" him," John xvii. 3. But by fearching to find out the Almighty to perfection; this is a knowledge too wonderful and high for me to attain to. His being without any beginning or end, and his prefence every where, without any limitation or bounds, I am fure of, but the manner of his eternal exiftence, and of his univerfal presence, I am at a lofs to account for. What the Lord faid to Moses of himself, “ I AM THAT I AM;" is more than my words can tell, or my heart conceive. Now we fee but in a glafs darkly: our weak fight will not reach, nor endure to behold his glory. No, 'tis not on this fide heaven, but within the veil, that we fhall know him as he is," 1 John iii. 2. Somewhat of God I fee and know: but there is infinitely more hid from my eyes; of which I can frame no adequate notion: a bottomlefs abyfs, where I may fooner lofe myself, than discover what I feek. I muft not think to meafure and hold the ocean in the palm of my hand, but be content here to fit down in ignorance, and humble admiration. For God would not be the infinite being that he is, could the poor fhallow creature comprehend him. When he dwells in light inacceffible, that very light, inftead of helping me to fee him, as much bars my fight of him, even as clouds and darknefs round about him; and where I perceive there is more and more still beyond, further than my eyes can carry me; even that unbounded profpect delights, as well as puzzles me; and there in extafy and wonder 1 muft fall down and adore, what I am not able to grafp and mafter. Here my reafon muft yield itself vanquifhed, and give way to faith and lowly veneration, to take their places and help me out; while I believe, that all here is greater than I can conceive; and profoundly worship him that is fo much above me; I muft not think to get the full understanding of such a glorious infinite Majefty,

who

who fills heaven and earth; and even the heaven of heavens cannot contain him. How then can a poor worm, a bit of animated clay, be able to deal with Him!

O my foul, as vaft a reach as thou haft, yet here thou must confefs thy impotence, to comprehend the Incomprehenfible, and take up with a deep and humble wonder, where there is no pretending to a compleat and perfect understanding. Such knowledge is above thy reach and 'tis too daring and idle, to aim at things impoffible. Staring the fun now in the face will fooner fpoil thy fight than mend thy profpect. Thou muft ftay then, till thou art fitted and fortified for the open vifion of God, and wait in his light, to see the true light: yea, to know even as alfo thou art known. And in the mean time throw thyself down under the feet of that moft high and immense Deity; who (as he is reprefented, 1 Tim. vi. 16.) " dwells in the bright"nefs, which no man can approach to: whom no "man hath feen, or can fee: to whom be honour "and power everlafting. Amen."

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THE PRAYER.

REAT GOD! Thou art infinitely above me; and I cannot know thee as thou art. "But what I am not able to comprehend, I admire; “and what I admire, I defire with all my foul to "adore. O gracious Lord, I befeech thee, com"paffionate and relieve my infirmities, and open "and impart thyfelf to my weak understanding, "in fuch manner that I may know thee more dif "tinctly and truly, where I cannot do it worthily "and perfectly. O give me fuch right apprehenfions of the glorious object of my worship, that "I may fear thee, and love thee, and adore and “ [ "ferve thee, as God, and as my God, and my fu"preme and only fatisfying God, bleffed for ever. "Amen."

MEDITA

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MEDITATION II.

Of God, to be feen in his creatures.

OD, that is invifible in himself, whom no mortal can view by a direct intuition, with eyes of flesh; yet, by reflection, may be feen in the feveral mirrors that he has fet up in the world; even his creatures, his word, and my own confcience. His creatures are the glafs, wherein we fee, though darkly, yet fo certainly, that from thence we can conclude, not only his divine being, but his almigh ty power, his wonderful wifdom, and his infinite goodnefs. The creation is that mighty volume, continually expanded, and lying open to the view of all; and fo fuited, even to the capacities of the moft unlearned, that they, who cannot read a word in any other book, yet here may fpell out fomewhat of God, all over the frame of the world! in the make and motion, the use and order, the varie ty and ornament of all things that appear in heaven and earth, which make up a rich furniture, not only for our bodily needs and comforts; but for our intellectual entertainment and delight.

This world is as the great fhadow of God's fubftantial being; and like the curtain, or thin veil, thro' which I may difcern (behind) the eternal, omnipotent CREATOR: or rather, the wide and mighty theatre that holds forth God to thy view, my foul, in his visible effects; that is too pure for bodily eyes to discern, in his incomprehenfible effence. As the hand pointing, and turning round the index without the church, tells thee that there is a clock within, which caufes the motion: fo every living and moving creature, which thou feeft, is as an index, to point thee to the great Maker and Mover VOL. I. C

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of all. And fomething thou mayeft gather even out of every object before thee: as oft as thou wilt fet thy thoughts to work this way, by a facred chymistry, to extract pure fpirit out of grofs matter. And this is the eafieft notion thou canst frame of God, to look upon him as the firft caufe and great maker of all things. This (as lying next to fenfe) is the readieft way of "feeking the Lord; to feel "after him, and find him," (as the apoftle expreffes it, Acts xvii. 27.) When thou doft ftand ftill, and behold what he has done, and fallest into a contemplation of the things that are feen, and makeft thy obfervations upon the works of his hands: for God has fcattered the memorials and notices of himelf fo thick every-where round about thee, that if thou wilt but take a furvey of the world, with the eyes of any ferious confideration, thou canst not mifs of learning him, in the school of the creatures, which will all read thee filent lectures, and preach to thy very fenfes. Even the brutes and mutes will be thy cafuifts, to refolve thy confcience, not only, that God is; but how great, and wife, and good he is. And all the creatures must be ftruck out of being, before God can be out of thy mind. Here the light of nature will fhew thee fo much of the glorious Deity, as will render thy ignorance and difregard of him without apology: for they will be fpeechlefs in the judgment, that come not to underftand the invifible things of God, even by the things that do appear, and will not glorify him as God, that fo difcovers himself to the world, Rom. i. 20, 21. Whether or no, that knowledge of God will fave them, if they have no other than it, 'tis enough to damn them if they do not fee, and own, and revere, and obferve him according to it. "The "Lord fhall deftroy them, because they regard not "his works, nor the operation of his hands," Pfalm xxviii. 5.

But

But fure, my foul, the atheist rather speaks the wishes of his heart, that there were no God, than the perfuafion of his mind, that there is none, when he has left fuch manifest prints of himself in all the creatures, that are fo many clouds of witneffes, with one confent, to testify of him, and for him. For that they are, 'tis evident: and that they fhould make themselves, is impoffible, when as nothing can do that; feeing it must be, before it can operate; and if it made itself, it did the mightieft work before ever it was. Now, when I look up to the heavens above, and again caft down my eyes upon this earth beneath, I know they must have a builder and maker: and I am as fure, that none but an almighty power could ever produce them. The heavens fpeak for themselves, though they could not frame themselves, Pfal. xix. 1. “The hea“vens declare the glory of God, and the firmament "fheweth his handy-work." Thofe mighty glorious orbs proclaim, not only his being, but his praifes, that contrived and erected them at firft; and keeps them in all their beautiful order, and punctual motions, to this day. And the earth is not only a fair habitation, but a school of inftruction, to all of us whom it harbours. When we obferve the generation and mechanism of plants and animals, how every one of them is fitted and provided for its own fubfiftence, and for the propaga tion of its fpecies; how one thing fubferves another; and all fenfes and faculties have entertainments and objects provided for them: yea, how the moft filly and contemptible creatures every day produce the effects, and do the works which themfelves know nothing of: and fo could never invent and manage them by any art or forecast of their own as when they all produce their like; and some of them (as the bees) in their most curious and regular fabrics, fhew fuch mathematics, as

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