5. God is especially prefent in the hearts of his People by his Holy Spirit: and indeed the hearts of holy men are Temples in the truth of things, and in type and fhadow they are heaven it felf. For God reigns in the hearts of his fervants: there is his Kingdom. The power of grace hath fubdued all his Enemies: there is his power. They ferve him night and day, and give him thanks and praife; that is his glory. This is the Religion and Worship of God in the Temple. The Temple it felf is the heart of man; Chrift is the High-Prieft, who from thence fends up the Incense of Prayers, and joins them to his own interceffion, and prefents all together to his Father; and the Holy Ghost, by his dwelling there, hath alfo confecrated it into a Temple; and God 1 Cor. 3. 16. dwells in our hearts by Faith, and Chrift by his 2 Cor. 6. 16. Spirit, and the Spirit by his purities: fo that we are alfo Cabinets of the Mysterious Trinity; and what is this fhort of Heaven it felf, but as Infancy is fhort of Manhood, and Letters of the Words? The fame state of life it is, buc not the fame age. It is Heaven in a Looking glass ( dark, but yet true,) reprefenting the beauties of the Soul, and the graces of God, and the images of his eternal Glory by the reality of a special Prefence.

6. God is especially prefent in the Confciences of all perfons, good and bad, by way of Teftimony and Judgment: that is, he is there a remembrancer, to call our actions to mind, a Witness to bring them to Judgment, and a Judge to acquit or to condemn. And although this manner of Prefence is in this life after the manner of this life, that is, imperfect, and we forget many actions of our lives; yet the greateft changes of our state of grace or fin, our moft confiderable actions are always prefent, like capital Letters to an aged and dim eye: and at the day of Judgment God fhall draw afide the cloud, and manifest this manner of his Prefence more notoriously, and make it appear that he was an Obferver of our very thoughts; and that he onely laid thofe things by, which, becaufe we covered with duft and negligence, were not then dif

cerned

I

nicis, c. 3.

cerned. But when we are rifen from our duft and inperfection, they all appear plain and legible.

Now the confideration of this great truth is of a very univerfal ufe in the whole courfe of the life of a Christian. All the confequents and effects of it are univerfal. He that remembers that God ftands a Witnefs and a Judge beholding every fecrecy, befides his S. Aug. de impiety, must have put on impudence, if he be not verbis Domi- much reftrained in his temptation to fin. "For the greatest part of fin is taken away, if a man have a witness of his converfation: And he is a great defpifer of God, who fends a Boy away when he is going to commit fornication, and yet will dare to "do it, though he knows God is prefent and cannot "be fent off: as if the eye of a little Boy were more "awfull than the all-feeing eye of God. He is to be fea"red in publick, he is to be feared in private: If you

go forth, he fpies you; if you go in, he fees you: "when you light the candle, he observes you; when

you put it out, then alfo God marks you. Be sure "that while you are in his fight, you behave your "felf as becomes fo holy a prefence. But if you will fin, retire your self wifely, and go where God cannot fee; for no where else can you be fafe. And certainly, if men would always actually confider, and really esteem this truth, that God is the great Eye of the World, always watching over our actions, and an ever open Ear to hear all our words, and an unwearied Arm ever lifted up to crush a finner into ruin, it would be the readieft way in the world to make fin to ceafe from among the Children of men, and for men to approach to the bleffed eftate of the Saints in Heaven, who cannot fin, for they always walk in the Prefence and behold the Face of God. This inftrument is to be reduced to practice according to the following Rules.

Rules of exercising this Confideration.

1. Let this actual Thought often return, That God Is omniprefent,filling every place; and lay with David,

Whither

Whither fhall I go from thy Spirit, or whither shall I flee Pfal. 13.7,8 from thy Prefence? If I afcend up into Heaven, thou art there: if I make my bed in Hell,thou art there,&c. This Thought by being frequent will make an habitual dread and reverence towards God, and fear in all thy actions. For it is a great neceffity and engagement to do unblameably, when we act before the judge, who

is infallible in his Sentence, all-knowing in his Infor- Boeth. I. s: mation, fevere in his Anger, powerful in his Provi- de Confol. dence, and intolerable in his Wrath and Indignation.

2. In the beginning of actions of Religion, make an Act of Adoration, that is, folemnly worship God, and place thy felf in God's pretence, and b.hold him with the eye of faith, and let thy defires actually fix on him as the object of thy worship, and the reafon of thy hope, and the fountain of thy bletfing. For when thou haft placed thy felf before him, and kneeleft in his Prefence, it is most likely, all the following parts of thy devotion will be anfwerable to the wildom of fuch an apprehenfion, and the glory of fuch a Prefence.

3. Let every thing you fee reprefent to your spirit the prefence, the excellency, and the power of God, and let your converfation with the creatures lead you unto the Creator, for fo fhall your actions be done more frequently with an actual eye to God's prefence, by your often feeing him in the glafs of the Creation. In the face of the Sun you may fee God's beauty; in the fire you may feel his heat warming; in the water his gentleness to refresh you: he it is that comforts your fpirits when you have taken Cordials it is the due of heaven that makes your field give you bread; and the breafts of God are the bottles that minifter drink to your neceffities. This Philofophy, which is obvious to every man's Experience, is a good advantage to our piety, and by this act of understanding our wills are checked from violence ánd misdemeanour.

4. In your retirement make frequent Colloquies or fhort difcourfings between God and thy own foul. Seven times a day do I praise thee: and in the night feafon

aljo

Ifa. 26.12.

. alfo I thought upon thee while I was waking. So did David: and every act of complaint or thanksgiving, every act of rejoicing or of mourning, every petition and every return of the heart in these intercourses, is a going to God, and appearing in his prefence, and a reprefenting him prefent to thy fpirit and to thy neceffity. And this was long fince by a fpiritual perfon called, A building to God a Chapel in our heart. It reconciles Martha's Employment with Mary's Devotion, Charity and Religion, the neceffities of our calling, and the employments of devotion. For thus in the midst of the works of your Trade, you may retire into your Chapel [your heart] and onverfe with God by frequent addreffes and returns.

5. Reprefent and offer to God acts of love and fear, which are the proper effects of this apprehenfion, and the proper exercife of this confideration. For as God is every where prefent by his power, he calls for reverence and godly fear: as he is prefent to thee in all thy needs, and relieves them, he deferves thy love: and fince in every accident of our lives we find one or other of thele apparent, and in most things we fee both, it is a proper and proportionate return, that to every fuch demonftration of God, we exprefs our felves fenfible of it by admiring the Divine goodness, or trembling at his prefence, ever obeying him, because we love him; and ever obeying him, because we fear to offend him. This is that which Enoch did who thus walked with God.

6. Let us remember that God is in us, and that we are in him: we are his workmanship, let us not deface it; we are in his prefence, let us not pollute it by unholy and impure actions. God hath alfo wrought all our works in us and because he rejoices in his own works, if we defile them, and make them unpleasant to him, we walk perverfly with God, and he will walk crookedly towards us.

7. God is in the bowels of thy brother; refresh them when he needs it, and then you give your alms in the prefence of God and to God, and he feels the relief which thou provideft for thy brother.

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8. God is in every place; fuppofe it therefore to be a Church; and that decency of deportment, and piety of carriage, which you are taught by Religion or by Cuftom, or by Civility and publick Manners to ufe in Churches, the fame ufe in all places; with this difference onely, that in Churches let your de portment be religious in external Forms and Circumflances allo; but there and every where let it be religious in abstaining from fpiritual undecencies, and in Jer. 11. 15. readiness to doe good actions: that it may not be fecund. vulg. faid of us as God once complained of his People, Why hath my Beloved done Wickedness in my Houfe.

9. God is in every Creature: be cruel towards none, neither abuse any by intemperance. Remember that the Creatures, and every Member of thy own Body is one of the leffer Cabinets and Receptacles of God. They are fuch which God hath bleffed with his prefence, hallowed by his touch, and feparated from unholy use by making them to belong to his dwelling.

10. He walks as in the prefence of God, that converfes with him in frequent Prayer, and frequent Communion, that runs to him in all his Neceffities, that asks Counsel of him all in his Doubtings, that opens all his Wants to him, that weeps before him for his Sins, that asks remedy and fupport for his Weakness, that fears him as a Judge, reverences him as a Lord, obeys him as a Father, and loves him as a Patron.

The Benefits of this Exercife.

The Benefits of this Confideration and Exercise being univerfal upon all the parts of Piety, I fhall lefs need to specifie any particulars; but yet most properly this Exercise of confidering the divine Prefence is,

1. An excellent Help to Prayer, producing in us Reverence and Awfulness to the divine Majefty of God; and actual devotion in our Offices.

2. It produces a confidence in God, and fearlefness of our Enemies, patience in trouble, and hope of remedy, fince God is fo nigh in all our fad Accidents, he is a difpofer of the hearts of Men, and events of

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