SECT. ü.] THE HAPPINESS OF SEPARATE SPIRITS. the inhabitants of that city, of the heavenly Jerusalem,' " shall never say I am sick ; for the people that dwell therein shall be forgiven their iniquity ;" 'is. xxxiii. When the righteous are dismissed from this flesh, " they enter into peace, their bodies rest in their beds of earth, and their spirits walk in heaven, eachone in his own up- rightness ;" Is. And as there is no sin within them: to render: theta uneasy, so there is no troublesome guest, no evil atten- dant without them, that can give them fear or pain; no sinners to vex them, no tempter to deceive them, no spi- rit of,hell to devour or destroy; Is. xxxv. 9, 10. No, lion shall be there, nor any ravenous beast shall go up thereon,. it shall not befound there ; but the :redeemed shall walk there. And the ransomed of the Lord shall return and come to Zion with songs, and everlastingjoy upon their heads : they shall obtain joy andgladness, and sorrow and sighing shallflee away. God himself shall never be absent,. and then. they can- not be unhappy. They " behold his face in righteous_. ness, and 'they .are satisfied when they awake with his likeness ;" Ps. xvii. 15. When they leave this world of dreams and shadows, and awake, into that bright world ofspirits, they behold the face of God, andare made like him, as well as :when their bodies shall awake out of the dust of death in the morning of the resurrection, formed- . in the image of the blessed. Jesus. That glorious scrip- ture, in Rev. xxi. 3, 4. be .thesense of it what it will, can never be fulfilled in more glory on earth than belongs to the state 'of heaven. The tabernacle ofGod is with men, andhe will dwell with them, and they _ shall be his people,' and God himself' shall be with them, and be their God. And God shall wipe away all tearsfrom their eyes; : and there shall be no more death; neither sorrows notecrying, neither shall there be any more pain : for theformer things are passedaway. The saints above see their blessed Lord and .Saviour all his exalted glories, . and they are with himwhere he is, according to his own prayer and his own promise ;. 'Jahn xvii. 24. and xiv. 3. " They are, absent from the body,. and present with the Lord." They have esteemed hint on earth above_all.tlhings, and longed after the sight of his facé, " whom having not seen they. loved ;" 1 Pet. i. 8, Mc
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