3. Desire God to show you if there be anything left that is grievous to his Spirit: Job xxxiv. 32, ' That which I see not, teach thou me.' There are many sins I see, but more that I do not see ; Lord, show them to me. So David appealeth to God, who must judge and punish conscience : Ps. cxxxix. 23, 24,' Search me, 0 God, and know my heart ; try me, and know my thoughts ; and see if there be any wicked way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting.' Can you thus appeal to God, and say, Lord, I desire not to continue in any known sin ?
VeE. 12.] SERMONS UPON TITUS U. 11-14. ^
4. When any sins break out, set upon tlie mortification of them. Do not neglect the least sins ; they are of dangerous consequence ; but renew thy peace with God, judging thyselt for them, and mourning for them, avoiding temptations, cutting off the provision for the flesh : 1 Cor. is. 27/ But I keep under my body, and bring it into subjection.' The leper was to shave off his hair, and if it grew again, he was still to keep sha^dng. Corruption will recoil, but still we must use the razor of mortification, though it be such a sin as the world taketh no notice of, and others would not make conscience of.
Use 2. Of trial. Do we renounce all sin ? But you will say,' Who can say I have made my heart clean, I am pure from my sin ? ' Prov. XX. 9. I answer —
1. It must be done in purpose and resolution. In conversion there is an entire sm'render of the soul to God. To reserve any sin is to part stakes between him and Satan, not to leave sin, but to choose it. But now in vow and purpose we must forsake every sin : Ps. cxix. 57/ I have said that I would keep thy word.' And this purpose must be entu-e, without exception and reservation; so that if they sin, it is beside their purpose.
2. There must be a serious inclination of the will against it. Car- nal men will profess a purpose and faint resolution, but there is no principle of grace to bear it, no bent of the will against it : Ps. cxix. 104, ' I hate every false way.' A child of God doth not escape every false way, but he hateth it, the inclmation of the new natm^e is against it, and therefore sin is not committed without resistance ; there are dislikes and denials in the renewed part ; there is a fear of sin before- hand, and a present striving against it, and an after grief for it : the consent is extorted by the violence of a temptation, and retracted by remorse ; for remorse is as the withdrawing of the consent, so that it is besides the inclination of the will.
3. There must be endeavours against it. The case^of obedience must be universal, though the success be not answerable : Ps. cxix. 6, ' Then shall I not be ashamed, when I have respect unto all thy command- ments ; ' not when I have kept them, but when I have a respect to them all. We should never be able to look God in the face if our acceptance lay upon keeping all his commandments ; but we must respect them all, and endeavour to keep them all, and dispense with ourselves in no known failing, and still the work of denying all sin must be carried on by degrees.
Thus much for the general observations.
Denying ungodliness. — Having observed something from the general view of this verse, I come to handle the particulftr branches ; and here let me first speak of the privative part, ' Denying ungodliness and worldly lusts ; ' and the first thing to be denied is ' ungodliness.'
First, I shall open the terms of the text ; and, secondly, the thing itself
First, In the explication of the terms, I shall show — (1.) What is meant by ' ungodliness ; ' (2.) AVhat by ' denying ' it.
1. What is meant by ' ungodliness,' a sin much spoken of, but little known. The word dai^eia in its native signification implies a denial of worship. Worship you know is the chieiest and moat solemn respect of the creature to God ; and therefore, when we deny any part of that
^ Qu. ' care ' ?— Ed.
76 SERMONS UPON TITUS II. 11-14. [SeR. III.
service, respect, honour, and obedience which we owe to God, it is called dcre^eta, want of worship ; as evae/Seia, right worship, is put for the whole subjection and obedience of the creature to God.
[1.] Ungodliness is sometimes applied to pagans, and to men that never acknowledged the true God : 1 Peter iv. 18, ' If the righteous scarcely be saved, where shall the ungodly and the sinner appear ? ' The ungodly, being there opposed to the righteous and to the house of God, must needs be those that live without the pale, pagans and jieathens that were never acquainted with the true God.
[2.] Ungodliness is sometimes put to imply the unjustified estate, or our condition by nature. And thus the apostle, when he speaks of Abraham and David, gives God this title and appellation : Kom. iv. 5, 'God, that justifieth tlie ungodly;' and Eom. v. 6, 'Christ died for the ungodly.' The reason why ungodliness is put for the natural state before conversion and justification, I suppose is because the Septuagint always renders □"'i^Ii^l by dae^e'k. Now 3;t:;i signifies restless, tur- bulent; but usually it is translated ungodly: Ps. i. 1, ' Blessed is the man that walketh not in the counsel D''J^ti^ of the ungodly.' Now, because such kind of persons are usually brought forth to judgment and condemned, therefore it is put for condemned per- sons ; as Ps. cix. 7, ' When he shall be judged, let him be con- demned.' In the Hebrew it is ^u;") N2i\ exeat impius : let him go out guilty or wicked, as in the margin of our bible. Certainly in that place, Kom. v. 6, ' Christ died for the ungodly,' the apostle, to amplify the love of Christ in dying for us, alludeth to the custom of the Jews, who were wont to divide the people into three parts, Dn''DrT oacot, or dyadoL, good and gracious men ; □''p"IJi, SUatob, just men; and D^i^ti'l. daejBeh, wicked men. For the good men, a man would even dare to die ; by which are meant not only the just, but the bountiful soul, that did good in his place, and deserved love and respect. For a just man one would scarcely die : by the just mea are meant those of a rigid innocency and strict justice as to matters external. But now, saith the apostle, we were neither good nor righteous men, but were of the other sort, ungodly, wicked, liable to the process of the law, and yet ' Christ died for the ungodly.'