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Eleven Considerations to take off mens hearts from Earthly∣mindedness.
First, Consider this, That all the things of the earth that thy mind and heart is upon, if thou couldst possess them all as thine own, yet there is not so much good in them as to countervail the evil of the least sin, not of the least sin of thought; thy heart is mudling upon the things of the earth, and thinkest that thou shoul∣dest be blest if thou badst thus and thus as others have. Let me tell thee, if thou hast but one sinful thought, there is more evil in that than there's good in all that ever thou shalt get all the daies of thy life in the world; and if this be so, that there is more evil in the least fin than there is good in all the things of the earth, it concerns thee rather to have thy mind how to avoid sin, or how to get the evil of sin to be remov'd, and how to get thy sin to be mortified, that concerns thee more than the minding and plodding about the things of the earth: that's one consideration.
A second is this that may take off the hearts of men from the things of the earth, That the chief things that are in the earth yea, name what terrene excellency possibly a man may be crowned with under Heaven, hath been the portion of Reprobates heretofore, and is to this day, and shall be the portion of multitudes whom God hates, and hath set apart to glorifie his infinite Justice upon eter∣nally. Shall thy mind and heart be set upon such things as are the portion of Reprobates? will a Reprobates porti∣on content thee? will it serve thee? art thou satisfied with dogs meat? If it will not content thee, why is it that thy mind is so much upon the things of the earth? It may be thou that art poor and mean in the world; thy mind is upon some little matter: thou canst never expect to have a∣ny great things in the world, and yet thou mindest them as if that there were thy portion, and thy happiness, some