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 Rome, which have destroyed whole cities and countries, and have slain and burnt many!  What great guns were those!

Yea, he hath also less ordnance evil enough, (they may be called serpentines;) some bishops in divers countries, and here in England, which he hath shot at some good christian men, that they have been blown to ashes.  So can this great captain, the devil, shoot his ordnance.  He hath yet less ordnance, for he hath of all sorts to shoot at good christian men; he hath hand-guns and bows, which do much hurt, but not so much as the great ordnance.  These be accusers, promoters, and slanderers; they be evil ordnance, shrewd hand-guns, and bows; they put a man to great displeasure; oftentimes death cometh upon that shot.  For these things, saith the text, “take the armour of God.”  Against the great captains, the devils, and against their artillery, their ministers, there can nothing defend us but the armour of God.