A20756:38
The conflict between the flesh and the spirit. Or the last part of The…The conflict betvveene the flesh and the spirit. Or the last part of The…
The conflict between the flesh and the spirit. Or the last part of The Christian warfare wherein is described the nature of these combatants, the malice and power of the flesh and fleshly lusts, with the means whereby we may subdue and overcome them. By John Downame Bachelor in Divinity, and preacher of Gods Word.The conflict betvveene the flesh and the spirit. Or the last part of The Christian warfare wherein is described the nature of these combatants, the malice and power of the flesh and fleshly lusts, with the meanes whereby we may subdue and ouercome them. By Iohn Dovvname Batchelar in Diuinitie, and preacher of Gods Word.
London: printed by William Jones, 1618London: printed by William Iones, 1618
Title page typeset from the transcription.
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.
1Secondly, the flesh is taken for the whole corruption of nature, or for that original sin, whereby the whole nature of man, with all the powers and faculties of his soul and body ate wholly defiled, the image of God utterly defaced, and he quite disabled unto all good, and made prone unto all manner of evil, the which as it is the child and offspring of our first parents sin, so is it the mother and nurse of all actual transgressions, and of all our rebellion against God and his will. And this carnal corruption possesseth and over-spreadeth the whole man before regeneration, defiling and disabling his body and soul, with all the members, parts and faculties of them, reigning and ruling in him ⟨p. 8⟩in his full strength as a King and sovereign, and making him obedient to the sinful lusts thereof; and after regeneration it still remaineth and dwelleth in him, (although wounded and weakened) like a wicked enemy and false traitor, rebelling against the Spirit, and resisting the good motions thereof; and though it be deposed from the regency, and expelled (as it were) out of the heart of the Kingdom, yet (like the cursed Canaanites) it still keepeth residence in the borders of the land, and after it is beaten out of the City doth still dwell in the Suburbs, whence it much molesteth the spiritual part, and is to the regenerate man a snare to entangle him, and a trap to catch him, a scourge to his 2sides, and a thorn in his eyes, sometime assaulting him by open violence, and sometime endangering him by secret ambushments and hidden underminings. In which sense the flesh is taken either for the whole nature of man, as it cometh into the world corrupted and defiled with sin, seeing he is nothing but a mass of corruption and a sink of all filthiness, till he be regenerate by the Spirit of God; or else for that part of a Christian which remaineth still unregenerate after his effectual calling and sound conversion unto God. In the former signification we are to understand all those places, where unregenerate and wicked men are called flesh, as where our Saviour saith, that that which is 3borne of the flesh is flesh: and the Apostle Paul, that, when we were in the flesh, the motions of sin which were by the Law did work in our members, to bring forth fruit unto death; and that they who are in the flesh cannot please God.