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A64289
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A sermon preached at the Cathedral Church of St. Canice Kilkenny, Feb. 27. 1669. By Joseph Teate, dean of St. Can. Kilkenny
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Teate, Joseph.
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1670
(1670)
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Wing T620; ESTC R219172
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20,777
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55
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Godliness the Form of Godliness the Power the Denying the power under the Form of it Godliness if we consult the Etymon the Hellenists will tell us is derived from a verb that signifies to worship and imports that solemn Reverence a Creature oweth his Maker and that in the dayes of Moses he was called a Godly person that was a Proselyte of the Gate acknowledged and ador'd a Deity observed the seven precepts of the sons of Noah with Cornelius and the Ethiopian Eunuch But the Essence of it consists in the Latitude of Holiness the Rectitude and Conformity of the heart and life to the first and second Tables of the Law Godliness is profitable to all things that is obedience to that Law that is holy in its Precept just in its Penalties and good in its Rewards Yet in other places of these Epistles to Timothy it is to be understood in a more limited sense sometimes for the Systeme of fundamental truths call'd the Doctrine according to Godliness the Symbol of which the Apostle gives us when he saith Great is the mystery of Godliness God manifested in the Flesh c. Sometimes for the Duties of Religion distinct from the Moralities of honest men so we are exhorted to live peaceable and quiet lives in Godliness and honesty but here being opposed to a Form an External Pomp and Pageantry it is the inward Purity and Devotion of the heart whereby God is worshipped in Spirit without Carnality and in Truth without Hypocrisie The form of Godliness is its Scheme and external Similitude a Fashion and resemblance or appearance of that which is not real and intrinsical As Jupiter among the Poets was metamorphosed into the shape of a Beast though he pretended to be a Deity so these men would pretend to be Deities when they are but Beasts the word beings 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 not 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Essential Form cannot be here intended which is so far from the denial of Godliness that it gives it Difference and Operation as the Reasonable Soul is the form of a man whereby he discourseth and is distinguished from all other Ranks of Beings so the Image of God is the Form of Godliness that gives it Power and Distinction from all things that are not homogenial to it But that form which consists in a Cumulation of accidents and is the more Vain and and void as the Text is excellent on which it is a Gloss and Paraphrase so Esau who was under the Curse of the Creation to bring forth Briars and Thorns being an hairy and rough man in the form and apparel of Jacob seem'd a Paradise and smelled like a Field which the Lord had blessed so a common person in a Comedy may represent the Majesty of a Monarch But then these Forms are like the Idea's of Plato wholy abstracted from matter and destitute of the power of Godliness This power of Godliness is when the Habits of Grace send forth the vigorous and vital Actings of holyness as the Fountain doth Streams and the Sun Rayes and Emanations of light as will appeare in the sequel of this discourse Men deny the power under the form of Godliness when they seem to be Pious because they are Politick and profess themselves Christians because Subjects to a King that is the Defender of the Faith yet think that the exquisite Holiness of the Law is but the Severity of Melancholick Men who have represented Christ to be an hard Master and therefore although they invocate his Name are disloyal to his Commands profess they know God but in works Deny him ingeminate an oral Loyalty crying Lord Lord but do not his will and so think to palliat the Atheism of their lives by the Religion of their Language Thus the Emphasis and Important Terms of the Proposition are explained We might justly expect when an Apostle is giving us the Kalander and Ephimerides of the Times of the Messias that the first Prospect in the Firmament of the Church would be an Horizon of hope the dispensation of the Gospel being so bright and blessed When the Sun of righteousness did appear with healing in his wings yet he presageth nothing but Clouds and Darkness Eclipses of that light that should shine before many glaring and portentous Phainomena's and the Signes of Heaven without Celestial Influences in the last dayes perillous times shall come Last dayes they are in regard of the administration that doth succeed and exceed that which was Levitical Christ being a better Prince then Moses in his Sanctions a better Priest then Aaron in his Sacrifice he was not onely an High Priest but an Apostle that was sent out of the Bosome of the Father to bring glad tydings yet when the Plenty of Grace was most of all dispersed the Power of Godliness was most despised so that men were efferated by clemency enraged by meekness impatient by forbearance wax wanton in the most goodly Heritage and live as if Christ were an hard Master in the Largess of his Bounty For in the last dayes men shall be Lovers of themselves having a form of Godliness but denying the power thereof So that first the Form and then the Power are the Arguments of my present Discourse A Form may be considered as a Virgin or a Prostitute as abstracted from or concomitant upon the powers of Religion as Diana was in Heaven a star but in Hell a firebrand and Consort of Pluto so a form flowing from the power of Godliness is Angelical but divested from it Diabolical For when our Works of Darkness appear as Angels of Light we mock God by honouring him with our Lips and dethroning him from our Hearts we crucifie the Lord of Glory and as the Souldiers put a Crown on his Head and Robes on his body and salute him with an Irony Hail King of the Jews we worship the true God as if he were an Idol that had eyes and saw not not considering his great Attribute of searching the heart we make God abhor his own Institutions and reverse his Laws bring no more vain Oblations incense is an abomination to me as if he would receive no Honour from the Services of Hypocrites but what he distrains for by his publick Judgements Thus a form is a desperate Incentive to and a plausible Engine of the greatest Villanies Cain first Sacrificed to his God and then slaughtered his Brother Jezabel institutes a Fast and then thirsts for the Blood of Naboth The strange Woman paid her vowes with Peace-offerings in her hands and then managed the Artifices of an Adulteress and entred into Obscene Dialogues of defiling her husbands Bed The Jews consecrated Gifts to the Treasury of the Temple and then cryed the Temple of the Lord the Temple of the Lord are we but the Corban turned Bethel the House of God into Bethaven an House of Affliction to their indigent and unrelieved Parents Thus a Formalist makes the Rites of Religion a Gloss for sin sollicits wickedness
Church and the Rights of his Brother how infamous must the way of Balaam be in the opinions of men who said he would not curse Israel for an house-full of Silver and Gold crying out how good are thy Tents O Jacob and thy Tabernacles O Israel Praying that there might be no Divination against Jacob or Inchantment against Israel yet all this holy Discourse and heavenly Resolution was but a Varnish to a deceitfull heart that was Brib'd with filthy Lucre and the Wages of unrighteousness can a Dogs neck more desecrate an Altar or the image of an Adonis a Temple then for a man to fling out his Invectives against sin and yet to indulge those that are contributary to his Lust and Avarice what are the Prayers of these men but so many Practical Lyes told to heaven who while they pray with a tacite Blasphemy defie God and when they sin by open Atheism deny him and the Votaries are as certainly the Captives of the Devil as they are the creatures of God Avoid those sins that are inconsistent with a Form of Godliness which may be reduced to a tripartite Division Some hinder the Assuming of a Form others Blast it whilst it is Professed and others do Renounce it and Cast it off The sins that hinder the Assuming of a Form are Prejudice and Fear Prejudice against the Precepts that command us to cut off the Right hand which is interpreted the Mutilation of the Body as Fervency of Spirit is the Calenture of the Soul the Communicating and Doing good the Wasting the Estate and being Evil spoken of for the Name of Christ the Wounding the Reputation these are the Grievous Commandments of an Hard Master to which in stead of Binding them to mens Fingers they give them a Manumission and with the Young man in the Gospel Go away and with Orpah salute and forsake together Fear if with Scylla they could see a Crown on the Liver of the Sacrifice the Wages of Godliness the Divinations of Riches and Honour they would become Disciples but when they Observe all that will live Godly in Christ must suffer Persecution and through many Tribulations we must enter into the Kingdom of heaven they are offended at the Cross of Christ they think there is a Lyon in the way that affrightens them from any Essay of walking in them These sins hinder men from being Catechumens but which is worse some that are Baptized blast their Profession by a Flagitious Life live without God in the world that it had been better for them they had never known the Way of Truth Such are they that think it below a Brave Spirit to tremble at a Threatning but stifle the Warnings of their own Bosom and live in Chambering and Wantonness Rage and Riot Swearing and Uncleanness that a man without the Breach of Charity may say they have no Faith But Apostacy from Faith and Obedience does Obliterate all the Characters of a Form and makes Shipwrack of Profession and renounceth Communion with the Visible Church There were three sorts of these Apostates in the times of St. Cyprian the Traditores that gave their Bibles in stead of their Bodies to be burnt the Thurificati that offered Incense to Idols and the Libellatici whose Denials of Christ were more Private and Auricular but bought Tickets from the Magistrates to preserve them from that Bloody Inquisition Now an Apostate cannot be an Hypocrite for he is gone out of the Precincts of the Church They went out from us because they were not of us saith St. John they have broken themselves off from that Body into which they were implanted by Baptism and are Strangers to the Covenant of Promise Thus we see the Dignity and Defection of a Form how it is to be exercised suspended and moderated and how to direct its course between a Rude and Rigid Zeal and a loose and Sceptical Profession we see the Grounds and Gradations of its Dishonours and Decays how that it departs from some men as the Glory of the Lord did from the Temple and Altar and Threshold of the house in the Vision of Ezekiel and when the Leafe thus falls and withereth the Tree is Barren and Corrupt for that is the Climacterical time to shew its Disease is Mortal and therefore it must not cumber the Vineyard but be cut down or plucked up by the Rootes But it is high time for us to come to the Power of Godliness which hath so much Goodness in it that it should not be accounted an Offence and so much Wisdom that it should not be accounted Foolishness the Necessity of it is so great that it should not be Delayed and the Excellency so Glorious that it should not be Denied therefore as all men should acquire it for Salvation so our Present Duty is to inquire wherein it Consists and Discovereth it self I have already explained the Phrase that the Reducing of the Habits and Vital Principles of Grace into Act is the Power of Godliness the Philosophy of which Leads us to the Consideration That Habits of Grace are those Divine Qualities infused into the Soul by the Spirit of God which incline the Heart and sway the Conscience to an actual Obedience to the Will of God with Facility and great Delight They are therefore called by the Fathers and Schoolmen the Springs and Fountains of Grace not like the Fountain in the midst of Paradise that flowes with continual waters but like the waters of Siloam that spring from the foot of mount Sion qui non jugibus aequis sed certis horis diebusque ebullit whose Streams are not alwayes Current but in the due seasons of time The musical knowledge of a Lutanist in his Quavers Rests and Motions whereby he is able on all occasions to play those delightfull Airs that commend his skill is the Habit of the Artist but suppose the Hand of the Lutanist be wounded he hath still the knowledge and Habit of his Faculty although the Exercise be prevented by the Indisposition of that necessary Instrument of his musick so the Godly man that hath these principles of a Celestial Original hath upon all occasions his sences exercised by reason of use sutable to those commands the law of God requires and those Emergencies the Providences of God expose him to and although the Acts of Grace may be suspended sometimes by Natural or Civil actions sometimes by inevitable Infirmities yet still he hath a New Nature the Unction of the Holy one and the seed of God abiding in him for our clearer understanding of which we are to consider 1. The Plenty of Godliness consists in the Habits of Graces The Righteous are said to be Trees Planted by the Rivers of water and the Trees of the Lord are full of Sappe The Radical moysture of these noble Vines may Retire to the Root in Winter yet at the return of the Sun they send forth their Grapes in Clusters and their Perfume as the smell of Lebanon as a