godlinessn.

1528 W. Tyndale Obed. Christen Man f. xcij Their reasons wherewith they prove their doctrine are..superfluous disputinges, arguinges or braulinges of men with corrupte mindes & destitute of trouth, which thinke yt lucre is godlynes.

1591 E. Spenser Prosopopoia in Complaints 844 But what car'd he for God or godliness?

1597 R. Hooker Of Lawes Eccl. Politie v. i. 2 Godlinesse being the chiefest top and welspring of all true vertues.

a1656 Bp. J. Hall Shaking of Olive-tree (1660) ii. 123 Making a shew of Godliness, and denying the power of it in their lives.

a1708 W. Beveridge Thes. Theologicus (1710) I. 249 This worship of God in Scripture is called Godliness.

1782 W. Cowper Hope in Poems 174 Bigotry..Pretends a zeal for godliness and grace.

1807 W. Wordsworth London in Poems I. 140 So didst thou travel on life's common way, In chearful godliness.

1878 J. Morley Carlyle 191 The same principle which revealed the valour and godliness of Puritanism.

1904 A. Bennett Great Man xiii. 135 Henry belonged to the Saturday-nighters, to the section which calls a bath a bath, not a tub, and which contrives to approach godliness without having to boast of it on frosty mornings.

2000 A. Schindler in A. Hastings et al. Oxf. Compan. Christian Thought 765/1 Maintaining his country's independence and restoring it to true godliness were supreme goals of his life.

1555 tr. H. Bullinger Serm. in tr. P. M. Vermigli Treat. Cohabitacyon Faithfull f. 79^v I will recite vnto your godlynes theise few thinges.

1612 J. Panke tr. Pope Leo I in Eclogarius 40 If your godlines wil vouch safe to favour our motion,..all scandals..will quickly by the helpe of God be defeated.

a1656 J. Ussher Power of Princes (1683) ii. 231 We beseech your Clemency..that..if it so please your Godliness, you command us to return to our Churches.

1843 M. Atkinson tr. St. Athanasius Hist. Tracts 211 With two out of your three demands I have readily undertaken to comply, and have sent to your Godliness the letter which I wrote to the Monks.

1953 Life 28 Sept. 103 ‘God bless you, your godliness,’ replied the Prophet. Then the two drove off to breakfast.

2000 Contemp. Sociol. 29 522/1 Iranian rulers..have demanded obedience as divine representatives—whether their title was the Sasanid ‘Your godliness’..or the ‘Signs of God’ (Ayatollahs).