The travels of true godliness. From the beginning of the world to this present…

Godly. Why then I will tell you your Duty: You must believe in Christ, and very fervently read the Holy Bible, and every Lord's Day with great reverence and seriousness hear God's blessed Word, and Pray at least twice a Day; nay, and I shall teach you to be more painful and laborious in your Trade and worldly Business: But this I know cannot be done, unless you put away that Crew of loose and naughty Fellows in your House. Now Poverty had it seems, divers base and lazy Companions, who were all grand Enemies to True Godliness; also some of them 'tis said, were his own Children, or natural Off-spring; there Names were these, (viz) Unbelief, Ignorance, Sloth alias Idleness, Wasteful, Light fingers, ⟨p. 45⟩Faint-heart, Carping cares and Fear-man, together with some others: Now when he began to open to Godliness, these hindered him. First, Sloth and Idleness would not suffer him to rise out of his Bed of Security to call upon God, nor take pains to pull up the Briars and Thorns that grew in his Heart; by which Means his Field lay barren and untilled, nothing growing therein, but what the Ground brought forth naturally: Nay these made him of such a Sluggish Temper, and such a lover of Rest, that he complained many times because he could not go without Motion: Nay, he was unwilling to be at the Trouble of Feeding himself, and therefore would wish that Men might live as Trees and Plants do: I remember a very wise Man told me, that he hides his hand in his bosom, and it grieveth him to bring it again to his mouth, Prov. 26.15. by the means of these two lazy Fellows, Sloth and Idleness. Ignorance told him he had received True Godliness already, and that he had dwelt in his House ever since he was a Child, and that Baptism brought him in; and that the chief Business which God required of him, was to get Bread and Clothes for his Family. Unbelief told him, that those Things which Godliness talked of, were mere Fictions. But when he questioned the Truth of what Unbelief spoke upon this account, then the Wretch told him, however they were Things far out of his reach, neither could they (if it was possible to obtain them) answer his present Necessities. Light-fingers told him he had been for a great while his best Friend, and if it had not been for him, he had been starved to Death long before now.

Godli. Why then I will tell you your Duty: You must believe in Christ, and very fervently read the Holy Bible, and every Lord's Day with great reverence and seriousness hear God's blessed Word, and Pray at least twice a Day; nay, and I shall teach you to be more painful and laborious in your Trade and worldly Business: But this I know cannot be done, unless you put away that Crew of loose and naughty Fellows in your House. Now Poverty had it seems, divers base and lazy Companions, who were all grand Enemies to True Godliness; also some of them 'tis said, were his own Children, or natural Off-spring; there Names were these, (viz) Unbelief, Ignorance, Sloth alias Idleness, Wastful, Light fingers,