The divine life in three treatises

Our walking with God then is not only a sense of that common presence which he must needs afford to all; but it is also a believing apprehension of his Gracious presence, as our God and reconciled Father, with whom we dwell, being brought near unto Him by Christ; and who dwelleth in us by his spirit.

9. To walk with God (as here we are in flesh) includeth not only our believing his presence, but also that we see him (as the chief cause in the effects) in his creatures and his daily providence, that we look not on creatures as independent or separated from God; but see them as the Glass, and God as the represented face; and see them as the letters and 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, Psal. 19. 1. 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 must become a Preacher to us, and we must see the 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 •ear. 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. When 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 it self (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