The Practice of Piety presents the substance of several sermons Lewis Bayly preached while minister at Eversham. It was made into a devotional manual and soon became one of the most popular books in England. It was translated into Welsh, French, Hungarian, Polish, and several other languages. The Practice of Piety is filled with scriptural and practical guidelines on the pursuit of holy living. Bayly begins his work with "a plain description of God in His essence, person, and attributes," understanding this to be the basis for piety; every grace that sinners need springs from the gracious character of God. He emphasizes the necessity of true faith and holy living, and explains how to attain and maintain readiness for Christ's second advent. Bayly then shows how to overcome obstacles to the pious life, stresses how piety is to be cultivated, and offers wise advice on the spiritual disciplines. He shows how to guide our thoughts, words, and actions in times of health as well as in times of sickness and affliction. He even provides directives to protect us from despair and the fear of death. In short, this is a book about how to live godly and die well.
The 18th century was a wealth of knowledge, exploration and rapidly growing technology and expanding record-keeping made possible by advances in the printing press. In its determination to preserve the century of revolution, Gale initiated a revolution of its own: digitization of epic proportions to preserve these invaluable works in the largest archive of its kind. Now for the first time these high-quality digital copies of original 18th century manuscripts are available in print, making them highly accessible to libraries, undergraduate students, and independent scholars. The Age of Enlightenment profoundly enriched religious and philosophical understanding and continues to influence present-day thinking. Works collected here include masterpieces by David Hume, Immanuel Kant, and Jean-Jacques Rousseau, as well as religious sermons and moral debates on the issues of the day, such as the slave trade. The Age of Reason saw conflict between Protestantism and Catholicism transformed into one between faith and logic -- a debate that continues in the twenty-first century. ++++ The below data was compiled from various identification fields in the bibliographic record of this title. This data is provided as an additional tool in helping to insure edition identification: ++++ British Library T136192 Epistle dedicatory signed: Lewis Baily. With an additional titlepage, engraved, dated 1713; it is included in the pagination and register. First published in 1611 as 'The practice of pietie'. London: printed for James Hodges, 1757. xvi,464p.: ill.; 8°
For generations, scholars have imagined American puritans as religious enthusiasts, fleeing persecution, finding refuge in Massachusetts, and founding 'America'. The puritans have been read as a product of New England and the origin of American exceptionalism. This History challenges the usual understanding of American puritans, offering new ways of reading their history and their literary culture. Together, an international team of authors make clear that puritan America cannot be thought of apart from Native America, and that its literature is also grounded in Britain, Europe, North America, the Caribbean, and networks that spanned the globe. Each chapter focuses on a single place, method, idea, or context to read familiar texts anew and to introduce forgotten or neglected voices and writings. A History of American Puritan Literature is a collaborative effort to create not a singular literary history, but a series of interlocked new histories of American puritan literature.