152 SERMONS UPON TITUS II. 11-14. [SeR. X.
princes, magistrates, such treasurers, such, soldiers as the christian rehgion can. But religion is mightily made a contempt when men make it to be the pretence of vile practices.
5. It will be for your own comfort, whatever falls out in the world, good or evil. Samuel could say, 1 Sam. xii. 3, 'Whose ox have I taken ? or whose ass have I taken ? or whom have I defrauded ? whom have I oj^pressed ? or of whose hand have I received any bribe to blind mine eyes therewith ? ' If good come, Prov. xvi. 8, ' Better is a little with righteousness, than great revenues without right ; ' and in death you will die comfortably when you can wash your hands in innocency.
6, Consider how just some of the heathens have been, and shall grace come short ? What a disparagement is this, as if grace did teach thee to be unjust ! Kegulus when he had passed his word, though it were to endure an exquisite torment, yet he would not break it. Curius Dentatus, when he had been employed in the highest services of state, as general of an army, yet after he returns to the plough again, not enriched at all with public spoils. Of Aristides it was said, you may sooner pull the sun out of heaven than turn Aristides out of his course. Scjevola buying a piece of ground, and the seller setting too low a price, saith he, This is too little, and he gave a great deal more. Abimelech would not have taken Sarah if he had understood she was Abraham's wife. Now shall nature do more than s-race ?
SERMON X.
And godly, <£.'c. — Titus ii. 12.
I COME to the third branch used by the apostle, wherein the duty of man is expressed, and that is godliness. Here we have a perfect dis- tribution of the duty of the creature. The duties of our personal capacity are expressed by sobriety ; the duties of our public relation and commerce with others are expressed in the word righteously ; and then all those intercourses that are to pass between God and us, and the whole tendency of the soul towards God, is expressed by the word godly. The scripture speaks of godliness, and of the exercise of godliness : 1 Tim. iv. 7, ' Exercise thyself unto godliness.' Therefore I shall inquire — (1.) What godliness is ; (2.) How it must be exercised, or what it is to live godly, the phrase used here.
1. What godliness is. It is a thing not only distinct from righteous- ness and honesty, but also from holiness. It is the opposite part of the distinction to honesty: 1 Tim. vi. 11, 'Follow after righteousness, godliness, faith,' &c. By righteousness he meaneth the duties of the second table ; and by godliness the duties of the first. More expressly : 1 Tim. ii. 2, ' That we may live a quiet and peaceable life, in all god- liness and honesty.' The apostle presseth christians there to pray for the conversion of the magistrate, who is custos utriusque tabulce, that so he may promote the duties of both the tables. If any difference should arise about godliness, or about the institutions of Christ, there the
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magistrate may interpose for tlie defence and safety of the first table ; and that we might live peaceably for the exercise of it ; and so for honesty in the second table. But it is also to be distinguished from holiness : 2 Peter iii. 11/ What manner of persons ought ye to be in all holy conversation and godliness ? ' Holiness notes purity of heart and life, and an abhorrence from evil ; but godliness denoteth more dis- tinctly a tendency of the heart and carriage towards God ; and there- fore God is said to be holy, but not to be godly ; because it is a grace proper to the creature, and implies inferiority and subordination, a tendency towards God as the highest Lord and chiefest good, as holi- ness denoteth excellency and perfection. Briefly, godliness may be thus described : It is a religious temper and frame of heart, by which we are inclined to look after the right worship, and to aim at the glory of the true God. To the constitution of godliness there are graces neces- sary and ordinances; that which swayeth and incline th the heart is grace; that about which it is conversant are the ordinances of worship.
Therefore I shall inquire —
First, What graces are necessary to make up this religious temper and frame of heart.
Secondly, What are the ordinances about which it is conversant.
First, The principal graces that are necessary to this frame of heart are faith, fear, and love.
1. Faith is necessary, partly that we may have a right apprehension of God, which by nature we cannot have. It is not godliness, but idolatry, superstition, and formality, until we have a right knowledge of God. The Samaritans worshipped the true God, and yet it is said, John iv. 22, ' Te worship ye know not what.' To worship God out of form and blind custom, it is to make him an idol. But chiefly is faith required, because trust is the ground of all the other respect that pass- eth between God and us. Look, as unbelief is the ground of al\ disrespect and departure from God : Heb. iii. 12, ' Take heed lest there be in any of you an evil heart of unbelief, in departing from the living God ; ' so is faith and trust the ground of all true respect. You know our first parents fell by unbelief. First, Satan seeks to weaken their faith in the promise ; first he told them, 'Ye shall not surely die,' Gen. iii, 4 ; then ' Ye shall be as gods,' ver. 5. First he persuaded them to unbelief, before he persuaded them to ambition, and aspiring after the dignity of the divine nature. This is the root of all. Men care not for God, because they do not "believe him upon his word. But now faith is the mother of all respect, of all devotion and obedience to God. When we believe that he is, and is a rewarder of those that come to him, this is that which makes us seek him diligently. To evidence this by the influence which faith hath upon the soul, there are two powerful affections by which the spiritual life is acted and carried on, and they are fear and love, and they both need the influence of faith. There can be no fear till we are persuaded of his being and power whom we cannot see with bodily eyes ; but put on the spectacles of faith, and so we ' see him that is invisible,' Heb. xi. 27. God is within the cur- tain of the heavens ; and carnal men say, Tush ! he cannot see : Job xxii. 12-14, ' Is not God in the height of heaven ? and behold the height of the stars, how high are they ? And thou sayest, How doth