Casper Schwenckfeld: Forgotten Reformer Issue 21 | 1989 Purchase this issue

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May God the Father of all consolation and all patience support you in all your anxiety, through Jesus Christ His beloved Son, in the power of the Holy Spirit. Amen.

Best-loved in Christ! Since we daily learn that our adversary, the devil, not only goes about like a roaring lion seeking to devour us, but also now as always has aroused his members to fight openly against the friends of God intending to lead them away from the truth that is in Christ, it is necessary to walk in sobriety, that is, in divine wisdom; to watch, to pray, and to look constantly to God; to implore Him with tears and to beg Him not to forsake us, but to watch graciously over the work begun in us ….

Above all things we need the patience of Jesus Christ and of the saints of God, wherein we may daily exercise ourselves and possess our souls, as our Lord admonished. Since it happens through divine providence that we have to be everyone’s refuse for Christ’s sake, thank God, you must consider how soberly we must walk before God and in what great danger we stand. Wherefore we should be fully prepared every moment and equipped with the armor of God. The Word of life which Paul calls the sword of the spirit, wherewith the Lord also has girded us poor, unworthy sinners, is the beginning of His kingdom. This shall finally help us to conquer all our enemies.

Meanwhile, however, we should perceive what patience is, yea what Christian patience is. The wicked and the world have their patience, if they cannot turn away their injury, cannot better matters, or otherwise seek their own benefit under it. Christian patience is one of the highest virtues on earth, namely, a gentle, kind, benevolent heart toward all those who wrong us. There must be thorough, sincere forgiveness ...