A20762:3049
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.
§. 10 The ninth sign, hearing the Word without Faith.
§. 10 The ninth signe, hearing the Word without Faith.
The ninth sign of carnal security, is when we hear the Word without Faith; neither giving credit unto the Promises of the Gospel, whereby we are encouraged to serve God, nor to the Threatenings of the Law, whereby we are discouraged in the ways of sin. An example whereof we have in the people of the Jews, who by Christs melodious music preaching unto them Gods 1mercies to the Penitent, were not allured to obedience; nor by John the Baptists mournful threatenings of the Law, were moved to shed the tears of hearty repentance. For to hear the Word without Faith, is (as it were) to receive meat into our hands, wanting a mouth to feed upon it. And as it is a sign of the true fear of God when we believe his Word, not only that which is spoken by his own mouth, but that also which from him is delivered unto us by his Ministers, which is all one in substance, like the Water which is the same in the Fountain, with that which is conveyed unto us by the Conduit pipes, as Jehoshaphat implieth 2in that speech to the People: Believe in the Lord your God, so shall you be established: believe his Prophets, so shall you prosper; and our Saviour plainly showeth, saying, He that heareth you heareth me, 3and he that despiseth you despiseth me, and he that despiseth me despiseth him that sent me; because as he was the Angel or Messenger of the Covenant sent by God, so his Ministers are his Messengers sent by him: So is it a sign of the want of this fear and of carnal security, when we do not hear with Faith the Word of the Lord spoken unto us by his Ambassadors. And as it was an evidence of Noah's Faith, when he took warning by Gods Word, before the Flood