A20752:965
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. I 1The second sort of hardness of hart, is that which is joined with sense and feeling, when as we see and with sorrow feel our dullness and blockishness in Gods service, our obdurate inflexibleness ⟨p. 488⟩to holy obedience, our hardness of heart, which at the hearing either of the terrible threatenings of the law, or sweet promises of the Gospel, cannot relent nor resolve it self into the tears of unfeigned repentance; and this hardness of heart is commonly incident unto Gods dear children being at the same time in the state of grace, and is a part of that inbred corruption and fleshly old man which before our calling wholly possesseth and overruled us, and after also beareth some sway in us even when we are regenerate till with all our other corruptions we lay this aside also by death. And this appeareth in the example of the Prophet David, who desireth the Lord to create in him a clean hart, & to renew a right spirit within him. 2Psal. 51.10. in which words he implieth that his hardness of heart was so great, and the corruption thereof so abominable that it was even past mending, and therefore he doth not pray the Lord to purge and reform his old hart,3 but to create a new one, and to take quite away his stony hart, & to bestow upon him a hart of flesh, as though his hart were like a building exceeding ruinous which could no longer be repaired, unless it were razed down even to the foundation and all new built up again. So whereas he prayeth the Lord to renew his spirit in him, he giveth us to understand that he hath lost the feeling of the spirit of adoption crying in his hart Abba father, and that there was in him such an intermission & surcease of the actions & fruits thereof that it seemed utterly quenched and departed from him. So else where he prayeth unto the Lord to quicken him according to his loving kindness,4 that he might keep the testimonies of his mouth. Whereby he intimateth his drowsiness and deadness in Gods service. The Prophet Isaiah likewise in the behalf of himself, and the people complaineth thus: Isaiah 63.17.