A20752:340
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. 4 Sixthly,1 if we would not be surprised and foiled by Satan, we must after we have resisted him in one temptation, be ready prepared to withstand another, and after we have once or twice given Satan the repulse, we are not securely to give our selves to rest, as though the war were at an end: but we must continually expect his return with fresh supplies, and prepare our selves for a new assault, using the time of Satan's intermission, as a breathing time to recover strength against the next encounter. And as soldiers besieged after they have sustained one assault, and given their enemies the repulse, do not securely give themselves to idleness and sleep, but prepare all things ready for the next conflict, mending the breaches, and repairing those places which in the time of fight they found to be most weak; so when we have withstood some of Satan's temptations, and given him the repulse, we are not to give our selves to rest, sleeping in reckless security, as though our enemies were quite overcome, but rather in the intermission of the spiritual combat, we are to prepare our selves for the next assault, using all means to confirm our selves, where we discerned in the time of fight that we were most weak, and more strongly to arm our selves with the shield of faith and the sword of the spirit, ⟨p. 110⟩against those temptations which we found most forcible to prevail against us.2 For our enemy like a roaring lion continually rangeth about seeking whom he may devour; his malice will never let him rest, but even then when he seemeth to entertain a truce, he is most busy in plotting means whereby he may work our final destruction: and therefore we are never more carefully to stand upon our guard, than when this enemy seemeth to proclaim a peace, or when he fleeth away as though he were vanquished; for when he talketh of peace, he maketh himself ready for the battle, and this wicked Parthian doth more hurt in flying than in fighting. Here therefore the Christian soldier must avoid two dangerous evils: the one, that he do not faint or yield in the time of the fight; the other, that he do not after one victory wax insolent and secure: but when he hath once overcome, he is so to behave himself as though he were presently again to be assaulted.