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
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
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
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
turpiter audes How many hast thou knowne cut off in their youth and strength and confidence of living and it may be in their purposes and essayes of amendng Many of us have one foot in the grave through the course of age and infirmities that attend it nay even of the strongest of us we may say as David said to Ionathan As the Lord liveth and as thy soule liveth there is but a step betweene thee and death yea and hell too and yet many of us not yet gone one step of serious resolutions to follow Holinesse and forsake our old sins O dally not with thy life with thy soule with hell and eternall death delaies are extreame dangerous where the opportunity is short and the omission is irreparable Remember on this moment depends eternity Death followes us and sin followes us and our owne evill consciences and hell and the Devill too will follow and overtake us if we flie not from them by following Christ where ever he goes in the waies of Holinesse O learne of David Psalme 119.60 I made haste and prolonged not the time to turne my feete into thy wayes 6 Follow it sincerely Simulata Sanctitas duplex iniquitas Hypocrisie is a double and twisted impiety It s not only a not serving God but a mocking of him and it shall have a double condemnation for the want of holinesse which should be and for the ly and pretension of what was not nothing is more contrary to the simplicity of Gods Nature and the truth and integrity of his Word and intentions to men than simulation and hypocrisie Nothing hath more clouded ecclipsed and deformed the beauty of holinesse than the impudent pretentions of some to it who like Apes and Monkies are the more deformed and ridiculous because in some things they resemble the shape and imitate the actions of men but want their reason Galat. 6.7 Be not deceived God is not mocked what a man sowes that he shall reape He that sowes only shadowes and shewes and formalities of holinesse shall reape only shadowes and shewes and dreames of peace comfort and happinesse The deceiver will at last be most deceived O be good in good earnest or not at all Lose not so much time and paines to act a part of holinesse which will but improve thy misery what is it to be applauded of men and abhorred of God What is the hope of the hypocrite saith he in Iob when God shall take away his soule 7 And lastly follow holinesse constantly not desultoriè lamely brokenly and abruptly by fits only but with a steddy and resolute course as the Sun moves neither going backe nor standing still Perseverance is the crowne of graces and gets the crowne of Glory thou expectest God should make thee incessantly happy in his Eternity O be thou holy in tua aeternitate as Saint Bernard in thy limited and short eternity Consider how noble a patterne thou hast in Christ thy Saviour who deferred his owne glory till he had finished thy salvation Consider how great encouragements thou hast how sweet comforts for the present how ample reward and expectation for the future O let no difficulties take thee off nor errors divert thee let them rather whet and exasperate thy resolutions and endeavours let no superstition deceive thee nor persecution deterre thee having begunne in the spirit doe not end in the flesh Remember thou hast alwaies a viaticum means of refreshing neere thee The holy word and promises and Sacraments to relieve thee the holy Spirit to assist thee and helpe thy infirmities Thou hast Gods holy day wherein to be specially vacant to holy duties and the soules improvement by the carefull sanctifying whereof there is no doubt but the pious soule is better enabled to see God here in his Word and workes and hereafter in his glory and presence we have also praeclara exempla of holy men and women Saints in all ages which have gone before us in the waies of holinesse to that state of happinesse through all the oppositions of men and devills Heroick and invincible followers of holinesse now glorious and immortall possessors of happinesse Praeclara spectantibus mediocria praestare pudori esse debet having so noble and inviting examples set before us it is a shame for us either to follow them not at all or with weake and slender imitations 4 Wherefore must we thus follow Holinesse This brings me to the last point the second generall the motive or inducement without which no man shall see God Holinesse is that alone which makes us capable of the beatifick vision But this is a point of so high speculation of so serious consideration for the obtaining or loosing of it of so infinite comfort is the vision and fruition of God of so infinite honour the separation from him that it would farre exceed the time and my speech to set it forth to you as it deserves Onely this short glimpse we may take of it That there are many intervenient fruits of holinesse worth our ambition here by which we see God though dimly at distance in his Word and promises in his Sacraments in his Son our Saviour in his workes in his servants in the motions of his Spirit in the wayes of his providence mercies and judgements To all which Holinesse only cleares and enlightens and enables the soule so as to see God to enjoy and admire him This makes oculatam animam an eyed and seeing minde which otherwaies is blinde and dead Mat. 5. Blessed are the pure in heart for they and they onely do and shall see God But O when we come to see not his footsteps or back parts or shadow or hands but his face by an immediate intuition of his Majesty how shall we be filled with glory and happinesse O praeclarum invidendum spectaculum In this life indeed as God told Moses no man can see his face and live Scrutator Majestatis opprimetur à gloriâ But in heaven we shall live by the sight and light of God Sectator sanctitatis perficietur à gloriâ If then it be any comfort to see the light of the Sun the beauty of Heaven and earth or the face of an indulgent Father an excellent friend or a gracious Prince who is as an Angell of God what is it to see God himselfe O What a Sea and inundation of unspeakeable joy and happinesse must flow in upon the soule to behold the brightnesse of Gods presence the glory of his Majesty the beauty of his goodnesse the treasures of his wisedome the immensity of his power the amplitude of his mercy the perfection of his holinesse and infinite happinesse And last of all the eternall wonder of his free and unchangeable love to us so much below him so as nothing in comparison of him In thy light saith the Psalmist wee shall see light the way is by the light of grace to come to the light of glory by the beauty of holinesse to come to the
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
of peace David in his prayer and blessing to his son King Solomon joynes these two Give the King thy judgements O Lord and thy righteousnesse to the Kings Son and that Hee shall rule the people with equity and the poore with judgement Then the Mountaines subordinate Magistrates and Judges and the little Hils inferiour Officers shall bring peace to the people by righteousnesse Hee must bee Melchisedec King of righteousnesse that will bee Melchisalem King of peace 3 There is a third Peace that results from the judgement of Truth as the crowne and greatest reward of the Iudge That is the inward peace and serenity of his owne conscience witnessing to him that as hee is in the stead of God so hee judgeth as God would judge according to his will and law which is the rule of Truth and Justice and the way of peace and happinesse This Peace is so pretious to a good man that hee will choose to lose all rather than this which is the soules immediate and inward enjoyment of it selfe and God The fruition of which as it passeth all understanding so the losse of it passeth all the skill and favour of the world to repaire or recompence it An Vnjust Iudge cannot but condemne himselfe Prima est haec ultio quod se Iudice nemo nocens absolvitur Hee becomes his owne Accuser Witnesse Judge and Executioner For where Astraea Justice dwels not in the conscience Nemesis Revenge will Occultum quatiente animo tortore flagellum His soule must needs be filled with a fearfull expectation of vengeance and the judgement to come 3 Execute it when you have judiciously considered what is Truth and tending to Peace Declare it pronounce it publikely Magistratus est lex loquens Judges are ora linguae publicae Plebis Regis Legis Dei the publike Oracles to declare the will of the State the Law the King and God To what purpose is finding out of true judgement if you doe not dare not speake out or speak otherwise than you judge in your selves Procaciùs peccant qui maturiùs quasi ex consilio Knowing and not declaring and doing justice is the aggravation of injustice It is a calamitous time as Hezekiah said When children are come to the birth and there is not strength to bring them forth There must not bee only a Conception of what is true and just and then {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} an abortive judgement smothered and stifled in the breast of the Judge by silencing or suspending the sentence nor yet must it bee strangled and oppressed unnaturally as the Egyptian Tyrant did the Israelites infants after it is pronounced by diverting or perverting the sentence but there must bee an execution of it which is the soule and life of Justice and gives a quickening and animation to the Lawes Law as our learned Hooker tels us is a directive rule to the goodnesse of operation both in nature polity and religion What are Lawes in your books or brests if not put in execution The not executing the penalty of the Lawes upon offenders is the execution of the Lawes themselves and renders them cadaverosae Leges dead and breathlesse carcases It is the breath of the Iudge in a right and powerfull sentence which must blast the wicked and unjust and revive and renew the face and force of the Lawes of Justice and of good men Potentia est legis asylum Law and Justice hath its last recourse to Power for the executing Forcibly as Ioh and David pulling the prey out of the teeth of the lyon and breaking the jawes of the oppressor Restoring the oppressed and molested to his liberty right and quiet Commanding and inflicting condigne punishment on the purse or person of offenders If need bee and the publike good require it not only pruning and lopping off the branches and armes of luxuriant and spreading wickednesse by restraining the liberty by withdrawing the sap and nutriment of estate and meanes but cutting off those noxious weeds and thornes from the land of the living and utter extirpation of those that are Telluris inutile pondus Why cumber they the ground And this ne pars sincera trabatur not with more justice than mercy and gentlenesse lest connivence remissenesse and impunity spread the contagion to parts as yet found and untainted Quid enim tam iniquum quà m ut desertori boni bene sit What is more unjust than that it should bee well with him who hath left off to doe well What more just than that evill of suffering should light on evill doers But how must it bee executed 1 Couragiously and resolutely Iethro in the character of a Judge requires this in the first place That hee bee a man of Truth and Courage That feares God and none besides Not the face of man whose breath is in his nostrils The feare of man is a snare Qui fortis non est facilè ad injustè faciendum vincitur qui justus non est facilè ad imbecillitatem cogitur Iustice and fortitude as Twins grow together A weak and timorous man will easily bee unjust and like a Kite scared from the prey which the law hath justly seised on A just generous minded Judge will no more remit his judgement and the execution of it where the Law hath laid hold on a malefactor than the Lyon which the Prophet speaks of will quit his prey or abase himselfe for the multitude of shepherds gathered against him For this would bee as fatall to him as Ahabs letting Benhadad goe in peace or the Prophet not smiting when hee was commanded by the word of the Lord The blow and judgement as well as the crime and offense will light on himselfe for hee becomes guilty of what hee leaves unpunished The malefactor escapes lives continues to sin at the charge and hazard of the Judges soule 2 Freely For love of justice truth God and the publike good Parum est justitiam facere nisi diligas The motions of Justice must bee like the Heavens {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} by inward principles not like mils and mechanick Engines that stir not but by force of winds waters and weight and hands by hopes promises or gifts In execution of justice it must not bee as in scenes of masques and pageants where things seeme of themselves gently to slide from heaven when indeed there are secret devices and inventions of Art that violently though cunningly move them The light of the Sun the liberty of heaven the day and ayre should not bee more cheap and free than justice Though an Advocate may sell his pleading and a Counsellor his counsell yet a Judge may not the execution of Iudgement Justice is a debt they owe to men Hee cannot bee just that must bee hired to pay his debts A purchased sentence though just is unjustly sold Gifts doe blinde the eyes of the wise Hee that
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
the profit or honour can content you and like an unwholesome and undigested morsell will corrupt and taint all the comfort of your other good parts and deeds O let not that prove true by your meanes that hee complaines of {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} The name and thought and desire of peace is every-where the endeavour for it nowhere Blessed are the peace-makers O rob not your selves and us of so great and pretious a blessing Last of all {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} Remember that exact and unavoydable and unappealeable Tribunall of the just Judge of the whole world For Hee commeth for hee commeth to judge the earth righteously and the nations with his truth Hee will try all things as the Refiner by fire Which will discover and make legible that {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} the blinde and subtill characters of mens thoughts and actions which before could not bee read or perceived A good and wise Judge will not sciens volens wittingly give any sentence that shall then bee reversed or judge any judgement that need to bee rejudged much lesse deserve to bee condemned with him at that day Iudicandum se diffidit qui injustè judicat Hee believes not hee shall bee judged who executes unrighteous judgement yet his very injustice is a strong and sure argument against him of an after Iudgement which shall which must repeale his injurious sentence and punish his impious practices for the goodnesse and justice of God and his providence doe require this Veniet veniet dies qui malè judicata rejudicabit The day is comming when not astuta verba but pura corda not plena marsupia but conscientiae probae valebunt as St. Bernard not faire words but honest hearts not full purses but upright consciences shall prevaile which day shall rejudge all you have judged and judge both you and mee and us all and all wee have done or said For wee must every man give account of himselfe at the judgement seat of God For which Accounts fit and prepare us O Lord by thy infinite mercy as thou wilt raise us by thy infinite power that we may appear not in our own unrighteousnes which we abhor but cloathed and accepted in the righteousnes of Jesus Christ in whom wee believe who is our Saviour and shall bee our Judge To whom c. A SERMON PREACHED AT THE UNIVERSITY OF OXFORD In S. Maries July 11. 1641. Being Act-Sunday EPHES. 4.23 And bee renewed in the spirit of your mind THere is in our nature I know not what {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} an importunate desire after and delight in what-ever is presented to us under the Notion of New Whether it bee out of the restlesnesse of our minds and their infinite capacity or out of the emptinesse and insufficiency of all things under the Sun which rather satiate than satisfie which keeps our soules in a continuall appetite and longing still expecting to finde that content in what is New and unexperienced which they have hitherto failed of Thus daily deceiving the tediousnesse of our life which for the main is but the Crambe and repetition of yesterday by the sweetnesse of variety and a taste of novelty which are the sauce and seasoning of all things wee enjoy New fashions New cloaths New houses New Doctrines New opinions New Countrey New Teachers Any thing New though as our Saviour said of the Wines The elder bee the better Omne enim antiquius verius melius In manners and Doctrines for the most part it holds The elder is the better and truer Yea so studious are wee of Newnesse that our whole life is but a repairing and continuall renewing of what through age and infirmity is daily decaying in us seeking in vaine to blot out the footsteps of old age and with weak endeavours to row against the streame of Time which silently and insensibly carries us and all things downward to the Gulph of death and destruction which as it hath involved all the most renowned men Cities States and Monuments ut ipsae periere ruinae that the very ruines are now ruined so will it shortly swallow up us and all that wee magnifie and esteeme as ours Yet there is one thing in us whose ruines though they oppresse us they grieve us not and though they make us miserable they offend not These are the Impairings and Decayes of our best and Divinest part our spirits and mindes These wee are patient as wee grow elder they should grow worser and though they are pieces built for eternity yet wee suffer them as much as in us lyes to lapse and fall to eternall ruines not only of their happinesse but of their very Being In quantum enim mali sumus in tantum minus sumus The more wee have of sin the lesse wee have of wel-Being and deserve to have of simple Being because wee frustrate that end for which the wise and best Maker gave us our Being And by sin wee goe farther from the Fountaine of our Being and our Happinesse his will which is the rule of Goodnesse And happinesse is nothing else but a perfection of Goodnesse Yet the power of God will perpetuate wicked men by a necessity of being to all eternity That since they would not bee the Objects of his renewing Mercies to happinesse They should be the Subjects of his revenging Justice to everlasting miseries These ruines and decayes then which of all are most considerable because most dangerous well merit our survey and care especially if wee seriously weigh how vast the decayes are how short the time is allotted for this work being magnae mentis molis opus a great designe indeed and which falls not under the compasse of low narrow and smaller spirits but requires a raised enlarged and ennobled minde to begin to persevere and to perfect it Which that wee may doe with the more happy successe Let us look to this Modell of the blessed Apostle who having in the 21. and 22. verses cast away all that trash and rubbish of the old man which is not so much ruined as Ruine it selfe In this verse layes the Foundation of this stately structure whose heigth must reach to Heaven and whose paterne is the Beauty and Image of that first perfect and divinest mind which wee call God Bee renewed in the spirit of your mind In the words are two main things 1. The Subject of our worke The spirit of our mind 2. The Nature of the work Renewing Wee will seek to comprehend them both under these foure Heads of Discourse 1 What is this Spirit of our mind and how worthy Renewing 2 Wherein it is Impaired and needs Renewing 3 How and by what meanes it is to bee renewed 4 The Idea or Character of a renewed Mind Lastly Wee will conclude so as by Gods Grace may make the deepest Impressions on your minds
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
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
quiet till it hath attained to God the first and great Mind There it diffuseth and looseth it selfe in the vision and contemplation of his immensity and perfection where being united it enjoyes God Christ and it selfe in an eternall fulnesse and novelty It is now time that wee looke toward a Conclusion Although the weight and beauty of this Subject be such as might well save me the labour of stirring up your affections presuming that I speak to an Audience for the most part piously learned and judiciously devout Who I hope heare your selves rather commended for what you have already begun to doe than either taught what to doe or taxed for being wanting in a businesse so well-worthy your selves and your best endeavours as this is the Renewing of your minds And indeed I think my selfe happy Reverend and the rest learned Auditors that by your favour I have this opportunity offered me which my owne weaknesse might not have aspired unto that is To recommend so serious sublime and necessary an Argument as this of the Renewing our minds to so noble so learned so choice and considerable an Assembly consisting of Minds and Spirits more elevated enlarged and ennobled than ordinary And certainly this duty of renewing our minds as it concernes all men so it challengeth the practice of it from none more than from you To whom it will bee an extreme shame to bee exceeded by others in piety and holinesse as much as you exceed them in learning and knowledge O Let not that of S. Augustine bee verefied of us Indocti rapiunt coelum nos cum doctrinis nostris perimus Poore and simple minded men crowd into heaven and wee with all our learning coldly and scarcely creep thitherward It will bee little comfort at last to dye with those words Quantus Artifex pereo The fall of Angels you know was the most desperate and irreparable the cleerer the light against which wee sin the straiter and heavier will the chaines of everlasting darknessely upon us It is not learning but renewed that is sanctified learning that will comfort us that will save us that will secure us while wee preach to others the way of life our selves shall not be cast-awayes The new-fangled and phantastick mind indeed despiseth learning but the renewed mind prizeth it seeks it and useth it aright with humility with modesty with industry with the love of truth with obedience to it with a care and tendernesse to the soules of poore people with conscience to dispense its talents to the glory of God and good of mankinde Never did any times indeed require and exact more of learned men and Scholars than these now doe in point of renewing our minds our lives our manners to the paterne in the Mount the example of Christ and his holy Apostles The faults you see of some are made the reproaches of all by the rash unjust and ignorant censures of many who offended with some drone or waspe will bee revenged by overthrowing the whole Hive of Bees O let us confute their errors represse their insolencies disarme their malice and if it be possible occasion their envy rather than their contumelious pitty by a serious speedy and conscientious following this precept and the example too which is most noble and imitable in this great Apostle S. Paul whose renewed mind had learned in all estates to bee content to count Godlinesse great gaine to determine to know nothing but Jesus Christ and him crucified to glory in the crosse of Christ to esteeme all worldly wisedome vaine and foolishnesse without the knowledge of God in Christ to live with all good conscience before God and men This this method of renewing our minds and lives to piety holinesse humility and contentednesse will undoubtedly renew upon us the love and favour the honour and integrity of learning It is certaine the world cannot want us except they will be wanting to themselves in the most sordid supine and brutish negligence that can be It defends upon us what opinion and esteeme men shall have of us Wee shall easily overcome all the difficulties and indignities of these times if wee can but overcome our hearts to this sacred renovation which will render us accepted and honoured both of God and of all wise learned and good men whose wisedome and justice no doubt will as they ought discerne betweene the just punishment of some and the noble encouragement of others nor suffer the displeasure against some mens abuse of things to swallow up the lawfull just and commendable use of them For the ignorant brutish and impertinent clamours of others your only way is to let them weary themselves with their owne oblatrations while you as the cleere moone in a spheare above them neither alter the constancy of your course in learned studies nor abate ought of the splendor of your manners in a renewed that is a sanctified life and conversation You know {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} the mind is the man of the man how much more of a Christian who should farre exceed all other men having relation to a Saviour that is God as well as man By our bodies wee live beasts by our minds men by renewed minds Christians by perfected minds Saints The minds improvement is the maine which God Christ and Religion intend in us and shall wee bee incurious ut animam serves nonne expergisceris All other things in the world God so little considers that hee will one day destroy them but hee will make up his Jewels There is nothing God esteemes but man nor in man but the minde nor the minde till renewed to holinesse The Lord delights not in any mans legs no nor in any mans strength beauty haire or outside which are the leaven which puffes up vaine and small minds no nor in thy wit learning acutenesse eloquence c. but hee looks at the ornaments of a renewed a holy and humble minde this hee requires as a gift worthy of his prizing and acceptance S. Ambrose adviseth quod habes pretiosissimum mentem Deo deputes The Satyrist divinely Demus superis jus fasque animi sanctosque recessus Mentis incoctum generoso pectus honesto Hac cedo c. It matters not how meane thy drop or mite bee which thou offerest to God provided thou present it with an honest upright and generous mind whose most secret and retyred motions are allwayes digested to so holy and just a temper as becomes God the Receiver The renewed mind is no other but Bethel the house and temple wherein God will dwell even the high and holy One that inhabits eternity S. Chrysostome hence inferres {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} what wee doe to our decayed houses doe wee to our minds Vestium domorum sordes erubescimus animorum patiemur Our minds must bee fitted to entertaine Christ and his holy Spirit which pure Dove will not dwell with sordid deformed and unrenewed minds {non-Roman}
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—