and at once incite and enable you to so serious so sacred so Christian so divine so necessary a work The first thing that requires your Attention is the Subject The Spirit of your mind What it is Some Interpreters understand that holy Spirit which is in the mind Thus Oecumenius Gorran A Lapide and others as if it were Be renewed by that Spirit of God which dwels and walks in your minds But this seemes to force the words Therefore S. Augustine and others more pertinently thus Though the words be two yet the Subject is but one non duas res intelligi voluit quasi aliud sit mens aliud Spiritus mentis sed quia omnis mens Spiritus est non autem omnis Spiritus mens est ideo dicere voluit Spiritu mentis i. e. in Spiritu qui mens vocatur It is no more but be renewed in that Spirit which is your Mind This sense agrees with that parallell place Be yee transformed by the renewing of your minds Where the word is but one the meaning the same The Acutenesse of some put this difference Mens est Spiritus remissus Spiritus est mens intensa The Spirit is the Mind moved the Mind is the Spirit composed Spiritus est mentis impetus That the Spirit is the vigour livelinesse and activity of the Mind by which it is stirred up applyed to and exercised about its Object That the substance of the Soule is as the Sun the Mind as the Light The Spirit as the Heat But these may seeme niceties beyond the Apostolicall intent which by the most and best is conceived to aime at that Princeps Animae facultas The highest most excellent and divinest faculty of the humane Soule which Plato calls {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} The Flower of the Soule S. Augustine Vis Animae suprema extendens se ad Dei contemplationem honesta à turpibus decernens Which wee call mens the Mind à metiendo because it weighs and measures all things Hyspulensis quasi eminens because it is the most eminent faculty in man by which wee reach the most excellent objects and excell all other creatures As the Satyrist comparing beasts with men Principio indulsit communis Conditor illis Tantùm Animam nobis Animum quoque And Ovid Sanctius his animal mentisque capacius altae There is indeed a difference betweene Anima and Mens the Soule and the Mind Anima est vitae Mens consilii fons The Soule is the Principle of life the Mind of reason and wisedome Beasts have Soules men only Minds The Mind improves by age and experience the Soul not Soules are in all men and at all times equall the Minds most different Philosophers thought they could never sufficiently magnifie the excellency of this faculty in man Mente nihil homini praestantius dedit Deus Tully They styled it partem Animae nobilissimam {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} The noblest part the Queene and Soveraigne in the Soule which is to rule all the inferiour faculties That Ignea vis That Divinae particula Aurae which the Poets expressed under that fiction of fire which Prometheus stole from Heaven and framed man withall Mens est Coelum hominis The Mind is as the Heaven and Firmament seated above all Nay it is Sol in Coelo as the Sun the most glorious and usefull part of the Soule Nay it is Deus in nobis As God is the Mind of the greater world so the Mind is as the God of the lesser world Plato in Timaeo affirmes the Mind and rationall excellency in man to bee immediatly derived from that divine Mind which is God By this chiefly it is that wee are {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} as S. Paul canonizeth that Hemistick of Aratus neere a kind to God and allied to the blessed Angels which have neither Bodies nor Soules but are pure Minds Spirits and Intelligences In this was the Image of God first chiefly imprinted and there are the best lineaments which remaine since our decay and fall incorporeall invisible eternall in some sort and infinit as God wise intelligent provident and free as God By this God hath fitted us to have communion with himselfe and commerce with his holy Spirit by its union to and conformity with which it may further partake of the divine nature perfection and happinesse This faculty then which the wisest Philosophers of old esteemed {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} pure uncorrupt and unblemish'd which above all things they prized admired and sought to improve and advance by abstracting it à sensuum contagione from things sensuall and corruptible retyring it to the study of its selfe and its Authour God which retyring Plato in Phaedo calls {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} a wise mans first death defining his Philosophy {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} the divorcing of the Soule from the body so farre as the necessities of life will permit This by which they measured the true dignity of a man {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} Socrates Such a man is to be valued as his Mind is by which they said truly that wise men exceeded fooles and good men wicked as much as heaven doth earth or light darknesse or the herd and common rout of men the beasts Yet in this faculty it is that the blessed Apostle vilifies and depreciates man pulling downe the high Imaginations of those {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} pretenders to wisedome of whom he affirmes {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} They became darkned and blinded in their understanding vaine and foolish in their Imaginations {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} Men of perverse and depraved Minds Such as are the best and the ablest men in the state of nature so as to stand in need of renewing by Grace In this the blessed Apostle begins the work of repairing The mind being that prime-motor the maine spring the root and fountaine of all our actions As the eye to the body so is the Mind to the man if it bee darkned how great is that darknesse how confused disorderly and dangerous must our motions be As that extravagancy and folly which appears in the actions of fooles and mad men proceeding from a flaw and defect in the braine and the indisposition of those organs which the soule useth for the exercise of its rationall faculties is not to bee mended by all the teaching advice and example you can use till you cure the distemper of the braine so all that wee can teach men of Graces and virtues of God and his perfections of Christ his mercy love and sufferings of their soules heaven hell eternity c. all the most weighty and serious matters will not change the folly vanity disorder and wickednesse of mens words actions and converse untill the minde bee first renewed and in some degree restored to its
the protection of an Hermite and his Reliques with which he had fortified and barricadoed himselfe against the invasions of death but all in vaine Superstition I say which is the Ape and Mimick of Religion having a Dream and fancy of external Holinesse when indeed it is the moth and rust both of true Religion and proper Holinesse the paint and meretricious beauty of a Church or Person the Ivy which by secret and unsensible steps creeps upon and overspreads its supporter Religion stealing away the sap of piety which should be in the heart and inward man in spirit and truth to the pleasing of the senses and fancy onely by nourishing them with externall and pompous formalities It is indeed a heavie Incubus when once it hath seised upon a Church or conscience oppressing it with needlesse scruples and ceremonious burthens which extremely abate if not quite take away that beauty vigour and majesty of true Religion and Holinesse which keeps the medium between superstition and profanenesse Yet must Holinesse have an universall influence upon the whole man all faculties motions and actions inward and outward on the soule and body In the Soule there must be a Holinesse of mind or understanding by seeing and beleeving the saving truth of God of the will by applying embracing and subjecting to it of the affections feare love joy anger hope sorrow zeale c. when they are by Gods Spirit carried to their right objects and moderated in their measure to them thus is truth rectitude and order the Holinesse of the mind will and affections Further Holinesse must have an influence on the externall expressions Truth and purity are the Holinesse of speech so chastity temperance meeknesse humility modesty c. are the Holinesse of our outward manners and comportments As Morality improves the affections and regulates the motions of the will to vertues so Holinesse beautifies and raiseth those vertues to graces and of the Philosophers Alchimy produceth the Christians pure gold while it keeps all our actions desires and affections within those bounds of honour and moderation which Reason and Religion doe require Holinesse is the Soules fitting for God its union and tie to God its communion with him in some sort deifying us and making us partakers of the divine nature What light is to the Sunne and day what clearnesse to the fountain what fruitfulnesse to the earth what beauty and health are to the body that indeed is Holinesse to the soule to the whole man and all our actions Holinesse is the supernaturall and universall beauty of the reasonable creature We are corruption till Holinesse make us sound ruined till Holinesse repaire us we are barrennesse till that make us fruitfull we are deformity till that make us beautifull we are darknesse till Holinesse enlighten us dead till that enliven us depraved till that rectifie us we are sin till Holinesse make us gracious wee are hell till Holinesse make us heavenly we are Devils till Holinesse make us Saints wee are damned wretches till Holinesse sets us in a capacity of salvation and seeing of God whose enimies we are till Holinesse have endeared us from whom sin would seperate us forever being filthy and abominable in his sight till holinesse wash and clense us through faith in the blood of Christ In the sight of the most holy God all beauty is deformity all wisedom folly all honour basenesse all plenty poverty all liberty bondage all happinesse misery all life but a death all our splendid works but dead and damnable without holinesse All words and humane notions are too grosse to set forth to you this spirituall beauty of holinesse like dead colours to paint the light and heat of the Sun one beame discovers it better than all the shadowes of words or Pencils could doe so the best knowledge of holinesse is experimentall in the soule and conscience For it is not only in words in notion fancy or speculation or outward shewes but in reality of effects serious and solid without vanity or ostentation or affectation setled upon indisputable principles and unmovable grounds the revealed will of God who since he is the author of our being nothing is more gratefully just than that his will should prescribe a rule to our actions to which the more we study to apply and conforme our selves in all our actions the more we follow holinesse This this is that frame and temper of our soules and lives which God our Father and Christ our Saviour and the holy Spirit our Sanctifier the Word our Instructer the Sacraments our confirmers the Saints our forerunners the Angels our protectors all with one voice recommend to us Follow holinesse O ye sonnes of men without which yet shall never see the face of God Our most holy faith and profession the precepts promises and hopes revealed all our duties of preaching hearing reading meditating praying receiving fasting almsgiving c. all are to advance this quality of holinesse in us This is one great intent of Christs comming his living with us and dying for us that hee might sanctifie as well as justifie us save us from the power as well as the punishment of sinne that he might give us a most perfect and excellent example and purchase to himselfe a holy people Luke 1.74 That we being delivered from our enemies might serve him without feare in righteousnesse and holinesse all the dayes of our life So Titus 2.11 The grace of God that bringeth salvation to all men hath appeared teaching us that denying c. 1 Cor. 1.30 Christ is made to us wisedome righteousnesse sanctification and redemption This is the fire that inflames and the incense that perfumes all our duties sacrifices and services to God so as to make them accepted through Christ This sets a value on two mites and a cup of cold water and a handfull of meale without which all externall pompe and cost of services is not only not pleasing but fulsome nauseous and abominable to God Esay 1.12 Offer no more vaine oblations who hath required these things at your hands yet the Law did but not in such a manner with unwashed hands and unholy hearts Prov. 21.27 Even the prayers and sacrifices of the wicked are abomination to God The Heathen saw this well and hath admirably expressed it Quin demus superis Compositum jus fasque animi sanctosque recessus Mentis incoctum generoso pectus honesto Haec cedò ut admoveam templis farre litabo Holinesse is the Ladder of heaven whose lowest step is humility and the highest love and devotion by which the soule descends to men in charity and ascends to God in piety This is that which prepares and disposeth the soule for Heaven without which Heaven it selfe would be no Heaven or not pleasing to us Better be holy in hell if possible than unholy in Heaven though these two are unseparable Holinesse and Happinesse differing only in degree not in kinde For Holinesse is the sparke of
Iudgement thus carried will have the Two qualities in the Text of Truth and Peace 1 Of Truth that is a True and just Judgement For Truth and Justice are equivalent and inseparably twisted together in foro in Courts and decisions of right What is false must needs bee unjust what is just must bee true Truth is the foundation of Equity Truth in Iudgement is The conformity or agreement of the sentence and decision with the minde of the Law understood by the Iudge {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} The intent of the Law is Suum cuique tribuere a Iudge must faithfully assigne to every one that portion which the Law doth give them in the true and literall sense and meaning of it without warping or straining the words by witty conceits and curiosity of interpretation beyond the intent of the Law or analogy of Justice which is Reason neither girding too strait by rigour nor slackning too loosly by indulgence the words which are but vestitus legis the clothing of the Law Pessima tyrannis lex in equuleo Lawes by the tyranny of wit may be so rack'd and tortured to such forced constructions that they may seeme to speak that which they never intended Obscure and ambiguous Lawes are the snares of a people and the dens or refuge of tyranny like Ancipites gladii two-edged swords that cut on both sides having no back whereon Innocence may safely rely Therefore Enacters of Lawes have endeavoured in plaine and perspicuous words to set downe their meaning according to which Iudgement must be executed if it be true Judgement The highest honour and most soveraigne employment and neerest to the supreame glory and majesty of God the great King and universall Iudge of the world is this to give true Iudgement to search finde declare vindicate Truth though darkned oppressed prejudiced with injuries and calumnies though prescribed and proscribed by power will time and custome Nullum tempus satis longum est quod possit aut debeat errori patrocinari injustitiae No might should bee and no time or usage is sufficient to patronize falsity and injustice against Truth and equity which out of doubt are most ancient and should bee most prevalent for falsity and injury presuppose them first and are but the superstructure a kinde of mosse and accrescency to them For this end saith our blessed Saviour was I born to this end came I into the world that I should beare witnesse of the Truth I can doe nothing against the Truth To this end Judges have reason learning experience conscience publike authority and trust from the King and Countrey that their judgement may bee true and just not false and unjust condemning the righteous or absolving the wicked both which are an abomination to God It is the prerogative of divine and omnipotent mercy to justifie an unrighteous person yet still with the safety of truth and integrity of justice for hee doth it not sine interventu mortis meriti Christi God so loved mercy that hee would magnifie it in justifying and saving of sinners yet so loves truth and justice that hee would not doe it without the death of his Son that just One to satisfie his justice That so hee might with infinite Mercy and Justice apply his righteousnesse to justifie the unrighteous By this meanes Righteousnesse and Peace kisse each other Your Judgement will bee not only just and true but a Iudgement of Peace the second quality required in the Text {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} Peace is the daughter of true Judgement Truth and justice the mother and nurse of Peace The God of truth and justice is the Father of order and peace The Devill and father of lies is the autor and fautor of disorder and confusion It was not the true mother that required the division of the childe nor is it true and upright judgement that dissolveth peace 1 It must be judgement of Private Peace betweene a man and his neighbour which can never be maintained except each party by the light of the Law cleerely sees the truth of the judgement for or against them Endlesse and interminate suits and dissentions like Hydra's heads must needs grow up where the seeds of falsity and injustice are sowne in Judgement Of this great care must bee had that though men lose their Cause yet they may not lose their Peace and charity A man makes an ill bargaine that gaines his Processe and loseth the love and good-wil of his neighbour which is the greatest Dammages Proximorum odia sunt acerbissima Wine makes the sowrest vinegar The quarrels of neighbours and brethren set their hearts at the greatest distance and defiance 2 Where the coales of private dissentions are scattered in every corner the whole house will soone bee on fire and Publike Peace cannot long continue For where there are great divisions of hearts and Private grievances arise like swellings and distemper of parts to affect the whole body with the feaver of discontent what can be expected but Publike mutinies and combustions Lex est corporis politici nervus The great bodies of States must needs bee paralitick and vehemently shaken if not dissolved when the sinewes of justice faile An unjust Judge like a Comet portends warres and commotions and scatters so malignant an influence to mens mindes that they had rather venture the injustice of warre than suffer the injustice of peace This Principle is in most mens mindes Pax est omni bello tristior quae justitiae veritatis ruinâ constat That peace is more deplorable than warre it selfe which only maintaines power to waste and oppresse innocence and truth Isidore Pelusiot tels us truly {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} It is but the name and shadow of a false and lying peace where is not true justice Iustitiae debetur quod homo homini non sit lupus It is true judgement only that can secure peace and hinder men from degenerating to wolves and tygers which they doe when by injustice some are exasperated others are animated to sin and injurious insolencies One untrue and unjust judgement like the winde scatters and sheds the seeds of ill weeds and manners about the whole field which should by truth and justice have beene cut up by the roote and its contagious spreading hindred Besides nothing more slackens the reins of government and the stability of peace which is upheld by the reverent awe and respect which the people and subjects give to the Magistrate than when by injustice and unworthinesse they bring their persons and authority under contempt and dislike that they seeme to them not as Gods but Idols which have eares but heare not eyes but see not mouths but speak not true judgement Against such Magistrates people are prone to think it not only just but meritorious to rebell The Kings strength or throne loveth judgement and by righteousnesse it shall bee eshablished with abundance
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—