A55301:93
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. Love to Christ is a preparative to suffering: Ignatius (whose Motto was, Amor meus crucifixus, My Love was crucified) would suffer any thing for Christ. The Martyr Felicitas was so in love with Christ,1 that she would not only suffer herself, but have her seven sons suffer for him also. Love to Christ stands in four things, each of which will dispose us to suffer for him.
- 1Magd. hist. Cent. 2. cap. 12.
1. Love to Christ stands in an high Valuation ⟨p. 74⟩of him; it esteems him altogether precious: Precious in his Person, being Immanuel, God and man in one; precious in his atoning sufferings, which (being by his Deity elevated into a kind of infinity) were enough to pay for the sin of a World; precious in his holy words; his Mysteries being heights, his Commands rectitude, his Promises Grace: precious in the rich Treasures of Grace, which are in him, and everflowing out towards Believers: He that thus esteems of him will be ready to suffer for him. To leave his atoning sufferings is to run into Hell; to leave his words is to run into all Error; to leave his Treasures of Grace is to run into Spiritual Poverty: And how can we leave him? To adhere to his Atonement is peace and comfort; to adhere to his Words is to keep the way of life; to adhere to his Treasures of Grace, is to have continual influences of grace from him: And how can we choose but adhere to him? St. Paul counted all things dross and dung for him, Phil. 3.8. St. Cyprian, in his Exhortation to Martyrdom, gives this as one rule, that we should nihil Christo praeponere, prefer nothing before Christ. To esteem any thing better then him, is the way to turn Apostate; but to esteem him better then ⟨p. 75⟩