A20752:295
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.
CHAP. XIX. How Satan allureth us into sin by degrees, and draweth us from one extreme to another.
CHAP. XIX. How Sathan allureth vs into sinne by degrees, and draweth vs from one extreme to another.
§. Sect. 1 And thus have I showed at large Satan's first politic stratagem, which he useth to circumvent us by fitting his temptations according to our nature and disposition, or our state and condition. A second policy which Satan useth to circumvent us, is this; if he cannot at the first entice us to fall into outrageous wickedness,1 he will seek to draw us thereunto by degrees, beginning at the least, and so bringing us from that to a greater, till at last we come to the highest step of wickedness: whereby it cometh to pass, that as those who walk to the top of an high hill, whose ascent ariseth by little and little, come to the top without weariness, before they well perceived that they did ascend; so they who go forward in the ways of wickedness by degrees, do without any controlment or check of conscience clime up to the highest top thereof, whence Satan casteth them down headlong into the pit of destruction. For example, if he see a professor of religion which maketh conscience of his ways, he doth not usually seek at first to draw him into heinous sins, unless the cords of his temptations be exceeding strong; but first he allureth him to come into the company of wicked men, by offering some pleasure or profit, or by occasion of affinity and marriage, joining him if he can with such a yokefellow as will draw him faster back than he can draw her forward in the course of godliness. If he thus far prevail, then he tempteth him to wink at their sins which in conscience he condemneth, that he may still enjoy his pleasure and profit, or continue in their love and favour; then in the next place he moveth him to think them tolerable sins which they commit, and nothing so outrageous as others fall into; and when he hath made this progress, then he enticeth him to taste of sin, which he so sweeteneth with the sugared delights of this ⟨p. 88⟩