Every True Practitioner of Piety

Lewis Bayly’s Practice of Piety is a classic work of doctrine and devotion that demolishes the idea that there’s any division between the two.

Those of us who simply love to read theology, more or less for its own sake, sometimes need to be reminded that knowing God has practical ends as well. And those of you (it would strain credibility if I pretended to include myself among the number) who do not make it a habit to read theology sometimes need to be told why it is worth doing.

Bayly is helpful for both, because his Practice of Piety, as the name accurately indicates, is a practical book “directing a Christian how to walk that he may please God.” The only trick (which is not really a tricksy trick but the sober truth) is that in order to know how to walk in the presence of God, you have to know a lot about God. Otherwise you’re just walking. So Bayly starts his practical book with a major dose of highly instructive classical trinitarian theology. It’s a lot of pages of what we call, in the technical language of Christian dogmatics, the good stuff.

He concludes that section by saying, “this is the plain description of God, so far as he hath revealed himself to us in his word,” and immediately identifies “four special uses” which “every true practitioner of piety” stands to gain from knowing and believing this doctrine. Read More

The Right Reverend Lewis Bayly was the Bishop of Bangor in the 17th century. He owes his fame to his book 'The Practice of Piety, directing a Christian how to walk that he may please God.' The date of the first edition is unknown; the third edition was published in 1613. By 1824 the book reached its 74th edition. 'The Practice of Piety' has been translated into French, German, Dutch, Italian, Polish, Hungarian, Romansh, Welsh, and into the language of the Massachusetts Indians. In The Netherlands it became the best selling Reformed book of the 17th century. An online edition of 'The Practice of Piety' in modern spelling and type face may be found at the Christian Ethereal Library. It may be read online, read on a mobile device, or downloaded.