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 the Scrip∣tures them selues, and the things reuea∣led in them, are fit matter for Meditation: As the nature of God, his actions and decree.

And that we may proceed in some order, we may make the matter of our Meditations, either the Scriptures themselues, or else the things reuea∣led in them. The Scriptures themselues are a fit subiect for our Medita∣tion, by considering that they are the Word, not of man, but of God, and so to be heard and read, loued and obeyed of vs; that in this regard they are most excellent, and to be preferred aboue all other writings, most cer∣taine and infallible, most perfect and all-sufficient, most ancient and du∣rable, and finally, that they are plaine and easie, giuing light to the simple, most profitable and necessary to saluation, and therefore to bee read and studied of all men. The things reuealed in the Scriptures, are either those which respect faith, and are to be beleeued, or else manners, and are to bee practised. The things to be beleeued, are either those which concerne God or the Church. The former respect God himselfe, or his actions and workes. From God himselfe we may haue plentifull matter of diuine Me∣ditation, as first, that there is a God, and the vses that wee are to make of it; what this God is, and how he hath reuealed himselfe vnto vs in his es∣sence and persons, his attributes and names. Of which I haue spoken in

the beginning of this Treatise, and haue briefly described Gods nature and attributes, as his simplicity, infinitenesse, eternity, immutability, omni-presence, all-sufficiency, which being rightly vnderstood and remem∣bred, will affoord excellent matter of holy Meditations. The actions of God, are either his decree, or the execution of it. In the decree it selfe, we are principally to meditate vpon our election to saluation, the causes, and effects and properties of it, especially the infallibility and certainty; and how, and by what reasons and signes, being sure in it selfe, we may come to be assured, that our names particularly are written in the Booke of life. In the execution of the decree, which is either generall or speciall, we haue plentifull matter of Meditation. In respect of the generall execution, we may meditate first of the workes of creation, which were not made all at one instant, as they might as easily, if God had so pleased; but in sixe dayes; that by this orderly proceeding, we might the better be inabled to meditate vpon them. And heere we may meditate on the heauens, their glory and beauty, their greatnesse and durablenesse, their motions and constant order: How they are adorned with the glorious brightnesse of the Starres, Moone, and Sunne, be-spangling this vaulty roofe of Gods great building, euery one exceeding another in beauty and brauery. Thus wee may meditate vpon the diuers regions of the ayre, and the creatures con∣tained in them, the presaging Commets & fiery exhalations, the Meteors of the middle region, clouds and winds, thunder and lightning, raine, snow, haile, and frosts, whose hidden treasures and true causes none can pry into, but he that made them; the disagreeing elements ioyning in an excellent harmony, for the perfecting of all compound bodies. Neither doth the earth, and creatures therein contained, affoord vnto vs lesse mat∣ter of Meditation, as trees, plants, and flowers of excellent beauty, and al∣most infinite variety, growing from silly seeds in outward shew, not differ∣ing (many of them) one from another. The excellent workemanship of the brute creatures, the endlesse variety of their inward formes and outward shapes, their qualities and properties, their life, sense, and motions, with the exquisite organs and instruments, euery small particle hauing for these purposes their speciall and necessary vse. Their generation, whereby being corruptible in themselues, they become, after a sort, incorruptible in their kinds, after their death liuing in their posterity. Secondly, wee may medi∣tate vpon the prouidence of God, whereby he preserueth all things which he hath created, gouerning and directing them to those ends for which he hath made them, especially that mayne end of setting foorth his glory. And that he doth thus rule and dispose, not onely in a generall manner, of all things, but of euery particular, euen such as seeme to bee of least mo∣ment, and most casuall and contingent.