4SO THE HAPPINESS OF SEPARATE. SPIRITS. DISC. It. pleasure of society, or to draw the heart away from God. If we would know what the society of heaven is, let us renew the memory of the wisest and holiest, the kind- est and the best companions that we were ever acquainted with here on earth ; let us recollect the most pleasing hours that we ever enjoyed in their society ; let us divest them of all their mistakes and weaknesses, of all their sins and imperfections; and then by faith and hope let us divest ourselves of all our own guilt and follies too; let;us fancy ourselves engaged with them in delightful discourse on the most divine and most affecting subjects, and our hearts mutually raising each other near to God, and communicating mutual joys: This is the state of the blessed, this the conversation of heaven, this and more than this shall be our entertainment when we arrive at those happy regions. This thought would very naturally leadme to the men- tion of our honoured and departed friend, but I withhold myself a little, and must detain your expectation till I have made a remark or two more. REMARK III. Are the spirits of the just, who are de- parted from earth, made perfect in heaven ; then they are not the proper subjects for our perpetual sorrows and endless complaints. Let us moderate our grief, therefore, for that very providence that has fixed them in perfect holiness and joy. We lament their absence, and our loss indeed is great; but the spirit of christian friendship should teach us to rejoice in their exaltation. Is it no pleasure to think of them as released from the bonds of infirm nature, from pains of mortality, and the disquietudes ofa sinful world? Is it not better to lift our eyes upward, and view a pa- rent or a beloved friend adorned with perfect grace and complete in glory, exulting in the fulness of joy near the throne of God, than to behold him labouring under the tiresome disorders of old age, groaning under the anguish and torment of acute distempers, and striving with the troublesome attendants of this sinful and painful state? Do we profess fondness and affection for those that are gone, and shall we not please ourselves a little in their happiness, or at least abate our mourning? D: >th not $t. Paul tell the Corinthians, this is what " we wish;
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