A20762:2739
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 they who neglect the duties of Gods service, cannot expect good success to their labours.
§. Sect. 4 That they who neglect the duties of Gods seruice, cannot expect good successe to their labours.
Secondly, let all such know, that neglect the duties of Gods service, under the pretence of their great and weighty employments, that they cannot in so doing reasonably expect any good success of their toilsome 1labours, or that they will answer their hopes, in the getting and preserving of that wealth, which they so much love and long after; for it is not their most careful and painful endeavours, but Gods blessing only that maketh rich; It is he alone that giveth them power to get wealth. And how can they expect this blessing from God upon their labours, when as they can find no leisure to crave it at his hands? how can they think that he will, notwithstanding all their pains, prosper their worldly estates, unless it be for a further and more fearful Judgement, when as they have no care to serve and please him? Yea, why may they not justly fear that he will blow upon their wealth, and cause it to vanish like smoke, and 2even to melt like butter in the Sun; or cause that riches, which is thus ⟨p. 861⟩wickedly gotten, by neglecting all duties of Gods service, to be as wickedly spent by their heirs and successors, serving unto them as inducements and helps to further them in all riotous and luxurious courses, to their ruin and destruction, as the getting of them hath been the cause and occasion of many fearful sins, and of the utter neglect of all religious duties, that so both they and their heirs, though they run contrary ways, may yet meet together in hell and condemnation. Let them also know, that if before they go about the works of their callings, they would renew their Covenant with God, by renewing their faith and repentance; and so being reconciled, undertake their employments with peaceable minds and good consciences; if they would first call upon the Lord for his blessing upon their labours, and resign themselves and all their affairs to the gracious guidance of his good providence; If they would propound his glory, as the main end of all their labour, and as they live the life of faith, so also they would labour in the strength thereof; resting upon Gods gracious promises, and waiting for a blessing upon all their affairs;