Looking unto Jesus a view of the everlasting gospel, or, the souls eying of…

4. Consider that Christ looked off heaven and heavenly things for you, how much more should you look off the earth and earthly things, the world and worldly things for him? Christ left the glory, the company, the pleasures of Paradise for you, and he made himself of no reputation, he nothing'd himself (as it were) for you; you know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, ¹who though he was rich, yet for your sakes he became poor, that you through his poverty might be made rich. O let that melting love win you to him, and wean you off all other things!

1. 12 Cor 8.9.

5. Consider that the rational soul of man is oft too high a birth to spend its strength upon other things? the soul of man is of the same nature with Angels; it is a kind of divine spark; now if a man have a golden mill, he would not use it to grind dirt, straws, and rotten sticks in; the soul, the mind, the thinking faculty of man is too high to be exercised in the things of this earth; the soul is of a most excellent capacious nature, it is fit to converse not only with Angels, but with the eternal God himself, with Father, Son, and Holy Ghost; it is of a transcendent being; put all the world into the balance with it, and it is nothing in comparison: the soul of the meanest galley-slave is more precious than heaven and earth, than Sun, and Moon, and stars, and all the host of heaven; now if a mans soul be of such an high-born nature, if the Lord hath put such a spirit into the bosom of man, for him to bestow the strength of it upon low, base, mean, and earthly things, Oh what an evil is this?

5. Consider that the rational soul of man is oft too high a birth to spend its strength upon other things? the soul of man is of the same nature with Angels; it is a kind of divine spark; now if a man have a golden mill, he would not use it to grind dirt, straws, and rotten sticks in; the soul, the mind, the thinking faculty of man is too high to be exercised in the things of this earth; the soul is of a most excellent capacious nature, it is fit to converse not only with Angels, but with the eternal God himself, with Father, Son, and Holy Ghost; it is of a transcendent being; put all the world into the ballance with it, and it is nothing in comparison: the soul of the meanest gally-slave is more precious than heaven and earth, than Sun, and Moon, and stars, and all the hoast of heaven; now if a mans soul be of such an high-born nature, if the Lord hath put such a spirit into the bosome of man, for him to bestow the strength of it upon low, base, mean, and earthly things, Oh what an evil is this?