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
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
earnestly desires and oft seeks to perswade it selfe is not it begins at length to think it not indeed and by an affectated and resolved Atheisme willingly neglects to know to feare to love to serve to enjoy him whom to know is life eternall to feare is security to love is the divinest comfort to serve is the truest liberty to enjoy is the only happinesse and content of the mind At last they grow devilish and reprobate minds such as sin with greedinesse mock God and contemne what ever is sacred loving darknesse more than light despising the blood of the Covenant and wilfully forsaking their own mercies and happinesse Thus you see how the Mind of man becomes degraded from the highest pitch and object God and miserably decayed in respect of its noblest capacity and operations That as a weak braine it cannot now look to so great an heighth as a bleare eye is offended with so glorious a Light either Atheising i. e. hath not or desires no God at all or Idolizing and erects false gods or its luxuriancy and wantonnesse runs out to superstitious and vaine worshipping of the true God hardly containing it selfe in those bounds which right reason the word of God the majesty purity and sobriety of true Religion doth permit or prescribe And not thus only are our minds decayed in their chiefest excellency and immediate respects to God which wee call Religion But farther in the whole tenour of mens lives and actions you may discover minds full of basenesse disorder and unreasonablenesse {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} sayes Chrysost. Wicked men are unreasonable men Psal. 14.14 Are they not without understanding that work wickednesse Adeo omnis inordinatus animus sibi poena In this is every inordinate mind its owne first and severest punisher lessening and loosing that honour of right reason whereby we are men and excell the beasts Doe but trace mens actions and in them you shall see the print and Idea of their minds Insani esse animi non sanus juret Orestes No man so mad but will protest they are the effects of unreasonable minds 1 Is any thing more unreasonable than so farre to feare the face of man and to bee awed by his sight as not to doe any thing shamefull and undecent before him except there be attrita frons brazen or no fore-heads and yet neither to reverence our selves and the witnesse of our owne consciences nor the presence and all-seeing eye of God who wee think sees not our secret and shamefull actions and so upon the point we deny him to bee God because not omniscient or if wee doe then adde wee to our sin a most notorious impudence 2 Is any thing more unreasonable than of a short pretious and uncertaine life to expend the prime and morne of our time the flower of our wit and strength to serve sin and the Devill reserving only the dregs and bran of our age for repentance and devotion whereas indeed nothing should bee done with more vigour and vivacity than virtuous and pious actions Besides all this we run a desperate hazard of our soules and their eternall salvation venturing so great a treasure in so fraile a bark whereas indeed as David said to Ionathan As the Lord lives and as thy soule lives even the strongest youngest and most confident of us all there is but a step betweene us and death 3 Is any thing more unreasonable than in old age when our Sun is almost set when wee have little time to live and need least yet then to minde and covet the world most so much studying the body as to neglect the soules provision to value a moment and slight eternity 4 Is any thing more unreasonable than to receive many great and daily blessings from the almost prodigall hand of God and yet to be so farre from being thankfull for them that wee are more offensive to the Giver by them dishonouring him by his very blessings of peace health plenty beauty strength parts wit and learning c. abusing all to pride vanity excesse c. Because God is constantly Good wee are confidently evill 5 Is any thing more unreasonable than for a man to sweare gratis i. e. tempted neither by profit nor pleasure and either out of a proud affectation of Gallantry or out of passion against anothers folly to blaspheme the name of that God and Saviour by which man pretends to hope for salvation If there bee a God above us how can they bee guiltlesse that take his name in vaine making that cheap and prophanely obvious which all wise and good men have esteemeed and used as most sacred and reverend If there bee no God how vaine then are their violent expressions their frequent and passionate swearings 6 Is any thing more unreasonable than to disobey his commands who needs not our Service but we need his commands who therefore honours us with his commands ut habeat causas remunerandi that hee may have occasion to reward our obedience by violating whose precepts and lawes wee at once in effect deny all his Attributes As if hee were neither wise nor good in enacting such lawes nor powerfull nor just in vindicating them 7 Wee cannot endure a man that hath a heart and a heart that is none at all whose mind and expressions are alwayes two and at variance Wee rather entertaine such with jealousie and suspition than confidence and affection because wee know all is but outside a shew and simulation only for their owne ends And is not that Hypocrisie of those S. Iames calls {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} double-minded men most impudent and unreasonable which they feare not to offer to God while they desire only {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} to appeare not to bee seriously and solidly religious whose Affections are but Affectations whose profession branches beyond the root of their knowledge whose religion is but the part they act to please some spectators the paint of their actions and the cloak they assume to palliate and compasse their poore and small designes of favour or profit c. Forgetting that nothing becomes the simplicity of Gods being and his serious intentions of good to man more than that {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} sincerity and soundnesse of minde to Him and his service Nor is a man ever more unfaithfull to his owne soule than when hee doubles and falsifies with God What is the hope of the Hypocrite when God shall take away his soule Nothing leaves a man more hardned and desperate than Hypocrisie 8 We are impatient that our words and promises should be disbeleeved and returned upon us with the reproach of a lie And is it not most unreasonable that wee should doubt or not beleeve at all or utterly deny the word the Gospel the promises and truth of God making him a lyar who is the first most necessary and eternall truth who never
did and its impossible hee should either erre or deceive 9 Wee think it just that whoso offends our meannesse and expects to reingratiate himselfe to our favour should at least ingenuously acknowledge his fault and promise amends upon suit of our pardon And is it not most unreasonable that when our consciences tell us wee have often and highly offended the God of heaven yet never to bee touched with remorse and sorrow for our sins but persist with dry eyes to adde sin unto sin Abusing that long-suffering of God which should lead us to repentance hardning our hearts by what should melt them the patience and longanimity of God which is so great and excessive being provoked every day That if wee had no other Argument to convince there is a God immensly good this were enough for no finite patience could forbeare so long Wee daily pray for and expect forgivenesse from the Majesty of God for our numberlesse and hainous offenses which if wee obtaine not it had beene good for us that wee had never been borne And is it not most unreasonable that wee should be so sensible of the least injury offered to our vilenesse so short spirited that like powder wee kindle upon the least sparke of offense and instantly flame to revenge That like Esau or that evill servant in the Gospel Mat. 18.28 Wee feed our minds with such black and desperate thoughts as to count nothing sufficient to redeeme our honours or repaire our wrongs but the very blood and life of our brother That being mortall wee should meditate such immortall displeasure and to expiate in point of honour some small neglect or affront which a great and noble minde would passe over quippe minuti semper exigui est animi minimique voluptas ultio and a Christian minde for Christs sake would forgive so as to adventure at once the sacrificing two soules to the Devill and eternall death So that what event soever a Duell hath wee doe our soules a greater injury than is in any mans power to doe us If God had beene thus speedy and implacable to thee thou hadst not lived to have stood so much upon thy termes to set a higher value on that Idoll thy Reputation than upon thy God thy Saviour thy brothers and thine owne soules salvation Hic animus atque hae sunt generosi Principis Artes Are these the expressions of reasonable minds of generous and great spirits As Lactantius said of Iupiter whom they stiled Opt. Max. Maximus sit certè Optimus non est so may I say of these How great minds they are I know not but I am sure they are not very good having little of reason or religion which are the only raisers and enlargers of the mind Thus true it is That {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} All wickednesse is for want of wisedome all sin the defect and sign of an unreasonable Mind And though it be set off with never so many shewes of wit and countenanced by greatness yet it drawes deep of folly and extreme sottishnesse such as a Christian mind should count most unworthy of it selfe and its Authour God since it blemisheth its chiefest ornament Reason and the beauty of reason which is Religion Thus wee may see and seeing I cannot but stand a while and deplore the miserable ruines and decayes of this excellent creature man and his excellency the mind which the hand of the best and wisest Maker had at first framed to so goodly a frame and beauty that it seemed a fit Type and Modell to represent its Makers skill and perfections Naturae imperio gemimus wee are naturally prone to grieve and pitty to see the ruines of a stately building whose heighth might have shook hands with heaven or to see an elegant piece or statue where in the Art and curiosity of the Workman had contended with Nature and the life it selfe now every-where flawed and deformed only such lineaments left as serve to shew how well it deserves our pitty and if it were possible our Repair How much more worthy of our serious consideration and sorrow are the Decayes and Dilapidations of these goodly structures our selves not only the base-Court and out-walls of our bodies nor that inward of our sensitive appetite and phantasies but that Sacrarium that Holy of Holies our Spirits and Minds spoyled of all those rich divine Ornaments they were once adorned withall And this not by the Injury of Time but our owne voluntary sin and which is most deplorable of our selves wee daily sink and moulder to an utter vastation and eternall ruine For though wee had power to impaire and waste our selves yet have wee neither skill nor will of our selves to renew and repaire till that {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} the first wise and powerfull Builder enable us with power from above to renew that by his grace and Spirit which wee have wasted by our owne sin and folly Nor did that {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} the great worker God shew more power wisedome and goodnesse in our first framing than hee doth Grace Mercy and pitty in our reforming While wee alas please our selves in our rubbish and dance in our ashes and ruines our sins and follies His truth discovers our decayes and danger his Spirit stirres us up to consider them to grieve for them to be ashamed of them and enables us to set to the work of renewing having set before us a paterne the expresse Image of himselfe in our nature His Son our Saviour Jesus Christ to whose beauty and perfections a Christian minde ought daily to aspire who as hee requires this work of us so hee enables us to it and that hee may the more encourage us he doth in some sort count it ours and will reward us for it by crowning his graces in us The third Part. Thus having seene Reverend Honourable and beloved the many great and universall ruines and decayes of our minds both in reason and Religion and so how great need wee have of renewing It is now time wee look to the third particular The manner of the Work as it is here recommended to us by the Spirit of God Be renewed c. This wee will consider in two things answerable to the Decayes 1 In point of Reason which is the naturall excellency of the mind so farre as it looks to this present life 2 In point of Religion and Grace which is the supernaturall excellency as it looks to the life to come 1 Reason is the Manifestation of the divine will in the creature It is as a right line or thred of wisedome which runs through all things by which every thing is fitted and tyed together by a suitablenesse and proportion of their formes and ends and all of them as lines in a Circle diverse in their circumference but meeting in one Center the glory of God their Maker God hath endewed the soule of man with an ability which
Happinesse and happinesse the flame of holinesse Holinesse is the infancy of happinesse and happinesse the compleat stature of holinesse Holinesse is the morning of happinesse and happinesse the meridian or noone-tide of holinesse Holinesse is the seed-time and happinesse the full harvest For Heaven is not as grosser mindes imagine onely an impunity or freedome from punishment and fruition of pleasures c. but rather it consists in an immunity from sin and a perfection of holinesse This is that one thing necessary and required of the Sons of men as the condition of seeing God t is not without Riches no man shall see God or without Beauty honour strength learning wit c. No but without holinesse all other additaments thou maist dispense with and yet be happy but Holinesse is indispensible By the paths of holinesse onely our wearied and wandring Soules may returne to paradise that happy state and station whence we fell and were driven out all other waies are severely kept against us by the flaming sword of Gods irreconciliable anger and hatred against sinne No unholy thing shall enter much lesse remaine in the holy City all such shall be cast out Rev. 21.27 Psal. 5.4 Thou art the God that hast no pleasure in wickednesse nor shall any evill dwell with thee God is of so pure eyes that he cannot behold iniquity no more than the Sun can behold darknesse for its appearing turnes all darknesse into light much lesse can darknesse looke upon light or sinners on God this is hell neither to see nor to be seen of God whose favourable presence is the life his absence the death of the soule forever But I have done with the first particular what holinesse is The second thing is who must follow it Every one that hath a soule to save or a minde to see God The exclusion is peremptory and universall Without holinesse no man shall see God with this no man need despaire though never so defective for other things without this no man may presume God is no Accepter of persons Not the rich nor great nor noble nor valiant nor beautifull not the morally civill not the witty and learned Scholars not the deepe States-men and darke Polititians not the potent Princes and mighty Monarchs of the world none of them may flatter themselves to reach Heaven without holinesse God will cast deformity on all your so much flattered and selfe-admiring beauty which is deceitfull to the owner and dangerous to others unlesse the beauty of holinesse be added to thee like Apples of Gold in pictures of silver which makes thee lovely not only to good minds on earth but also to the Angels and God himselfe in Heaven God will infatuate all your fallacious wisedome and selfe-destroying wit he will discover the shallownesse of all your imaginary depths and counsels He will one day appeare the only true wise man who is wise for his soule to God and to Eternity which is none but the holy man God will make to vanish all the dreames and shadowes of your imaginary greatnesse and flat the swelling sailes of your titles of honour fild only with popular breath and opinion of men your selves and others He will be then truely and only honourable who hath sought Gods honour more than his owne whom God will admit to his sacred presence and favour this is none but the holy man Nay God will cast contempt upon Princes as the Psalmist speakes and in stead of Robes of Majesty they shall be covered with their owne confusion as with a cloake unlesse they be sacred in heart as wel as in title consecrated to God as wel as exalted above men except there be the inward annointing of Gods holy Spirit as wel as the outward of the Prelate As they are neere to God in greatnesse and place so they must be in grace and holinesse if ever they hope to attaine to glory and happinesse Even in Princes God tels Samuel He lookes not at the outward appearance but at the heart That that indeed is truely Sacred Majesty in Princes when being Gods Vicegerents on earth they doe that which they are perswaded in their conscience God himselfe or Christ would doe if they reigned visibly as King on earth when being Vmbratiles Dij the back parts and shadowes of God they most fully represent in a humane model the divine perfections Certainely nothing sets forth Princes to a more divine honour love and veneration than their exemplary vertues and holinesse Hic animus atque hae sunt generosi Principis artes This even they the greatest of men must follow since they are but Mortales Dij and must die like men unlesse they meane to come infinitely below the meanest of their good Subjects in the other world whom in this they so much exceed Indeed all of us both great and small must follow holinesse since all have relation to so holy a Creator to so holy a Redeemer and to so holy a Comforter being Subjects to the King of Saints Yea we are or should be the habitation and Temple wherein God will delight to dwell 1 Cor. 3.17 If any man defile the Temple of God him will God destroy Nay we are the Heaven where God resides every Saint saith Saint Bernard is Gods Sanctuary and every holy heart a Heaven therefore that is called the Heaven of Heavens where the Saints are in every of whom God dwels more gloriously than in any materiall Heaven In all callings and states of life holinesse is necessary every action should be a step to arrive neerer to God Holinesse is the poore mans riches the meane mans honour the weak mans strength the banisheds home the prisoners freedome the young mans glory the old mans crowne the sick mans health the dying mans hope and life In a word it is all in all to all men dying and living The weight of this text lies upon All to move them to follow holinesse and those especially who have most impediments and diversions yet their actions are most exemplary whether they be good or bad O when power and piety greatnesse and goodnesse heigth and holinesse meet together and make up one Magistrate one Minister one King how divine how glorious how attractive and commanding all hearts to a love or feare are their lives and actions Like a noble constellation which consists of many stars no lesse benigne and propitious for their influence than eminent and conspicuous for their light And if I were to speake to men of my owne calling superiors or equalls as I see I am likely to doe to some I should with all humble and respective earnestnesse recommend Holinesse to their hearts thoughts words lives gestures lookes and conversations Etiam vultu laeditur sanctitas Haughty and supercilious lookes and insolent comportment much more such speech and actions mis-become the holinesse and humility of our profession There are holy orders and holy duties to which we are admitted and there is a speciall ceremony 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
wee call the mind or rationall faculty to find out this rule and law both in himselfe and all creatures by discourse and having found it his conscience tyes him to follow and observe it both towards himselfe and all things without him This tye and relation of reason is most constant and unchangeable in all things which work and are moved by instinct and necessity ad unum only the reasonable creatures which have {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} a free-will and liberty of working doe often swerve from this rule of Reason which whoso most observes we count a wise and prudent man whoso by sensuality and passion violates we count him {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} foolish disorderly and unreasonable God is the most rationall Agent doing all to a right end and by fitting meanes having wisedome to dispose and power to effect beyond all possibility of power or resistance Mans best improvement of reason is to find out and propound to himselfe the right end which is Gods and must bee good and to use fitting meanes which must be honest in all his Actions to himselfe and others {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} Arist. Reason still enformes us best This Rule Iuxta rationem vivere to live by Reason Philosophers and wise men of the world thought the highest best and sufficient Rule to live by which would bring a man to the best end in the fruition of which consisted Happinesse or that Summum bonum By this Rule Reason they did and said many things very noble and commendable wel-becomming the dignity of the mind of man at least for the materiality of their actions civill and morall as the enacting of just and wholesome lawes the constituting of formes of Government and well-ordering of Common-weales for administration of Justice in both kinds for moderating the sensuall Appetites for composing the passions c. Though they seeme to have failed in the main end which chiefly formes and qualifies both Actions and Agents to wit the glory of the great Creator while they did things not out of Conscience and obedience to his will but out of respect and love they had to their Countrey or themselves out of an insatiable desire of Glory and immortality of Fame Hence their minds grew vaine and proud which blemished both themselves and the most specious of their doings or sufferings For although these men went farre in renewing their minds by the light of Reason to a restrained and civilized temper above the most of men yet they came farre short of that highest and divinest pitch of Renovation which is in respect of true piety and Religion which is The minds conformity to the will of God for what concernes a better and eternall life which is the speciall effect of Christian faith and this is the Grace of God In respect of this last and great end the Glory of God in the saving of our soules I need not tell you how blinde Reason is and ever was in the wisest of naturall men You know how confused and uncertaine all was that they guessed or discoursed of the Soules immortality and after-happinesse which so farre as they did expect it was only grounded on a mans owne Righteousnesse and good works not upon anothers applied by Faith which is only the Christians light For bare Reason will never suffice to find out its owne defects the nature of sin and misery by it nor the fall of man which no Philosophers dreamed of Much lesse of the way of repairing by the free love and mercy of God through Jesus Christ our great Redeemer For this the mind needs a supernaturall light of the word of God and his Spirit Which only can raise the soule to see its owne misery and accept of Gods mercy So that what the mind is not able in this great mystery of our salvation by Reason to invent or comprehend for the uniting of two at so infinite distance as a most holy and just God and a sinfull man Its narrownesse and incapacity is supplied by the Grace of faith trusting in adhaering to and relying upon the truth mercy and power of the Promiser and Revealer of these {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} great things of God as also for the effecting of them 2 So that Christian faith is the greatest improving and raising of the mind bringing the soule back to that first and best object God from whom by sin it was alienated and diverted to the creature And the nearer the mind approaches by faith to God the more it partakes of his light and grace the more is the divine Image renewed in the mind and whole man which wee call Holinesse which is a study of conformity to the will of God arising from the apprehension and beliefe of his goodnesse in himselfe and his love to us in Christ For untill a man believes this truth of God in the Gospel and sees those better things offered to him in Christ hee cannot mind the things of God with any delight or comfort as being either incredible or impertinent and unprofitable unto him The mysteries of God being as that of regeneration to Nicodemus hidden and strange Paradoxes rather than saving truths and gracious promises And certainly till wee believe that God hath loved us freely in Christ our minds cannot bee carried with that filiall love to him as a Father Tantum amamus quantum credimus As farre as wee believe we love as we love we live Till we believe God will save us as he hath promised upon our turning from sin to Christ wee cannot serve him with that free and faithfull service as hee requires Till wee believe in some measure that God hath chosen us in Christ to bee his for ever wee cannot quit our minds of other things and choose him for our highest good and only happinesse Therefore wee see the low and narrow minds of men out of Christ seek only to supply their wants and please themselves with these small temporary and appearing good things which this life affords Their desires and feares their shadowes of content their dreames of honour of happinesse how meane and poore how false and deluding how much to be pittied having nothing in their ayme which is worthy the minds dignity or answerable to the soules infinite capacity and duration Only true Christians that is Beleevers above all sects and professions have given great proofe of the true magnanimity of their noble and generous minds both in doing and suffering having minds by faith renewed and so raised that they were able to despise all that the world esteemed to contemne all they threatned or inflicted to deny themselves unto death their minds being fixed on that life treasure and happinesse which God hath offered to mankind in Jesus Christ So then Iesus Christ wee see is that first great and soveraigne object whom whilst our minds by faith look upon they are renewed raised beautified ennobled and transformed 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—