The divine life in three treatises

2. The presence and attributes of God apprehended by those that walk with him, is the potent remedy against Temptations. Who will once turn an eye to the gold and glory of the world that is offered him to allure him to sin, if he see God stand by? who would be tempted to lust or any sinful pleasure, if he observe the presence of the Lord? Satan can never come in so ill a time with his temptations, and have so little hope to speed, as when the soul is contemplating the attributes of God, or taken up in prayer with him, or any way apprehensive of his presence. The soul that faithfully walks with God, hath enough at hand in him to answer all temptations. And the further any man is from God, and the less he knoweth him, the more Temptations can do upon him.

3. The presence of God, affordeth the most powerful motives unto Good, to those that walk with him. There is no grace in man, but what is from God, and may find in God its proper object or incentive. As God is God, above the creature transcendently and infinitely in all perfections, so all the motives to goodness which are fetched from him, are transcendently above all that may be fetched from any creature. He that liveth always by the fire or in the Sun-shine, is likest to be warm. He that is most with God, will be most like to God in Holiness. Frequent and serious converse with him, doth most deeply imprint his communicable attributes on the heart, and make there the clearest impression of his image. Believers have learned by their own experience, that one hours serious prayer, or meditation, in which they can get nigh to God in the Spirit, doth more advance their grace, then any help that the creature can afford them.

3. The presence of God, affordeth the most powerful motives unto Good, to those that walk with him. There is no grace in man, but what is from God, and may find in God its proper object or incentive. As God is God, above the creature transcendently and infinitely in all perfections, so all the motives to goodness which are fetcht from him, are transcendently above all that may be fetcht from any creature. He that liveth alwaies by the fire or in the Sun-shine, is likest to be warm. He that is most with God, will be most like to God in Holiness. Frequent and serious converse with him, doth most deeply imprint his communicable attributes on the heart, and make there the clearest impression of his image. Believers have learned by their own experience, that one hours serious prayer, or meditation, in which they can get nigh to God in the Spirit, doth more advance their grace, then any help that the creature can afford them.