CXLV expository sermons upon the whole 17th chapter of the Gospel according to St.…

The due Meditation of this will abundantly instruct to duty in these particulars.

¹First, It will make us heavenly-minded, and take away that predominant earthliness in us which makes us incline downwards; The •one doth not more naturally fall to the ground then our Souls till regenerated move to earthly things; Now the Apostle argueth to the People of God Col. 3.1, 2, 3. If ye be risen with Christ, seek those things that are above, and set your affections upon them: Oh this is a great matter, when not only our mind and tongue but our affections are set on things above; The Affections are like wings to the bird, like fire among the Elements, it assimilates and turneth every thing into fire; Thus where the believer affectionately remembers he is not of the world, he crieth out as the Maid ready to be ravished under all inordinate and worldly thoughts, What do you come to overwhelm me for? He runneth away as Joseph from his Mistress, how can I do this and sin against God? The Apostle speaks in the Name of all Believers, Phil. 3.20. Our Conversation is in Heaven; Thus as the Sun in Heaven though the Beams of it shine upon Dunghills and noisome Jakes, yet it's not defiled; So the Godly though they live in a noisome, sinful, and wicked world, yet they are not stained therewith because their Conversation is in Heaven, and as the Bird as long as she soars on high is out of all danger from the snares and gins of the Fowler: Thus the Child of God as long as his thoughts and his affections are kept above, and are out of reach, they receive no defilement from these things below; Oh then let the Believer remember he is not of this world, and this will inflame him, it will be a fiery Chariot to carry him up into Heaven: But because to be heavenly-minded is a general, and particular things do most inform and affect, Singularia sunt, quae pungunt.