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…

This will be an high Cordial in an evil day, and make us able, whatever the sufferings be, to go on triumphantly and with full Sails to Heaven.

2. Hope doth not only assure the good things to come, but disposes us for them: ⟨p. 85⟩Hope is not an idle Dream or Notion, but it is an active and lively thing; it doth not merely look to the glory above, but puts the Soul into a posture for it: Every one, that hath in him the hope of so great a thing as the seeing the blessed God is, purifieth himself, even as he is pure, 1, Joh. 3.3. He knows Darkness cannot have communion with Light; unclean eyes cannot be opened in so pure a place as Heaven is; the earthly heart is too gross to be in the Region of holy Spirits; he that drowns himself in Sensual Pleasures, is not meet to drink of the pure Rivers that are above: Malicious Spirits cannot be capable of dwelling there, where infinite Love opens it self in all its sweetness: The false-hearted Hypocrite can never be admitted to see Truth in the Original, nor the evil man to drink Goodness at the Fountain-head: He therefore that hath a right hope of being with God in Heaven, will purify himself for such an high estate; he will labour to have more of the light of Faith to fit him for that of Vision; to have more purity of heart, to make him meet to see the holy One; to have more of Heaven in his affections, to prepare him for that blessed Region; to have more spiritual delight here, that he may be capable of entering into the joy of his Lord hereafter; to have his heart ⟨p. 86⟩more filled with holy Love, that he may be in an apt posture for the rich effusions of Love in Heaven; to have more truth and goodness in his heart, that he may be the more ready to enjoy the Fountain and Fullness of both, I mean, the blessed God who is All in All: Thus this lively Hope makes a man meet for Heaven, and in so doing it makes him meet for those Sufferings that lie in his way thither: That Purity, which disposes him to enjoy God in Heaven, doth also dispose him to suffer for him on Earth; and the greater disposition is to Heaven, the Centre of blessedness, the stronger will the motion be to break through all difficulties that are in the passage thereunto: Let us therefore get a purifying Hope, that we may be fit for the Cross.