A20762:1199
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. 3 That in our prosperity we must take heed lest we forget God, that his blessings do not draw our hearts from him, and that we be not unthankful.
§. Sect. 3 That in our prosperity we must take heed lest we forget God, that his blessings doe not draw our hearts from him, and that we be not vnthankfull.
More especially let us take heed, that by these temporal blessings we be not made more forgetful of God, unto which vice we are naturally prone 1in the time of our prosperity, because, when we enjoy all we desire, and have need of nothing, we are not sensible that we want his help; nor so apt to remember him, that we may give him thanks for that we have, as to beg at his hands the things we want; as we see in the example of the Prodigal, who thought not on his father, when he was in prosperity, but when he is pinched with poverty, then he thinketh of returning unto him. Whereof it is, that the Lord so often warned the Israelites, that when they enjoyed ease and plenty in the Land of Promise, they should beware that they did not forget him: the which notwithstanding they neglected; for as the Prophet complaineth, ⟨p. 345⟩As in their pastures, so were they filled, they were filled, and their hearts 2were exalted; therefore they have forgotten me. Which that we may not also do, let us often consider, that it is a foul shame for us to take occasion by these tokens of Gods love the sooner to forget him, which he hath purposely sent to put us in mind of his love and bounty towards us. Let us as often as we look upon them, remember, that they are not chiefly 3purchased by our own endeavours (for how many seek, and cannot enjoy them, who far exceed us in wit and industry?) but that we have them from God, and by his blessing upon our labours. Finally, let us often remember, that though we abound in these earthly things, yet they will not do us any good, unless God give his blessing in their use, and make them effectual to those ends for which he hath given them. Secondly, let us be careful when we abound with temporal blessings, that they do not draw our hearts from God, as they surely will, if we esteem them as our chief treasures, and in our affections dote too much upon them; according to that of the Apostle John; If any man love the world, the love of the Father is not in him. To