_Direct._ XI. Look not upon any object of sense with sense alone, nor stop in it, but let reason begin where sense doth end, and always see by faith or reason the part which is invisible, as well as the sensible part by sense. By that which is seen, collect and rise up to that which is unseen. If God had given us an eye, or ear, or taste, or feeling, and not a mind, then we should have exercised no other faculty but what we had. But sure he that hath given us the higher faculty, requireth that we use it as well as the lower. And remember that they are not mere co-ordinate faculties, but the sensitive faculty is subordinate to the intellectual: and accordingly that which the sensible creature objectively revealeth through the sense unto the intellect, is something to which things sensible are subordinate. Therefore if you stop in sensible things, and see not the principle which animateth them, the power which ordereth and ruleth them, and the end which they are made for, and must be used for, you play the beasts; you see nothing but a dead carcass without the soul, and nothing but a useless, senseless thing. You know nothing indeed to any purpose; no, not the creature itself; while you know not the use and meaning of the creature, but separate it from its life, and guide, and end.
_Direct._ XII. First therefore see that you ever look upon all things sensible as the products of the will of the invisible God, depending on him more than the sunshine doth upon the sun; and never see or taste a creature separatedly from God. Will you know what a plant is, and not know that it is the earth that beareth and nourisheth it? Will you know what a fish is, and yet be ignorant that he liveth in the water? Will you know what a branch or fruit is, and yet not know that it groweth on the tree? The nature of things cannot be known without the knowledge of their causes and respective parts. It is as no knowledge to know incoherent scraps and parcels. To know a hand as no part of the body, or an eye or nose without knowing a head, or a body without knowing its life or soul, is not to know it, for you make it another thing. It is the difference between a wise man and a fool, that _sapiens respicit ad plura, insipiens ad pauciora_: a wise man looketh comprehensively to things as they are conjunct, and takes all together, and leaveth out nothing that is useful to his end; but a fool seeth one thing, and overseeth another which is necessary to the true knowledge or use of that which he seeth. See God as the cause and life of every thing you see. As a carcass is but a ghastly sight without the soul, and quickly corrupteth and stinketh when it is separated; so the creature without God is an unlovely sight, and quickly corrupteth and becomes a snare or annoyance to you. God is the beauty of all that is beautiful, and the strength of all that is strong, and the glory of the sun and all that is glorious, and the wisdom of all that is wise, and the goodness of all that is good, as being the only original, total cause of all. You play the brutes, when you see the creature, and overlook its Maker, from whom it is, whatsoever it is. Will you see the dial, and overlook the sun? Remember it is the use of every creature to show you God, and therefore it is the use of every sense to promote the knowledge of him.
_Direct._ XIII. See God as the Conducter, Orderer, and Disposer of all the creatures, according to their natures, as moved necessarily or freely; and behold not any of the motions or events of the world, without observing the interest, and overruling hand of God. Sense reacheth but to the effects and events; but reason and faith can see the First Cause and Disposer of all. Again, I tell you, that if you look but on the particles of things by sense, and see not God that setteth all together, and doth his work by those that never dream of it, you see but the several wheels and parcels of a clock or watch, and know not him that made and keepeth it, that setteth on the poise, and winds it up, to fit his ends. Joseph could say, God sent me hither, when his brethren sold him into Egypt; and David felt his Father's rod in Shimei's curse.