A20752:291
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. 6 But if they be sincere professors,1 then he observeth whether they be babes or strong men in Christ; if he find them babes, then he seeketh to abuse their simplicity, by drawing them either into errors and heresies, or at least into blind zeal and superstition. If he cannot so prevail, by reason that the bright beams of the Gospel shining in the preaching of the word do discover his errors and lies, giving light to those that sit in the darkness of ignorance, and in the shadow of death, whereby their feet are guided into the way of peace, then he laboureth to overwhelm them with the burden of their sins, and to plunge them into the bottomless gulf of horror and despair, by aggravating the odiousness of their rebellion, and huge multitudes of their outrageous transgressions, by setting before them the curse of the law, the vengeance of God due unto them, his infinite and exact justice which must be satisfied, and the unspeakable and endless torments prepared for the damned. But if he cannot aggravate their sins, which in truth they have committed, and make of them such an huge mountain as may serve to overwhelm them, he addeth unto them his own sins, by casting into their minds outrageous blasphemies against God, and such horrible suggestions of impiety, as it will make their hairs to stand on end when they do but think of them, persuading them that they are their own thoughts, and therefore horrible sins, whereas in truth they are but his suggestions, and therefore if we do repel and reject them, they are not our sins but the sins of the tempter: for as it is not our fault if a thief entice us to steal, so we do not entertain his motion, but show our detestation of his sin; so it is not a sin to be tempted, if we presently do repel the suggestion, and do not yield unto the temptation. And this may appear by our Saviour Christ himself, who though he were free from sin, yet he was tempted in all things like unto us, and so not free from Satan's suggestions, for he was tempted to diffidence, to tempting God, yea to the worshipping of the devil himself; but resisting Satan's ⟨p. 85⟩suggestions, he was not guilty of sin. Whose example if we imitate, Satan's blasphemous temptations shall never be laid to our charge;
§. Sect. 6 But if they be sincere professors,1