words, and God as the sense of all the creatures, that are the first book which he appointed man to read. We must behold his glory declared by the heavens, and see him shining in the sun; and see his power in the fabric of the world, and his wisdom in the admirable order of the whole; we must taste the sweetness of his love in the sweetness of our food, and in the comforts of our friends, and all our accommodations; we must see, and love his image in his holy ones; and we must hear his voice in the ministry of his messengers. Thus every creature and we must see the

must become a preacher to us, name of God upon it: And thus all things will be sanctified to us, while "Holiness to the Lord" is written upon all. Though we must not therefore make idols of the creatures, because God appeareth to us in them, yet must we hear the message which they bring us, and reverence in them the name of the Creator which they bear. By this way of conversing with them, they will not ensnare us, or deceive, or poison us, as they do the carnal, unbelieving world: but as the fish brought money to Peter to pay his tribute, so every creature would bring us a greater, even a spiritual gain. we behold it, we should say with pleasant admiration, "This is the work of God, and it is wonderful in our eyes." This is the true divine philosophy, which seeketh, and findeth, and contemplateth, and admireth the great Creator in his works: when that which sticketh in the creature itself (whatever discovery it seem to make) is but a childish, unprofitable trifling: like learning to shape all the letters aright, without learning to know their signification and

When

sense. It is God appearing in the creatures, that is the life, and beauty, and use, and excellency of all the creatures; without him they are but carcasses, deformed, useless, vain, insignificant, and very nothings.

10. Our walking with God contains our willing and sincere attendance on him in the use of those holy duties in which he hath appointed us to expect his grace. He is everywhere in his essential presence, but he is not everywhere alike to be found in the communications of grace. The assemblies of his saints that worship him in holy communion, are places where he is more likely to be found than in an alehouse or a playhouse. You are more likely to have holy converse with him among the holy, that will speak of holy things to your edification, than among the senseless, ignorant sensualists, and the scornful enemies of holiness, that are the servants of the devil, whom he useth in his daily work for the deceiving and perdition of the world. Therefore the conversation of the wicked doth grieve and vex the righteous soul, (as it is said the Sodomites did by Lot, because all their conversation is ungodly, far from God, not savouring of any true knowledge of him, or love to him, but is against him by enmity and provocation. If God himself dwell and walk in all his holy ones, then they that dwell and walk with them, have the best opportunity to dwell and walk with God. To converse with those in whom God dwelleth, is to converse with him in his image, and to attend him at his dwelling: and wilfully to run among the wicked, is to run far away from God. "In his temple doth every man speak of his glory;"

when among his brutish enemies every man speaketh to the dishonour of him in his word and ways. He is otherwise present with those that are congregated in his name and for his worship, than he is with those that are assembled for wickedness or vanity, or live as brutes without God in the world. And we must draw as near him as we can, if we would be such as walk with God.

We must not be strange to him in our thoughts, but make him the object of our most serious meditations. It is said of the wicked, that "they are far from God;" and that God is not in all their thoughts." The thoughts are the mind's employment. It dwells on that which it frequently thinks of. It is a walk of the mind, and not of the body, which we are treating of. To mind the world, and fleshly things, is contrary to this walk with God: we are far from him when our thoughts are (ordinarily) far from him. I know that it is lawful and meet to think of the business of our callings, so far as is necessary to the prudent successful management of them, and that it is not requisite that our thoughts be always actually upon God; but he that doth manage his calling in holiness, doth all in obedience to God's commands, and sees that his work be the work of God, and he intendeth all to the glory of God, or the pleasing of his blessed will. And he oft reneweth these actual intentions, and oft interposeth thoughts of the presence, or power, or love, or interest, of him whom he is serving; he often lifteth up his soul in some holy desire or ejaculatory request to God; he often taketh occasion from what he seeth, or heareth, or is doing, for some more

spiritual meditation or discourse; so that still it is God that his mind is principally employed on or for, even in his ordinary work, (while he liveth as a Christian.)

And it is not enough to think of God; but we must think of him as God, with such respect, and reverence, and love, and trust, and submission (in our measure) as is due from the creature to his Creator. For as some kind of speaking of him is but a taking his name in vain, so some kind of thinking of him is but a dishonouring of him, by contemptuous, or false, unworthy thoughts. Most of our walking with God consisteth in such affectionate apprehensions of him, as are suitable to his blessed attributes and relations. All the day long our thoughts should be working either on God, or for God; either upon some work of obedience which he hath appointed to us, and in which we desire to please and honour him, or else directly upon himself. Our hearts must be taken up in contemplating and admiring him, in magnifying his name, his word and works; and in pleasant, contentful thoughts of his benignity and of his glory, and the glory which he conferreth on his saints. He that is unskilful, or unable, to manage his own thoughts, with some activity, seriousness, and order, will be a stranger to much of the holy converse which believers have with God. They that have given up the government of their thoughts, and turned them loose, to go which way phantasy pleaseth, and present sensitive objects invite them, and to run up and down the world as masterless, unruly vagrants, can hardly expect to keep them in any constant attendance upon God, or

readiness for any sacred work. And the sudden thoughts which they have of God, will be rude and stupid, savouring more of profane contempt than of holiness, when they should be reverent, serious, affectionate, and practical, and such as conduce to a holy composure of their hearts and lives.

And as we must walk with God, 1. In our communion with his servants; 2. And in our affectionate meditations; so also, 3. In all the ordinances which he hath appointed for our edification and his worship.

1. The reading of the word of God, and the explication and application of it in good books, is a means to possess the mind with sound, and orderly, and working, apprehensions of God, and of his holy truths: so that in such reading our understandings are oft illuminated with a heavenly light, and our hearts are touched with a special delightful relish of that truth, and they are secretly attracted and engaged to God, and all the powers of our souls are excited and animated to a holy, obedient life.

2. The same word, preached with a lively voice, with clearness and affection, hath a greater advantage for the same illumination and excitation of the soul. When a minister of Christ, that is truly a divine, being filled with the knowledge and love of God, shall copiously and affectionately open to his hearers, the excellencies which he hath seen, and the happiness which he hath foreseen and tasted of himself, it frequently (through the co-operation of the Spirit of Christ) doth wrap up the hearers' hearts to God, and bring them into a more lively knowledge of him, actuating their graces, and inflaming their hearts with a heavenly love, and such desires as God hath promised