The divine life in three treatises

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 your selves 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 Gods;) 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 your selves as unto him? If you will not take notice of him, he will take 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, then 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 honour and happiness of his converse? shall the Lord of Heaven and Earth ⟨p. 191⟩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 your selves 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.

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 alwaies 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 your selves 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 Gods;) 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 your selves as unto him? If you will not take notice of him, he will take 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 alwaies 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 inferiour persons that we dwell with and are still in company with, yet we mind them more, and speak more to them, then 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 honour and happiness of his converse? shall the Lord of Heaven and Earth