A20756:55
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.
CHAP. IIII. The erroneous conceit of the Papists, who by the flesh understand the body, and the sensual faculties only.
CHAP. IIII. The erroneous conceipt of the Papists, who by the flesh vnderstand the body, and the sensuall faculties onely.
1Having showed what our enemies in this spiritual warfare are, we should now proceed to warfare are, we should now proceed to discover their nature and properties, were it not that these enemies were by the devil and the world disguised: yea quite hid from our sight in secrete ambushments; and our friends through their malice mustered against us, as though they were our enemies, that so whilst we bend all our forces against them who oppose us in this seeming hostility, these may suddenly set upon us, and assault us at unawares, giving us deadly wounds when we fear no danger. For the plotting and contriving of which stratagem they use the vassals of Antichrist, the clergy of Rome as their chieftains and especial instruments, who hiding our true enemy, the corruption of nature, which hath overspread all the powers and parts of our souls and bodies, under the close covert of their cunning sophistry, do in stead thereof, offer to our view seeming foes of their own fancying. For by the flesh they would have us to understand (not the relics of corruption which keep their chief residence in the soul, mind, and will) but the body it self and the flesh thereof; and at most the inferior, brute and sensitive faculties of the soul; and by the spirit they understand the intellectual faculties, the mind, reason and understanding, and so affirm this to be the fight between the flesh and the spirit, when as the body and sensitive parts do rebel and stand in opposition against the understanding & reason, and contrariwise when these strive to maintain their regency by keeping them under and subduing them to their laws and orders. And although, being sometime convinced with the evidence ⟨p. 22⟩of trueth, they give together with us the same verdict, affirming that not the body it self is meant by the flesh, but the corruption of it, that it is only the instrument of the soul in wicked actions, and the soul it self the chief cause of sin, and that the mind, understanding and reason are poisoned and tainted with natural corruption;