A55301:158
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.
When all the World was given to Idolatry, the primitive Martyrs would die rather than rob God of his Honour: Their Sufferings told the World, that his Glory was not to be given to another, nor his praise to graven Images; no, not to save the lives of those that were the only pure Worshippers of him: Their lives could not be better spent than in suffering for his pure Worship; and after them, he would raise up others to Worship him. When the Emperor Commodus, 1asked the Senator Julius, Why he could not worship Jupiter and Hercules; Julius, ambitious of Martyrdom, ⟨p. 136⟩told the Emperor plainly, That Jupiter and Hercules were no Gods, and that the worshippers of Idols muh perish in eternal Torments; and soon after he sealed up his Profession with his blood. Auxentius would rather suffer banishment, than set a branch of a Wine-tree at the feet of Bacchus his Image, because it had an appearance of Idolatry. The suffering of the Saints for the pure Worship, proclaims it to all, that God hath a sacred jealousy over his Worship, and will no more part with it, than he will with his Crown. If we would indeed glorify God, here is the highest medium to do it; No Praises, no Alms, no Services, no Active Obedience do so lift up the Glory of God, as pious Suffering doth, in which we do practically, declare that we value him above all things.
- 1Magd. Hist. Cent. 2. cap. 12.
2. Pious Sufferers do propagate and multiply the Church. When Abel, the first Martyr was slain, there was a Seth raised up in his room. When righteous persons are slain by Persecutors, more of them spiring up in the Church. The more the Children of Israel were afflicted in Egypt, the more they multiplied and grew, Exod. 1.11. As the ground, that is most harrowed, is most fruitful; so God's People, the more they were straitened under the burdens of men, the more they were enlarged