February 7

The doctrine which is according to godliness.—1 Timothy 6:3.

ONE great end of the gospel is to take away all the filthiness and malignity wherewith sin hath infected the world, and to cause in men a real conformity to God's holiness, according to their capacity. As the reward it promises is not an earthly happiness such as we enjoy here, but a celestial; so the holiness it requires, is not an ordinary natural perfection, which men honor with the title of virtue, but an angelical divine quality that sanctifies us in the spirit, soul and body; that cleanses the thoughts and affections, and expresses itself in a course of universal obedience to God's will.

Indeed there are other things that commend the gospel to any that with judgment compares it with other religions. The height of its mysteries which are so sacred and venerable, that upon the discovery they affect with reverence and admiration. Whereas the religion of the Gentiles was built on follies and fables. Their most solemn mysteries, to which they were admitted after so long a circuit of ceremonies and great preparations, contained nothing but a prodigious mixture of vanity and impiety, worthy to be concealed in everlasting darkness. Besides, the confirmation of the gospel by miracles, doth authorize it above all human institutions; and the glorious eternal reward of it infinitely exceeds whatever is propounded by them.

But that which gives it the most visible pre-eminence, is, that it is the doctrine according to godliness. The end is the character

4* of its nature. The whole contexture and harmony of its doctrines, precepts, promises, threatenings, is for the exaltation of godliness. The objects of faith revealed are not merely speculative, to be conceived and believed only as true, or to be gazed on in an ecstasy of wonder, but are mysteries of godliness, that have a powerful influence upon practice. The design of God in the publication of them, is not only to enlighten the mind, but to warm the heart and purify the affections. God discovers his nature that we may imitate him, and his works that we may glorify him. All the precepts of the gospel are, to embrace Christ by a lively faith, to seek for righteousness and holiness in him; to live godly, righteously, and soberly in this present world. When our Saviour was on the earth, the end of his sermons, as appears in the gospel, was to regulate the lives of men, to correct their vicious passions, rather than to explicate the greatest mysteries. Other religions oblige their disciples either to some external actions that have no moral worth in them, so that it is impossible for any one that is guided by reason to be taken with such vanities; or they require things incommodious and burdensome. The priests of Baal cut themselves. And among the Chinese, though in great reputation for wisdom, their penitents expose themselves half naked to the injuries of the sharpest weather; with a double cruelty and pleasure of the devil, who makes them freeze here, and expects they should burn for ever hereafter. It is not the most strict observance of serious trifles, nor submitting to rigorous austerities, that enables the human nature, and commends us to God. The most zealous performers of things indifferent, and that chastise themselves with a bloody discipline, labor for nothing, and may pass to hell through purgatory. But the religion of Christ reforms the understanding and will, and all the actions depending on them. It chases away error, and vice, and hatred, and sheds a broad light and love, purity and peace; and forms on earth a lively representation of that pure society that is in heaven. The end of it is to render men like the angels in holiness, that they may be so in blessedness. This will render it amiable to all that consider it without passion. And it is worthy of observation, that although many heathens and heretics have contradicted other parts of the Christian religion; yet none have dared openly to condemn the moral part of it.

The effect of the gospel hath been answerable to the design. One main difference between the old and new law, is, that the old gave the knowledge of rules without power to observe them; the new, that is attended with the grace of Christ, enables us by a holy love to perform that which the other made men only to understand. Of this we have the most sensible evidence in the primitive church, that was produced by the first beams of the Sun of Righteousness, and had received the first fruits of the Spirit. What is more wonderful and worthy of God, than that perfect love which made all the first believers to have one heart, and one soul? What greater contempt of the world can be imagined, than the voluntary parting with all their goods, in consecrating them to God for the relief of the poor? And the churches of the Gentiles, while the blood of Christ was warm, and his actions fresh in the memories of men, were exemplary in holiness. They were as stars shining in a perverse generation. There was such a brightness in their conversations, that it pierced through the darkness of paganism, and made a visible difference between them and all others. Their words and actions were so full of zeal for the glory of God, of chastity, temperance, justice, charity, that the heathens from the holiness of their lives concluded the holiness of their laws, and that the doctrine that produced such fruits, could not be evil. The first light that discovered the truth of the Christian faith to many, was from the graces and virtues that appeared in the faithful. The purity of their lives, their courage in death, were as powerful to convert the world, as their sermons, disputations, and miracles. And those who were under such strong prejudices, that they would not examine the doctrine of the gospel, yet they could not but admire the integrity and innocency that was visible in the conversations of the Christians. They esteemed their persons from the good qualities that were visible in them, when they hated the Christian name for the concealed evil they unreasonably suspected to be under it. This Tertullian excellently represents in his Apology. The most part are so prejudiced against the name, and are possessed of such a blind hatred to it, that they make it a matter of reproach even to those whom they otherwise esteemed. Caius, they say, is a good man, he hath no fault, but that he is a Christian. Thus the excellent holiness of the possessors of the gospel forced a veneration from their enemies.

"That wisdom, Lord, on us bestow, From every evil to depart; To stop the mouth of every foe, While upright both in life and heart, The proofs of godly fear we give, And show them how the Christians live."