A20762:115
A guide to godliness or a Treatise of a Christian life showing the dutiesA guide to godlynesse or a Treatise of a Christian life shewing the duties
A guide to godliness or a Treatise of a Christian life showing the duties wherein it consisteth, the helps enabling & the reasons persuading unto it the impediments hindering the practise of it, and the best means to remove them whereunto are added divers prayers and a treatise of carnal security by John Douname Bachelor in Divinity and minister of Gods Word.A guide to godlynesse or a Treatise of a Christian life shewing the duties wherein it consisteth, the helpes inabling & the reasons parswading vnto it ye impediments hindering ye practise of it, and the best meanes to remoue them whereunto are added diuers prayers and a treatise of carnall securitie by Iohn Douname Batcheler in Diuinitie and minister of Gods Word.
London: printed by Felix Kingstone and William Stansby for Ed, 1622
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.
§. Sect. 2 That not Gods secret but revealed will must be the rule of our lives and actions.
§. Sect. 2 That not Gods secret but reuealed will must be the rule of our liues and actions.
Now whereas I say that we must please God in all things by doing his will, I do not hereby understand his secret will, which being unknown 1to us we cannot obey. Neither doth this will appertain to us, according to that, The secret things belong unto the Lord our God, but those things which are revealed, belong unto us and to our children for ever, that we may do the words of this Law. Nor doth it need our endeavour to bring it to performance: for who hath resisted this will of the Lord? What wisdom or understanding can cross his counsel? Seeing he who is infinite in power, 2and immutable in truth, hath said, My counsel shall stand, and I will do all 3my pleasure. Yea this will is done by wicked men and the devils themselves whether they will or no, and when they most seek to resist it, they accomplish and bring it to pass. Neither are we with Enthusiasts and Familists to expect that the will, which must be the rule of our obedience, should be made known unto us by new revelations: for the Lord hath once spoken unto us by his Son, the true and only Prophet of his 4Church, and by him hath perfectly revealed unto us his will and pleasure, with all things that are necessary for our salvation. All which is contained fully in the Book of holy Scriptures which were indited by his Spirit, and 5written by holy men inspired thereby to this purpose, that revealing perfectly the will of God, they might for ever serve to be unto the whole Church and every faithful member of it, the sole rule and squire of all their actions, from which they are enjoined under that great penalty of Gods curse, not to swerve, either on the one side or on the other. So by Moses the Lord commandeth, that the people should hearken unto his Statutes