A20752:1292
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. 7 But against this it may be objected,1 that the sins of the faithful do provoke the Lord unto anger, and move him to cast them off in his just displeasure, and to withdraw from them his wonted love and favour: and therefore seeing sin separateth them from Gods love, it may also plunge them into condemnation. To which I answer, that indeed the sins of the faithful do in themselves deserve the everlasting wrath of God and eternal death, if they were not taken away by Christ, who hath by his precious bloodshed satisfied his fathers justice; and that even now they so offend by their sins their gracious father, that they had need to ⟨p. 662⟩renew their faith and repentance, before they can have any sensible assurance that they are reconciled unto him, and received into his love and favour. It is most true that God is displeased with the sins of his children, according to that Esa.2 64.5. Behold thou art angry▪ for we have sinned. But this anger doth not exclude them out of his love, seeing it is not the anger of an enemy but of a gracious father, who is not angry with their persons to destroy them, but with their sins to convert and save them. As therefore children with their faults provoke their parents to anger, and move them to turn their fatherly smiles into bitter frowns, and the fruits of their love into the effects of hatred in outward show, as namely severe countenances, sharp reproofs, and rigorous chastisements; and in respect of these outward signs and effects of their anger they are usually said to be out of favour and in their fathers displeasure, howsoever in truth at the same time they entirely love them, and use all this wholesome severity not because they hate, but because they would reform them: So Gods children when by their sins they do offend him and provoke his anger against them, are said to be out of his favour, not that God doth ever change his fatherly affection or purposeth utterly to reject them, but because he changeth the effects of his love into the effects of hatred in outward show, as when inwardly he suffereth them to be vexed with the terrors of conscience, and with the apprehension of his anger and displeasure, and outwardly whippeth and scourgeth them with temporary afflictions;