Gurnall's Christian in Complete Armour, certainly one of the greatest of all the Puritans' practical writings, has been many times republished, but the best edition remains that of 1864, with an Introduction by J. C. Ryle. It is this unabridged edition which is here reprinted.
C. H. Spurgeon commented: "This Complete Armour is beyond all others a preacher's book: I should think that more dis- courses have been suggested by it than by any other uninspired volume. 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 Gur- nall's hearth. John Newton said that if he might read only one book beside the Bible, he would choose The Christian in Complete Armour, and Richard Cecil was of much the same opinion.'
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WILLIAM GURNALL (1616-1679) was born in the coastal town of Lynn, Norfolk, about a hundred miles north of London. The inhabitants of Norfolk and Suffolk counties were famous for their deep attachment to the doctrines of the Reformation.
An excellent scholar, Gurnall was awarded a scholarship from the city of Lynn to attend Emmanuel College, Cambridge. He began his formal training there in his 16th year, shortly after his father's death. He carned a bachelor's degree in 1635 and a master's degree in 1639.
At the age of twenty-eight, William Gurnall was appointed curate and then rector-on the death of the incumbent of the church at Lavenham, Suffolk. A year later he married a minister's daughter, Sarah Mott, who bore him at least fourteen children, eight of whom survived him. Gurnall spent the rest of his life, dogged by ill-health, in this pastorate.
This was a period of civil and religious strife and controversy in England, and it was during this pastorate at Lavenham that Gurnall preached to his parishioners his messages on spiritual warfare. These would be published as The Christian in Complete Armour.
Gurnall died on 12 October 1679, in the sixty-third year of his life. The fact that a sixth edition of his work was published in the year he died is enough to show that its merits were carly recognized
As well as this unabridged edition, the Trust also publishes The Christian in Complete Armour as a modernized abridgement in three paperhack volumes.
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