A20752:1074
The Christian warfare wherein is first generally showed the malice, power and politic stratagems…The Christian warfare wherein is first generally shewed the malice, power and politike stratagems…
The Christian warfare wherein is first generally showed the malice, power and politic stratagems of the spiritual enemies of our salvation, Satan and his assistants the world and the flesh, with the means also whereby the Christian may withstand and defeat them : and afterwards more specially their particular temptations, against the several causes and means of our salvation, whereby on the one side they allure us to security and presumption, and on the other side, draw us to doubting and desperation, are expressed and answered : written especially for their sakes who are exercised in the spiritual conflict of temptations, and are afflicted in conscience in the sight and sense of their sins / by I. Downame ...The Christian warfare wherein is first generally shewed the malice, power and politike stratagems of the spirituall ennemies of our saluation, Sathan and his assistants the world and the flesh, with the meanes also whereby the Christian may vvithstand and defeate them : and afterwards more speciallie their particvlar temptatiions, against the seuerall causes and meanes of our saluation, whereby on the one side they allure vs to security and presumption, and on the other side, draw vs to doubting and desperation, are expressed and answered : written especially for their sakes who are exercised in the spirituall conflict of temptations, and are afflicted in conscience in the sight and sense of their sinnes / by I. Dovvname ...
London: printed for Cuthbert Burby, 1604
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.
§ Sect. 3 And therefore though we find our faith to be weak and small yet let not Satan persuade us that for this cause it is false and counterfeit,1 or that we shall easily be overcome of every tentation and never persevere unto the end that we may be saved; seeing a weak and small faith may be a true faith, against which how weak in it self soever it be, yet the gates of hell shall never prevail against it, for the weaker our faith is, the stronger shall we find Gods power in sustaining and preserving us, the more that Satan laboureth to winnow us in the sieve of his tentations, the more effectually will our Saviour Christ make intercession for us that our faith fail not; the feebler our faith is in apprehending Christ, the more powerful will his spirit be in apprehending us and in joining us inseparably in a holy communion with him. But yet we must not content our selves with a small and weak measure of faith, but earnestly labour after more perfection, and to grow from faith to faith, till we attain unto fullness of ⟨p. 552⟩persuasion,2 Otherwise we shall make it manifest that we deceive our selves with a show and shadow of faith, and that as yet we have no true faith indeed, which as it resembleth the grain of mustard seed in respect of the smallness at the beginning thereof, so also in the growth & increase, & therefore if ever we would attain unto peace of conscience, and assurance that we are endued with a true and lively faith, we must earnestly labour in the use of those means ordained of God for the increase of faith, and fervently pray unto God that he will not only sow the seed of faith in our harts, but also that he will so water it with the dew of his grace and holy spirit that it may grow from a small seed to a great tree, and that he will never cease blowing this smoking flax with the breath of the same his holy spirit, till it increase from a little spark to a mighty flame, whereby our hearts being warmed with true comfort, may with fervent zeal seek to glorify his holy name by our christian and holy conversation.
§ Sect. 3 And therefore though wee find our faith to be weake and small yet let not Sathan perswade vs that for this cause it is false and counterfaite,1