and at once incite and enable you to so serious so sacred so Christian so divine so necessary a work The first thing that requires your Attention is the Subject The Spirit of your mind What it is Some Interpreters understand that holy Spirit which is in the mind Thus Oecumenius Gorran A Lapide and others as if it were Be renewed by that Spirit of God which dwels and walks in your minds But this seemes to force the words Therefore S. Augustine and others more pertinently thus Though the words be two yet the Subject is but one non duas res intelligi voluit quasi aliud sit mens aliud Spiritus mentis sed quia omnis mens Spiritus est non autem omnis Spiritus mens est ideo dicere voluit Spiritu mentis i. e. in Spiritu qui mens vocatur It is no more but be renewed in that Spirit which is your Mind This sense agrees with that parallell place Be yee transformed by the renewing of your minds Where the word is but one the meaning the same The Acutenesse of some put this difference Mens est Spiritus remissus Spiritus est mens intensa The Spirit is the Mind moved the Mind is the Spirit composed Spiritus est mentis impetus That the Spirit is the vigour livelinesse and activity of the Mind by which it is stirred up applyed to and exercised about its Object That the substance of the Soule is as the Sun the Mind as the Light The Spirit as the Heat But these may seeme niceties beyond the Apostolicall intent which by the most and best is conceived to aime at that Princeps Animae facultas The highest most excellent and divinest faculty of the humane Soule which Plato calls {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} The Flower of the Soule S. Augustine Vis Animae suprema extendens se ad Dei contemplationem honesta à turpibus decernens Which wee call mens the Mind à metiendo because it weighs and measures all things Hyspulensis quasi eminens because it is the most eminent faculty in man by which wee reach the most excellent objects and excell all other creatures As the Satyrist comparing beasts with men Principio indulsit communis Conditor illis Tantùm Animam nobis Animum quoque And Ovid Sanctius his animal mentisque capacius altae There is indeed a difference betweene Anima and Mens the Soule and the Mind Anima est vitae Mens consilii fons The Soule is the Principle of life the Mind of reason and wisedome Beasts have Soules men only Minds The Mind improves by age and experience the Soul not Soules are in all men and at all times equall the Minds most different Philosophers thought they could never sufficiently magnifie the excellency of this faculty in man Mente nihil homini praestantius dedit Deus Tully They styled it partem Animae nobilissimam {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} The noblest part the Queene and Soveraigne in the Soule which is to rule all the inferiour faculties That Ignea vis That Divinae particula Aurae which the Poets expressed under that fiction of fire which Prometheus stole from Heaven and framed man withall Mens est Coelum hominis The Mind is as the Heaven and Firmament seated above all Nay it is Sol in Coelo as the Sun the most glorious and usefull part of the Soule Nay it is Deus in nobis As God is the Mind of the greater world so the Mind is as the God of the lesser world Plato in Timaeo affirmes the Mind and rationall excellency in man to bee immediatly derived from that divine Mind which is God By this chiefly it is that wee are {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} as S. Paul canonizeth that Hemistick of Aratus neere a kind to God and allied to the blessed Angels which have neither Bodies nor Soules but are pure Minds Spirits and Intelligences In this was the Image of God first chiefly imprinted and there are the best lineaments which remaine since our decay and fall incorporeall invisible eternall in some sort and infinit as God wise intelligent provident and free as God By this God hath fitted us to have communion with himselfe and commerce with his holy Spirit by its union to and conformity with which it may further partake of the divine nature perfection and happinesse This faculty then which the wisest Philosophers of old esteemed {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} pure uncorrupt and unblemish'd which above all things they prized admired and sought to improve and advance by abstracting it à sensuum contagione from things sensuall and corruptible retyring it to the study of its selfe and its Authour God which retyring Plato in Phaedo calls {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} a wise mans first death defining his Philosophy {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} the divorcing of the Soule from the body so farre as the necessities of life will permit This by which they measured the true dignity of a man {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} Socrates Such a man is to be valued as his Mind is by which they said truly that wise men exceeded fooles and good men wicked as much as heaven doth earth or light darknesse or the herd and common rout of men the beasts Yet in this faculty it is that the blessed Apostle vilifies and depreciates man pulling downe the high Imaginations of those {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} pretenders to wisedome of whom he affirmes {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} They became darkned and blinded in their understanding vaine and foolish in their Imaginations {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} Men of perverse and depraved Minds Such as are the best and the ablest men in the state of nature so as to stand in need of renewing by Grace In this the blessed Apostle begins the work of repairing The mind being that prime-motor the maine spring the root and fountaine of all our actions As the eye to the body so is the Mind to the man if it bee darkned how great is that darknesse how confused disorderly and dangerous must our motions be As that extravagancy and folly which appears in the actions of fooles and mad men proceeding from a flaw and defect in the braine and the indisposition of those organs which the soule useth for the exercise of its rationall faculties is not to bee mended by all the teaching advice and example you can use till you cure the distemper of the braine so all that wee can teach men of Graces and virtues of God and his perfections of Christ his mercy love and sufferings of their soules heaven hell eternity c. all the most weighty and serious matters will not change the folly vanity disorder and wickednesse of mens words actions and converse untill the minde bee first renewed and in some degree restored to its
the protection of an Hermite and his Reliques with which he had fortified and barricadoed himselfe against the invasions of death but all in vaine Superstition I say which is the Ape and Mimick of Religion having a Dream and fancy of external Holinesse when indeed it is the moth and rust both of true Religion and proper Holinesse the paint and meretricious beauty of a Church or Person the Ivy which by secret and unsensible steps creeps upon and overspreads its supporter Religion stealing away the sap of piety which should be in the heart and inward man in spirit and truth to the pleasing of the senses and fancy onely by nourishing them with externall and pompous formalities It is indeed a heavie Incubus when once it hath seised upon a Church or conscience oppressing it with needlesse scruples and ceremonious burthens which extremely abate if not quite take away that beauty vigour and majesty of true Religion and Holinesse which keeps the medium between superstition and profanenesse Yet must Holinesse have an universall influence upon the whole man all faculties motions and actions inward and outward on the soule and body In the Soule there must be a Holinesse of mind or understanding by seeing and beleeving the saving truth of God of the will by applying embracing and subjecting to it of the affections feare love joy anger hope sorrow zeale c. when they are by Gods Spirit carried to their right objects and moderated in their measure to them thus is truth rectitude and order the Holinesse of the mind will and affections Further Holinesse must have an influence on the externall expressions Truth and purity are the Holinesse of speech so chastity temperance meeknesse humility modesty c. are the Holinesse of our outward manners and comportments As Morality improves the affections and regulates the motions of the will to vertues so Holinesse beautifies and raiseth those vertues to graces and of the Philosophers Alchimy produceth the Christians pure gold while it keeps all our actions desires and affections within those bounds of honour and moderation which Reason and Religion doe require Holinesse is the Soules fitting for God its union and tie to God its communion with him in some sort deifying us and making us partakers of the divine nature What light is to the Sunne and day what clearnesse to the fountain what fruitfulnesse to the earth what beauty and health are to the body that indeed is Holinesse to the soule to the whole man and all our actions Holinesse is the supernaturall and universall beauty of the reasonable creature We are corruption till Holinesse make us sound ruined till Holinesse repaire us we are barrennesse till that make us fruitfull we are deformity till that make us beautifull we are darknesse till Holinesse enlighten us dead till that enliven us depraved till that rectifie us we are sin till Holinesse make us gracious wee are hell till Holinesse make us heavenly we are Devils till Holinesse make us Saints wee are damned wretches till Holinesse sets us in a capacity of salvation and seeing of God whose enimies we are till Holinesse have endeared us from whom sin would seperate us forever being filthy and abominable in his sight till holinesse wash and clense us through faith in the blood of Christ In the sight of the most holy God all beauty is deformity all wisedom folly all honour basenesse all plenty poverty all liberty bondage all happinesse misery all life but a death all our splendid works but dead and damnable without holinesse All words and humane notions are too grosse to set forth to you this spirituall beauty of holinesse like dead colours to paint the light and heat of the Sun one beame discovers it better than all the shadowes of words or Pencils could doe so the best knowledge of holinesse is experimentall in the soule and conscience For it is not only in words in notion fancy or speculation or outward shewes but in reality of effects serious and solid without vanity or ostentation or affectation setled upon indisputable principles and unmovable grounds the revealed will of God who since he is the author of our being nothing is more gratefully just than that his will should prescribe a rule to our actions to which the more we study to apply and conforme our selves in all our actions the more we follow holinesse This this is that frame and temper of our soules and lives which God our Father and Christ our Saviour and the holy Spirit our Sanctifier the Word our Instructer the Sacraments our confirmers the Saints our forerunners the Angels our protectors all with one voice recommend to us Follow holinesse O ye sonnes of men without which yet shall never see the face of God Our most holy faith and profession the precepts promises and hopes revealed all our duties of preaching hearing reading meditating praying receiving fasting almsgiving c. all are to advance this quality of holinesse in us This is one great intent of Christs comming his living with us and dying for us that hee might sanctifie as well as justifie us save us from the power as well as the punishment of sinne that he might give us a most perfect and excellent example and purchase to himselfe a holy people Luke 1.74 That we being delivered from our enemies might serve him without feare in righteousnesse and holinesse all the dayes of our life So Titus 2.11 The grace of God that bringeth salvation to all men hath appeared teaching us that denying c. 1 Cor. 1.30 Christ is made to us wisedome righteousnesse sanctification and redemption This is the fire that inflames and the incense that perfumes all our duties sacrifices and services to God so as to make them accepted through Christ This sets a value on two mites and a cup of cold water and a handfull of meale without which all externall pompe and cost of services is not only not pleasing but fulsome nauseous and abominable to God Esay 1.12 Offer no more vaine oblations who hath required these things at your hands yet the Law did but not in such a manner with unwashed hands and unholy hearts Prov. 21.27 Even the prayers and sacrifices of the wicked are abomination to God The Heathen saw this well and hath admirably expressed it Quin demus superis Compositum jus fasque animi sanctosque recessus Mentis incoctum generoso pectus honesto Haec cedò ut admoveam templis farre litabo Holinesse is the Ladder of heaven whose lowest step is humility and the highest love and devotion by which the soule descends to men in charity and ascends to God in piety This is that which prepares and disposeth the soule for Heaven without which Heaven it selfe would be no Heaven or not pleasing to us Better be holy in hell if possible than unholy in Heaven though these two are unseparable Holinesse and Happinesse differing only in degree not in kinde For Holinesse is the sparke of
consecration used for Bishops O let us make good the holinesse of our titles and function by the holinesse of our conversation Let not the world reproach us as some doe the vanity and arrogancy of the Popes who challenge to themselves the title of his Holinesse by way of eminency or emphasis when indeed it is say they by Antiphrasis or contrariety being for the most part solecismes and contradictions to their names as he said of Probus vir minimè probus O let us never vainely imagine that there is a neerer way to the Clergies honour than by the Clergies Holinesse Though Holinesse even despised as a Jewell under foot hath its true and internall honour and value still But O let not our preaching our writing our living any way decry damp and discountenance Holinesse which is Gods honour and the Churches honour and must be our both honour and happinesse O let us not vainely contend for an imputed and relative Holinesse in Churches and tables and vestures and gestures and neglect it in our hearts and lives Our word must be that of Saint Paul Be ye followers of me as I am of Christ that is of Holinesse which was Christs way This not onely the better world which are extreamely ashamed and grieved for the contrary but even the worser dissolute and debauched sort of people exact of us whom we harden extreamly against our doctrines by our contrary manners and who are glad by the faults and scandalls of Ministers holy men as they should be to justifie or excuse their owne vitious and unholy lives The higher our calling raiseth us the neerer should it bring us to God and the more should the face of our lives like Moses his shine with the beames of holinesse while we daily converse with God Nothing more justifies and assures the truth of our faith and doctrine than the sutable holinesse of our lives let not that be verified of us which Ieremy complained of in his time From the Prophets is prophanenesse gone into all the Land But rather let us take Saint Pauls good advice to Timothy Thou O man of God flie these things and follow after righteousnesse godlinesse faith love patience meeknesse c. 3 We come now to the third particular how we must follow Holinesse 1 For the measure how farre to the heigth aime at perfection anticipate thy Heaven as much as may be here on earth emulate and strive to equall thy patterne for parts though not for degrees Be ye holy as your heavenly Father is holy he hath nothing of true holinesse who thinkes he hath enough or may have too much Nimietates excessus affectuum Deo debentur All the excesse of our vehement and unsatisfied desires should run this way after God and Holinesse 2 For the manner how I answer 1 Follow it universally in all points the same tie lies upon thee in any one action which doth in all Holinesse is the salt which must season all so farre as humane infirmity can attaine Thou wouldst not have some sparkes of Hell mixt with thy joyes of Heaven O strive that no sin if possible may allay thy Holinesse and integrity Be ye holy in all manner of conversation and perfecting holinesse in the feare of the Lord 2 Follow it earnestly with vehement affections not cold languishing lukewarme and indifferent content not thy selfe with a few posting and perfunctory prayers easie and lazy formalities of duties obesae animae like fat and pursie soules that cannot follow either fast or farre But rise to that intensivenesse in following Holinesse with which the Covetous man followes his gain the Ambitious his honour the Voluptuous his pleasure follow it with the same eagernesse wherewith thou hast formerly followed sin the world and the Devill Follow Holinesse with the same flagrancy and contention as wicked men doe persecute and oppose it They have their {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} so must thou but sancta pia persecutio a sacred and commendable prosecution 3 Follow it cheerfully not in a tedious drooping and dejected manner which brings an ill report on Gods wayes no man hath more right to moderate mirth which is the only true than he which is in the way of Holinesse and indeed of happinesse O let not that be a burthen to our Spirits here which must be the joy and crowne and constant disposition of our soules in heaven The deadnesse and indispositions from within which we are Subject unto are not to be imputed to the wayes of holinesse but to the weaknesse of our natures as the lothnesse to use exercise proceedeth from the ill humors which oppresse the Spirits in a diseased body and not from the inconvenience of exercise which is the way to dispel those ill humours and to recover health and agility For the difficulties and discouragements from without they are not much to be considered by any but those that know not what is the worth of a Soule the weight of Eternity the comfort of a good conscience and of the hopes of Heaven in the sight and fruition of God 4 Follow it exactly closely not at large and at distances a far off as the Disciples followed Christ to be crucified Ephes. 5.15 walke {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} strictly and precisely in a sound and Apostolicall sense There will be rimulae leakes and flanes of infirmities and daily incursions in all our lives but let there not be hiatus wide breaches and gapings of presumption keep not willingly any distance or dissimilitude from Christ be not ashamed or discountenanced to come neere to him and to be like to him in all points Follow holinesse not timidè pudibundè it is pudendus pudor a shame infinitely to be ashamed of that any Chistian should be ashamed to be or to be thought too holy but that he must now and then dare to sweare and ly and talke obscenely prophanely or live riotously that he may not seeme too precise Canst thou be too fit for heaven or too far from sin and hell 5 Follow Holinesse speedily begin betimes all life is lost that is not spent in a holy course of living it is a dead life nay a damning life without amendment All our life is too little to live well the Sun cannot rise too early except to a sluggard nor can holinesse be too soone begun in thy heart except thou love to sleepe in thy sin It were happy if with Ieremy and Iohn Baptist we were sanctified from the Wombe and Font from the dawning and morning of our lives but O jam clarum mane fenestras intrat Rom. 13.12 It is high time to rise from sin and follow Holinesse the day of our short life is farre spent in following vanity and things that cannot profit the night of death is at hand ô make haste to live and to live holily that thou mayst not come short of dying happily Breve sit quod
primitive state and integrity Till then all wee preach or learne is as new wine put into old bottels whose strength their weaknesse cannot containe or as a new piece into an old garment it may helpe a little to patch up our lives and actions but at length it aggravates our sins and makes the ruptures of our consciences the more desperate and wide by the encrease of our knowledge Second Part. So necessary is it in the second place that wee take a serious survey of the decayes and see wherein they stand in need of renewing which is the first step to it Hee is well onward his work of repairing who hath fully discovered his defects Wee are here in no sort to imagine that our soules i. e. That invisible immortall and spirituall Being in its substance or essence is any whit corrupted or impaired which is made incorruptible Nor are wee to dreame of a grosse and physicall renewing but in regard of those divine endowments and excellent abilities with which the soule of man was at first chiefly furnished in its highest faculty the Mind As the life of the body consists in its union with the soule and its health in that {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} fit temper and proportion of humours whereby every part is disposed to discharge the commands of the soule which by excesse or defect becomes disabled diseased and indisposed So the life health beauty and integrity of the Mind or Spirit consists in that union harmony and exact correspondency to the divine Mind and holy Spirit of God And contra its decayes diseases deformities and corruptions are from that dissonancy and estranging from the mind of God that crossenesse and opposition against his will which hath prescribed to us the rule of nature reason and of Religion his holy word and Gospel from which the Mind swerves either by excesse or defect applying it selfe too much to the creature or too little to the Creator As the defects and darknesse of the Moone arise from its want of the Suns light through the earths interposing So the Minds defects are from the intervening of grosse worldly and sensuall objects which hinder its aspect of God and intercept the light both of Reason and Grace so that what before was pure holy and lightsome because still looking at God as its only perfective Object summum verum bonum jucundum Truth to the understanding Good to the will and Pleasure to the affections to the whole man unum optimum maximum that One thing necessary the Summe and Center of all desires and delights is now become dark impure disordered diverted to other objects most unbeseeming its owne originall excellency and that relation it hath to its Maker These decayes of the mind of man I will not aggravate as I justly might by shewing you the Ignorance Error Superstition and unreasonablenesse of the minds of Heathens and Infidels in former or these ages Either in their religion and esteeme of God or their manners and converse with men And these not only in the dregs of men but even those who were counted the Aquilae naturae the Eagles of nature both Greeks and Romans whose minds were much improved above the refuse of men by philosophy and morall discourses Who notwithstanding the glorious works of the creatures their vastnesse multitude order beauty use and constancy which are as loud daily and visible Heralds to proclaime to man the invisible Power Wisedome and perfection of their Maker which must needs bee but one and the best Yet as the Apostle saith {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} they grew vaine in their Imaginations and their foolish minds were darkned They cared not to know God so farre as they might nor to honour him so farre as they knew How many Gods did they invent Ludibria Numinis hominis opprobria the scorne of the divine and the shame of humane nature at the best but making God like themselves nay much below themselves both for nature and manners Adeo ut facinora in homine plectuntur quae in Deo adorantur as S. Augustine Lactantius and others have convinced And as in the Nature of God so in his Worship they discovered minds so blinde sensuall and devilish ut non tam sacra quam sacrilegia their services and sacrifices were not only not divine but many of them most inhumane How many things ridiculous and to be laughed at how many impious and to be pitied Nihil deo dignum multa homine indigna most of them below the dignity of the humane nature none of them beseeming the Majesty and excellence of that first best and infinite Being which wee call God But these I may not insist upon The Subject to which I must confine my selfe with the Apostle is your minds Christians such as professe true Religion which is {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} the raising and improving of the Minde The ruines and blemishes of these wee are to discover Now although wee cannot see the minds of men by an immediate Intuition yet as the light through the lanterne so our minds appeare through our manners As Hee measured the Pyramids by their shadowes so may we minds {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} our words are the shadowes of our actions and actions of our minds For our minde is as the womb of all our actions which conceives formes and brings them forth as its incarnate brood That as wee guesse at the Parent by the lines of the issue and judge of the inward motion of the wheeles by the hand or Index or of the heigth of the Sun by the light or shadow it makes on inferiour Bodies so may we likewise of minds The minde of man as it is of heavenly extraction so it is of a restlesse nature and in perpetuall motion especially being out of its sphere and native place this inferiour world as that culinary fire here below it requires some fewell to fasten and feed upon And although Veritas mentis pabulum the proper sustenance of the mind be truth both in the streames of the creatures and especially in that Fountaine of eternall Truth God and his Will yet missing of this it snatcheth at any thing and for want of care or ability to apply to better matter like Jet it drawes to it selfe trash stubble straw leaves i. e. things of the vilest and most unproportionable Natures And as an ill stomack at once it pleaseth and corrupteth it selfe till by sanctified Reason and Religion it bee set on higher and better Objects and become more choice and delicate Mens est omnia The minde is all things as a raw piece of cloath capable of any die or tincture or as a glasse of any Image and reflection According as it minds any Object is applyed to it and delighteth in it it takes its quality and denomination from it For the filth and contagion of sin and sinfull Objects doth taint and infect the minde
no sort fitted for the society of pure spirits Saints and Angels much lesse for the presence of God and Christ in heaven Wee should doe well to consider that the sins of our bodies and senses such as are lust voluptuousnesse intemperance sensuality c. will wither with time and decay in us of themselves when the dayes come in which wee shall have no pleasure But those sinfull habits that spirituall wickednesse which vitiates and corrupts the mind except by grace they bee put off in this life will continue to infect and oppresse our soules to eternity Such as are pride and unbeliefe prophanesse impenitency hardnesse want of love and feare of God delight in sin despising of goodnesse and the like these follow and encrease upon the soule to age to death and after death to hell where is no possibility of renewing This Vestis animae as Tertullian calls it our body the clothing of our soules is daily veterascent and mouldring away notwithstanding all the art wee use to patch up our obsolete faces and withered carkasses O let our minds that inward man as the Eagle be renewed daily Nothing will more disarme death and wel-come old age than when the mind is such that the lesse pleasure the senses have the more it doth vacare sibi Deo enjoy God and it selfe The more infirme the body the more lively the mind growes as looking at its liberty and enlargement which now approacheth when it shall be quit of these {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} chaines of mortall and sinfull flesh which have a long time detained and depressed it below its sphere and as a mighty Eagle got out of its cage or coop it shall instantly surpasse the clouds soare up to heaven and make its nest in the Sun of Righteousnesse I will adde no more to perswade you to this duty but what the Apostle in his patheticall preface to this doth I beseech you Brethren by the mercies of God that you bee not conformed to this World but bee yee transformed by the renewing of your minds Salus ipsa supplicat ut salvi esse velimus Salvation and our Saviour entreat us to be saved by being renewed Quanta pietas quae quod potuit imperare exorare mallet how great condiscending is it for the Spirit of God to entreat that which he might command Generosi animi faciliùs ducuntur quà m trahuntur Let us give testimony of ennobled and generous minds that are easier melted by entreaties than urged by commands It must needs condemne us of obstinate spirits of base ungratefull minds if wee refuse when conjured by those many rich free full preventing and eternall mercies of God They that refuse to heare and obey when mercy charmes and entreats what voyce can they expect but that of Justice threatning and revenging But O thou first great and eternall Mind the Father of our spirits and soules enable us to doe what thou requirest of us Thou that best seest our decayes renew right spirits in us and by thy word and Spirit work our minds to a conformity with thy most holy pure and perfect Mind Raise up these divine and immortall soules which thou hast made capable of thy selfe above the vanity and emptinesse of the things of this world and settle them on thy selfe and those great things which thou hast offered us in Iesus Christ As our bodies daily decay so let our minds bee renewed daily that instead of darkned proud vaine worldly carnall depraved and corrupted minds wee may have enlightened humble serious heavenly pure holy and sound minds That may know thee and love thee and delight in thee and bee united unto thee by faith here and filled with thee by fruition hereafter of thine owne immensity and perfection in that happy vision of Eternity Amen FINIS The errors of the Presse in words or points as some no doubt there are I must leave uncorrected to try the candor and discretlon of the Reader 2 Thes. 4.3 Pro. Heb. Eph. 2.14 Pro. 29.11 Iam. 3.18 Isa. 57 19. Psal. 2 Pet. 40 1 Sam. 16 Phil. 3.17 Ier. 23.15 1 Tim. 6.11 1 Pet. 1.15 2 Cor. 7.1 Esay 5.20 Lactant. Basil Inst. lib. 6 Ep 95. August Octa. Mat. 5 3â— August ep. 224. Cl. Alex. August Tertul. August Iob 13.9 Lact. 2 Cor. 6.15 Iuâ—e v. 9. Aug. Ench. ad Lau. â—s Pel. l. 1. ep. 9. Pro. 18.21 Pro. 22.22 Ep c. 34. August Luk. 12.14 2. Sam. 15.4 Cl. Alex. Iob 29.16 Ioh. 5.30 Gen. 18.21 Iob. 7.51 Ioh. 7.24 Epist. 7 5. Iuven. Ierome Iob 29.15 Mat. 3. Tertul. Ioh. 18 3â— Cl. Alex. Strom. 4. Psal 99.4 Psal. 72. Iob 29.17 August Exod. 18. Pro. 29.25 Isai. 30. Bern. ad Eng. August Exod. 23.8 Deut. 33.9 Pro. 28.21 2 Sam. 14.14 Iuven. August Per. ep. 37· Rev. 22.15 Mat. 12.36 Ambr. Is Pâ—l Is Pel. Mat. 5. Basil Psal. 96.13 Chrysost. Bern. Rom. 14.12 {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} Aquin. Rom. 12.2 S. August Coelum Sol. Deus Act. 17.29 Mat. 9.17 Hab. 2.6 Dan 5.25 Basil Tert. Ne desiâ—t dâ—is â—uâ—tores Naz. 1 Tim. 6.5 Corruptio Col. 2.22 2 Tim. 3.4 Ephes. 2.12 Rom. 1.28 Iob. 3.19 Heb. 10.29 2 Thes 3.2 Ierom. 2 Tim. 1.7 Iob 27.8 1 Ioh. 5.16 Rom. â— 40 Act. â— 11 Ioh. 3. Rom. 12.2 Phil. 2.5 Col. 3.10 1 Cor. 2.2 1 Pet. 1.18 1 Tim. 6.20 1 Cor. 8.7 Isai. 29.8 Act. 17.13 Sen. Is Pel. August Ps. 147 10. Isai. 57.15 2 Cor. 6.14 Sâ—n Sen. Sen. Hos. 7 9. Rom. 12. â—
and his pretious name had in honour who first of Princes next after Christ gave that for his word Beati Pacifici And may they be blessed who being heires to his Crowne are also heires to his Princely vertues and peacefull disposition And have we not all causes to blesse God who hath inclined their hearts and to blesse them who have followed those inclinations to re-establish our late dubious and endangered peace and lengthen out our tranquility May the great God of peace crowne their Persons Posterity and Kingdomes with aboundance of mercy and peace so long as the Sun and Moone endure 3 Follow peace with all men for thy own internall and eternall peace with God God is surely an enemy to those that are enemies to peace since they are contrary 1 To his nature which is happy in an unmoved and eternall tranquility 2 To his word which seeks by the message of peace to bring us neerer and make us liker to himselfe 3 A peacelesse and unquiet disposition like troubled waters is lesse apt for the sweet and cleere reflections of Gods love to it or the operations of his Spirit in it which creates that internall and unexpressible peace which no man knowes the price of but he that hath it 4 Lastly they only shall rest with God in Peace who have followed after Peace and in so doing after God They shall dye in Peace and lye in Peace and rise in Peace and reigne in Peace with God for ever The fruit of righteousnesse is sown in Peace of them that make Peace But I have done with the first Object and the Duty Follow Peace with all men we come now to the second 2. And Holinesse Peaceablenesse and Holinesse must goe together and indeed it is pity they should bee separated yet they are oftentimes for many are of sweet soft and calm natures not farre from the kingdome of heaven yet they rise not to the heigth of holinesse which must exceed and amend the best of natures Vae optimae naturae nisi superveniat gratia Good natures like small and shallow brooks may empty themselves and carry us to that narrow lake of humane love honour and approbation but holinesse only is that great and noble streame which conveyes the soule to heaven and looseth it in the Ocean of Gods infinite happinesse O let us not content our selves with the study of Peace and neglect Holinesse Peace will soon corrupt and sowre to troubles inward and outward which is not preserved and eterniz'd with Holinesse There is no Peace to the wicked saith God no true inward and durable Peace we must follow Peace as men and Holinesse as Christians What is it to have Peace with men and warre with God Let us therefore see 1 What Holinesse is 2 Who must follow it 3 How we must follow it 4 Wherefore 1 What Holinesse is Holinesse is a word of various acceptation 1 There is a Holinesse transcendent essentiall and absolute which is in God or rather which is God himselfe who is the eternall first and onely rule to himselfe by his immutable goodnesse unerring wisedome and irresistable power who is {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} thrice holy as the Seraphins cry Holy holy holy Lord God of Hoasts c. Holy in his will in his word and in his works in his justice mercy and power and therefore {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} infinitely great and powerfull because infinitely good and holy The Father is holy and the Son holy and the Spirit holy in their essence in their relations and in their operations This Holinesse wee must follow Mat. 5.48 Be ye perfect as your heavenly Father is perfect 1 Pet. 1.15 Be ye holy as he that hath called you is holy Here is the rule patterne Idea and Prototype of Holinesse the fountain Sun and Sea of Holinesse from whence it derives it selfe in the second place to reasonable creatures Angels and men who onely are capable of Holinesse in a strict and proper sense 2 All creatures have a goodnesse of nature and being by creation onely the reasonable are vessels of Holinesse which properly is or at least ought to be in us A full and exact conformity of the Soul in all its motions and operations to the will and mind of God In the blessed Angels it is and was in man at first a gift of creation whereby they and wee were made in the Image of God in righteousnesse and true Holinesse Since our fall Holinesse is a gift of free grace a supernaturall quality or habit infused into the Soule by the Holy Spirit which by degrees reneweth us to a conformity or an unfained study at least of conformity to the will of God doing all out of conscience to his command regulating all by to his word and directing all to his glory This Holinesse we must also follow as the true and onely beauty honour riches pleasure and perfection of the soule For as much as men by reason exceed beasts so much doe Christians by Holinesse exceed meere men in their unholy and unregenerate state By Holinesse wee recover our station and neerenesse to Angels our claime to heaven our kindred and relation to God not only as his creatures but as his Sons regenerate by his holy Spirit 3 There is yet a Holinesse in a low and inferiour sense not of vertue or grace but of use and relation which is in Scripture and common speech applied to things unreasonable and inanimate too This is a Holinesse of dedication when things are devote and consecrated to the worship and service of the most holy God set apart from common and civill uses to sacred This likewise we must follow not as conceiving any inherent quality of Holinesse to be in those things whereby they are able to work on thy Spirit or recommend thee and thy service to a greater degree of acceptation by conferring a greater degree of Holinesse except in respect to Gods speciall appointment and promise as of old but only so farre we must follow this relative Holinesse as to a decent use and reverentiall comportment such as becomes the gravity majesty and solemnity of Christian Religion and those outward services God requireth of us Sancta sanctè Holinesse becomes the house and worship of God for ever But take heed that thy superstitious mind doe not impute to nor expect to find any active or virtuall Holinesse in or from times places pictures reliques garments or postures when that must be as it onely can be in thy heart There is that Sanctum Sanctorum the immediate residence and operation of Gods holy Spirit It is preposterous and vaine to imagine or seek it in other things if thou hast it not there thou maist profane them they cannot sanctifie thee nor thy services Yet here it is that superstition is prone to dote and flatter it selfe in its outward formalities of Holinesse as Lewis the eleventh did in his leaden gods pardon and
perfection of happinesse which is the sight of God which what it is we shall best tell when we come to it I must now leave it to the worke of Gods Spirit in your devouter hearts to consider more largely and sublimely of this point Onely give me leave by way of conclusion to appeale to your piety wisedome and experience Whether the waies of holinesse be not worth the following which end in such happinesse as is beyond expressing Whether it be not a vanity folly and extreame madnesse for men and women that are built for eternity and capable of the highest good so much to neglect their soules their God and their happinesse by following their sins the worldly pleasures profits and honours with the neglect of holinesse The Devill the evill world and a mans owne corrupt heart will allow him to bee any thing so he be not holy let him bee rich and faire and strong and great and honourable and witty and eloquent and civill and politicke and knowing even in divine mysteries any thing so as hee bee not holy All these things as the Devill said to Christ will I give thee if thou wilt be unholy still and like my selfe Holinesse is that alone the Devill wants and despaires of himselfe and that he most envies us the sons of men because hee knowes it sets us in a way of happinesse so infinitely above him But what our Saviour said Matth. 8.22 to the young man that desired respite to bury his dead Father Let the dead bury the dead but follow thou me This give me leave to say to all you that heare me this day let dead hearts bury themselves in dead comforts dead honours dead pleasures dead hopes c. but follow thou Christ follow Holinesse I further appeale to the justice of your piety and goodnesse Whether the waies of holinesse and the followers of them deserve to be derided despised discountenanced discouraged so much as they are by the proud prophane sensuall and superstitious mindes of the world whether they which despise holinesse doe not withall despise their owne soules their God and Saviour whether they forsake not their owne mercies who follow lying vanities whether this be not to glory in our shame to be ashamed of that which is the glory of God and the reasonable creature Lastly I appeale to your royall wisedome and the rest of your Noble and Christian Prudence Piety Whether those that follow peace and Holinesse and are fitted to a capacity of seeing the great God and King of Heaven in his Glory be not also the worthiest and fittest to see the face and enjoy the favours of Christian Kings on earth These these are they that best know the duty honour and fidelity they owe to Majesty and make a conscience to pay it because it is a point of Holinesse so to doe These are the propugnacula munimenta regni Ecclesiae as was said of Saint Ambrose the strength honour and security of the Church and State under God and his Majesties care and pious providence These are in some sort the tutelares Genii protectors of his Majesties person health life Crowne Queene and posterity while they daily lift up pure hands and holy hearts to the God of Heaven for his Majesties safety honour and happinesse These are like Moses and Elias the Horsemen and Chariots of Israel these have power with God by their prayers counsells and good examples they stand in the gap and hinder the inundation of sin and judgements To these we owe under God the enjoyment of our peace plenty safety and Religion and of the blessing of blessings temporall a pious and gratious Prince O then let not Holinesse I beseech you bee banished as I beleeve it is not from your hearts your words your houses your lives from your favour and good opinion from your service nor from your Court Let there not be wanting in this place Iosephs and Mordecays and Nehemiahs and Daniels men in whom is the Spirit of the holy God as that Heathen Prince said of Daniel There is a Booke called The holy Court which might be usefull to Courtiers if it were not unsafe being larded with many false and frivolous opinions and superstitious practises It will bee your honour and happinesse to act what he sought to write O follow not sinne and vanity or strife and contention or lubricity and impurity or vaine-glory c. these will cast you out from the presence of God and betray you to utter darknesse And what considerate minde can with patience thinke of being ever separated from the fountaine of its being life and happinesse O what infinite darknesse necessity and horror must for ever oppresse that soule Holinesse only is that divine magnetick power which drawes the soule to God and God to the soule never quiet till it be united to the fountaine its vertue I know your piety cannot but consider oft and seriously That the greatest of you will be one day like Sampson when his fatall haire was cut weak and impotent and like other men your eyes blinded your great strength departed the chaines of darknesse will involve you the wormes will be your fetters and the grave your prison O while you live follow holinesse that when you die as Sampson did you may quite destroy those enimies which living you could not that death may be an end of your sinne and mortality but the beginning and consummation of your endlesse happinesse in the sight of God That when the eyes of your bodies shall be shut to this world and all things desirable here the eye of your soule that rationall and eternall eye may be opened to see and enjoy God and reigne with Christ for ever That you and we though in different degrees may then receive that Crowne of immortall glory which is free from cares and crosses from feares and jealousies from sleep and soule-breaking distractions but full of a divine and constant glory serenity joy and eternall security Amen A SERMON PREACHED BEFORE THE IVDGES AT CHELMSFORD ZECH. 8.16 These are the things yee shall doe speake yee every man the truth to his Neighbour execute the judgement of truth and peace in your Gates THE Customary solemnity of publike Assise and administration of Justice hath not more of state and policy than of safety and piety in this That not only the gentry and commons but your wisedome and gravity Right Honourable and Reverend disdaine not to receive advice from the Pulpit before you goe to the Bench and hear Gods charge to you before you give your charge to others Hereby not so much to conciliate a greater reverence and authority to your persons and proceedings by amusing the minds of the populacy and awing their consciences with the pompe and formality of religion as those Heathen Law-givers Solon Lycurgus Numa and others are said to have done but seriously and in the feare of God to ascend with Moses first to the Mount and talke
accustomes himselfe to gratuities for a just sentence will soone grow so dim-sighted as to receive bribes in an unjust cause These must be kept off by all wayes directly indirectly nec per se nec per alium It will not serve the turne nor satisfie either God or the integrity of a mans owne conscience to say as Adam The woman thou gavest mee or the son or servant Hee or Shee received it gave it mee and so I took it Nor to say as the Woman I saw the offer was faire to the eye a present to bee desired to make one rich I am sure not wise and so I took it No that cursed Serpent of Covetousnesse in thy owne brest beguiles thee The devill tempts thee with All these I will give thee if thou wilt fall from thy integrity in judgement which God requires bee neither corrupted by indulgence and favour as Davids to Absolom nor prejudice as Davids to Mephibosheth nor hatred as the Jewes against Christ nor feare as in Pilate nor covetousnesse and popularity as in Felix who failing of his money yet to doe the Iewes a pleasure left Paul bound Nay an upright Judge may not feoffe that as a favour which is indeed but justice and a duty nor challenge and owne the thanks for a happy issue which indeed belongs to the law and equity of the cause Hee doth not know the price and value of a good conscience who seeks for a reward beyond that of doing vertuously 3 Impartially Naz. {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} As the beauty and influence of Heaven and light of the Sun equally and indifferently fals on the poore and rich the palace and cottage the great and meane the learned and ideots without preferring one or disdaining the other so should the execution of true Iudgement Iudges are married to the Law to Justice and to the Common-weale and must forsake father mother friends and all relations and adhere to Justice as Levi in the execution of justice is commended that hee knew not father or brethren or kindred The Magistrate must bee as an upright bowl that hath no byas as a true dy falling square what hand soever casts it Not warping or propending any way but as a straight rule or plumb-line indifferently shewing the rectitude or obliquity of what body soever it is applyed to To have respect of persons is not good i. e. it is very bad and sordid beyond expression so much debasing the soule that for a morsell of bread such a man will transgresse With God is no respect of persons nor should bee with those umbratiles dii shadowes and back-parts of God who in Judicature should forget they are men and remember they are in the place of God As favour must not so nor personall offense may weigh in the ballance of executing true judgement No particular distaste or desire of revenge may soure and sharpen the execution or sentence Hee that gladly sacrificeth a malefactor to his particular revenge and hatred under or with the name of publike justice may bee a murtherer while hee is a just Iudge while hee satisfies his own revengefull mind together with the Law This destroyes the sinner but he the man and his neighbour 4 Speedily Qui tardè vult non vult ut debeat velle Judgement must be executed in benigniore parte in the way of adjudication and restoring to right of compensation of wrongs and of remuneration of merit Demurs and procrastination beyond what is necessary is so far an injustice as it is a hinderance and so great that often-times the Delay countervailes if not exceeds the benefit of the judgement St. Bernards counsell to Eugenius is good and would bee a great ease to subjects Frustratorias vexatorias praecide dilationes To circumcise the superfluities of suits and pleas and cut off all those tedious and expensefull attendances of persons adjournments of causes when they are ripe for judgement and execution Which unnecessary detentions are for the most part but the stratagems and windings of under-Officers who like dishonest Surgeons will not cure their Patients till they have cured their Purses though with the others molestation and torment no lesse than charge and expenses Non missura cutem nisi plena cruoris hirudo You may know the Leeches are full when they let goe their hold But a noble and just Iudge that loves justice for it selfe and tenders the good and quiet of his poore countreym-en will make a short work of it and hasten judgement that hee may add charity to equity That it may appeare not evicta but lata sententia a Judgement as true and just so not extorted by importunity but easily obtained by the merit of the cause 5 Yet leasurely and full of caution should the execution of Judgement bee if punitive especially capitall Vltimo supplicio Nulla unquam de morte hominis cunctatio longa est Man is {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} a creature of greater value than to bee rashly and precipitantly cast away And tenderly too There must be all the grains of allowance of time mercy and clemency that justice and law will permit Imple Christiane Iudex pii patris officium sic succense iniquitati ut humanitati consulere memineris Rigour of Iustice is unjust where mitigation may bee shewed Clemency is a debt Magistrates owe to our nature and the common infirmities of mankind 6 Lastly compassionately Execute judgement though severe and such as cannot justly or safely admit any further delay or remission by reason of the hainousnesse and atrocity of the fact yet doe it as St. Basil speaks {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} with all meeknesse and demonstration of pitty and sense of humanity Not with insolence and elation {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} Nothing is lesse humane and more barbarous and truculent than for any man much more the gravity of a Judge to jest upon and make himselfe merry with poore mens misery of the same mold and mettall with himselfe or to triumph in their calamity and sufferings by scornfull and contumelious language Far from that of Ioshua to Achan My son give glory to God c. A noble and ingenuous heart dolet quoties cogitur esse ferox will discover that what hee doth severely it is of necessity not propensity magis officii compulsus necessitate quà m judicandi libidine as St. Bernard adviseth the Earle of Theobald It is all the solace left to cast and condemned creatures to see their sin hath not yet deprived them of the pitty and prayers of the Judge and Court though it hath of their liberty or life Peccata interficio homines amplector Is the Magistrates Motto A friend to men an enimy to their sins In your gates WEe have seene the manner of the Execution but where must this be done In your gates That is Those places that are appointed for publike execution of justice
it selfe and whilest it doth not by reason and grace command the inferiour and sensuall appetites it serves them and by vitious customes is enslaved and conformed to them 1 Thus wee justly esteeme and terme those minds {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} grosse groveling dejected worldly and earthly who so minde earthly things as if they were {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} only made of earth {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} mixed with blood and had no spark of heaven in them Men whose minds are never nearer heaven than their feet lift their heads Who are so intent on the things of this world ut divinae particulam aurae humi detrudunt their soules cleave to the dust they rake up that heavenly spark of the minde in ashes loading themselves with thick clay never considering their soules originall end capacity necessity nor that viaticum aeternitatis the provision to be made for it unto eternity 2 In like manner wee judge brutish excessive and intemperate minds to bee in those men who are carried with the same Spirit as the Gadarens cattell were whose minds are choaked and drowned by luxurious eating and drinking who live tanquam poeniteret non pecudes natos as repining they were not made beasts whose Reason is their burthen and the light of minde their offense by its secret checks and damps taking off from that full pleasure they seek to enjoy in their riot and excesse Men of such minds doe they not deserve the fate of that proud King to have the hearts of beasts given them and to be driven from the society of all civill men and Christians 3 Thus likewise wee account sensuall and carnall minds uncleane spirits to possesse those whose soules are {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} as a Jewell in a dunghill who live {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} to the shame and reproch of the humane nature so wholly given up to their lusts and sensuall desires as if they were all flesh and had no diviner part whose Reason should set bounds of honour and moderation to inferiour desires Veneranda est non erubescenda natura Wee ought not to shame and dishonour our natures by abusing those Inclinations to unlawfull pleasures which are planted in us to a noble good and excellent end i. e. the preservation of our nature and kinde Nihil aequè deprimit mentem ac libido Aquin. Nothing doth more debase and brutise the spirit and cast the minde from its station and dignity than those sordid and sensuall pleasures Octavius thus vindicates the honour of Christian minds libidinem aut nullam aut unicam generandi agnoscimus either wee doe wholly deny all lusts and fleshly desires or wee keep them from excesse and inordination by prescribing those bounds and ends for which Nature and the God of Nature hath intended them I might be infinite by the symptomes of mens lives and the pulse of their actions to discover the disorder distempers and diseases of their minds If men had fenestrata pectora a window to see into their soules should wee not discover in many either stramineas mentes minds full of vanity levity and inconstancy or elatas full of Ignorance and its daughters Pride and Ambition or pusillas angustas weak small narrow and impotent minds neither fitted to doe nor suffer like a Christian Full of discontent impatience unquietude of rashnesse confusion and destraction in a continuall hurry and selfe-vexation through the tumult and disorder of passions and affections Minds for the most part filled with small vile and perishing Objects even when they most please themselves and are applauded by others Spirits let out to the creature beyond all reason equity need or use Which measure the goodnesse of things by the pleasure they take in them and not take pleasure by the goodnesse that is in things {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} Minds enslaved to things present and led only by sense and imagination which extremely bribe and corrupt our Judgements Saint Paul tels us of men {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} of corrupt minds Corruptio est vilioris naturae mixtura S. Tho. then a thing is corrupted when it admits a baser nature to it As Gold with Copper Silver with Tin is allay'd and looseth of its purity worth and use So our minds which are of an higher nature than any thing under the Sun when they are joyned to these things of base and inferiour kinde are infinitely diminished and debased by them There can bee no match so unproportionable as this for the mind of man to be enamoured of and wedded to the creature If wee did but well know its native beauty vigour and excellency its noble extraction descent and capacity Vastum infinitum aliquid humanus spirat animus sayes Tully The mind of man aspires after an immense and eternall Good nor can it bee satisfied or happy with any thing lesse On the other side compare the emptinesse vanity deformity corruption uncertainty and nothingnesse of all things under the Sun which perish in the very use of them of which a man can have no more certainty than if hee should take a map of this dayes clouds and compare them with to morrow {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} More heterogeneall and undecent is this match of the Mind with the Creature than if the rose and flower of youth and beauty should bee buryed with the ashes and wrinkles of old age By this it comes to passe that the minds of men by a spirituall adultery are divorced from that Object which is best in it selfe and to us which above all wee should seek to enjoy They become {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} Lovers of pleasures or the the world or themselves more than of God At length the coldnesse of affection growes such and the distance of mens minds from God so great the intercourse by meditation and prayer so seldome that in stead of contemplation of him and delighting in him as the only adaequate Object of the mind it begins above all things to bee estranged from him and to live {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} without God in the world Willingly shutting its eye that it may not see him and so farre as light doth break in and convince of a God it only as flashes of lightning breeds feare in a vile and servile sort looking at God only as a Being armed with irresistible power to hurt and punish Et quem timet odit It becomes {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} What it thus feares it growes to hate and seeks to oppose and in the most high and desperate Atheisme non tam credit quam cupit non esse Deum not so much believes there is not as secretly wisheth there were no God to take notice of and revenge its disorders and wickednesse And what the mind
earnestly desires and oft seeks to perswade it selfe is not it begins at length to think it not indeed and by an affectated and resolved Atheisme willingly neglects to know to feare to love to serve to enjoy him whom to know is life eternall to feare is security to love is the divinest comfort to serve is the truest liberty to enjoy is the only happinesse and content of the mind At last they grow devilish and reprobate minds such as sin with greedinesse mock God and contemne what ever is sacred loving darknesse more than light despising the blood of the Covenant and wilfully forsaking their own mercies and happinesse Thus you see how the Mind of man becomes degraded from the highest pitch and object God and miserably decayed in respect of its noblest capacity and operations That as a weak braine it cannot now look to so great an heighth as a bleare eye is offended with so glorious a Light either Atheising i. e. hath not or desires no God at all or Idolizing and erects false gods or its luxuriancy and wantonnesse runs out to superstitious and vaine worshipping of the true God hardly containing it selfe in those bounds which right reason the word of God the majesty purity and sobriety of true Religion doth permit or prescribe And not thus only are our minds decayed in their chiefest excellency and immediate respects to God which wee call Religion But farther in the whole tenour of mens lives and actions you may discover minds full of basenesse disorder and unreasonablenesse {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} sayes Chrysost. Wicked men are unreasonable men Psal. 14.14 Are they not without understanding that work wickednesse Adeo omnis inordinatus animus sibi poena In this is every inordinate mind its owne first and severest punisher lessening and loosing that honour of right reason whereby we are men and excell the beasts Doe but trace mens actions and in them you shall see the print and Idea of their minds Insani esse animi non sanus juret Orestes No man so mad but will protest they are the effects of unreasonable minds 1 Is any thing more unreasonable than so farre to feare the face of man and to bee awed by his sight as not to doe any thing shamefull and undecent before him except there be attrita frons brazen or no fore-heads and yet neither to reverence our selves and the witnesse of our owne consciences nor the presence and all-seeing eye of God who wee think sees not our secret and shamefull actions and so upon the point we deny him to bee God because not omniscient or if wee doe then adde wee to our sin a most notorious impudence 2 Is any thing more unreasonable than of a short pretious and uncertaine life to expend the prime and morne of our time the flower of our wit and strength to serve sin and the Devill reserving only the dregs and bran of our age for repentance and devotion whereas indeed nothing should bee done with more vigour and vivacity than virtuous and pious actions Besides all this we run a desperate hazard of our soules and their eternall salvation venturing so great a treasure in so fraile a bark whereas indeed as David said to Ionathan As the Lord lives and as thy soule lives even the strongest youngest and most confident of us all there is but a step betweene us and death 3 Is any thing more unreasonable than in old age when our Sun is almost set when wee have little time to live and need least yet then to minde and covet the world most so much studying the body as to neglect the soules provision to value a moment and slight eternity 4 Is any thing more unreasonable than to receive many great and daily blessings from the almost prodigall hand of God and yet to be so farre from being thankfull for them that wee are more offensive to the Giver by them dishonouring him by his very blessings of peace health plenty beauty strength parts wit and learning c. abusing all to pride vanity excesse c. Because God is constantly Good wee are confidently evill 5 Is any thing more unreasonable than for a man to sweare gratis i. e. tempted neither by profit nor pleasure and either out of a proud affectation of Gallantry or out of passion against anothers folly to blaspheme the name of that God and Saviour by which man pretends to hope for salvation If there bee a God above us how can they bee guiltlesse that take his name in vaine making that cheap and prophanely obvious which all wise and good men have esteemeed and used as most sacred and reverend If there bee no God how vaine then are their violent expressions their frequent and passionate swearings 6 Is any thing more unreasonable than to disobey his commands who needs not our Service but we need his commands who therefore honours us with his commands ut habeat causas remunerandi that hee may have occasion to reward our obedience by violating whose precepts and lawes wee at once in effect deny all his Attributes As if hee were neither wise nor good in enacting such lawes nor powerfull nor just in vindicating them 7 Wee cannot endure a man that hath a heart and a heart that is none at all whose mind and expressions are alwayes two and at variance Wee rather entertaine such with jealousie and suspition than confidence and affection because wee know all is but outside a shew and simulation only for their owne ends And is not that Hypocrisie of those S. Iames calls {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} double-minded men most impudent and unreasonable which they feare not to offer to God while they desire only {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} to appeare not to bee seriously and solidly religious whose Affections are but Affectations whose profession branches beyond the root of their knowledge whose religion is but the part they act to please some spectators the paint of their actions and the cloak they assume to palliate and compasse their poore and small designes of favour or profit c. Forgetting that nothing becomes the simplicity of Gods being and his serious intentions of good to man more than that {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} sincerity and soundnesse of minde to Him and his service Nor is a man ever more unfaithfull to his owne soule than when hee doubles and falsifies with God What is the hope of the Hypocrite when God shall take away his soule Nothing leaves a man more hardned and desperate than Hypocrisie 8 We are impatient that our words and promises should be disbeleeved and returned upon us with the reproach of a lie And is it not most unreasonable that wee should doubt or not beleeve at all or utterly deny the word the Gospel the promises and truth of God making him a lyar who is the first most necessary and eternall truth who never
did and its impossible hee should either erre or deceive 9 Wee think it just that whoso offends our meannesse and expects to reingratiate himselfe to our favour should at least ingenuously acknowledge his fault and promise amends upon suit of our pardon And is it not most unreasonable that when our consciences tell us wee have often and highly offended the God of heaven yet never to bee touched with remorse and sorrow for our sins but persist with dry eyes to adde sin unto sin Abusing that long-suffering of God which should lead us to repentance hardning our hearts by what should melt them the patience and longanimity of God which is so great and excessive being provoked every day That if wee had no other Argument to convince there is a God immensly good this were enough for no finite patience could forbeare so long Wee daily pray for and expect forgivenesse from the Majesty of God for our numberlesse and hainous offenses which if wee obtaine not it had beene good for us that wee had never been borne And is it not most unreasonable that wee should be so sensible of the least injury offered to our vilenesse so short spirited that like powder wee kindle upon the least sparke of offense and instantly flame to revenge That like Esau or that evill servant in the Gospel Mat. 18.28 Wee feed our minds with such black and desperate thoughts as to count nothing sufficient to redeeme our honours or repaire our wrongs but the very blood and life of our brother That being mortall wee should meditate such immortall displeasure and to expiate in point of honour some small neglect or affront which a great and noble minde would passe over quippe minuti semper exigui est animi minimique voluptas ultio and a Christian minde for Christs sake would forgive so as to adventure at once the sacrificing two soules to the Devill and eternall death So that what event soever a Duell hath wee doe our soules a greater injury than is in any mans power to doe us If God had beene thus speedy and implacable to thee thou hadst not lived to have stood so much upon thy termes to set a higher value on that Idoll thy Reputation than upon thy God thy Saviour thy brothers and thine owne soules salvation Hic animus atque hae sunt generosi Principis Artes Are these the expressions of reasonable minds of generous and great spirits As Lactantius said of Iupiter whom they stiled Opt. Max. Maximus sit certè Optimus non est so may I say of these How great minds they are I know not but I am sure they are not very good having little of reason or religion which are the only raisers and enlargers of the mind Thus true it is That {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} All wickednesse is for want of wisedome all sin the defect and sign of an unreasonable Mind And though it be set off with never so many shewes of wit and countenanced by greatness yet it drawes deep of folly and extreme sottishnesse such as a Christian mind should count most unworthy of it selfe and its Authour God since it blemisheth its chiefest ornament Reason and the beauty of reason which is Religion Thus wee may see and seeing I cannot but stand a while and deplore the miserable ruines and decayes of this excellent creature man and his excellency the mind which the hand of the best and wisest Maker had at first framed to so goodly a frame and beauty that it seemed a fit Type and Modell to represent its Makers skill and perfections Naturae imperio gemimus wee are naturally prone to grieve and pitty to see the ruines of a stately building whose heighth might have shook hands with heaven or to see an elegant piece or statue where in the Art and curiosity of the Workman had contended with Nature and the life it selfe now every-where flawed and deformed only such lineaments left as serve to shew how well it deserves our pitty and if it were possible our Repair How much more worthy of our serious consideration and sorrow are the Decayes and Dilapidations of these goodly structures our selves not only the base-Court and out-walls of our bodies nor that inward of our sensitive appetite and phantasies but that Sacrarium that Holy of Holies our Spirits and Minds spoyled of all those rich divine Ornaments they were once adorned withall And this not by the Injury of Time but our owne voluntary sin and which is most deplorable of our selves wee daily sink and moulder to an utter vastation and eternall ruine For though wee had power to impaire and waste our selves yet have wee neither skill nor will of our selves to renew and repaire till that {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} the first wise and powerfull Builder enable us with power from above to renew that by his grace and Spirit which wee have wasted by our owne sin and folly Nor did that {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} the great worker God shew more power wisedome and goodnesse in our first framing than hee doth Grace Mercy and pitty in our reforming While wee alas please our selves in our rubbish and dance in our ashes and ruines our sins and follies His truth discovers our decayes and danger his Spirit stirres us up to consider them to grieve for them to be ashamed of them and enables us to set to the work of renewing having set before us a paterne the expresse Image of himselfe in our nature His Son our Saviour Jesus Christ to whose beauty and perfections a Christian minde ought daily to aspire who as hee requires this work of us so hee enables us to it and that hee may the more encourage us he doth in some sort count it ours and will reward us for it by crowning his graces in us The third Part. Thus having seene Reverend Honourable and beloved the many great and universall ruines and decayes of our minds both in reason and Religion and so how great need wee have of renewing It is now time wee look to the third particular The manner of the Work as it is here recommended to us by the Spirit of God Be renewed c. This wee will consider in two things answerable to the Decayes 1 In point of Reason which is the naturall excellency of the mind so farre as it looks to this present life 2 In point of Religion and Grace which is the supernaturall excellency as it looks to the life to come 1 Reason is the Manifestation of the divine will in the creature It is as a right line or thred of wisedome which runs through all things by which every thing is fitted and tyed together by a suitablenesse and proportion of their formes and ends and all of them as lines in a Circle diverse in their circumference but meeting in one Center the glory of God their Maker God hath endewed the soule of man with an ability which
mind of Christ being that excellent paterne and type by which ours must be renewed as the Apostle prescribes Let the same mind be in you which was also in Jesus Christ so holy so pure so heavenly so composed whose spirit in and with your spirits effects this great and happy worke of renewing For Christ is not as other paternes dead and unactive but operative and assimilating those to himselfe who strive to imitate his vertues and perfections Therefore the Apostle Paul a learned and judicious man determined to know nothing as his maine but Iesus Christ and him crucified Other learning and Philosophy may free us from barbarisme in manners and ignorance of the creatures but faith in Christ crucified only is able to redeeme us from our vaine conversation to mortifie our sins to raise up our soules to consider themselves their great and last end and highest eternall good which is God considered in the face of Jesus Christ That Rapsody of humane knowledge or rather opinion indeed but {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} with which men so stuffe and cramb their minds of things that need not be knowne or ought not or cannot fully be knowne whose ignorance were safe and commendable what doth it but as the Apostle tels us puffe up as a false conception breeds only {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} a swelling and abortion of pride and selfe-conceit but brings forth nothing of those {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} noble and generous effects in their lives which become the divine nature of the soule Certainly though a man had devoured all the learning of Philosophers Historians Poets Divines and Humanists yet as Pharaohs lean Kine the mind would be never the fatter or fairer but still empty and unsatisfied in it selfe and ill-favoured in the sight of God as that poore man that dreamed hee eat and drank and was filled but when the soule awakes in that morning of eternity death or the resurrection it will find all without the knowledge of Christ to be but vanity of mind and vexation of spirit In all other learning the mind doth but pick up a few strawes leaves and feathers the notions and scatterings of a dark confused and defective knowledge to make it selfe a small nest of temporary content which will be soon cast downe when death as a whirle-wind overtakes us the mind will be left dubious wandring and distracted not having been truly wise to get by faith a sure mansion for it selfe in that Rock Christ Jesus Now this renewing of the mind is not a work of wit and parts but of grace and devotion It is not strength of reason nor depth of judgement nor acutenesse of invention nor faithfulnesse of memory nor vastnesse of reading nor subtilty of dispute nor heighth of speculation that renewes the carnall and naturall mind all these abilities doe often want most renewing to take off that pride and vanity of mind which commonly attends them to purge out that leaven which puffes them up to vain-glory and selfe-seeking to bring them as the Wise men of the East in all humility and devotion to seek Christ and offer up those treasures of wit and learning to the Honour of God the Giver Beleeve it Small and moderate minds for wit capacity and secular learning yet if sanctified by faith are often raised to more eminent expressions of love joy zeale patience constancy and all good affections for though they cannot formally dispute yet they can suffer dye for Christ and though they bee not learned in humane Arts and Sciences yet they have learn'd the first and hardest lesson in Christianity which is to deny themselves in point of pleasures profits honours and outward contents more than many of the wise and learned whose learning while they nourish proud sensuall and Atheisticall minds is but their crime and burthen serving only to die their sins to a deeper tincture of folly and is as a milstone about their necks that sinks their soules to a farther degree of condemnation And doe wee not often see men of great wits and noble endowments for nature and industry who have no cause to disbeleeve the word of God since hee never yet failed of his promise and hath confirmed the truth of the Gospel by so many infallible witnesses Prophets Apostles Martyrs Confessors by Miracles by Sacraments and what ever might induce men morally to accept of his mercy in Christ and live accordingly Yet these men not having minds renewed by faith count all but as the Athenians babling and foolishnesse of preaching continuing to please themselves with momentary and perishing Objects meane time with extreme sin and folly which will bee their misery at last they neglect that great salvation which God hath offered to mankind in Jesus Christ greater than which neither the soule can desire nor God can give since the Author Meanes and End is God himselfe We see in the Gospel till the Prodigall came to himselfe peregrinatur enim omnis inordinatus animus Chrysol. for wicked and inordinate minds are alwayes from home busied about all but themselves till hee returned ad saniorem mentem to consider seriously the necessitous way into which hee was falne and wherein hee maintained himselfe only so farre as to bee sensible of his sordid misery and till hee thought of the plenty both of his fathers affection and provision hee was not resolved to quit his husks and brutish company Primum est compositae mentis argumentum secum consistere it is the first step or signe of a renewed mind to be composed to tarry at home to bee with and reflect on it selfe which faith alone makes it to doe bringing the mind back from the former vanity and extravagancy and making it seriously retire to it selfe and its Author God its Saviour Christ what hee is and what hee hath done for us revealed to us and requireth of us All which the mind by faith considering of assenting to and relying upon is in some degree renewed daily to its primitive beauty and integrity new light in the understanding new objects to the will new motions to the affections new actions in our conversation which are all but earnest and pledges of that fulnesse and perfection which the soule shall at last receive in the vision and fruition of God and Christ in the life to come when both soule and body shall bee renewed to an undecayable perfection The Fourth Part. Thus have wee seene the nature the ruines and way of renewing the mind Give mee leave now in the fourth place to present to you the Idea or Character of a renewed mind which as hee said of virtue if wee could discerne with our bodily eyes it would strangely win upon and ravish our affections There are three Regions of minds as of ayre of heavens 1 The first is of low earthly and debased to senses and the things of this world which covet much
{non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} sayes Plato And S. Paul What fellowship hath light with darknesse Consider the maine comfort of a Christians life is the commerce with pure Minds Spirits and Intelligences as God the Angels and Saints And not only have wee to doe with good spirits but also with evill which wee call devills which are impure and discontented minds whose endeavour is to continue our minds and spirits perverse blind and depraved It being their envy that mankind which is of an inferiour make to them should have meanes of renewing which are denyed them As God and Christs Kingdome is chiefly that in the spirits and minds of men which hee secretly but most sweetly and effectually governes in those that are his so the Devills chiefe usurpation and tyranny is there secret and unseene but most violently ruling in the minds of the children of disobedience Ephes. 2.2 seeking by infinite stratagems and methods to corrupt the best and ablest minds to the same desperate state to which hee is irrecoverably falne Therefore wee pray that Gods Spirit would be with our spirits for there is no such judgement and misery as to bee left to a mans owne minde to bee led by his owne spirit which will certainly mis-lead him Men commonly pretend to magnanimity to generous minds and great spirits O consider it is not a great spirit in the worlds sense but a good one God esteemes The meek lowly and quiet spirit is greatest in Gods account and next to his advancing That mind is truly great which is more impatient of a sin in it selfe than of an injury from another and takes the severest revenge of it selfe There is a greatnesse the world applauds which infinitely lessens a Christian mind Dum magnitudinem animi peccandi licentia metiuntur while men measure the greatnesse of their minds by their boldnesse and daring to sin Such minds as Comets which are portenta irae Dei the higher and greater they are the more malignant influence they diffuse on the inferiour world by the contagion of their example Wee esteeme breeding learning and civility whereby the naturall rudenesse of a mans mind and manners is pared off and hee becomes tild and polished for the best society Certainly those are the best bred and most adorned minds who know to pay due respects not to men so much as to their owne soules and above all to God to whom wee owe the greatest obligations wherein to be wanting is extreme rudenesse and not so much incivility as brutishnesse for nothing is more humane than piety Incipiat ergo tandem aliqua tui dignatio esse apud te mentem suspice O begin at length to reverence thy sefe to respect thy mind above all things under heaven Wee are prone to admire stately buildings elegant pictures elaborate pieces of art and humane invention In these wee magnifie the skill and ingenuity of the worker and here our low and narrow thoughts are stopt and bounded O rise higher goe beyond all these to the Maker of these makers that {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} God Consider those unparallel'd pieces of heaven of earth of the sea the Sun c. above all thy selfe in thee thy soule in thy soule thy mind which is {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} caput operis Gods Master-piece in respect of which all creatures are inconsiderable to God and the renewed mind In other things wee seek to content our senses and appetites with the best objects they are capable of curious pictures for the eye ravishing musick for the eare exquisite tasts for the palate fragrant sents for the smell And shall our minds only bee found to fasten upon small vile and inferiour objects below their originall and capacity which our very outward forme and stature pointeth unto ad majora nati immo renati Animus excellens omnia tanquam minora transit diis cognatus omni mundo aevo par ipse sacer divinus The most if not all things in this world are impertinent to the mind and farre inferiour to it and one day as He brings in Pompey's soule ridetque sui ludibria trunci wee shall wonder with disdaine to thinke how much our minds stooped to our bodies and undervalued themselves Not but that a renewed mind may consider of all things below it as well as the divine mind did when hee first made them and still preserves them but yet at a distance and in subordination let none be in chiefe or Rivall to God and thy Saviour or thy soule The more the mind truly knowes these sublunary things the lesse it will seek or prize them Magnus animus ut solis radii terram contingunt at interim non amittunt nec sordes contrahunt The Renewed mind as the Sun may look at all things below but not to be affected much with them lesse infected by them As Solomon did whose wisedome remained with him sublimitatem suam servans still keeping its distance from them thinking none adaequate or fit company for it selfe but God good Angells and good men who are or have minds eternall as it selfe Sacer nobilis animus naturae suae memor nihil seipso minus amare potest a renewed i. e. a holy and truly ennobled mind should much forget it selfe if it should love any thing that is lesse than it selfe O! It were wisedome to begin this work of renewing betimes They live longest and best whose minds are renewed soonest Vitae perit quantum peccatis vivimus so much life is lost as is spent before because it is mis-spent while the mind neither knowes nor enjoyes its selfe nor its Creator nor its end and happinesse but lives in a dubious vaine unquiet disorderly way It is miserable to think how much of our short and precious time is raveled out in the vanity of our minds about things that will not profit us in the end before wee consider to what end God hath sent us into this world before wee resolve to breake off our sins by repentance which is {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} the change and renewing of the minde O brepit non intellecta senectus gray haires are here and there and wee consider it not S. Chrysostomes advice is good {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} hast thou sinned thou hast wasted and impaired thy soule O make speed with teares and repentance to renew it As David prayes Psal. 51. Create O Lord a new heart and renew a right spirit within mee Delayes are dangerous where the opportunity is short and the omission irreparable How many young men are cut off in their proffers and essayes to amend their minds and manners How many renewed yeares and dayes and mercies shall upbraid our unrenewed hearts and minds and lives The want of this makes the thoughts of old age and death full of bitternesse and terrour while men are conscious to such minds still in them as are in