A Compendium of the Chief Doctrines of the True Christian Religion/Chapter 29
XXIX. Piety.
IT is supposed by many, that a spiritual life, or a life which leads to heaven, consists in piety, in an external appearance of sanctity, and in a renunciation of the world. But piety without charity or neighbourly love, an external sanctity without that which is internal, and a renunciation of the world without an intercourse with, the world, do not constitute the true spiritual life of man. Yet piety, when derived from charity, and external sanctity, when derived from that which is internal, and a renunciation of the world, when united with a life of usefulness in it, do really constitute and make manifest his spiritual life.
Piety consists in thinking and speaking in a godly, religious manner, exercising oneself much in prayer, behaving on such occasions with humility, frequenting places of worship, devoutly attending to sermons, receiving at stated times the sacrament of the holy supper, and in performing other acts of worship according to the ordinances of the church. But the life of charity consists in willing and doing good to our neighbour, and in acting on every occasion from a principle of justice and equity, of goodness and truth. In short, a life of charity consists in performing useful services to all around us; and this is the primary and essential constituent of divine worship, while piety is only the secondary and formal part of it. This latter, however, without the former, is dead; and they, who practise it, are generally filled with ideas of their own superior sanctity and merit; when nevertheless, like the hypocritical Pharisees of old, they are only "paying tithe of mint, and anise, and cummin, but omitting the weightier matters of the law, judgment, mercy, and faith, Matt, xxiii. 23.
Of a similar nature and quality is the external appearance of sanctity, when there is nothing of internal devotion corresponding to it in the heart. With all such as come under this character there is no love of good and truth, justice and sincerity, for their own sakes: but, on the contrary, some selfish or worldly end debases their worship, and renders their high pretensions to religion perfectly null and void.
The renunciation of the world, which is required by the divine laws, does not consist in rejecting worldly things, such as riches, honours, and the conveniencies of natural life; nor in continually meditating about God, salvation, and eternal life; nor in spending one's whole time in prayer, and the reading of the Word, and other pious books; nor yet in mortifications of the body, as some have ignorantly imagined and taught: but it consists in loving the Lord and our neighbour, in acting justly, sincerely, and conscientiously, according to the divine precepts, in every employment and situation of life, and thus in abstaining from the evils of the world, while we are necessarily conversant with it, agreeably to these words of the Lord, "I pray not that thou shouldst take them out of the world, but that thou shouldst keep them from the evil," John xvii. 15.
