ith 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
of this 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 R