A20752:316
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 And therefore most commonly he transformeth himself into an angel of light tempting us to sin, by using friendly ⟨p. 98⟩persuasions,1 and making liberal offers of pleasure, profit or preferment, or else mincing those sins to which he tempteth us as though they were nothing, or masking them under the visor of virtue. Neither doth he often move us to commit those sins which nature (restrained by Gods common grace, or sanctified by his spirit) doth abhor and tremble to think of; unless it be either to vex Gods children with such suggestions, rather than for any hope of overcoming them; or else that whilst their minds are wholly intent in withstanding his outward violence, he may more cunningly entrap them in his secret ambushments, which they regard not: but otherwise he usually tempts us to commit such sins, as through our corruption we are prone unto, as not thinking them to be sins, or but small, or rather never entering into any consideration of them at all; as namely, carnal security, hardness of heart, infidelity, impenitency, neglect of Gods word, profaning of his Sabbaths, covetousness, ambition, pride, neglect of the general duties of Christianity and special duties of our callings; all which are not much less heinous in the sight of the Lord than the other gross outward sins, and much more dangerous unto us, as being Satan's secret snares which he layeth to entrap us at unawares; in which when we are caught we are content to lie bound, because they do not so much pinch and torment the conscience as the other outward sins, they being not seen, or not regarded. As therefore those diseases which by disturbing the brain do take away all sense of pain, are of all others most desperate, namely, the dead palsy, the falling sickness, and sleepy lethargy, and in other diseases the patient is most dangerously sick when he hath no feeling thereof; so there is no sickness of the soul so desperate and dangerous, as those that afflict not our consciences with any sense of pain, to wit, carnal security, hardness of heart, and the rest above named.
§. Sect. 6 And therefore most commonly hee transformeth himselfe into an angell of light tempting vs to sinne, by vsing friendly ⟨p. 98⟩perswasions,1