and his pretious name had in honour who first of Princes next after Christ gave that for his word Beati Pacifici And may they be blessed who being heires to his Crowne are also heires to his Princely vertues and peacefull disposition And have we not all causes to blesse God who hath inclined their hearts and to blesse them who have followed those inclinations to re-establish our late dubious and endangered peace and lengthen out our tranquility May the great God of peace crowne their Persons Posterity and Kingdomes with aboundance of mercy and peace so long as the Sun and Moone endure 3 Follow peace with all men for thy own internall and eternall peace with God God is surely an enemy to those that are enemies to peace since they are contrary 1 To his nature which is happy in an unmoved and eternall tranquility 2 To his word which seeks by the message of peace to bring us neerer and make us liker to himselfe 3 A peacelesse and unquiet disposition like troubled waters is lesse apt for the sweet and cleere reflections of Gods love to it or the operations of his Spirit in it which creates that internall and unexpressible peace which no man knowes the price of but he that hath it 4 Lastly they only shall rest with God in Peace who have followed after Peace and in so doing after God They shall dye in Peace and lye in Peace and rise in Peace and reigne in Peace with God for ever The fruit of righteousnesse is sown in Peace of them that make Peace But I have done with the first Object and the Duty Follow Peace with all men we come now to the second 2. And Holinesse Peaceablenesse and Holinesse must goe together and indeed it is pity they should bee separated yet they are oftentimes for many are of sweet soft and calm natures not farre from the kingdome of heaven yet they rise not to the heigth of holinesse which must exceed and amend the best of natures Vae optimae naturae nisi superveniat gratia Good natures like small and shallow brooks may empty themselves and carry us to that narrow lake of humane love honour and approbation but holinesse only is that great and noble streame which conveyes the soule to heaven and looseth it in the Ocean of Gods infinite happinesse O let us not content our selves with the study of Peace and neglect Holinesse Peace will soon corrupt and sowre to troubles inward and outward which is not preserved and eterniz'd with Holinesse There is no Peace to the wicked saith God no true inward and durable Peace we must follow Peace as men and Holinesse as Christians What is it to have Peace with men and warre with God Let us therefore see 1 What Holinesse is 2 Who must follow it 3 How we must follow it 4 Wherefore 1 What Holinesse is Holinesse is a word of various acceptation 1 There is a Holinesse transcendent essentiall and absolute which is in God or rather which is God himselfe who is the eternall first and onely rule to himselfe by his immutable goodnesse unerring wisedome and irresistable power who is {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} thrice holy as the Seraphins cry Holy holy holy Lord God of Hoasts c. Holy in his will in his word and in his works in his justice mercy and power and therefore {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} infinitely great and powerfull because infinitely good and holy The Father is holy and the Son holy and the Spirit holy in their essence in their relations and in their operations This Holinesse wee must follow Mat. 5.48 Be ye perfect as your heavenly Father is perfect 1 Pet. 1.15 Be ye holy as he that hath called you is holy Here is the rule patterne Idea and Prototype of Holinesse the fountain Sun and Sea of Holinesse from whence it derives it selfe in the second place to reasonable creatures Angels and men who onely are capable of Holinesse in a strict and proper sense 2 All creatures have a goodnesse of nature and being by creation onely the reasonable are vessels of Holinesse which properly is or at least ought to be in us A full and exact conformity of the Soul in all its motions and operations to the will and mind of God In the blessed Angels it is and was in man at first a gift of creation whereby they and wee were made in the Image of God in righteousnesse and true Holinesse Since our fall Holinesse is a gift of free grace a supernaturall quality or habit infused into the Soule by the Holy Spirit which by degrees reneweth us to a conformity or an unfained study at least of conformity to the will of God doing all out of conscience to his command regulating all by to his word and directing all to his glory This Holinesse we must also follow as the true and onely beauty honour riches pleasure and perfection of the soule For as much as men by reason exceed beasts so much doe Christians by Holinesse exceed meere men in their unholy and unregenerate state By Holinesse wee recover our station and neerenesse to Angels our claime to heaven our kindred and relation to God not only as his creatures but as his Sons regenerate by his holy Spirit 3 There is yet a Holinesse in a low and inferiour sense not of vertue or grace but of use and relation which is in Scripture and common speech applied to things unreasonable and inanimate too This is a Holinesse of dedication when things are devote and consecrated to the worship and service of the most holy God set apart from common and civill uses to sacred This likewise we must follow not as conceiving any inherent quality of Holinesse to be in those things whereby they are able to work on thy Spirit or recommend thee and thy service to a greater degree of acceptation by conferring a greater degree of Holinesse except in respect to Gods speciall appointment and promise as of old but only so farre we must follow this relative Holinesse as to a decent use and reverentiall comportment such as becomes the gravity majesty and solemnity of Christian Religion and those outward services God requireth of us Sancta sanctè Holinesse becomes the house and worship of God for ever But take heed that thy superstitious mind doe not impute to nor expect to find any active or virtuall Holinesse in or from times places pictures reliques garments or postures when that must be as it onely can be in thy heart There is that Sanctum Sanctorum the immediate residence and operation of Gods holy Spirit It is preposterous and vaine to imagine or seek it in other things if thou hast it not there thou maist profane them they cannot sanctifie thee nor thy services Yet here it is that superstition is prone to dote and flatter it selfe in its outward formalities of Holinesse as Lewis the eleventh did in his leaden gods pardon and
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
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
the profit or honour can content you and like an unwholesome and undigested morsell will corrupt and taint all the comfort of your other good parts and deeds O let not that prove true by your meanes that hee complaines of {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} The name and thought and desire of peace is every-where the endeavour for it nowhere Blessed are the peace-makers O rob not your selves and us of so great and pretious a blessing Last of all {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} Remember that exact and unavoydable and unappealeable Tribunall of the just Judge of the whole world For Hee commeth for hee commeth to judge the earth righteously and the nations with his truth Hee will try all things as the Refiner by fire Which will discover and make legible that {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} the blinde and subtill characters of mens thoughts and actions which before could not bee read or perceived A good and wise Judge will not sciens volens wittingly give any sentence that shall then bee reversed or judge any judgement that need to bee rejudged much lesse deserve to bee condemned with him at that day Iudicandum se diffidit qui injustè judicat Hee believes not hee shall bee judged who executes unrighteous judgement yet his very injustice is a strong and sure argument against him of an after Iudgement which shall which must repeale his injurious sentence and punish his impious practices for the goodnesse and justice of God and his providence doe require this Veniet veniet dies qui malè judicata rejudicabit The day is comming when not astuta verba but pura corda not plena marsupia but conscientiae probae valebunt as St. Bernard not faire words but honest hearts not full purses but upright consciences shall prevaile which day shall rejudge all you have judged and judge both you and mee and us all and all wee have done or said For wee must every man give account of himselfe at the judgement seat of God For which Accounts fit and prepare us O Lord by thy infinite mercy as thou wilt raise us by thy infinite power that we may appear not in our own unrighteousnes which we abhor but cloathed and accepted in the righteousnes of Jesus Christ in whom wee believe who is our Saviour and shall bee our Judge To whom c. A SERMON PREACHED AT THE UNIVERSITY OF OXFORD In S. Maries July 11. 1641. Being Act-Sunday EPHES. 4.23 And bee renewed in the spirit of your mind THere is in our nature I know not what {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} an importunate desire after and delight in what-ever is presented to us under the Notion of New Whether it bee out of the restlesnesse of our minds and their infinite capacity or out of the emptinesse and insufficiency of all things under the Sun which rather satiate than satisfie which keeps our soules in a continuall appetite and longing still expecting to finde that content in what is New and unexperienced which they have hitherto failed of Thus daily deceiving the tediousnesse of our life which for the main is but the Crambe and repetition of yesterday by the sweetnesse of variety and a taste of novelty which are the sauce and seasoning of all things wee enjoy New fashions New cloaths New houses New Doctrines New opinions New Countrey New Teachers Any thing New though as our Saviour said of the Wines The elder bee the better Omne enim antiquius verius melius In manners and Doctrines for the most part it holds The elder is the better and truer Yea so studious are wee of Newnesse that our whole life is but a repairing and continuall renewing of what through age and infirmity is daily decaying in us seeking in vaine to blot out the footsteps of old age and with weak endeavours to row against the streame of Time which silently and insensibly carries us and all things downward to the Gulph of death and destruction which as it hath involved all the most renowned men Cities States and Monuments ut ipsae periere ruinae that the very ruines are now ruined so will it shortly swallow up us and all that wee magnifie and esteeme as ours Yet there is one thing in us whose ruines though they oppresse us they grieve us not and though they make us miserable they offend not These are the Impairings and Decayes of our best and Divinest part our spirits and mindes These wee are patient as wee grow elder they should grow worser and though they are pieces built for eternity yet wee suffer them as much as in us lyes to lapse and fall to eternall ruines not only of their happinesse but of their very Being In quantum enim mali sumus in tantum minus sumus The more wee have of sin the lesse wee have of wel-Being and deserve to have of simple Being because wee frustrate that end for which the wise and best Maker gave us our Being And by sin wee goe farther from the Fountaine of our Being and our Happinesse his will which is the rule of Goodnesse And happinesse is nothing else but a perfection of Goodnesse Yet the power of God will perpetuate wicked men by a necessity of being to all eternity That since they would not bee the Objects of his renewing Mercies to happinesse They should be the Subjects of his revenging Justice to everlasting miseries These ruines and decayes then which of all are most considerable because most dangerous well merit our survey and care especially if wee seriously weigh how vast the decayes are how short the time is allotted for this work being magnae mentis molis opus a great designe indeed and which falls not under the compasse of low narrow and smaller spirits but requires a raised enlarged and ennobled minde to begin to persevere and to perfect it Which that wee may doe with the more happy successe Let us look to this Modell of the blessed Apostle who having in the 21. and 22. verses cast away all that trash and rubbish of the old man which is not so much ruined as Ruine it selfe In this verse layes the Foundation of this stately structure whose heigth must reach to Heaven and whose paterne is the Beauty and Image of that first perfect and divinest mind which wee call God Bee renewed in the spirit of your mind In the words are two main things 1. The Subject of our worke The spirit of our mind 2. The Nature of the work Renewing Wee will seek to comprehend them both under these foure Heads of Discourse 1 What is this Spirit of our mind and how worthy Renewing 2 Wherein it is Impaired and needs Renewing 3 How and by what meanes it is to bee renewed 4 The Idea or Character of a renewed Mind Lastly Wee will conclude so as by Gods Grace may make the deepest Impressions on your minds
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
mind of Christ being that excellent paterne and type by which ours must be renewed as the Apostle prescribes Let the same mind be in you which was also in Jesus Christ so holy so pure so heavenly so composed whose spirit in and with your spirits effects this great and happy worke of renewing For Christ is not as other paternes dead and unactive but operative and assimilating those to himselfe who strive to imitate his vertues and perfections Therefore the Apostle Paul a learned and judicious man determined to know nothing as his maine but Iesus Christ and him crucified Other learning and Philosophy may free us from barbarisme in manners and ignorance of the creatures but faith in Christ crucified only is able to redeeme us from our vaine conversation to mortifie our sins to raise up our soules to consider themselves their great and last end and highest eternall good which is God considered in the face of Jesus Christ That Rapsody of humane knowledge or rather opinion indeed but {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} with which men so stuffe and cramb their minds of things that need not be knowne or ought not or cannot fully be knowne whose ignorance were safe and commendable what doth it but as the Apostle tels us puffe up as a false conception breeds only {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} a swelling and abortion of pride and selfe-conceit but brings forth nothing of those {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} noble and generous effects in their lives which become the divine nature of the soule Certainly though a man had devoured all the learning of Philosophers Historians Poets Divines and Humanists yet as Pharaohs lean Kine the mind would be never the fatter or fairer but still empty and unsatisfied in it selfe and ill-favoured in the sight of God as that poore man that dreamed hee eat and drank and was filled but when the soule awakes in that morning of eternity death or the resurrection it will find all without the knowledge of Christ to be but vanity of mind and vexation of spirit In all other learning the mind doth but pick up a few strawes leaves and feathers the notions and scatterings of a dark confused and defective knowledge to make it selfe a small nest of temporary content which will be soon cast downe when death as a whirle-wind overtakes us the mind will be left dubious wandring and distracted not having been truly wise to get by faith a sure mansion for it selfe in that Rock Christ Jesus Now this renewing of the mind is not a work of wit and parts but of grace and devotion It is not strength of reason nor depth of judgement nor acutenesse of invention nor faithfulnesse of memory nor vastnesse of reading nor subtilty of dispute nor heighth of speculation that renewes the carnall and naturall mind all these abilities doe often want most renewing to take off that pride and vanity of mind which commonly attends them to purge out that leaven which puffes them up to vain-glory and selfe-seeking to bring them as the Wise men of the East in all humility and devotion to seek Christ and offer up those treasures of wit and learning to the Honour of God the Giver Beleeve it Small and moderate minds for wit capacity and secular learning yet if sanctified by faith are often raised to more eminent expressions of love joy zeale patience constancy and all good affections for though they cannot formally dispute yet they can suffer dye for Christ and though they bee not learned in humane Arts and Sciences yet they have learn'd the first and hardest lesson in Christianity which is to deny themselves in point of pleasures profits honours and outward contents more than many of the wise and learned whose learning while they nourish proud sensuall and Atheisticall minds is but their crime and burthen serving only to die their sins to a deeper tincture of folly and is as a milstone about their necks that sinks their soules to a farther degree of condemnation And doe wee not often see men of great wits and noble endowments for nature and industry who have no cause to disbeleeve the word of God since hee never yet failed of his promise and hath confirmed the truth of the Gospel by so many infallible witnesses Prophets Apostles Martyrs Confessors by Miracles by Sacraments and what ever might induce men morally to accept of his mercy in Christ and live accordingly Yet these men not having minds renewed by faith count all but as the Athenians babling and foolishnesse of preaching continuing to please themselves with momentary and perishing Objects meane time with extreme sin and folly which will bee their misery at last they neglect that great salvation which God hath offered to mankind in Jesus Christ greater than which neither the soule can desire nor God can give since the Author Meanes and End is God himselfe We see in the Gospel till the Prodigall came to himselfe peregrinatur enim omnis inordinatus animus Chrysol. for wicked and inordinate minds are alwayes from home busied about all but themselves till hee returned ad saniorem mentem to consider seriously the necessitous way into which hee was falne and wherein hee maintained himselfe only so farre as to bee sensible of his sordid misery and till hee thought of the plenty both of his fathers affection and provision hee was not resolved to quit his husks and brutish company Primum est compositae mentis argumentum secum consistere it is the first step or signe of a renewed mind to be composed to tarry at home to bee with and reflect on it selfe which faith alone makes it to doe bringing the mind back from the former vanity and extravagancy and making it seriously retire to it selfe and its Author God its Saviour Christ what hee is and what hee hath done for us revealed to us and requireth of us All which the mind by faith considering of assenting to and relying upon is in some degree renewed daily to its primitive beauty and integrity new light in the understanding new objects to the will new motions to the affections new actions in our conversation which are all but earnest and pledges of that fulnesse and perfection which the soule shall at last receive in the vision and fruition of God and Christ in the life to come when both soule and body shall bee renewed to an undecayable perfection The Fourth Part. Thus have wee seene the nature the ruines and way of renewing the mind Give mee leave now in the fourth place to present to you the Idea or Character of a renewed mind which as hee said of virtue if wee could discerne with our bodily eyes it would strangely win upon and ravish our affections There are three Regions of minds as of ayre of heavens 1 The first is of low earthly and debased to senses and the things of this world which covet much
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—