A20752:908
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 Furthermore we are to consider that our saviour and redeemer is so gracious and bountiful, so rich in mercy,1 and so full of all power virtue and perfection, that our sins should not discourage us from coming unto him, for the more miserable wretched & sinful we are, the more fit subjects we are, whereupon he may exercise and show the infinite riches of bounty, mercy, virtue and all sufficiency. If we were but a little soiled with sin, it were not so great a matter to make us clean but when we are most filthily defiled, and our pollution is ingrained in us as it were with a scarlet die; when our unclean corruption sticks as fast to our souls, as the Ethiopian blackness to their skins, then is the virtue of the excellent laver of Christs blood sufficiently manifested, when as he purgeth us and maketh us clean, washing away all our filthy corruptions, and making our ⟨p. 450⟩scarlet sins as white as snow. Our saviour Christ is our spiritual physician who can as easily cure desperate diseases even the remediless consumption, the dead apoplexy & the filthy leprosy of the soul, as some small malady, or little faintness? neither is he only able but also as willing to undertake such desperate cures as the least infirmities, because his skill will be the more manifest and his praise the more extolled, for the more desperate the disease is, the more it argueth his cunning who helpeth it, and the more commendations he shall receive who effecteth such a cure. And therefore though our diseases are most dangerous & desperate, yet let us resort to this our heavenly physician, for the more desperate the cure is, the more fit occasion shall he have of showing his never failing skill, and of advancing his immortal praise. He is our heavenly surgeon, even the good Samaritan which poureth the sovereign oil of his grace, and the precious balm of his blood into our wounded souls, & therefore the more grisly our wounds are, the more praise and glory he getteth in curing them, the more is the virtue of the sovereign salve of his blood manifested to all the world by healing of them.
§. Sect. 4 Furthermore we are to consider that our sauiour and redeemer is so gratious and bountifull, so rich in mercy,1 and so full of all power vertue and perfection, that our sinnes should not discourage vs from comming vnto him, for the more miserable wretched & sinful we are, the more fitt subiects we are, whereupon he may exercise and shew the infinite riches of bounty, mercy, vertue and all sufficiencie. If we were but a little soyled with sinne, it were not so great a matter to make vs cleane but when wee are most filthily defiled, and our polution is ingrayned in vs as it were with a scarlet die; when our vncleane corruptiō sticks as fast to our soules, as the Ethiopian blacknesse to their skins, then is the vertue of the excellent lauer of Christs bloud sufficiently manifested, when as he purgeth vs and maketh vs cleane, washing away all our filthy corruptions, and making our