A20762:1652
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 5 › Chapter 6 › Section 3: §. Sect. 3 Of duties to be performed after the hearing of the Word.
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 Of duties to be performed after the hearing of the Word.
After the hearing of the Word, two duties are to be performed. The first is, that publicly in the Church we join with the Minister in giving praise and thanks unto God for his mercy towards us, in feeding our souls with the bread of life, and for the liberty he hath given us to come in peace and safety into his holy Assemblies, to hear us speak unto him in our prayers, and to speak unto us by his Minister and Ambassador; and that privately at home, at least in some short manner, we renew our thanksgiving, and desire the Lord to write that which we have heard, in our hearts, by the finger of his Spirit, and to make it effectual for the enriching of our hearts with saving grace, and the strengthening of us to all holy duties. And if our memory, ability and gifts will serve, it is profitable for us, and acceptable to God, if we can frame our prayer according to that which we have heard, confessing those sins which have been reproved, bewailing those wants which have been discovered, desiring those graces which have been commended unto us, or praising God if we already have them, and desiring grace and spiritual strength, that we may perform those duties, unto which we have been persuaded and exhorted. The second duty is, that we lay up that which we have heard, in our hearts ⟨p. 491⟩and memories, that we may practise them in our lives. For as it is not enough to have good seed sown in our grounds, if we do not cover it that it may take root, but let the fowls of heaven take it away, nor to feed upon wholesome meat, unless we retain it in our stomachs that it may be digested, and like good nourishment applied to all the parts of the body; so it will little avail us to hear many Sermons, and never think more of them after we are gone out of the Church, and to receive this spiritual food with greedy appetites, if we keep it not, but presently cast it up again, out of hearts surfeited with worldly cares, and clogged and cloyed with the gross humours of our sinful lusts. The which (as I am persuaded) is one chief cause why the most, even amongst diligent hearers, have, after so long enjoying the light of the Gospel, so little profited either in knowledge or holy practice;