A20762:1516
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 Of the means of perseverance. 1. Means.
§. Sect. 2 Of the meanes of perseuerance. 1. Meanes.
Now the means whereby we may attain unto this perseverance in the duties of a godly life, are divers. The first is, to consider often with 1our selves, that all Gods gracious promises are limited and restrained unto those (not that begin well, or hold out to the mid way, but) who persevere unto the end. So our Saviour Christ, He that endureth to the end, shall be saved. Be faithful unto the death, and I will give thee a Crown of life. And not he that fighteth, but in fighting overcometh, hath the promises of freedom from all misery, and fruition of heavenly happiness made unto him. And elsewhere he indefinitely promiseth, that if we abide 2in him, and let his Word abide in us, then ask what we will, and it shall be done unto us. To the same purpose the Apostle James telleth us, that who so 3looketh into the perfect law of liberty, and continueth therein, he being not a forgetful hearer, but a doer of the work, that man shall be blessed in his deed. And the Apostle to the Hebrews saith, that we are made partakers of Christ, 4if we hold out the beginning of our confidence steadfast to the end. And therefore if we mean to have any part in Gods promises, we must constantly persevere in the profession and practice of true godliness, and the Christian duties of an holy life. The second means of perseverance, is carefully to