The Christian in Complete Armor - Choice Extracts!

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have defied. Give no place to Satan! no, not an inch in his first motions! He who is a beggar, and a modest one without doors, will command the house if let in. The devil teaches sinners to cover foul practices with fair names: superstition, must be called devotion; covetousness, must be called thrift; pride in apparel, must be called keeping up with the times; looseness, must be called liberty; and foolishness, must be called mirth. The Devil's wiles. Satan makes choice of such as have a great name for holiness. None like a live bird, to draw other birds into the net. Abraham tempts his wife to lie: "Say you are my sister." The old prophet leads the man of God out of his way (1 Kings 13). Under the skirt of Christian liberty, Satan conveys in libertinism; by crying up the Spirit — he decries and vilifies the Scripture; by magnifying faith — he labors to undermine repentance and blow up good works. If Satan gets into your spirit and defiles it, O, how hard will you find it to stay there? You have already sipped of his broth, and now are more likely to sit down and make your full meal of that, which by tasting has vitiated your palate already! When you hear one commend another for a wise or good man, and at last come in with a "but" that dashes all, you will easily think he is no friend to the man — but some sly enemy, that by seeming to commend, desires to disgrace the more. Thus, when you find God represented to you as merciful and gracious — but not to such a great sinner as you; to have power and strength — but not able to save you; you may say, Avaunt, Satan, your speech betrays you. 36
When the flesh or Satan beg time of you, it is to steal time from you. They put you off prayer at one time, to shut you out at last from prayer at any time. What day in all the year is inconvenient to Satan? What place or company are you in — that he cannot make a snare for your soul? Satan knows what order you keep in your house and closet; and though he has not a key to your heart — yet he can stand in the next room to it, and lightly hear what is whispered there. If once he does but smell which way your heart inclines, he knows how to take the hint; if but one door is unbolted, here is advantage enough. The occasion of temptation. The least passage of your life may prove an occasion of sin to you — at what a little wicket many times a great sin enters! David's eye did but casually alight on Bathsheba, and the good man's foot was presently in the devil's trap! Have you not then need to pray that God would set a guard about your senses wherever you go, and to cry with him, "Keep back my eyes from beholding vanity!" It should be our care, if we would not yield to the sin — not to walk by, or sit at the door of the occasion — parley not with that in your thoughts, which you mean not to let into your heart. If we mean not to be burnt, let us not walk upon the coals of temptation. You tempt God to allow your locks to be cut, when you are so bold as to lay your head in the lap of a temptation. Set a strong guard about your outward senses: these are Satan's landingplaces, especially the eye and the ear. Take heed what you import at these. Vain discourse seldom passes without leaving some tincture of vanity upon the heart. And for your eye, let it not wander; wanton objects cause wanton thoughts. Job knew his eye and his thoughts were likely to go together, and therefore to secure one — he covenants with the other (Job 31:1). The handle of Satan's hatchet, with which he lies chopping at the root of the Christian's comfort, is commonly made of the Christian's wood. Satan is but 37
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Page 3 and 4: CTL.TODAY PRESENTS THE CHRISTIAN IN
Page 5 and 6: PREFACE The extracts that form this
Page 7 and 8: When afflicted, love can allow you
Page 9 and 10: "So you see a man wise in his own c
Page 11 and 12: Prayer is a great heart-easer. The
Page 13 and 14: greater shame. David shall know tha
Page 15 and 16: him; and to our God, for He will ab
Page 17 and 18: up the credit they have abroad —
Page 19 and 20: No man can say that Jesus is the Lo
Page 21 and 22: converts came flying as a cloud, as
Page 23 and 24: who paid for it. Your grace, your c
Page 25 and 26: There is but one Heaven — miss th
Page 27 and 28: preserved His truth. In a word, in
Page 29 and 30: e at supper within, and you not so
Page 31 and 32: difficulty, there without travail a
Page 33 and 34: Faith and a good conscience. "Holdi
Page 35: it is not necessary that you should
Page 39 and 40: temptation.” They, not keeping th
Page 41 and 42: name" (Acts 5:41). Shall the wicked
Page 43 and 44: enemy's blows do not bruise his fle
Page 45 and 46: and outward deliverance, when you h
Page 47 and 48: wind continues loud about us — tr
Page 49 and 50: Christians falling out among themse
Page 51 and 52: Was there ever less love, charity,
Page 53 and 54: Preach without fear of man. There i
Page 55 and 56: solemn a work, to be toyed and play
Page 57 and 58: When the soul stands upon this Pisg
Page 59 and 60: him to study the Scriptures: (Joshu
Page 61 and 62: which the stream of divine grace, b
Page 63 and 64: shall have after death. Vile bodies
Page 65 and 66: ut his wanton eye rolled and wander
Page 67 and 68: The best way to keep vessels from l
Page 69 and 70: "You cast off fear, and restrain pr
Page 71 and 72: “What kind of people ought you to
Page 73 and 74: Hope is the handkerchief that God p
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