Riches of mercy to men in misery, or, Certain excellent treatises concerning the dignity…

It is Godliness which is required by God, and that is only ¹acceptable to him.

It is Godliness which is required by God, and that is onely ¹acceptable to him.

1. 1Doct. Godliness only required, and accepted of God.

You see that lieth in the front of the text, and first offereth it self to our view. For when the question is about the form, and the power of godliness, it must needs be taken for granted, that godliness is a thing required by God of every man. The very light of nature will teach a man so much that, there must be godliness. Now when we come to consider what this godliness is, then there comes in a second consideration, not a form of it, but the power. So we will begin with that first, that godliness is here required of every man. It is godliness which is not in the form but in the power.

So then here, first of all we must consider, that nature ¹is not enough but there must be godliness. Nature is not enough, that is, natural virtues, for God hath caused, nature to bring forth many excellent virtues which are the common gifts of the holy Ghost, as they are called. For there is a natural patience, a natural weakness, a natural temperance. Some men by nature are more sober, more temperate, more abstemious from inordinate and loose courses: but it is not this that will be accepted with God. It is true indeed these, are very beautiful, and amiable in their kind, considered in their own sphere. As you know the flower that the grass beareth hath a beauty in it, and all natural virtues, are like the flower of the grass; that is, nature is but flesh, and this flesh hath a flower growing upon it, and that flower hath a beauty