Two treatises of Mr. Jeremiah Burroughs. The first of earthly-mindedness

The second Rule, or Direction.

Secondly, Labour to abstract thy heart from earthly and sensual things as much as thou canst that thou mayest be spiritual: A drossy, earthly, sensual heart is unfit to have communion with God, God he is a Spirit, and thou must be Spiritual in thy converse with him, take heed of mingling thy heart with creature comforts, thou mayest make use of them, but in a spiritual way, do not defile thy heart with them, let not thy heart close with them as adequate objects of thy desires, or of thy love, take heed of being entangled, of being insnared with any creature comforts; a man cannot walk if he hath got into a snare, when men fetter themselves in the world, and entangle themselves with abundance of businesses, & creature contentments, it doth mightily hinder their freedom in walking with God, when mens hearts sink down to the creature they cannot walk with God, for God is above, he is on high, and the way of the wise is on high, and we must keep our selves on high: If so be that Christians have sometimes some good affections, their hearts are a little stirred up to things that are good; but at other times their hearts sink down to the world, and to sensual, and earthly contentments, they cannot walk freely with God, they can but halt at the best; as a man that hath one leg shorter than the other, he cannot walk evenly, but he halts as he goes; so when our affections are up and down, sometimes they are stirred up to Heaven, and sometimes down to the world again, yea, perhaps at the same time when we have some truths heave us upward, and yet a drossy spirit to sink us downward, this will be but halting, our affections must go even, must not be for Heaven and Earth together, except it be in subordination one to the other, and so while we are on the earth we are in Heaven if we keep our hearts in a subordination to spiritual things when we are busied about earthly; Then is a mans heart spiritual, and separated from the ⟨p. 322⟩earth when he knows how to have comfort in God alone, when he knows how to make up the want of all creaturecomforts in God himself, that's a spiritual heart. Now you will say, we must not be insnared in the things of the earth: when is a mans heart spiritual?