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.

§. 3 The second signe, is to haue no desire to keepe Gods Commande∣ments.

The second signe of carnall securitie is, when as we haue no desire and indeauour to serue God and keepe his Commandements, either in doing the good which he requireth, or in departing from the euill which he hath forbidden. For the true feare of God doth alwayes stir vs vp to obedience, whereof it is that they are vsually ioyned together and often taken the one for the other. Thou shalt feare the Lord thy God, and serue him. And now Israel, what doth the Lord thy God require of thee, but to feare the Lord thy God, to walke in all his Wayes, and to loue him, and to serue the Lord thy God with all thy heart and with all thy soule; to keepe the Commandements of the Lord and his Statutes. So the wise Man saith, that the feare of the Lord is to depart from euill. Hence it is, that the Law is called, the feare of the Lord; and all other vertues and obedience are comprehended vnder it alone. The feare of the Lord is the head or beginning of wisedome. And, blessed is euery one that feareth the Lord, that walketh in his Wayes. And contrariwise, the want of all grace, and neglect of dutie and obedience, is comprised vn∣der the want of Gods feare. So the Apostle hauing set downe a large Catalogue of haynous sinnes, comprehendeth all in this one, as the cause of all the rest. There is no feare of God before their eyes. For secu∣ritie bringeth men to an vtter contempt of Gods Law, and neglect of obedience, preparing and making them fit for all wickednesse. And therefore when wee see disobedience, impietie and neglect of all good duties in the life and outward actions; we may take it as an vndoub∣ted signe, that Securitie hath thrust out all feare of God from lodging in the heart and affections, according to that of the Psalmist: The transgression of the Wicked saith within my heart, that there is no feare of God before his eyes.

Notes

• Gen. 22. 14. Deut. 6. 13. Deut. 10. 12. & 8. 6. Pro. 8. 13 & 16. 6.
• Psal. 19: 9. Eccles. 12. 13. Psal. 111. 10: Pro. 1. 7. & 9. 10. Psal. 128. 1.
• Rom. 3. 18.
• Iob 15. 4.
• Psal. 36. 1.