A20756:94
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.
1And unto this truth the ancients have given their suffrage and testimony. Chrysostom saith; that in every sin, the soul 2first sinneth, and afterwards the flesh, and unless the soul were first overcome, the flesh could never sin. And expounding those words of the Apostle, when we were in the flesh; that is (saith he) in evil actions or in a carnal life. Neither would he say▪ that before times they were in the flesh, and that now they walked about without bodies, &c. Moreover least any man should accuse the body, he doth not say, which evil actions the members themselves have wrought and done, but which were wrought in our members, that he might show how that the first beginnings of wickedness were derived else-where, namely from our thoughts working them, and not from the members which were driven by their motion. For the soul holdeth the place of the artisan or musician & the flesh of the instrument giving that kind of sound ⟨p. 49⟩or music which the musician maketh it; and therefore it is not to be ascribed to the flesh if there be discord in the music, but rather to the soul by which •• is ruled. So writing on those words of the Apostle, that as the Gentiles did not like to retain God in their knowledge, God gave them over to a reprobate mind to do those things that are not convenient: he saith, that the Apostle hereby discovereth that our sins do not arise primarily from our bodies, as certain heretics would have it, but from the mind, to wit from the evil concupiscence, as it were from the fountain from which all evils flow. For the mind being reprobate, all other parts are so too, as the coachman being disordered which driveth the coach, all that is under his rule, must needs be disordered and out 3of frame. So Ambrose demanding, what it is to be subject unto sin, answereth, nothing else but to have the body corrupted through the sin of the soul; into which sin chooseth it self to drive man as a captive unto it, that he may do its will. And Fulgentius likewise saith, that although sin seemeth to be committed 4