{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
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
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
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—