A20762:1731
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 watch over our tongues.
§. Sect. 2 That we must watch ouer our tongues.
Secondly, we must keep a careful watch over our tongues, according to the example of the Prophet David; I said, I will take heed to my ways, that I sin not with my tongue. For the well-ruling and ordering of our tongues is a matter of great moment, for the furthering or hindering of us in the course of a Christian conversation; according to that of Solomon, A wholesome tongue is a tree of life, but perverseness therein is a breach in 1the spirit. If we use it well, it will be our glory, as being a notable instrument of glorifying God, whilst we speak to his praise, and those that honour him, he will honour; but if we abuse it unto sin, it will become 2our shame, seeing thereby we dishonour God who hath given it us, and all good things. If we order it wisely, and speak things profitable and worth the hearing, we shall edify our brethren: For the lips of the wise disperse 3knowledge; and a word fitly spoken, is like apples of gold, in pictures of silver; that is, pleasant and profitable, like works of gold curiously and artificially graven by a cunning workman; but if we vent nothing but filth and folly, bringing up (as it were) our excrements by a wrong way, we shall annoy our hearers, with our rotten and unsavoury speeches, and by our evil words, 4corrupt their good means, as the Apostle speaketh. If we speak wisely and ⟨p. 517⟩to edification, we shall, in profiting others, have the comfort of it in our own hearts: For as Solomon speaketh, A man hath joy by the answer of his