The Christian Warfare against the Devil, World, and Flesh, by John Downame.

The Christian Warfare against the Devil, World, and Flesh, by John Downame. Here are various excerpts from his work. 1609. Put on the whole armour of God, that ye may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil. And that ye put on the new man, which after God is created in righteousness and true holiness. But put ye on the Lord Jesus Christ, and make not provision for the flesh, to fulfil the lusts thereof. Wherefore take unto you the whole armour of God, that ye may be able to withstand in the evil day, and having done all, to stand. But let us, who are of the day, be sober, putting on the breastplate of faith and love; and for an helmet, the hope of salvation. ~ Ephesians 6:11, Ephesians 4:24, Romans 13:14, Ephesians 6:13, 1 Thessalonians 5:8 But unto you I say, and unto the rest in Thyatira, as many as have not this doctrine, and which have not known the depths of Satan, as they speak; I will put upon you none other burden. ~ Revelation 2:24 And I beheld another beast coming up out of the earth; and he had two horns like a lamb, and he spake as a dragon. And he exerciseth all the power of the first beast before him, and causeth the earth and them which dwell therein to worship the first beast, whose deadly wound was healed. And he doeth great wonders, so that he maketh fire come down from heaven on the earth in the sight of men, And deceiveth them that dwell on the earth by the means of those miracles which he had power to do in the sight of the beast; saying to them that dwell on the earth, that they should make an image to the beast, which had the wound by a sword, and did live. And he had power to give life unto the image of the beast, that the image of the beast should both speak, and cause that as many as would not worship the image of the beast should be killed. ~ Revelation 13:11-15 Section 3: That the worldling's strong faith is but carnal security While the prisoner lieth in the dungeon, loaded with bolts and tied in chains, the keeper sleepeth securely, because he knoweth he is safe; but if his bolts being filed off and his chains loosed, he have escaped out of prison; then the jailor beginneth to bustle, and pursueth him speedily with hue and cry: so whilst Satan holdeth us imprisoned in the dark dungeon of ignorance, loaded and tied with the heavy bolts and chains of sin, he is retchless and secure,; but if our Savior by his Ambassadors in the preaching of the word, loose and unburden us of these chains and bolts, and by the light of his Spirit so illuminate the eyes of our understanding, that we see the way out of Satan's dungeon of ignorance, and so escape out of his captivity, then he rageth against and pursueth us, as Pharaoh did the Israelites, that either he may bring us back again into his bondage, or else destroy us, if we make resistance. Lastly, the feel not any fight between the flesh and Spirit, because the flesh wholly ruleth them, and like a flood which hath a clear current carryeth them wholly into a sea of sin without any stop or resistance, and therefore no marvel they feel nor this fight, when the spirit which is one of the combatants hath no force nor residence in them. Section 4: That the true Christian may receive comfort by feeling the spiritual conflict Secondly, God's children who continually feel the assaults of their spiritual enemies, and see the breaches which are made in their souls with the continual battery of their temptations, may receive no small consolation hereby, when as they consider that all who profess themselves God's servants, and resolve to serve the Lord in holiness and righteousness, are thus tempted and tried. For the Dragon is wroth with the woman (that is, God's Church) and her seed which keepeth the commandments of God, and have the testimony of Jesus Christ, as it is Revel. 12.17 and like a roaring lion seeketh their destruction, because they have renounced him, and fight under the standard of the Lord of hosts whom he maligneth: and hence it is that whilst we live without sense of sin, we eat and drink and take our ease without disturbance, but after we make any conscience of our ways, and endeavour to serve the Lord, then Satan casteth against us the fiery darts of his temptations and we feel many conflicts between the flesh and the spirit, with which the worldly man is never troubled, whilst we are poor and beggarly in God's graces and be content to rest in the earth as upon our own native soil, Satan letteth us alone as having nothing to lose: but if once we enrich ourselves with the unvaluable treasures of God's spiritual graces, and make the world a passage or place of pilgrimage, and desire to sail through this dangerous sea into our own heavenly country: then this arch-pirate Satan will set upon us and discharge against us a whole volley of temptations, that so he may spoil us of this rich fraught, and sink our souls in bottomless perdition. https://takeupcross.com takeupcross

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