consecration used for Bishops O let us make good the holinesse of our titles and function by the holinesse of our conversation Let not the world reproach us as some doe the vanity and arrogancy of the Popes who challenge to themselves the title of his Holinesse by way of eminency or emphasis when indeed it is say they by Antiphrasis or contrariety being for the most part solecismes and contradictions to their names as he said of Probus vir minimè probus O let us never vainely imagine that there is a neerer way to the Clergies honour than by the Clergies Holinesse Though Holinesse even despised as a Jewell under foot hath its true and internall honour and value still But O let not our preaching our writing our living any way decry damp and discountenance Holinesse which is Gods honour and the Churches honour and must be our both honour and happinesse O let us not vainely contend for an imputed and relative Holinesse in Churches and tables and vestures and gestures and neglect it in our hearts and lives Our word must be that of Saint Paul Be ye followers of me as I am of Christ that is of Holinesse which was Christs way This not onely the better world which are extreamely ashamed and grieved for the contrary but even the worser dissolute and debauched sort of people exact of us whom we harden extreamly against our doctrines by our contrary manners and who are glad by the faults and scandalls of Ministers holy men as they should be to justifie or excuse their owne vitious and unholy lives The higher our calling raiseth us the neerer should it bring us to God and the more should the face of our lives like Moses his shine with the beames of holinesse while we daily converse with God Nothing more justifies and assures the truth of our faith and doctrine than the sutable holinesse of our lives let not that be verified of us which Ieremy complained of in his time From the Prophets is prophanenesse gone into all the Land But rather let us take Saint Pauls good advice to Timothy Thou O man of God flie these things and follow after righteousnesse godlinesse faith love patience meeknesse c. 3 We come now to the third particular how we must follow Holinesse 1 For the measure how farre to the heigth aime at perfection anticipate thy Heaven as much as may be here on earth emulate and strive to equall thy patterne for parts though not for degrees Be ye holy as your heavenly Father is holy he hath nothing of true holinesse who thinkes he hath enough or may have too much Nimietates excessus affectuum Deo debentur All the excesse of our vehement and unsatisfied desires should run this way after God and Holinesse 2 For the manner how I answer 1 Follow it universally in all points the same tie lies upon thee in any one action which doth in all Holinesse is the salt which must season all so farre as humane infirmity can attaine Thou wouldst not have some sparkes of Hell mixt with thy joyes of Heaven O strive that no sin if possible may allay thy Holinesse and integrity Be ye holy in all manner of conversation and perfecting holinesse in the feare of the Lord 2 Follow it earnestly with vehement affections not cold languishing lukewarme and indifferent content not thy selfe with a few posting and perfunctory prayers easie and lazy formalities of duties obesae animae like fat and pursie soules that cannot follow either fast or farre But rise to that intensivenesse in following Holinesse with which the Covetous man followes his gain the Ambitious his honour the Voluptuous his pleasure follow it with the same eagernesse wherewith thou hast formerly followed sin the world and the Devill Follow Holinesse with the same flagrancy and contention as wicked men doe persecute and oppose it They have their {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} so must thou but sancta pia persecutio a sacred and commendable prosecution 3 Follow it cheerfully not in a tedious drooping and dejected manner which brings an ill report on Gods wayes no man hath more right to moderate mirth which is the only true than he which is in the way of Holinesse and indeed of happinesse O let not that be a burthen to our Spirits here which must be the joy and crowne and constant disposition of our soules in heaven The deadnesse and indispositions from within which we are Subject unto are not to be imputed to the wayes of holinesse but to the weaknesse of our natures as the lothnesse to use exercise proceedeth from the ill humors which oppresse the Spirits in a diseased body and not from the inconvenience of exercise which is the way to dispel those ill humours and to recover health and agility For the difficulties and discouragements from without they are not much to be considered by any but those that know not what is the worth of a Soule the weight of Eternity the comfort of a good conscience and of the hopes of Heaven in the sight and fruition of God 4 Follow it exactly closely not at large and at distances a far off as the Disciples followed Christ to be crucified Ephes. 5.15 walke {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} strictly and precisely in a sound and Apostolicall sense There will be rimulae leakes and flanes of infirmities and daily incursions in all our lives but let there not be hiatus wide breaches and gapings of presumption keep not willingly any distance or dissimilitude from Christ be not ashamed or discountenanced to come neere to him and to be like to him in all points Follow holinesse not timidè pudibundè it is pudendus pudor a shame infinitely to be ashamed of that any Chistian should be ashamed to be or to be thought too holy but that he must now and then dare to sweare and ly and talke obscenely prophanely or live riotously that he may not seeme too precise Canst thou be too fit for heaven or too far from sin and hell 5 Follow Holinesse speedily begin betimes all life is lost that is not spent in a holy course of living it is a dead life nay a damning life without amendment All our life is too little to live well the Sun cannot rise too early except to a sluggard nor can holinesse be too soone begun in thy heart except thou love to sleepe in thy sin It were happy if with Ieremy and Iohn Baptist we were sanctified from the Wombe and Font from the dawning and morning of our lives but O jam clarum mane fenestras intrat Rom. 13.12 It is high time to rise from sin and follow Holinesse the day of our short life is farre spent in following vanity and things that cannot profit the night of death is at hand ô make haste to live and to live holily that thou mayst not come short of dying happily Breve sit quod
turpiter audes How many hast thou knowne cut off in their youth and strength and confidence of living and it may be in their purposes and essayes of amendng Many of us have one foot in the grave through the course of age and infirmities that attend it nay even of the strongest of us we may say as David said to Ionathan As the Lord liveth and as thy soule liveth there is but a step betweene thee and death yea and hell too and yet many of us not yet gone one step of serious resolutions to follow Holinesse and forsake our old sins O dally not with thy life with thy soule with hell and eternall death delaies are extreame dangerous where the opportunity is short and the omission is irreparable Remember on this moment depends eternity Death followes us and sin followes us and our owne evill consciences and hell and the Devill too will follow and overtake us if we flie not from them by following Christ where ever he goes in the waies of Holinesse O learne of David Psalme 119.60 I made haste and prolonged not the time to turne my feete into thy wayes 6 Follow it sincerely Simulata Sanctitas duplex iniquitas Hypocrisie is a double and twisted impiety It s not only a not serving God but a mocking of him and it shall have a double condemnation for the want of holinesse which should be and for the ly and pretension of what was not nothing is more contrary to the simplicity of Gods Nature and the truth and integrity of his Word and intentions to men than simulation and hypocrisie Nothing hath more clouded ecclipsed and deformed the beauty of holinesse than the impudent pretentions of some to it who like Apes and Monkies are the more deformed and ridiculous because in some things they resemble the shape and imitate the actions of men but want their reason Galat. 6.7 Be not deceived God is not mocked what a man sowes that he shall reape He that sowes only shadowes and shewes and formalities of holinesse shall reape only shadowes and shewes and dreames of peace comfort and happinesse The deceiver will at last be most deceived O be good in good earnest or not at all Lose not so much time and paines to act a part of holinesse which will but improve thy misery what is it to be applauded of men and abhorred of God What is the hope of the hypocrite saith he in Iob when God shall take away his soule 7 And lastly follow holinesse constantly not desultoriè lamely brokenly and abruptly by fits only but with a steddy and resolute course as the Sun moves neither going backe nor standing still Perseverance is the crowne of graces and gets the crowne of Glory thou expectest God should make thee incessantly happy in his Eternity O be thou holy in tua aeternitate as Saint Bernard in thy limited and short eternity Consider how noble a patterne thou hast in Christ thy Saviour who deferred his owne glory till he had finished thy salvation Consider how great encouragements thou hast how sweet comforts for the present how ample reward and expectation for the future O let no difficulties take thee off nor errors divert thee let them rather whet and exasperate thy resolutions and endeavours let no superstition deceive thee nor persecution deterre thee having begunne in the spirit doe not end in the flesh Remember thou hast alwaies a viaticum means of refreshing neere thee The holy word and promises and Sacraments to relieve thee the holy Spirit to assist thee and helpe thy infirmities Thou hast Gods holy day wherein to be specially vacant to holy duties and the soules improvement by the carefull sanctifying whereof there is no doubt but the pious soule is better enabled to see God here in his Word and workes and hereafter in his glory and presence we have also praeclara exempla of holy men and women Saints in all ages which have gone before us in the waies of holinesse to that state of happinesse through all the oppositions of men and devills Heroick and invincible followers of holinesse now glorious and immortall possessors of happinesse Praeclara spectantibus mediocria praestare pudori esse debet having so noble and inviting examples set before us it is a shame for us either to follow them not at all or with weake and slender imitations 4 Wherefore must we thus follow Holinesse This brings me to the last point the second generall the motive or inducement without which no man shall see God Holinesse is that alone which makes us capable of the beatifick vision But this is a point of so high speculation of so serious consideration for the obtaining or loosing of it of so infinite comfort is the vision and fruition of God of so infinite honour the separation from him that it would farre exceed the time and my speech to set it forth to you as it deserves Onely this short glimpse we may take of it That there are many intervenient fruits of holinesse worth our ambition here by which we see God though dimly at distance in his Word and promises in his Sacraments in his Son our Saviour in his workes in his servants in the motions of his Spirit in the wayes of his providence mercies and judgements To all which Holinesse only cleares and enlightens and enables the soule so as to see God to enjoy and admire him This makes oculatam animam an eyed and seeing minde which otherwaies is blinde and dead Mat. 5. Blessed are the pure in heart for they and they onely do and shall see God But O when we come to see not his footsteps or back parts or shadow or hands but his face by an immediate intuition of his Majesty how shall we be filled with glory and happinesse O praeclarum invidendum spectaculum In this life indeed as God told Moses no man can see his face and live Scrutator Majestatis opprimetur à gloriâ But in heaven we shall live by the sight and light of God Sectator sanctitatis perficietur à gloriâ If then it be any comfort to see the light of the Sun the beauty of Heaven and earth or the face of an indulgent Father an excellent friend or a gracious Prince who is as an Angell of God what is it to see God himselfe O What a Sea and inundation of unspeakeable joy and happinesse must flow in upon the soule to behold the brightnesse of Gods presence the glory of his Majesty the beauty of his goodnesse the treasures of his wisedome the immensity of his power the amplitude of his mercy the perfection of his holinesse and infinite happinesse And last of all the eternall wonder of his free and unchangeable love to us so much below him so as nothing in comparison of him In thy light saith the Psalmist wee shall see light the way is by the light of grace to come to the light of glory by the beauty of holinesse to come to the
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—
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
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
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
duty in all the course and turnings of life to steere his speech by the Compasse of Truth which by a heavenly sympathy tends it selfe and must alwayes carry us to that Cynosure the first and immoveable Pole of Truth which is in God Lying and falsity is the rich and Noble mans shame and dishonour Truth and veracity is the meanest mans riches and glory The greatnesse of the one will not beare him out in lying nor the necessity of the other excuse him Veritas animae sponsa Every reasonable creature should bee affianced and wedded to truth by so firme and indissoluble a band as will suffer no estrangement much lesse divorce It is the adultery of the soule to embrace an error and of the lips to speak a lie Every man must speak truth So much as wee lie wee are not men that is the sons of God and Truth but devils the children of him who is the father of lies and liars 3 To whom To his Neighbour But who is my Neighbour Whomsoever the affaires of life and civill conversation doe joyne us unto Indeed wee are all Proximi naturâ neere Neighbours by the proximity of common nature of the same stock and extraction More neerly wee are Neighbours by the consent and fruition of the same Lawes Countrey Government Common-wealth and publike good Many are neighbours by a vicinity of place and cohabitation many by community of businesse and employment As wee are Christians wee are all Proximi Religione Fide Numine Redemptore and should bee affectu charitate wee have a neerenesse nay samenesse of Religion God Saviour Faith Hope And affection one to another These are obligations enough of neernesse and vicinity to tye us each to other under the relation of Neighbours when the least of them may not bee violated with a lie without a great sin and unworthinesse Wee may not lie to a stranger an enimy a heathen a Turk an Infidel a Lyar nor to the Devill himselfe wee may not pay him in his owne coyne no more than the Archangel Michael durst give him railing accusation though hee bee {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} a rayler and false accuser Certainly nothing is lesse neighbourly than lying for what trust affiance or security can one have in another if one cannot believe what another promises affirmes or denyes Commune vinculum indigentia The common tye of society is the mutuall want of each other and The common enterchange of good offices is in the way of truth-speaking Else every neighbour is Insidiator hostis an enimy and the more dangerous because neere and treacherous Better dwell in a Wildernesse than such a vicinity The knot and summe that folds up all the second Table is this To love thy neighbour as thy selfe Now nemo libenter dicipitur Falli nolunt qui fallere amant adeo rationalis natura errorem refugit Every man hates a lye in another so much as he loves himselfe No man loves you should lye to him though himselfe lies never so frequently no more than a thiefe will like you should steale from himselfe Doe then as wee would bee done to that is well and justly And speak as you would bee spoken to that is Every man the truth to his neighbour {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} The Standard of equity and vertue God hath set in every mans owne reason and conscience to measure by it to others so as hee would they should mete to him If but this one branch of it in truth speaking were conscientiously observed wee should not have so many contentions which call for publike examination and execution of truth for lying breeds injuries Hee that feares not to offend God by lying will not feare to offend man by defrauding whence spring so many suits and quarrels Every man though hee cannot judge what is aequum just in mine and thine yet hee may of what is verum in regard of his owne thoughts which needs no other Court Witnesse or Judge than his owne conscience for the speaking of it Neither private nor publike good can flourish if this commerce of Truth-speaking to our neighbour faile and decay Which if in daily and domestick converse it must bee maintained how much more in publike attestations when by word or oath wee are called forth as Witnesses or Iurors to speak the truth not only to our neighbour but to the face of our Countrey to our Prince to the law to justice it selfe and in a high degree to the glory of God as Ioshua perswades Achan to give glory to God by telling the truth by which the execution of the judgement of Truth and Peace may be promoted and the common good advanced by a just punishment of the wicked and absolving of the innocent Publike lies are impudent and enormous lies when death and life justice and injustice are in the power of the tongue But a lie upon oath is beyond expression abominable to God and man In this if in any sin men exceed the devils whom wee read of notorious for lying but not for perjury as never having the honour to bee called to witnesse a truth with the invocation of the Name and Majesty of God Perjurium est mendacium sacrilegum That 's the definition of perjury it is a sacrilegious lie Which besides the falsity seeks to rob his neighbour of his right and innocency the law and justice of a due debt of punishment which every malefactor owes robs the King Countrey and Common-weale of safety and God of his glory who is justified in his providence when sin is detected condemned and punished A sin out of measure sinfull while a man openly deliberately solemnely upon the word of God pretends to call God to witnesse of his truth speaking when hee meanes nothing lesse St. Augustine tels us It is a lesse sin to sweare by a false God truly than by the true God falsly Hee is neerer piety who ownes and feares a false God than hee that denyes the only true and so all Gods yet hee that denyes the true God is lesse wicked than hee that despiseth and blasphemeth him as a perjured person doth while hee endeavours so much as lies in him to make the true God his omniscience and power an abettor and maintainer of his lye and falsity Quantò magis sanctum est per quod juratur tantò magis poenale perjurium So that as Truth speaking is required of every man to his neighbour in private so much more in publike speaking and most of all in solemne and publike swearing before the Magistrate Where one false witnesse and false swearer may so plunder a truth and snarle a cause that it will bee hard for the Judge to finde the true method to unwinde it The truth and religion of an Oath is then fulfilled when he that is lawfully called to sweare doth so swear as is not only agreeable to his owne knowledge without equivocation or
{non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} sayes Plato And S. Paul What fellowship hath light with darknesse Consider the maine comfort of a Christians life is the commerce with pure Minds Spirits and Intelligences as God the Angels and Saints And not only have wee to doe with good spirits but also with evill which wee call devills which are impure and discontented minds whose endeavour is to continue our minds and spirits perverse blind and depraved It being their envy that mankind which is of an inferiour make to them should have meanes of renewing which are denyed them As God and Christs Kingdome is chiefly that in the spirits and minds of men which hee secretly but most sweetly and effectually governes in those that are his so the Devills chiefe usurpation and tyranny is there secret and unseene but most violently ruling in the minds of the children of disobedience Ephes. 2.2 seeking by infinite stratagems and methods to corrupt the best and ablest minds to the same desperate state to which hee is irrecoverably falne Therefore wee pray that Gods Spirit would be with our spirits for there is no such judgement and misery as to bee left to a mans owne minde to bee led by his owne spirit which will certainly mis-lead him Men commonly pretend to magnanimity to generous minds and great spirits O consider it is not a great spirit in the worlds sense but a good one God esteemes The meek lowly and quiet spirit is greatest in Gods account and next to his advancing That mind is truly great which is more impatient of a sin in it selfe than of an injury from another and takes the severest revenge of it selfe There is a greatnesse the world applauds which infinitely lessens a Christian mind Dum magnitudinem animi peccandi licentia metiuntur while men measure the greatnesse of their minds by their boldnesse and daring to sin Such minds as Comets which are portenta irae Dei the higher and greater they are the more malignant influence they diffuse on the inferiour world by the contagion of their example Wee esteeme breeding learning and civility whereby the naturall rudenesse of a mans mind and manners is pared off and hee becomes tild and polished for the best society Certainly those are the best bred and most adorned minds who know to pay due respects not to men so much as to their owne soules and above all to God to whom wee owe the greatest obligations wherein to be wanting is extreme rudenesse and not so much incivility as brutishnesse for nothing is more humane than piety Incipiat ergo tandem aliqua tui dignatio esse apud te mentem suspice O begin at length to reverence thy sefe to respect thy mind above all things under heaven Wee are prone to admire stately buildings elegant pictures elaborate pieces of art and humane invention In these wee magnifie the skill and ingenuity of the worker and here our low and narrow thoughts are stopt and bounded O rise higher goe beyond all these to the Maker of these makers that {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} God Consider those unparallel'd pieces of heaven of earth of the sea the Sun c. above all thy selfe in thee thy soule in thy soule thy mind which is {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} caput operis Gods Master-piece in respect of which all creatures are inconsiderable to God and the renewed mind In other things wee seek to content our senses and appetites with the best objects they are capable of curious pictures for the eye ravishing musick for the eare exquisite tasts for the palate fragrant sents for the smell And shall our minds only bee found to fasten upon small vile and inferiour objects below their originall and capacity which our very outward forme and stature pointeth unto ad majora nati immo renati Animus excellens omnia tanquam minora transit diis cognatus omni mundo aevo par ipse sacer divinus The most if not all things in this world are impertinent to the mind and farre inferiour to it and one day as He brings in Pompey's soule ridetque sui ludibria trunci wee shall wonder with disdaine to thinke how much our minds stooped to our bodies and undervalued themselves Not but that a renewed mind may consider of all things below it as well as the divine mind did when hee first made them and still preserves them but yet at a distance and in subordination let none be in chiefe or Rivall to God and thy Saviour or thy soule The more the mind truly knowes these sublunary things the lesse it will seek or prize them Magnus animus ut solis radii terram contingunt at interim non amittunt nec sordes contrahunt The Renewed mind as the Sun may look at all things below but not to be affected much with them lesse infected by them As Solomon did whose wisedome remained with him sublimitatem suam servans still keeping its distance from them thinking none adaequate or fit company for it selfe but God good Angells and good men who are or have minds eternall as it selfe Sacer nobilis animus naturae suae memor nihil seipso minus amare potest a renewed i. e. a holy and truly ennobled mind should much forget it selfe if it should love any thing that is lesse than it selfe O! It were wisedome to begin this work of renewing betimes They live longest and best whose minds are renewed soonest Vitae perit quantum peccatis vivimus so much life is lost as is spent before because it is mis-spent while the mind neither knowes nor enjoyes its selfe nor its Creator nor its end and happinesse but lives in a dubious vaine unquiet disorderly way It is miserable to think how much of our short and precious time is raveled out in the vanity of our minds about things that will not profit us in the end before wee consider to what end God hath sent us into this world before wee resolve to breake off our sins by repentance which is {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} the change and renewing of the minde O brepit non intellecta senectus gray haires are here and there and wee consider it not S. Chrysostomes advice is good {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} hast thou sinned thou hast wasted and impaired thy soule O make speed with teares and repentance to renew it As David prayes Psal. 51. Create O Lord a new heart and renew a right spirit within mee Delayes are dangerous where the opportunity is short and the omission irreparable How many young men are cut off in their proffers and essayes to amend their minds and manners How many renewed yeares and dayes and mercies shall upbraid our unrenewed hearts and minds and lives The want of this makes the thoughts of old age and death full of bitternesse and terrour while men are conscious to such minds still in them as are in