A55301:147
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.
2. Patience makes a Christian to be a Conqueror of the persecuting World. The Overcomer, mentioned in the second and third chapters of the Revelation of St. John, to whom so many precious and excellent ⟨p. 125⟩promises are there made, is not one, that overcomes by Martial Fighting, but one that hath the Victory by Patient Suffering. Who shall separate us (saith St.) Paul from the Love of Christ? Shall Tribulation or Distress, or Persecution, or Famine, or Nakedness, or Peril, or Sword? In all these things [Greek or Hebrew], we are more than Conquerors through him that loved us, Rom. 8.35, 37. More than Conquerors, because they conquered by suffering; while their Bodies were slain their souls were triumphing over death itself. Thus St. Austin saith,1 that the Pagans were overcome, non a repugnantibus, sed a morientibus Christianis, not by resisting, but by dying Christians: Patience makes their Persecutors secure them, and frame Crowns of Glory for them. This made the Martyr Vincentius tell his Tormentor, Nunquam aliquis adeò bene servivit mihi actu; no man ever served me so much as thou hast done. Patience doth so frame the heart to the will of God, that it makes a Christian to be a King over his Crosses, losses to him are gain, reproaches glory, confinement liberty, and death life: While he suffers in any thing, he is above it.
2. Patience makes a Christian to be a Conqueror of the persecuting World. The Overcomer, mentioned in the second and third chapters of the Revelation of St. John, to whom so many pretious and excellent ⟨p. 125⟩promises are there made, is not one, that overcomes by Martial Fighting, but one that hath the Victory by Patient Suffering. Who shall separate us (saith St.) Paul from the Love of Christ? Shall Tribulation or Distress, or Persecution, or Famine, or Nakedness, or Peril, or Sword? In all these things 〈non-Latin alphabet〉, we are more than Conquerors through him that loved us,