〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 THE THINGS ABOVE Proved to be the most Proper OBJECTS of the MIND and AFFECTIONS, IN A SERMON Preached before the UNIVERSITY IN Great St. MARY'S Church IN CAMBRIDGE.  
By Robert Nevil, B. D. Rector of Ansty.  
LONDON, Printed by J. R. for Benjamin Billingsly, in the Piazza, under the Royal Exchange in Cornhill. 1683.   

To the Worshipful My much Honoured KINSMAN JAMES WILYMOT, Esq High Sheriff of the COUNTY of HERTFORD, And one of His Majesty's DEPUTY LIEUTENANTS, AND JUSTICES of the PEACE FOR THE SAID COUNTY.  
Honoured Sir,  
HIS Majesty having (for your unblemished and unshaken Loyalty to himself, and your constant Zeal for the Succession in the right Line) entrusted you with the Posse Comitatus of this County, and accumulated other Honours and Titles upon you; give me leave as well to Congratulate those Honours which (if ever any did) you have Merited from your Royal Master, as to present you with this Discourse, which will discover to you the vanity of all Sublunary Glories, and acquaint you that there is no Honour woven in the finest Tapestry of this World, but will lose Colour, Decay, and Perish; and that the Greatest Titles are written in Dust, and that the very Monuments of great Men are Mortal, and will in time be found (like Archimedes his Tomb in Tully) overgrown with Thorns and Briers: But you (Sir) have taken a Course to perpetuate your Memory, and build your Fame upon these lasting Pillars; Remarkable Loyalty to your Sovereign, Exemplary Conformity to the Doctrine and Discipline of the Church of England, and Faithfulness to your Friend; these Excellencies your Friends cannot but respect and admire, and your Enemies dare not but acknowledge in you; And that you may participate as well of the glories of the other World, as you have done of the Honours of this, (whereof I wish you still an Addition) let me request you to make the things above the chief Objects of your Affections, which was the Principal design of this Discourse now Dedicated to you by  
Ansty. Novemb. 22. 1682. Your Obliged Kinsman, and Faithful Servant, R. Nevil.   

A SERMON Preached before the UNIVERSITY At Great St. MARY'S CHURCH IN CAMBRIDGE.  COLOS. 3.2. 
Set your Affections on things above, not on things on the Earth.  
IF we should put this Question to every one we meet in the Revolution of an Age, and ask him what game he desired to spring; No doubt, he would answer Happiness. That is the mark, at which we levelly all our aims: But, such is our misfortune, that we look upon it through false Optics, through a false Glass; which represents to us a Painted and Sergeant, in the Habit and Attire of true Happiness. The soul of man (as the Philosopher truly affirms) is Res Cogitans, a thinking Being; it can as soon cease to be, as cease to think: But the misery is, that the thoughts thereof are not determined to a Right Object; the bias of our Affections is turned towards the Earth: and we are apt to say with St. Peter upon Mount Tabor, 'tis good for us to be here; Here we Centre, here we sit down; whereas (if St. Paul may be believed) we are obliged to look higher than these so low and inferior Concerns.  
We must not, when we hunt after true Happiness, run like Hounds, with our Noses to the Earth, for the sent of true Happiness will never lie there; that (like the Ancilia at Rome) descends from Heaven, from above: that I may therefore (like some Mercurial Statue) point out to you the way to Happiness, I shall Address myself to you in these words of the Text, Set your Affections on things above, not on things on the Earth.  
In which words there are Three General Parts.  

First, An enquiry or search Commanded 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, Mind, look after, Set your Affections, your minds, upon.  
Secondly, Here are the Objects that deserve this search, this Enquiry, and they are 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, the things above.  
Thirdly, Here are some Objects of an inferior nature, which we must overlook and disregard, and they are, the things on the Earth.   
1. Of the First, The Enquiry or Search, commanded, 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, mind, look after, for so the word signifies; thus Phil. 3.19. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is to mind Earthly things: and Rom. 8.5. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, to mind and look after the things of the Flesh. There's no time for a Christian to be idle, or stand still in this Life, He must be always travelling from knowledge to knowledge, and by making new inquiries after, make new discoveries of his Duty. He must hunt all grounds, beat every Bush, to start and put up those Objects, that are worth the pursuing: His thoughts must be always upon the Wing, but then they must not fly at every small game, nor stoop to every mean Quarry; they must take their flight upwards, they must soar high, to the things that are above: For saith the Text, 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉; Mind, Look after, set your Affections, your Minds, upon the things that are above. And this brings me to the second General Part in the Text, namely,  
2. The Objects, that deserve this search, this Enquiry, and they are [the things above.]  
We are all naturally ambitious, and love to be exalted; We are all born Corahs', of an aspiring Nature; we have Perching and Towering thoughts; and if we will but take the pains to steer and guide our thoughts to their proper Objects, to Heaven and Heavenly things; we may retain our Ambition, and aspire as high as we please. Now 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 may be comprised under these two Heads, 

(1.) The Persons, and  
(2.) The Joys above.    
The Persons above are the Three Persons of the Blessed and Glorious Trinity. The very figure of the heart of man holds some proportion with the Blessed Trinity; being (as some affirm) Triangular, and as it were, extending a Corner of itself to each of the Three Sacred Persons; the Capacity thereof being aptest, and indeed only to be satisfied by the all-sufficiency of that Blessed Trinity. As the heart is said to be Triangular, so the world is round; and therefore if the heart of man should contain the whole sublunary World within it, yet as a Circle within a Triangle, cannot fill the Triangle so completely, but that there will be always left void spaces, in the Angles or Corners of it: So it cannot be, that the Heart should be so filled or satisfied with this lower World; but that always it will have some corners, for sorrows and troubles to lurk in; whereas the Blessed Trinity fills all the Angles, and leaves no room for distractions, or discontents: Let us then Unite our Affections in the Unity in Trinity, and Trinity in Unity, in the Three Persons, but one God; let God be the Object of our Minds and Affections, from whom the further they recede, the more remote they are from true Felicity: For so long as our minds and affections attempt to six upon any thing but God: we 〈◊〉 but indeed anxiously endeavour to wring Happiness out of that, which will yield no more than a flinty Rock to all our pressing and forcing of it: the more we endeavour to force our affections to stay upon any finite thing, the more violently will they recoil upon us: it is only a true sense and relish of God, that can tame and master that rage, of our unsatiable and restless appetites.  
The mind of man affects a kind of Infinity in all its Objects; the affections are always reaching after new pleasures, the desires are carried forth after new Possessions; Fancy is perpetually entertaining the mind with new Ideas; The understanding is ever calling for a new Scene of Contemplations: from whence it appears, that the Soul cannot truly Compose and enjoy itself, but in Union with God, that infinite Ocean of all Perfections. Macarius observes well in his 5th. Homily, that Christians are not distinguished from others, 
(a) 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉.  by Outward Modes and Fashions, by their external Forms and Moulds, into which they are cast, or by Professing a Body of Notions different from others in the World, but by the Peaceableness of their thoughts, and their love of God: and that if we behold in their minds as in other men's, 
(b) 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉.  Unsettled thoughts and reasonings, trembling and confusedness, we may conclude that they are still fast bound to earthly things, that they have not attained the end of their Christianity, and are far from that true Beatitude, which consists in the Union with God: Nay, to advance one step higher, could a man find himself withdrawn from all earthly and material things, and perfectly retired into himself; were the whole world so quiet and calm about him, as not to offer to make the least attempt upon his composedness of mind; might he be so well entertained at his own home, as to find no frowns, no sour looks, from his Conscience, nor Melancholy Vapours from his Spleen, nor any dreadful apprehensions from his Fancy, yet he would find something within him, that would discompose his designed rest, Tear him from himself, and toss him from his own Foundation, I mean the want of God.  
I come now to a short Application of this Particular.  
Ought God to be the Chief Object of our minds and affections? how highly culpable then are the Profane Atheists of our Age? who banish all thoughts of a Deity out of their mind, and forbidden Gods being named there, with the same rigour and severity, as that King formerly prohibited Death from being so much as named in his Court: it being now the only Badge and Signature of a modern Wit, to be one of David's fools, and not only say in his heart, but make Proclamation, that there is no God: Thus these blasphemous wretches are not ashamed to Theatre their Atheism; and the speculative Atheist, who (if he had any Being at all) was till this present age, either under a disguise, or else behind the Hang, is not now afraid to pull off his Masque, his Disguise, and appear the man, that dares put Sarcasms upon God, and lampoon Religion upon the Public Stage of the world. Men are now Professors of Atheism, and have sat Doctors in the Chair, in the * 
Psal. 1.1.  Seat of the scornful, making a laughing stock of all things, that are sacred and Religious; they are so far from setting their minds upon God, that they will not pay him the small Tribute of one single thought; but resemble those lustful Idolaters St. Cyril of Jerusalem speaks of who deified and worshipped the Sun, that they might the more freely indulge themselves in their lustful satisfactions all night; for to have a God then would have disturbed their nocturnal pleasures, and they Worshipped the Moon, 
(a) 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉.  that they might not have a God by day; They care not for thinking of God at any time; they will neither consecrate the day, nor the night to him; they look upon all the Comminations and Threaten of God, but as the Passionate Rants of some weak person, who would terrify where he cannot persuade, and Hector men out of their carnal satisfactions; and they esteem all the promises of Eternal Life and Happiness, but as mere Romanza's, and therefore they regard and mind them not, and this brings me to the Second Head, under which are contained the things above, on which we must set our affections, namely,  
2. The Joys above; 
1 Cor. 2.9.  such Joys as * Eye hath not seen, Ear hath not heard, neither have entered into the Heart of man: They are unconceivable, too great to be expressed, and great enough to challenge our best affections, and that for these two reasons; 

First, Because they are lasting and permanent,  
Secondly, Because they are pure, and without any mixture, or allay of sorrow.    
1. Because they are lasting and permanent; They are such Joys, as were made for the Soul, and the Soul for them; for they are Infinite and Eternal, they never Die: such as grow more verdant and fresh upon the enjoyment; they are always in their Spring, they have no Autumn, no Fall, no decay; they are embased with no bitter Farewells; When we are once Wedded to them, they will never be divorced from us; The Blessedness of Heaven is without end; this makes Heaven to be Heaven indeed; there is no satiety or weariness for the present, no solicitude or care for the future: Were there a possibility, or the least suspicion of losing that Happy State, it would cast an aspersion of bitterness upon all the Heavenly Joys and Delights; and the Saints of Heaven could not enjoy one moments Rest or Repose; but the more excellent their Happiness is, the more stinging would their fear be of parting with it: Let there be never so many and great Ingredients of Felicity otherwise, if this of Duration be wanting, it answers not the desires of a man, and is very short and defective; for whenever it shall expire, it will be as if it had never been; nay, if any sense of things remain afterwards, it is a great aggravation of unhappiness, fuisse felicem, that a man hath outlived his own Comforts; and the comparing his present destitution with his former enjoyments is really a torment to him. And this is the very argument, upon which the Scripture slurs all the Glories of this World, that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 
* 1 Cor. 7.31.  the Scene changes; All is but acting a part for a while, and shortly the Lights are put out, the Curtain drawn, and the Glory of the World makes its Exit: 
* 1 Pet. 1.4.  But the Inheritance reserved in Heaven, is immortal, undefiled, and fades not away; And the Tenure of its possession is infinitely firm by the Divine Power, the true support of its Everlasting Duration: O most desirable State, where Blessedness and Eternity are inseparably united! O joyful Harmony, when the full Chorus of Heaven shall sing, this God is our God forever! this redoubles their unspeakable joys with infinite sweetness and security; this makes them true Joys indeed: For as if you take away fixedness and rest from the earth, and motion from the Sun, according to the Old Astronomy, you take away the nature and Essence from both; so if you take from that which is called Joy, its Duration, which it does principally consist in, you take away its Nature and Essence too 
(a) 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉.  saith Maximus Tyrius: and therefore those Celestial Joys, which are so durable, are the most proper Objects of the mind and affections: they will never satiate or weary; for they properly affect the spirit, and a spirit feels no weariness, as being privileged from the causes of it: they are such joys as grow and improve under our thoughts, and whilst they exercise, do also endear themselves to our minds, at the same time employing and inflaming our Affections.  
2. We must set our affections on the Joys above, because they are Pure, and without any mixture or allay of sorrow: they are High, Rational, Angelical Joys; so bright and glorious, as that no Clouds of sorrow can be seen about them: Heaven is no Region of sorrow, no Climate for Melancholy: there is no gloomy night of sadness, but a perpetual day of joy; when we shall be refreshed with the Beatifical Presence of God, that pure Essence, that glorious irradiation, that dispels the mists of Hell; the Clouds of Fear, Honour and Despair, and preserves the upper Region of the mind in a calm serenity. Let us then recollect our dispersed, and hitherto ill placed Affections: let us call home our Roving and Vagrant thoughts, which Opinion and Custom have sadly distracted, and direct them to their Proper Objects, to Heaven, and the things ABOVE: For why should we with so much dotage, fix our affections upon the deceitful looks of these temporal things? What is there that should tempt us to prefer a Wilderness before a Paradise? A Valley of Bacah, a Valley of tears, before a Hill of Joy and Happiness? A Hell of sorrow before a Heaven of Bliss? why should we (like Saul) be looking after ASSES here below, when we should seek for a Kingdom, the Kingdom of God. And this brings me to the third General Part in the Text, where we have the Objects of an inferior nature, which we must overlook and disregard, and they are, THE THINGS ON EARTH: our Affections must sit lose, and not be too fast bound to them.  
3. In the ancient Academical Philosophy it was much disputed, whether that Corporeal and Animal Life, which was always drawing down the soul into Earthly and Material things, was not more properly to be styled Death than Life; what sense hereof the very Heathens had, may appear by the practice of the Pythagorean Philosophers, who were wont to set up empty Coffins in the places of those that had forsaken their school, and degenerated from their Precepts, which were to subdue the Carnal Appetite: they looked upon such as Apostates from life itself, and dead to virtue and a good life: As those Nurses therefore that would wean their Children, rub their Nipples with Wormwood, and other bitter things: So I shall rub the Nipples of this World, (which many worldlings suck with such delight) with Wormwood, and endeavour to embitter the taste of these Earthly things to your Palates, to wean you from them. Isocrates compared the City of Athens to a Courtesan, with whom though few there were but would have to do, yet none dared take her to Wife: and to such a one I may compare this World, with whom though most men have to do, yet let none so set their Affections upon it, as to be married and espoused to it; and that for these following Reasons.  
(1.) Because all earthly things are fading and transitory; Worldly enjoyments (like Bees) fly away, leaving more Sting than Honey behind them; the delight of their possession is scarce great enough to recompense the trouble of parting with them.  
Historians tell us of a Floating Island in Scotland, and surely he would be no wise Pilot that casts Anchor there, lest the Land should swim away with the Ship: And so are they justly served, who Anchor upon this Floating World, which is acquainted with any thing better than consistency: its Nature seems Emblem'd and Represented to us in its Figure, it is round, and accordingly in perpetual motion, and turning from one side, and condition to another. For  
First, To begin with Riches, they are such winged enjoyments; as will soon fly from us. 
* Prov. 23.5.  Riches certainly make themselves wings, they fly away as an Eagle towards Heaven: It was not therefore without good reason, that the old Scythians painted the hands of Fortune with Wings, to show that her Gifts come swift and suddenly, which if her Favourite be not quick and ready to take, he loses forever▪ And it was one of the Mirabilia of the Stoics, that the moveables of Fortune are not to be reckoned as any part of our Wealth, nor put into the Inventory of those Goods, that are desirable, for the true Goods of a man say they, are  and immutable, they can neither be plundered nor sequestered; A man's true wealth is always imbarqut in the same bottom with himself, he can never lose it; but Riches, those winged and flitting gifts of Fortune, like great Empires, are as hard to be retained, as gotten, they are always upon the Wing, in a posture of departing; And therefore Cebes very appositely, in his TABLE, brings in Fortune standing upon a round stone, and describing her actions, tells us, that she often wanders about, and robs some of their Goods, that she may bestow them upon others, and then takes them away again from those, to whom she but now gave them, and inconsiderately bequeathes them to others: and interpreting the meaning of his making her stand upon a round stone, he thus delivers himself, 
(a) 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉.  That her gifts are not safe and sure, but unconstant and uncertain: and as Riches, so neither  
Secondly, is Honour, Worldly Honour (so fading and transitory it is) a proper Object for our Affections. It is as frail as Life its Fellow Flower; it only makes a short flourish, and then fades and disappears.  
We should think the Moon much greater than all the other Stars, were it not that the shadow of the Earth, which some have made use of to measure it, makes the contrary to appear: and so we should be of opinion that these proud Dignities and Honours of the World, had much eminence and excellency, above all that is here below, were it not that they fall into shadows and Phantasms, which make the contrary evident and apparent to us. Greatness of Power and Honour lets men grow till their Fate is ripe, and then they fall down to the ground, and their Honour lies in the dust; And this was the Fate of Sejanus (that great Favourite of the Court of Rome) who, as Thunder sometimes roars when the Air is most clear, beheld himself surprised with a storm, in the clearest serenity of Fortune; Fortune began to grow weary of waiting on him, because he went up the high Hill of preferment too fast; and at length forsook his pride and insolency, as if she had raised him to no other end than to make him fall from such a height, that there should not be a creature found, that dared lend him an arm, or offer a bosom to receive him. Great men, in Honour, are like Sun-dials, which when the Sun is gone, or hides his face, are scarce looked upon. He that was yesterday the Prince his Favourite, at whom the whole Court gazed, as at the appearance of some new Comet, may to day be set under the Horizon of Honour. He who not long since wore the Honourable Title of Lord Precedent of the Council, may on the sudden be devested and deplumed of that Honour, and (that justly too) laid aside, as a pernicious Achitophel, as a mischievous and evil Counsellor. Great men who have the Sun of Prosperity shining in their faces, have ice oftentimes under their feet, their Station is slippery, and as Honour, so neither  
Thirdly, Hath Worldly Wisdom (so short-lived and fading it is) a Title to our Affections; The overmuch heat hinders Wisdom in Youth, too much coldness extinguishes it in Old Age; sometimes it never comes, but man passes from immaturity to rottenness; and when it does come, 'tis always late, and lasts but a little, its Cradle becomes its Tomb. It is almost the only one among sublunary things, which doth not receive the proportion of Periods, a Beginning, a Being, an Increase and Declining: Or if we should be so civil and charitable to it, as to allow it a short continuance in Being, yet we shall find, that the wisest men, though (like the Heavenly Bodies with the motion of the Primum Mobile) they are moved for a while with the weight and power of wisdom, yet they quickly have their Declinationes Proprias, some private motions and declinations of their own towards Folly; to which their peculiar Genius, impressions from their Age, or their Education, do often very fatally betray them: and the greatest Politicians, who thought that they had taken the true pulse of their Affairs, and vainly flattered themselves, that they were as difficult to be traced in their plots and intrigues, as the tracks of a Ship are to be discovered in the Sea, which as soon as it opens, shuts again; they have oft times so weakly contrived and wove their designs, that every vulgar eye might see through the Web, and discover their Folly. And this shall suffice for the First Reason, why we must not set our Affections on the things below, because they are fading and transitory. I come now to show you secondly, that we must not set our Affections upon them, because they are troublesome and vexatious: and this was wise Solomon's Opinion of them, 
* Eccl. 1.14:  I have seen all the works that are done under the Sun, and behold all is vanity, and vexation of Spirit. Ambition is perpetually anxious for a BLUE RIBBON, or or A WHITE STAFF, and to have a crowd of Clients sneaking many hours in its Antichamber, which makes the ambitious man dwell in continual noise and inquietude; and at last become the Object of all their hatreds, who crouched like slaves to him, whenever he appeared, so that the Chair of State, the seat of Honour is usually so full of sharp spikes, as to become uneasy to him that sits in it:  
Dost thou set thy Affections upon worldly wealth? if thou hast but time for observation, thou wilt find he image of trouble and vexation stamped upon it  
Riches have their Anxieties as well as Poverty, and the Rich man in the Gospel, whose Corn had outgrown his Barns, cried out, what shall I do? with as much dissatisfaction, as the poorest wretch ever did.  
Riches (like Nuts) tear and wear out our souls , our bodies, in the gathering; they cannot reprieve us from Melancholy, nor bail and free us from troubles, because they are not our summum bonum, our Chief Good; and it is the Chief Good only, that gives the soul a full discharge from all troubles. Riches are like salt and brinish water, they do not quench or satisfy, but provoke and increase our thirst; 
* Hab. 2.5.  The Rich man enlargeth his desire as Hell, and is as Death, and cannot be satisfied: Again, dost thou set thy Affections upon worldly pleasures? these also, though they may show us a tempting face, yet are they big and pregnant with dreadful vexations: while they are expected, they torment us with delay; and when they are come, they abuse us with their vanity, they fail and lurch our expectation, and vex us with their volatile and fugitive nature: I have read of a statue of Venus, so artificially made, that as men came towards it, it seemed to smile, but as they turned from it, it seemed to frown: Worldly pleasures are something like that statue of Venus, as they come towards us they smile upon us, they appear pleasant; but as we turn from them, or they from us, many times they frown, they look with another countenance.  
When the mind of man hath once drank deep of worldly pleasures, it becomes restless and unsatiable; The Fable of Tantalus, who thirsted when he was up to the chin in water, is a lively Emblem of a person that thirsts after pleasure: For what is it else but a perpetual thirst of that man, which pleasure cannot satisfy? What else but the waters of exorbitant desires, which are always ebbing and flowing, and seasoned with sad cares, fears and tumults? The mind which tastes divers pleasures, and the degrees of them, and finds a gust in them, yet not being satisfied in any one, (as 'tis impossible it should) stirs up the Appetite to vary and proceed; that that contentment which single pleasures could not afford, diversified might make up; wretched Nature using that as an Attractive, which should repel and beat off; For who would caress and hug a Cloud? embrace that which does not, cannot satisfy? and desires where they are violent, if they be not allayed by satisfaction, are but so much torment and agony.  
Were the  always tied to one dish, it would soon nauseate and loath it; and so will our Affections be soon cloyed, if they always play the Epicures, and feed upon worldly pleasures. The most voluptuous and lose person breathing, could never yet satisfy the cravings of his soul with Corporeal pleasures, though he might endeavour to persuade himself there were no better; and if he were constrained to oppress his stomach, with the heavy loads of gluttonous meals; and if after a long fatigue of eating and drinking, he were obliged to act over the same brutish Scene every day; Were his Hawks, and his Hounds, his Courtesans, and his Ganymedes, to be his only companions; He would soon find that after the seeming satisfaction of a few minutes, they would determine in loathing and unquietness; and the poor slave would be glad to fly to the Mines, and the Galleys, for his recreation; and to Blow and Cart for a diversion from the misery, of a continual unintermitted pleasure.  
Thirdly, We must not set our Affections on the things on earth, because they are encumbrances to us in our journey to Heaven. For  
1. To begin with Knowledge, if it be not sanctified from above, it is a great encumbrance to trash and hinder us in our journey to Heaven: and our tasting too liberally of the TREE OF KNOWLEDGE may be an occasion of casting us, as it did Adam out of Paradise;  
The Devil among all his stratagems to stop and retard men in their race to Heaven, hath found none so effectual as that, which Hippomenes used to stop and divert Atalanta; namely, to fling the Golden Apples of Knowledge in their way, to suffer men to stuff their heads with Knowledge; He having learned by experience from himself, that all the bare knowledge in the world cannot bring a man to Heaven. Let the Brains be never so swelled with knowledge, yea, even with the knowledge of Christ; be they so big, that they are ready to lie in, and travel of Christ, as Jove's did of Minerva in the Poet, yet if the heart hath not joined in the conception, it is but an Ae●●al or Fantastical Birth, or indeed rather a Disease, or Tympany. A man may be very knowing, and very dissolute; of a Towering Brain, and a Grovelling soul; Rich in speculation but poor in practice. If the edge of our knowledge be not set by Piety, it will prove pernicious: and therefore Seneca observes of the Philosophers of his Age, that 
(a) Boni esse desierunt simul ac docti evaserunt.  their Goodness as soon as their Knowledge did flow. And generally we find a great decay of zeal with the growth of Notional Knowledge: the tall shady trees of Notional Knowledge spoil the Underwood of Zele in Religion. Knowledge is pleasant, and Books are good company, and therefore if the Devil should bind men to ignorance, our gazing Speculators, and brain Epicures, would never be his Disciples; He will therefore permit them to be as great Scholars as himself, so they will be as wicked and profane too; and as Knowledge so,  
2. Worldly Wealth is a great encumbrance to us in our journey to Heaven, and therefore no fit Object for our Affections. Riches have no influence upon the soul to make it better, but rather deboche and make it worse: from whence was that saying of Plato, 
〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉.  (a) It is impossible to be exceeding good, and exceeding rich together. The dominion of Riches and Physicians, is one and the same, they meddle not but with the humours of the Body, they will confess they cure no souls: take Riches at the best, they have but the goodness of an 
(b) Bona non unde sis bonus, sed unde facias bonum.  instrument to do good by, of which also they often fail; they are not always instrumentally good: A great Mass of Wealth is a great temptation, a dangerous decoy; 
* 1 Tim. 6.9.  They that will be Rich fall into temptation, and a snare: Where these words they that will be Rich, are part of the Character of the Gnostics, who were a sort of Christians that made no other use of Religion, than to promote their secular advantages, ver. 5. and whensoever it was not compatible with their worldly profit, they made no scruple to renounce their Christian Profession. A rich man sees so much of the Terrestrial Globe, that he can see nothing of the Celestial; that wholly takes up his mind, and engages his Affections; Riches and Piety seldom dwell under the same roof, because of the infinite temptations which they present to us; by Ministering occasions of Lust, fuel for Revenge, instruments of pride, baits for Covetousness; it being usual for rich men's Souls to be Prisoners to their purses, and slaves to their wealth.  
All the joys and high tastes, that Riches can help us to, are not able to requite us, for the damning sin of one Insolency, one Luxury, one Impiety; nor for the pains it will cost us, to resist those temptations; much less to heal the wound of a wasted Conscience, that the Courting of wealth when 'tis shy and coy, does occasion.  
The Covetous Worldling thinks Wealth a 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, An Universal Instrument, an Engine to work wonders with; and he borrows Solomon's words Eccl. 10.19. Money answers all things; He thinks that Heaven itself may be purchased by it: Ay, but I fear, he'll find his wealth a great clog to him, when he climbs up thither. The Rich man in the Gospel was ready to ride Post to Heaven, provided he might carry his Riches behind him, but when he was told that the ascent of so high a Hill as Heaven stands on, could not be climbed with so great a burden, he was easily inclined to put off his journey. But lest I should be thought so great a Patron of that error of Pelagius, [that 'tis unlawful to be rich under the Gospel] as to persuade you to throw away your wealth, and embrace poverty; It is necessary I should acquaint you, that Riches may be in your hands, though they must not dwell in your hearts; you must unglue your hearts, your affections from them: St. Paul does not command Timothy to charge rich men to throw away their Riches, but not to be proud of 
* 1 Tim. 6.17.  nor trust in them: I shall conclude this particular with those excellent words of Clemens Alexandrinus, 
(a) 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉.  The best wealth is Poverty of lusts and desires, and it is the only true magnanimity, not to Pride ourselves in wealth, but to contemn and despise it: and as Riches, so  
3. Are worldly pleasures a great encumbrance to us in our journey to Heaven: It hath been observed in the first Ages of the Church, that luxurious and deboched persons, who floated in sensual pleasures, were of all others most hardly brought to believe the Christian Doctrine, containing in it the Resurrection of the Body, and the Immortality of the Soul; because their carnal joys being gross and material, and contrary to what Christ hath taught of Eternal Life, of Spiritual Bodies, and of Bliss; their being so deeply engaged and immersed in them, fortified them pertinaciously against the impressions of this Heavenly Doctrine. The heart is never more dull, and unfit for the severities, and Masculine heights of Religion, than when burdened with pleasures: Pleasures infatuate the mind; they clog the Soul in all its brave Essays; they quench the radiancy and vigour of the Spirit; 
* Hos. 4.11.  Whoredom, wine, and new wine, take away the heart. And the Apostle speaking of persons given to pleasure, tells us, 
* Ephes. 4.19.  That they are past feeling; If therefore you should by chance accept of any treat or entertainment from the world, be as quick and wary as the Dogs of Egypt, when they drink of the River Nilus, only lap and away; and thus much for the third reason, why we must not set our affections on the things on earth, because they are incumberances in our journey to Heaven.  
4. We must not set our Affections on the things of this world, because the world as well as the things thereof, is waning and declining: The world pants with its last gasps, and dying Anhelations; 'tis now grown old and weary, and ready to sink under the burden of so many Ages; these latter years, and decrepitness of time, are fraught with evils and calamities, as old Age is with diseases; and we have seen in these latter days, the Plagues of Pestilence, and War, Fire, Destruction and Terrors: All these are as so many acute Fits and Convulsions of a dying world; and shall we then set our affections on a dying decaying world?  
5. We must not set our affections on the things on Earth, because they will be useless arid unserviceable to us at the hour of death. When Death summons us, when the world, the flesh, the glories and pomps of life turn their backs, and leave us, we shall then find how strangely we have been deluded by them; how many of those, who have lived in a copious affluence of all things, and fared deliciously, when their last hour came, would not rather wish they had miss all these enjoyments, that so they might have died in peace of Conscience? Charles the Fifth, the Prince of Parma, and several others, though they lived in all pomp and state, yet at their death they desired to be buried in a poor Capuchin's Hood; intimating thereby 〈◊〉 desire of renouncing the world: and though this act of theirs was a senseless piece of superstition, yet however we may learn this lesson from it; that they found all their pomp and glory to signify nothing, when Death gave them a summons into the other world. Here men toil, and beat their brains, tyre their Spirits, and rack their Consciences; and when they have done all, like Silkworms, they die in their work, and God takes them away before they can roast what they got in Hunting; before they can truly in joy what they have newly purchased.  
When a fit of sickness throws us upon our deathbed, when our Sinews crack, our Veins shrink, and our Eyestrings break, when (by the solution of the vital congruity) our Souls are bating to be gone, and take their last leave and farewell of our bodies, what then will these sublunary enjoyments avail us? Can we then borrow those wings which our Riches have to fly from us, to fly with to Heaven, can we then ascend thither by the Climax of our Worldly Honours? Can all our Worldly Wisdom and Policy qualify us to be admitted, and sworn, of the King of Heavens Privy Council? no, no, let us therefore seek first and primarily, 
* Mat. 6.33.  The Kingdom of God, and the Righteousness thereof, and all these things shall be added unto us. Let me now put an end both to your love of Earthly things, and to this Discourse with these words of the Text, Set your Affections on things above; which God grant we may all do, for his Dear Son Jesus Christ his sake, to whom with the Father, and the Holy Spirit, be all Honour, Glory and Praise.  
FINIS.   

Four Sermons lately published by the same Author and sold by Ben. Billingsley.  
1. A Sermon Preached before the Right Honourable the Lord Mayor and Court of Aldermen of the City of London at Guildhall.  
2. The necessity of Receiving the Holy Sacrament, declared in a Sermon at a Conference of the several Ministers of the Deanery of Braughin, in the County of Hertford, appointed by the Right Reverend Father in God Henry Lord Bishop of London to be held at Ware.  
3. The great Excellency and Usefulness and necessity of Humane Learning, declared in a Sermon preached before the University, at Great St. Mary's Church in Cambridge, Aug. the 7th. 1681.  
4. The Absolute and Peremptory Decree of Election to Eternal Glory Reprobated. In a Sermon preached before the University in Great St. Mary's Church in Cambridge. 1682.  
As also by an Ingenious Author,  
The Italian Ship or Paul's Transportation to Rome, a Discourse on Acts the 27 and 15 made on March the 20th. 1681. By Will Ramsey B. D. and then Lecturer in Isleworth in Middlesex. With 3 other Sermons by the same Author, being three several discourses concerning the Romish and Protestant Witnesses, particularly in Relation to the Popish plot, discovered Anno 1678, and containing a new and certain discovery of the Pope's being the Antichrist, whose number of his name is 666, and of the destruction of Rome.