THE HAPPINESS OF SEPARATE. SPIRITS. 441 Let me propose a brief answer to these curious ques- tions in a few propositions. 1. The chief properties of spirits are knowledge and activity ; and they are said to be present there, where they have an immediate perception of any thing, and where they lay out their immediate activity or influence. So our souls are said to be present with our bodies, be- cause they have immediate consciousness or knowledge of what relates to the body, and they move it, and act upon it, or influence it, in an immediate manner. '2. God, the infinite Spirit, has an immediate and uni- versal presence; that is, he is immediately conscious of, and acquainted with every thing that passes in all the known and unknown parts of the creation, and by his preserving and governing power manages all things. Wheresoever he displays his glory to separate spirits, that is heaven ; and where he exerts his vengeance, that is hell. 3. Finite spirits have not such an immediate and uni- versal presence. There knowledge and their activity are confined to certain parts of the creation : And where- soever they are, if they are under the immediate influences of divine glory, they are in heaven; if of his vengeance, they are in hell. 4. They are usually represented as having some rela- tion to a particular place or places; because while we dwell in flesh and blood, we know not how to conceive of their presence so well any other way ; and therefore, they may be described in scripture or in common dis- course, as being in heaven,, and above the heavens, anal in the third heaven, and as coming down to earth, &c. according as they are supposed to put forth any actions there, or to have an immediate cognizance of things that are doné in those places : for the chief notion we have of the presence of spirits is their immediate consciousness, and their immediate agency. 5. But if they are provided with any subtile etherial bodies, which are called vehicles, in and by which they act as soon as they leave flesh and blood, then theymay properly be said to reside in those places where their ve- hicles are, even as our souls at present are said to be in a room, er a closet, or a field, because our bodies are there, in and by which they act. 6.' There must be some place where the glorified body of Christ is, and the souls of departed saints are, in some
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