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

§. Sect. 3 That reading bringeth with it many other benefits.

Again, as reading singularly enlighteneth the mind, so also it affordeth many other helps of a godly life; for it is a special means to relieve the memory, and to move the will, inclining it powerfully unto good, and withdrawing it from evil, though not in that degree of efficacy as the Word preached. It worketh upon the hart, for the mollifying & softening it, and upon all the affections, for the purging and sanctifying of them, inflaming our love towards God and all good things, and our hatred against all that is evil; it kindleth our zeal when it groweth lukewarm, and stirreth up our devotion when it is cold and sluggish. It much increaseth all Gods graces in us; as faith, affiance, repentance, patience, peace of conscience, and the rest, by imparting unto them that spiritual food whereby they are nourished. It amendeth our lives, and maketh us (as the Apostle speaketh) perfect unto every good work. It specially enableth ¹us to the fruitful hearing of the Word of God, when as we can, with the Bereans, search the Scriptures, whether the things we hear be so or no; and try ²the spirits of those we hear, whether they be of God or no, by examining their doctrines according to the touch-stone of this Truth: besides that, it maketh us well acquainted with the Scriptures, both for matter and history, so that when they are cited, they are familiar unto us. ⟨p. 653⟩Whereas without this benefit of reading, we cannot tell whether the testimonies quoted be in the Canonical Scriptures or no, or if we take this upon our Teachers word, yet we cannot tell where they are, nor easily turn to them upon the sudden. It teacheth us to manage the Sword of the Spirit, whereby we are enabled to defend our selves, and repel the tentations of our spiritual enemies, as we see in the ³