Military Duties Recommended, Rule 2
RULE. II.
Become furnished with that Armour for your Warring and Fighting, which God in His blessed Word hath provided for you.
There is a Tower of Solomon, wherein God hath hanged up Thousands of Shields & all the Weapons of strong men. See to thi… that you do only put on the ARMOUR OF GOD, and that you have all your Armour to be both of God's Institution, and of God's Constitution also. Let GOD be Acknowledged as the Appoint…r of all your Weapons. The Will-Worship, the fond Amulets, and Penances… of the Papists, no less than the P…ylacteries of the Iewes, are to be exploded as most trifling Insignificancies, and the Ridicules of those very Enemies whose Terror they are calculated for. A funeral Elegy for those wretched Warriours we have in Fzek. 32. 27. They go down to Hell with their Weapons of war▪ they have laid their Swords under their heads, but their Iniquities shall be upon their bones. You have no need to go down to the Forges of the Philistines for the Weapons of you… Souls. Whatever shall be offer'd as a serviceable Weapon for you, which you have not the Warrant of GOD for the using of, throw it by, as David rejected Sauls cumbersome useless Armour. Let God also be Accknowledged a… the Bestower of all your Weapons. It is affirmed concerning one eminent peice of your Armour in Eph. 2. 8. It is the gift of GOD. Let that be your Sentiment of every Weapon which you shall have occasion for, It will do me no good unless, God be the Framer and Giver of it. Ever account a Weapon to be of no good Metal, if it come not thro' the hands of that God, without whom you can do nothing at all. Unless we look to this, the great Leviathan of Hell, will esteem our Iron to be but Sraw; and our Brass but as Rotten Wood.
Consult the sixth Chapter to the Ephesians, as a glorious Magazine wherein God hath sett before you all the Accoutrements of a Christian Souldier from Head to Foot. There is a little Cluster of four or five verses in that Chapter, which are fit to be called Enchiridion Mili…is Christiani. You have no Armor there for the Back, because you must (as the lame Androclid excused his going unto the Warrs) expect to Fight and not to Flee.
You are first to procure a Belt; Now for this get your Loins girt with Truth. Let your Minds have a due Knowledge of, and yeild a full▪ Assent to the Truths of God: Especially let Four Sorts of Truths be unto you as the Girdle of your Loins; Namely,
Fundamental Truths. And Truths immediimmediately refrerring to Iesus Christ, an… such Truths as enwrap the Covenant, and lastly▪ the present Labouring Truths of the Times: unto an Acquaintance with these Truths, adding all Sincerity Heart, and Integrity of Life. He will be a loose kind of Souldier for God, who is pore-blind in these Truths; all his Notions and Actions must hang in much Disorder; here the obsc…re Proverb will be too much verify'd, Un-girt, Unblest.
You have then a Breast-plate to take care for: Fo… This, (in imitation of your General) put on Righteousnes as a Breastplate. O labour to preserve the Vitals of your Inner-man harmless, by endeavouring not only to render all men their Dues, but to keep a Conscience void of Offence towards GOD as well as towards man. A work of real thorough Sanctification in the soul of a man, will be as Aes. triplex circa Pectus, as Armour of Proof upon the Heart in an evil day.
A Sufficient pair of Shoes are next to be procured. It is a rough cragged thorny way that we have to go. Well, Be…shod with the Preparation of tho Gospel of peace: The Gospel of God, which is a Gospel of Peace; Bringing the …ntelligence and producing the Settlement of a … b…twixt God and man; This exhibi… …to u… those Counsels and those Comfor… which will be a good Preparative against the Worst that can befal us: O lay up a stor… of these; and so say, Tho' Warr should rise … gainst me, in th…se will I be confident,
But what shall we do for a Shield? Especially since the Darts to be shott at us, like those among the Scythians, dipt in the Venempus Gall of Vipers, will horribly inflame and torment the Souls which they are smitten with. Broad Shields of Raw Ne…s-Leather were wont to be held up against the violence of these. But here now▪ above all take the Shield of FAITH. Let your Faith convey unto you the Substance of things hoped for▪ the Evidence of things not seen. Especially let your Faith put you under the Conduct of the Lord Jesus Christ, and call in Him as an able and a ready Saviour, alwayes knowing how to succour the tempted. Here will be a Shield which will stand you in stea… to keep off more than as many Darts (two hundred and twenty) as were stuck in th… Shield of S…eva at the Siege of Dyrrachium.
Thus the Body is defended: But what shall …e done for the Head? …o, an Helm…t! Tak… the … …t of Salvation, That is, as th… … postle else where has it, the Hope of Salvat… …. Let there be in your Souls, a lively Hope that God is your Friend, that Christ is your …, that the Promises are your Portion; and live and dy in such a well-grounded Hope, not only say, Dum spiro-sp…ro, I will Hope while I Live; but also Dum expiro sp…ro; I will Hope when I Dye. Thus will your He…ds be guarded against those hard Thoughts of God and Grace, those. Terribilia de Deo, and Hor…ibilia de Fid…, which the Tempter would … you with.
All these Weapons are Defensive only:
At least we must have One to Offend our Adversary with; Where is our SWORD▪ This it is, Take the Sword of the Spirit which is the WORD OF GOD. This, o… English Iosiah, is reported to have call'd for, under the Term of a Third Sword when two Swords were presented him at his Coronation. You are blessed with the free Use of a Bible, which is a spiritual Sword, Shaped by the Inspiration of the Eternal SPIRIT. This is a Sword of which I may say, as David of Goliah's, There is none like it. Here is a sort of Sword, whereof it may be said unto every man, He that hath not such … Sword, let him sell his Garment & buy one. The pious Husband-man who in a Scarcity of such now common-sleighted Treasures, gave a Load of Hay for a Leaf of the Bible, for even a few Filings of this Sword, has justified this Advice. Our Lord Jesus Christ hath by his own Example shewed you how to wield this Sword and manage it unto the Vanquishment of all Satanical Invasions: When the principal Tempter tryed His Over-throw by proposeing to him a Three-fold Bait of the same three Allurements which prov'd mortal to the First Adam, He still came of a Victor, by opposeing an, It is WRITTEN, thereunto; and all the Swords or Words of this kind, used by Him, were fetch…t out of that one Book of Deuteronomy, from whence we may collect how rich a Supply for our Warr the whole Bible then will afford unto us. Let this be our Method against the joint Fraud and Force of our wily Enemies. Whenever they urge us to any evil thing, still have some pertinent Text of the Bible to reply upon them. All the Commandments, all the Promises, all the Me…ces in the Bible are like so many Swords all-Edge to be-friend you in this Concern. Thus particularly: Are you tempted unto Uncleaness? Then reply, It is Written, Th… God knowes how to reserve the unjust unto th… Day of Judgement to be punished, but chiefly them that walk after the Flesh in the Lust of Uncleanness. Are you Tempted unto Revengfulness? Then reply, It is Written, Avenge not your selves, but overcome evil with good. Are you tempted unto Distracting and Corroding Cares about the things of this Life? Then reply, It is written, Cast all your Care upon God, for He careth for you. Thus may you conquer, as he said, sola unius Syllabae pronunciatione, with a words speaking. Verily these Writtens will be more gastly fearful things unto the Enemies of your Souls, than the Hand-Writing upon the Wall was to the Babylonian Monarch. Here are Swords that will be more Fatal to them, than the Sword of Ehud was to the Moabi…ish Tyrant. The Captain of your Enemies dare not stand, when These, against which he hath a peculiar Antipathy, are Brandished against him: A little Resistance of this Kind will make the Field too hott for him. As the Poet hath it,
Est Leo si fugias; si stas, quasi musca recedet.
Or rather as the Apostle has it more certainly, and more divinely, Resist the Divel, and he will flee from you.
Wherefore, Let it be your daily Endeavour, That the Word of Christ may dwell richly in you; and that you may have the Texts of it as ready as the Names of those that dwell in the same Houses with you; or, as ready as that honest man, of whom Alsted, I think, somewhere saith, If all the Bible had been lost, it might have been in a good measure recovered by that good man's Readiness therein. Let not a Day ordinarily pass you, wherein you will not Read some portion of it, with a due Meditation and Supplication over it. The Ethiopian Nobleman would not omit this Exercise, even when he was on a Iourney. And he that shall accustom himself while he reads in his Retirements, to fetch at least one Note & one Wish out of every Verse as he goes along, will perhaps take as speedy a course as any man whatever to become a well-armed Christian. He was a Souldier and an Emperour too, that wrote out the New-Testament with his own Hand. And that gracions Man, Mr. Thomas Stoughton, asserts that he knew a young Gentlewoman, who before she was Nine years old, could say it All by heart. It will be our shame, if this …o-edged Sword be not often in our Hands and Hearts, and become like our Necessary Food unto us. And that Prince of Transilvania who read …ver the Bible Seven & twenty Times, wi… condemn us if our Eyes are seldom placed o… this Heavenly Sword. It was a dark time with the Church of God, when One was pronounced most Sufficient, at his Commencing Doctor of Divinity, tho he had never Read the Bible. Sure I am no man can be a Sufficient Souldier in Christianity, unless This be the man of his Counsil.
These are now your Weapons; O put them on, and go before the Lord Armed for the Battel.