A20762:1448
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 we must propound Gods will, and our obedience thereunto in all duties.
Secondly, we must propound unto our selves, in all the duties of a godly life, the will of God, and his glory, in yielding obedience unto it, as the main scope and end of all our actions; desiring chiefly and in the first place (as our Saviour hath taught us to pray) that we may hallow and glorify Gods Name, by doing his will. And if we will perform unto God acceptable service, we must therein deny our selves and our own ⟨p. 421⟩wills, and yield our selves in absolute obedience to the will of God; praying, because he will have us pray, hearing and reading his Word, because it is his will that we should do so, giving alms, and doing works of mercy, that we may please him by doing his will; yea seeking the salvation of our own souls, not chiefly because we desire it for our own good; but because his will is to glorify himself in our salvation and happiness. 1For Gods will is the cause of causes; and as all things came from it, so must all things tend unto it as their main scope and end. It is that which gave first being to our wills, and preserveth them in it; and therefore they must not be absolute in themselves, but in all things yield to the will of their Creator, willing whatsoever they will, because God first willeth it. It is the rule of righteousness and all perfection, and all things are just and unjust, perfect or imperfect, straight or crooked, as they agree or differ from it; and therefore there is no goodness in our wills, no not in the choosing and embracing of the best actions and duties that can be named, but only so far forth as we conform them to the will of God, and do all we do in obedience unto it. And if first and chiefly we perform unto God any service, because our will and desire leadeth us unto it, and not principally in this respect, because God willeth it, and would have us also to will and do it, it doth hereby lose all grace and beauty, and so also all reward at Gods hand, seeing we serve not him, but our selves, when we aim not chiefly at the doing of his will, that we may please and glorify him, but of our own. Neither are our actions chiefly to be esteemed good or evil according to the matter, but according to the main scope and end of them which giveth them their denomination;