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.

§. Sect. 4 Of the necessi∣ty of charity.

Lastly, the necessity of charity may mooue vs to imbrace it. For with∣out charity humane society cannot subsist and stand, seeing it is the maine bond whereby they are combined and knit together. Neither is it alone a

chiefe motiue to make men entertaine mutuall fellowship and enter∣course one with another, but also a principall meanes to make them to continue with delight and comfort in this societie. For charity couereth a * 1.1 multitude of sinnes, and causeth vs to passe by many frailties and infirmi∣ties, and either not to see and take notice of them, or by extenuating and excusing them, to make them pardonable and easie to bee disgested. Whereas if charity be wanting, there will easily creepe in iealousies, sus∣pitions, sinister interpretations, iniuries both offered and reuenged, deadly hatred, and implacable contentions; for as the Wiseman saith, Hatred stirreth vp strifes, from whence must needes follow diuisions, and * 1.2 vtter breaking vp of all society. For if two cannot walke together, vnlesse they * 1.3 be agreed, (as the Prophet speaketh) with what bond can innumerable multitudes be knit together, if charity be wanting, and in stead thereof, heart-burnings and contentions be admitted? And as without charity there can bee no communion betweene man and man, so neither be∣tweene man and God, which principally consisteth in fruition, and frui∣tion in loue; seeing we cannot loue God, vnlesse we also loue one another, as the Apostle telleth vs. We cannot without it haue any assurance that * 1.4 we belong to God, or that we are his children by adoption and grace; yea rather we may conclude that we are the children of the deuill, seeing the Apostle Iohn maketh the hauing or not hauing of charity, a prime marke * 1.5 of difference, whereby they may bee discerned the one from the other. Againe, all our other graces and gifts, though they make neuer so glori∣ous a shew, yet if charity be wanting, are all of no value. If we could speake * 1.6 with the tongues of men and Angels, and haue not charity, we should become as sounding brasse, or a tinkling Cymball. If we had the gift of Prophecie, and vn∣derstood all mysteries and all knowledge; yea if we had all faith (namely, of working miracles) and could remooue mountaines, and had not charity, we were nothing. And though we could bestow all our goods to feed the poore, and could giue our bodies to be burned, and had not charity, it would profit vs nothing. Furthermore, where there is not charity, there faith also is wanting, or in stead of it, a dead faith, which hath no operation, for faith worketh by * 1.7 loue; and if we haue a liuing faith, the Apostle Iames telleth vs, that we * 1.8 may shew it by our workes: among which, the workes of mercy and charity haue a chiefe place: Whereas if these be wanting, our faith is (as he com∣pareth it) like a body without breath, and no better then a stinking car∣case * 1.9 in Gods estimate. Finally, charity is most necessary, if euer we meane to attaine to eternall saluation, or to escape hellish destruction; seeing the sentence of life or death shall at the day of Iudgement be pronoun∣ced, * 1.10 according to the workes of charity, either performed or neglected by vs, as being the chiefe outward euidences, whereby our inward grace of faith, apprehending Christ vnto saluation, may, to the iustifying of Gods righteous Iudgements, be vnto all demonstrated and declared.

Notes

• * 1.1

  Pro. 10. 12.
• * 1.2

  Pro. 10. 12.
• * 1.3

  Amos 3. 3.
• * 1.4

  1. Ioh. 4. 20.
• * 1.5

  1. Ioh. 3. 10.
• * 1.6

  1. Cor. 13. 1, 2, 3.
• * 1.7

  Gal. 5. 6.
• * 1.8

  Iam. 2. 18.
• * 1.9

  Verse the last.
• * 1.10

  Mat. 25. 34, 41.