A20752:1228
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. 1 And so much for the answering of Satan's first sort of temptations,1 wherewith he laboureth to hinder our sanctification by alluring us to commit sin: now we are to speak of the other sort, whereby he seeketh to discourage us in this work, as being not only hard and difficult, but even impossible. And these also are of two kinds; the first taken from the great mass of our natural corruptions and small measure of our sanctification; the other from some actual sins which we have committed. Concerning the first, he thus frameth his temptations: Thou labourest much (will he say) and tirest thy self in attaining unto sanctification, but all in vain; for doest thou not see on the one side the unresistable violence of thy natural corruptions, which continually choke in thee all the good motions of Gods spirit, and forcibly draw thee into all sin and wickedness; and on the other side, thy small measure of grace and sanctification, which is exceedingly stained with thy manifold imperfections? How therefore can such weakness withstand such power? And how is it possible that thy feeble spirit should overcome thy strong flesh, especially seeing it is assisted with the strong aides of the puissant world, and the mighty power of innumerable devils? Neither art thou vainly to imagine that God will enable thee to overcome all these difficulties, for he hath given thee over to thine own weakness, otherwise if it were his will to make thee one of his holy ones, he could with the powerful operation of his spirit, long ago have perfectly purged thee from all thy corruptions, and given unto thee a great measure of sanctification. Seeing then it is impossible, in respect of thy weakness and thine enemies power, to accomplish this work which thou hast taken in hand, and seeing thou hast no assurance ⟨p. 625⟩that God will strengthen thee with his spirit, which thou hast a long time resisted and vexed, by quenching the good motions thereof; thou hast now no show of hope to effect that which thou desirest; and therefore it were much better for thee to cease striving against the stream of thy corruptions, and to follow the natural current of thy desires: for when thou takest all the pains thou canst, thou art in one day carried further backward toward thine old conversation, than thou canst in many months get forward in the course of sanctification.
§. Sect. 1 ANd so much for the answering of Sathans first sort of temptations,