142 AN EXPOSITION, WITH NOTES, [VeR. 4.
mutual commerce,^ all must be done as in and to the Lord, Eph, v. 22; vi. 1, 5-7. We are to walk in our relations so as God may have honour. In spiritual acts of prayer, praise, and worship, yea, the whole ordination of the spiritual life must be unto God : ' I live unto God,' Gal. ii. 20. All the motions and tendencies of the soul look that way. This is the difference between holiness and godliness ; holi- ness more properly implieth a conformity to the law, and godliness an aim of the soul to exalt God ; and so they are propounded as distinct, 2 Peter iii. 11, ' What manner of persons ought we to be in all holi- ness and godliness of conversation? •' Well, then, look to your aims ; and in eating and drinking you set up Moloch, it is a meat-offering and drink-offering to appetite, if you do not aim at God's glory. So in traffic ; if you merely regard wealth, you are a consecrated priest to mammon. In these ordinary actions of eating, drinking, trading, you may be guilty of idolatry before you are aware, and may set up the belly, Phil. iii. 19, or mammon, Mat. vi. 24, in God's stead ; nay, in your very desires of grace your ultimate aim must not be self. We are ' accepted in the beloved, to the praise of his glorious grace,' Eph. i. 6. And in actions most sacred it is dangerous to look a-squint ; it is to put dung in God's own cup, when we make worship a stale to our own ends. In short, the Lord hath given many things to the creature, that only which he hath reserved to himself is his glory ; therefore he taketh it ill to be robbed of that.
Thus I have showed you the several kinds of ungodliness. Some are more refined, some more gross, but all naught. The worst sort is, when we do contemptuously slight his providence, and disobey his laws, hardening ourselves ' yet more and more,' as Ahaz did, though the Lord had exercised him with sharp afflictions, and living in open irre- ligion and despite of God, casting off yoke after yoke, till at length we have outgrown the heart of a man, fearing neither God nor men.
Use. Well, then, if we would not be counted ungodly, let us take heed of all these sins.
1. How else will ye look God in the face at the day of judgment ? ' The ungodly shall not stand in judgment,' Ps. i. 5 ; that is, so as to be able to plead their cause, and lift up the head, though they shall rise again and receive their sentence ; therefore ill rendered by the Vulgar, non resurgunt ; yet they shall have no boldness, but hang their guilty heads for shame in that day ; the day of judgment is appointed on pur- pose to ' take vengeance of ungodly persons,' see Jude 15. It is the day wherein God, that is now withdrawn within the curtain of the heavens, Cometh forth to manifest himself to the terror of all ungodly ones.
2. There were great judgments inflicted upon them in this world. The flood swept away ' the world of the ungodly,' 2 Peter ii. 5, and 1 Peter iv. 18, ' Where shall the sinner and the ungodly appear ?' The Lord's jealousy for his honour is very great, and therefore none shall smart so sorely as the ungodly person. It is said, Isa. lix. 17, 'He putteth on jealousy as a cloak;' the cloak is man's upper gar- ment, which is most visible ; there is nothing so visible in God's providence as his jealousy for his honour ; there is no sin robs God of his honour so much as ungodliness ; so it is said, Exod. xxxiv. 14,
^ ' Virtutes et vitia non officiis distinguuntur sed finibus.'
VeR. 4.] UPON THE EPISTLE OF JUDE. 143
that 'jealousy is his name.' The name of a thing is the note of distinction by which it is known and differenced from all other things either of the same or another kind ; so God's jealousy against those that rob him of his honour differenceth him from all the gods of the world. The gods of the heathens were good-fellow gods, and could endure rivals and co-partners ; but this the Lord doth severely punish ; none have fallen under the weight of his vengeance so much as they that deny their respects to him, and ' go on whoring after anotlier God.'
3. It is the great aim of the gospel to prevent ungodliness, by discovering more of God than was known before, and by finding out a way how the notions of God might be kept inviolable, and how we might come to the enjoyment of God, and yet God suffer no loss of honour; therefore the gospel is called ' the mystery of godliness,' 1 Tim. iii. 16, and a ' doctrine according to godliness/ 1 Tim. vi. 3. Men might be ungodly at a cheaper rate than now they can in these days of the gospel : now we have more means to know God, and more obligations to respect God, more clear and certain notions of his excellency and glory.