THREE SERMONS PREACHED UPON several public OCCASIONS. By JOHN GAUDEN, D.D. LONDON, Printed by R. Bishop, for Andrew Crook, and are to be sold at his shop at the sign of the Green Dragon in Paul's churchyard. 1642. TO THE Right Honourable ROBERT Earl of Warwick, Baron of Lees, one of his majesty's most Honourable privy council. My very honourable Lord, THe many noble favours which I have received from your Lordship chiefly, and from others of your noble Family, compel me (since these Sermons will needs be public, beyond my intentions) to add to them the honour of your lordship's name; and to set upon them this Seal of Gratitude, from a heart that unfeignedly prays for all those increases to your Lordship and yours, which may make both your Lordship and them truly honourable in this, and ever happy in the other world: For so I must profess to all the world, your nobleness hath abundantly deserved of your lordship's most humble, and obliged Servant, John GAUDEN. A SERMON preached before his majesty HEBR. 12.14. Follow peace with all men, and holiness, without which no man shall see the Lord. THough there needs a large Preface and Apology for the Speaker (as Elihu used to Job and his friends) being a stranger to this place, and no way proportionable to so great and sacred a presence; yet I am sure there needs no Apology for the Text I have read unto you. The weight of the matter being of greatest and highest concernment to every one of your souls may, by the favour of your patience, piety, and wisdom, much supply the want of gravity and sufficiency in the Speaker. The subject I have propounded being so necessary and indispensable, that without it none that hear me this day, from the least to the greatest, from the Cottage to the Palace, from the Mill to the Throne, neither hearer nor speaker, shall ever be happy to see the face of God. And certainly in this brokenness and distraction of minds and times, every one almost going a several way, full of fractions and divisions, crossing and thwarting each other; if we could all be so happy as to learn this lesson, and conspire to follow these two, Peace and holiness, no doubt it would much abate and compose our distances, while like lines we all tend to one Centre, God; or run parallel to that straight rule of his will: and This is the will of God, 2▪ Thes. 4.3. even your sanctification. I should be too happy, and abundantly excusable for my boldness in speaking to you this day, if, through God's assistance, and your patience, I might be able so to represent to you that smooth, safe, and beautiful way of Peace and holiness; that by the serious and conscientious following of them, all of us might orderly and cheerfully go together, the Prince with the People; and the People with the Prince; the hearts of each drawing nearer to other, and all to God; to the sight and fruition of him in whose presence is fullness of joy, and life for evermore. The Text is a sacred and solemn exhortation, by which the Spirit of God directs all men the next and only way to attain the most sovereign good, and desirable end, the happy sight of God. In it we have, 1 The precept or direction, Follow peace with all men, and holiness. 2 The motive or inducement, Without which no man shall see God: not promissory and affirmative, for in so doing you shall see God; but menacing and negative: such being indeed the temper of men's hearts, that they are more terrified with loss, than won and invited with the hopes of good; the misery of suffering prevailing more with our hardness, than the happiness of enjoying. The horror of being ever separated from the sight of God, the chiefest good of the soul, which can import no less than hell and extreme misery, this happily may scare many one to follow Peace and holiness, whom neither the pleasantness of the way, nor the ampleness of the reward, would induce to forsake their pleasing, but yet impure and dangerous courses. In the Precept we have 1 the Object, which is double, Peace and holiness. 2 The Act, or Duty, but one, and serves to both; Follow them. We will consider the objects severally in their natures, and carry along the Act or Duty with them. 1 Of Peace: Follow peace with all men. Now although the beauty, sweetness, and usefulness of this subject (which is so agreeable to my mind, and so necessary to our times, that I should be glad to meet it in every Sermon I make or hear, and in every man with whom I deal) though (I say) it might deserve and justify a large and renewed discourse upon it; yet I may but sparingly now speak of it, and only sprinkle you with a few drops of this pure and crystal stream, which makes all to flow with milk and honey wheresoever it runs; in the Conscience, in the Church, or in the State, and civil Societies; because I have, not long ago, in a public, though far inferior, Assembly, largely discoursed of it: And I would not seem to do what I need not, that is, drive two Mills with one stream, since the plenty of the other Branch of holiness will afford matter sufficient, and worthy your attention, my speech, and all our practices. Only give me leave to point out briefly to you these three things: 1 What this Peace is. 2 How and by whom to be followed. 3 Why. 1 For this general Peace, we can better tell what it is by the fruition, than any description of it. What health is to the body, and calmness to the Sea, and serenity to the day, such is peace to the hearts and conversation of men: it is a kind of sweet, divine, and heavenly consent, harmony, and beauty of minds and manners, of affections and actions: it is one of the fairest and pleasantest fruits of that which among Christians we call charity, by which each is endeared to other by a mutual love, and study of one another's good, welfare, and happiness, as their own, both private and public, temporal and eternal. This must be followed to the latitude and extension of the subject, with all men, Rom. 12.18. As much as in you lies (if it be possible) live peaceably with all men. As far as the common bounds of our nature extend we are to follow peace with all men, so far as men; Pax cum hominibus, bellum cum vitiis. The more thou art an enemy to their enemies, their sins and vices, the more faithful friend thou art to them. Peccata interficio homines amplector is the Motto not only of every good Magistrate, but of every good man; hate and slay their sins, but love and save their souls. There is a double bond for it, 1 Commune vinculum naturae, the common tie of our nature, being all of one metal, binds us to peace, by making us sociable; God having sweetened our nature beyond the savageness and fierceness of other creatures, which are prone and armed to offend: God hath tempered our dust, and softened our clay with a spring of tears, a fountain of pity, humanity, and compassion above other creatures. Principio indulsit communis conditor illis Tantùm animam, nobis Animum quoque, mutuus ut nos Affectus petere auxilium, & praestare juberet. And again, — Mollissima corda Humano generi dare se natura fatetur, Cum lachrymas dedit. 2 There is Commune vinculum Indigentiae: we are weak and wanting in many things, if alone and at distance, which society and communion strengthens and supplies us withal. So that nothing more agrees to the nature of man, nothing more suits to his necessities, than to follow peace together, both public and private. 2 How must we all follow Peace? As of pride and envy comes strife and contention, Pro. so this universal peacefulness proceeds from humility, self-denying, low and moderate opinion of ourselves, studying our own nothingness and unworthiness, in honour preferring one another. This sweetens, plains and polisheth the roughness and asperity of men's minds and manners, and fits them to follow peace, 1 by avoiding to give offence. 2 By loathness to take offence. 3 By a forwardness and easiness to be reconciled, though unjustly offended. 4 By seeking for peace, and a fair understanding between ourselves and others; though at present, through human infirmities, things cannot be so well composed. Thus all must follow Peace with all men, seriously, freely, cheerfully, heartily, constantly, not to be damped or discouraged; we must prosequi till we do assequi, follow till we overtake and obtain it. But who? 1 Princes, and sovereign Magistrates, the great Arbitrators of war and peace, they must follow Peace with all men, by equal and impartial distributions of justice and righteousness, which makes kingdoms to flourish with peace. He that will be Melchisalem, King of peace, must be Melchisedec, King of righteousness, as Christ was both. Heb. Further, Peace deserves sometimes to be fomented by favourable moderation and indulgence in Princes; Clemency being {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} (as Synesius) the most regal ornament, and in some sort a debt which is due to the weakness of human nature: and sometimes the malignity of times, minds, and affairs, may be such, that peace is to be preserved rather by gracious remissions, than rigorous, though just exactions. Wise Princes, that have the keys of Janus his Temple, will not easily open the gate to war, when they may with safety and honour keep it shut to peace. 2 As Princes, so the People and Subjects must follow Peace with all men, but especially with their Prince, the great and public Father of their Peace, and the numerous blessings that issue from it; who ought to be in their esteem as those loyal and valiant Hearts said of David, worth ten thousand of us. They must follow it. 1 By an orderly and willing obedience and submission to wholesome laws, which are but the interpreters of the mind of a just Prince. 2 By faithful and humble counsels of Peace. 3 By free, liberal, and seasonable aids and Subsidies to maintain Peace. 4 Those that contribute least to Peace, yet may follow the King, the Church, the commonweal, and all men, with their daily and fervent prayers, that God who makes men to be of one mind in a house and kingdom, would give to all the blessing of Peace. 3 Why should we follow Peace with all men? 1 God hath commanded it, whose commands will return upon accounts, and he will exact of us how we have kept them: Certainly the conscience of obeying God, is the powerfullest motive, and the noblest reward of our obedience. 2 Christ hath deserved this of us, our great and ever-blessed peacemaker, who followed our Peace so far, that he seemed to have lost himself, and to have been forsaken of his Father. He followed us with thoughts, and offers, and promises of Peace, when we were at greater distance and defiance, than can be between us and any man never so much our enemy. He made his own soul an offering for Peace, Eph. 2.14. rather than fail to procure our Peace. O show we follow Christ by following of Peace. 3 Follow it for thy brother's sake; 1 as a man, that name bespeaks thee much. 2 as a Christian, more. 3 Thy countryman, and thy Neighbour too. When all these ties of nature, country, and vicinity; of Religion, of the same God and Saviour, of the same hopes, faith, and heaven; when (I say) all these do bind thy heart and hands from breaking the Peace, should they not prevail more with thee to follow it, than any poor mistakes and injuries should do to violate or fly from it? 3 Consider thy brother's good in it. Every man should study to be {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} as public, diffusive, and preventive in his goodness as may be. Now distance, defiance, and disaffections with men, do extremely harden and shut up their hearts, that thou hast not those opportunities and advantages to do them that good, which love, and sweetness, and peacefulness, do put into thy hands by softening and melting them. 4 For thy own sake follow peace with all men, 1 For thy own safety, and sweetness of living: who but turbulent and inhuman dispositions, like Salamanders, would willingly live in the fire of strife and dissension? which as it cannot but be unpleasing, so it may be dangerous and unsafe: For no man's anger is to be despised, much less the displeasure of many men, which may embroil the public, and in that, thy private happiness. Even the tallest Cedars, and mighty oaks, which are as the Princes of the forest, have their share of safety and flourishing in Peace, as well as the lower shrubs and bushes: nay, the violent blasts of war, like vehement winds, threaten them more, and make greater impressions on their height, than on inferiors, whose inferiority is a great point of their safety. Divide, & regnare desine. Peace and union are the mutual preservation as well of head as members. 2 For thy own honour follow Peace, though it be through the bushes and asperities of some injuries and offences. Pro. 29.11. It is the glory of a man to pass by offences (saith the wisest of Kings) especially in the pursuit of Peace. The greater indeed the Person is, the greater the offence; but the greater the offence, the greater glory in passing by it, because it brings us nearest to the imitation of God's infinite mercy, patience, and forgiveness. One victory over a man's self is more glorious, than many over an enemy. The triumphs of reason, virtue, morality and grace, over our passions, are far more honourable than those of the sword, and power of arms in the field, which are stained and deformed with the blood of men. Pax una triumphis innumeris potior: One fair and spotless lily of preserved Peace is a greater ornament to a Prince's Diadem, than to have it beset round with many Red Roses of bloody triumphs. May his memory be ever blessed, and his precious 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 heirs to his crown, are also heirs to his Princely virtues, and peaceful disposition. And have we not all causes to bless God, who hath inclined their hearts; and to bless them who have followed those inclinations, to re-establish our late dubious and endangered peace, and lengthen out our tranquillity? May the great God of peace crown their Persons, Posterity, and kingdoms, with abundance of mercy and peace, so long as the Sun and moon endure. 3 Follow peace with all men, for thy own internal and eternal 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 eternal tranquillity. 2 To his word, which seeks, by the message of peace, to bring us nearer, and make us liker to himself. 3 A peaceless and unquiet disposition, like troubled waters, is less apt for the sweet and clear reflections of God's love to it, or the operations of his Spirit in it; which creates that internal and unexpressible peace, which no man knows 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 die in Peace, and lie in Peace, and rise in Peace, and reign in Peace with God for ever. Iam. 3.18. The fruit of righteousness 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 holiness. peaceableness and holiness must go together, and indeed it is pity they should be separated; yet they are oftentimes: for many are of sweet, soft, and calm natures, not far from the kingdom of heaven; yet they rise not to the height of holiness, 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 human love, honour, and approbation; but holiness only is that great and noble stream which conveys the soul to heaven, and loseth it in the Ocean of God's infinite happiness. O let us not content ourselves with the study of Peace, and neglect holiness. Peace will soon corrupt and sour, to troubles inward and outward, which is not preserved and eternised with holiness. Isa. 57, 19 There is no Peace to the wicked, saith God; no true, inward, and durable Peace: we must follow Peace as men, and holiness as Christians. What is it to have Peace with men, and war with God? Let us therefore see, 1 What holiness is. 2 Who must follow it. 3 How we must follow it. 4 Wherefore. 1 What holiness is. Holiness is a word of various acceptation. 1 There is a holiness transcendent, essential, and absolute, which is in God, or rather which is God himself; who is the eternal, first, and only rule to himself; by his immutable goodness, unerring wisdom, and irresistible 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 hosts, &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 powerful, 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 holiness we 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, pattern, Idea, and Prototype of holiness; the fountain, Sun, and Sea of holiness, from whence it derives itself in the second place to reasonable creatures, Angels and men, who only are capable of holiness in a strict and proper sense. 2 All creatures have a goodness of nature and being by creation, only the reasonable are vessels of holiness; 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 we were made in the Image of God, in righteousness and true holiness. Since our fall holiness is a gift of free grace, a supernatural quality or habit infused into the soul by the Holy Spirit, which by degrees reneweth us to a conformity (or an unfeigned 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 holiness we must also follow, as the true and only beauty, honour, riches, pleasure, and perfection of the soul. For, as much as men by reason exceed beasts, so much do Christians by holiness exceed mere men, in their unholy and unregenerate state. By holiness we recover our station and nearness to Angels, our claim 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 holiness in a low and inferior sense, not of virtue or grace, but of use and relation; which is in Scripture and common speech applied to things unreasonable and inanimate too. This is a holiness of dedication, when things are devote and consecrated to the worship and service of the most holy God, set apart from common and civil uses to sacred. This likewise we must follow, not as conceiving any inherent quality of holiness 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 holiness (except in respect to God's special appointment and promise, as of old) but only so far we must follow this relative holiness, as to a decent use and reverential comportment; such as becomes the gravity, majesty, and solemnity of Christian Religion; and those outward services God requireth of us: Sancta sanctè, holiness becomes the house and worship of God for ever. Psal. But take heed that thy superstitious mind do not impute to, nor expect to find any active or virtual holiness, in or from times, places, pictures, relics, garments, or postures; when that must be, as it only can be, in thy heart: There is that Sanctum Sanctorum, the immediate residence and operation of God's holy Spirit. It is preposterous and vain to imagine or seek it in other things: if thou hast it not there, thou Mayst profane them; they cannot sanctify thee, nor thy services. Yet here it is that superstition is prone to dote and flatter itself in its outward formalities of holiness (as Lewis the eleventh did in his leaden gods pardon, and the protection of an hermit and his relics, with which he had fortified and barricadoed himself against the invasions of death, but all in vain.) Superstition, I say, which is the Ape and mimic of Religion, having a Dream and fancy of external holiness, when indeed it is the moth and rust both of true Religion, and proper holiness; 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 only, by nourishing them with external and pompous formalities. It is indeed a heavy Incubus, when once it hath seized upon a Church or conscience, oppressing it with needless scruples, and ceremonious burdens, which extremely abate, if not quite take away that beauty, vigour, and majesty of true Religion and holiness, which keeps the medium between superstition and profaneness. Yet must holiness have an universal influence upon the whole man, all faculties, motions, and actions, inward and outward; on the soul and body. In the soul there must be a holiness of mind or understanding, by seeing and believing the saving truth of God; of the will, by applying, embracing, and subjecting to it; of the affections (Fear, love, joy, anger, hope, sorrow, zeal, &c.) when they are by God's Spirit carried to their right objects, and moderated in their measure to them; thus is truth, rectitude, and order, the holiness of the mind, will, and affections. Further, holiness must have an influence on the external expressions. Truth and purity are the holiness of speech; so chastity, temperance, meekness, humility, modesty, &c. are the holiness of our outward manners and comportments. As Morality improves the affections, and regulates the motions of the will to virtues, so holiness beautifies and raiseth those virtues to graces; and of the philosopher's alchemy 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 do require. Holiness is the souls 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. 2 Pet. 40 What light is to the sun and day, what clearness to the fountain, what fruitfulness to the earth, what beauty and health are to the body; that indeed is holiness to the soul, to the whole man, and all our actions. holiness is the supernatural and universal beauty of the reasonable creature. We are corruption, till holiness make us sound; ruined, till holiness repair us; we are barrenness, till that make us fruitful; we are deformity, till that make us beautiful; we are darkness, till holiness enlighten us; dead, till that enliven us; depraved, till that rectify us; we are sin, till holiness make us gracious; we are hell, till holiness make us heavenly; we are Devils, till holiness make us Saints; we are damned wretches, till holiness sets us in a capacity of salvation, and seeing of God: whose enemies we are, till holiness have endeared us; from whom sin would separate us forever, being filthy and abominable in his sight, till holiness wash and cleanse us through faith in the blood of Christ. In the sight of the most holy God, all beauty is deformity, all wisdom folly, all honour baseness, all plenty poverty, all liberty bondage, all happiness misery, all life but a death, all our splendid works but dead and damnable, without holiness. All words and human notions are too gross to set forth to you this spiritual beauty of holiness, like dead colours to paint the light and heat of the Sun: one beam discovers it better than all the shadows of words or Pencils could do; so the best knowledge of holiness is experimental in the soul and conscience. For it is not only in words, in notion, fancy, or speculation, or outward shows, but in reality of effects; serious and solid without vanity or ostentation, or affectation, settled 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 conform ourselves in all our actions, the more we follow holiness. This, this is that frame and temper of our souls and lives, which God our Father, and Christ our Saviour, and the holy Spirit our Sanctifier, the Word our instructor, the Sacraments our confirmers, the Saints our forerunners, the Angels our protectors: all with one voice recommend to us Follow holiness, O ye sons 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 holiness in us. This is one great intent of Christ's coming, his living with us, and dying for us, that he might sanctify, as well as justify us; save us from the power as well as the punishment of sin; that he might give us a most perfect and excellent example, and purchase to himself a holy people, Luke 1.74. That we being delivered from our enemies, might serve him without fear, in righteousness and holiness all the days 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 wisdom, righteousness, 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 handful of meal, without which all external pomp and cost of services, is not only not pleasing, but fulsome, nauseous, and abominable to God, Esay 1.12 Offer no more vain 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 & far litabo. Holiness is the Ladder of heaven, whose lowest step is humility, and the highest love, and devotion; by which the soul descends to men in charity, and ascends to God in piety. This is that which prepares and disposeth the soul for Heaven; without which Heaven itself 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, holiness and happiness; differing only in degree, not in kind. For holiness is the spark of happiness, and happiness the flame of holiness. Holiness is the infancy of happiness, and happiness the complete stature of holiness. Holiness is the morning of happiness, and happiness the meridian or noontide of holiness. Holiness is the seedtime, and happiness the full harvest: For Heaven is not, as grosser minds imagine, only an impunity, or freedom from punishment, and fruition of pleasures, &c. but rather it consists in an immunity from sin, and a perfection of holiness. This is that one thing necessary, and required of the Sons of men, as the condition of seeing God; 'tis not without Riches no man shall see God; or without Beauty, honour, strength, learning, wit, &c. No, but without holiness: all other additaments thou Mayst dispense with, and yet be happy; but holiness is indispensable. By the paths of holiness only our wearied and wandering souls may return to paradise, that happy state and station, whence we fell, and were driven out: all other ways are severely kept against us, by the flaming sword of God's irreconciliable anger and hatred against sin: No unholy thing shall enter (much less remain) 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 wickedness, nor shall any evil dwell with thee. God is of so pure eyes that he cannot behold iniquity, no more than the Sun can behold darkness; for its appearing turns all darkness into light; much less can darkness look 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 soul forever. But I have done with the first particular, what holiness is. The second thing is, who must follow it? Every one that hath a soul to save, or a mind to see God. The exclusion is peremptory and universal; Without holiness no man shall see God: with this no man need despair, 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 beautiful; not the morally civil, not the witty and learned Scholars, not the deep statesmen, and dark politicians, not the potent Princes and mighty Monarchs of the world; none of them may flatter themselves to reach Heaven without holiness: God will cast deformity on all your so much flattered and self-admiring beauty, which is deceitful to the owner, and dangerous to others; unless the beauty of holiness 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 himself in Heaven. God will infatuate all your fallacious wisdom and self-destroying wit: he will discover the shallowness of all your imaginary depths and counsels. He will one day appear the only true wise man, who is wise for his soul to God and to Eternity, which is none but the holy man. God will make to vanish all the dreams and shadows of your imaginary greatness, and flat the swelling sails of your titles of honour, filled only with popular breath and opinion of men, yourselves and others: He will be then truly and only honourable who hath sought God's honour, more than his own, 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 speaks, and in stead of Robes of Majesty, they shall be covered with their own confusion as with a cloak, unless they be sacred in heart as well as in title; consecrated to God as well as exalted above men; except there be the inward anointing of God's holy Spirit, as well as the outward of the Prelate. As they are near to God in greatness and place, so they must be in grace and holiness, if ever they hope to attain to glory and happiness. Even in Princes God tells Samuel, 1 Sam. 16 He looks not at the outward appearance, but at the heart. That, that indeed is truly Sacred Majesty in Princes, when being God's Vicegerents on earth, they do that which they are persuaded in their conscience God himself or Christ would do, if they reigned visibly as King on earth: when being Vmbratiles Dij, the back parts and shadows of God, they most fully represent in a human model, the divine perfections. Certainly nothing sets forth Princes to a more divine honour, love and veneration, than their exemplary virtues and holiness. Hic animus, atque hae sunt generosi Principis arts. This even they, the greatest of men, must follow, since they are but Mortales Dij, and must die like men; unless they mean 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 holiness, 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 God's Sanctuary, and every holy heart a Heaven; therefore that is called the Heaven of Heavens where the Saints are; in every of whom God dwells more gloriously than in any material Heaven. In all callings and states of life holiness is necessary; every action should be a step to arrive nearer to God: holiness is the poor man's riches, the mean man's honour, the weak man's strength, the banisheds' home, the prisoner's freedom, the young man's glory, the old man's crown, the sick man's health, the dying man's 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 holiness, 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, greatness and goodness, height and holiness 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 fear, are their lives and actions! Like a noble constellation which consists of many stars, no less benign and propitious for their influence, than eminent and conspicuous for their light. And if I were to speak to men of my own calling, superiors or equals (as I see I am likely to do to some) I should with all humble and respective earnestness recommend holiness to their hearts, thoughts, words, lives, gestures, looks, and conversations. Etiam vultu laeditur sanctitas: Haughty and supercilious looks, and insolent comportment, much more such speech and actions misbecome the holiness and humility of our profession. There are holy orders, and holy duties, to which we are admitted; and there is a special ceremony of consecration used for Bishops. O let us make good the holiness of our titles and function, by the holiness of our conversation. Let not the world reproach us, as some do the vanity and arrogancy of the Popes, who challenge to themselves the title of his holiness; by way of eminency (or emphasis) when indeed it is (say they) by Antiphrasis, or contrariety, being for the most part solecisms and contradictions to their names, as he said of Probus, vir minimè probus. O let us never vainly imagine, that there is a nearer way to the Clergies honour, than by the Clergies holiness. Though holiness even despised as a jewel under foot, hath its true and internal honour and value still. But O let not our preaching, our writing, our living any way decry, damp, and discountenance holiness, which is God's honour, and the church's honour, and must be our both honour and happiness. O let us not vainly contend for an imputed and relative holiness in Churches, and tables, and vestures, and gestures, and neglect it in our hearts and lives. Our word must be that of Saint Paul, Phil. 3.17. Be ye followers of me as I am of Christ, that is, of holiness, which was Christ's way. This, not only the better world, which are extremely ashamed and grieved for the contrary, but even the worser, dissolute, and debauched sort of people exact of us, whom we harden extremely against our doctrines by our contrary manners; and who are glad by the faults and scandals of Ministers (holy men as they should be) to justify or excuse their own vicious and unholy lives. The higher our calling raiseth us, the nearer should it bring us to God, and the more should the face of our lives like Moses his, shine with the beams of holiness while we daily converse with God. Nothing more justifies, and assures the truth of our faith and doctrine, than the suitable holiness of our lives. (let not that be verified of us, which Jeremy complained of in his time, Ier. 23.15. From the Prophets is profaneness gone into all the Land. But rather let us take Saint Paul's good advice to Timothy, Thou O man of God fly these things, 1 Tim. 6.11. and follow after righteousness, godliness, faith, love, patience, meekness, &c. 3 We come now to the third particular, how we must follow holiness. 1 For the measure how far, to the height, aim at perfection; anticipate thy Heaven as much as may be here on earth; emulate and strive to equal thy pattern for parts, though not for degrees; Be ye holy as your heavenly Father is holy: he hath nothing of true holiness, who thinks he hath enough, or may have too much. Nimietates & excessus affectuum Deo debentur: All the excess of our vehement and unsatisfied desires should run this way after God and holiness. 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: holiness is the salt which must season all, so far as human infirmity can attain. Thou wouldst not have some sparks of Hell mixed with thy joys of Heaven: O strive that no sin (if possible) may allay thy holiness and integrity, Be ye holy in all manner of conversation, and perfecting holiness in the fear of the Lord. 1 Pet. 1.15. 2 Cor. 7.1. 2 Follow it earnestly, with vehement affections, not cold, languishing, lukewarm and indifferent; content not thyself with a few posting and perfunctory prayers; easy and lazy formalities of duties, obesae animae, like fat and pursy souls that cannot follow either fast, or far: But rise to that intensiveness in following holiness, with which the Covetous man follows his gain, the Ambitious his honour, the Voluptuous his pleasure; follow it with the same eagerness, wherewith thou hast formerly followed sin, the world, and the devil; Follow holiness with the same flagrancy and contention, as wicked men do 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 God's ways; no man hath more right to moderate mirth (which is the only true) than he which is in the way of holiness, and indeed of happiness. O let not that be a burden to our Spirits here, which must be the joy and crown and constant disposition of our souls in heaven. The deadness and indispositions from within, which we are Subject unto, are not to be imputed to the ways of holiness, but to the weakness of our natures; as the loathness to use exercise proceedeth from the ill humours, which oppress 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 soul, 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. walk ({non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman}) strictly and precisely in a sound and apostolical sense. There will be rimulae, leaks 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 near to him and to be like to him in all points. Follow holiness, 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 swear, and lie, and talk obscenely & profanely, or live riotously, that he may not seem too precise. Canst thou be too fit for heaven, or too far from sin and hell? 5 Follow holiness 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 holiness be too soon begun in thy heart, except thou love to sleep in thy sin: It were happy if with Jeremy and John Baptist we were sanctified from the womb 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 holiness, the day of our short life is far spent in following vanity and things that cannot profit: the night of death is at hand, o 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 known cut off in their youth and strength, and confidence of living, and it may be in their purposes and essays 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 Jonathan, As the Lord liveth, and as thy soul liveth, there is but a step between thee and death, yea, and hell too; and yet many of us not yet gone one step of serious resolutions, to follow holiness, and forsake our old sins. O dally not with thy life, with thy soul, with hell, and eternal death: delays are extreme dangerous where the opportunity is short, and the omission is irreparable: Remember on this moment depends eternity. Death follows us, and sin follows us, and our own evil consciences, and hell, and the devil too will follow and overtake us, if we fly not from them by following Christ where ever he goes in the ways of holiness. O learn of David, psalm 119.60 I made haste and prolonged not the time to turn my feet into thy ways. 6 Follow it sincerely, Simulata Sanctitas▪ duplex iniquitas. Hypocrisy 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 holiness which should be, and for the lie and pretention of what was not; nothing is more contrary to the simplicity of God's Nature, and the truth and integrity of his Word and intentions to men, than simulation and hypocrisy. Nothing hath more clouded, eclipsed and deformed the beauty of holiness, than the impudent pretensions of some to it; who like Apes and monkeys 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 sows that he shall reap: He that sows only shadows, and shows, and formalities of holiness, shall reap only shadows and shows and dreams of peace, comfort, and happiness. The deceiver will at last be most deceived. O be good in good earnest, or not at all; Lose not so much time and pains to act a part of holiness, 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 Job) when God shall take away his soul? 7 And lastly, follow holiness constantly, not desultoriè, lamely, brokenly, and abruptly, by fits only; but with a steady and resolute course, as the Sun moves, neither going back, nor standing still. Perseverance is the crown of graces, and gets the crown 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 pattern thou hast in Christ thy Saviour, who deferred his own 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 deter thee; having begun in the spirit, do not end in the flesh. Remember thou hast always a viaticum, means of refreshing near thee; The holy word and promises, and Sacraments to relieve thee; the holy Spirit to assist thee, and help thy infirmities. Thou hast God's holy day wherein to be specially vacant to holy duties, and the soul's improvement; by the careful sanctifying whereof, there is no doubt, but the pious soul is better enabled to see God here, in his Word and works, 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 ways of holiness to that state of happiness, through all the oppositions of men and devils. Heroic and invincible followers of holiness, now glorious and immortal possessors of happiness. 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 weak and slender imitations. 4 Wherefore must we thus follow holiness? This brings me to the last point, the second general, the motive or inducement, without which no man shall see God. Holiness is that alone which makes us capable of the beatific vision. But this is a point of so high speculation, of so serious consideration for the obtaining or losing of it, of so infinite comfort is the vision and fruition of God; of so infinite honour, the separation from him, that it would far exceed the time, and my speech, to set it forth to you as it deserves. Only this short glimpse we may take of it, That there are many intervenient fruits of holiness 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 works, in his servants, in the motions of his Spirit, in the ways of his providence, mercies and judgements. To all which holiness only clears and enlightens and enables the soul so as to see God, to enjoy and admire him. This makes oculatam animam, an eyed and seeing mind, which otherways is blind and dead, Mat. 5. Blessed are the pure in heart, for they and they only 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 happiness? 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 angel of God, what is it to see God himself? O What a Sea and inundation of unspeakable joy and happiness must flow in upon the soul, to behold the brightness of God's presence, the glory of his Majesty, the beauty of his goodness, the treasures of his wisdom, the immensity of his power, the amplitude of his mercy, the perfection of his holiness and infinite happiness! And last of all, the eternal 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) we shall see light; the way is by the light of grace, to come to the light of glory; by the beauty of holiness to come to the perfection of happiness, 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 work of God's Spirit in your devouter hearts, to consider more largely and sublimely of this point. Only give me leave by way of conclusion to appeal to your piety, wisdom, and experience, Whether the ways of holiness be not worth the following, which end in such happiness, as is beyond expressing: Whether it be not a vanity, folly, and extreme madness for men and women, that are built for eternity, and capable of the highest good, so much to neglect their souls, their God, and their happiness by following their sins, the worldly pleasures, profits, and honours, with the neglect of holiness? The devil, the evil world, and a man's own corrupt heart, will allow him to be any thing, so he be not holy: let him be rich, and fair, and strong, and great, and honourable, and witty, and eloquent, and civil, and politic, and knowing even in divine mysteries, any thing, so as he be not holy. All these things (as the devil said to Christ) will I give thee, if thou wilt be unholy still, and like myself: holiness is that alone the devil wants, and despairs of himself, and that he most envies us the sons of men; because he knows it sets us in a way of happiness 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 hear me this day; let dead hearts bury themselves in dead comforts, dead honours, dead pleasures, dead hopes, &c. but follow thou Christ, follow holiness. I further appeal to the justice of your piety, and goodness, Whether the ways of holiness, and the followers of them deserve to be derided, despised, discountenanced, & discouraged so much as they are by the proud, profane, sensual, and superstitious minds of the world? whether they which despise holiness do not withal despise their own souls, their God and Saviour? whether they forsake not their own 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 appeal to your royal wisdom, and the rest of your Noble and Christian Prudence & Piety, Whether those that follow peace and holiness, 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 holiness so to do. 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 majesty's care and pious providence. These are in some sort, the (tutelares Genii) protectors of his majesty's person, health, life, crown, Queen, and posterity; while they daily lift up pure hands and holy hearts to the God of Heaven, for his majesty's safety, honour, and happiness. These are like Moses and Elias, the Horsemen and Chariots of Israel; these have power with God by their prayers, counsels, 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 temporal, a pious and gracious Prince. O then let not holiness (I beseech you) be banished, as I believe 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 Joseph's, and Mordecays, and Nehemiah's, and Daniels, men in whom is the Spirit of the holy God, as that Heathen Prince said of Daniel. There is a book called The holy Court, which might be useful to Courtiers, if it were not unsafe, being larded with many false and frivolous opinions, and superstitious practices: It will be your honour and happiness to act what he sought to write. O follow not sin and vanity, or strife and contention, or lubricity and impurity, or vainglory, &c. these will cast you out from the presence of God, and betray you to utter darkness: And what considerate mind can with patience think of being ever separated from the fountain of its being, life and happiness? O what infinite darkness, necessity, and horror must for ever oppress that soul! Holiness only is that divine magnetic power, which draws the soul to God, and God to the soul, never quiet till it be united to the fountain, its virtue. I know your piety cannot but consider oft and seriously, That the greatest of you will be one day like Samson (when his fatal hair was cut) weak, and impotent and like other men; your eyes blinded, your great strength departed, the chains of darkness will involve you, the worms will be your fetters, and the grave your prison. O while you live follow holiness, that when you die (as Samson did) you may quite destroy those enemies, which living you could not; that death may be an end of your sin and mortality, but the beginning and consummation of your endless happiness 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 soul (that rational and eternal eye) may be opened to see and enjoy God, and reign with Christ for ever. That you and we though in different degrees, may then receive that crown of immortal glory, which is free from cares and crosses, from fears and jealousies, from sleep, and soul-breaking distractions, but full of a divine and constant glory, serenity, joy, and eternal security. Amen. A SERMON PREACHED BEFORE THE judges AT CHELMSFORD. ZECH. 8.16. These are the things ye shall do; speak ye every man the truth to his Neighbour: execute the judgement of truth and peace in your Gates. THE Customary solemnity of public assize, 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 wisdom and gravity (Right Honourable and Reverend) disdain not to receive advice from the Pulpit, before you go to the Bench; and hear God's 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 pomp and formality of religion (as those Heathen lawgivers (Solon, Lycurgus, Numa, and others) are said to have done) but seriously and in the fear of God to ascend with Moses first to the Mount, and talk with God, before you judge and teach the people. Esay 5.20. To the Law and to the Testimony; these will inform you the will of God, which is the highest law and perfectest rule to examine truth, to measure justice, and to maintain peace; which though they flow from that pure and eternal fountain of essential truth, justice, and peace, most clearly and plentifully in the conduit of his Word; yet are ready to contract much soil and dregs in the vessels of men's hearts, and course of human actions; so that the best have need often to refine and renew their minds, by a fresh information of their judgements, concerning the will of God, and resolution of their wills to do it. His Word, no doubt, teacheth the best politics; his precept and example show the happiest platform of government, whose almighty power is so tempered with wisdom and goodness, That as he made at first the state and frame of all things full of beauty, order, and harmony, by number, weight, and measure; so he still preserves and governs the great commonwealth of all creatures in heaven and earth, with that just proportion of power and goodness, as keeps the general peace of things; and keeps off that confusion to which the variety and contrariety of particular natures seem to tend. So that who so will judge and govern aright, shall not need to use those Machiavellian engines, lying, fraud, simulation and injustice; mysteries indeed not of true policy, but of iniquity, unreasonable reasons of state, which the impotency and folly of wicked men pretend as necessary; when indeed ●●ey tend not to the establishing but undermining of States, and ruin both of governors and governed. We need go no further than this Text, to see what God requires and teacheth us as best, and necessary for the well ordering of human societies; both for private and publi, ke or judiciary proceedings. 1 In private, that every one speak the truth to his neighbour; this would stop many injuries and complaints with which the public courts are pestered. 2 In public and judiciary proceedings; every one promote the execution of truth and peace in the gates. 1 The people and governed. By their presence, obedience, assistance, by their testimony and evidence of word and oath for the search and finding out of truth. By their hands and power for the maintaining of peace both in the safety of the person of the Magistrate, and execution of that ●ust sentence which they give. 2 The Magistrate and persons governing, 1 by their knowledge of what is judgement and justice. 2. By their authority and power, to execute what they know is just. 3. By their integrity in the execution, according to truth and peace. For these three things are (you know) necessary in Magistrates, and those minores Dii, inferior mortal gods: 1. Skill to govern power. 2. Power to arm their skill. 3. Will●● actuate both uprightly: That neither ignorance breed error, and so injustice: nor weakness, contempt and opposition: nor corruptness, injury and oppression. What is knowledge of truth and equity, if there be not courage and conscience to speak it? What is skill, courage, and conscience, if destitute of power, to execute what they know, and decree? Fundamentum pacis veritas, stabilimentum utriusque potestas; Truth is the foundation of peace, and power the support of both truth, and peace, which without authority grow feeble, and despised: as authority not grounded upon equity, and guided by truth, proves violence, tyranny, and oppression; and becometh not a file, sive, and schreene to separate the rust from the metal, the bran from the flower, the chaff from the grain, the vile and refuse from the choice and precious; but mola, & malleus plebis, the maul and mill, that violently and promiscuously grinds and beats to pieces all that comes under its rigour, and weight. Your Honours and wisdoms I presume are provided with all three. Power and authority, I am sure, you have the highest and amplest from the King of Heaven, by the mediate appointment of our gracious King on earth. Skill, and knowledge you have through God's blessing by the study and experience in the laws. uprightness and integrity, we charitably pray, and hope you have from the grace of God, and the tenderness of your own consciences. Indeed you have all from God; whose word hath ordained your power, and regulated this by just law, and exacts a conscience in executing these laws. So that by attending to God's word you may confirm your authority, increase your knowledge, and incite your consciences. The judgement in all points is the Lords: as power, justice▪ and truth in your judgements flow from him; so will they, as rivers, return back to him in your reckonings and accounts. Happy is it when every one of these, as so many rivulets, contribute their strength to the public current of justice; that so judgement may run down, as a noble and mighty stream, and know no stop or resistance. That every one being a lover of truth and peace, the first and severest censurer and judge of himself, and his own actions; you may with the more patience and cheerfulness attend to what I shall out of God's word with all modesty and due observance, but yet truth and faithfulness endeavour by the discharge of my own conscience, to inform some, to reform others, and at least to confirm yours, by stirring up your prudent minds by way of remembrance of what is just and true, and tends to your own and others' peace. Which since you know, and have authority to do, happy are you if you do them. These are the things you shall do, &c. Two things are considerable in the words. 1. The form of the charge or command, These are the things ye shall do. 2. The duty or matter. 1. Private, personal, and universal to all men, speak every man the truth to his neighbour. 2. Public, political, and special to Magistrates; Execute the judgement of truth and peace in your gates. We will begin with the duties themselves, and reserve the form of the command to the last place, when we shall apply the duties to every one as they concern them. 1. The first branch of the duty and command is private, personal, and universal to all men, Veriloquentia.] Speak ye the truth every man to his neighbour. 1. What we must do, speak the truth. 2. Who, every man. 3. To whom, to his neighbour. 1. Speak the truth: Man is, {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman}, a sociable creature. Speech is the means of society and commerce. The common change and coin. The mine of truth is God's, the mint and coinage of it. Speech must have his Image and superscription, the stamp and impression of truth. It is capital offence of the highest Majesty to counterfeit or falsify this by a lie. By Reason we come near the Angels; by reason and speech both we exceed the beasts; by truth speaking we come nearest to God, and get farthest from the devil, the father of lies. Speech is the peculiar glory of men; and veracity of good men, and Christians: It is the glory of God that his word is truth, agreeing with his eternal mind and intention. The glory of man is to come nearest God. Speech is the glass and reflection of our souls: words are the characters, Ambassadors, and Interpreters of our minds, which must give by a true reflection, a true information of our meaning to others. The soul of words is truth, separated from that they are {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} cadaverosa verba, rotten, corrupt, and unsavoury words. To commend Truth in knowing or speaking, is to commend the Sun; Sol est lux mundi, veritas mentis. As the Sun seated in the heaven, from thence derives his beams to all things: so truth is placed in the heaven of man, the understanding, from thence it must shine forth into our words. As light is to our eyes, for guiding our steps; so is truth to our tongues, for ordering our speech. Solem e mundo tollunt, qui veritatem e verbis. Lactant. Veritas caeleste mentis pabulum; Truth is that pure, heavenly, and immortal food of the reasonable soul. A Liar feeds on the dust, as the serpent's curse, nay on the ashes of hell. He that is in an error, is in an eclipse or mist, through the common imbecility of human understanding: but he that is in a way of lying, is in a night of utter darkness, in the chains of everlasting darkness, with the devil and his Angels. He carries his devil and lying spirit about him, as Ahab's false Prophets, and his Hell within him in his conscience. Giving the lie is, in point of honour, an offence of the highest nature to ingenuous minds; because it reproacheth a man either of Athiesme, or extreme baseness and cowardice; that either he owns no God, or which is worse, fears more to offend man than God, not daring to speak the truth. Synesius de Regno most elegantly, {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman}, Truth is the honour and nobleness of words, and it argues a generous mind to speak it: though alone, yet truth, as the Sun is fair; though displeasing (& odium parit) though dangerous, & grande praesagium mali (as Lactant.) though desperate, vitamque impendere vero; Nec propter vitam vivendi perdere causam: It is folly to prefer life before the end of life, which is the knowing, love, and manifesting of truth. Speak it therefore, and fear not. Veritas nihil erubescit, nisi solum abscondi: Truth is ashamed of nothing but to be hidden. But let it be Verum, not verisimile, not probabile, but certum & compertum, {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman}, a clear pregnant and well assured truth; not what is taken upon flying rumours, suspicions, or envious disaffections. For to affirm as certain, what is dubious, and only probable, is out of doubt a lie. We must not, like Balaam's ass, speak what we understand not, nor affirm what we know not. Therefore our speech must not be rash, precipitant, tumultuary, and passionate; but calm, and deliberate, issuing from a heart without prejudice, partiality, or injust interests; as silver streams from a crystal fountain, flowing without any mud or tincture of malice, or oblique and sinister designs. Our minds also must be prudent, steady, and reserved, not {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman}, credulous, like soft wax taking easily any impressions. That of Epicharmus is safe, {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman}. Keep always the reins and curb of diffidence and sobriety in thy mind and tongue. {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman}, Basil. the way to truth hath many turnings, and needs a capacious mind to find out the right. Speak not what the show and superficies, or skin presents; but what the inside, substance, and marrow of things discover to our judgements. There is veritas entis, quae est mentis quae videtur. The first we must always seek to attain. The second we must not fail to affirm: else it is a lie, Inst. lib. 6 which Lactant. defines, mendacium est cum linguae animi interpres a sensu & cogitatione discordat. When the tongue agrees not with the thoughts. Ep 95. S. Austin tells us: & non vera fideliter, & vera infideliter dici possunt. A man may speak what is truth, yet falsely; and what is false, yet truly: such a one is not mendax, but temerarius; nec tam fallit quam fallitur: he is not a liar, but a rash speaker. August. The rule is, Cum cogitare secundùm veritatem semper non possumus, at loquamur secundùm cogitata: Our first happiness and care is to conform our thoughts to the truth of things; our second, to conform our words to the truth of our thoughts. Octa. Multi taedio investigandae veritatis ad proximos divertunt errores; Many out of a lazy, or credulous disposition, think it tedious to search out the way of truth, and so turn to the next and easiest path of error and probabilities: {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman}, as Thucydides speaks; What we know uncertainly, speak not as certain: what we know assuredly, speak not as dubious, and with suspense, and by halves. For, as we must speak truth only; so the whole truth, when expected and required. Quantum supprimitur quaesitae veritatis, supplet mendacium; As much as we defalk, or smother, of an enquired Truth, which we pretend fully to discover, we make up by a tacit lie; Which is an interpretative denial of Truth. When thou knowest and believest a truth, in ordinary converse, it is enough to speak it; no more is required of thee. Therefore not swear the truth. Truth hath native strength sufficient, and needs not the volleys or barricadoes of oaths and imprecations. Swearing is more than God requires, or truth needs, or ingenuous minds will exact; or will consist with thy peace and a good conscience. Let your yea, be yea, and your nay, nay; Mat. 5. 3●. what is more than these is sin: That is the simplicity and plainness of our saviour's prescripts, and bounds of speaking, even Truth itself. swear not at all; no not to the truth, in ordinary and familiar converse, except in weighty matters of great concernment in private, or in public and judiciary attestations, when called to it. August. ep. 224. Ne jurandi facilitate in perjurium prolabamur, praeceptum est, ne juremus omnino; he is in the confines and next step to false-swearing, and perjury, who accustoms himself to swear, though truly, in trivial matters. Bono viro constans vita loco juramenti est; The credit and faithfulness of an honest man, hath the force of an oath. liars only need to swear, and for the most part do; whose vanity or falsity hath bred them this just unhappiness, that when they speak the truth, they think they shall not be believed, unless they swear it: Though he that deserves to be disbelieved in his truth speaking, merits not belief, though he swear; For, if he fear nor a lie, he will not an oath. This customary swearing is not more vain and needless, than a spreading and epidemical evil, such as the Land mourns under; being grown to that which Salvian complains of, in his time; Non criminis, sed sermonis genus per Deum, per Christum jurare, consuetudine jurandi videtur: Swearing seems to most, not a heinous and weighty sin, but a formality and compliment of speech, through the custom and commonness of swearing. Cl. Alex. {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman}; Truth is of itself clear enough, and needs not the vehemence and asseveration of an oath: Which renders it more suspected, and the hearer more diffident, when he sees one fears not an oath, nor makes conscience of vain swearing, which is a sin as well as lying. As we need but speak it, so speak it plainly and clearly. Truth, like the Sun, joys most in itself; it's own openness, simplicity and clearness: as we ought not to swear it, so we must not with multitude of words clog and cumber it; studying rather to cloud and involve it, than to clear and explain it, which is the end of speech. The contrary is but the cunning and artifice of many, who, though they dare not ({non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman}) flatly, and with open forehead fight against Truth, yet with their ({non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman}, as Socrates speaks) fetches, dresses, ambages, circles, labarynths, perplexed and purposely intricate terms and discourses, they obliquely fight against the Truth with its own arms, Eloquence: studying to confound and lose the capacities of simpler minds, by using a sea of words to a drop of truth. Such tongues and men, like Ignes fatui, intend not to give light to a matter, but only to amuse and lead out of the right way, ignorant and well meaning minds: Which is indeed but a more subtle, fine, and sophistical way of lying: An injury of justice and truth with applause and ostentation; which they hope to steal away, in that mist and obscurity of words, which by their voluble and juggling tongues they cast upon them. The practice and fault not so much of private men, as of those Tertullusses, many public Orators; whose profession calls them to the bar, and pleas, to be Vindices veritatis, Advocates of truth and justice; whose unhappy tongues, and pernicious eloquence, oft times so darken and entangle truth and a just cause, which they know to be such, that they gain it with as much injustice as eloquence; whose mercenary and venal souls and tongues, count their greatest fee and reward to come from the purses of their clients, not from the conscience of asserting a truth, and vindicating a just cause. Certainly, it had been a blessing to these men, to have been dumb; better not speak at all, than not the truth; or with applause and vain glory, to speak nothing but specious and plausible lies. These are not Pleaders, but Seducers; as Bernard, Bonorum ingeniorum insignis est indoles in verbis verum amare, August. non verba: It argues a mind not less ingenuous than pious, to make words subservient to truth; not to subdue and captivate truth to words: To count the clearing and prevailing of truth the noblest reward of speaking, not to make truth the booty and prey of speech. Veritas saepe offuscatur eloquentia: Tertul. That power and prevalency of speaking that some men have, should be as bellows▪ {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman}, to blow up, and resuscitate to a flame and splendour, the sparks of an obscured truth; not to damp and oppress them, by casting the ashes and soot of dry and empty words upon them. This then is our common duty, to speak the truth; a known, at least a believed truth, freely and sully, without fear or partiality: Simply and nakedly, without swearing and imprecations: Candidly and ingenuously without artifice or studied obscurity. 2 Who? Every man: No man hath a Patent or privilege to lie; or a dispensation for truth speaking in any cause whatsoever. Not for himself or any advantage may accrue to him: Mendacium semper inutile, A liar is always a loser; for he sells the truth and his soul into the bargain, when the whole world cannot countervail either of them. August. Not for his friend, which is as his own soul: Nemo potest esse veraciter amicus hominis, nisi qui fuerit primitus veritatis: he will easily prove a false friend, that will falsify the truth for his friend. Magis amica veritas, must be a good man's maxim: he that is false to God, cannot be firm to me; as Constantine the Great said. That friend that will be lost by truth speaking, or not lying, is not worth the keeping. He values his friendship far too dear, that will have me purchase it with the waste of my conscience, and hazard of the love of God and loss of my soul. Not for Parents or kindred: Our nearest alliance and cognation is to God; {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman}, whose essence and will is Truth; His offspring we are; we must not break our respects to Him, to pleasure any relations, which are infinitely below Him. Not for the Magistrate, or his Prince: A good Prince will not require it; an evil doth not deserve that a man should so far injure his soul, by rebelling against the most High, whose kingdom is over all, even Kings themselves. Not for his country: By lying to banish a man's self from heaven, which is a Christian souls true, dearest, and eternal country. Not for his Religion: A lie cannot advance true religion, no more than water inflame fire, or darkness illustrate light, or hell promote heaven. It is a lame religion, or a halting heart at least, which professeth it so, as to stand in need of the crutches of lying and equivocation. Not for God himself, and his glory; Whereof he is so vigilant and powerful a maintainer; that he needs not the devil's aid. Will ye accept the person of the Almighty, Job 13.9. or lie for him? do you think to serve him by sinning against him, or please him by offering an abomination? This is as if one would pretend to secure a Prince by treason; or defend him by striking at him: For every liar doth strike at the face of God, which is, Truth; by which he appears to us, and is seen by us. Nay not for Truth itself; which cannot be strengthened, but enfeebled and hindered by the addition of a lie: as a strong and sound arm or leg, by needless splinters and bands: or wholesome meat, by mixture and infusion of poison. Mendaciorum natura est, Lact. ut cohaerere non possunt; Lies cannot easily be so glued or soldered together, but their flaws and gapings will be detected: much less Truth and Lies; which are more heterogeneal, than iron and clay: old bottles and new wine: a new piece and an old garment. What agreement hath light and darkness, God and Belial? 2 Cor. 6.15. So that it is every man's duty, in all the course and turnings of life, to steer his speech by the compass of Truth; which by a heavenly sympathy, tends itself, and must always carry us to that Cynosure, the first and immovable Pole of Truth, which is in God. Lying and falsity is the rich and Noble man's shame and dishonour: Truth and veracity is the meanest man's riches and glory. The greatness of the one will not bear him out in lying; nor the necessity of the other excuse him. Veritas animae sponsa: Every reasonable creature should be affianced and wedded to truth, by so firm and indissoluble a band, as will suffer no estrangement, much less divorce. It is the adultery of the soul to embrace an error; and of the lips to speak a lie. Every man must speak truth: So much as we lie, we 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 affairs of life, and civil conversation do join us unto. Indeed we are all, Proximi naturâ, near Neighbours by the proximity of common nature, of the same stock and extraction. More nearly we are Neighbours, by the consent and fruition of the same laws, country, Government, commonwealth and public good. Many are neighbours by a vicinity of place and cohabitation: many by community of business and employment. As we are Christians, we are all Proximi Religione, Fide, Numine, Redemptore; and should be affectu & charitate, we have a nearness, nay sameness of Religion, God, Saviour, Faith, Hope, And affection one to another. These are obligations enough of nearness and vicinity to tie us each to other, under the relation of Neighbours; when the least of them may not be violated with a lie, without a great sin and unworthiness. We may not lie to a stranger, an enemy, a heathen, a Turk, an Infidel, a liar, nor to the devil himself; we may not pay him in his own coin, no more than the Archangel Michael durst give him railing accusation; Iu●e v. 9 though he be {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman}, a railer, and false accuser. Certainly, nothing is less neighbourly than lying: for what trust, affiance or security, can one have in another, if one cannot believe what another promises, affirms, or denies. Commune vinculum indigentia; The common tye of society is the mutual want of each other; and, The common interchange of good offices is in the way of truth-speaking. Else every neighbour is Insidiator & hostis, an enemy; and the more dangerous; because near and treacherous. Better dwell in a wilderness than such a vicinity. The knot and sum, that folds up all the second Table, is this, To love thy neighbour as thyself: Now, Aug. Ench. ad Lau. nemo libenter dicipitur. Falli nolunt qui fallere amant; adeo rationalis natura errorem refugit: Every man hates a lie in another, so much as he loves himself. No man loves you should lie to him, though himself lies never so frequently; no more than a thief will like you should steal from himself. do then as we would be done to; that is, well and justly: And, speak as you would be spoken to; that is, Every man the truth to his neighbour. {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman}; ●s. Pel. l. 1. ep. 9 The Standard of equity and virtue God hath set in every man's own reason and conscience to measure by it to others, so as he would they should mete to him. If but this one branch of it, (in truth speaking) were conscientiously observed, we should not have so many contentions, which call for public examination and execution of truth; for lying breeds injuries. He that fears not to offend God by lying, will not fear to offend man by defrauding: whence spring so many suits and quarrels. Every man, though he cannot judge what is aequum, just, in mine, and thine; yet he may, of what is verum, in regard of his own thoughts; which needs no other Court, witness or Judge, than his own conscience, for the speaking of it. Neither private nor public good can flourish, if this commerce of Truth-speaking to our neighbour fail and decay. Which if in daily and domestic converse it must be maintained; how much more in public attestations, when by word or oath, we are called forth as Witnesses or jurors to speak the truth, not only to our neighbour, but to the face of our country; to our Prince; to the law; to justice itself; and in a high degree to the glory of God? as Joshua persuades 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. public lies are impudent and enormous lies: when death and life, Pro. 18.21. justice and injustice are in the power of the tongue: But a lie upon oath, is beyond expression abominable to God and man. Pro. 22.22. In this if in any sin men exceed the devils; whom we read of, notorious for lying, but not for perjury; as never having the honour to be called to witness 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, country, and commonweal 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 sinful: while a man, openly, deliberately, solemnly, upon the word of God, pretends to call God to witness of his truth speaking, when he means nothing less. St. Augustine tells us, It is a less sin to swear by a false God, Ep c. 34. truly; than by the true God, falsely: he is nearer piety, who owns and fears a false God; than he that denies the only true, and so all Gods: yet he that denies the true God, is less wicked than he that despiseth and blasphemeth him; as a perjured person doth, while he endeavours so much as lies in him, to make the true God, his omniscience and power, an abettor and maintainer of his lie and falsity. Quantò magis sanctum est per quod juratur, August. tantò magis poenale perjurium. So that, as Truth speaking is required of every man to his neighbour in private; so much more in public speaking; and most of all in solemn and public swearing before the Magistrate: Where one false witness and false swearer may so plunder a truth, and snarl a cause, that it will be hard for the Judge to find the true method to unwind it. The truth and religion of an Oath is then fulfilled, when he that is lawfully called to swear, doth so swear, as is not only agreeable to his own knowledge, without equivocation or reservation, and to the form of words in which the Oath is administered; but also to the meaning and purpose of the Magistrate that requires him to swear, so far as he doth conceive it. Which is S. Augustine's determination, in his Epist. 224. But I may not insist on this theme, of Swearing. I have done with the first part of the duty, Veracity; so far as concerns all men in a private, or public way, so as may further the execution of truth and peace in the gates; to which we are in a good forwardness, if the first be learned and practised. 2. The Magistrates duty in special; Execute the judgement of Truth and Peace, &c. THis, although it be for every man's good, yet is not every man's work; but chosen men, appointed by lawful authority, as Moses at first did. No man may arrogate this vice-gerency of God, except he be called by God immediately, or his vicegerent Power on earth. That was Lucifer's pride, forwardness and fall, that he would be similis Altissimo, exalt himself. Christ refuseth this employment, because he had no Commission from human power: Who made me a judge? Luk. 12.14 Absalom's ambition was not grown so violent, and past all bounds of modesty and respect to his Parent, Prince and country, as to assume this Office to himself; but wisheth, O that I were made a judge! 2. Sam. 15.4▪ In places of ecclesiastical and civil judicature, the forwardest are seldom the fittest. Wise, grave, and conscientious men, who best understand the weight and charge of public execution of Justice, are willing enough to wave it, as seeing no less burden than honour in it. But Those that are called, must not be wanting to God, the King, their country, their own Consciences; but must execute, &c. 1 It must be judgement. Not what their own or others' passion, will, power, or pleasure suggests; but what Reason sees secundûm normam legis, agreeable to the rule of the Law: which is the common vote, and consent of men to Reason. Iudex non jus dat, sed docet; judges do not give laws, but teach, declare, and execute them. Plato saith, That State will flourish, where Magistrates serve the laws, not laws the turn of the Magisrate; who may not change licet into libet. The Magistrate is but {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman}, Cl. Alex. as he says of Moses, the mouth by which the Law doth breath. Iudicium à judicando: judgement must proceed from a serious and deliberate examining of matters, secundùm allegata & probata: It is but the product, or just account which ariseth from the witness of persons, presumption of circumstances, and evidence of things, which must be weighed in the balance of justice: In the one scale whereof, is laid the weight of the Law (pondus legis;) in the other (pondus causae) the merit of the case, fact, or person. Though Justice must be coeca in exequendo, impartially blind in executing; yet it must be oculata in dijudicando, most eagle-eyed, and acute-sighted in searching out a matter. The matter I knew not, I searched out. Job 29.16. As I hear I judge; and my judgement is just. Ioh. 5.30. Descendam ut videam; God himself, Gen. 18.21 who is omniscient, and {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman}, teacheth us by his slowness, not to proceed to execution till we have a manifest cognoisance of things, by a fair, free, and calm hearing of matters on both sides: else (you know) Though a judge may in his sentence hit on the right, yet he merits the brand of an unrighteous Judge: Though the decision be just, yet the Decider is not; Doth our law condemn any man before it hear him? Iob. 7.51. There must be {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} before {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman}; and {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} before {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman}: A hearing with patience and judgement, before the executing of judgement. judge's must be scrutatores, indagatores, viri decretorii, men of piercing, judicious, and discerning spirits; for, Veritas in profundo, dicti, facti, cordis: Truth doth seldom swim and float in the surface; but is hidden and sunk in the bottom of the words, actions, and hearts of men: They had need to be urinatores, men of profound and diving minds, that get this pearl. Judge not according to the appearance, but judge righteous judgement. Ioh. 7.24. Truth indeed, as God, is but One; yet falsities and pretensions (like Penelope's suitors) are many, and shape themselves into diverse forms and semblances of Truth. As, Omne malum fundatur in aliquo bono, so all falsity and injustice pretends a show of truth, and pleads for the protection of justice; and may easily impose upon a careless, drowsy, and oscitant Judge, that hath not his understanding and conscience vigilant and intentive. Epist. 7 5. A Judge (saith Basil) must have {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman}: needs be a critic, of sharp and exact understanding, to discern between man and man, cause and cause, just and unjust, true and veresimilous, false and specious, between the confidence of accusing or denying, and the truth or falsity of the accusation; between the modesty or rudeness of the defendant, and the innocency of his cause; between the weight of the complaint, and the malice or envy of the plaintiff: For if it suffice to accuse boldly, who shall be innocent? If to deny roundly, who shall be guilty? — Aspice quantâ Iuven. Voce negat, quanta est ficti constantia vultus. Oft times the false confidence of the worser part, and that, (prostitutae vocis venalis audacia, as Cyprian,) hired impudence of voluble tongues, which are (Lenones injustitiae) the bawds and panders to injustice, are ready to carry it with a brazen forehead, and Stentorian voice. On the other side, Right and Innocence is ready to betray itself, through a rudeness, simplicity and diffidence of mind, carriage and expression. Quibus honestior conscientia, iis plerumque frons imbecillior: Innocence is often timorous, Jerome. uneloquent, unexpert in terms and formalities to explain itself, when Dishonesty, like Tamar, is oft vailed with a mask of fair words; and a smooth tongue gilds over a rotten cause. A Judge, here, must be eyes to the blind, Job 29.15. and show himself judicious, to have studied men as well as books; and like Solomon, by his wisdom, repress the impudent guiltiness of the one part, and relieve the diffident innocence of the other. He must not be ({non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman}) carried away with a stream of words; or like Pygmalion prefer an adorned statue, before a naked, yet true and living man. A Judge must be, as Christ, with his fan in his hand, throughly to purge his floor; Mat. 3. where chaff and wheat, injury and innocence, justice and injustice, truth and falsity, promiscuously lie before him: His just clemency must gather the wheat to a safety; his just severity must scatter and consume the chaff, with condign punishment. judgement thus carried, will have the Two qualities in the Text; of Truth and Peace. 1 Of Truth: that is, a True and just Judgement; For Truth and Justice are equivalent, and inseparably twisted together, in foro, in Courts and decisions of right. What is false must needs be unjust; what is just must be true. Truth is the foundation of Equity. Truth in judgement, is, The conformity or agreement of the sentence and decision with the mind of the Law, understood by the judge: {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman}. The intent of the Law is, Suum cuique tribuere; a judge must faithfully assign to every one that portion which the Law doth give them, in the true and literal sense and meaning of it, without warping or straining the words by witty conceits, and curiosity of interpretation, beyond the intent of the Law, or analogy of Justice, which is, Reason: neither girding too straight by rigour, nor slackening too loosely by indulgence, the words, which are but (vestitus legis) the clothing of the Law. Pessima tyrannis lex in equuleo: laws by the tyranny of wit, may be so racked and tortured, to such forced constructions, that they may seem to speak that which they never intended. Obscure and ambiguous laws are the snares of a people; and the dens or refuge of tyranny; like Ancipites gladii, two-edged swords, that cut on both sides; having no back whereon Innocence may safely rely. Therefore Enacters of laws have endeavoured in plain and perspicuous words, to set down their meaning; according to which, judgement must be executed, if it be true Judgement. The highest honour and most sovereign employment, and nearest to the supreme glory and majesty of God (the great King and universal judge of the world) is this, to give true judgement; to search, find, declare, vindicate Truth; though darkened, oppressed, prejudiced with injuries and calumnies: though prescribed, and proscribed by power, will, time and custom. Tertul. Nullum tempus satis longum est, quod possit aut debeat errori patrocinari, & injustitiae; No might, should be, and no time or usage is sufficient to patronize falsity and injustice against Truth and equity; which out of doubt are most ancient, and should be most prevalent: for falsity and injury presuppose them first, and are but the superstructure, a kind of moss and accrescency to them. For this end (saith our blessed Saviour) was I born; Ioh. 18. 3●. to this end came I into the world, that I should bear witness of the Truth. I can do nothing against the Truth. To this end, Judges have reason, learning, experience, conscience, public authority and trust from the King and country, that their judgement may be true and just; not false and unjust; condemning the righteous, or absolving the wicked; both which are an abomination to God. It is the prerogative of divine and omnipotent mercy, to justify an unrighteous person; yet still with the safety of truth, and integrity of justice: for he doth it not sine interventu mortis & meriti Christi. God so loved mercy, that he would magnify it in justifying and saving of sinners; yet so loves truth and justice, that he would not do it without the death of his Son, that just One, to satisfy his justice: That so he might with infinite Mercy and Justice apply his righteousness, to justify the unrighteous. By this means, righteousness and Peace kiss each other: Your Judgement will be not only just and true; but a judgement of Peace, the second quality required in the Text. Cl. Alex. Strom. 4. {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman}; Peace is the daughter of true Judgement: Truth and justice the mother and nurse of Peace. The God of truth and justice is the Father of order and peace; The devil and father of lies is the author and fautor of disorder and confusion. It was not the true mother that required the division of the child; nor is it true and upright judgement that dissolveth peace. 1 It must be judgement of Private Peace, between a man and his neighbour; which can never be maintained, except each party by the light of the Law, clearly sees the truth of the judgement, for, or against them. Endless and interminate suits and dissensions (like Hydra's heads) must needs grow up, where the seeds of falsity and injustice are sown in Judgement. Of this, great care must be had, that, though men lose their Cause, yet they may not lose their Peace and charity. A man makes an ill bargain, that gains his process, and loseth the love and goodwil of his neighbour; which is the greatest damages. Proximorum odia sunt acerbissima. Wine makes the sourest vinegar: The quarrels of neighbours and brethren, set their hearts at the greatest distance and defiance. 2 Where the coals of private dissensions are scattered in every corner, the whole house will soon be on fire; and public Peace cannot long continue: For where there are great divisions of hearts, and Private grievances arise like swellings, and distemper of parts, to affect the whole body with the fever of discontent, what can be expected but public mutinies and combustions? Lex est corporis politici nervus: The great bodies of States must needs be paralytic, and vehemently shaken, if not dissolved, when the sinews of justice fail. An unjust Judge, like a Comet, portends wars and commotions; and scatters so malignant an influence to men's minds, that they had rather venture the injustice of war, than suffer the injustice of peace. This Principle is in most men's minds, Pax est omni bello tristior, quae justitiae & veritatis ruinâ constat; That peace is more deplorable than war itself, which only maintains power to waste and oppress innocence and truth. Isidore Pelusiot tells us truly; {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman}; It is but the name and shadow of a false and lying peace, where is not true justice. Iustitiae debetur, quod homo homini non sit lupus. It is true judgement only that can secure peace, and hinder men from degenerating to wolves and tigers; which they do, when by injustice some are exasperated, others are animated to sin and injurious insolences. One untrue and unjust judgement, like the wind, scatters and sheds the seeds of ill weeds and manners, about the whole field; which should, by truth and justice, have been cut up by the root; and its contagious spreading hindered. Besides, nothing more slackens the reins of government, and the stability of peace, which is upheld by the reverent awe and respect which the people and subjects give to the Magistrate, than when by injustice and unworthiness, they bring their persons and authority under contempt and dislike; that they seem to them not as Gods but Idols, which have ears but hear not, eyes but see not, mouths but speak not true judgement. Against such Magistrates, people are prone to think it, not only just, but meritorious to rebel. Psal 99.4. The King's strength, or throne loveth judgement, and by righteousness it shall be eshablished with abundance of peace. Psal. 72. David, in his prayer and blessing to his son King Solomon, joins these two; Give the King thy judgements, O Lord, and thy righteousness to the King's Son; and that, he shall rule the people with equity, and the poor with judgement. Then the mountains (subordinate Magistrates and Judges,) and the little hills (Inferior Officers,) shall bring peace to the people, by righteousness. he must be Melchisedec, King of righteousness, that will be Melchisalem, King of peace. 3 There is a third Peace, that results from the judgement of Truth, as the crown and greatest reward of the judge; That is, the inward peace and serenity of his own conscience, witnessing to him, that, as he is in the stead of God, so he judgeth as God would judge; according to his will and law, which is the rule of Truth and Justice, and the way of peace and happiness. This Peace is so precious to a good man, that he will choose to lose all rather than this, which is the souls immediate, and inward enjoyment of itself and God. The fruition of which, as it passeth all understanding; so the loss of it passeth all the skill and favour of the world to repair or recompense it. An unjust judge cannot but condemn himself. — Prima est haec ultio, quod se Iudice nemo nocens absolvitur;— He becomes his own Accuser, witness, Judge, and Executioner. For, where Astraea (Justice) dwells not in the conscience, Nemesis (Revenge) will. Occultum quatiente animo tortore flagellum: His soul must needs be filled with a fearful expectation of vengeance and the judgement to come. 3 Execute it, when you have judiciously considered what is Truth, and tending to Peace. Declare it, pronounce it publicly. Magistratus est lex loquens. Judges are ora & linguae publicae, Plebis, Regis, Legis, Dei; the public Oracles to declare the will of the State, the Law, the King, and God. To what purpose is finding out of true judgement, if you do not, dare not speak out? or, speak otherwise than you judge in yourselves? Procaciùs peccant, qui maturiùs & quasi ex consilio: Knowing, and not declaring and doing justice, is the aggravation of injustice. It is a calamitous time, as Hezekiah said, When children are come to the birth, and there is not strength to bring them forth. There must not be only a Conception of what is true and just, and then ({non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman}) an abortive judgement, smothered and stifled in the breast of the Judge, by silencing or suspending the sentence; nor yet must it be strangled and oppressed unnaturally, (as the Egyptian Tyrant did the Israelites infants) after it is pronounced, by diverting or perverting the sentence; but there must be an execution of it: which is the soul and life of Justice, and gives a quickening and animation to the laws. Law (as our learned Hooker tells us,) is a directive rule to the goodness of operation; both in nature, polity, and religion. What are laws in your books or breasts, if not put in execution? The not executing the penalty of the laws upon offenders, is the execution of the laws themselves; and renders them cadaverosae Leges, dead and breathless carcases. It is the breath of the judge, in a right and powerful sentence, which must blast the wicked and unjust; and revive and renew the face and force of the laws, of Justice, and of good men. Potentia est legis asylum, Law and Justice hath its last recourse to Power for the executing. Forcibly, as Ioh and David, Job 29.17. pulling the prey out of the teeth of the lion, and breaking the jaws of the oppressor: Restoring the oppressed and molested to his liberty, right, and quiet: Commanding and inflicting condign punishment on the purse or person of offenders. If need be, and the public good require it, not only pruning and lopping off the branches and arms of luxuriant and spreading wickedness, by restraining the liberty, by withdrawing the sap and nutriment of estate and means; but cutting off those noxious weeds and thorns from the land of the living; and utter extirpation of those that are Telluris inutile pondus: Why cumber they the ground? And this, (ne pars sincera trabatur) not with more justice than mercy and gentleness; lest connivance, remissness, and impunity spread the contagion to parts, as yet found and untainted. Quid enim tam iniquum, quàm ut desertori boni bene sit? August. What is more unjust than that it should be well with him, who hath left off to do well? What more just than that evil of suffering should light on evil doers? But how must it be executed? 1 courageously and resolutely: Jethro, in the character of a Judge, requires this in the first place, Exod. 18. That he be a man of Truth and Courage; That fears God and none besides: Not the face of man, whose breath is in his nostrils. The fear of man is a snare. Pro. 29.25. Qui fortis non est facilè ad injustè faciendum vincitur; qui justus non est facilè ad imbecillitatem cogitur: justice and fortitude as Twins grow together. A weak and timorous man will easily be unjust; and like a Kite scared from the prey which the law hath justly seized on. A just & generous minded Judge, will no more remit his judgement, and the execution of it, where the Law hath laid hold on a malefactor, than the lion which the Prophet speaks of, Isai. 30. will quit his prey, or abase himself for the multitude of shepherds gathered against him. For this would be as fatal to him, as Ahab's letting Benhadad go in peace: or the Prophet not smiting, when he was commanded by the word of the Lord. The blow and judgement, as well as the crime and offence, will light on himself; for he becomes guilty of what he leaves unpunished. The malefactor escapes, lives, continues to sin, at the charge and hazard of the judge's soul. 2 Freely: For love of justice, truth, God, and the public good. Bern. ad Eng. Parum est justitiam facere nisi & diligas. The motions of Justice must be like the Heavens, {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman}, by inward principles; not like mills and mechanic Engines, that stir not, but by force of winds, waters, and weight, and hands; by hopes, promises, or gifts. In execution of justice, it must not be as in scenes of masks and pageants, where things seem of themselves gently to slide from heaven, when indeed there are secret devices and inventions of Art, that violently, though cunningly, move them. The light of the Sun, the liberty of heaven, the day and air should not be more cheap and free than justice. Though an Advocate may sell his pleading, August. and a Counsellor his counsel; yet a Judge may not the execution of judgement. Justice is a debt they owe to men; he cannot be just that must be hired to pay his debts. A purchased sentence, though just, is unjustly sold. Gifts do blind the eyes of the wise. Exod. 23.8. he that accustoms himself to gratuities for a just sentence, will soon grow so dim-sighted, as to receive bribes in an unjust cause. These must be kept off by all ways; directly, indirectly; nec per se, nec per alium. It will not serve the turn, nor satisfy either God or the integrity of a man's own conscience, to say, as Adam, The woman thou gavest me; or the son, or servant, he, or she received it; gave it me, and so I took it. Nor to say as the Woman, I saw the offer was fair to the eye; a present to be desired to make one rich, (I am sure not wise) and so I took it: No, that cursed Serpent of covetousness in thy own breast, beguiles thee: The devil tempts thee with All these I will give thee, if thou wilt fall from thy integrity in judgement; which God requires be neither corrupted by indulgence and favour, as David's to Absolom; nor prejudice, as David's to Mephibosheth; nor hatred, as the Jews against Christ; nor fear, as in Pilate; nor covetousness and popularity, as in Felix, who failing of his money, yet to do the Jews a pleasure, left Paul bound. Nay▪ an upright Judge may not feoff that as a favour, which is indeed but justice and a duty: nor challenge and own the thanks for a happy issue, which indeed belongs to the law and equity of the cause. he doth not know the price and value of a good conscience, who seeks for a reward beyond that of doing virtuously. 3 Impartially: Naz. {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman}. As the beauty and influence of Heaven, and light of the Sun equally and indifferently falls on the poor and rich, the palace and cottage, the great and mean, the learned and idiots; without preferring one, or disdaining the other; so should the execution of true judgement. judges are married to the Law, to Justice, and to the commonweal; and must forsake father, mother, friends, and all relations, and adhere to Justice: as Levi in the execution of justice, is commended, that he knew not father, or brethren, Deut. 33.9. or kindred. The Magistrate must be as an upright bowl, that hath no bias; as a true dy, falling square, what hand soever casts it. Not warping or propending any way; but as a straight rule, or plumb-line, indifferently showing the rectitude or obliquity of what body soever it is applied to. To have respect of persons is not good: (i. e. Pro. 28.21. ) it is very bad, and sordid beyond expression; so much debasing the soul, that for a morsel of bread such a man will transgress. With God is no respect of persons: 2 Sam. 14.14. nor should be with those umbratiles dii, shadows and backparts of God: who in Judicature should forget they are men, and remember they are in the place of God. As favour must not, so nor personal offence may weigh in the balance of executing true judgement. No particular distaste, or desire of revenge, may sour and sharpen the execution or sentence: he that gladly sacrificeth a malefactor to his particular revenge and hatred, under or with the name of public justice, may be a murderer while he is a just judge; while he satisfies his own revengeful mind together with the Law: This destroys the sinner, but he the man and his neighbour. 4 Speedily: Qui tardè vult, non vult ut debeat velle. Judgement must be executed in benigniore parte, in the way of adjudication and restoring to right, of compensation of wrongs, and of remuneration of merit. Demurs and procrastination, beyond what is necessary, is so far an injustice, as it is a hindrance; and so great, that oftentimes the Delay countervailes, if not exceeds the benefit of the judgement. St. Bernard's counsel to Eugenius is good, and would be a great ease to subjects, Frustratorias & vexatorias praecide dilationes, To circumcise the superfluities of suits and pleas, and cut off all those tedious and expenseful attendances of persons, adjournments of causes, when they are ripe for judgement and execution. Which unnecessary detentions are for the most part, but the stratagems and windings of under-Officers; who, like dishonest Surgeons, will not cure their Patients, till they have cured their Purses; though with the others molestation and torment, no less than charge and expenses. Non missura cutem, nisi plena cruoris hirudo, You may know the Leeches are full, when they let go their hold. But a noble and just judge, that loves justice for itself, and tenders the good and quiet of his poor countrymen, will make a short work of it, and hasten judgement, that he may add charity to equity: That it may appear not evicta, but lata sententia; a Judgement, as true and just; so not extorted by importunity, but easily obtained by the merit of the cause. 5 Yet leisurely, and full of caution should the execution of Judgement be, if punitive; especially capital; Vltimo supplicio. Nulla unquam de morte hominis cunctatio longa est. Iuven. Man is {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman}, a creature of greater value than to be rashly and precipitantly cast away. And tenderly too: There must be all the grains of allowance, of time, mercy, and clemency, that justice and law will permit. Imple Christiane Iudex pii patris officium; sic succense iniquitati, August. ut humanitati consulere memineris: Rigour of justice is unjust, where mitigation may be showed. Clemency is a debt Magistrates owe to our nature, and the common infirmities of mankind. 6 Lastly, compassionately. Execute judgement, though severe, and such as cannot justly or safely admit any further delay or remission, by reason of the heinousness and atrocity of the fact; yet do it (as St. Basil speaks) {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman}, with all meekness, and demonstration of pity, and sense of humanity. Not with insolence and elation, {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman}; Nothing is less human, and more barbarous, and truculent, than for any man, much more the gravity of a Judge, to jest upon, and make himself merry with poor men's misery, of the same mould and mettle with himself; or to triumph in their calamity and sufferings, by scornful and contumelious language: Far from that of Joshua to Achan, My son give glory to God, &c. A noble and ingenuous heart, dolet quoties cogitur esse ferox, will discover, that what he doth severely, it is of necessity, not propensity; magis officii compulsus necessitate, quàm judicandi libidine; as St. Bernard adviseth the Earl of Theobald. Per. ep. 37· It is all the solace left to cast and condemned creatures, to see, their sin hath not yet deprived them of the pity and prayers of the Judge and Court, though it hath of their liberty or life. Peccata interficio, homines amplector, Is the Magistrates Motto: A friend to men, an enemy to their sins. In your gates. We have seen the manner of the Execution; but where must this be done? In your gates: That is, Those places that are appointed for public execution of justice and judgement; which were anciently the Gates of Cities and towns. 1 For the ease and convenience of the people; who might follow their actions and suits, without going far out of the way of their other affairs. 2 To show the equality and indifferency of justice, from which none was excluded, Tros Tyriusve fuat; but as the Gates of Cities are open and free to all to go in and out, so was the course of Judgement. 3 To intimate, that the chiefest strength of Cities, and safety of States, doth consist in the due execution of the judgement of truth and peace; which is as the gates and bars: the strongest batteries against sin and wickedness; the firmest defence for virtue and peace. Take away the free execution of Justice, and not gates of brass, nor bars of iron will hold out either the dissolution of manners by viciousness, or of the commonwealth by dissensions. I have done with the substance and matter of the Charge. I need no further weight to Christian minds, for the applying of what concerns you jointly or severally, than the authority in the Text, which enjoins these duties Dominante stylo, in a sovereign and commanding style; These things ye shall do. It is the will and word of God. Where the word of a King is, there is power; But this is the King of Kings. Higher than the highest. Omne sub regno graviore regnum est. Whose Majesty is above all to be adored, whose Law and will to be observed and done. 1 Because most wise and good; commanding nothing but what tends to his own glory and our happiness. 2 Most precisely and immutably just, and not to be changed or swerved in his will. 3 Most irresistibly and unavoidably powerful, in executing vengeance on them that obey not his will and laws. 4 he is most graciously bountiful, in rewarding those that take heed to do them. It is their life, peace and happiness, both here and hereafter. On the otherside, The not doing them is a man's undoing. There is no dispensing with the duties, or no avoiding of the punishment. These things ye must do; cheerfully, resolutely, zealously, constantly, necessarily: Nihil magis justum, gratum, necessarium. The omission of them will be unexcusable to you, since the Law and Charge is so plain, so short, so just and reasonable; no man can plead ignorance, mistake, forgetfulness, or rigour and hardness, since every man's reason dictates it to him; every man's heart desires it in his own particular cause and interest; and every man's conscience will condemn him, if he do them not to others in his degree and calling. 1 Speak every man the truth to his neighbour, in private converse; In public, witnessing, swearing and pleading, so far as you are called to it. It is indiscretion and folly to let all truth thou knowest flow from thy tongue, when it is not expected or required. But where it is so, and thou pretendest to reveal the truth, it is damnable not to do it, and to lie against the truth. Liars are put among the damned crew. Rev. 22.15. By thy words thou shalt be justified or condemned. Account must be given for idle words; Mat. 12.36 how much more for impious, lying and pernicious? Let then thy speech be, neither rash and unadvised, nor profuse and overflowing: from inconsiderate speaking we come to much, from much to vain, from vain to false, from false-speaking to false-swearing; Exundans amnis facilè lutum contrahit, Ambr. The stream that keeps not its banks, contracts soil and trash. Lingua modicum membrum, ingens malum, in udo & lubrico posita, majori cautelâ servanda; The tongue hath a natural lubricity, and is set in a moist and slippery place, and needs the greater staidness of mind, and strictness of conscience, to direct and keep it in the ways of Truth and Peace. 2 For You (Honourable and Reverend) whom God and the King command to execute the Judgement of Truth and Peace, I persuade myself, your piety and conscience answers with the Psalmist, It is required of us to do thy will O God: we are content to do it. Else what need all this state, solemnity, expense and trouble? like Iezebels fast, to do injustice? to decree unrighteous decrees? to pervert judgement, and turn away the cause and right of the poor and innocent? I know your wisdoms and piety consider, and need not to be reminded, That it is a double and crying injustice which is committed under the sacred name and protection of justice. ubi inter ipsas leges delinquitur, & inter jura peccatur, nec illic reservatur innocentia ubi defenditur. Injustice in a Judge is like a pestilent fever, which seizes the vitals and spirits, and is deadly to the commonweal. A lie in judgement, is a loud lie; hath a report that calls to heaven for vengeance. Besides that, it is publicum perjurii exemplum, contrary to the oath of integrity which is taken by Judges, when called to public judicature. A Judge is, and should be the public physician, to cure the distempers of others. Iustitia imperii sanitas aequissimo libramine tuenda, Peace and tranquillity, which is the health of the body politic, must be preserved by an equal temper and proportion of justice. Salus populi suprema lex, is the great and renowned theorem of just and good Magistrates. A Judge, as every Magistrate, must be {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman}. A lover of God, his King, his country, of Truth, of Justice, Industrious, and human, a Candid and good man; that is, a public and diffusive blessing, or universal good. Not {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman}, Not a lover of himself, of his ease, of his honour, of filthy lucre. Far be it from you and us, That the Judges circuiting should be like Satan's round, who goes about seeking what and whom he may devour; but like Samuel's course, or the sun's constancy, which goes from one end of the heaven to the other, and nothing is hid from the benign light, heat and influence of it: Looking upon earthly and many sordid things, but contracting nothing of their natures and qualities. Is. P●l. {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman}, A Judge and Magistrate must be higher in his mind and virtues, than his place and office; above all fear, love, hatred, flattery, passion, gain, preferment: One that esteems his own conscience, and God's spirit there witnessing his integrity, the only reward worthy the discharge of so great and honourable a trust and employment. Remember I beseech you, as I know you do, how far Peace depends on your integrity. 1 The private peace between neighbours, one of the greatest sweetners of this present life. 2 The public peace, wherein you are highly concerned; which is greatly shaken for our sins, and needs pious, prudent, and faithful minds, as well as valiant hands to re-establish it. 3 The inward peace of your own consciences with God: One unjust act at an Assizes or Circuit, or in your life, will torment more than all the profit or honour can content you; and like an unwholesome and undigested morsel, will corrupt and taint all the comfort of your other good parts and deeds. O let not that prove true by your means, that he complains of, {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman}, Is. Pel. The name, and thought, and desire of peace is everywhere, the endeavour for it nowhere. Blessed are the peacemakers: Mat. 5. O rob not yourselves and us of so great and precious a blessing. Last of all, {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman}, Basil. Remember that exact, and unavoidable, and unappealeable tribunal of the just Judge of the whole world; For he cometh, Psal. 96.13. for he cometh to judge the earth righteously, and the nations with his truth. He 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 blind and subtle characters of men's thoughts and actions, which before could not be read or perceived. A good and wise Judge will not (sciens volens) wittingly give any sentence that shall then be reversed, or judge any judgement that need to be rejudged; much less, deserve to be condemned with him at that day. Chrysost. judicandum se diffidit, qui injustè judicat, he believes not he shall be judged, who executes unrighteous judgement: yet his very injustice is a strong and sure argument, against him, of an after judgement, which shall, which must repeal his injurious sentence, and punish his impious practices; for the goodness and justice of God and his providence do require this. Bern. Veniet, veniet dies qui malè judicata rejudicabit: The day is coming, when not astuta verba but pura corda, not plena marsupia but conscientiae probae valebunt, as St. Bernard, not fair words but honest hearts; not full purses, but upright consciences shall prevail; which day shall rejudge all you have judged, and judge both you and me and us all, and all we have done or said. For we must every man give account of himself at the judgement seat of God. Rom. 14.12 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 unrighteousness, which we abhor, but clothed and accepted in the righteousness of Jesus Christ, in whom we believe; who is our Saviour, and shall be our Judge. To whom, &c. A SERMON PREACHED AT THE UNIVERSITY OF OXFORD, In S. Mary's, July 11. 1641. Being Act-Sunday. EPHES. 4.23. And be renewed in the spirit of your mind. THere is in our nature, {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman}. I know not what {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman}, an importunate desire after, and delight in whatever is presented to us under the Notion of New. Whether it be out of the restlessness of our minds, and their infinite capacity; or out of the emptiness and insufficiency of all things under the Sun, which rather satiate than satisfy: which keeps our souls in a continual appetite and longing, still expecting to find that content in what is New and unexperienced, which they have hitherto failed of. Thus daily deceiving the tediousness of our life, (which for the main is but the cramb, and repetition of yesterday) by the sweetness of variety, and a taste of novelty, which are the sauce and seasoning of all things we enjoy.— New fashions, New clothes, New houses, New Doctrines, New opinions, New country, New Teachers: Any thing New; though, as our Saviour said of the Wines, The elder be 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 we of newness, that our whole life is but a repairing and continual renewing of what through age and infirmity is daily decaying in us; seeking in vain to blot out the footsteps of old age, and with weak endeavours to row against the stream of Time, which silently and insensibly carries us, and all things, downward to the gulf 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 ruins are now ruined; so will it shortly swallow up us, and all that we magnify and esteem as ours. Yet there is one thing in us, whose ruins, though they oppress us, they grieve us not; and though they make us miserable they offend not; These are the Impairings and decays of our best and Divinest part, our spirits and minds. These, we are patient, as we grow elder, they should grow worser; and though they are pieces built for eternity, yet we suffer them, as much as in us lies, to lapse and fall to eternal ruins; not only of their happiness, but of their very Being: In quantum enim mali sumus, in tantum minus sumus, The more we have of sin, Aquin. the less we have of well-being, and deserve to have of simple Being; because we frustrate that end, for which the wise and best Maker gave us our Being: And by sin we go farther from the fountain of our Being, and our happiness, his will; which is the rule of goodness: And happiness is nothing else but a perfection of goodness. Yet the power of God will perpetuate wicked men, by a necessity of being, to all eternity, That since they would not be the Objects of his renewing Mercies to happiness, They should be the Subjects of his revenging Justice to everlasting miseries. These ruins and decays then, which of all are most considerable, because most dangerous, well merit our survey and care; especially if we seriously weigh, how vast the decays are, how short the time is allotted for this work, being magnae mentis & molis opus, a great design indeed; and which falls not under the compass of low, narrow, and smaller spirits; but requires a raised, enlarged, and ennobled mind, to begin, to persevere, and to perfect it. Which that we may do with the more happy success, Let us look to this model 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 ruin itself; In this verse lays the Foundation of this stately structure, whose height must reach to Heaven, and whose pattern is the Beauty and Image of that first, perfect, and divinest mind, which we call God. Be renewed in the spirit of your mind. In the words are two main things. 1. The Subject of our work: The spirit of our mind. 2. The Nature of the work: Renewing. we will seek to comprehend them both under these four 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 means it is to be renewed. 4 The Idea, or Character of a renewed Mind. Lastly, we will conclude so, as by God's Grace may make the deepest Impressions on your minds; and at once incite and enable you to so serious, so sacred, so Christian, so divine, so necessary a work. The first thing that requires your Attention is the Subject, The Spirit of your mind. What it is. Some Interpreters understand, that holy Spirit which is in the mind: Thus Oecumenius, Gorran, A Lapide, and others: as if it were, Be renewed by that Spirit of God which dwells and walks in your minds. But this seems to force the words. Therefore S. Augustine and others more pertinently thus. Though the words be two, yet the Subject is but one; non duas res intelligi voluit, quasi aliud sit mens, aliud Spiritus mentis; sed quia omnis mens Spiritus est, non autem omnis Spiritus mens est, ideo dicere voluit, Spiritu mentis, i. e. in Spiritu qui mens vocatur. It is no more, but be renewed in that Spirit which is your Mind. This sense agrees with that parallel place: Be ye transformed by the renewing of your minds. Rom. 12.2. Where the word is but one, the meaning the same. The acuteness of some put this difference; Mens est Spiritus remissus, Spiritus est mens intensa, The Spirit is the Mind moved, the Mind is the Spirit composed. Spiritus est mentis impetus, That the Spirit is the vigour, liveliness and activity of the Mind; by which it is stirred up, applied to, and exercised about its Object. That the substance of the soul is as the Sun, the Mind as the Light, The Spirit as the Heat. But these may seem niceties, beyond the apostolical intent, which by the most and best is conceived to aim at that Princeps Animae facultas, The highest, most excellent and divinest faculty of the human soul; which Plato calls {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman}, The Flower of the soul. S. Augustine, Vis Animae suprema, extendens se ad Dei contemplationem, S. August. honesta à turpibus decernens. Which we call men's, the Mind à metiendo; because it weighs and measures all things. Hyspulensis, quasi eminens, because it is the most eminent faculty in man, by which we reach the most excellent objects, and excel all other creatures. As the satirist comparing beasts with men, Principio indulsit communis Conditor illis Tantùm Animam, nobis Animum quoque— And Ovid. Sanctius his animal mentisque capacius altae. There is indeed a difference between Anima and Mens, the soul and the Mind. Anima est vitae, Mens consilii fons, The soul is the Principle of life, the Mind of reason and wisdom. Beasts have souls, men only Minds. The Mind improves by age and experience, the Soul not. Souls are in all men and at all times equal, the Minds most different. Philosopher's thought they could never sufficiently magnify the excellency of this faculty in man. Mente nihil homini praestantius dedit Deus, Tully. They styled it partem Animae nobilissimam; {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman}, The noblest part, the Queen and sovereign in the soul, which is to rule all the inferior faculties. That Ignea vis. That Divinae particula Aurae, which the Poets expressed under that fiction of fire, which Prometheus stole from Heaven, and framed man withal. Mens est Coelum hominis: Coelum. The Mind is as the Heaven and Firmament seated above all. Nay it is Sol in Coelo, as the Sun, Sol. the most glorious and useful part of the soul. Deus. Nay it is Deus in nobis. As God is the Mind of the greater world; so the Mind is as the God of the lesser world. Plato in Timaeo affirms the Mind and rational excellency in man, to be immediately derived from that divine Mind, which is God. By this chiefly it is that we are {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} (as S. Act. 17.29. Paul canonizeth that hemistich of Aratus) near a kind to God, and allied to the blessed Angels; which have neither Bodies nor souls; but are pure Minds, Spirits and Intelligences. In this was the Image of God first chiefly imprinted; and there are the best lineaments, which remain since our decay and fall, incorporeal, invisible, eternal in some sort, and infinite, as God; wise, intelligent, provident and free, as God. By this God hath fitted us to have communion with himself; and commerce with his holy Spirit: by its union to, and conformity with which, it may further partake of the divine nature, perfection, and happiness. This faculty then, which the wisest Philosophers of old esteemed {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman}, pure, uncorrupt, and unblemished, which above all things they prized, admired, and sought to improve and advance, by abstracting it à sensuum contagione, from things sensual and corruptible, retiring it to the study of its self, and its author, God; which retiring Plato in Phaedo calls {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman}, a wise man's first death: defining his Philosophy {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman}, the divorcing of the soul from the body, so far as the necessities of life will permit. This, by which they measured the true dignity of a man; {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman}, (Socrates) Such a man is to be valued, as his Mind is: by which they said truly that wise men exceeded fools, and good men wicked, as much as heaven doth earth, or light darkness, or the herd and common rout of men the beasts. Yet in this faculty it is, that the blessed Apostle vilifies and depreciates man; pulling down the high Imaginations of those {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman}, pretenders to wisdom; of whom he affirms, {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman}, They became darkened and blinded in their understanding, vain and foolish in their Imaginations; {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman}, Men of perverse and depraved Minds. Such as are the best and the ablest men in the state of nature, so as to stand in need of renewing by Grace. In this the blessed Apostle begins the work of repairing; The mind being that prime-motor, the main spring, the root and fountain of all our actions. As the eye to the body, so is the Mind to the man; if it be darkened, how great is that darkness? how confused, disorderly and dangerous must our motions be? As that extravagancy and folly which appears in the actions of fools and mad men, proceeding from a flaw and defect in the brain, and the indisposition of those organs, which the soul useth for the exercise of its rational faculties, is not to be mended by all the teaching, advice and example you can use, till you cure the distemper of the brain: so all that we can teach men of Graces and virtues, of God and his perfections, of Christ his mercy, love and sufferings; of their souls, heaven, hell, eternity, &c. all the most weighty and serious matters, will not change the folly, vanity, disorder and wickedness of men's words, actions and converse, until the mind be first renewed, and in some degree restored to its primitive state and integrity. Mat. 9.17. Till then all we preach or learn is as new wine put into old bottles, whose strength their weakness cannot contain: or as a new piece into an old garment, it may help a little to patch up our lives and actions; but at length it aggravates our sins, and makes the ruptures of our consciences the more desperate and wide, by the increase of our knowledge. Second Part. So necessary is it in the second place, that we take a serious survey of the decays, and see wherein they stand in need of renewing: which is the first step to it. He is well onward his work of repairing, who hath fully discovered his defects. We are here in no sort to imagine, that our souls, i. e. That invisible, immortal, and spiritual Being, in its substance or essence is any whit corrupted or impaired; which is made incorruptible. Nor are we to dream of a gross and physical renewing; but in regard of those divine endowments, and excellent abilities, with which the soul of man was at first chiefly furnished, in its highest faculty, the Mind. As the life of the body consists in its union with the soul; and its health in that [{non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman}] fit temper and proportion of humours, whereby every part is disposed to discharge the commands of the soul, which by excess or defect becomes disabled, diseased, and indisposed: So the life, health, beauty, and integrity of the Mind or Spirit consists in that union, harmony, and exact correspondency to the divine Mind, and holy Spirit of God. And contra, its decays, diseases, deformities and corruptions are from that dissonancy, and estranging from the mind of God, that crossness and opposition against his will, which hath prescribed to us the rule of nature, reason, and of Religion, his holy word and Gospel; from which the Mind swerves either by excess or defect; applying itself too much to the creature, or too little to the Creator. As the defects and darkness of the moon arise from its want of the sun's light, through the earth's interposing: So the Minds defects are from the intervening of gross, worldly, and sensual objects, which hinder its aspect of God, and intercept the light both of Reason and Grace: so that what before was pure, holy, and lightsome, because still looking at God, as its only perfective Object; summum verum, bonum & jucundum: Truth to the understanding, Good to the will, and Pleasure to the affections; to the whole man unum optimum maximum, that One thing necessary; the sum and centre of all desires, and delights; is now become dark, impure, disordered, diverted to other objects, most unbeseeming its own original excellency, and that relation it hath to its Maker. These decays of the mind of man I will not aggravate, (as I justly might) by showing you the Ignorance, Error, Superstition, and unreasonableness of the minds of Heathens and Infidels, in former, or these ages: Either in their religion and esteem of God; or their manners and converse with men. And these not only in the dregs of men, but even those who were counted the Aquilae naturae, the Eagles of nature, both Greeks and Romans; whose minds were much improved above the refuse of men, by philosophy and moral discourses: Who notwithstanding the glorious works of the creatures, their vastness, multitude, order, beauty, use and constancy; which are as loud, daily, and visible Heralds to proclaim to man the invisible Power, wisdom, and perfection of their Maker, which must needs be but one, and the best. Yet as the Apostle saith, {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman}, they grew vain in their Imaginations, and their foolish minds were darkened. They cared not to know God, so far as they might, nor to honour him so far as they knew. How many Gods did they invent? Ludibria Numinis, & hominis opprobria, the scorn of the divine, and the shame of human nature; at the best, but making God like themselves, nay much below themselves, both for nature and manners. Adeo ut facinora in homine plectuntur quae in Deo adorantur: as S. Augustine, Lactantius, and others have convinced. And as in the Nature of God, so in his Worship they discovered minds so blind, sensual and devilish, ut non tam sacra, quam sacrilegia, their services and sacrifices were not only not divine, but many of them most inhuman. How many things ridiculous, and to be laughed at? how many impious, and to be pitied? Nihil deo dignum; multa homine indigna: most of them below the dignity of the human nature; none of them beseeming the Majesty and excellence of that first, best, and infinite Being, which we call God. But these I may not insist upon. The Subject to which I must confine myself, with the Apostle, is, your minds, Christians; such as profess true Religion, which is {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman}, the raising and improving of the mind. The ruins and blemishes of these we are to discover. Now although we cannot see the minds of men, by an immediate Intuition; yet as the light through the lantern, so our minds appear through our manners. As he measured the Pyramids, by their shadows, so may we, minds: {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman}, our words are the shadows of our actions, and actions, of our minds. For our mind is as the womb of all our actions, which conceives, forms, and brings them forth, as its incarnate brood. That as we guess at the Parent, by the lines of the issue; and judge of the inward motion of the wheels, by the hand or Index; or of the height of the Sun, by the light or shadow it makes on inferior Bodies; so may we likewise of minds. The mind of man, as it is of heavenly extraction, so it is of a restless nature, and in perpetual motion, especially being out of its sphere, and native place; this inferior world; as that culinary fire here below it requires some fuel to fasten and feed upon. And although, Veritas mentis pabulum, the proper sustenance of the mind be truth; both in the streams of the creatures, and especially in that fountain of eternal Truth, God and his Will: yet missing of this, it snatcheth at any thing; and for want of care, or ability to apply to better matter, like Jet it draws to itself trash, stubble, straw, leaves, i. e. things of the vilest and most unproportionable Natures. And as an ill stomach, at once it pleaseth and corrupteth itself; till by sanctified Reason and Religion it be set on higher and better Objects, and become more choice and delicate. Mens est omnia, The mind is all things: as a raw piece of cloth, capable of any dye or tincture; or as a glass, of any Image and reflection: According as it minds any Object is applied to it, and delighteth in it, it takes its quality and denomination from it. For the filth and contagion of sin, and sinful Objects, doth taint and infect the mind itself: and whilst it doth not, by reason and grace, command the inferior and sensual appetites, it serves them, and by vicious customs is enslaved and conformed to them. 1 Thus we justly esteem and term those minds {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman}, gross, groveling, dejected, worldly and earthly; who so mind earthly things, as if they were {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman}, only made of earth, {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman}, mixed with blood; and had no spark of heaven in them: Men whose minds are never nearer heaven, than their feet lift their heads: Who are so intent on the things of this world, ut divinae particulam aurae humi detrudunt: their souls cleave to the dust; they rake up that heavenly spark of the mind in ashes; loading themselves with thick clay, Hab. 2.6. never considering their souls original, end, capacity, necessity, nor that viaticum aeternitatis, the provision to be made for it unto eternity. 2 In like manner we judge brutish, excessive and intemperate minds to be in those men, who are carried with the same Spirit, as the Gadarens cattle were; whose minds are choked and drowned by luxurious eating and drinking: who live tanquam poeniteret non pecudes natos, as repining they were not made beasts; whose Reason is their burden, and the light of mind their offence, by its secret checks and damps, taking off from that full pleasure, they seek to enjoy in their riot and excess. Men of such minds, do they not deserve the fate of that proud King, Dan 5.25. to have the hearts of beasts given them, and to be driven from the society of all civil men and Christians? 3 Thus likewise we account sensual and carnal minds, unclean spirits to possess those, whose souls are {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman}, as a jewel in a dunghill, who live {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman}, Basil. to the shame and reproach of the human nature; so wholly given up to their lusts and sensual desires, as if they were all flesh, and had no diviner part, whose Reason should set bounds of honour and moderation to inferior desires. Veneranda est non erubescenda natura; Tert. we ought not to shame and dishonour our natures, by abusing those Inclinations to unlawful pleasures, which are planted in us to a noble, good, and excellent end; i. e. Ne desi●t d●is ●u●tores. the preservation of our nature and kind. Nihil aequè deprimit mentem ac libido (Aquin.) Nothing doth more debase and brutise the spirit, and cast the mind from its station and dignity, than those sordid and sensual pleasures. Octavius thus vindicates the honour of Christian minds: libidinem aut nullam, aut unicam generandi agnoscimus, either we do wholly deny all lusts and fleshly desires, or we keep them from excess and inordination, by prescribing those bounds and ends, for which Nature, and the God of Nature hath intended them. I might be infinite by the symptoms of men's lives, and the pulse of their actions, to discover the disorder, distempers and diseases of their minds. If men had fenestrata pectora, a window to see into their souls, should we not discover in many either stramineas mentes, minds full of vanity, levity and inconstancy; or elatas, full of Ignorance and its daughters, Pride and Ambition; or pusillas & angustas, weak, small, narrow and impotent minds, neither fitted to do nor suffer like a Christian? Full of discontent, impatience, unquietude; of rashness, confusion and distraction; in a continual hurry and self-vexation, through the tumult and disorder of passions and affections. Minds for the most part filled with small, vile, and perishing Objects, even when they most please themselves and are applauded by others. Spirits let out to the creature beyond all reason, equity, need, or use. Which measure the goodness of things by the pleasure they take in them, and not take pleasure by the goodness that is in things. Naz. {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman}, Minds enslaved to things present, and led only by sense and imagination; which extremely bribe and corrupt our Judgements. Saint Paul tells us of men {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman}, 1 Tim. 6.5. of corrupt minds: Corruptio est vilioris naturae mixtura (S. Tho.) than a thing is corrupted, when it admits a baser nature to it. Corruptio. As Gold with Copper, Silver with Tin, is allayed, and loseth of its purity, worth and use; So our minds which are of an higher nature than any thing under the Sun, when they are joined to these things of base and inferior kind, are infinitely diminished and debased by them. There can be no match so unproportionable as this, for the mind of man to be enamoured of, and wedded to the creature; If we did but well know its native beauty, vigour, and excellency; its noble extraction, descent, and capacity. Vastum & infinitum aliquid humanus spirat animus, says Tully, The mind of man aspires after an immense and eternal Good; nor can it be satisfied or happy with any thing less. On the other side compare the emptiness, vanity, deformity, corruption, uncertainty, and nothingness of all things under the Sun; Col. 2.22. which perish in the very use of them; of which a man can have no more certainty, than if he should take a map of this days' clouds, and compare them with to morrow. {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman}. More heterogeneal and undecent is this match of the Mind with the Creature, than if the rose and flower, of youth and beauty, should be buried with the ashes and wrinkles of old age. By this it comes to pass, that the minds of men, by a spiritual adultery, are divorced from that Object which is best, in itself and to us, which above all we should seek to enjoy. They become {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman}, Lovers of pleasures, 2 Tim. 3.4. or the the world, or themselves, more than of God. At length the coldness of affection grows such, and the distance of men's minds from God so great, the intercourse by meditation and prayer so seldom, that in stead of contemplation of him, and delighting in him, as the only adequate Object of the mind, it begins above all things to be estranged from him, and to live, {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman}, without God in the world. Ephes. 2.12. Willingly shutting its eye that it may not see him; and so far as light doth break in, and convince of a God, it only, as flashes of lightning, breeds fear in a vile and servile sort; looking at God, only as a Being, armed with irresistible power to hurt and punish. Et quem timet odit: It becomes {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman}. What it thus fears it grows to hate, and seeks to oppose; and in the most high and desperate atheism, non tam credit quam cupit non esse Deum, not so much believes there is not, as secretly wisheth there were no God, to take notice of, and revenge its disorders and wickedness. And what the mind earnestly desires, and oft seeks to persuade itself is not, it begins at length to think it not indeed; and by an affectated and resolved atheism, willingly neglects to know, to fear, to love, to serve, to enjoy him, whom to know is life eternal, to fear is security, to love is the divinest comfort, to serve is the truest liberty, to enjoy is the only happiness and content of the mind. At last they grow devilish and reprobate minds, such as sin with greediness, mock God, Rom. 1.28. and contemn what ever is sacred; Iob. 3.19. loving darkness more than light; Heb. 10.29. despising the blood of the Covenant; and wilfully forsaking their own mercies and happiness. Thus you see how the Mind of man becomes degraded from the highest pitch and object God; and miserably decayed, in respect of its noblest capacity and operations; That as a weak brain it cannot now look to so great an height; as a blear eye, is offended with so glorious a Light: either Atheising, (i. e.) hath not, or desires no God at all: or idolising, and erects false gods: or its luxuriancy and wantonness runs out to superstitious and vain worshipping of the true God: hardly containing itself in those bounds, which right reason, the word of God, the majesty, purity, and sobriety of true Religion doth permit or prescribe. And not thus only are our minds decayed in their chiefest excellency, and immediate respects to God, which we call Religion; But farther, in the whole tenor of men's lives and actions, you may discover minds full of baseness, disorder and unreasonableness. {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman}, says Chrysost. 2 Thes 3.2. Wicked men are unreasonable men. Psal. 14.14. Are they not without understanding that work wickedness? Adeo omnis inordinatus animus sibi poena, In this is every inordinate mind its own first and severest punisher; lessening and losing that honour of right reason, whereby we are men and excel the beasts. Do but trace men's actions, and in them you shall see the print and Idea of their minds. Insani esse animi non sanus juret Orestes, No man so mad, but will protest they are the effects of unreasonable minds. 1 Is any thing more unreasonable than so far to fear the face of man, and to be awed by his sight, as not to do any thing shameful and undecent before him; (except there be attrita frons, brazen or no foreheads?) and yet neither to reverence ourselves, and the witness of our own consciences, nor the presence and all-seeing eye of God; who, we think, sees not our secret and shameful actions; and so upon the point we deny him to be God, because not omniscient; or if we do, then add we to our sin a most notorious impudence. 2 Is any thing more unreasonable, than of a short, precious, and uncertain life, to expend the prime and morn of our time, the flower of our wit and strength, to serve sin and the devil? reserving only the dregs and bran of our age, for repentance and devotion; whereas indeed nothing should be done with more vigour and vivacity, than virtuous and pious actions: Besides all this, we run a desperate hazard of our souls, and their eternal salvation; venturing so great a treasure in so frail a bark; whereas indeed as David said to Jonathan, As the Lord lives, and as thy soul lives, even the strongest, youngest, and most confident of us all, there is but a step between us and death. 3 Is any thing more unreasonable than in old age, when our Sun is almost set, when we have little time to live, and need least, yet then to mind and covet the world most; so much studying the body, as to neglect the soul's provision; to value a moment, and slight eternity? 4 Is any thing more unreasonable, than to receive many, great, and daily blessings from the almost prodigal hand of God; and yet to be so far from being thankful for them, that we are more offensive to the Giver by them? dishonouring him by his very blessings of peace, health, plenty, beauty, strength, parts, wit, and learning, &c. abusing all to pride, vanity, excess, &c. Because God is constantly Good, we are confidently evil. 5 Is any thing more unreasonable, than for a man to swear gratis? i. e. tempted neither by profit nor pleasure; and either out of a proud affectation of Gallantry, or out of passion against another's folly, to blaspheme the name of that God and Saviour, by which man pretends to hope for salvation. If there be a God above us, how can they be guiltless that take his name in vain; making that cheap and profanely obvious, which all wise and good men have esteemeed and used, as most sacred and reverend? If there be no God, how vain then are their violent expressions, their frequent and passionate swearings? 6 Is any thing more unreasonable, than to disobey his commands, who needs not our Service, Ierom. but we need his commands; who therefore honours us with his commands, ut habeat causas remunerandi, that he may have occasion to reward our obedience; by violating whose precepts and laws, we at once, in effect, deny all his Attributes, As if he were neither wise nor good, in enacting such laws; nor powerful nor just in vindicating them. 7 we cannot endure a man that hath a heart and a heart, that is, none at all; whose mind and expressions are always two, and at variance. We rather entertain such with jealousy and suspicion, than confidence and affection; because we know all is but outside, a show, and simulation only for their own ends: And is not that hypocrisy of those S. James calls {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman}, double-minded men, most impudent and unreasonable; which they fear not to offer to God? while they desire only ({non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman}) to appear, not to be seriously and solidly religious; whose Affections are but Affectations; whose profession branches beyond the root of their knowledge; whose religion is but the part they act to please some spectators; the paint of their actions, and the cloak they assume, to palliate and compass their poor and small designs of favour, or profit, &c. Forgetting that nothing becomes the simplicity of God's being, and his serious intentions of good to man, more than that {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman}, sincerity and soundness of mind to Him and his service. 2 Tim. 1.7. Nor is a man ever more unfaithful to his own soul, than when he doubles and falsifies with God: Job 27.8. What is the hope of the Hypocrite, when God shall take away his soul? Nothing leaves a man more hardened and desperate than hypocrisy. 8 We are impatient that our words and promises should be disbeleeved, and returned upon us with the reproach of a lie: And is it not most unreasonable, that we should doubt, or not believe at all, or utterly deny the word, the Gospel, the promises and truth of God; 1 Ioh. 5.16. making him a liar who is the first, most necessary and eternal truth, who never did, and its impossible he should, either err or deceive? 9 we think it just that whoso offends our meanness, and expects to reingratiate himself 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, we have often and highly offended the God of heaven, yet never to be touched with remorse and sorrow for our sins, but persist with dry eyes to add sin unto sin: Abusing that long-suffering of God, which should lead us to repentance: hardening our hearts by what should melt them, Rom. ●. 40 the patience and longanimity of God; which is so great and excessive, being provoked every day, That if we had no other Argument to convince there is a God immensly good, this were enough; for no finite patience could forbear so long. We daily pray for, and expect forgiveness from the Majesty of God, for our numberless and heinous offences, which if we obtain not, it had been good for us that we had never been borne. And is it not most unreasonable, that we should be so sensible of the least injury offered to our vileness; so short spirited, that like powder we kindle upon the least spark of offence, and instantly flame to revenge. That like Esau, or that evil servant in the Gospel, Mat. 18.28. We feed our minds with such black and desperate thoughts, as to count nothing sufficient to redeem our honours, or repair our wrongs, but the very blood and life of our brother. That being mortal, we should meditate such immortal displeasure; and to expiate in point of honour some small neglect or affront (which a great and noble mind would pass over, quippe minuti semper & exigui est animi minimique voluptas, ultio; and a Christian mind for Christ's sake would forgive:) so as to adventure at once the sacrificing two souls to the devil and eternal death: So that what event soever a duel hath, we do our souls a greater injury, than is in any man's power to do us. If God had been thus speedy and implacable to thee, thou hadst not lived to have stood so much upon thy terms, to set a higher value on that idol, thy Reputation, than upon thy God, thy Saviour, thy brothers and thine own soul's 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 Jupiter, whom they styled 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 wickedness is for want of wisdom; all sin the defect and sign of an unreasonable Mind: And though it be set off with never so many shows of wit, and countenanced by greatness; yet it draws deep of folly and extreme sottishness; such as a Christian mind should count most unworthy of itself, and its author, God; since it blemisheth its chiefest ornament, Reason; and the beauty of reason, which is Religion. Thus we may see, and seeing I cannot but stand a while and deplore the miserable ruins and decays 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 model to represent its maker's skill and perfections. Naturae imperio gemimus, we are naturally prone to grieve, and pity to see the ruins of a stately building, whose height 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 itself, now everywhere flawed and deformed: only such lineaments left as serve to show, how well it deserves our pity, and if it were possible, our Repair. How much more worthy of our serious consideration and sorrow, are the decays and Dilapidations of these goodly structures, ourselves? not only the basecourt, and outwalls of our bodies, nor that inward of our sensitive appetite and fantasies; but that Sacrarium, that Holy of Holies, our Spirits and Minds; spoiled of all those rich divine Ornaments they were once adorned withal. And this not by the Injury of Time, but our own voluntary sin; and which is most deplorable, of ourselves we daily sink and moulder to an utter vastation and eternal ruin. For though we had power to impair and waste ourselves, yet have we neither skill nor will of ourselves to renew and repair; till that {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman}, the first, wise, and powerful Builder enable us with power from above, to renew that by his grace and Spirit, which we have wasted by our own sin and folly. Nor did that {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman}, the great worker, God, show more power, wisdom, and goodness in our first framing, than he doth Grace, Mercy, and pity in our reforming. While we (alas) please ourselves in our rubbish, and dance in our ashes and ruins, our sins and follies, His truth discovers our decays and danger; his Spirit stirs 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 pattern, the express Image of himself in our nature, His Son our Saviour Jesus Christ, to whose beauty and perfections a Christian mind ought daily to aspire; who as he requires this work of us, so he enables us to it; and that he 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 seen (Reverend, Honourable, and beloved) the many great and universal ruins, and decays of our minds, both in reason and Religion, and so how great need we have of renewing, It is now time we 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 we will consider in two things answerable to the decays. 1 In point of Reason, which is the natural excellency of the mind, so far as it looks to this present life. 2 In point of Religion and Grace, which is the supernatural 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 thread of wisdom which runs through all things, by which every thing is fitted and tied together, by a suitableness and proportion of their forms and ends; and all of them as lines in a Circle, diverse in their circumference, but meeting in one centre, the glory of God their Maker. God hath endued the soul of man with an ability which we call the mind or rational faculty, to find out this rule and law both in himself and all creatures by discourse: and having found it, his conscience ties him to follow and observe it, both towards himself and all things without him. This tye and relation of reason is most constant and unchangeable in all things which work and are moved by instinct and necessity ad unum; only the reasonable creatures which have {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman}, a freewill and liberty of working, do often swerve from this rule of Reason; which whoso most observes, we count a wise and prudent man; whoso by sensuality and passion violates, we count him {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman}, foolish, disorderly, and unreasonable. God is the most rational Agent, doing all to a right end, and by fitting means; having wisdom to dispose, and power to effect beyond all possibility of power, or resistance. Man's best improvement of reason is, to find out and propound to himself the right end, which is God's, and must be good; and to use fitting means, which must be honest, in all his Actions to himself and others. {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman}, (Arist.) Reason still informs us best. This Rule, juxta rationem vivere, to live by Reason, Philosophers and wise men of the world thought the highest, best, and sufficient Rule to live by, which would bring a man to the best end, in the fruition of which consisted happiness, or that Summum bonum. By this Rule [Reason] they did and said many things very noble, and commendable, wel-becomming the dignity of the mind of man; at least for the materiality of their actions, civil and moral: as the enacting of just and wholesome laws, the constituting of forms of Government, and well-ordering of commonweals, for administration of Justice in both kinds, for moderating the sensual Appetites, for composing the passions, &c. Though they seem to have failed in the main end, which chiefly forms and qualifies both Actions and Agents, to wit, the glory of the great Creator; while they did things not out of Conscience, and obedience to his will, but out of respect and love they had to their country or themselves, out of an insatiable desire of Glory and immortality of Fame. Hence their minds grew vain and proud, which blemished both themselves, and the most specious of their doings or sufferings. For although these men went far in renewing their minds by the light of Reason, to a restrained and civilised temper, above the most of men; yet they came far short of that highest and divinest pitch of Renovation, which is in respect of true piety and Religion, which is The mind's conformity to the will of God, for what concerns a better and eternal life; which is the special effect of Christian faith; and this is the Grace of God. In respect of this last and great end, the Glory of God in the saving of our souls, I need not tell you, how blind Reason is and ever was, in the wisest of natural men. You know how confused and uncertain all was that they guessed or discoursed of the souls immortality and after-happiness, which so far as they did expect, it was only grounded on a man's own righteousness, and good works, not upon another's, applied by Faith, which is only the Christians light. For bare Reason will never suffice to find out its own defects, the nature of sin, and misery by it, nor the fall of man, which no Philosophers dreamed of; Much less of the way of repairing by the free love and mercy of God through Jesus Christ our great Redeemer. For this, the mind needs a supernatural light of the word of God and his Spirit: Which only can raise the soul to see its own misery, and accept of God's mercy. So that what the mind is not able, in this great mystery of our salvation, by Reason to invent or comprehend, for the uniting of two at so infinite distance, as a most holy and just God and a sinful man; Its narrowness and incapacity is supplied by the Grace of faith; trusting in, adhaering to, and relying upon the truth, Act. ●. 11. mercy, and power of the Promiser and Revealer of these {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman}, great things of God; as also for the effecting of them. 2 So that Christian faith is the greatest improving and raising of the mind, bringing the soul back to that first and best object, God; from whom by sin it was alienated and diverted to the creature. And the nearer the mind approaches by faith to God, the more it partakes of his light and grace; the more is the divine Image renewed in the mind and whole man, which we call holiness; which is a study of conformity to the will of God, arising from the apprehension and belief of his goodness in himself, and his love to us in Christ. For until a man believes this truth of God in the Gospel, and sees those better things offered to him in Christ, he cannot mind the things of God, with any delight or comfort; as being either incredible, or impertinent and unprofitable unto him; The mysteries of God being, as that of regeneration to Nicodemus, Ioh. 3. hidden and strange Paradoxes, rather than saving truths and gracious promises. And certainly, till we believe that God hath loved us freely in Christ, our minds cannot be carried with that filial love to him as a Father. Tantum amamus quantum credimus, As far as we believe we love, as we love we live. Till we believe God will save us, as he hath promised, upon our turning from sin to Christ, we cannot serve him with that free and faithful service, as he requires. Till we believe in some measure, that God hath chosen us in Christ to be his for ever, we cannot quit our minds of other things, and choose him for our highest good and only happiness. Therefore we see the low and narrow minds of men out of Christ, seek only to supply their wants and please themselves with these small, temporary, and appearing good things which this life affords. Their desires and fears, their shadows of content, their dreams of honour, of happiness how mean and poor! how false and deluding! how much to be pitied! having nothing in their aim, which is worthy the mind's dignity, or answerable to the souls infinite capacity and duration. Only true Christians, that is, believers, above all sects and professions, have given great proof of the true magnanimity of their noble and generous minds, both in doing and suffering; having minds by faith renewed, and so raised, that they were able to despise all that the world esteemed, to contemn all they threatened or inflicted, to deny themselves unto death; their minds being fixed on that life, treasure, and happiness, which God hath offered to mankind in Jesus Christ. So then, Jesus Christ, we see, is that first, great, and sovereign object, whom whilst our minds by faith look upon, they are renewed, raised, beautified, ennobled, and transformed: the mind of Christ being that excellent pattern and type by which ours must be renewed, Rom. 12.2. as the Apostle prescribes. Phil. 2.5. 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 work of renewing. For Christ is not, as other patterns, dead and unactive, but operative, and assimilating those to himself, Col. 3.10. who strive to imitate his virtues and perfections. Therefore the Apostle Paul, a learned and judicious man, determined to know nothing (as his maine) but Jesus Christ and him crucified. 1 Cor. 2.2. Other learning and Philosophy may free us from barbarism in manners, and ignorance of the creatures; but faith in Christ crucified only is able to redeem us from our vain conversation, 1 Pet. 1.18. to mortify our sins, to raise up our souls to consider themselves, their great and last end, and highest eternal good, which is God, considered in the face of Jesus Christ. That rhapsody of human knowledge, 1 Tim. 6.20 or rather opinion (indeed but {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman}) with which men so stuff and cram their minds, of things that need not be known, or ought not, or cannot fully be known, (whose ignorance were safe and commendable) what doth it but (as the Apostle tells us) puff up? 1 Cor. 8.7. as a false conception breeds only ({non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman}) a swelling and abortion of pride, and self-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 soul. Certainly, though a man had devoured all the learning of Philosophers, Historians, Poets, Divines, and Humanists, yet (as Pharaoh's lean Kine) the mind would be never the fatter or fairer; but still empty and unsatisfied in itself, and ill-favoured in the sight of God: as that poor man that dreamed he eat and drank and was filled, Isai. 29.8. but when the soul 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 straws, leaves and feathers, the notions and scatterings of a dark, confused, and defective knowledge, to make itself a small nest of temporary content; which will be soon cast down, when death, as a whirlwind, overtakes us; the mind will be left dubious, wandering, and distracted, not having been truly wise to get by faith a sure mansion for itself 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 acuteness of invention, nor faithfulness of memory, nor vastness of reading, nor subtlety of dispute, nor height of speculation, that renews the carnal and natural mind: all these abilities do 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 vainglory and self-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. Believe 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, zeal, patience, constancy, and all good affections; for though they cannot formally dispute, yet they can suffer, die for Christ; and though they be not learned in human Arts and Sciences, yet they have learned 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, sensual, and atheistical minds, is but their crime and burden; serving only to die their sins to a deeper tincture of folly; and is as a millstone about their necks, that sinks their souls to a farther degree of condemnation. And do we not often see, men of great wits and noble endowments for nature and industry, who have no cause to disbelieve the word of God, since he 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, Act. 17.13. babbling and foolishness of preaching; continuing to please themselves with momentary and perishing Objects; mean time, with extreme sin and folly (which will be their misery at last) they neglect that great salvation, which God hath offered to mankind in Jesus Christ; greater than which neither the soul can desire, nor God can give, since the Author, means, and End is God himself. We see in the Gospel, till the prodigal came to himself (peregrinatur enim omnis inordinatus animus, Chrysol. for wicked and inordinate minds are always from home, busied about all but themselves;) till he returned ad saniorem mentem, to consider seriously the necessitous way into which he was fall'n, and wherein he maintained himself, only so far as to be sensible of his sordid misery; and till he thought of the plenty both of his father's affection and provision, he was not resolved to quit his husks and brutish company. Sen. Primum est compositae mentis argumentum secum consistere, it is the first step or sign of a renewed mind, to be composed, to tarry at home, to be with and reflect on itself: which faith alone makes it to do, bringing the mind back from the former vanity and extravagancy, and making it seriously retire to itself and its Author, God, its Saviour, Christ, what he is, and what he 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 fullness and perfection, which the soul shall at last receive in the vision and fruition of God and Christ in the life to come, when both soul and body shall be renewed to an undecayable perfection. The Fourth Part. Thus have we seen the nature, the ruins, and way of renewing the mind. Give me leave now in the fourth place, to present to you the Idea or Character of a renewed mind; which (as he said of virtue) if we could discern with our bodily eyes, it would strangely win upon and ravish our affections. There are three Regions of minds, as of air of heavens. 1 The first is of low, earthly, and debased to senses and the things of this world, which covet much more, and yet nothing more, than this life and the body needs. 2 The second is a higher and middle Region of minds; which are raised above the vulgar, in desire of knowledge, honour and renown; {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman}. These are {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman}, rather high-minded than heavenly; {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman}, as Comets raised up and more lightsome than others, but still of gross and earthly qualities, and will soon vanish. 3 The third and highest Region is of minds, that are as the stars in the Firmament; pure, holy, heavenly; as heaven full of light, beauty, order, tranquillity, and constancy of motion; {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman}, out of the reach of inferior things; not subject to mutation or corruption; of a sweet and happy influence to all inferior faculties, which are as the earth, or lower world of the man. It is mens vicina Deo; as the highest heaven, so the renewed mind is near to God himself; above all things looking to him, filled with him; adores, admires, delights, converseth with God. Good thoughts as good Angels, descending in all humble acknowledgement of its own distance and unworthiness; yet ascending by faith to the contemplation of the infinite perfections of God himself, and his merciful communicating of himself to us through Jesus Christ. This makes a renewed mind never alone; a good man's solitude more to be envied than all the company in the world: For as God hath made us bodies fit to converse with things corporal; so minds and spirits for a mental and spiritual communion with himself, by meditation and prayer, which are the fruits of faith. The renewed mind alone sees God upon earth, and discerns his ways, which are hidden from the eyes of the world. In wars and tumults, it looks upon the anger of Princes, the injuries of men and their rebellious spirits; and considers the just judgement of God upon sinful men, corrupted with long peace, whose spirits are stirred up to punish each other: And through all times and mutations of human affairs, it still marks and expects God's care and faithfulness, for the preservation of the Ark his Church, amidst the inundation of war and barbarism; The Church being God's great design in this world, to which all States, Monarchs, Princes, the great men, and great things of this world are subservient. Next to God, a renewed mind reflects upon, and reverenceth itself; studies books, men, creatures, all things, but chiefly itself; counts itself as the jewel of the man, precious and portable; all things without as the lumber, which may be lost, and must be left. It turns the current of affections another way, and improves them by grace, to better objects; love, joy, desire, delight to God and Christ, and the doing of good; fear, hatred, grief, anger, &c. against sin, and the doing of evil. It considers sin as the greatest deformity and evil that can befall, and which only can hurt the soul. It had rather have God's grace, than his temporal gifts: It esteems heaven not so much for the impunity as the immunity from sin: The happiness it desires is a perfection of holiness; and its glory a fullness of Grace. In itself it is mens tranquilla, full of composedness, tranquillity, and sweet harmony; which it counts so divine a happiness, as no occurrence in the world is worthy to disorder it. It keeps a symmetry of actions, and uniformity of life; making passions and affections subject to reason, reason to faith, and faith to the truth and will of God revealed. In respect of men, the renewed mind studies to be {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman}, as public, diffusive and universal a good as may be; not {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman}, pragmatic and censorious, out of a pharisaical vanity; but in a serious, solid and primitive way of piety, discreetly reserved, yet ingenuously communicative; counting it a half and defective happiness to save itself only; {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman}. Is. Pel. For all other things in the world, it is mens sapiens, i. e. cui res sapiunt ut sunt; The renewed mind relisheth and judgeth aright of things, and accordingly lets out its affections unto them; {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman}, it loves earthly things, as things of a brittle temper, and when they are broke it is not much troubled. It is mens quadrata, square and fitted for all the casts of that the world calls fortune, this counts Providence: ready to entertain any occurrence of life, as becomes one whom God loves; no condition befalls in which it finds not occasion to improve some grace or virtue by exercising of it. It is mens immota; as a Rock so is the renewed mind▪ in the storms and inquietudes of the sea of this world; wherein others are tossed and overwhelmed, its firmness and constancy the more appears: Ponderibus librata suis: so balanced and settled upon its weighty and serious intentions, and hopes for eternity, ut si fractus illabatur orbis impavidum ferient ruinae. It expects the greatest troubles and comforts from within; for all without the renewed mind, as Noah's Ark, when the old world, men of old, gross, and earthly minds sink to despair, and are drowned in a deluge of their own fears, This is then raised higher, and by faith and prayer makes nearer approaches unto heaven. The pulls and stresses of worldly calamities do but fasten the anchor of its hope, that it gets the better hold; for the worse things it finds in this life, the more confidently it expects better in the life to come. It is men's defaecata; shake and stir it never so much, yet as a clear and living spring it soon recovers its settled purity, and discovers nothing feculent or unsavoury. Angry, but not soured to malice; cheerful, but not vain; provident, but not distrusting; industrious, but not covetous, liberal, but not profuse; abounding, but not proud; advanced, but not insolent; learned, but yet humble; poor, but yet content, & rerum Dominus nil cupiendo; supplies its wants from itself, but cutting off its desires. Its joys and comforts are not that ({non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman}) superfluity and torrent of sensual and worldly joys, which as a winter-stream soon abate, spending themselves apace, and besides leaves a squalor, and filth after them upon the conscience: But as a modest spring, its joys rise and run in a secret, clear, and silent stream; but yet fidelibus aquis, constant and perennant, such as the greatest drought of affliction cannot overcome. In a word, the renewed mind as a noble stream passeth clear by all those pleasant things which worldly minds admire, and are detained with in the circular eddy of their own fancies: This keeps its desires within the banks of moderation and content; being impatient of resistance still hastens its course towards its great Sire, the Ocean. August. Irrequieta est anima nostra, donec ad te redeat, Domine; never quiet till it hath attained to God, the first and great Mind: There it diffuseth and loseth itself in the vision and contemplation of his immensity and perfection; where being united, it enjoys God, Christ, and itself in an eternal fullness and novelty. It is now time that we look toward a Conclusion. Although the weight and beauty of this Subject be such, as might well save me the labour of stirring up your affections; presuming that I speak to an Audience, for the most part, piously learned, and judiciously devout: Who, I hope, hear yourselves rather commended, for what you have already begun to do, than either taught what to do, or taxed for being wanting in a business so well-worthy yourselves, and your best endeavours; as this is, the Renewing of your minds. And indeed I think myself happy, (Reverend and the rest learned Auditors) that, by your favour, I have this opportunity offered me (which my own weakness might not have aspired unto) that is, To recommend so serious, sublime, and necessary an Argument, as this of the Renewing our minds, to so noble, so learned, so choice, and considerable an Assembly, consisting of Minds and Spirits more elevated, enlarged and ennobled than ordinary. And certainly, this duty of renewing our minds, as it concerns all men, so it challengeth the practice of it, from none more than from you: To whom it will be an extreme shame to be exceeded by others in piety and holiness, as much as you exceed them in learning and knowledge. O Let not that of S. Augustine be verified of us: Indocti rapiunt coelum, nos cum doctrinis nostris perimus. poor and simple minded men crowd into heaven, and we with all our learning coldly and scarcely creep thitherward. It will be little comfort at last to die with those words, Quantus Artifex pereo? The fall of Angels, you know, was the most desperate and irreparable: the clearer the light, against which we sin, the straighter and heavier will the chains of everlasting darknessely upon us. It is not learning, but renewed, that is, sanctified learning that will comfort us, that will save us, that will secure us, while we preach to others the way of life, ourselves shall not be castaways. The new-fangled and fantastic mind indeed despiseth learning,; but the renewed mind prizeth it, seeks it, and useth it aright, with humility, with modesty, with industry, with the love of truth, with obedience to it, with a care and tenderness to the souls of poor people, with conscience to dispense its talents to the glory of God, and good of mankind. Never did any times (indeed) require and exact more of learned men and Scholars, than these now do, in point of renewing our minds, our lives, our manners, to the pattern in the Mount, the example of Christ and his holy Apostles. The faults you see of some, are made the reproaches of all, by the rash, unjust, and ignorant censures of many, who offended with some drone or wasp will be revenged by overthrowing the whole Hive of Bees. O let us confute their errors, repress their insolences, disarm their malice, and if it be possible occasion their envy, rather than their contumelious pity, by a serious, speedy, and conscientious following this precept, and the example too; which is most noble and imitable in this great Apostle S. Paul; whose renewed mind had learned in all estates to be content, to count godliness great gain, to determine to know nothing but Jesus Christ and him crucified, to glory in the cross of Christ, to esteem all worldly wisdom vain, and foolishness, without the knowledge of God in Christ, to live with all good conscience before God and men. This, this method of renewing our minds and lives to piety, holiness, humility and contentedness, will undoubtedly renew upon us, the love and favour, the honour and integrity of learning. It is certain the world cannot want us, except they will be wanting to themselves, in the most sordid, supine and brutish negligence that can be. It defends upon us what opinion and esteem men shall have of us. We shall easily overcome all the difficulties and indignities of these times, if we can but overcome our hearts to this sacred renovation, which will render us accepted and honoured both of God, and of all wise, learned and good men; whose wisdom and justice, no doubt, will as they ought discern between the just punishment of some, and the noble encouragement of others; nor suffer the displeasure against some men's abuse of things to swallow up the lawful, just, and commendable use of them. For the ignorant, brutish and impertinent clamours of others, your only way is to let them weary themselves, with their own oblatrations; while you, as the clear moon in a sphere above them, neither alter the constancy of your course in learned studies, nor abate aught of the splendour of your manners, in a renewed, that is, a sanctified life and conversation. You know {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman}, the mind is the man of the man; how much more of a Christian, who should far exceed all other men, having relation to a Saviour, that is God as well as man? By our bodies we live beasts, by our minds men, by renewed minds Christians, by perfected minds Saints. The mind's improvement is the main, which God, Christ, and Religion intend in us; and shall we be incurious? ut animam serves nonne expergisceris? All other things in the world, God so little considers, that he will one day destroy them, but he will make up his Jewels. There is nothing God esteems but man, nor in man but the mind, nor the mind till renewed to holiness. Ps. 147 10. The Lord delights not in any man's legs, no nor in any man's strength, beauty, hair or outside, which are the leaven which puffes up vain and small minds; no, nor in thy wit, learning, acuteness, eloquence, &c. but he looks at the ornaments of a renewed, a holy and humble mind; this he requires as a gift worthy of his prizing and acceptance. S. Ambrose adviseth, quod habes pretiosissimum, mentem Deo deputes. The satirist divinely, Demus superis jus fasque animi sanctosque recessus Mentis, & incoctum generoso pectus honesto. Hac cedo, &c. It matters not how mean thy drop or mite be which thou offerest to God, provided thou present it with an honest, upright and generous mind, whose most secret and retired motions are always digested to so holy and just a temper, as becomes God the Receiver. The renewed mind is no other but Bethel, the house and temple wherein God will dwell, even the high and holy One that inhabits eternity. Isai. 57.15. S. Chrysostom hence infers, {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman}, what we do to our decayed houses, do we to our minds: Vestium & domorum sordes erubescimus, & animorum patiemur? Our minds must be fitted to entertain Christ and his holy Spirit; which pure Dove will not dwell with sordid, deformed, and unrenewed minds. {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman}, says Plato. And S. Paul, 2 Cor. 6.14. What fellowship hath light with darkness? Consider, the main comfort of a Christians life is the commerce with pure Minds, Spirits, and Intelligences, as God, the Angels, and Saints. And not only have we to do with good spirits, but also with evil, which we call devils; 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 inferior make to them, should have means of renewing, which are denied them. As God and Christ's kingdom is chiefly that in the spirits and minds of men, which he secretly, but most sweetly and effectually, governs in those that are his; so the devil's chief usurpation and tyranny is there; secret and unseen, 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 he is irrecoverably fall'n. Therefore we pray that God's Spirit would be with our spirits; for there is no such judgement and misery, as to be left to a man's own mind, to be led by his own spirit, which will certainly misled him. Men commonly pretend to magnanimity, to generous minds and great spirits. O consider it is not a great spirit, in the world's sense, but a good one God esteems. The meek, lowly, and quiet spirit is greatest in God's account, and next to his advancing. That mind is truly great, which is more impatient of a sin in itself, than of an injury from another; and takes the severest revenge of itself. There is a greatness the world applauds, which infinitely lessens a Christian mind: Dum magnitudinem animi peccandi licentia metiuntur, while men measure the greatness of their minds, by their boldness 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 inferior world, by the contagion of their example. We esteem breeding, learning, and civility, whereby the natural rudeness of a man's mind and manners is pared off, and he becomes tilled 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 own souls, and above all to God, to whom we owe the greatest obligations; wherein to be wanting is extreme rudeness, and not so much incivility, as brutishness; for nothing is more human than piety. S●n. 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. We are prone to admire stately buildings, elegant pictures, elaborate pieces of art and human invention; In these we magnify the skill and ingenuity of the worker; and here our low and narrow thoughts are stopped and bounded. O rise higher; go beyond all these, to the Maker of these makers, that {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman}, God. Consider those unparalleled pieces of heaven, of earth, of the sea, the Sun, &c. above all, thyself; in thee, thy soul; in thy soul thy mind; which is {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman}; caput operis; God's masterpiece; in respect of which all creatures are inconsiderable to God and the renewed mind. In other things we seek to content our senses and appetites, with the best objects they are capable of: curious pictures for the eye; ravishing music for the ear; exquisite tastes for the palate; fragrant scents for the smell. And shall our minds only be found to fasten upon small, vile, and inferior objects, below their original and capacity, which our very outward form and stature pointeth unto? ad majora nati, immo renati. Animus excellens omnia tanquam minora transit, Sen. diis cognatus, omni mundo & aevo par, ipse sacer & divinus: The most if not all things in this world are impertinent to the mind, and far inferior to it; and one day, as He brings in Pompey's soul (ridetque sui ludibria trunci,) we shall wonder with disdain to think 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 he first made them, and still preserves them; but yet at a distance and in subordination; let none be in chief, or rival to God and thy Saviour, or thy soul. The more the mind truly knows these sublunary things, the less it will seek or prize them. Sen. 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, less infected by them: As Solomon did, whose wisdom remained with him, sublimitatem suam servans, still keeping its distance, from them; thinking none adequate or fit company for itself, but God, good angels, and good men, who are or have minds eternal as itself. Sacer & nobilis animus, naturae suae memor, nihil seipso minus amare potest: a renewed, i. e. a holy, and truly ennobled mind should much forget itself, if it should love any thing that is less than itself. O! It were wisdom 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 misspent: while the mind neither knows nor enjoys its self, nor its Creator, nor its end and happiness, but lives in a dubious, vain, 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 we consider to what end God hath sent us into this world; before we resolve to break off our sins by repentance, which is {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman}, the change and renewing of the mind. Hos. 7 9 O brepit non intellecta senectus: grey hairs are here and there and we consider it not. S. Chrysostom's advice is good: {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman}: hast thou sinned? thou hast wasted and impaired thy soul: O make speed with tears and repentance to renew it: As David prays, Psal. 51. Create, O Lord, a new heart, and renew a right spirit within me. delays are dangerous, where the opportunity is short, and the omission irreparable. How many young men are cut off in their proffers and essays to amend their minds and manners? How many renewed years, and days, 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 bitterness and terror; while men are conscious to such minds still in them, as are in no sort fitted for the society of pure spirits, Saints and Angels, much less for the presence of God and Christ in heaven. we should do well to consider, that the sins of our bodies and senses, such as are lust, voluptuousness, intemperance, sensuality, &c. will wither with time, and decay in us of themselves, when the days come in which we shall have no pleasure. But those sinful habits, that spiritual wickedness which vitiates and corrupts the mind, except by grace they be put off in this life, will continue to infect and oppress our souls to eternity: Such as are pride and unbelief, profaneness, impenitency, hardness, want of love and fear of God, delight in sin, despising of goodness, and the like; these follow and increase upon the soul, 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 souls, is daily veterascent and mouldering away; notwithstanding all the art we use to patch up our obsolete faces and withered carcases. O let our minds, that inward man, as the Eagle, be renewed daily: Nothing will more disarm death, and welcome old age, than when the mind is such, that the less pleasure the senses have, the more it doth vacare sibi & Deo, enjoy God and itself. The more infirm the body, the more lively the mind grows, 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}, chains of mortal and sinful 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 surpass the clouds, soar up to heaven, and make its nest in the Sun of righteousness. I will add no more to persuade you to this duty, but what the Apostle in his pathetical preface to this doth: I beseech you, Brethren, by the mercies of God, Rom. 12. ● that you be not conformed to this World, but be ye 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 quàm trahuntur; Let us give testimony of ennobled and generous minds, that are easier melted by entreaties, than urged by commands. It must needs condemn us of obstinate spirits, of base, ungrateful minds, if we refuse, when conjured by those many rich, free, full, preventing and eternal mercies of God. They that refuse to hear and obey when mercy charms and entreats, what voice can they expect, but that of Justice, threatening and revenging? But O thou first, great, and eternal Mind, the Father of our spirits and souls, enable us to do what thou requirest of us; Thou that best seest our decays 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 immortal souls, which thou hast made capable of thyself, above the vanity and emptiness of the things of this world, and settle them on thyself, and those great things which thou hast offered us in Jesus Christ. As our bodies daily decay, so let our minds be renewed daily; that instead of darkened, proud, vain, worldly, carnal, depraved and corrupted minds, we may have enlightened, humble, serious, heavenly pure, holy and sound minds; That may know thee, and love thee, and delight in thee, and be united unto thee by faith here, and filled with thee by fruition hereafter, of thine own immensity and perfection, in that happy vision of Eternity. Amen. FINIS. The errors of the press, in words or points, (as some no doubt there are) I must leave uncorrected, to try the candour and discretlon of the Reader.