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 That our im∣perfect obedi∣ence is accep∣ted of God, if if it be done in sincerity and integrity.

Secondly, this may mooue vs to imbrace integrity and sincerity, be∣cause the Lord so highly esteemeth it, that he accepteth of our obedience as perfect which springeth from it, though it bee stained with much cor∣ruption, and ioyned with many imperfections. Whereof it is, that in the Scriptures integrity and perfection are promiscuously put the one for the other; and those are said to haue been perfect before God, who in simpli∣city and vprightnesse of heart laboured after perfection, and serued God in sincerity and truth; as Noah, Abraham, Iob, Dauid, Asa, Zachary and Elizabeth, though they had many corruptions and imperfections, which in the Scriptures are recorded of them. And contrariwise the best graces, or rather the most glorious shewes of them, and the most resplendent and formall actions which are not ioyned with it, are no better at the best then glorious sinnes in Gods sight: whereof it is that the Lord specially requireth in all our graces and vertuous actions, that they bee in sincerity and truth, without dissimulation and hypocrisie. So that wisedome which is from aboue, is without hypocrisie and dissimulation, though carnall men thinke them most wise who most excell in it. Our faith must bee vn∣fained, and so must our repentance also, and with our whole heart; and not like Ahabs, in outward shew onely, dissembled and disguized. Our loue must not be in speech and tongue onely, but in deed and truth: we must call vpon God in truth and sincerity, or else our prayers will be but meere lip∣labour, which God will not heare or regard. And therefore Dauid vseth his sincerity in praying, as an argument to perswade the Lord to giue him

audience; Giue eare (saith he) vnto my prayers, which goe not out of fained lips. And Ezechias his integrity of life, as a reason to moue him for there∣pealing of the sentence of death, and prolonging of his dayes. Remember now, O Lord, (saith he) I beseech thee, how I haue walked before thee in truth, and with a perfect heart, &c. Finally, our preaching must not bee deceitfull, like those which make Marchandize of the Word; but as of sincerity, of God, and in the sight of God. And our hearing likewise of the Word, must be in sin∣cerity, as in Gods presence, and as those that heare the Word, not of man, but of God. For otherwise our seeming graces and vertuous actions, like beautifull pictures which want life, spirit and motion, are not substantiall in Gods sight, but shewes and shadowes onely, if integrity and sincerity be wanting, not looking vnto Gods glory, or shewing any loue and obedi∣ence vnto him, but onely vnto our worldly and carnall ends and by-re∣spects of our owne pleasure, profit or preferment.

Notes

• Iam. 3. 17. 1. Tim. 1. 5. Joel 2. 12, 13.
• 1. Iohn 3. 18.
• Psalm. 145. Esa. 29. 13.
• 2. Cor. 2. 17. Act. 10. 33. 1. Thes. 2. 13.