The new birthThe nevv birth

and other things serve but as ladders to raise his soul thitherward. He is often, even in the middest of other businesses, digesting in his mind, the excellencies of God: and thinking with himself how good, how great, how wise is the Lord God, who hath done this, and this, and this! how excellent is his name through all the earth! how happy is he in the highest heavens, where he hath founded the throne of his glory! yea, how blessed a Crown hath he laid up for them that fear him, & how plentiful a reward is reserved for them! when he walketh abroad, and sees Gods works, and when he is employed in other occasions, he holdeth his inward comfortable conference with himself about his God, and often hath his soul provoked to speak unto God, and to take him into part of this divine conference; telling him, as it were with a reverent boldness, and wife-like familiarity, how much good he knows by him, and how excellent he must needs conceive him to be by such and such works of his. In ⟨p. 78⟩one word, he mindeth not only, not chiefly, the things that are below, as once he did; but the things that are above, where Jesus Christ our saviour sitteth at the right hand of glory. His meditation is of God and his law and Kingdom continually. In like sort his memory is hallowed to the remembering of God,¹ and the things that pertain to God. He frequently mindeth himself, of that all-seeing eye, which in all places attendeth him; and though the Lord as being a spirit, be in a sort absent from his senses, yet by virtue of this sanctified memory (which makes absent things present), he offers him unto his mind as continually standing at his right hand: & beholdeth him in all places (even then when he is far removed from all other company), as a narrow observer of his secret actions, and an eye-witness of all his most inward and retired cogitations. He puts himself in mind still and still, saying, Lord whither can I fly from thy presence? The Lords eyes behold me, his eyelids ponder my paths: to him nothing is secret, from him nothing can be concealed; thus (I say) he mindeth himself of the Lords being hard by him, and represents him often to his soul, as a witness and judge of his whole life, yea of his very heart and conscience.

and other things serue but as ladders to raise his soule thitherward. He is often, euen in the middest of other businesses, digesting in his minde, the excellencies of God: and thinking with himselfe how good, how great, how wise is the Lord God, who hath done this, and this, and this! how excellent is his name through all the earth! how happy is he in the highest heauens, where hee hath founded the throne of his glory! yea, how blessed a Crowne hath he laid vp for thē that feare him, & how plentifull a reward is reserued for them! when he walketh abroad, and sees Gods workes, and when he is imploied in other occasions, he holdeth his inward comfortable conference with himselfe about his God, and often hath his soule prouoked to speake vnto God, and to take him into part of this diuine conference; telling him, as it were with a reuerent boldnes, and wife-like familiarity, how much good hee knowes by him, and how excellent hee must needes conceiue him to bee by such and such workes of his. In