gotten their natures, capacities and obligations,
and what it is to be indeed a man ! O hearken
sinners to the call of your Redeemer! Return, O
seduced wandering souls, and know at last your
resting place ! Why is not God in all your
thoughts? — Or why is he thought on with so
much remissness, unwillingness, and contempt ;
and with so little pleasure, seriousness, or regard?
Do you understand yourselves in this? Do you
deal worthily with God ; or wisely for your-
selves? Do you take more pleasure, with the
prodigal, to feed swine, and to feed with swine,
than to dwell at home with your heavenly
Father ; and to walk before him, and serve him
in the world? Did you but know how dangerous
a way you have been in, and how unreasonably
you have dealt, to forsake God in your hearts,
and follow that which cannot profit you ; what
50 Walking toith God.
haste would you make to leave the crowd, and
come home to God, and try a more noble and
gainful conversation ! If reasons may have room
and leave to work upon you, I will set a few
before you more distinctly, to call you off from
your barren inordinate creature converse, to a
believing serious converse with God.
1. The higher and more excellent the object
is (especially when it is also of most concern-
ment to ourselves) the more excellent is the
converse. Therefore as nothing dare compare
itself with God, so no employment may be com-
pared with this of holy walking with him. How
vile a contempt is it of the Almighty, and of our
celestial joys, for the heart to neglect them, and
turn away and dwell upon vanity and trouble,
and let these highest pleasures go! Is not God
and glory worthy of thy thoughts and all thy
service?
2. What are those things that take thee up ?
Are they better than God ; or fitter to supply
thy wants ? If thou think and trust in them
accordingly, ere long thou shalt know better
what they are, and have enough of thy cursed
choice and confidence. Tell those that stand
by thee at the parting hour, whether thou didst
choose aright, and make a gaining or a saving
match. O poor sinners! have you not yet
warning enough to satisfy you that all things
below are vanity and vexation, and that all your
hope of happiness is above ? Will not the
Walking with God. 61
testimony of God satisfy you? Will not the
experience of the world for so many thousand
years together satisfy you ? Will not the ill
success of all the damned satisfy you ? Will
nothing but your own experience convince you?
If so, consider well the experience you have
already made, and seasonably retire, and try no
further, and trust not so dangerous a deceiver to
the last, lest you buy your knowledge at a dearer
rate than you will now believe.
3. You have daily more to do with God, than
with all the world, whether you will or no : and
therefore seeing you cannot avoid him if you
would, prefer that voluntary obediential converse
which hath a reward, before that necessitated
converse which hath none. You are always in
his hands : he made you for his service ; and
he will dispose of you and all that you have
according to his will. It shall not go with
you as yourselves would have it, nor as your
friends would have it, nor as princes and great
ones of the world would have it; (unless as
their wills comply with God's;) but as God
would have it, who will infallibly accomplish all
his will. If a sparrow fall not to the ground
without him, and all the hairs of our heads are
numbered, then certainly he overruleth all your
interests and affairs, and they are absolutely at
his dispose. To whom then in reason should
you so much apply yourselves as inito him ? If
you will not take notice of him, he will take
52 Walking with God.
notice of you : he will remember you whether
you remember him or not : but it may be with
so strict and severe a remembrance, as may
make you wish he did quite forget you. You
are always in his presence ; and can you then
forget him, and hold no voluntary converse with
him, when you stand before him? If it be but
mean inferior persons that we dwell with and
are still in company with, yet we mind them
more, and speak more to them, than we do to
greater persons that we seldom see. But in
God there is both greatness and nearness to
invite you. Should not all the worms on earth
stand by, while the glorious God doth call you
to him, and offer you the honor and happiness of
his converse? Shall the Lord of heaven and
earth stand by, and be shut out, while you are
chatting or trifling with his creatures? Nay,
shall he be neglected that is always with you?
You cannot remove yourselves a moment from
his sight ; and therefore you should not shut
your eyes, and turn away your face, and refuse
to observe him who is still observing you.
Moreover, your dependance both for soul and
body is all on him : you can have nothing
desirable but by his gift. He feeds you, he
clotheth you, he maintaineth you, he gives you
life and breath, and all things ; and yet can you
overlook him or forget him ? Do not all his
mercies require your acknowledgment? A dog
will follow him that feedeth him : his eye will
Walking with God. 53
be upon his master : and shall we live upon
Cod, and yet forget and disregard him? We are
taught a better use of his mercies by the holy
prophet, Ps. Ixvi. 8, 9. " O bless our God, ye
people, and make the voice of his praise to be
heard : which holdeth our soul in life, and
suiTereth not our feet to be moved 1"
Nay it is not yourselves alone, but all the
world that depends on God. It is his power
that supporteth them, and his will that disposeth
of them, and his bounty that provideth for
them ; and therefore he must be the observation
and admiration of the world : it is less unreason-
able to take no notice of the earth that beareth
us and yieldeth us fruit, and of the sun that
yields us heat and light, than to disregard the
Lord that is more to us than sun and earth, and
all things. The eyes of all things wait on him ;
and he givetli them their meat in season : he
openeth his hand and satisfieth the desire of
every living thing. Ps. cxlv. 15, 16. The Lord
is good to all, and his tender mercies are over
all his works : all his works therefore shall
praise him, and his saints shall bless him : they
shall speak of the glory of his kingdom, and
talk of his power. Ver. 10, 11.
Moreover, God is so abundantly and wonder-
fully represented to us in all his works, as will
leave us under the guilt of most unexcusable con-
tempt, if we overlook him, and live as without
him in the world. " The heavens declare the
VOL. II. E
54 '• Walking with God.
glory of God, and the firmament sheweth his
handy work : day unto day uttereth speech ;
and night unto night sheweth knowledge." Ps,
xix. 1, 2. Thus that which may be known of
God is manifest; for the invisible things of him
from the creation of the world are clearly seen,
being understood by the things that are mad-3,
even his eternal power and godhead; so that
the ungodly are without excuse. Rom. i. 19, 20.
Cannot yoa see that which all the world reveal-
eth ? nor hear that which all the world pro-
claimeth ? O sing ye forth the honor of his
name : make his praise glorious ! Say to the
Lord, How terrible art thou in thy works 1
through the greatness of thy power shall thine
enemies submit themselves unto thee : all the
earth shall worship thee, and shall sing unto
thee : they shall sing unto thy name : come
and see the works of God : he is terrible in his
doings towards the children of men. Ps. Ixvi.
2 — 5. Can we pass him by that is every where
present, and by every creature represented to
us? Can we forget him, when all the world are'
our remembrancers ? Can we stop our ears
against the voice of heaven and earth ? Can we
be ignorant of him, when the whole creation is
our teacher? Can we overlook that holy glorious
name, which is written so legibly upon all things
that ever our eyes beheld that nothing but
blindness, sleepiness or distraction, could pos-
sibly keep us from discerning it? I have many a
Walking with God. 55
time wondered, that (as the eye is dazzled so
with the beholding of the greatest light, that
it can scarce perceive the shining of a lesser so)
the glorious transcendent majesty of the Lord,
doth not even overwhelm our understandings,
and so transport and take us up, as that we can
scarce observe or remember any thing else. For
naturally the greatest objects of our sense, are
apt to make us at that time insensible of the
smaller : and our exceeding great business, is
apt to make us utterly neglect and forget those
that are exceeding small : and O what nothings
are the best and greatest of the creatures, in
comparison of God! And what toys and trifles
are all our other businesses in the world, in
comparison of the business which we have with
him ! But I have been stopped in these admi-
rations by considering that the wise creator
hath fitted and ordered all his creatures accord-
ing to the use which he designeth them to :
and therefore as the eye must be receptive only
of so much light as is proportioned to its use
. and pleasure, and must be so distant from the
sun, that its light may rather guide than blind
us, and its heat may rather quicken than con-
sume us; so God hath made our understandings
capable of no other knowledge of him here,
than what is suited to the work of holiness :
and while we have flesh, and fleshly works to
do, and lawful necessary business in the world,
in which God's own commands employ us, our
e2
56 Walking loilh God.
souls in this lantern of the body, must see him
through so thick a glass, as shall so far allay
Gur apprehension, as not to distract us and take
us off the works which he enjoineth us. And
God and our souls shall be at such a distance,
as that the proportionable light of his counte-
nance may conduct us, and not overwhelm us ;
and his love may be so revealed, as to quicken
our desires, and draw us on to a better state,
but not so as to make us utterly impatient of
this world, and utterly weary of our lives, or to
swallow us up, or possess us of our most desired
happiness, before we arrive at the state of
happiness. While the soul is in the body, it
niaketh so much use of the body (the brain and
spirits) in all its operations, that our wise and
merciful creator and governor, doth respect the
body as well as the soul, in his ordering, dispo-
sing, and representing of the objects of those
operations : so that when I consider that cer-
tainly all men would be distracted, if their
apprehensions of God were any whit answerable
to the greatness of his majesty and glory (the
brain being not able to bear such high operations
of the soul, nor the greatness of the passions
which would necessarily follow) it much recon-
cileth my wondering mind, to the wise and
gracious providence of God, even in setting
innocent nature itself at such a distance from
his glory, (allowing us the presence of such
grace, as is necessary to bring us up to glory).;
tValking with God. 57
?:h5ugh it reconcile me not to that doleful dis-
tance which is introduced by sin, and which is
furthered by Satan, the world, and the flesh, and
which our Redeemer by his Spirit and interces-
sion must heal.
And it fttrther reconcileth me to this disposure
and will of the blessed God, and this necessary
natural distance and darkness of our minds,
â– when T consider, that if God, and heaven, and
hell, were as near and open to our apprehen-
sions, as the things are which we see and feel,
this life would not be what God intended it to
foe — a life of trial and preparation to another, a
work, a race, a pilgrimage, a warfare; what
trial would there be of any man's faith, or love,
or obedience, or constancy, or self-denial? If we
«aw God stand by, or apprehended him as if we
saw him (in degree) it would be no more praise-
worthy or rewardable for a man to abhor all
temptations to worldliness, ambition, gluttony,
<3runkenness, lust, cruelty, &c. than it is for a
man to be kept from sleeping that is pierced
with thorns, or for a man to forbear to drink a
cup of melted gold which he knoweth will burn
out his bowels, or to forbear to burn his flesh
in the fire. It were no great commendation to
his chastity, that would forbear his filthiness,
if he saw or had the fullest apprehensions of
God ; when he will forbear it in the presence of
a mortal man. It were no great commendations
to the intemperate and voluptuous, to have no
58 Walking ivith God.
mind of sensual delights, if they had but such
a knowledge of God as were equal to sight.
It were no thanks to the persecutor to forbear
his cruelty against the servants of the Lord, if
he saw Christ coming with his glorious angels^
to take vengance on them that know not God,
and obey not the gospel, and to be admired in
his saints, and glorified in them that now
believe. 2 Thes. i. 7 — 10. I deny not but this
happily necessitated holiness is best in itself,
and therefore will be our state in heaven ; but
what is there of trial in it ? or how can it be
suitable to the state of man, that must have
good and evil set before him, and life and death
left to his choice ; and that must conquer if he
will be crowned, and approve his fidelity to his
creator against competitors, and must live a
rev.ardable life before he have the reward ?
But though in this life we may neither hope
for, nor desire, such overwhelming sensible ap-
prehensions of God, as the rest of our faculties
â–ºcannot answer, nor our bodies bear; yet that
our apprehensions of him should be so base,
and small, and dull, and inconstant, as to be
borne down by the noise of worldly business,
or by the presence of any creature, or by the
tempting baits of sensuality, — this is the more
odious, by how much God is more great and
glorious than the creature, and even because the
use of the creature itself is but to reveal the
glory of the Lord. To have such slight and
V/alking with God. â– 59
stupid thoughts of him, as will not carr y us ou
in uprightness of obedience, nor keep us in his
fear, nor draw out our hearts in sincere desires
to please him, and enjoy him, and as will not
raise us to a contempt of the pleasures, and
profits, and honors of this world, — this is to be
despisers of the Lord, and to live as in a sleep,
and to be dead to God, and alive only to the
world and flesh. It is no unjust dishonor or
injury to the creature, to be accounted as
nothing in comparison of God, that it may be
able to do nothing against him and his interest :
but to make such a nothing of the most glorious
God, by our contemptuous forgetfulness or
neglect, as that our apprehensions of him cannot
prevail against the sordid pleasures of the flesh,
and against the richest baits of sin, and against
all the wrath or allurements of man, — this is but
to make a God of dust, and dung, and nothing,
and (in heart and practice) to make God worse
than dust and dung. And it is a wonder that
man's understanding can become so sottish, as
thus to wink the sun itself into a constant
darkness, and to take God as nothing, or as no
God, who is so abundantly revealed to them in
astonishing transcendent greatness and excel-
lency, by all the creatures in the world, and
with whom we have continually so much to do.
O sinful man ! into how great a depth of igno-
rance, stupidity and misery art thou fallen !
But because we may see by the lives of the
60 Walking wiih God.
ungodly, that they little think that they have %(j
much to do with God, though I have spoke
of this to the godly in the other part of this
treatise, I shall somewhat more particularly
acquaint those that have most need to be in-
formed of it — what business it is that they have
with God.
J . It is not a business that may be do^ne, or
left undone, like your business with men : but
it is such as must be done, or you are undone for
ever. Nothing is absolutely necessary but this :
nothing in all the world doth so much concern
you. You may at far cheaper rates forbear to
eat, or drink, or clothe yourselves, or live, than
forbear the dispatch of this necessary woik.
2. Your business with God, and for God in the
world, is that which you have all your powers
and endowments for: it is that which you were
born into the world for; and that which you
have understanding and free will for; and that
which you have your thoughts, and memories,
and affections for; and that which you have
eyes, and ears, and tongues, and all your cor-
poreal parts and abilities for : it is that which
you. have your food and raiment for; and that
which you have your time for; and your pre-
servation, protection and provisions : it is that
which you have all your teaching for; which
Christ himself came for into the world ; Vv'hich
the scriptures are written for; which ministers
are sent for; which all order and government
Walking with God. 61
in church and state is principally appointed for :
in a word, it is that for which you have your
lives, and all things, and without which all were
as nothing, and will be to you worse than
nothing, if they do not further your work with
God : you will wish you had never seen them
if they befriend you not in this.
3. Your business with God, and for him,
is such as you must be continually doing : as
is incumbent on you every hour, for you have
every hour given you for this end. You may
dispatch this man to-day, and another to-mor-
row, and have no more to do with them again
of a long time ; but you have always incessantly
important works to do with God : for your
common work should be all his work ; and ail
should be done with principal respect to him.
But I shall yet more particularly tell the
ungodly what business it is that they have
with God, which it seems by their careless
negligent lives they are not aware of.
1. You must be either saved or damned by
him ; either glorified with him, or punished by
him to everlasting : and it is now that the
matter must be determined, which of the two
conditions you must be in : you must now
obtain your title to heaven, if ever you v.ill
come thither: you must now procure your de-
liverance from hell fire, if ever you will escape
it. Now it is that all that must be done, upon
which the scales must turn for your salvation
e3
62 Walking with God*
or damnation : and you know this work is prin-
cipally to be done between you and God, who
alone can save you or destroy you ; and yet do
you forget him, and live as if you had no
business with him, when you have your salva-
tion to obtain from him, and your damnation to
prevent] Have you such business as this with
any other?
2. You have a strict and righteous judgment
to undergo, in order to this salvation or damna-
tion. You must stand before the holy majesty,
and be judged by the governor of the world :
you must be there accused, and found guilty
or not guilty; and judged as fulfillers or as
breakers of the holy covenant of grace : you
must be set on the right hand or on the left:
you must answer for all the time that you here
spent, and for all the means and mercies which
you here i*eceived, and for that you have done,
whether it were good or evil : and it is Jiiow in
this life that all your preparation must be made,
and all that must be done, upon which your jus-
tification or condemnation will then depend.
And it is between God and you that all this
business must be done : and yet can you live
as negligently towards him, as if you had no
business with him ?
3. You have a death to die, a change to
make which must be made but once ; which will
be the entrance upon endless joy or pain: and
do you think this needeth not your most
Walking with God. 63
timely and diligent preparation ? You must
struggle with pains, and faint with weakness,
and feel death taking down your earthen taber-
nacle : you must then have a life that is ending
to review, and all that you have done laid open
to your more impartial judgment; you must
then see time as at an end, and the last sand
running, and your candle ready to go out, and
leave the snuff; you must then look back upon
all that you have had from the world, as ending .;
and upon all that you have done as that which
cannot be undone again, that you may do it
better; and you must have a more serious look
into eternity, when you are stepping, thither, than
you can now conceive of; and doth all this
need no preparation? It is with God that all
business must be now transacted, that must
make your death to be comfortable, or safe. If
now you will only converse with men, and know
no business that you have with God, you shall
find at last to your exceeding terror, that you
are in his hands, and passing to his bar, and
that it is God that then you have to do with,
when your business with all the world is at an
end : he will then have something to do with
you, if you will now find nothing to do with
him.
4. In order to all this, you have now your
peace to be made with God, and the pardon of
all your sins to be obtained. For woe to you
if then you are found under the guilt of any siu !
64 Walking with God.
Look back upon your lives, and remember how
you have hved in the world, and what you
have been doing: how you have spent your
time, in youth and in your riper age ; and how
many sinful thoughts, and words, and deeds you
have been guilty of; how oft you have sinfully
pleased your appetites, and gratified your flesh,
and yielded to temptations, and abused mercy,
and lost your time : how oft you have neglected
your duty, and betrayed your souls : how long
you have lived in forgetfulness of God and your
salvation, minding only the things of the flesh
and of the world: how oft you have sinned
ignorantly and against knowledge, through
carelessness and through rashness, through
negligence and through presumption^ in passion,
and upon deliberation ; against convictions,
purposes and promises : how oft, you have
sinned against the precepts of piety to God, and
of justice and charity to men. Think how your
sins are multiplied and aggravated, more in
number than the hours of your lives : aggrava-
ted by a world of mercies : by the clearest
â– teachings, and the -loudest calls, and sharpest
reproofs, and seasonable warnings, and by the
long and urgent importunities of grace. Think
of all these, and then consider whether you have
nothing now to do with God; whether it be not
a business to be followed with all possible speed
and diligence to procure the pardon of all these
sins : you have no such businesses as these, to
Walking with God. QS
transact with men : you may have business
with them which your estates depend upon, or
which touch your credit, commodity or lives;
but you have no business with men (unless in
subordination to God) which your salvation
doth depend upon : your eternal happiness is
not in their hands : they may kill your bodies,
(if God permit them) but not your souls. You
need not solicit them to pardon your sins
against God : it is a small matter how you are
judged of by man: you have one that judgeth
you, even the Lord. 1 Cor. iv. 3, 4. No man
can forgive sin, but God only. O then how
early, how earnestly should you cry to him for
mercy ! Pardon must be obtained now or never :
there is no justification for that man at the day
of judgment, that is not forgiven and justified
now. Blessed then is the man whose iniquity
is forgiven, whose sin is covered, and to whom
it is not imputed by the Lord. Rom. iv. 7, 8.
And woe to that man that ever he was born,
that is then found without the pardon of his
sins ! Think of this as the case deserves, and
then think if you can, that your daily business
with God is small.
5. Moreover, you have peace of conscience
to obtain ; and that dependeth upon your peace
with God. Conscience will be your accuser,
condemner and tormenter, if you make it not
your friend, by making God your friend. Con-
sider what conscience hath to say against you,,
66 Walking with God.
and how certainly it will speak home, when you
would be loth to hear it : and bethink you how
to answer all its accusations, and what will be
necessary to make it a messenger of peace ; and
then think your business with God to be but
small, if you are able. It is no easy matter to
get assurance that God is reconciled to you, and
that he hath forgiven all your sins.
6. In order to all this, you must be united
to Jesus Christ, and be made his members, that
you may have part in him, and that he may
wash you by hi& blood, and that he may answer