A20762:1713
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. 6 That we must watch over all the powers and parts of our souls and bodies.
§. Sect. 6 That we must watch ouer all the powers and parts of our soules and bodies.
Neither must this watch be kept over some of our parts only, neglecting the rest, as over the body alone, but not the soul, or the soul, and not the body, but over the whole man, that in all our powers and parts, inward faculties and outward actions, we may please God by doing his will. ⟨p. 510⟩But yet the more accurate and diligent watch must be over the soul, as being the more subtle and excellent part, according to that express charge of Almighty God; Take heed to thy self, and keep thy soul diligently: implying, that though this watch must be kept over the whole man, yet 1the soul, which is the better part, must be looked unto with greatest care and circumspection. Thus we must watch over all the special faculties of our souls, as over our reason and judgement, that they be not darkened with ignorance (for if the light be darkness, how great is that darkness?) nor corrupted and mis-led into errors and heresies. Over our memories, 2that they neither retain those vanities and sinful impression which should be razed and blotted out, nor forget those things which God hath entrusted to their keeping. Over our consciences, that they be pure and clean, purged from dead works, and that they be not slack in doing their duty, in excusing and accusing, nor we negligent in giving heed to their evidence. Over our wills, that they go not before, but wait upon holy reason, choosing and embracing that which it commendeth, and refusing and rejecting that which it condemneth and dis-alloweth. But especially, we must keep this careful watch over our minds and imaginations, which naturally are evil, and that continually, being most disordered and licentious, and not to be kept within any compass, if we leave them unto their own liberty. And therefore if we would keep our souls in good plight and free from danger, we must not foolishly imagine that thought is free, or that we may suffer our phantasies and imaginations to take their full scope and pleasure, in roving and ranging which way they list; for if they thus get the bridle (as it were) between their teeth, they will run with us in a headlong course into vanity and sin; whereby displeasing God, we shall move him to give us over to our own imaginations, and to the tentations of Satan, suggesting into them horrible blasphemies.