The divine life in three treatises

1. If God be with me, the Maker, and Ruler, and Disposer of all is with me: so that all things are virtually with me in him. I have that in Gold and Jewels which I seem to want in Silver, Lead and Dross. I can want no friend if God vouchsafe to be my friend; and I can enjoy no benefit by all my friends, if God be my enemy: I need not fear the greatest enemies, if God be ⟨p. 352⟩reconciled to me. I shall not miss the light of the Candle, if I have this blessed Sun. The Creature is nothing but what it is from God, and in God: And it is worth nothing, or good for nothing, but what it's worth in order unto God, as it declareth him, and helps the soul to know him, serve him, or draw nearer to him: As it is Idolatry in the unhappy worldling, to thirst after the Creature with the neglect of God, and so to make the world his God; so doth it savour of the same heinous sin to lament our loss of Creatures more than the displeasure of God. If God be my enemy, or I am fallen under his indignation, I have then so much greater matters to lament than the loss, or absence, or frowns of man, as should almost make me forget that there is such a thing as man to be regarded: But if God be my Father, and my friend in Christ, I have then so much to think of with delight, and to recreate and content my soul, as will proclaim it most incongruous and absurd to lament inordinately the absence of a worm, while I have his Love and presence who is All in All. If God cannot content me, and be not enough for me, how is he then my God? or how shall he be my Heaven and everlasting Happiness?

1. If God be with me, the Maker, and Ruler, and Disposer of all is with me: so that all things are virtually with me in him. I have that in Gold and Jewels which I seem to want in Silver, Lead and Dross. I can want no friend if God vouchsafe to be my friend; and I can enjoy no benefit by all my friends, if God be my enemy: I need not fear the greatest enemies, if God be ⟨p. 352⟩reconciled to me. I shall not miss the light of the Candle, if I have this blessed Sun. The Creature is nothing but what it is from God, and in God: And it is worth nothing, or good for nothing, but what it's worth in order unto God, as it declareth him, and helps the soul to know him, serve him, or draw nearer to him: As it is Idolatry in the unhappy worldling, to thirst after the Creature with the neglect of God, and so to make the world his God; so doth it savour of the same hainous sin to lament our loss of Creatures more than the displeasure of God. If God be my enemy, or I am fallen under his indignation, I have then so much greater matters to lament than the loss, or absence, or frowns of man, as should almost make me forget that there is such a thing as man to be regarded: But if God be my Father, and my friend in Christ, I have then so much to think of with delight, and to recreate and content my soul, as will proclaim it most incongruous and absurd to lament inordinately the absence of a worm, while I have his Love and presence who is All in All. If God cannot content me, and be not enough for me, how is he then my God? or how shall he be my Heaven and everlasting Happiness?