A20762:2093
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 bring honest hearts, and earnest desires to profit by this exercise.
Thirdly, we must bring with us good and honest hearts, that so the seed of the Word being sown in them as in good grounds, it may take deep 1root, and bring forth in us plentiful fruits. Whereby I understand, not only an heart purified by faith, and purged from sinful corruptions by true repentance, without which we should not presume to take Gods word and Covenant into our mouths; but such an one as is replenished with sincere affections and holy desires, as after all Gods graces, so especially that we may profit by this present exercise, without which we may long read, and yet be never the better or holier; like those who eating their meat without an appetite, are, after much feeding, never the fatter. Unto such the saying of Solomon may be fitly applied: Wherefore is there a 2price in the hand of a fool to get wisdom, seeing he hath no heart to it? For though they abound in leisure, and have the sight and perusing of many excellent books, yet they purchase by them no spiritual grace, because they have no such desire or end, when they set themselves to reading, but because they are weary of idleness, or for curiosity, that they may see what every one is able to say, or to get speculative knowledge, that they may be fitted to entertain discourse. But if we would have any good by our reading, we must come to it with a mind and desire to profit by it; to have the graces of Gods Spirit increased in us, to have our minds more enlightened with the saving knowledge of God and his will, to have our faith, affiance, hope, love, zeal, and all other Gods gifts and graces confirmed, nourished and enlarged in our hearts, that we may express them in our lives, by increasing daily in bringing forth the fruits of holiness and righteousness. For if these desires be wanting, though we should do nothing else but read the Scriptures, and other religious books; yea, though we were (like many of the Jews) so conversant in the Book of God, that we could say the most of it by heart, and were able to tell precisely how many words and letters were contained in it; all this would yield unto us no spiritual nourishment, nor make us to thrive any whit in grace and godliness.