A20762:1384
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
Book 4 › Chapter 1 › Section 2: §. Sect. 2 Of integrity and sincerity.
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 Of integrity and sincerity.
The first is integrity, whereby we serve the Lord in all Christian duties with our whole hearts, according to Gods Commandment; Thou 1shalt fear the Lord thy God, to walk in all his ways, and to love him, and to serve the Lord thy God, with all thy heart, and with all thy soul. The which David performed, as he professeth: With my whole heart have I sought thee; O let me not wander from thy Commandments. Unto which is opposed, serving God by the halves, lamely and haltingly, dividing our hearts between him and his enemies, the devil, Idols, and the earthly Mammon; 2like the Israelites which halted between God and Baal, the true Jehovah, 3and Idols of the Heathens, and the Samaritans, who feared the Lord, and served their own gods. And of such the Prophet Hosea complaineth; Their heart (saith he) is divided; namely, between the true Jehovah, and 4their Idols. And the Apostle James calleth them double-minded, who 5are unstable in all their ways, one while offering unto God some formal service, and another while serving the world, and their own lusts. And as they have double hearts, so also double tongues, speaking vanity 6to their neighbours with flattering lips, and with an heart and an heart, or a double heart. The second is sincerity and uprightness of heart, without any mixture of guile and falsehood, when as we worship God in simplicity, truth, and singleness of heart, and in performing the duties of his service, do lay aside all carnal, worldly and by-respects, and do them only in conscience of his Commandment, and out of a desire to glorify him by our obedience to his holy will, seeking him therein with our whole hearts, and not our selves and our own worldly ends, like servile mercenaries, who serve their masters, not out of any love they bear him, but only for their own gain and advantage. Unto which is opposed dissimulation and hypocrisy; which maketh men to content themselves with outward shows, which have no substance; with outward profession, without all sound practice; with a dead carcass of Religion, without the soul of sincerity, or any virtue and vigour appearing in their actions; and with a formal, false and counterfeit service in the outward man, without any substance or truth in the inward parts.