Earth with his prefent Power, and with his never abfent Nature. So St. Auguftine expreffes this Article. Lib. 7. de So that we may imagine God to be as the Air and Civit. c. 30. the Sea, and we all inclofed in his Circle, wrapt up in the lap of his infinite Nature, or as infants in the wombs of their pregnant mothers: and we can no more be removed from the prefence of God than from our own being.

Several manners of the Divine Prefence.

The Prefence of God is understood by us in feveral manners and to feveral purposes.

1. God is prefent by his Effence, which because it is infinite cannot be contained within the limits of any place: and, because he is of an effential purity and spiritual nature, he cannot be undervalued by being fuppofed prefent in the Places of unnatural uncleannefs: because as the Sun reflecting upon the mud of ftrands and fhores, is unpolluted in its beams; fo is God not difhonoured when we fuppofe him in every of his creatures, and in every part of every one of them, and is ftill as unmix'd with any unhandsome adherence, as is the Soul in the bowels of the Body.

περ τῇ ἐσί.

2. God is every where present by his Power: He C:0's reputrolls the Orbs of Heaven with his Hand, he fixes the T σε τὸ πᾶν, Earth with his Foot, he guides all the creatures with T his Eye, and refreshes them with his Influence: He ward's r makes the Powers of Hell to fhake with his terrours, and binds the Devils with his Word, and throws. them out with his Command, and fends the Angels Refp. ad Orthod. on Embaffies with his Decrees: He hardens the joints of Infants, and confirms the bones when they are fashioned beneath fecretly in the earth. He it is that affists at the numerous productions of fishes, and there is not one hollowness in the bottom of the Sea, but he fhews himself to be Lord of it, by fuftaining there the Creatures that come to dwell in it: And in the Wilderness, the Bittern and the Stork, the Dragon and the Satyre, the Unicorn and the Elk live upon

C 4

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his

Mat 18 20.

his Provifions and revere his Power, and feel the force of his Almightiness.

3. God is more fpecially present in some places by the feveral and more fpecial Manifestations of himself to extraordinary Purpofes, r. By Glory. Thus his feat is in Heaven; because there he fits encircled with all the outward Demonftrations of his Glory, which he is pleafed to thew to all the inhabitants of those his inward and fecret Courts. And thus they that die in the Lord may be properly faid to be gone to God; with whom although they were before, yet now they enter into his Courts, into the fecret of his Tabernacle, into the retinue and fplendour of his Glory. That is called walking with God, but this is dwelling, or being, with him. I defire to be diffolved and to be with Chrift, fo faid S. Paul. But this manner of the Divine Prefence is referved for the elect People of God, and for their portion in their Country.

A

4. God is by Grace and Benediction fpecially preHeb. 19. 25-fent in holy places and in the folemn affemblies of his fervants. If holy People meet in grotts and dens of the earth when Perfecution or a publick neceffity difturbs the publick order, circumstance and convenience, God fails not to come thither to them; but God is alfo by the fame or a greater reafon present there where they meet ordinarily, by order and publick Authority: there God is prefent ordinarily, i. e. at every fuch meeting. God will go out of his way to meet his Saints, when themselves are forced out of Kings . 9. their way of order by a fad neceffity: but elfe God's pal. 138. 1, ufual way is to be prefent in thofe places where his fervants are appointed ordinarily to meet. But his prefence there fignifies nothing but a readiness to hear their prayers, to blefs their perfons, to accept their offices, and to like even the circumflance of orderly and publick mecting. For thither the prayers of Confecration, the publick Authority feparating it, and God's love of order, and the reafonable cuftoms of Religion, have in ordinary, and in a certain degree, fixed this manner of his Prefence; and he Joves to have it fo.

5. God is especially present 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 thadow they are heaven it felf. For God reigns in the hearts of his Servants: 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 Worthip 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 incenfe of Prayers, and joins them to his own interceffion, and prefents all together to his Father; and the Holy Ghoft, by his dwelling there, hath alfo confecrated it into a Temple; and God dwells in our hearts by Faith, and Chrift by his Spirit, and 1 Cor. 3. 16. the Spirit by his Purities: fo that we are alfo Cabi- 2 Cor. 6. 16, nets of the Myfterious Trinity; and what is this fhort of Heaven it felf, but as Infancy is fhort of Manhood, and Letters of Words? The fame ftate of life it is, but not the fame Age. It is Heaven in a Looking-glafs (dark, but yet true,) representing 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 efpecially 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,aWitness to bring them to Judgment, and a Judge to acquit or to condemn, Aid 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 greatest 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 manifeft this manner of his Prefence more notorioufly, and make it appear that he was an Obferver of our very Thoughts; and that he only laid those things by, which, because we covered with duft and negligence, were not then dif

cerned,

verbis Do

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

Now the confideration of this great truth is of a very univerfal use in the whole course of the life of a Chriftian. 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 impiety, must have put on impudence, if he be not much reftrained in his temptation to fin. "For "the greatest part of fin is taken away, if a man have S. Aug: de cc a witness of his conversation: And he is a great minicis. c. 3. despiser of God, who sends 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 "awful than the all-feeing eye of God. He is to be "feared in publick, he is to be feared in private: If you go forth he fpies you; if you go in, he fees сс you: when you light the candle, he obferves you; "when you put it out, then alfo God marks you. Be "fure that while you are in his fight, you behave cr your felf as becomes fo holy a prefence." But if you will fin, retire your felf 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 eftcem 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 crufh a finner into ruin, it would be the readieft way in the world to make fin to cease 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 fay with David,

Whither

Whither shall I go from thy Spirit, or whither shall I flee pfal. 13. 7. from thy Prefence. If I afcend up into Heaven, thou art 8. 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. 1. s. mation, fevere in his Anger, powerful in his Providence, 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 self in God's Prefence, and behold him with the eye of Faith, and let thy defires actually fix on him as the object of thy worship, and the reason of thy hope, and the fountain of thy bleffing. For when thou haft placed thy felf before him, and kneeleft in his Prefence, it is moft likely, all the following parts of thy devotion will be anfwerable to the wisdom of fuch an Apprehenfion, and the glory of fuch a Prefence.

3. Let every thing you fee reprefent to your fpirit 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 glass 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 dew 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 and misdemeanour.

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

alfo

de Confol

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