A20762:1699
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. 1 That we must not rest upon the public means only, but use the private also.
§. Sect. 1 That we must not rest vpon the publike meanes onely, but vse the priuate also.
But howsoever, we are to ascribe to the public means, the chief preeminence, as being of greater virtue and efficacy, for the enriching of our souls with all saving grace, and strengthening of them unto all Christian duties of a godly life: yet we must in any case take heed, that we do not (as it is the custom of many cold and careless Christians) content our selves with them alone, and rest upon them as being alone sufficient for all purposes. But we must also with no less diligence, care and good conscience, adjoin unto them the use of private means to help us forward in our spiritual growth. First, because God hath enjoined us the use of them as well as of the public, and the Saints from time to time, yielding obedience herein unto God, have made them their daily exercise, as we shall see when we come to speak of them in particular. Secondly, because they add strength to our faith, and fuel to our devotion, whereby we are enabled to perform unto God public service with more life and zeal, delight and profit: whereas if we neglect private duties all the week, and suffer our hearts to be taken up with worldly things, they will be quite out of frame for spiritual exercises, and hardly brought unto any religious duties of Gods service. But when we present our bodies in the Congregation, we shall leave our hearts at home, about our earthly affairs, and drawing near unto God with our lips, shall in the mean time have our hearts far removed from him; offering unto him a dead and formal, cold and 1heartless service, wherein he taketh no delight. Thirdly, because Gods public service cannot sometime be enjoyed at all, as in the days of persecution, and is always stinted and limited to one or few days in the week, when as our souls, no less then our bodies, need their daily bread, and to be refreshed continually in their spiritual strength, which is abated through our natural corruption, and many slips and falls into sin, as also with the daily and hourly tentations of the devil and the world. In which respect these private means have this preeminence above the public, that though they are not so powerful, and yield less nourishment; yet we may have them at our pleasure, and feed upon them as oft as we will, supplying what is wanting in their virtue and efficacy, by their daily and continual use.