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Now from the places where the sense in which they are used is more
manifest we must gather the sense in which they are to be understood in
obscure passages. For example, there is no better way of
understanding the words addressed to God, "Take hold of shield and
buckler and stand up for mine help, than by referring to the passage
where we read, "Thou, Lord, hast crowned us with Thy favor as
with a shield." And yet we are not so to understand it, as that
wherever we meet with a shield put to indicate a protection of any
kind, we must take it as signifying nothing but the favor of God.
For we hear also of the shield of faith, "wherewith," says the
apostle, "ye shall be able to quench all the fiery darts of the
wicked. Nor ought we, on the other hand, in regard to spiritual
armor of this kind to assign faith to the shield only; for we read in
another place of the breastplate of faith: "putting on," says the
apostle, "the breastplate of faith and love.
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