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
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
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—