SERMON IV.

THE WHOLE ARMOUR OF GOD.

EPH. VI, 13.

"Wherefore take unto you the whole armour of God, that ye may be able to withstand in the evil day; and having done all, to stand."

So completely is the course of the Christian through this world a course of strife and warfare, that the very rite of initiation into the church of Christ, the sacrament of baptism itself, is accompanied with a most expressive reference to this momentous fact. In the baptismal service it is

said, "We receive this child into the congregation of Christ's flock, and do sign him with the sign of the cross, in token that hereafter he shall not be ashamed to confess the faith of Christ crucified, and manfully to fight under his banner against sin, the world, and the devil, and continue Christ's faithful servant and soldier until his life's end." Such are the words with which the minister of Christ admits our infants into the

bosom of the church-words implying that they must be subsequently engaged in a spiritual contest, which will commence with the dawn of reason, and which will not terminate until its final decline implying too, that the whole intellectual creation may be considered as composed of two great opposing armies, the leaders of which are respectively Christ and Satan. For though in the sacramental office the world and the flesh and the devil are coupled together as the great adversaries of our souls, the principal and the most influential is the last. The world and the flesh are rather the auxiliaries of Satan than his associates; on which account the Apostle, in the verse immediately preceding our text, makes mention only of the wiles of the devil, as necessarily including both the other two. "For we wrestle not," he continues, "against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places;" expressions alike denoting, whether we take them severally or jointly, that man has enemies more mighty and malevolent, more alert and persevering, than even his own lusts and passions; enemies who are ever on the watch to devise his injury, to accelerate his downfall, and, if possible, to accomplish his destruction.

Now it detracts nothing from the power of these enemies, and diminishes nothing of the peril to which we are exposed from their hostility, that the Almighty has not thought fit to make any circumstantial revelation of their nature. We know enough to warn, enough to caution, enough to guide us we know that our "adversary the devil goeth about like a roaring lion, seeking whom he may devour"-we know that in every age he has been characterized as the foe of the faithful, and "the accuser of the brethren"- we know that his too successful temptation was the fatal cause of the introduction of sin into the world—that it was he who "moved God" (I quote the very words of scripture) "to destroy Job without a cause"-that it was he who stood up against the people, and provoked David to number Israel. We know that he dared to assault even our Divine Master in the days of his fleshthat he desired to have Peter-that he gained full possession of Judas - that he detained Paul from executing designs which were formed with the hope and anticipation of furthering the gospel, "We would have come unto you, even I Paul, once and again, but Satan hindered us." We know that he has omitted no opportunity, neglected no means, in every age of the church, by which he might weaken or harass or

disturb the people of Christ. We know too that he is assisted in his insidious and unrelenting and unremitting hostility by spirits less powerful perhaps, but equally malevolent with himself, so that formerly into one person many devils had entered; and that these spirits consist of the

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angels who kept not their first estate." All this we conclude unhesitatingly and directly from Revelation. And what if we cannot at all times precisely distinguish between the struggle of our own rebellious hearts and the attacks of our spiritual adversaries ?-what if we cannot enter specifically into the nature of these operations which they are ever carrying on against us? We know at least, clearly and certainly, what the effects are, which will always be produced by the grace of God; and therefore we may conclude, that whatever tends to obviate or obstruct the production of these effects, however it may appear to emanate from our own hearts, is in reality nothing else than the snare of the devil.

Not unfrequently indeed the most perilous assaults of the tempter are those which are the most covert and disguised, and therefore the least suspected; whence St. Paul here designates them by the expressive and appropriate term "wiles;" a term justly characteristic of them, because they assume the aspect of that which is in itself harm

less or even commendable. Satan himself, when he found that it was likely to subserve his purpose, was transformed into an angel of light. Thus in the primitive ages of Christianity, many were led to acts of unjustifiable violence against the early Christians, by the vain hope that they were doing God service. Thus St. Paul, when he "persecuted the disciples unto strange cities," was actuated with a " zeal of God, though not according to knowledge." Thus when Ananias was making a parade of fictitious generosity, Satan was "filling his heart to lie unto the Holy Ghost." And thus we may rest assured that the enemy of the soul will detect our besetting sin, and frame his operations accordingly: nor perhaps is there any greater danger to which we are exposed, than that of doing evil when we flatter ourselves that we are doing good. Though however our enemy is potent and insidious-and though the day of our warfare is confessedly an evil day, we are not left without the means to encounter the one, and endure throughout the other: we have only to take the whole armour of God, which is ready provided for our use, and we are sure to "withstand in the evil day, and having done all, to stand.”

It will be the object of this discourse to consider generally the various pieces of armour which are represented by the Apostle, in this exquisite pas