A55301:102
Armatura Dei, or, A preparation for suffering in an evil day showing how Christians…Armatura Dei, or, A preparation for suffering in an evil day shewing how Christians…
Armatura Dei, or, A preparation for suffering in an evil day showing how Christians are to bear sufferings, and what graces are requisite thereunto : suited for all good Christians in this present time / by Edward Polhil ..., Esq.Armatura Dei, or, A preparation for suffering in an evil day shewing how Christians are to bear sufferings, and what graces are requisite thereunto : suited for all good Christians in this present time / by Edward Polhil ..., Esq.
London: printed for Tho. Cockerill, 1682
Modern spelling is a reading aid: the words are the author’s, only the spelling is modernized. Original shows the page as printed, with the transcription marks.
1. Hope assures us that there is another World, called in Scripture the World to come; without this there can be no foundation for pious Suffering; no man can freely part with this World unless he be assured of another: If in this life only we have hope in Christ, we are of all men most miserable, 1 Cor. 15.19. Miserable indeed, to be persecuted out of one World, and to ⟨p. 80⟩have never another to go to. If Christians were in as dark a case, as the Emperor Adrian was, when dying he cried out, O my poor soul, whither art thou going? they could be in no rational capacity of suffering: But hope assures them, that there is another world, where things are administered in a different manner then they are here in this:1 Here good men bear the Cross, there they wear the Crown; here they are black with reproaches, there they shine as the Sun; here they are tossed at Sea, there they enter into rest; here they drink of the bitter Cup, there of the Rivers of Pleasures above; here they are in the bloody hands of men, there in the arms of a gracious God: Hope is sure, that these things are so; God's Promises secure them, and, that we might have strong consolation, God's Oaths is superadded also: Our Saviour hath sealed up the truth of them with his own blood, and we may venture our dearest lives upon them. Hence it is, that hope is said to be the anchor of the soul, sure and steadfast, entering into that within the Veil. Hebr. 6.19. Other Anchors may break, but this will never fail; other Anchors are fastened in this World, but this enters into that within the Veil, and fixes it self in the unmoveable Heaven; and in respect thereof, Christians ⟨p. 81⟩become in some measure unmovable in the midst of all the storms here below. St. Cyprian saith of the Christians in his time, that their Faith and Hope did stand unmovable and unshaken inter ipsas seculi ruinas, 2among the ruins of the World. When the excellent Melancton was threatened by his enemies,