D 1. There is a neceffity for it; either you must wrestle with him, or be taken captive by him; there is no middle courfe; and fhall not neceffity make you fight? It is faid that neceffity and defpair will produce wonders, they would make cowards fight, and are you worse than cow=ards.

2. The victory is certain if you will but wrestle. When Christ had made a valiant refiftance the devil gave way and Eleft him, Mark iv. 11. And to this purpote you have a promife, Refift the devil, and he will flee from you, James iv. 7. Satan is a foiled adversary, Chrift hath overcome him already, and so fhall ye if ye will but valiantly enter in * Chrift's name into the lifts.

3. The fweetnefs of victory will abundantly recompence the trouble of your wrestling: Ufually we miftake the traverfes of our minds: We reckon upon the sweetness of fin, and the trouble of wrestling: But the right comparifon is between the fruit of fin, and the fruit of victory: You have often had experience what it is to be overcome, do you now make trial how fweet the victory will be in overcoming.

4. The caufe is juft, your combat is lawful: God, who is juftice itself, hath proclaimed it by his heralds; Finally, my brethren, be ftrong in the Lord, and in the 4 power of his might; put on the whole armour of God, that ye may be able to stand against the affault of the de'vil,' Eph. vi. 10, 11. Refift the devil, and he will 'flee from you,' James iv. 7. Be fober and watch, for your adversary the devil, as a roaring lion, wlaketh about feeking whom he may devour; whom refift ftedfaft in the faith,' 1 Pet. v. 8. There are two things which make a war lawful and just, 1. The call of a juft authority. 2. A juft caufe: Now in this conflict is a concurrence of both. 1. You have a lawful authority calling you to fight, even God who is the authority fupreme. 2. Your caufe is juft; for Satan affaulting any of the children of God is a mere ufurper, he hath no right over you, you are not his but the Lord's, by creation, by redemption, by fpecial dedication. You do but defend your own fouls, and the territory and dominion of God and Jefus Chrift in

you,

you, and over you, whofe dominion you are bound to preferve. Surely you have good caufe to wrestle, if you had none but this, because your cause is good.

5. You have already in baptifm taken a military facrament, and therein promised that you will continue God's faithful foldiers unto your life's end. What! my brethren, take prefs money to ferve in God's wars against the devil, and all his aids, and now to run away from your colours. A fworn enemy to fin and Satan fhould never of all others turn his back; why, you are fworn enemies, and therefore fland to it, be of a good courage, refift unto blood.

6. The Lord measures out your temptations, weigheth your ftrength, and will not fuffer you to be tempted above that you are able; he giveth fhoulders, and fitteth the burden. Is not this his promise? 1 Cor. x. 13.

There hath no temptation taken you, but fuch as is moderate, (or common to man) but God is faithful, who will not 'fuffer you to be tempted above that you are able, but ⚫ will with the temptation alfo make way to efcape, that ye may be able to bear it. Souls are apt to complain, The devil is ftrong, and temptation is strong, and I shall 'fall by the hand of Saul.' Why, know now that all thefe temptations are weighed and meafured out by God himself, he faith to Satan as to the waves of the fea, Thus far fhalt thou go, and no farther. Thus he faid concerning Job; Behold Satan, all that he hath is in thy power, only upon himself put not forth thy hand. Satan had a

mind to have gone further, he would have been upon Job himself, if God had not stopt and curbed him: Certainly Satan would break all our backs, if he were let alone, but God will not fuffer it, for God hath fet him bounds, and he will give you a proportionable strength. As a wife phyfician does not give the fame phyfick to every perfon, but confiders every one's ability, fo the Lord orders Satan in tempting, that he cannot put the least dram into any temptation, but as it is measured out by the hand of God.

7. The Lord hath promifed his prefence with you in fix dangers, and in feven: He goeth out with you into the field, not only as a looker-on, but to weaken the enemies

and

and to fupply you with new strength. He weakens your enemies, and upon this account partly it is faid, That

we are more than conquerors thro' Chrift that loved us,' Rom. viii. 37. because that in and thro' Jefus Christ our enemy is overcome before he ftrikes, and his blow is broken as he ftrikes. 2. He fupplies you with new ftrength, I will not deny but now and then you may have a foil, but if fo, the Lord will raise you up again, For tho' we fall, yet fhall we not be caft down, because the Lord putteth • under his hand,' Pfal. xxxvii. 24.

8. Your weapons are impenetrable: Your armour is the armour of proof, compleat armour, every way fufficient to defend and keep you harmless. This if you put it on, will make you able to stand against the wiles of the devil, and to withstand in the evil day; and to quench all the fiery darts of the wicked, Eph. v. 11, 13, 16. If you fay, What is this armour? the apoftle tells you of a girdle of truth and a breast-plate of righteousness, and fhoes of the preparation of the gofpel of peace, and a fhield of faith, and an helmet of falvation, and a fword of the Spirit, praying always with all prayer and fupplication of the Spirit, Eph. vi. 14, 15, 16, 17, 18. The meaning is, that your armour is the graces and ordinances of Jefus Chrift. Truth, and righteousness, and patience, and faith, and hope, and the word, and prayer; (under which by a synechdoche all other graces and ordinances are comprehended) are your Spiritual armour. I know that all the virtue of this armour depends wholly upon God alone: Our faith, and Hope, and love, and the word, and prayer would be all broken to shivers at one ftroke of temptation, if the Lord did not establish and confirm them; and this is that which Chrift tells Peter, I have prayed for thee that thy faith fail not, Luke xxii. 22. But this armour by God's power hath been fuccessful, and in the power of his might it ever will be fuccefsful. What is faid of the bow of Jonathan, and of the fword of Saul, is truly faid of this armour in this respect, they never returned empty from the blood of the flain, and from the fat of the mighty, 2 Sam. i. 22. Surely never any harneffed with this armour of God, left the field finally. Oh what encouragement is this!

I. To

9. To put all out of queftion, the Lord hath made pro miles of life to thofe that wrestle, 'He will give them to eat of the tree of life in the midst of paradife: He will 'give them of the manna that is hid, and he will write 'their names in the book of life. Bleffed is he that en • dureth temptation, for when he is tried he shall receive a crown of life, which the Lord hath promised to them that love him,' James i. 12. • We do not contend for counters, but for crowns; and those not temporal and corruptible, but eternal and incorruptible, even for a 'crown of life,' 1 Cor. ix. 25.

10. There will be a day of triumph to all that will but
wreftle: If you ask when? I answer, 1. At the day of
judgment, then shall Chrift your captain ftand upon the
earth, and you fhall stand with him, glorying and trium
phing to fee your enemies dead, or wounded before you,
Indeed others that were faint and delicate, and would not
wrestle, as they were led captives by Satan at his pleasure,
fo fhall they be led in triumph by him into hell: But for
you that fight the Lord's battles, the day is a coming when
you shall march with him into glory, and then fhall you tri-
umph all the way, and thofe enemies that now affault you,
fhall ly dead, as it were, before you, and you shall fee
them again no more for ever. No fooner fhall Chrift and
his faints enter into heaven, but oh the glorious aftonish-
ing triumphs that will be there! The poet fung fweetly,
There fhall we conquer, have our conquest crown'd
By hands of feraphims, triumph'd with the found
Of heaven's loud trumpet, warbled by the shrill
Cœleftial quire, recorded with a quill

Pluck'd from the pinion of an angel's wing,
Confirm'd with joy by heaven's eternal King.

O my brethren, where is now your courage? where is your fpirit? where is your ambition? think not on mean things, but on crowns, and victories, and glories; hold 'faft that which thou haft, that no man take thy crown,' Rev. iii. II.

SECT. V..

Other forts of Motives.

THAT I may yet prevail with you to make you wreftlers, confider further,

1. God

*

1. God is on the fide of all that wreftle. What! art thou afraid of the issue? Art thou indeed in Satan's hands? know then that Satan is in God's hands: If thou art but the Lord's foldier, he will not fuffer himself to be so much difgraced as to fuffer thee to be overcome by his mortal eEnemies: He hath armed thee with his own armour, and fent thee out to fight his battles; and therefore he will not have thee vanquished, being fortified with his ftrength; for fo fhould his weapons be efteemed weak, and he himfelf be overcome in thee. When the Lord fent his angel to encourage Zechariah concerning Jerufalem, the meffage was this, 1, faith the Lord, will be unto her a wall of fire round about her. Surely Jerufalem muft needs be impregnable that was thus walled about: The fame promife is made to all the faints, and therefore they must needs be all invincible; if your fhelter were ftones, thefe might be battered; were it walls of lead, thefe might be melted; were it defence of waters, thefe might be dried up; were it garrifons of mighty men, these might be fcattered; were it engines of war, thefe might be defeated; were it trenches, thefe might be ftopped; were it bulwarks, these might be overthrown. But you are guarded with such a defence which cannot be demolished, to wit, with a wall of fire round about you. Balls of wild fire are terror and confumption to any enemies. Who could quench the fire of Sodom? or who fhall quench the world, when it shall be all on fire? furely none. Paradife was kept with a fiery flaming sword, and none could enter thereinto, Gen. iii. 24. Ifrael was guided and protected by a fiery pillar, and none could moleft them in their march, Exod. xiii. 21. What fhall we fay then, when the Lord our God is a wall of fire round about you, to confume your enemies and to fuccour you? Chear up Chriftians! your God whofe you are, and whom you ferve, to whom nothing is too hard, Gen. xviii. 14. to whom nothing is impoffible,' Matth. xix. 16. 'to whom none is like among the gods, glorious in holiness, fearful in praifes, doing wonders,' Exod. XV. 11. 'Who removeth mountains, fhaketh the earth, 'commandeth the fun, fealeth the ftars, and thundereth marvelously with his voice; even he is a wall of fire round

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