We may assure our selves, that the great Author of Nature will not always be as one who is indifferent to any of his Creatures.  Those who will not feel him in his Love, will be sure at length to feel him in his Displeasure.  And how dreadful is the Condition of that Creature, who is only sensible of the Being of his Creator by what he suffers from him!  He is as essentially present in Hell as in Heaven, but the Inhabitants of those accursed Places behold him only in his Wrath, and shrink within the Flames to conceal themselves from him.  It is not in the Power of Imagination to conceive the fearful Effects of Omnipotence incensed.

But I shall only consider the Wretchedness of an intellectual Being, who, in this Life, lies under the Displeasure of him, that at all Times and in all Places is intimately united with him.  He is able to disquiet the Soul, and vex it in all its Faculties.  He can hinder any of the greatest Comforts of Life from refreshing us, and give an Edge to every one of its slightest Calamities.  Who then can bear the Thought of being an Out-cast from his Presence, that is, from the Comforts of it, or of feeling it only in its Terrors?  How pathetick is that Expostulation of Job, when, for the Tryal of his Patience, he was made to look upon himself in this deplorable Condition!

    Why hast thou set me as a Mark against thee, so that I am become a
    Burthen to my self?

  But, Thirdly, how happy is the Condition of that intellectual Being,
  who is sensible of his Maker’s Presence from the secret Effects of his
  Mercy and Loving-kindness.

The Blessed in Heaven behold him Face to Face; that is, are as sensible of his Presence as we are of the Presence of any Person whom we look upon with our Eyes.  There is doubtless a Faculty in Spirits, by which they apprehend one another, as our Senses do material Objects; and there is no Question but our Souls, when they are disembodied, or placed in glorified Bodies, will by this Faculty, in whatever Part of Space they reside, be always sensible of the Divine Presence.  We, who have this Veil of Flesh standing between us and the World of Spirits, must be Content to know that the Spirit of God is present with us, by the Effects which he produces in us.  Our outward Senses are too gross to apprehend him; we may however taste and see how gracious he is, by his Influence upon our Minds, by those Virtuous Thoughts which he awakens in us, by those secret Comforts and Refreshments which he conveys into our Souls, and by those ravishing Joys and inward Satisfactions, which are perpetually springing up, and diffusing themselves among all the Thoughts of good Men.  He is lodged in our very Essence, and is as a Soul within the Soul, to irradiate its Understanding, rectifie its Will, purifie its Passions, and enliven all the Powers of Man.  How happy therefore is an intellectual Being, who, by Prayer and Meditation, by Virtue and