good Works, opens this Communication between God and his own Soul!  Tho’ the whole Creation frowns upon him, and all Nature looks black about him, he has his Light and Support within him, that are able to cheer his Mind, and bear him up in the Midst of all those Horrors which encompass him.  He knows that his Helper is at Hand, and is always nearer to him than any thing else can be, which is capable of annoying or terrifying him.  In the Midst of Calumny or Contempt, he attends to that Being who whispers better things within his Soul, and whom he looks upon as his Defender, his Glory, and the Lifter up of his Head.  In his deepest Solitude and Retirement, he knows that he is in Company with the greatest of Beings; and perceives within himself such real Sensations of his Presence, as are more delightful than any thing that can be met with in the Conversation of his Creatures.  Even in the Hour of Death, he considers the Pains of his Dissolution to be nothing else but the breaking down of that Partition, which stands betwixt his Soul, and the Sight of that Being, who is always present with him, and is about to manifest it self to him in Fullness of Joy.

If we would be thus Happy, and thus Sensible of our Maker’s Presence, from the secret Effects of his Mercy and Goodness, we must keep such a Watch over all our Thoughts, that, in the Language of the Scripture, his Soul may have Pleasure in us.  We must take care not to grieve his Holy Spirit, and endeavour to make the Meditations of our Hearts always acceptable in his Sight, that he may delight thus to reside and dwell in us.  The Light of Nature could direct Seneca to this Doctrine, in a very remarkable Passage among his Epistles: 

    Sacer inest in nobis spiritus bonorum malorumque custos, et
    Observator, et quemadmodum nos illum tractamus, ita et ille nos
    [2].

There is a Holy Spirit residing in us, who watches and observes both Good and Evil Men, and will treat us after the same Manner that we treat him.  But I shall conclude this Discourse with those more emphatical Words in Divine Revelation,

    If a Man love me, he will keep my Word, and my Father will love
    him, and we will come unto him, and make our Abode with him [3].

[Footnote 1:  No. 565, and see Nos. 580, 590, and 628.]

[Footnote 2:  Ep. 41.  To Lucilius.  ‘Deum in viro bono sedere.’]

[Footnote 3:  John xiv. 23.]

* * * * *

No. 572.  Monday, July 26, 1714.  Z. Pearce [3].

  ’—­Quod medicorum est
  Promittant medici—­’

  Hor.

I am the more pleased with these my Papers, since I find they have encouraged several Men of Learning and Wit to become my Correspondents:  I Yesterday received the following Essay against Quacks, which I shall here communicate to my Readers for the Good of the Publick, begging the Writer’s Pardon for those Additions and Retrenchments which I have made in it.