CHAPTER IV.

OF CHRISTIAN RELIGION.

Religion, in a large sense, doth signify the whole duty of man, comprehending in it justice, charity, and sobriety; because all these being commanded by God, they become a part of that honour and worship which we are bound to pay to him. And thus the word is used in St. James, ‘Pure religion and undefiled before God and the Father in this, to visit the fatherless and widows in their affliction, and to keep himself unspotted from the world.¹⁹¹¹⁹¹James, i. 27. But, in a more restrained sense, it is taken for that part of duty which particularly relates to God in our worshippings and adoration of him, in confessing his excellencies, loving his person, admiring his goodness, believing his word, and doing all that which may, in a proper and direct manner, do him honour. It contains the duties of the first table only, and so it is called godliness,¹⁹²¹⁹²Tit. ii. 12. and is by St. Paul distinguished from justice and sobriety. In this sense I am now to explicate the parts of it.