A20752:344
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. 5 Seventhly,1 if we would not be circumvented by Satan, we must not give any credit unto him whether he lieth or speaketh true, whether he accuseth or flattereth, whether he endeavoureth to puff us up with pride and self conceit, or whether he laboureth by aggravating our sins to plunge us into the gulf of hellish despair; for he abode not in the truth because there is no truth in him. When he speaketh a lie he speaketh of his own, for he is a liar and the father thereof, as it is, Joh. 8.44. And if at any time he speak the truth, it is to the end he may be the better credited when he lieth, Nam verum dicit ut fallat, blanditur ut noceat, bona promittit ut malum tribuat, vitam pollicetur ut perimat, he speaketh the truth that he may deceive, he flattereth that he may hurt us, he promiseth good things that he may give us evil, he promiseth life that he may kill us. And therefore we are not to believe the truth it self, because he speaks it, but because it is grounded on Gods word; nor to receive it from his mouth as his assertion, but from the mouth of God, and his holy Prophets and ⟨p. 113⟩Apostles, guided and inspired with his spirit; for either he speaketh the truth to gain credit unto his lies, or propoundeth true promises that he may sophistically gather out of them false conclusions. And hence it is that our Saviour Christ did reject his testimony though true, and enjoined him silence when he confessed him to be the holy one of God, Mark. 1.24.25.2 And the Apostle Paul would not suffer the divining maid to give them her approbation though she spake truth,3 in confessing them the servants of the most high God, which did show unto us the way of salvation. Act. 16.17.18. because Satan did it, either to this end, that by his testimony and approbation he might cause them the rather to be suspected and reputed imposters and deceivers, who did their miracles by telling this truth, be the rather credited when he did belly and slander them.