[2.] I come to show what this term ' with God ' implies.
(1.) The company and presence of God. He must needs be present with us that w^alks with us. How can God be al)sent fr<:>m any ? The apostle saith, Acts xvii. 27, ' He is not far from every one of us.' We are not so near to ourselves as God is to us. Who can keep his breath in his body for a moment if God were not there ? God is present with us ; but the meaning is this, that we must be present with God. Usually, we are at too great a distance in our minds and affections ; therefore walking with God implies actual thoughts of his presence ; he must be represented as the beholder of all our thoughts, words, and actions. The world is a great theatre, and the spectators are God and angels. I confess we little think of it ; there is a fond levity in our minds. As to us, the world is like a hill of ants ; you stand by, and they run up and down, and do not think of your presence and being there ; so the Lord stands by and observes all our motions, and we run up and down like busy ants, and do not think of God's presence : there is a great hurry and clutter of business, and few thoughts of God. It is a description of carnal men : Ps. Ixxxvi. 14, ' They have not set thee before them.' There are some have never any thoughts of God ; they have nothing before their eyes but the world and worldly business. As it is storied of the ])anther, when she is hunted she hides her head, and when she doth not see the hunters, she thinks she is not seen by them ; so we do not think of God, and therefore vainly imagine that he doth not think of us. In heaven, indeed a man doth nothing else but think of God ; the divine essence is im])ressed there upon our minds, it is a part of our glory : Ps. xvii. 15, ' When I a^vake, I shall be satis- fied with thy likeness ; ' we shall endlessly lose ourselves in the con- templation of the divine perfections. Now for the present faith serves instead of vision. God must be acknowledged as present with us, as certainly present as those outward objects with which w^e do converse, or as a man is whom we see with our bodily eyes. The soul hath its object and its senses as well as the body. There is a commerce between spirits ; they see and hear, and converse with one another ; so must our souls with God and holy angels. A christian can never be alone ; by thoughts his soul converseth with God ; they see him whom the world cannot see. We see that according to the different ranks of beings they have different objects : the beasts have eyes and senses to see external objects, and they judge by sight according to the form and outward appearance of things. Men have reason ; that is
56 SERMONS UPON HEBREWS XI. [SeR. XXII.
higher than sight. Reason corrects sense in many things ; as a star to sense seems but hke a spark or spangle, reason can judge it to be greater — as big as the world. Christians have a higher light; they have faith to see him that is altogether invisible. Now this is the great advantage of religion ; to see God by us, with us, and in us ; nothing makes a man more holy than this. It is said, 3 John 11, 'He that doth evil liath not seen God ; ' that is, he doth not think of God's presence ; he is as if he had no God to see him. Now, because it is impossible in the present life to have perpetual actual thoughts and considerations of God's mnjesty and goodness, there must be set times to represent the truth and glory of his being to the soul, till at length it be habituated to us ; and when it is habituated upon every temptation, there will be actual discourses about his presence, especially when you are tempted to secret sins ; as Job speaks of his unclean glances, chap. xxxi. 4, ' Doth he not see my ways, and count all my steps ? ' When there is an inward impure thought arising in the heart, it will be checked by this. Is not this liable to God's eye ? as Joseph, when he was tempted to sin by the advantage of privacy, Gen. xxxix. 9, ' How can I do this wickedness, and sin against God ? ' Is any place private to God ? The majesty of God will always run upon the thoughts, upon every temptation. (2.) Familiarity. A beggar may be in the presence of a prince, but cannot be said to walk with him, for that notetli a social communion ; a servant may be in company with his master, but he waits upon him, doth not walk witli him. But now God hath taken all his saints into the honour of his friends ; he is ours in covenant ; we do not walk with liim as with a stranger, at a distance, and with wary reservation, as with another man's God, but with our friend — with our God, with our con- federate in Christ, one that is in covenant with us. There is abundance of intimate converse and familiarity between God and. believers : 1 John i. 3, ' Truly,' saith the apostle, ' our fellowship is with the Father, and with his Son Jesus Christ.' How ? by walking in the light : ver. 7, ' If we walk in the light, as he is in the light, then have we fellowship one with another ; ' that is, we with God, and God with us, as two friends and companions would walk together. There is the familiarity of discourse. It is not a mute, silent walk, but such as is full of sweet and interchangeable discourses, many sweet dialogues between God and us. Sometimes God, and sometimes we begin the conference ; some- times God speaks to the soul, and the heart answers God. God speaks to us by the injection of holy thoughts, by the motions and actual excitations of his grace ; and the soul again sjioaks to God by prayer, meditation, and pious addresses: Ps. xxvii. 8, 'When thou saidest, Seek ye my face ; my heart said, Thy face. Lord, will I seek.' The heart, jnoved and inspired by the spirit, gives God an answer. Sometimes, again, we begin the conference ; we ask counsel of God in doubtful matters, when the soul is engaged with many anxious traverses, and knows not what to do. Now God answers us by the whispers of his Spirit ; as the Israelites, Judges i. 1, 'Who shall go up for us against the Canaanites? ' In all difficult and uncertain matters they make God their counsellor; and then the Lord leads them by his Spirit, and gives them an answer by casting powerful and overswaying considerations into their minds ; as David saith, Ps. xvi. 7, ' My reins instruct me in the night-season.' In the silence of the night, when we are free from