A20762:1175
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. 8 Reasons moving those which are of years to submit themselves to be catechized, if they be ignorant.
§. Sect. 8 Reasons moouing those which are of yeeres to submit themselues to be catechized, if they be ignorant.
Now these reasons concern not only children in years, but also children in knowledge, though they be ancient in respect of age. The first 1whereof may be taken from the end of their creation and redemption, for they are created unto good works, which God hath ordained that they should walk in them; they are redeemed out of the hands of their spiritual enemies, that they should serve God in holiness and righteousness before him all the days of their lives; they are not their own, but bought with a price, that they might glorify their Redeemer in their souls and bodies. But none can truly serve the Lord, unless they know him, his will, and Word, from which they must not decline to the right hand nor to the left, and neither add any thing to it, nor detract ought from it; for else through natural ignorance, they will (as our Saviour chargeth the Samaritans) worship they know not what, 2and in stead of his true service, offer unto him their own will-worship and inventions. Neither can we come to this knowledge, but by the means which God hath ordained, one of the chief whereof is this religious exercise. Secondly, we have vowed in our baptism, that we will fight under Christs Banner against our spiritual enemies, which we cannot do without receiving a shameful overthrow, unless our Christian Armour be put on and fastened unto us with the girdle of verity, and unless we be trained up in this Christian warfare, and taught rightly to use the sword of the Spirit, the Word of God. Now if vows must be paid without delay, then ⟨p. 337⟩3how much more this which importeth us as much as our salvation? A third reason may be taken from Gods love and fatherly care and providence watching over us, and preserving us from all perils and dangers in the time of our infancy and childhood, unto which as we were naturally most prone, so were we utterly unable to avoid them by our own providence, or to use any means to help our selves. Which consideration should move us, as soon as we are come to knowledge and discretion, to testify our thankfulness by learning his ways, that we may walk in them, and thereby glorify him who hath so graciously preserved us.