A20762:2366
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 God inwardly guideth the godly by his grace and holy Spirit.
The fourth privilege which the Lord bestoweth upon the godly, is, that as he outwardly governeth, defendeth and preserveth them by his 1wise and powerful providence; so he giveth unto them an inward guide to direct and rule them, to excite, uphold and strengthen them in all good courses, to purge them from all their corruptions, and to enable them unto every good work; even his own holy Spirit, and that not to visit them sometimes by fits, but to dwell in them as in his temples, and to keep in their souls and bodies continual residence, that he may be always ready to direct and guide them in all their ways, to strengthen their weakness, and to comfort their feeble hearts, that they may not faint in their Christian course. And this the Lord promiseth to the faithful; I will put my Spirit within you, and cause you to walk in my Statutes; and, Ye shall keep my Judgements and do them. Neither doth this Spirit come alone, but richly and royally attended with a choice troop and train of all sanctifying and saving graces; as faith, hope, charity, patience, humility, and a good conscience, with the rest, which are of incomparable more value then the whole world, as bringing with them, for the present, the greatest comfort and contentment, and being for the time to come, earnest-pennies of everlasting joy and happiness. Nor doth this holy Spirit ⟨p. 731⟩give us these graces in the first and least degrees only, but doth daily nourish and increase them in us, from one degree to another, till from infancy to child-hood, and from thence to youth, we 2do at last grow up unto a perfect age in Christ, bringing forth most 3fruit in our latter end. For being assisted and comforted by the Spirit, we overcome all difficulties, and those duties which at the first seemed hard and almost impossible, become familiar and pleasant; that yoke of Christ which at first galled us, doth not hurt