A20762:379
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. 3 The third means of a good conscience is a lively faith.
§. Sect. 3 The third meanes of a good conscience is a liuely faith.
Thirdly, we must not, for the obtaining of a good conscience, only know the Gospel and Covenant of grace, with the sweet promises therein contained, but also apply them by a lively faith, and in a special manner interesse 1our selves in them, by performing the condition of the covenant, which is our restipulation that we make with God. For we must be justified by faith, before we can have peace with him, or peace of conscience. Our consciences must be purged by the blood of Christ, from dead ⟨p. 89⟩works, and from the guilt and punishment of all our sins, before they will speak peace unto us. The Charter of our peace must be drawn upon the Cross, & sealed with the effusion of Christs blood, and must be received and pleaded by faith, before our consciences will cease accusing and condemning, or stand with us upon any terms of peace. Now this faith must be approved to be unfeigned & sound by the fruits which it bringeth forth in unfeigned repentance, by the changing of our hearts, and renewing of our minds, our hatred of evil, and love of good, our sorrow for our sins past, and resolution to leave and forsake them for the time to come, and to serve the Lord in the contrary duties of holiness and righteousness; without which fruits, faith is no living Tree, but a dead stock, which will give us no assurance of peace with God in the remission of our sins, and consequently will bring with it no peace of conscience. And hereof it is, that the promises of the Gospel are as often made to repentant sinners, as to those that believe in Christ, because though faith only be the condition of the Covenant, yet it is such a faith alone, as is fruitful in repentance. Neither can this faith be so easily seen and discerned in it self, but only by the fruits that spring from it, which necessarily inferring this good Tree from which they spring, the promises are made to them, because these being more sensible, they may be more easily applied.