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the exercise of faith, for the word only profits as it is mixed with faith by them that hear it, Heb. x. 22. and iv. 12. now faith is one of the things pertaining to life and godliness, and is a part of it; and therefore without godliness, or a gracious disposition of the soul towards God, there can be no true worshup of him.-3. Without the fear of God, another branch of vital godliness, there can be no worship of him. The fear of God is sometimes put for the whole of worship, both internal and external, God is greatly to be feared in the assembly of his saints, and to be had in reverence of all them that are about him; and fear and reverence are so necessary to the service and worship of God that the Psalmist exhorts men to serve the Lord with fear, and rejoice with trembling ; and as for himself he says, in thy fear will I worship toward thy holy temple. Where there is no fear of God before the eves and upon the hearts of men, there is no worship of him; grace in the heart, and that in exercise, or inward powerful godliness which is the same thing, is absolutely necessary to worship God in an acceptable manner, Heb. xii. 28.-4. Spiritual internal worship cannot be performed without love to God, another branch of real godliness. Charity, or love, is the internal principle from whence obedience to God, and the worship of him should spring; hence love to God with all the heart and soul, as well as fear, is premised unto it, Deut. x. 12. for such affectionate, cordial, and hearty service is only acceptable to him, and can never be where the heart is destitute of godliness. 5. And as they are spiritual worshippers that God seeks, and spiritual worship that is only acceptable to him, it being suitable to his nature who is a spirit; none but a spiritual man can perform it, or that is possessed of true grace, or vital godliness; they that are in the flesh, in a state of nature, carnal men, who have no disposition God-ward, canno cannot please God, or do that which is acceptable in his sight, Rom. viii. 8. 6. Nor can a man worship God sincerely, if he has only the form and not the power of godliness; if he only draws nigh to God with his mouth, and honours him with his hips, and his heart is removed far from him, and his fear towards him taught by the precept of men, his worship will be in vain and un acceptable to him, Isai. xxix. 13. from all which it appears how necessary godliness is to the worship of God, and that it may well be reckoned the groundwork and foundation of it.

Now this gracious disposition of the mind God-ward, which may therefore be truly called godliness, and which is so necessary to the worship of God, that it cannot be performed without it, is not of a man's self, it is not naturally in man; yea as has been seen, the bias and disposition of the minds of men are naturally the reverse; wherefore this disposition must be owing to the grace of God, and must be a gift of his; it is he that gives godliness itself, and all things appertaining to it; and indeed as it is an assemblage of all the graces of the Spirit, and every grace is a gift, that must be such. Knowledge of God is a gift of his; faith is not of ourselves, it is the gift of God. Hope that is good, is a good hope through grace; love cannot be purchased at any rate; the fear

of God is what is implanted in the heart by the grace of God, and so all others; and even all supplies of grace to maintain, encourage, increase, and support such a disposition, are freely given of God; and all grace, as it comes from God, it points to God again, and disposes the heart God-ward.

III. Great is the profit and many the advantages that accrue from godliness to the possessors of it.

1. That itself is said to be gain to the persons that have it; Godliness with contentment is great gain, 1 Tim. vi. 6. there were some indeed who supposed that gain is godliness, veise 5. either who though that godliness was to be gained with money, as Simon Magus thought the gifts of the Holy Ghost were; but as not they, so neither the graces of the Spirit are to be obtained in such a way: or they were such who took up a profession of godliness, and made an outward shew of it, for the sake of present or future gain; to gain a name in a church of Christ, to get a reputation among godly neighbours and acquaintance, and for the sake of worldly interest in godly wealthy relations, or to obtain the favour of God now, and heaven hereafter; but after all, what will be the hope and gain of such a person when God takes away his soul? Job xxvii. 8. or they are such who think, or at least act as if they thoght, that all religion lay in gain, in getting money; since their serving God and Christ, and all they do in a religi ous way, is for filthy lucre's sake, every one looking for his gain from his quarter. But real godliness is itself true gain; it may be said of it as it is of wisdom, The merchandize of it is better than the merchandize of silver, and the gain thereof than fine gold. Such who, whilst in a state of ungodliness, were wretched, and miserable, and poor, and blind, and naked, being possessed of godliness, come into good circumstances; who before were in debt, owed ten thousand talents, and had nothing to pay, and were liable to a prison, all their debts are freely forgiven them, and the whole score of them cleared; who before were in rags, and had nothing to cover their naked souls before God, are now clothed with change of raiment, with a robe of righteousness and garments of salvation; who before were starving, and would have been glad of husks which swine do eat, are now fed with the finest of the wheat, with angels food, at Christ's table, as with marrow and fatness; these are come into very affluent circumstances, to great riches, durable and unsearchable; and to great honour also, being raised as beggars from the dunghill to sit among princes, and to inherit the throne of glory; yea are made kings and priests unto God, have a kingdom of grace now, and are heirs of the kingdom of glory; they who lived without God in the world, and were aliens from the commonwealth of Israel, are now in a good family, fellow-citizens with the saints and of the houshold of God; and being children of God, are heirs of God and joint-heirs with Christ, possessed of the riches of grace and entitled to the riches of glory; their gain is great indeed, and sufficient to give them full contentment.

II. Godliness is said to be profitable unto all things, 1 Tim. iv. 8. whereas bodily exercise, or a presentation of the body only in an attendance on public,

worship, profiteth little, or for a little time; for sometimes such sort of religion and worship lasts but for a little while, as in temporary believers, and in the stony-ground hearers, and where it continues, it profits not in matters of the greatest importance; it may be profitable to others, by way of example, as to children and servants in a man's family, and to a community with whom he attends for the secular support of it; and it may be profitable to himself, to keep him from being elsewhere, in bad company, which might lead into many snares and temptations, and hurtful lusts; but is of no profit to obtain eternal life, since a man may constantly hear the word, and attend on and submit unto all ordinances, and yet Christ may say to him at the last day, Depart from me, I know you not; for there may be such bodily exercise or external worship, where there is no true grace nor vital religion: but godliness, powerful vital godliness, internal religion, is profitable unto all things; it is even profitable to the health of a man's body, for the fear of the Lord, which is the sarne thing, is health to the navel, and marrow to the bones; whereas by an ungodly course of life men bring upon themselves diseases painful and and incurable; but more especially godliness is profitable to promote the welfare of the soul: for by means of that, and in the exercise of it, the soul of a good man, as of Gaius, prospers and is in good health; he finds it always good for him to draw nigh unto God, where he has much communion with him, and receives much from him: and such a man is profitable to others, for godly men are made a blessing to all about them, they are the light of the world, and the salt of the earth; though indeed no man can be profitable to God by all his external and internal religion, as he that is wise and good may be profitable to himself and others; for when he has done all he can, or by the grace of God is assisted to do, he is but an unprofitable

servant.

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III. Godliness has the promise of the life that now is, and of that which is to come, 1 Tim. iv. 1.-1. Of the present life, both temporal and spiritual. A godly man has the promise of temporal life, of the blessings of it, of good things in it, yea that he shall want no good thing that is needful for him; and of a continuance of this life, when an ungodly man does not live out half his days; God satisfies the godly man with long life, and shews him his salvation, and of the present spiritual life, of all things pertaining to it, of all necdful supplies of grace to maintain and support it, and of the continuance of it, and of its springing up into and issuing in everlasting life. - 2. 2. Of the future life of happiness and glory. It is most certain that there is a future life, and that there is a promise of eternal life in it, made by God who cannot lie; this promise is made to the godly man, James i. 12. not to be enjoyed by him through any merit of his, for that is the gift of God through Christ; and a promise being made of it, and its being by promise, shew that it is not of the works of men but of the grace of God; and when godliness is said to have the promise of i, it is a promise God has made to his own grace, and not to the merits of men.

However, it is a plain case, that real godliness is of great avail to men, both with respect to time and eternity.

Now as inward powerful godliness is, as has been seen, a disposition of the soul God-ward, from whom all grace comes and to whom it tends, and as it is an assemblage of every grace, in the exercise of which all internal worship and experimental religion lies, I therefore begin with it, and shall in the following chapters consider the branches of it in which it opens; as the knowledge of God, repentance towards God, the fear of him, faith and trust in him, the hope of good things from him, love to him, joy in him, humility, self-denial, patience, submission and resignation to the will of God, thankfulness for every mercy, with every other grace necessary to the worship of God, and which belongs to experimental religion and godliness.

OF THE KNOWLEDGE of God.

SINCE the knowledge of God, and of divine things is a part and branch of true godliness, or of experimental religion, and a very essential one too, it is first to be considered; for without it there can be no good disposition in the mind towards God; for igneti nulla cupido, there are no affections for nor desires after an unknown object. And as we have seen there can be no true worship of God where there is no knowledge of God, as the cases of the Samaritans among the Jews, the Athenians among the Gentiles, and their wise philosophers shew; there can be no cordial obedience to him by those who are ignorant of him; the language of such persons will be like that of Pharaoh, Exod. v 2. It is a false maxim of the Papists, that "ignorance is the mother of devotion;" it is so far from being true, that it is the parent of irreligion, will-worship, superstition and idolatry. Godliness, as has been observed, is an assemblage of the graces of the Spirit of God in the hearts of his people, in the exercise of which, experimental religion, or internal worship lies; now there can be no grace without knowledge, no faith without it; the object must be known, or it cannot be rightly believed in. The blind man's answer to Christ's question is a wise one, John ix. 35, 36. The Gentiles who are described as such who know not God, are also said to be without hope, without hope and without God in the world; without hope in God and of good things from him now, and without hope of the resurrection of the dead, a future state, and enjoyment of happiness in it, 1 Thess. iv. 5, 13. an unknown object cannot be the object of love; an unseen person may, Whom having not seen, we love; but an unknown person cannot be truly and cordially loved; God must be known, or he cannot be loved with all the heart and with all the soul. The wise man says, Prov. xix. 2. That the soul be without knowledge is not good, or rather it may be rendered, without knowledge the soul is disposed to that which is not good, it cannot be well-disposed towards

God, nor be fit for any good work, or for the right performance of any religi ous exercise, but is disposed to that which is evil; where ignorance reigns no good thing dwells. Now,

I. Let it be observed, that whilst men are in a natural, unregenerate, and unrenewed state, they are destitute of divine knowledge; the time before conversion is a time of ignorance; this was not only the case of the Gentile world in general, before the gospel came unto them, but is of every particular person, Jew or Gentile, Acts xvii. 30. all the sons and daughters of Adam are in the same circumstances, for the illustration of which it may be noted,

1. That Adam was created a very knowing creature, being made after the image and in the likeness of God, which greatly lay in his understanding and knowledge of things; and whilst he continued in a state of innocence his knowledge was very great; it is not easy to say nor to conceive how great it was; as he knew much of things natural and civil, so of thir.gs moral and divine; as he knew much of the creatures and their nature, so as to give suitable names to them, he knew much of God, of his nature, perfections, and persons, and of his mind and will, and of all necessary truths and duties of religion; for what by the light of nature and the works of it, and by the exercise of his own rational powers, which were in their full force and vigour, and by that nearness to God and communion with him he had, and by those revelations which we made to him by God, his knowledge must be very great.

11. Our first parents not being content with the knowledge they had, but lis tening to the temptation of Satan, who suggested to them that if they eat of the forbidden fruit they should be wise and knowing as God, they sinned and fell in with it, and fell by it, and so lost in a great measure that knowledge they had; for man being in honour, as he was whilst in a state of innocence, and understandeth not, so he became by sinning, is like the beasts that perish; not only like to them, being through sin become mortal as they are, but because of want of understanding; yet vain man would be wise, would be thought to be a wise and very knowing creature, though man be born like a wild ass's colt which of all animals is the most dull and stupid.

111. Adam being driven from the presence of God, and deprived of communion with him because of sin, bv which is nature was corrupted, darkness siezed his understanding and overspread it, and greatly dispelled that light which before shone so brightly in him; and this is the case of all his posterity, Eph. iv. 18. The darkness of sin has blinded the eyes of their understanding that they cannot see and understand divine things; it has left an ignorance of God in them to which are owing their want of a disposition to God, an alienation from him, and an aversion to a life agreeable to him; and this is the state and case of all men, even of God's elect before conversion, who are not only dark but darknes, itself, till they are made light in the Lord; and when the true light of grace shines, the darkness passes away.

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