And as armour
setteth forth a man's body, so this godly armour maketh us seemly in the
sight of God, and acceptable in his wars.
Be ye therefore "armed at all points with the armour of God, that ye may
stand strongly against the assaults of the devil." "That ye may stand,"
saith he. Ye must stand in this battle, and not sit, nor lie along; for
he that lieth is trodden under foot of his enemy. We may not sit, that
is, not rest in sin, or lie along in sluggishness of sin; but continually
fight against our enemy, and under our great Captain and Sovereign Lord
Jesus Christ, and in his quarrel, armed with the armour of God, that we
may be strong. We cannot be strong unless we be armed of God. We have
no power of ourselves to stand against the assaults of the devil. There
St. Paul teacheth what our battle is, and wherefore we must be thus
armed.
For, saith he, "we have not wrestling or strife against flesh and blood:"
which may be understood, against certain sins, which come of the flesh
only; but let us take it as it standeth, "against flesh and blood," that
is, against any corporal man, which is but a weak thing in comparison,
and with one stroke destroyed or slain: but we have to do with strong,
mighty princes and potentates; that mighty prince, that great conqueror
of this world, the devil, yea a conqueror: for though our Saviour Jesus
Christ conquered him and all his, by suffering his blessed passion, yet
is he a great conqueror in this world, and reigneth over a great
multitude of his own, and maketh continual conflicts and assaults against
the rest, to subdue them also under his power; which, if they be armed
after St.
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