A20752:732
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.
but the means whereby we should be reconciled unto God whom we have offended, as they are set down in his word, namely, that the second person in Trinity should take upon him mans nature and be borne of a pure virgin, that in this nature he should for us perform perfect obedience to Gods law, and suffer affliction, misery, yea death it self to reconcile us to his Father and procure his love, to free us from everlasting death and damnation, and to purchase for us everlasting life and happiness, and that his obedience and merits should become ours, by reason of that union whereby he becometh our head and we his members, which union is made principally by his spirit, and instrumentally by faith, do all seem strange, yea absurd to humane reason; and therefore the Apostle saith, that the natural man perceiveth not the things which are of the spirit of God, 1for they are foolishness unto him, neither can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned; as it is 1. Cor. 2.14. And if he cannot know and conceive them when in the preaching of the Gospel they are revealed unto him; how much less could he invent them having never heard of them? or who can imagine that in policy he would have devised such a religion to keep the world in awe and obedience, as to every worldly man seemeth foolish and absurd, yea contrary to his nature? For what can be more against the hair, than to deny our selves and to take up our cross and follow Christ? than to reject our own works and worthiness, and to seek for justification in Christs death and obedience alone? than to imagine that manifold afflictions and great misery, is the high way that leadeth to glory and endless felicity? and that pleasures, honours, and riches, make us unfit to enter into Gods kingdom? And therefore seeing the doctrine of the Scriptures are not only above the reach of humane reason, but also flat contrary to natural wisdom, it plainly proveth that they are not the invention of mortal man (for then the effect would be like the cause) but the word of the everliving God, ⟨p. 338⟩which savoureth of his hidden and spiritual wisdom.
but the meanes whereby wee should be reconciled vnto God whom we haue offended, as they are set down in his word, namely, that the second person in Trinitie should take vpon him mans nature and be borne of a pure virgin, that in this nature hee should for vs perfourme perfect obedience to Gods law, and suffer affliction, miserie, yea death it selfe to reconcile vs to his Father and procure his loue, to free vs from euerlasting death and damnation, and to purchase for vs euerlasting life and happinesse, and that his obedience and merits should become ours, by reason of that vnion whereby hee becommeth our head and wee his members, which vnion is made principally by his spirit, and instrumentally by faith, doe all seeme strange, yea absurd to humane reason; and therefore the Apostle saith, that the natural man perceiueth not the things which are of the spirit of God,