Chapter 1. Showing the Christless and Graceless Soul to Be the Soul Without Armor, and in It His Misery

THat a person in a Christlesse, gracelesse state is naked and unarm'd, and so unfit to fight Christs battels against sin and Satan. Or thus, A soul out of Christ is naked and destitute of all armour to defend him against sin and Satan. God at first sent man forth in compleat armour, being created in righteousnesse and true holines; but by a wile the devil strip't him, and therefore assoon as the first sin was compleated, it is written, Genesis 3:7. They were naked, that is, poor weak creatures, at the will of Satan a subdued people, disarm'd by their proud Conquerour, and unable to make head against him. Indeed it cost Satan some dispute to make the first breach, but after that he had once the gates open'd to let him in as Conquerour into the heart of man, he playes Rex: behold, a troop of other sins croud in after him, without any stroak or strife, in stead of confessing their sins, they run their head in a bush, and by their good will would not come where God is, and when they cannot flie from him, how do they prevaricate before him? They peale one of another, shifting the sin rather than suing for mercy. So quickly were their hearts hardened through the deceitfulnesse of sin. And this is the woful condition of every son and daughter of Adam, naked he findes us, and slaves he makes us, till God by his effectual call delivers us from the power of Satan into the Kingdom of his dear Son, which will further appear, if we consider this Christlesse state in a four-fold notion.

First, it is a state of alienation from God. Ephes. 2.12. Ye were without Christ, being aliens from the Common-wealth of Israel, strangers from the Covenant of Promise, &c. Such a one has no more to do with any Covenant-promise, then he that lives at Rome has to do with the Charter of London, which is the birth-right of its own Denisons, not Strangers. He is without God in the world, he can claim no more protection from God, then an out-law'd subject from his Prince; If any mischief befalls him, the mends is in his own hands, whereas God has his hedge of special providence about his Saints, and the devil, though his spite be most at them, dares not come upon Gods ground to touch any of them, without particular leave. Now what a deplored condition is that, wherein a soul is left to the wide world, in the midst of legions of lusts and devils, to be rent and torne lke a silly hare among a pack of hounds, and no God to call them off? Let God leave a people, though never so warlike, presently they lose their wits, cannot finde their hands; A company of children or wounded men may rise up, and chase them out of their fenced Cities, because God is not with them; which made Caleb and Joshuah pacifie the mutinous Israelites at the tidings of giants and walled cities with this; They are bread for us, their defense is departed from them. How much more must that soul be as bread to Satan, that has no defense from the Almighty? Take men of the greatest parts, natural or acquired accomplishments, who only want an union with Christ, and renewing grace from Christ: O what fooles does the devil make of them, leading them at his pleasure, some to one lust, some to another; the proudest of them all is slave to one or other, though it be to the ruining of body and soul for ever, Where lies the mystery, that men of such parts and wisdom, should debase themselves to such drudgery work of hell? even here, they are in a state of alienation from God, and no more able of themselves to break the devils prison, then a slave ro run from his chain.

Secondly, the Christlesse state is a state of ignorance, and such must needs be naked and unarm'd. He that cannot see his enemie, how can he ward off the blow he sends? One seeing Prophet leads a whole army of blinde men where he pleass. The imperfect knowledge Saints have here, is Satans advantage against them; he often takes them on the blinde side, how easily then may he with a parcel of good words carry the blinde soul out of his way, who knowes not a step of the right? Now that the Christlesse state is a state of ignorance, See Ephesians 5:8. Ye were sometimes darkness, but now are ye light in the Lord. Ye were darkness, not in the dark, so one that has an eye may be. A child of light is often in the dark, concerning some truth or promise, but then has a spiritual eye, which the Christlesse person wants, and so is darkness. And this darkness cannot be enlightened, but by its union with Christ, which is exprest in the following phrase; But now are ye light in the Lord. As the eye of the body once put out, can never be restored by the creatures Art, so neither can the spiritual eye, lost by Adams sin, be restored by the teaching of men or Angels. It is one of the diseases which Christ came to cure, Luke 4:18. 'Tis true, there is a light of reason, which is imparted to every man by nature, but this light is darkness, compared with the Saints. As the night is dark to the day, even when the moon is in its full glory. This night-light of Reason may save a person from some ditch or pond, great and broad sins, but it will never help him to escape the more secret corruptions, which the Saint sees like atomes in the beams of spiritual knowledge. There is such curious work the creature is to do, which cannot be wrought by candle-light of natural knowledge. Nay more, where the common illumination of the Spirit is superadded to this light of nature, yet that is darkness compar'd with the sanctifying knowledge of a renewed soul, which does both discover spiritual truths, and warme the heart at the same time with the love of truth, having like the Sun a prolifical and quickening vertue, which the other wants; so that the heart lies under such common illuminations cold and dead. He has no more strength to resist Satan, then if he knew not the command; whereas the Christians knowledge, even when taken Prisoner by a temptation, pursues and brings back the soul as Abraham his Nephew, out of the enemies hands; which hints the third

Thirdly, the Christlesse state is a state of impotency, Rom. 5. When we were without strength, Christ came to die for the ungodly. What can a disarm'd people that have not sword or gun do to shake off the yoke of a conquering enemie? Such a power has Satan over the soul, Luke 11:21. he is call'd the strong man that keeps the soul as his Palace: If he has no disturbance from heaven, he need feare no mutiny within; he keeps all in peace there. What the Spirit of God does in a Saint, that in a manner does Satan in a sinner. The Spirit fills the heart of his with love, joy, holy desires, feares; so Satan fills the sinners heart with pride, lust, lying: Why has Satan filled your heart, says Peter? And thus fill'd with Satan (as the drunkard with wine) he is not his own man, but Satans slave.

Fourthly, the state of unregeneracy is a state of friendship with sin and Satan. If it be enmity against God, (as it is) then friendship with Satan. Now it will be hard to make that soul fight in earnest against his friend. Is Satan divided? will the devil within fight against the devil without? Satan in the heart shut out Satan at the door? sometimes indeed there appears a scuffle between Satan and a carnal heart, but it is a meer cheat, like the fighting of two fencers on a stage, you would think at first they were in earnest, but observing how wary they are, where they hit one another, you may soon know they do not mean to kill: and that which puts all out of doubt, when the prize is done, you shall see them making merry together, with what they have got of their Spectatours, which was all they fought for; when a carnal heart makes the greatest bussle against sin by complaining of it, or praying against it, follow him but off the stage of duty, (where he has gained the reputation of a Saint, the prize he fights for) and you shall see them sit as friendly together in a corner as ever.

Use 1 First, this takes away the wonder of Satans great Conquests in the world: when you look abroad, and see his vast Empire, and what a little spot of ground contains Christs subjects, what heaps of precious souls lie prostrate under this foot of pride, and what a little regiment of Saints march under Christs banner; perhaps the strangenesse of the thing may make you ask, Is hell stronger than heaven? the armes of Satan more victorious then the Crosse of Christ? No such matter: Consider but this one thing, and you will wonder that Christ has any to follow him, rather than that he has so few. Satan findes the world unarm'd, when the Prince of the world comes, he findes nothing to oppose; the whole soul is in a disposition to yield at first summons; and if Conscience, Governour for God in the creature stands out a while, all the other powers, as will and affections are in a discontent, (like mutinous souldiers in a garrison) who never rest till they have brought over conscience to yield, or against its command set open the City gate to the enemie, and so deliver traiterously their conscience prisoner to their lusts: But when Christ comes to demand the soul, he meets a scornful answer: Depart from us, we desire not the knowledge of the most High. We will not have this man to reign over us. With one consent they vote against him, and rise up as the Philistines against Samson whom they call'd the Destroyer of the countrey. Ye will not come, unto me, says Christ. O how true are poor sinners to the devils trust! They will not deliver the Castle they hold for Satan, till fired over their heads. Pharaoh opposs Moses on one hand, and Israel cry out upon him on the other. Such measure has Christ both at Satans hand, and the sinners. That which lessened Alexanders Conquests, was, he overcame a people buried in barbarisme, without armes or discipline of war; and that which heightened Cesars, (though not so many) he overcame a people more warlike and furnish't. Satans victories are of poor ignorant, gracelesse souls, who have neither armes, nor hands, nor hearts to oppose; but when he assaults a Saint, then he sits down before a city with gates and bars, and ever riseth with shame; unable to take the weakest hold, to pluck the weakest Saint out of Christs hands; but Christ brings souls out of his dominion with a high hand, in spite of all the force and fury of hell, which like Pharaoh and his hoste pursue them.

Use 2 Secondly, this gives us a reason why the devil has so great a spite against the Gospel. Why? because this opens a magazine of armes and furniture for the soul; the Word is that Tower of David, Cant. 4.4. built for an Armourie, wherein there hang a thousand bucklers; all the shields of mighty men. Hence the Saints have ever had their armour, and the preaching of the Gospel unlocks it. As Gospel-light ascends, so Satans shady Kingdom of darkness vanishs. Revelation 14:6. there one Angel comes forth to preach the everlasting Gospel, and another Angel followes at his back, verse 8. crying Victoria, Babylon is fallen, is fallen. The very first charge the Gospel gave to the Kingdom of darkness, shak't the foundations thereof, and put the legions of hell to the run. The seventy, whom Christ sent out, bring this speedy account of their ambassage; Lord, even the devils are subject unto us through your Name: and Christ answers, I beheld Satan as lightning fall from heaven. As if he had said, 'tis no newes you tell me, I beheld Satan falllng when I sent you: I knew the Gospel would make work where it came; and therefore no wonder Satan labors to dispossesse the Gospel, which dispossesss him; he knows that army is near lost, whose magazine is blowen up; 'Tis true indeed, under the very Gospel the devil rageth more in such swinish sinners, as are given over of God to be possest of that fiend, for rejecting of his grace; but he is cast out of others, who before the loving kindness of God to man appeared in the Gospel, were commanded by him, serving divers lusts and pleasures; But now by the light of the Gospel they see their folly, and by the grace it brings are enabled to renounce him. This, this is that which torments the foule spirit, to see himself forsaken of his old friends and servants, and this new Lord to come and take his subjects from him: and therefore he labors either by persecution to drive the Gospel away, or by policy to perswade a people to send it away from their coasts, and was he ever more likely to effect it among us? What a low esteem has he brought the preaching of the Gospel unto? the price is fallen half in half to what it was some years past, even among those that have been counted the greatest Merchants upon the Saints Exchange. Some, that have thought it worth crossing the seas, even to the Indies (almost as far as others fetch their gold) to enjoy the Gospel, are loath now to crosse the street to hear it at so cheap a rate; And some that come, (who formerly trembled at it) make it most of their errand to mock at, or quarrel with it. Nay, it is come to such a passe, that the Word is so heavy a charge to the squeamish stomachs of many Professors, that it comes up again presently, and abundance of choler with it against the Preacher, especially if it fall foule of the sins and errours of the times, the very naming of which is enough to offend, though the Nation be sinking under their weight. What reproaches are the faithful Ministers of the Gospel laden withal? I call heaven and earth to witnesse, whether ever they suffered a hotter persecution of the tongue, then in this apostatizing age. A new generation of Professours are started up, that will not know them to be the Ministers of Christ, though those before them, (as well in grace as time, more able to derive their spiritual pedigree, then themselves) have to their death owned them for their spiritual fathers. And must not the Ark needs shake, when they that carry it are thus struck at, both in their person and office? what are these men doing? alas, they know not, Father, forgive them: They are cutting off their right hand with their left; they are making themselves and the Nation naked, by despising the Gospel, and those that bring it.

Use 3 Consider your deplored estate, who are wholly naked and unarm'd. Can you pity the begger at your door, (when you see such in a Winter-day, shivering with naked backs, exposed to the fury of the cold) and not pity your own far more dismal soul-nakednesse, by which you liest open to heavens wrath, and hells malice? Shall their nakednesse cover them with shame, fill them with feare of perishing, which makes them with pitiful moanes knock and cry for relief, (as it is reported of Russia, where their poor (through extreme necessity) have this desperate manner of begging in their streets; Give me and cut me, give me and kill me?) and can you let Satan come and cut your throat in your bed of sloth, rather than accept of clothes to cover, yea, Armour to defend you? (I mean Christ and his grace, which in the Gospel is tendered to you.) And do not lightly believe your own flattering hearts, if they shall tell you, you are provided of these already. I am afraid many a gaudy Professour will be found as naked in regard of Christ, and truth of grace, as drunkards and swearers themselves; Such there are, who content themselves with a Christ in Profession, in gifts, and in duties, but seek not a Christ in solid grace, and so perish; those indeed are an ornament to the Christian, as the scarfe and feather to the souldier, but these quench not the bullet in battel, 'tis Christ and his grace does that, therefore labor to be sound rather than brave Christians. Grace embellisht with gifts is the more beautiful, but these without grace only the richer spoile for Satan.

The second Branch of the first general part of the words followes; and that is, the quality or kinde of that Armour, the Christian is here directed to provide. It is not any trash will serve the turn, better none then not Armour of proof, and none such, but Armour of God. In a twofold respect it must be of God. First, in institution and appointment. Secondly, in constitution.

The point is this: a person in a Christless, graceless state is naked and unarmed — and therefore unfit to fight Christ's battles against sin and Satan. Stated differently: a soul outside of Christ is naked and destitute of all armor to defend himself against sin and Satan. At the beginning, God sent man into the world fully equipped, having been created in righteousness and true holiness. But by a scheme the devil stripped him — and so as soon as the first sin was complete, it is written in Genesis 3:7: "They were naked" — that is, poor, weak creatures, subject to Satan's will, a defeated people disarmed by their proud conqueror and unable to resist him. It cost Satan some effort to make the first breach, but once he had the gates opened and himself established as conqueror in the heart of man, he played the tyrant. A whole troop of other sins poured in after him without a struggle. Instead of confessing their sins, Adam and Eve hid in the bushes and wanted nothing to do with God. When they could not escape Him, how did they behave before Him? They shifted blame from one to the other — passing the guilt along rather than seeking mercy. So quickly were their hearts hardened through the deceitfulness of sin. This is the wretched condition of every son and daughter of Adam. The devil finds us naked and makes us slaves — until God by His effective call delivers us from Satan's power into the kingdom of His dear Son. This will become still clearer if we consider this Christless state under four descriptions.

First: it is a state of alienation from God. "You were at that time separate from Christ, excluded from the commonwealth of Israel, and strangers to the covenants of promise" (Ephesians 2:12). Such a person has no more claim on any covenant promise than a man living in Rome has on the city charter of London — which is the birthright of its own citizens, not of foreigners. He is without God in the world. He can claim no more protection from God than an outlawed subject can claim from his prince. If harm comes to him, it falls on his own head. God has His hedge of special providence around His saints, and the devil — though his greatest spite is against them — dare not come onto God's ground to touch any of them without specific permission. What a desperate condition it is, then, when a soul is left out in the wide world — in the midst of legions of lusts and devils — to be torn apart like a helpless hare among a pack of hounds, with no God to call them off. Let God withdraw from a people, however warlike they may be, and they immediately lose their wits and cannot find their hands. A band of children or wounded men could rise up and drive them out of their fortified cities, because God is not with them. This is what gave Caleb and Joshua the confidence to quiet the mutinous Israelites at the news of giants and walled cities: "They are food for us; their protection has been removed from them" (Numbers 14:9). How much more must that soul be as food for Satan who has no defense from the Almighty? Take men of the greatest natural or acquired abilities, lacking only a union with Christ and renewing grace from Him — what fools the devil makes of them, leading them at his pleasure, some to one lust, some to another. The proudest of them all is a slave to one passion or another, even to the ruin of body and soul forever. What is the mystery that men of such talent and intelligence debase themselves to such degrading servitude to hell? Simply this: they are in a state of alienation from God, and no more able by themselves to break out of the devil's prison than a slave can throw off his chain.

Second: the Christless state is a state of ignorance — and those who are ignorant must necessarily be naked and unarmed. If a man cannot see his enemy, how can he ward off the blow aimed at him? One sighted prophet can lead a whole army of blind men wherever he chooses. The imperfect knowledge the saints have here is already an advantage for Satan against them — he often gets at them from the blind side. How easily, then, can he lead a blind soul out of the right way with a handful of smooth words, when that soul does not know a single step of the road? That the Christless state is a state of ignorance is clear from Ephesians 5:8: "You were formerly darkness, but now you are Light in the Lord." "You were darkness" — not merely in the dark, as a sighted person can be. A child of light is often in the dark about some truth or promise, but still has a spiritual eye — which the Christless person lacks. Without that eye, he is darkness itself. And this darkness cannot be enlightened except by union with Christ, expressed in the next phrase: "But now you are Light in the Lord." Just as the eye of the body, once destroyed, cannot be restored by any human art, so the spiritual eye — lost through Adam's sin — cannot be restored by the teaching of men or angels. It is one of the diseases Christ came to cure (Luke 4:18). It is true that there is a light of reason given to every person by nature, but this light is darkness compared with the saint's knowledge — as the night is dark compared to the day, even when the moon is at its full. This nighttime light of reason may keep a person from some of the large and obvious ditches of gross sin, but it will never help him escape the subtler corruptions that the saint can see like dust particles in the beam of spiritual knowledge. There is a kind of careful work the soul is called to do that cannot be accomplished by the candlelight of natural knowledge. Furthermore, even where the common illumination of the Spirit is added to this natural light, it is still darkness compared with the sanctifying knowledge of a renewed soul. The sanctifying knowledge of a believer both reveals spiritual truths and warms the heart with love for them at the same time — like the sun with its life-giving power, which the other kind lacks. Under merely common illumination, therefore, the heart remains cold and dead. Such a person has no more strength to resist Satan than if he knew nothing of the command at all — whereas the Christian's knowledge, even when taken prisoner by a temptation, pursues the soul and brings it back as Abraham brought back his nephew from the enemy's hands. This hints at the third point.

Third: the Christless state is a state of powerlessness. Romans 5:6 says: "While we were still helpless, at the right time Christ died for the ungodly." What can a disarmed people who have neither sword nor gun do to throw off the yoke of a conquering enemy? Such is Satan's power over the soul. Luke 11:21 calls him the strong man who keeps the soul as his palace. If he faces no disturbance from heaven, he has nothing to fear from a rebellion within. He keeps everything at peace there. What the Spirit of God does in the saint, Satan in a similar fashion does in the sinner. The Spirit fills the heart of His people with love, joy, holy desires, and godly fears. So Satan fills the sinner's heart with pride, lust, and deceit. "Why has Satan filled your heart?" Peter asked Ananias (Acts 5:3). Filled with Satan as a drunkard is filled with wine, the sinner is no longer his own man — he is Satan's slave.

Fourth: the unregenerate state is a state of friendship with sin and Satan. If it is enmity against God — and it is — then it is friendship with Satan. It will be difficult to make such a soul fight seriously against his friend. Is Satan divided? Will the devil within fight against the devil at the door? Will Satan in the heart shut out Satan knocking outside? Sometimes there appears to be a struggle between Satan and a carnal heart, but it is a pure sham — like the fight between two fencers performing on a stage. At first you might think they mean it, but watching how careful they are about where they strike you can soon tell they have no intention of doing real harm. What puts it beyond all doubt is this: when the performance is over, you see them laughing together over what they made from their audience, which was all they were fighting for. When a carnal heart makes the greatest show of opposing sin — complaining about it, praying against it — follow him off the stage of outward duty, where he has earned the reputation of a saint (the prize he was fighting for), and you will see him sitting as comfortably with his sin in a corner as ever before.

First application: This removes the mystery of Satan's great victories in the world. When you look out and see his vast empire, the tiny territory where Christ's subjects live, the heaps of precious souls prostrate under his proud foot, and the small regiment marching under Christ's banner — perhaps the strangeness of it makes you ask: Is hell stronger than heaven? Are the arms of Satan more victorious than the cross of Christ? Not at all. Consider just this one thing, and you will marvel that Christ has any followers at all rather than that He has so few. Satan finds the world unarmed. When the prince of this world comes, he finds nothing to oppose him — the whole soul is disposed to surrender at the first summons. And if conscience, the governor representing God in the soul, holds out for a little while, all the other powers — will and affections — are discontented, like mutinous soldiers in a garrison, who never rest until they have brought conscience over to yield. Or they simply set open the city gates to the enemy against the command of conscience, treacherously surrendering their conscience as prisoner to their lusts. But when Christ comes to claim the soul, He meets a scornful answer: "Depart from us! We do not desire the knowledge of the Almighty. We will not have this man reign over us." With one voice they vote against Him and rise up against Him as the Philistines rose against Samson, whom they called the destroyer of the country. "You are not willing to come to Me," says Christ (John 5:40). Oh, how faithful poor sinners are to the devil's cause! They will not give up the castle they hold for Satan until it is on fire over their heads. Pharaoh opposed Moses on one side, and Israel cried out against Moses on the other. Christ receives such treatment from both Satan and sinners. What diminished Alexander's conquests was that he overcame a people buried in barbarism, without arms or military training. What heightened Caesar's reputation — though he conquered fewer — was that he overcame a more warlike and well-equipped people. Satan's victories are over poor, ignorant, graceless souls who have neither arms, hands, nor will to resist. But when he attacks a saint, he sits down before a city with gates and bars, and always rises in shame — unable to seize the weakest stronghold or pluck the weakest saint from Christ's hands. Christ, meanwhile, draws souls out of Satan's dominion with a high hand, in spite of all the force and fury of hell, which pursues them like Pharaoh and his armies.

Second application: This gives us a reason why the devil has such a fierce hatred for the Gospel. Why? Because the Gospel opens a storehouse of arms and equipment for the soul. The Word is that "tower of David" in Song of Songs 4:4, built as an armory in which a thousand shields hang — all the shields of the mighty warriors. From this storehouse the saints have always drawn their armor, and the preaching of the Gospel unlocks it. As the light of the Gospel advances, Satan's shadowy kingdom of darkness retreats. In Revelation 14:6, one angel goes forth to preach the everlasting Gospel — and immediately another angel follows at his back, crying in verse 8: "Fallen, fallen is Babylon the great!" The very first charge the Gospel made against the kingdom of darkness shook its foundations and sent the legions of hell running. The seventy whom Christ sent out brought back this quick report of their mission: "Lord, even the demons are subject to us in Your name." And Christ answered: "I was watching Satan fall from heaven like lightning" (Luke 10:17-18). As if He said: That is no news — I was watching Satan fall when I sent you. I knew the Gospel would make its mark wherever it went. No wonder, then, that Satan labors to drive out the Gospel that drives him out. He knows that an army is nearly defeated when its magazine is blown up. It is true that under the very Gospel, the devil rages more fiercely in those swine-like sinners whom God has given over to be possessed by that foul spirit for rejecting His grace. But he is cast out of others who before the proclamation of God's grace in the Gospel were under his command, serving various lusts and pleasures. Now, by the light of the Gospel they see their folly, and by the grace it brings they are enabled to renounce him. This — this is what torments the foul spirit: to see himself abandoned by his old friends and servants, and this new Lord coming to take his subjects from him. Therefore he works either to drive the Gospel away by persecution, or to persuade people to send it away from their borders by policy. And was he ever closer to achieving this among us? What contempt he has brought the preaching of the Gospel to! The value has dropped by half from what it was a few years ago, even among those counted the greatest traders on the saints' exchange. Some who once thought it worth crossing the seas — nearly as far as others sail for gold — to enjoy the Gospel are now reluctant to cross the street to hear it at such a cheap rate. And some who do come, who once trembled at it, now seem to attend mainly to mock at it or quarrel with it. Indeed it has come to such a point that the Word sits so heavily on the sensitive stomachs of many professors that it comes back up at once, and with it a great deal of bitterness toward the preacher — especially if he touches on the sins and errors of the times. The mere naming of these is enough to cause offense, though the nation is sinking under their weight. What reproaches are faithful ministers of the Gospel loaded with? I call heaven and earth to witness whether they ever suffered a hotter persecution of the tongue than in this age of apostasy. A new generation of professors has arisen who refuse to recognize them as ministers of Christ — even though those who came before them, greater both in grace and years, more able to trace their spiritual lineage than these newcomers, owned them to their dying day as their spiritual fathers. And must not the ark shake when those who carry it are struck at in both their person and their office? What are these people doing? Alas, they do not know. Father, forgive them. They are cutting off their right hand with their left. They are leaving themselves and the nation naked by despising the Gospel and those who bring it.

Third application: Consider your desperate condition, you who are wholly naked and unarmed. Can you pity the beggar at your door — seeing on a winter's day someone shivering with bare back, exposed to the fury of the cold — and not pity your own far more terrible soul-nakedness, which lays you open to heaven's wrath and hell's malice? Their nakedness covers them with shame and fills them with fear of perishing, driving them to knock and cry for relief with pitiful moans. And can you let Satan come and cut your throat in the bed of your laziness, rather than accept the clothing that would cover you — indeed, the armor that would defend you? I mean Christ and His grace, which is offered to you in the Gospel. Do not too quickly believe your own flattering heart if it tells you that you are already provided with these. I fear many a fine-looking professor will be found just as naked in regard to Christ and genuine grace as drunkards and swearers themselves. There are those who content themselves with a Christ in profession, in gifts, and in outward duties, but do not seek a Christ in solid grace — and so they perish. Gifts and outward duties are an ornament to the Christian, as a scarf and plume are to a soldier, but they do not stop the bullet in battle. It is Christ and His grace that does that. Therefore labor to be a sound Christian rather than merely a showy one. Grace adorned with gifts is more beautiful, but gifts without grace are only a richer prize for Satan.

The second part of the first main division of the text follows — the quality or kind of armor the Christian is here directed to obtain. Not just anything will do. Better to have no armor at all than armor that is not proof — and none qualifies except the armor of God. It must be of God in two respects. First: in its institution and appointment. Second: in its composition.