HUGH LATIMER, AT THE TIME OF THE INSURRECTION IN THE NORTH, WHICH WAS IN THE TWENTY-SEVENTH YEAR OF THE REIGN OF KING HENRY THE EIGHTH, ANN.DOM.1535.UPON THE EPISTLE READ IN THE CHURCH THE TWENTY-FIRST SUNDAY AFTER TRINITY SUNDAY, TAKEN OUT OF THE SIXTH CHAPTER OF THE EPISTLE OF ST.PAUL TO THE EPHESIANS.
Put on all the armour of God, that ye may stand, &c.[Ephes.vi.10, et seq.]
Saint Paul, the holy apostle, writeth this epistle unto the Ephesians, that is, to the people of the city of Ephesus.He writeth generally, to them all; and in the former chapters he teacheth them severally how they should behave themselves, in every estate, one to another; how they should obey their rulers; how wives should behave themselves towards their husbands; children towards their parents; and servants towards their masters; and husbands, parents and masters should behave them, and love their wives, children, and servants; and generally each to love other.
Now cometh he forth and comforteth them, and teacheth them to be bold, and to play the men, and fight manfully.For they must fight with valiant warriors, as appeareth afterward in the text.And against they come to fight he comforteth them, saying, "My brethren." He calleththem brethren; for though he taught them before to be subject to kings and rulers, and to be obedient to their superiors, yet he teacheth them that in Christ we be all brethren, according to the saying in this same chapter, "God is no accepter of persons." "My brethren," saith he, "be ye comforted, be ye strong;" not trusting to yourselves; no, but be bold, and comforted "by our Lord, and by the power of his virtue:" not by your own virtue, for it is not of power to resist such assaults as he speaketh of hereafter."Put on, or apparel you with, the armour of God." Armour is an apparel to clothe a man, and maketh him seemly and comely; setteth forth his body, and maketh him strong and bold in battle.And therefore Saint Paul exhorteth generally his brethren to be armed; and as the assaults be strong, and not small, so he giveth strong armour, and not small: "Put on," saith he, "the armour of God." He speaketh generally of armour, but afterwards he speaketh particularly of the parts of armour, where he saith, be armed complete, whole; be armed on every part with the armour of God; not borrowed, nor patched, but all godly.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 ofthis 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.Paul's teaching, shall stand strongly against his assaults."Our battle," saith St.Paul, "is against princes, potestates," that is, against devils: for, after the common opinion, there fell from heaven of every order of angels, as of potentates.He saith also, "against worldly rulers of these darknesses:" for, as doctors do write, the spirits that fell with Lucifer have their being in aere caliginoso, the air, in darkness, and the rulers of this world, by God's sufferance, to hurt, vex and assault them that live upon the earth.For their nature is, as they be damned, to desire to draw all mankind unto like damnation; such is their malice.And though they hang in the air, or fall in a garden or other pleasant place, yet have they continually their pain upon their backs.Against these we wrestle, and "against spiritual wickedness in coelestibus," that is, in the air; or we fight against spiritual wickedness in heavenly things.
Think you not that this our enemy, this prince with all his potentates, hath great and sore assaults to lay against our armour? Yea, he is a crafty warrior, and also of great power in this world; he hath great ordnance and artillery; he hath great pieces of ordnance, as mighty kings and emperors, to shoot against God's people, to persecute or kill them; Nero, the great tyrant, who slew Paul, and divers other.Yea, what great pieces hath he had of bishops of Rome, which have destroyed whole cities and countries, and have slain and burnt many! What great guns were those!
