A17384:118
A commentary
A commentary: or, sermons upon the second chapter of the first epistle of Saint Peter wherein method, sense, doctrine, and use, is, with great variety of matter, profitably handled; and sundry heads of divinity largely discussed. By Nicholas Byfield, late preacher of God's Word at Isle-worth in Middlesex.A commentary: or, sermons vpon the second chapter of the first epistle of Saint Peter vvherein method, sense, doctrine, and vse, is, with great variety of matter, profitably handled; and sundry heads of diuinity largely discussed. By Nicholas Byfield, late preacher of God's Word at Isle-worth in Middlesex.
London: printed by Humphrey Lownes for George Latham, 1623London: printed by Humfrey Lownes for George Latham, 1623
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.
Now, there are divers rules to be observed, if we would not be poisoned with the reign of Hypocrisy.
Now, there are diuers rules to be obserued, if we would not bee poysoned with the raigne of Hypocrisie.
1. Keep thy self in Gods presence;1 forget not God; Remember always that his eyes are upon thee: Thus David set the Lord always before him, Psalm 16.8. And this God commandeth Abraham to do, if he will be upright, Gen. 17.•. 2. Thou must pray much and often to God to create a right Spirit in thee: For, by nature, we have all double and Hypocritical harts, Psal. 51.10. 3. Keep thy heart with all diligence, watching daily & resisting distractions, wavering thoughts and forgetfulness. And to this end, mortify the first beginnings of this sin in thy heart, mourn for it as soon as thou discernest it, and judge thy self seriously before God. Jam. 4.8. Math. 23.26. 4. In all matters of well doing be as secret as may be, Matthew 6. both in Mercy, Prayer, Fasting, Reading and the like. 5. Be watchful over thy own ways, and see to this point, That thou be as careful of all duties of Godliness, in prosperity as in adversity, in health as in sickness, Job 27.9, 10. 6. Converse with such as in whom thou discernest true Spirits without Guile, and shun the company of open and known Hypocrites. 7. Be not rash, and easy to condemn other men for Hypocrites, only because they cross thy opinions, or humours, or will, or practice.