412 THE HAPPINESS OF SEPARATE SPIRITS. [DISC. I1. saith Zachary the prophet, whom they sold for thirty pieces of silver.? Vile indignity and impious madness ! Behold he now appears like the man who is fellow, or companion to the Lord of hosts. It is he, saith Ma, lachi, it is he, the messenger of the covenant, who came suddenly to his own temple. There I held hire in my withered arms, saith aged Simeon, and rapture and pro-, phecy came upon me at once, and I expired in joy and praises." And we hope our mother Eve stood up among the rest of them, and beheld and confessed the promised seed, of the woman. " O blessed Saviour, that didst break the head of the serpent, though thy heel was bruised, and hast abolished the mischief that my folly. and his temptation had brought into thy new created world t'' Now could we ever suppose all this to be done in the upper regions, with no new smiles upon the counte- nancesof the saints, no special increase of joy among' the spirits of the just made perfect ? God himself stands in no need of the magnificence of ,these transactions Christ Jesus receives the new honours, and all the old inhabitants of heaven taste new and unknown satisfac- tion in the honours they pay to their exalted Saviour. Some of the ancients were of opinion, that the souls of the fathers before the ascension of Christ were not admitted into the holy of holies, or the blissful vision of God; but that it was our Lord Jesus, our great High - priest at his ascent to the throne, led the way thither : .He rent the veil of the lower heaven, and carried with brim the armies of patriarchal souls into some upper and brighter, and more joyful regions, whereas before they were only admitted into a state of peace and rest. Whether this be so or no; 'the scripture does not suffici- ently declare : But whatsoever region of heaven they were placed in, we may be well assured from the very nature of things, that such transactions as the triumphant ascent of Christ, could never pass through any of the upper worlds without enlarging the knowledge and the joy of the blessed inhabitants. When our Lord Jesus Christ sat down at the right- hand of God, he " prevailed to open the book of divine, counsels and decrees;" Rev. v. 5. and to acquaint him-
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