thirdly wee are commanded to take unto us this whole armour of God and ver 11. to put it on God makes it God gives it hee makes it efficacious but there are our parts also wee must take it to us and put it on there is a sluggishnesse in mens natures if God would doe all and men might sleepe the whilest perhaps they would lye still and let him trusse on their armour but this is not the law wee live by this is not the tearmes wee stand in with God what wee cannot doe God will doe for us but what wee can doe that wee must doe Hee doth not worke with us as wee worke with a hatchet or a dead instrument but as the soule workes with the body that is in it and by it so as the body doth its part and feeles the labour the soule at first gives life to our body so doth God to our soules when they are dead in sins and trespasses hee quickens them Also the soule gives guidance to the body and direction and assistance so doth God hee never failes us hee is still by us at our right hands but wee have our parts our reason and understandings our will and our affections they come into play every day and if God can do nothing by them hee will do nothing without them This when men beleeve so much in other things as they will scarce trust God with any thing they will see a reason and a meanes sufficient to produce every event they will be at every end of every businesse why doe they devolue all upon him in religion without stirring at all Because they minde it lesse which is the meanes to make God minde it not at all Therefore I beseech you let us do our parts fetch assistance from God and worke under him receive influence and spirit from him and use them intend mightily what wee doe for it is to God and for him those that worke under any Agent though never so mighty do so and this know that the more mighty any supreane Agent is the more it intends imployes and fills the instrument as hee that serves a wise man though hee do nothing but by the direction and appoyntment of his master yet hee shall finde his understanding intended and imployed for a wise directer doth more intend and fill the subordinate instruments and Agents not contra Now hee comes to the end and use of the Armour that they might be able to stand in the evill day and having done all to stand the word is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to resist to stand against you see heere is a reall combate as your enemies are great which you have heard of before so is the combate it will cost you resisting and fighting and there is a day appointed for it an evill day that is a day of battaile our whole life is so many evill dayes therefore sayes the Apostle Redeeme your time because the dayes are evill Eph. 5.16 that is troublesome and full of temptations if you would make any thing of your lives of the opportunities you meet with all of the occasions that fall out you must redeeme them a little time and opportunity is worth much it will be lost to you if you redeeme it not So all our dayes are evill as Iacob said but some more especially may be called by way of eminency the evill day All the dayes of Iob were in a manner evill because none were without some molestation and trouble I had no rest sayes hee neither was I in quiet yet trouble came Iob 3.26 But the great evill
littlenesse this nothingnes of faith is your advantage because in this great businesse of our salvation God will be all in all and you shall thanke your selves for nothing Did it hinder Naaman the Assirian that to wash in Jordan was nothing or did it relieve Jericho that the bloweing of Rams-hornes was nothing if it had bene any thing it had not done it for God is resolved to destroy Jericho by nothing that is by himselfe alone and therefore he will have you by nothing or by that which is as good as nothing in respect of what you doe But on the other side hee findes enough in the ballance to make your sins nothing even his owne eternall love and the suffering and merrits of his owne son Thirdly Gods heart is in this matter of faith never any thing was so fenced with mottinesse with threats and commands with intreatings and invitings with words and oathes with signes and seales with rewards and punishments The Gospell is nothing but the Message of faith Christ himself and all his Ministers but the preachers of faith The great businesse is to make the match to tye the knott betweene God and our soules the rest other things flow on naturally Love followes faith works flowe from love But without faith its impossible to please God without faith wee are Strangers and a farre of Now that which is so neere Gods heart and so advantagious to our selves wee should doe wee should be much in what ever the divell say to the contrary God neverhedged any thing about like this never any thing came so freely off the making of this cost him his Ministers ordinances and seales and without it all is nothing Fourthly to fetch Arguments not onely from necessity and duty reason but ingenuity the onely salve you can apply to the wounds of Christ is beleeving your sins made them your faith heales them Hee shall see of the travaile of his soule and be satisfied Isa. 53.11 That is hee hath beene at a great deale of paines and cost now what are his in-comes what will make up this poore people for whome hee did and suffered all this will trust him and beleeve in him for so it followes by his knowledge shall my righteous servant justify many that is by the knowledge and beliefe of him they shal be justified this satisfies him this payes him this is the onely way you have to make him amends Now his stripes hath healed you heale him by your faith do a little nobly and freely for him that hath done so much for you sticke not with him to beleeve him that stuck not to dye for you But then lastly did the divell never let loose any fiery darts upon you or may hee not doe it if hee have not yee can judge the lesse what it is to want this shield but aske Judas and hee will tell you aske David hee will tell you aske Paul when Sathan buffetted him and hee had nothing but God to relie upon If hee have I hope experience will make us wise to have our shield ready if hee have not knowe that hee may doe looke that hee will doe and will doe it when you are weakest when you are lowest provide for that evill day get up your shield this of faith in God through Christ as yours and then when hee comes what have you to doe ye can turne God loose to him yee can fetch downe liquor and vertue of that temper and coolenesse as shall dead and quench and extinguish his darts and in the thing wherein hee is proud and mighty you will be above him and to hard for him We are come in the fifth place to another peece of the great and sure armour with which the spirit of God armes us against the divell a peece for our head the Helmet of salvation as that before was more generall applicable to the whole Body That by this Helmet is meant hope the Apostle who is his owne best interpreter tells you 1. Thessa. 5.8 And for an Helmet the Hope of Salvation This peece of armour is of excellent use and proper to that part it defends The worth of it appears as by many things So by the deplorable condition of those that want it they have no hope saies hee and they are without God in the world Eph. 2.12 they wanted that ligament that tye to fasten them to God and so were left most miserable Wee must consider a little what hope is and then why it is called of salvation and then how it fits that part to which it is destined and doth the worke of an Helmet It is a receiv'd maxime that all affections are rooted in love and as they are rooted in love so they are acted by love even hatred and malice it selfe hath its rise in some thing loved for therefore I hate such a thing because I love the contrary Againe as affections are rooted in love and acted by love so love is felt and appeares according to the affection it acts by and is seene through that as the sunne which is alwayes the same in it selfe yet workes upon us according to the constellations it possesseth and the light coulours it self according to the body through which it shines so loves workes and appeares much according to the affection it possesseth and through which it renders it self visible for example Love appeares very darke in sorrow violent in choller tranquill and peaceable in joy dejected in dispaire but in hope love is in its Throne there it appeares in most pompe there it workes with most efficacy and is altogether lovely This affection of all others semes to be destined to great affaires and hath a mighty influence either upon our doeing or suffering It was all that Alexander had to inable him to the conquest of the world distributing all his other goods that hee had received from his father Againe what is it but this that makes men every day crosse the seas labour the ground seeke after Mines in the bowells of the earth fight and pursue victories nay it is that which accompanyes men to the scaffold and to their death bedds But to follow our methods wee consider not hope heere in that loose sence in which it is commonly taken namely for a certaine fault and lowe attendancy or lookeing after some good thing desired and so to be before faith and without it as when wee are apt to say I cannot beleeve such a thing but I hope it well but on the contrary we take it for a firme expectation of some future good which wee doe already beleeve and are assured of so faith the scripture Heb. 11.1 Faith is the substance of things hoped for Gal. 5.5 Wee waite for the hope of righteousnesse by faith that is faith gives you the ground of waiteing which is by hope so if wee hope wee waite Rom. 8.25 so as this hope which must be our Helmet is a superadded grace to faith a birth and effect of it
as for the attaining of them God must come out of heaven Christ must die and suffer God must set all his wisedome on worke that wee may have a ground to pitch our hopes upon and for our part hope is mannaged and conversant about difficult things as ye shall heare But then last of all our hope is wise the things are possible about which it is conversant so possible as they are assured and therefore it s called the full assurance of Hope Heb. 6.11 Let us knowe then where wee are and what use wee have of this affection The truth is Christian Religion is altogether founded upon hope the things of this life are not our portion wee breath after what is to come let us therefore live as men untyed from this world and fasten to another by hope let the pleasures and honours and profits of this world be dead things to us because wee have no hope to animate them Hope acts and animates above any thing but wee want this engine because we have not that object For instance to appeare something to be great wise and honourable is the great contention and pursuite of this world When Christ who is our life shall appeare then shall wee appeare c. Heavenly hope puts you off thither and disputes not the thing but the time ye shall have enough of appearing but it shal be in a peculiar and advantageous time when Christ shall appeare to fill up his triumph to adorne that pompe respite your desire of appearing till then God doth but time it for us so for pleasures to enjoy your selves to be satisfied to be at ease to gratify and content every part of you these are mens hopes one time or other you shall get it There is a place of pleasures the presence of God and there is a fullnesse and compleatnesse of pleasure but it is in that place and in other and there are plasures for evermore pleasures that are as long as they are great but it is at the right hand of God The pleasures Sathan would give you are of a base alloey their durance is but of that minute in which they are enjoyed Their fullnesse is worse then their emptinesse for they are not onely vaine falling short of that good they promised but vexing also and deceiving the truth is this is not a life for pleasures but for paines especially to Christians and so saies the Apostle If in this life onely wee have hope wee are of all men most miserable If our hopes as other mens were heere wee were in a worse condition then they that cannot eate their meates and enjoy their comforts tast of their daintyes partly because there is a greater disproportion betweene us and them then betweene they and them and partly because our light and our conscience is to much raised of too great a tendernesse to digest their morsells what then have wee nothing to ballance their contentments not to speake of other things what ever returnes faith and hope can make wee have They are without hope wish them joy of what they have but hope they have none and this let mee tell you improve this well and it shall pay all the charges of their gaines you have the hope of eternall life the hope of glory of what ever your hearts can wish and desire Faith gives things a footing and a subsistance hope is grafted upon it and is ready by the expectation of better things to outbidd the world and by virtue of a pleasure taken in things to come to carry you above the false pretensions of pleasure which the world makes ofter therefore content your selves with your portion and use your Helmet to ward of the assaults of semeing goods or ills as Sathan shall present them But more particularly use hope for joy for patience for workeing live in the joy of hope let one spirituall affection in prove and provoke another that there is a joy of hope appeares in this which wee usually say of worldly hopes that things are usually better in the hopes then in the enjoyment and wee see men will sell any thing rather then their hopes Now those hopes in comparison with ours have two or three notable defects First they are built upon uncertainties and contingenties they have no firme bottome and ground work and so cannot be intire cannot be without the mixture of feare feare of issue feare of successe and this let mee adde that the more they hope the more they will feare out of a loathnesse to want the good things they desire and so it is a mixt affection that prickes and pinches aswell as relieves and comforts Worldly men enjoy litle their hopes or their possessions not their possessions for they are ballanced with uncertainties and emptinesse so as they are faine to relieve themselves by their hopes by their reachings after more nor their hopes doe they enjoye purely and sincerely for they are mixt with feare which oftentimes is the weightiest ingredient and beares the greatest part of the composition but our hopes have not this impediment to joy but on the contrary carry evidence and subsistance with them being built upon the evidence and subsistance of faith so that what faith firmely beleeves hope joyfully expects and waites for What is the great happines of heaven but the fixeing stayeing of joyes by eternity Now the joy of that hope is fixed by faith which gives it a steddy and untottering foundation so that what you have you have If joy come in by that doore it will or ought to do so alwaies there is no rationall or necessary mixture of feare because there is no rationall cause of doubting Secondly there is a vanity of rejoycing in boastings as James saith and so an evill for all such rejoycing is evill The mixture of feare is a troublesome but it is a rationall thing in their hopes the foundation of which is but contingency but a further evill and more sinfull and irrationall is that they rejoyce in their boastings they thinke by the determination of their wills to do that which godly men doe by faith and when their hopes have once concluded a thing they thinke it should be established and thereupon runne away without reckoning with their hoast as wee use to say whereas the scripture saith yee ought to say if I live and if the Lord will Now for their foolish conceits to fixe that which onely God can render certaine is a folly and a sinne and the hope that riseth from it is an irrationall presumptuous hope for that they ought to say if wee live and if the Lord will things that are wholy out of their power Now our hopes and the joy of it is not a rejoycing in boasting but it is a boasting in truth wee have already the Lords will his will declared his will commaunded that wee should have the joy of hope and should rejoyce in hope Rom. 12.12 And that wee should have the rejoycing
of the hope firme unto the end Heb. 3.6 So as here is no rejoycing in boastings heere is no vaine fancies of our owne no castles in the aire But then as their is a vanity in the uncertaintie of their hopes which mixeth them with feares and a further and fuller vanity in fixeing and assureing their hopes by their owne boastings and presumptions incerta certa redendo So Thirdly there is a mighty vanity in the matter of their hopes for they are of things low and meane no better for kinde then what they have already why doe they not enjoy them nay why doe they despise them because they knowe them so as they despise what they know and hope in what they know not because they know it not but the object of our hopes and of our joy arising from them are of things so great and reall as the little but yet the true taste wee have of them makes us desire more It is our knowledge that makes us vallewe our hopes and joy in them and it is our ignorance that causeth us to hope no more nor rejoyce in the good things which are the objects of them And therefore wee see faith which gives a reall evidence and sight of things intends above any other thing our hopes and want of faith and weaknesse of faith lessens our hopes and the joy of them The object of our hopes are things great thing heavenly things eternall and these are the matter if any other thing bee of joy Opposite to which are the dead beggarly and sensible things of this world which are mistaken alwayes in hope and usually despised in possession so that not onely simply but in comparison with other things wee have all reason for the joy of hope The warrant of this joy wee have given you already when wee shewed the reason of our joy in opposition to wicked mens boastings but the end is not onely for it self though that be much that wee may live comfortably that wee be in as good a condition as this state is capable of but joy as a result and concomitant of hope is mighty for Battaile ye are now in the lists and ye put on armour the joy of Hope which is the joy of the Lord is our strength Hee that rejoyceth not in the hope of things to come will rejoyce in vaine hopes or in sensuall enjoyments Hee that cannot take in the pleasures of salvation by hope will assuredly joy the joyes of wicked men for hee wants this armour against pleasures and sensuall joyes which is a weapon Sathan weilds to our dis-advantage asmuch as any and therefore know how to arme your head by hope and against the pleasures and joyes of this world by the pleasure and joy of hope unlesse you would be exposed as a prey to things of sence and things of this life against which this hope of salvation is your armour But now to answere shortly an objection if hope brings in so great and steddy a returne of joy what place will you allot for sorrow for sin for wee are sinners and a sinfull condition and that affection suites us very well Answ. Certainely wee should not sorrow as those without hope but as those which are full of hope yet on the other side as there is occasion by renued acts of sinnes our hope and our joy should intend our sorrow and rectify it God would not have an uncomfortable or a dispairing thought in all sorrow it is the sorrow of the world that workes death that destroyes and hurts some inordinacie some excesse but sorrow intended and relieved also by hope and the joy of it as it is often necessarie so it will never hurt you There is a double use of sorrow first to worke out the staine of sin in supplying the want of afflictions sin is not onely evill for its transcient act but for the cursed disposition that it leaves behinde there is ever sin in the wombe of sin sorrow serves to worke out the staine of sin and doe the worke of afflictions which are to humble and bring low Prov. 20.30 The blewnes of a wound cleanseth away evill so doe stripes the inward parts of the belly this is applied to correction and cleansing afflictions worke the wound to such a disposition as is cleasing and healeing But then secondly sorrow for sin serves whereby to expresse our affections to Christ in a manner sutable to our condition and to the posture wee stand in towards him shall wee grieve the Lord and shall the Lord be grieved and shall wee not grieve But hee loves us and pardons us therefore should wee grieve Besides while hee loves us hee grieves and hee grieves the more because hee loves us and so should wee if hee did not love us hee would not grieve and if wee love him wee cannot but grieve when wee offend him Jer. 31.19 Surely after I was turned I repented and after that I was instructed I smote upon my thigh I was ashamed c. Ephraim mournes and grieves which hee did not till God had mercy on him then hee smote on his thigh If you aske how wee should grieve Never without the reliefe of hope and joy let them act and intend your sorrow but for the degree why should wee not in humbling our selves for sin worke our selves and our sorrow as low as afflictions would lay us if chastisements should take hold on us or sicknes to death or any other hand of God chastising for sinne this will be no interruption in your hope no prejudice to the joy of it Thus your hope armes you against pleasures by joy the joy of hope but wee have paines also to conflict withall all the evills and calamities that dishonour want and poverty or bodily evills can inflict patiency also in attendancy and expectation yee have need of patience that after yee have done the will of God yee may receive the promise Wee would faine have our rewards in hand wee are loath to stay wee would have the reality of the reward not the vision of faith onely Heb. 10.36 Now this is needfull for the Saints through faith and patience inherited the promises Heb. 6.12 If you aske who infests the Saints who puts them to their patience The world and wicked men but especially the Divell that hee might discourage us and devoure us might breake and interrupt our course might make us for want of continuance doe and suffer so many things in vaine and therefore armes all his instruments evill men and our owne corruptions against us to make us weary of that way which is so sowed with thornes which costs us so much paines and trouble God also puts us to our patience by suffering manifold evills outward and inward to infest us that hee might purge present evill and prevent further evill and that hee might try us and use what hee hath laid into us that hee might say of us another day as hee did of Iob yee have heard
about which our hope is conversant and the proportion lies thus Wee hope saith hee ver 2. when hee shall appeare to be like him for wee shall see him as hee is sayes hee there will be the same reason of your being like to him heere and hereafter and therefore if you will be like him in heaven you must be like him heere and your hope for the one must helpe you to the other now as in heaven hee is glorious so heere hee was pure ye are in all estates and conditions to follow and imitate your saviour for that is your hope to that you were predestinated Now hee was holy harmelesse undefiled therefore ye must be like in this state also Secondly your hope fixeth upon seeing him in heaven There shall no uncleane thing enter into the kingdome of heaven and therefore you must purge and cleanse your selves by the way and your hope must do it This purification respcteth both the body and the minde and is opposed to all bodily lusts which lies in the sences fancie or sensible things and to all spirituall lusts which lie in the understanding which lusteth against spirituall truths and the wayes of God sayes hee this hope must purifie you from all this But how high how farre must this hope act you to what degrees Even as hee is pure there is your patterne there is your examplar study what Christ was and be ye likewise study what Christ did or would doe and doe the same for instance wee are apt to be proud and vaine to be supercilious to overlooke men and little things to be every one for himself gripeing and graspeing Purify your selves in this even as hee is pure let the same minde be in you that was in Christ Iesus Phil. 2.5 who though hee were in the forme of God debased himself in a word consider the disposition of Christ and consider the purity of Christ and make that your coppy and as you would set no bounds to glory you would see him as he is and be like him so set no bounds to purity purify your selves after that patterne even as hee is pure and let hope and the reason of hope doe it because you have no greater pretensions to glory then you have to purity namely to be like Christ your head to whom by faith and hope you are conformed Thus yee see your Helmet in its glory securing you from all the evill of all the goods of the world and securing from all the evill of all the evill of the world and enabling and inspiring you to work and service even to all That you might be perfect and throughly furnished to every good worke improove therefore this blessed peece this hope and get it more abundantly You see it is a great matter how wee settle our hopes because in it lies the strength of our indeavours wee anchor in things by hope and fixe in them and being setled upon an immovable thing wee can moove steddily and stronglie Archimedes could moove the world if hee could fasten his engine now wee cast anchor in heaven and heavenly things in salvation for so sayes the Apostle Wee have an anchor of the soule both sure and stedfast and which entreth in to that which is within the vaile Heb. 6.19 Our anchor casts deepe in heaven where there is good earthing whence it will be impossible to be remooved by any stormes or windes But this wee must know that if you would make use of this or any armour which is spirituall it must be first raised to a pitch the armes must be fashioned and formed and then must be kept bright and in posture for service it must be weilded by a spirituall hand Now to raise this grace you must improove and raise your faith for as in all compositions you have something that gives the body of it so faith gives the body and substance to hope therefore faith is called the substance of things hoped for and therefore of all other things your hope will never outbid or goe beyond your faith keep therefore that full and high Yet Hope is a further grace and armour faith gives you things in their coulours with your interests in them it shewes you that they are and that they are yours but however faith gives them a kinde of presence by beleeving yet they are in themselves future as to us hope therefore takes in the pleasure of them beforehand lives in the joyfull expectation of them and so abridges the time which els would be tedious fancies to it self as I may so say the pleasures and joyes of eternall life and lives in a sweet anticipation of what it possesseth but by faith which as it is most pleasant in it self so it produceth mighty effects for joy for patience for working so as our life is comfortably entertained by it in joy and pleasure evills and calamities are mastered and subdued by it even the greatest and action and worke the end of living is promoted Therefore looke upon this peece which hath influence into so great effects as a reall not as a notionall thing as a thing that many want in the use and exercise of it but they cannot live without it they cannot live a vitall life animated with joy armed with patience and acted to worke and service Therefore let not so great an engine of the Holy Ghost so great and good an armour lye dead by us but rather let us improove it and use it try alwayes of raising it for it is raised and improoved grace that workes great and considerable effects And the sword of the spirit which is the word of God This is the last peece of armes and is fitted both for offence and defence it is an armes that is great alone and therefore men arme themselves with this which use no other and it is also an appendix to all armes for no man is armed at all points like a souldier which hath not a sword this is a peece of a very expedite and continuall use You need not goe farre to know what this sword is the Apostle describes it first by being the sword of the spirit that is a spirituall sword The weapons of our warfare are not carnall but mighty through God 2. Cor. 10.4 The Divell will not give way or yeild to a sword made of any other mettall therefore it is mighty through God The Egyptians are flesh and not spirit therefore they are weake One Divell is able to deale with all the fleshly and carnall weapons in the world it is not charmes and holy water nor resolutions and purposes and reasonings alone that are weapons fit for this combate they must be things truely spirituall But then secondly it is that sword which the spirit useth in us and by us the spirit of God the Holy Ghost so as there is a mighty arme to a mighty weapon For wee know not how to pray as wee ought how to doe any thing but the spirit maketh intercession in
of truth p. 119. What meant by this metaphor ibid. What truth is p. 120. The cause of all instability because men are insincere or misapprehensive ibid. Men are what they see and judge p. 121. Comfort joy renders strong and light the Embleme of joy ibid. The notion of glory begirts but light glory runne together p. 122. The divell playes in the darke and deceives under the vayle of mists and shadowes in respect of worke and comfort ibid. Corollaryes from this peece p. 123. Converse much with the father of lights and with the word the booke of lights and with the saints the subject of light ibid. Helpe our selves by what right sights of things we ever have had ibid. How truth and right sights of things answeres what ever Sathan can object to our praejudice in this fight p. 124. Sincerity is immixednes p. 125. How love determines and squares every thing to the interest of the object loved ibid. The second peece of armour the breast-plate of righteousnesse p. 126. Wherein this consists ibid. p. 127. The first peece respected the end this the walke of a Christian. p. 127. Righteousnes toward God and men what p. 128. The good Angells fall under the consideration of the object of this righteousnesse ibid. The rule and measure of this righteousnesse in regard of men self love p. 129. The object of this righteousnes all capable of God and happines ibid. How this peece armes the breast ibid. The tremblings and astonishments of those which want this armour p. 130. How Christs righteousnes is to be considered here ibid. The love of God makes lovely Characters and impressions upon us p. 131. What it is to be a new creature ibid. Christ a head of influence p. 132. This Scripture speakes rather of the working of the spirit of God in us then the imputation of Christ to us ibid. How this peece is to be put on p. 133. Wicked men furnish the divell with weapons to destroy themselves ibid. The third peece of armes fitted for the feete and leggs p. 134. Wherein this armour consists ibid. The notion of it cleared by severall Scriptures p. 135. Also by reason p. 136. Helpes for the obtaining this necessary peece of armour p. 137.138 Corollaryes from this particular p. 138. The Gospell should be administred like it self like good newes p. 139. The guilty world need such a kinde of administration ibid. We neede much knowledge to discharge our selves in this particular p. 140. Example of great influence ibid. The fourth peece of armes a shield p. 141. That to be joyned with all the rest ibid. What meant by fiery dartes ibid. Faith repells and quenches how p. 142. This above all to be procured ibid. Our natures not perfectly coole since defil'd by originall corruption p. 143. Two fiery darts accompany great sinnes scil of lust and dispaire as in the example of Ammon p. 144. Example of Spira and Iudas ibid. Look on sinnes as you will see them within a few houres ibid. Melancholy and depression of spirit a temper easily fired to extreamityes p. 145. What kinde of faith is to be oppos'd to fiery darts ibid. And how faith doth it ibid. The combatt by the wisedome of faith changed from our selves to God ibid. This was Davids way p. 146. Faith releives in extremity by out-bidding sights examples thereof ibid. Both against sinning and dispairing p. 147. Faith suckes down the dew of the spirit the cooling waters c. ibid. Beleeve not scantily nor a little have not your faith to fetch and spell while the fiery darts are shooting p. 148. The use of faith is as pleasing to God as the resisting necessary for us ibid. Consider beleeving under the notion of obedience p. 149. Faith not a Priviledge left to the arbitrement of our owne will but an indispensible duty ibid. Consider the obstruction of faith ibid. The objection from the disproportion between sinne and faith answered p. 150. God gloryes to effect his great workes by nothing or things which are as nothing p. 151. Nothing so fenc'd with motives threats commands c. as the busines of beleeving which shewes that Gods heart is in it especially ibid. The best salve yee can apply to the wounds of Christ is beleeving your sinnes made them your faith heales them p. 152. Get faith ready against an evill day a day of fiery darts yee will then neede coole and quenching liquor which faith drawes down ibid. The fifth piece of this armour the helmet p. 153. What this is ibid. All affections routed in love and acted by it ibid. Love is made visible according as the affection is it acts by and through ibid. In hope love is in its throne and appeares most lovely p. 154. Hope considered here not as a flatt and low attendancy and looking after some good desired a thing lesse then faith and before it but as a firme expectation of some future good which we do already beleeve ibid. Hope a birth and effect of faith ibid. How this peece doth its work and fitts the head as an helmet p. 155. The head the principle of action ibid. The end the simbolicall head ibid. The world holds over our heads infinite things to corrupt us the holy Ghost wards of all with the helmet of salvation ibid. Our hopes differs from others not only in the object of them the good things hoped for but in the bottoming of them by expectation p. 156. All things but spirituall have no considerable value but what ignorance and a lye puts upon them p. 157. They are but shadowes pictures and dreames of good ibid. Worldly things not absent enough to be the object of hope ibid. Hope misapplyed often ingages to impossibilityes and so becomes a meere imposture p. 158. Hope is of things difficult but such as are worthy and difficult ibid. Coroll from this piece p. 159. Christian religion wholy founded upon hope ibid. Heavenly hope changes but the time puts you of to another day for all ibid. The pleasures of this life but for a minute their fullnes worse then their emptinesse ibid. If our hopes as other mens were here we were in a worse condition then they for two reasons p. 160. Faith gives things a bottome and hope is grafted upon it ibid. The hopes of worldly men in respect of the saints have severall notable defects p. 161. The possessions of worldly men are ballancâ—d with uncertaintyes and their hopes with feares ibid. The happines of heaven lyes in the fixing of joyes by eternity ibid. The joy of our hope is fix'd by faith ibid. What it is to rejoyce in boastings p 162. Men thinke by the determination of their wills to effect that which godly men do by faith ibid. An extreame vanity in the matter of the hopes of worldly men as being of things low and meane ibid. The object of our hopes things great p. 163. Our knowledge makes us value our hopes and joy in them ibid. Ioy