A55301:62
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.
The third Direction for suffering is this, if we would be in a fit posture for suffering we must labour after the knowledge of God and the things of God: An ignorant man, who is a man in shape, but a beast in heart, is not a person capable of pious Suffering; He knows not the Principles of Religion, and for what should he suffer? He hath no Principles of Grace in him, and how should he suffer? He is in darkness, and to him Truth or Error, one God or more, pure Worship or Idolatry, are all one; he is alienated from the life of God, Eph. 4.18. and therefore it is not imaginable that he should dye for God or his Truth: For him to suffer for an unknown God or Christ, is to suffer for he knows not what. As ⟨p. 46⟩the Samaritans worshipped they knew not what; so the ignorant man, if he suffer, suffers for he knows not what. The Athenians had an Altar to the unknown God, Acts. 17.23. and possibly they offered up other Creatures to him: But for a man to offer up himself as a Sacrifice to an unknown God, and to part with all this World when he knows nothing of a better, is a very strange unaccountable thing. Let us therefore cry after Wisdom, and lift up our voice for Understanding: Let us seek her as silver, and search for her as for hid Treasures, as the Wise man exhorts Prov. 2.3. & 4. Let our Prayers ascend up to Heaven, to bring her down from thence; and our Endeavours dig in the Mines of Scripture to fetch her up from thence, that so Understanding may keep us, as it is Verse 11. Knowledge is a preservative to him that hath it; the People that know their God shall be strong, Dan. 11.32. The young men, who have the word. of God abiding in them, are strong 1 Joh. 2.14. Understanding is a well-spring of life to him that hath it, Prov. 16.22. It streams out in living Graces, and strengthens the Inner-man, and prepares it for a day of trial; only it is to be remembered, that every knowledge will not do this, but it must ⟨p. 47⟩