A55301:81
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.
3. Faith hath a respect to the Promises; These are the Breasts of Consolation, the Channels in which the Grace in Gods heart flows down to the Sons of men: Here the Christian may provide himself with Cordials against the time of suffering. I shall here only mention three kinds of Promises, for Faith to live upon in a day of Trial.
1. Faith must live upon the Promises of Gods gracious Presence: God tells his People, that he will be with them in the fire and in the water, Isaiah. 43.2. that is, in all danger and calamities whatsoever; neither shall this Presence be for a little time only, but constant and perpetual: He will never leave them, nor forsake them, Hebr. 13.5. This is a choice comfort to good men, that in Tribulations they are not left alone, but God is with them. St. Paul had experience of this; all men forsook him, but God stood with him and strengthened him, 2. Tim. 4.16, 17. The Presence of God was to him more then a World, and able to support him against all his Adversaries. St. Cyprian, speaking of ⟨p. 66⟩the Martyrs in his time,1 saith, That God was not a mere spectator in their sufferings, but ipse luctatur in nobis, ipse concongreditur, ipse in certamine coronat, pariter & coronatur; he strives in us, he encounters our adversaries, he crowns us in the Battle, and is himself crowned therein. Let us therefore by Faith rest upon the promise of Gods Presence, and assure our hearts that he will be with us in our Suffering: All the Promises of God are Yea and Amen in Christ, and his being Immanuel, God with us in the humane Nature, is a Pledge to the Saints, that God will be with them in their Sufferings for him.