The divine life in three treatises

And as my Greatest business is with God, so my daily business is also with him: He purposely leaveth me under wants, ⟨p. 361⟩and suffers necessities daily to return, and enemies to assault me, and affliction to surprise me, that I may be daily driven to him: He loveth to hear from me: He would have me be no stranger with him: I have business with him every hour, I need not want employment for all the faculties of my soul, if I know what it is to converse in Heaven. Even prayer, and every holy thought of God, hath an Object so great and excellent, as should wholly take me up. Nothing must he thought or spoken lightly about the Lord. His name must not be taken in vain: Nothing that is common beseemeth his worshippers. He will be sanctified of all that shall draw near him: He must be Loved with all the Heart and Might. His servants need not be wearied for want of employment, nor through the lightness or unprofitableness of their employment: If I had Cities to build, or Kingdoms to govern, I might better complain for want of employment for the faculties of my soul, than I can when I am to converse in Heaven. In other studies the delight abateth when I have reached my desire, and know all that I can know: But in God there is infinitely more to be known when I know the most. I am never satiated with the easiness of knowing, nor are my desires abated by any unusefulness or unworthiness in the Object; but I am drawn to it by its highest excellencies, and drawn on to desire more and more by the infiniteness of the Light which I have not yet beheld, and the infiniteness of the Good which yet I have not enjoyed. If I be idle, or seem to want employment, when I am to contemplate all the Attributes, relations, mercies, works, and revealed perfections of the Lord, its sure for want of eyes to see, or a Heart inclined to my business: if God be not enough to employ my soul, then all the persons and things on earth are not enough.

And as my Greatest business is with God, so my daily business is also with him: He purposely leaveth me under wants, ⟨p. 361⟩and suffers necessities daily to return, and enemies to assault me, and affliction to surprize me, that I may be daily driven to him: He loveth to hear from me: He would have me be no stranger with him: I have business with him every hour, I need not want employment for all the faculties of my soul, if I know what it is to converse in Heaven. Even prayer, and every holy thought of God, hath an Object so great and excellent, as should wholly take me up. Nothing must he thought or spoken lightly about the Lord. His name must not be taken in vain: Nothing that is common beseemeth his worshippers. He will be sanctified of all that shall draw near him: He must be Loved with all the Heart and Might. His servants need not be wearied for want of employment, nor through the lightness or unprofitableness of their employment: If I had Cities to build, or Kingdoms to govern, I might better complain for want of employment for the faculties of my soul, than I can when I am to converse in Heaven. In other studies the delight abateth when I have reached my desire, and know all that I can know: But in God there is infinitely more to be known when I know the most. I am never satiated with the easiness of knowing, nor are my desires abated by any unusefulness or unworthiness in the Object; but I am drawn to it by its highest excellencies, and drawn on to desire more and more by the infiniteness of the Light which I have not yet beheld, and the infiniteness of the Good which yet I have not enjoyed. If I be idle, or seem to want employment, when I am to contemplate all the Artributes, relations, mercies, works, and revealed perfections of the Lord, its sure for want of eyes to see, or a Heart enclined to my business: if God be not enough to employ my soul, then all the persons and things on earth are not enough.