A20762:789
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 Of the extraordinary prayers upon every good occasion.
§. Sect. 3 Of the extraordinary prayers vpon euery good occasion.
But it is not enough that we use daily these set, solemn, and ordinary prayers, but we must, as our Saviour enjoineth us, Pray always, and as the 1Apostle speaketh, continually, and without ceasing. That is, we must be ready to pray, so often as God shall give us any occasion, or as the Apostle speaketh, in every thing; that is, craving Gods blessing when we undertake any business, and praising his name for his gracious assistance, whereby we have been enabled to achieve it; craving his protection at the approaching of any danger, and his help and strength for the overcoming of any difficulty which affronteth us in our way. In a word, we must pray in season, that is, at our ordinary times, and upon common occasions; and out of season, that is, extraordinarily, when any special and new occasion offereth it self unto us. Unto which prayers, there is not required that we should use our voice, or gestures of the body, which are used in set prayers; or that we should in any continued or long speech of the soul unto God, express our selves in all the parts of prayer: but only that we use sudden and short ejaculations, lifting up our hearts unto God, and as it were darting unto the Throne of grace our fervent desires, which we may do, without being discerned in the middest of a crowd, and without any distraction from our ordinary affairs. And thus Nehemiah prayed unto 2God in the presence of an heathenish King, for good success in his suite. Moses in the middest of the Army for help and deliverance, when 3as they were pursued by the Egyptians: And our Saviour Christ himself, at the grave of Lazarus. And thus are we to pray continually and 4