A20762:2588
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. 4 That carnal sorrow is an impediment to a godly life.
§. Sect. 4 That carnall sorrow is an impediment to a godly life.
Again, we are much hindered in the duties of a godly life, by carnal sorrow and lumpish heaviness. For if (as the Apostle saith) 1worldly sorrow causeth death, both in respect of the life of grace and glory, then must it needs also disable us unto all actions of life, being made as unfit for them hereby, as a man in the state of death, to perform any works of the living. Now this heaviness & excessive sorrow ariseth from divers causes, as first, from the sight & sense of our innumerable & grievous sins, when as it is not mixed with faith & the love of God, but merely ariseth out of servile fear & self-love, apprehending Gods terrible Judgments against us for our sins. Secondly, from the imperfection in our sanctification, whereof it is, that our unmortified corruptions do rage & sway in us, disabling us unto Gods service, and making us prone unto sin. That the duties which we perform, are so full of wants & weaknesses, that we can with no comfort look upon them. That the graces of Gods Spirit are imperfect, & continually assaulted with our contrary corruptions; our faith with doubting; our affiance with ⟨p. 808⟩diffidence; our humility with pride; our repentance with security and hardness of heart, and so in the rest. Thirdly, from our weakness in faith, persuading us of the remission of our sins, and of our reconciliation and peace with God. Fourthly, from spiritual desertions, whereby God estrangeth himself from us, and seemeth to have left and forsaken us. Fifthly, from our fainting and failing in the ways of godliness, and often relapses into sin. Sixthly, from our manifold and sharp afflictions, which are so bitter and unpleasant to the flesh, that they make us immoderately sorrowful, and to break out into some impatience, as though they were signs of Gods wrath and displeasure, and not of his fatherly love correcting us for our amendment. Seventhly and lastly, this sorrow ariseth in the hearts of weak Christians, when as they compare themselves with others that have made a better and greater progress in the graces of Gods Spirit, and in the duties of a godly life; being hereby moved to think, that the graces which they see in others, are wholly wanting in themselves, because their lesser light is obscured by a greater, and seemeth nothing, because it is not of equal brightness.