N00800:45
The peril of the times displayed. Or The danger of mens taking up with…
The peril of the times displayed. Or The danger of mens taking up with a form of godliness, but denying the power of it. Being the substance of several sermons preached: / by Samuel Willard, teacher of a church in Boston. N.E. ; [One line from Augustine in Latin]
Boston: printed by B. Green, 1700
Modern spelling is a reading aid: the words are the author’s, only the spelling is modernized. Original shows the page as printed, with the transcription marks.
1. That the power of Godliness comprehends two things in it. The word power, used in our Text, signifieth the virtue, efficacy, and force of a thing: and also the faculty or principle from which it proceeds. Hence, in the power of Godliness there is contained.
1. That the power of Godliness comprehends two things in it. The word power, used in our Text, signifieth the vertue, efficacy, and force of a thing: and also the faculty or principle from which it proceeds. Hence, in the power of Godliness there is contained.
1. The inward principle of Sanctifying Grace; which is the root of Godliness in a Christian. The power of a thing consists in the internal virtue that it hath in it: Now Grace is the very life of Godliness; nor is any a Godly man, who hath not this Grace in him. God always regards the heart, and he knows it, and he will acknowledge no man to be Godly, but him whose heart is right. That therefore was it which spoiled all their fair pretences, Psal. 78.37. their heart was not right with him. An Unregenerate man cannot be a Godly man, because he hath no principle of Godliness in him. He that is Godly, loves God, fears God, delights in his Law, hates sin, mourns for it, and restlessly ⟨p. 23⟩seeks a deliverance from it. This is the very disposition of that Grace which he receives from God, Tit. 2.11, 12.
1. The inward principle of Sanctifying Grace; which is the root of Godliness in a Christian. The power of a thing consists in the internal vertue that it hath in it: Now Grace is the very life of Godliness; nor is any a Godly man, who hath not this Grace in him. God always regards the heart, and he knows it, and he will acknowledge no man to be Godly, but him whose heart is right. That therefore was it which spoiled all their fair pretences,