Selected quad for the lemma: soul_n
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A52864
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Ta ano 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. Maries Church in Cambridge / by Robert Neville.
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Neville, Robert, 1640 or 1-1694.
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1683
(1683)
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Wing N526; ESTC R25505
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14,164
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27
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determine in loathing and unquietness and the poor slave would be glad to fly to the Mines and the Gallies for his recreation and to Plow 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 incumbrances to us in our journey to Heaven For 1. To begin with Knowledge if it be not sanctified from above it is a great incumbrance 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 lye in and travel of Christ as Jove's did of Minerva in the Poet yet if the heart hath not joyned in the conception it is but an Aeâ—â—al or Phantastical Birth or indeed rather a Disease or Tympany A man may be very knowing and very dissolute of a Towring Brain and a Groveling 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 zele 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 prophane too and as Knowledge so 2. Worldly Wealth is a great incumbrance 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 Phisitians 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 Ministring occasions of Lust fewel for Revenge instruments of pride baits for Covetousness it being usual for rich mens Soules to be Prisoners to their purses and slaves to their wealth All the joyes and high tasts 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 't is shy and coy does occasion The Covetous Worldling thinks Wealth a 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 An Vniversal Instrument an Engine to work wonders with and he borrows Solomons words Eccl. 10.19 Money answers all things He thinks that Heaven it self may be purchased by it Ay but I fear he 'l 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 least I should be thought so great a Patron of that error of Pelagius that 't is unlawful to be rich under the Gospel as to perswade 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 our selves in wealth but to contemn and despise it and as Riches so 3. Are worldly pleasures a great incumbrance 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 joyes 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 immerst 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
their unspeakable joyes with infinite sweetness and security this makes them true Joyes 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 Joyes 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 privileg'd from the causes of it they are such joyes as grow and improve under our thoughts and whilst they exercise do also endear themselves to our minds at the same time imploying and inflaming our Affections 2. We must set our affections on the Joyes above because they are Pure and without any mixture or allay of sorrow they are High Rational Angelical Joyes so bright and glorious as that no Clouds of sorrow can be seen about them Heaven is no Region of sorrow no Climat for Melancholly there is no gloomy night of sadness but a perpetual day of joy when we shall be refresht with the Beatifical Presence of God that pure Essence that glorious irradiation that dispells 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 disperst 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 inferiour nature which we must overlook and disregard and they are THE THINGS ON EARTH our Affections must sit loose and not be too fast bound to them 3. In the antient 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 sence 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 it self 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 imbitter the tast of these Earthly things to your Palats to wean you from them Isocrates compared the City of Athens to a Curtezan 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 marryed 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 least 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 injoyments 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 shew 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 immoveable and immutable they can neither be plundred nor sequestred A mans 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 bequeaths 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