Selected quad for the lemma: saint_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
saint_n	assure_v	promise_n	psal_n	1,310	5	10.0278	5	false

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

Author and Finisher of our Faith who for the joy that was set before him endured the Cross despising the shame Let us consider him that endured such contradiction of sinners against himself lest we be weary and faint in our minds Hebr. 12.2 3. The noble Alzearius being asked Arr. Tact. 161. how he could so patiently bear injuries answered thus Converto me ad injurias Christi I turn me to the injuries done to my Saviour We must look to Christ's Cross that we may bear our own it being now no longer meer suffering but sanctified by the sufferings of our Saviour 3. Faith looks to Christ as an Head and Helper He is not a meer Pattern but an Head and Helper too Were there no other supporting Grace for the Saints but that little in their own bosome they might expect to fail in the Trial but there is an inexhaustible Fountain of Grace in their Head in Heaven and that will bear them up in all their Sufferings This made St. Paul glory in Persecutions because the Power of Christ would rest upon him and when he was weak in himself he was strong in that 2. Cor. 12.9 10. St. Cyprian speaking of Christ in the Martyrs saith Qui pro nobis mortem semel vicit Epist 9. ad Mort. semper vincit in nobis he that once overcame death for us alwais overcomes it in us This the Martyr Blandina though weak in body found by experience being bore up in the midst of Torments by the Power of Christ Euseb L. 5. cap. 1. and finding a fresh refreshment as often as she said Christiana sum I am a Christian The same was seen in the Martyr Sanctus who bore various Torments above all humane Strength because he was bedewed and confirmed out of the Celestial Fountain of living water flowing down from Christ Whatever thou doest O Christian be sure to apply thy self by Faith unto the neverfailing Fountain of Grace in him that thou mayst have such Supplies of Grace as may bear thee up in an evil day 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 gratious Presence God tels his People that he will be with them in the fire and in the water Esay 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 strengthned 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 the Martyrs in his time Epist 9. saith That God was not a meer 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 Battel 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 2. Faith must live up on the promises of Confirmation The Apostle tels the Corinthians That God shall confirm them unto the end and adds this as a reason God is faithful by whom ye are called into the fellowship of his son Jesus Christ our Lord 1 Cor. 1.89 God doth as it were pawn his faithfulness upon it that they being once brought into union with Christ shall never fall off but be confirmed unto the end The gates of hell shall never prevail against them they shall be kept through faith unto salvation nay and their Faith shall be kept too Christ did not only pray for Peter that his Faith fail not but he prays so for all the faithful Oh how comfortable are such promises to the Saints Let us by faith lay up these rich Cordials in our hearts to keep up from fainting in Persecution 3. Faith must live upon the Promises of a good Issue All the paths of the Lord are mercy and truth to his people Psal 23.10 All things shall work together for their good Rom. 8.28 Persecutions and all God alters the property of his Peoples Afflictions and by an Almighty Alchimy turns Dross into Gold he makes persecution turn to the refining of the Saints Graces and to the glorifying of his own great name O! what great good things doth he bring out of evil How much of his Love and faithfulness may be seen in the Cross Let us therefore fix our hearts upon such promises that passing through the fiery Trial we may see the good end the Lord makes of it CHAP. VIII The fift Direction for Suffering is Love to God and Christ Love to God such as value him desire him delight in him and will and endeavour to serve and honour him Love to Christ such as value him desire him delight in him and will and endeavour to serve and honour him THe fist Direction is this if we would be in a fit posture for suffering we must get a sincere Love to God and Christ St. De Civit. Lib. 14. cap. 28. Austin saith That two Loves made two Cities the Love of self made the Earthly City the Love of God makes the Heavenly one the persecutor dwels in the one and the Martyr in the other There is an assimilating efficacy in Love whereby it casts the mind into the Mould of the thing beloved Siterram amas terra es si Deum quidni dicerem Deus es Aug. If thou love Earth thou art Earth if thou Love God thou art partaker of the Divine Nature and dost resemble God himself The greatest impediment to pious suffering is the Love of the World and self and the greatest preparative to it is the Love of God and Christ I shall first speak of love to God as a preparative thereunto and then of Love to Christ as such 1. Love to God is a preparative to suffering If we love him above all things no outward Object will draw us from him if we love him with all the heart no inward Lust will make us fall from him Love to him stands in four things each of which will dispose us to suffer for him 1. Love to him stands in an high

the remainder of wrath or as it is in the original the remainder of wraths he will restrain Psalm 76.10 He lets out wrath in the singular number and restrains wraths in the plural nothing of it comes forth but what is permitted nothing of it is permitted but the minor part only He it is that orders the sufferings of the Saints Sense indeed sees only the outward Confusion but Faith knows that there is a live a Divine Order in it Sense looks at the wicked hands that are red with the blood of Innocents but Faith looks at the holy hand that is in it This is one thing that bears up good men that their Father in Heaven disposes of all Spond An. 451. When Attila called himself Flagellum Dei the scurge of God Lupus bid him come and do as he pleased When Christians by Faith look on Persecutors as the rod and staff in Gods hand they are ready to Subject themselves to the Cross It is better if the will of God be so that ye suffer for well-doing than for evil-doing 1. Pet. 3.17 That interposed phrase if the will of God be so is very remarkable to Believers were there nothing in their Sufferings but the Will of bloody men they would bear them more hardly and unwillingly but because the Will of the good God is there they endure them more easily and freely then otherwise they would do They know very well that God will turn all to good his ends are far other then those of Satan and his Instruments Our Saviour tels the Church of Smyrna that the Devil should cast some of them into Prison that they might be tried Rev. 2.10 In which words it is to be observed that Gods end is joined unto Satans act Satan would have them in Chains but God would try them that their Graces might come forth as gold out of the fire The Assyrian Monarch meant to cutt off Nations not a few Esay 10.7 but God meant to chastise his People and then to burn the Rod Vers 12 17. He that by Faith can see the holy Land and ends of God in Persecution will be ready to suffer under it 2. Faith fixes upon his Power When Shadrach Meshach and Abednego were threatned with a fiery Furnace for not worshipping the Golden Image their answer was Our God is able to deliver us Dan. 3.17 Persecutors may be strong but Faith assures the Soul that God is much stronger and can deliver his People nay and will do it also not as those three Worthies were in a visible manner yet in an invisible one Suffering Saints have ever found by experience that the Power of God hath bore them up in their Sufferings When Coelocerius in the Persecution under the Emperor Adrian saw the supports and patience that Faustina Jobita had in their sufferings for Christ he cried out Vere magnus Deus Christianorum the God of the Christians is truly great When Justin Martyr saw the Martyrs cheerfully dying for their Religion he thereupon fell off from Plato's School to Christ St. Paul the great experienced Sufferer exhorts Timothy to be partaker of the Afflictions of the Gospel according to the power of God 2 Tim. 1.8 that is he should suffer not in his own power but in God's Think thus with thy self O Christian God can and will give such internal Supports and Comforts as shall more then counterpoise all thy Sufferings for him Fix thy Faith upon his Power and thou canst not fail in the Trial. 3. Faith fixes upon his Grace and mercy Men are cruel but God is gracious and merciful to his People at all times but especially in a time of Trial He chuses them in the Furnace of Affliction Esay 48.10 When men reprobate them as the off-scouring of all things then God doth as it were chuse them afresh I mean his electing love which was in his heart towards them as early as eternity it self doth then break out in fresh acts of Grace towards them St. Paul tels the Philippians that it was freely given to them in the behalf of Christ not only to believe on him but to suffer for his sake Phil. 1.29 Faith which is the first guift and Suffering which is the last in this life do both issue out from the Fountain of Grace Cast thy self O Christian upon the Grace and Mercy of thy good God that Grace which cals justifies sanctifies thee will also give thee the guift of suffering that mercy which spares thee in thy ordinary duties will in a time of Suffering be indulgent over thee in a more then ordinary manner The mercy of God will be upon us according as we trust in him the sweetest Strains of Mercy are reserved for the highest acts of Faith which are seen more in Sufferings then in other things If we carry Faith with us into Prisons and fiery Furnaces Goodness and Mercy will follow us thither in an eminent way Faith hath a respect to Christ it comes to him as to a Center of rest receives him as a pretious guift leans on him as a sure foundation nay 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 it individuates and appropriates him to the Soul There are three things in Christ which Faith looks to in order to Suffering 1. Faith looks to him as a Propitiation It hides in his Wounds as in the clefts of the Rock it washes the soul in that atoning blood that cleanses from all sin Hereby the Christian is so strengthned in the Inner-man that he can glory in Tribulations Rom. 5.3 The World persecutes but he hath peace with God man hates but he hath the Love of God in his Heart Sufferings may come but they fall only upon the outward man there is no sting within nor guilt pressing upon Conscience When Luther was in fear of an Apoplexy he cried out Feri Domine feri paratus sum quia à peccatis absolutus strike Lord strike I am ready because absolved from Sin A Christian that is washed from sin in the blood of Jesus may bear the persecuting stroke he hath refrigerium Christi a sweet refreshment from Christ's Atonement in that inward peace which is made by it in Conscience 2. Faith looks to Christ as a Pattern He is not only a Propitiation to be trusted in but a Pattern to be imitated by us He suffered for us leaving us an example that we should follow his steps 1 Pet. 2.21 Whom should we follow but our Lord and Saviour How can we Spare our own blood if we be washed in his He drunk up the bitter Cup to the bottom and shall we not take some drops of it He bore the wrath of God for us and shall we not bear the wrath of man for him He learned obedience by the things which he suffered and how much more should we poor Creatures do so He entred by suffering into glory and why should we dream of another way thither If we would be ready to suffer let us look unto Jesus the