17.  When these everlasting doors shall be opened to us, we may be sure that the pleasures and beauties of this place will infinitely transcend our present hopes and expectations, and that the glorious appearance of the throne of God will rise infinitely beyond whatever we are able to conceive of it.  We might here entertain ourselves with many other speculations on this subject from those several hints which we find of it in the holy scriptures:  as whether there may not be different mansions and apartments of glory, to beings of different natures; whether, as they:  excel one another in perfection, they are not admitted nearer to the throne of the Almighty, and enjoy greater manifestations of his presence.

18.  Whether there are not solemn times and occasions, when all the multitude of heaven celebrate the presence of their Maker, in more extraordinary forms of praise and adoration; as Adam, though he had continued in a state of innocence, would, in the opinion of our divines, have kept holy the Sabbath day, in a more particular manner than any other of the seven.  These, and the like speculations, we may very innocently indulge, so long as we make use of them to inspire us with a desire of becoming inhabitants of this delightful place.

19.  I have in this, and in two foregoing letters, treated on the most serious subject that can employ the mind of man, the omnipresence of the Deity; a subject which, if possible, should never depart from our meditations.  We have considered the Divine Being, as he inhabits infinitude, as he dwells among his works, as he is present to the mind of man, and as he discovers himself in a more glorious manner among the regions of the blest.  Such a consideration should be kept awake in us at all times, and in all places, and possess our minds with a perpetual awe and reverence.

20.  It should be interwoven with all our thoughts and perceptions, and become one with the consciousness of our own being.  It is not to be reflected on in the coldness of philosophy, but ought to sink us into the lowest prostration before him, who is so astonishingly, great, wonderful, and holy.

The present Life to be considered only as it may conduce to the Happiness of a future one.

SPECTATOR; No. 575.

1.  A lewd young fellow seeing an aged hermit go by him barefoot, Father, says he, you are in a very miserable condition, if there is not another world.  True son, said the hermit; but what is thy condition if there is?  Man is a creature designed for two different states of being, or rather, for two different lives.  His first life is short and transient; his second permanent and lasting.

2.  The question we are all concerned in is this, in which of these two lives is our chief interest to make ourselves happy? or in other words, whether we should endeavour to secure to ourselves the pleasure and gratification of a life which is uncertain and precarious, and at its utmost length of a very inconsiderable duration; or to secure to ourselves the pleasure of a life that is fixed and settled, and will never end?  Every man, upon the first hearing of this question, knows very well which side of it he ought to close with.