Ephesians 6:10-18
My brethren, be strong in the Lord, and in the power of his might. Put on the whole armour of God, that ye may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil. For we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places. 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.
Stand therefore, having your loins girt about with truth, and having on the breastplate of righteousness; and your feet shod with the preparation of the gospel of peace; above all, taking the shield of faith, wherewith ye shall be able to quench all the fiery darts of the wicked. And take the helmet of salvation, and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God: Praying always with all prayer and supplication in the Spirit, and watching thereunto with all perseverance and supplication for all saints.
THOMAS COKE (1747-1814): The reader will find, in William Gurnall’s “Christian in Complete Armour,” a very large and practical improvement of this portion of Scripture.
J. C. RYLE (1816-1900): You will often find in a line and a half some great truth, put so concisely, and yet so fully, that you marvel how so much thought could be got into so few words.
D. DUNDAS M’ISAAC (circa 1864): With the exception of two sermons preached on special occasions, The Christian in Complete Armour is William Gurnall’s only published work.
J. C. RYLE: Perhaps there is no writer who has left a name so familiar to all readers of Puritan theology, but whose personal history so little is known. Except that he was a Puritan divine of the seventeenth century—that he was Minister of Lavenham—and that he wrote a well-known book of practical divinity, most persons know nothing of William Gurnall. This dearth of information about so good a man appears at first sight extraordinary and unaccountable. Born, as he was, in a seaport town of no mean importance—the son of parents who held a prominent position in the town—educated at Cambridge, at one of the best known colleges of the day—the contemporary of leading divines of his times—minister of the largest church in West Suffolk for the uninterrupted period of thirty-five years—author of a work which, from its first appearance, was eminently popular.
D. DUNDAS M’ISAAC: The Christian in Complete Armour is a production of a period remarkable beyond any other in the history of England, for earnest activity in the matters of religion—the days of Richard Baxter, of John Bunyan, of Thomas Brooks, Stephen Charnock, John Owen, John Flavel, John Howe, Thomas Watson—men whose many volumes, or whose single treatises, were read with avidity by their contemporaries, and continue still to maintain their position among those esteemed treasures of practical divinity—the Christian classics of our English literature.
A. W. PINK (1886-1952): Such men as Thomas Goodwin, John Owen, Stephen Charnock, John Flavel, and Richard Sibbes, though living in troublous times and suffering fierce persecution, taught the Word more helpfully―in our judgment, and were more used of God than any since the days of the apostles to the present hour. The ministry of the Puritans was an exceedingly searching one.
JOHN NEWTON (1725-1807): If I might read only one book beside the Bible, I would choose The Christian in Complete Armour.
J. C. RYLE: How shall we account for the absence of any notice of Gurnall in the biographical writings of his day? I believe that answer is to be found in the line of conduct Gurnall followed in the year 1662, on the passing of the unhappy Act of Uniformity. He did not secede from the Church of England! He was not one of the famous two thousand ministers who gave up their preferment, and became Nonconformists. He retained his position at Lavenham. Puritan as he undoubtedly was, both in doctrine and practice, he did not do what many of his brethren did. When Richard Baxter, Thomas Manton, John Owen, Thomas Goodwin, and a host of other giants in theology, seceded from the Church of England, Gurnall stood fast, and refused to move. A neutral is never popular in a season of strife and controversy.
J. H. M. d’AUBIGNÉ (1794-1872): When truth and error are in presence of each other, the right side is not the middle.
J. C. RYLE: This, I suspect, was precisely Gurnall’s position. He was a Puritan in doctrine, and yet he steadfastly adhered to the Church of England. He was a minister of the Church of England, and yet a thorough Puritan both in preaching and practice. He was just the man to be disliked and slighted by both sides…I leave the subject of Gurnall’s conduct in 1662 with the reader. It is one on which different men will have different opinions—I only desire to record my own opinion, that Gurnall was probably just as courageous, conscientious and high-principled in deciding to stay in, as his two thousand ejected brethren were in deciding to go out…Gurnall’s case, perhaps, does not stand alone. Perhaps the last day will prove that some of the best and holiest men that ever lived are hardly known.
GEORGE WHITEFIELD (1714-1770): The Puritans were burning and shining lights. When cast out and driven from their respective charges to preach in barns and fields, in the highways and hedges, they in a special manner wrote and preached as men having authority. Though dead, by their writings they yet speak: a peculiar unction attend them to this very hour—the more true and vital religion hath revived either at home or abroad, the more the good old puritanical writings, or the authors of a like stamp who lived and died in the Church of England, have been called for.
C. H. SPURGEON (1834-1892): It appears from the preface that Gurnall’s “Christian in Complete Armour” was preached before it was printed. In vivid imagery every page of his famous book abounds…He is as profuse in illustration as either Thomas Brooks, Thomas Watson, or George Swinnock.
WILLIAM GURNALL (1617-1679): The subject of the treatise is solemn; A War Between the Saint and Satan, and that so bloody a one, that the cruelest war which was ever fought by men will be found but sport and child’s play to this. It is a spiritual war that you shall read of; and that not a history of what was fought many ages past and is now over, but of what is now doing—the tragedy is at present acting—and that not at the furthest end of the world, but what concerns thee and everyone that reads it. The stage whereon this war is fought is every man’s own soul. Here is no neutral in this war. The whole world is engaged in the quarrel, either for God against Satan, or for Satan against God.
THE EDITOR: It is not a physical war fought against men, governments, or nations, but within the soul of each person, between good and evil.
D. DUNDAS M’ISAAC: The war thus described is so illustrated as to embrace the entire course of the Christian’s life on earth. It is divided into two parts. The first is A Short but Powerful Encouragement to the War; and the second, and main part, consists of Directions for Managing the War successfully, wherein is set forth the necessity of being armed for the conflict; the armour required; the nature of the conflict; the character and power of the assailant or enemies with which the Christian has to contend, and the posture to be maintained in the fight; whilst under the various special pieces of armour, the nature and importance of the various Christian graces are set forth—the whole being bound together and fitted for us by all-prayer, under which there is given a very thorough illustration of the nature, privilege, and advantage of prayer to the Christian.
C. H. SPURGEON: It is peerless, and priceless; every line is full of wisdom; every sentence is suggestive. The whole book is, in our judgment, the best thought-breeder in our library…I have often resorted to it when my own fire has been burning low, and I have seldom failed to find a glowing coal upon Gurnall’s hearth.
