The Christian Warrior's Duty

VirginiaHuguenot · #1 (**permalink**) 07-01-2007, 07:00 PM

Following up on an old thread by Paul Manata, here is another excerpt from Isaac Ambrose, The Christian Warrior, pp. 140-141 (Soli Deo Gloria edition):

Quote:

The Christian Warrior's Duty

1. Trust nothing in yourself, for all is of grace. Whatsoever good you have done or however holy your life has been, it was not of yourself but of the free gift and grace of God in Christ Jesus. What have we that we have not received; and, if we have received it, why do we glory as if we have not received it?

It is related of Mr. [John] Knox that, the night before his death, he slept some hours with great unquietness, often sighing and groaning. When he awoke, the bystanders asked him why he mourned so heavily. He answered, "In my lifetime, I have been assaulted with temptations from Satan, and he has often cast my sins in my teeth, to drive me to despair; yet God gave me strength to overcome all his temptations. But now the subtle serpent takes another course, and seeks to persuade me that all my labors in the ministry, and my fidelity in that service, have merited heaven and immortality. But blessed be God who has brought to my mind these Scriptures: "What hast thou that thou hast not received? Not I, but the grace of God in me, with which he is gone away ashamed, and shall no more return. And now I am sure that the battle is at an end, and that without pain of body or trouble of mind I shall shortly change this mortal and miserable life for a glorious immortality."

Oh, that thus it may be with us, that God's grace may be all, and we nothing. We are not sufficient of ourselves to think anything as of ourselves, but our sufficiency is of God.

VirginiaHuguenot · #2 (**permalink**) 07-02-2007, 10:38 PM

p. 35:

Quote:

The flesh is a worse enemy than the devil himself. Never could the devil hurt us, if this inbred enemy did not betray us into his hands. The sinful flesh is the root, the fountain, and the origin. "When lust hath conceived, it bringeth forth sin." Were there no fire in our wood, the devil's breath could never kindle a flame in our souls or bodies.

We must weaken the flesh by abating the fuel that feeds its fire. "Make no provision for the flesh, to fulfil the lusts thereof." We must stop the passages through which the flesh is nourished. As sin is seated in every part of the soul and body, we must guard every part of both. Keep from the body drunkenness, covetousness, and gluttony. Keep from the mind vain thoughts and pernicious errors. Keep from the memory the rembrance of sinful pleasures, unless it is to repent of them.

As we must weaken the flesh, so we must also watch over it. Though we have obtained the victory in many conflicts, yet it is still plotting against us. Then guard the senses, in particular, for they are the gates of the soul. Make a covenant with your eyes and turn them away from beholding vanity. Put a knife to your throat, if you are a man given to appetite. Take heed to your ways, that you do not sin with your tongue. And "let no corrupt communication proceed out of your mouth, but that which is good to the use of edifying, that it may benefit the hearers."

VirginiaHuguenot · #3 (**permalink**) 08-11-2007, 12:50 PM

pp. 115-116:

Quote:

As pride is the resemblance of the devil and what brought him to ruin, so humility is the resemblance of Christ, which exalted Him to honors. Oh, then, let the same mind be in you as was in Christ Jesus. Look at Him in all the actions of His life; drink of His spirit and tread in His steps, and then go to dwell with Him forever.
...
O think much of these principles, and constantly remember, that pride leads to hell, but humility to heaven. God ever beats down the proud, and lifteth up the humble.