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Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
death_n	day_n	life_n	world_n	8,295	5	4.5590	4	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A55301	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.	Polhill, Edward, 1622-1694?	1682 (1682)	Wing P2750; ESTC R3431	68,313	156

beaten tortured burned torn killed and yet they were multiplied Julian the Apostate learned this from persecution under Diocletian and upon that account he abstained for a time from exercising Torments and bloody Cruelties upon Christians Magd. cent 4. cap. 3. because he saw that the Christians by patient Suffering were multiplied and became more glorious in the eyes of the People Antichrist hath shed a great deal of pretious blood and the witnesses of the pure Religion have been slain under him yet hath the Evangelical Truth remained and the Witnessess which were Slain have from time to time revived and stood up in illustrious Successors who have held forth the same Truth and spoke in the same Spirit and Power as those before them had done When after the Parisian Massacre there happened to be a great serenity in Heaven Thuan Lib. 52. and a Barbery-tree blossoming in a time unusal some Papists said That the thing was grateful to God as if Heaven and Earth had rejoiced at it But the Protestants took it as a sign that the Church should revive and flourish again like the bush that burned and was not consumed The true Church which is founded in Christs blood is not propagated or multiplied by Martial Arms but by patient Sufferings This is the true way to do good to the Church and to continue the Gospel among us if we are indeed in a posture for suffering and ready to Seal up the Truth with our Blood we may comfortly hope that whatever Sufferings come the Gospel and gratious Presence of God shall not finally depart from our Nation 3. Pious Sufferers do give an evident token to the Persecutor that the wrath of God will come upon him When the Emperor Commodus was worshipping Jupiter Vincentius Eusebius Peregrinus Magd. hist cent 2. cap. 12. and Potentianus went about and exhorted the People to depart from the Worship of Devils and honour the One only true God lest they perished with Commodus and soon after they suffered Martyrdome for the same thing Though all the Martyrs did not in words warn the Persecutors that the Wrath of God would come upon them yet they all by their patient Suffering gave them an evident token of it St. Paul exhorts the Philippians to patient suffering upon this account Stand fast saith he in one Spirit with one mind striving together for the Faith of the Gospel and in nothing terrified by your adversaries which is to them an evident token of Perdition but to you of Salvation and that of God Phil. 1.27 28. The Persecutor comes with his Torments and Engines of Cruelty to terrify the Martyr but the Martyr by his Christian Patience and Courage gives the Persecutor and evident token that the wrath of God will come down upon him at last If bloody Persecutors who look upon the suffering Martyrs had but their Eyes open they would see cause enough to reflect upon themselves and say Surely these men have a patience more than humane and therefore they suffer for God and if so we in persecuting them fight against him may expect that his wrath should come down upon us as it hath upon former Persecutors Herod Agrippa was eaten up of Worms Nero with a trembling hand cut his own throat Trajan was thought to have poisoned himself upon the Persecution in the time of Antoninus Verus there followed Wars Earthquakes Inundations Pestilences as so many Tokens of Divine Vengeance Decius was slain together with his Children Dioclesian died of fearful and miserable Diseases Julian in the Persian war was mortally wounded by an Arrow from Heaven and threw up his blood thither with that horrible Blasphemy Vicisti Galilaee Valens in his war against the Gothes was wounded and flying into a Cottage was burnt with it by the Enemy The temporal Judgments that have befallen former Persecutors tell the after-ones what they may look for here in this World or if they might escape here eternal Vengeance will surely meet them hereafter Our Saviour Christ will at the great day bid those that did not feed cloth and Visit him in his Members depart into ever lasting fire Matth. 25.41 much more will he say so to those that Imprison torment and kill him in his Members When Henry the second of France in his running a Tilt received a fatal wound in his Eye he looked to the Prison Thuan. L. 22. where the poor Protestants were shut up as Captives for their Religion and often uttered these words That he was afraid that he had done the poor innocent men wrong Conscience then told him what it was to persecute Oh! That such things as these might stop Persecutors in their bloody ways as the Thunderbolt falling neer the Emperor Anrelianus did him in his intended Persecution of the Christians The patience of those that suffer under their cruel hands tell them that the wrath of God will fall upon them at Last I conclude with that of St. Cyprian Ad Demetrianum Quanto major persecutio tanto gravior pro persecutione vindicta The greater the Persecution is the heavier will be the Vengeance for it 4. Pious Sufferers are happy here and hereafter They are happy here upon a double account 1. They give the highest proof of their Sincerity that can be given Abraham gave a great proof of his Sincerity in leaving his Countrey and a greater in offering up his only Son Isaac at Gods command but I take it the Martyr gives a higher proof of it than is done in either of those it being more to part with all the World than to part with our Countrey and to offer up our selves to God than to offer up a Son The highest proof of Grace is in Suffering That Faith muh be right that endures the fiery Furnace that Love must be pure that practically lifts up God above all other things that Hope must be lively that lets go a present World for a future one that Obedience must be glorious that continues unto the death The Martyr hath a fair prospect with a comfortable sight of his own uprightness Conscience gives an Euge to his Graces and Sufferings nay the holy Spirit is as a seal and earnest of his Heavenly Inheritance It bears witness with his Spirit that he is a Son and Heir of God 2. As they give the highest proof of their Sincerity so they have the gracious Presence of God in the most eminent way with them All his glorious Attributes do as it were pitch their Tents round about them and put forth their Virtues in a gracious manner for their good His Power rests upon them to bear them up how weak soever in the fiery Trial his Wisdom directs them how to carry the selves under the Cross his Mercy melts over them while they are under mans Cruelty his Love is shed abroad in their heart while they bear the World hatred The Presence of God will be to them in stead of nay infinitely more than all other Comforts They may say If God be for us who can be against us Rom. 8.31 Why Devils can wicked men can but Aquinas expounds the words Quis contra nos laesive prevalenter Who can be against us to hurt us and prevail over us That which is of God cannot be overthrown they may break out with St. Paul in that gallant triumph 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 I am perswaded that neither death nor life nor Angels nor principalities nor powers nor things present nor things to come nor hight nor depth nor any other Creature shall be able to separare us from the Love of God in Christ Rom. 8.38 39. What St. Bernard saith of the Church is true of them a noble part of it In Cant. ser 79. Nec Verbositate Philosophorum nec Cavillationibus Haereticorum nec Gladiis Persecutorum potuit illa Separari à Charitate Dei quae est in Christo They cannot be separated from the Love of God in Christ neither by the words of Philosophers nor by the Cavils of Hereticks nor yet by the Swords of Persecutors God is in the midst of them and they shall not be moved Again They are happy hereafter this stands in two things 1. They are freed from all evils In Heaven they shall have no Corruption within nor Oppression without no Noise of Passion in the heart nor rout of turbulent Persecutors to disquiet them the will of the Flesh shall have a total Circumcision the infirmities of the Body shall have a perfect cure the Serpent cannot hiss in Paradise no temptations or miseries can fasten on a Saint in Glory There is Day without Night Love without Fear Joy without sorrow Life without Death all Happiness without the least mixture of Evil There the blessed Martyrs shall be freed from all their troubles and miseries 2. They are endowed with all good and happiness The promises made to the Overcomer in the Revelation of St. John shall be made good to them they shall eat of the Tree of Life in a blessed immortality they shall have the white stone in a perfect absolution they shall be clothed in Robes of Glory they shall be Pillars in the heavenly Temple standing there as ornaments in an immoveable Felicity they shall sit down with Christ in his throne and judge their Enemies that condemned them they shall inherit all things they that lost all for God shall enherit all in him who is goodness itself and the fountain of it They shall see him who is the original and Christal ocean of all truth they shall enjoy him who is the supream good and sabbath of souls they shall be swallowed up in the joy of infinite truth and goodness and their happiness shall not be for a time but run parallel with eternity itself they shall be for ever in the Lord in the blessed Region De Civit. Dei Lib. 22. cap. 30. There as St. Austin hath it God who is all in all Sine fine Videbitur since fastidio amabitur sine fatigatione laudabitur shall be seen without end loved without disdain and praised without weariness In the next World there will be a vast difference between Persecutors and Sufferers The Pride and Cruelty of the one will be paid for in Torments and endless Misery in the Prison of Hell and the Patience and Suffering of the other will be returned in Joys and eternal Felicity in the blessed Heaven FINIS

to sufferings The greater the thing is the more requisite is the Preparation Suffering is a great thing hard to Sense harsh to Flesh and Blood It may be it takes away the worldly Goods which are dear to men it may be it comes neerer and touches the Bone and the Flesh which is dearer then outward things It may be it goes further and treads down the precious Life which is highly valuable Nature in the best shrinks and flies away from such things as these and supernatural Graces and Assistances lift up men above themselves they will never bear them In such a case as this we have need to put on all our Spiritual Armor not this or that piece only but all of it and not only to put it on but to gird it on too All will be little enough to make us stand in the evil day Again the more excellent a thing is the more requisite is the Preparation Suffering for Christ is the excellency of a Christian the top and Complement of all his Graces Faith cannot rise higher Love cannot shew it self better than in this No Profession of Christianity is so high nor Imitation of Christ so full as that which is made in blood Here is the Christians consummatum est his work is done and Heaven opens to receive him into glory And how should we prepare our Souls and gird up the Loins of our Minds that we may be capable of that which is the highest Stature of a Christian in this World and the neerest capacity to a better This Preparation is of very great moment to Christians Upon their having or not having of it depends their Happiness or Misery He that is prepared for Sufferings come what will come is a happy man if sufferings do not come he is yet a Martyr in mind and purpose God sees the suffering frame that is in him his willing mind is accepted as much as if his blood were actually Shed and being ready to dye for Christ he is ready to live with him in Heaven If Sufferings come he is provided for then St. Paul was ready to be bound and die for the name of Jesus Polycarpe when threatned with Various deaths made this reply Quid tardas Why dost thou delay Inflict what thou wilt The prepared Christian is ready for all the Will of God which is an happiness that no Suffering can interrupt He is in a posture to overcome all the World and he will do it The very Pagan Emperors did observe the primitive martyrs to be Victors in death It is said of the Martyr Vincentius Magd. hist cent 4. cap. 12. that according to his name he overcame in Words and overcame in Punishments overcame in Confession and overcame in Tribulation overcame in Fire and over came in Water overcame Living and overcame Dying The prepared Christian is a Vincent a Conquerer of the World his Love is above the smiles of it his Fear above the Terrors of it Nay he is more than a Conqueror he overcomes by suffering and lives by death nay being dead he yet speaks forth the truth he suffered for and propagates it to all posterity Neither need we wonder at this Conquest he is not alone but hath God with him And as the Emperor Antoninus Verus said of the Primitive Christians He carries God about with him in conscience and where God is there must be happiness in the most afflicted Condition the whole sacred Trinity are present with him the everlasting Father will strengthen him the Son will walk with him in the fiery Furnace the holy Spirit will come to him with all his cordials Stephen was never so full of it as when he was stoned Hist mag Cent. 2. The Martyr Felicitas professed to her Persecutor That she had the holy Spirit in her The prepared Christian hath a Spirit of Power in Infirmities a Spirit of Glory in Reproaches a Spirit of Comfort in Distresses There are no such rich Anointings as those that wait upon the Cross of Christ At other times a Christian hath some measures of the Spirit but then he hath such large effusions of it that no Sufferings can make him miserable The Clouds without cannot break the serenity in his Conscience the noise of a troublesome World cannot interrupt that Divine Peace which keeps his heart no malice of man can hinder the sheddings of Gods Love into him no wants or exigencies can deprive him of the hidden Manna promised to the Overcomer he is happy even in a Vale of Tears And what will he be in Heaven There his reward will be great nay greater than that of others On the other hand he that is not propared for Sufferings is a miserable man He hath a Name of Religion and that 's all a Notion of the Gospel but without a Root he hath a false Christ that is a Christ without a Cross but the right Christ he knowes not a pretence to Heaven he hath but he is not in a posture for it neither will he go thither in an hard way If Sufferings come he is snared as Fishes in an evil Net the surprize will rob him of that which he seems to have he will not have so much as the Name or notion of Religion left Christ will be an Offence or stumbling-Block to him Heaven it self will not be worth suffering for Thus those of the Stony ground received the word with joy but because their hearts were not ready for it as soon as Persecution arose they were offended Magd. hist Cent. 2. cap. 3. Thus it was observed among the Primitive Christians that the unready and unprepared did faint and fall in time of Persecution The Cup of Sufferings is bitter Nature starts at it The unprepared Christian rather than drink it will in all likelihood turn Apostate in the day of trial prosperous error will be embraced by him before persecuted Truth Idolatary with the World will goe down better than the pure Worship without it Christ coming in Poverty and Tribulation will be forsaken Antichrist appearing in the Pomp and outward greatness of the World will be followed Meer Vanity will outweigh all the great offers of the Gospel a Soul and a God will be laid at stake for a little outward prosperity And what a forlorn Condition is this And without Repentance how dismal must the end be The Good God whom he hath forsaken will depart from him Jesus Christ the Saviour will cast him out a curse a blast will be upon his Prosperity a sting and a wound in Conscience will make him weary of himself in a word he will become loathsome to God Men and himself Cypr. de Lapsis It is storied That in the third Century the tokens of Gods wrath came in an extraordinary way upon those Christians that fell off in time of Persecution some of them were struck dumb some vexed with Devils some tormented in their bowels unto Death and though not in these wayes yet in other