gâCT. vu.] THE HAPPINESS OF SEPARATE SPIRITS. 455 much instruction myself, where I was called to he an instructor. Nor can I think such inquiries and such communica- tions as are suitable to the affairs of the upper world, are unpractised among the spirits of just men made per- fect there; for man is a sociable creature, and enjoys communion with his fellow-saints there ; as well as with his Maker and his Saviour. Nor can the spirit of our honoured and departed friend, be a stranger to the plea- sures of society amongst his fellow-spirits in those blessed mansions. His zeal for the welfare of his country, and of the church of Christ in it, carried him out to the most ex- pensive and toilsome services in his younger and his mid- dle age. I-ie employed his time, his spirits, his interest and his riches for the defence of this poor nation, when forty years ago it was in the utmost danger of popery and ruin. And doubtless the spirits of the just in heaven are not utterly unacquainted with the affairs of the kingdom of Christ on earth. He rejoices, and will rejoice among his fellow- saints, when happy tidings of the militant church, or of the religious interests of Great-Britain, are brought to the upper world by ministering angels. He waits there for the full accomplishment of all the promises of Christ to his church, when it shall be freed from sins and sorrows, from persecutions and all mixtures of superstition, and shall be presented to the Father, a glorious church without spot or wrinkle, in per- fect beauty and joy. His doors were ever open, and his carriage always friendly and courteous to the ministers of the gospel, though they were distinguished among themselves by names of different parties ; for he loved all that loved our Lord Jesus Christ in sincerity. He chose indeed to bear a part in constant public worship with the Protestant Dissenters, for he thought their practice more agreeable to the rules of the gospel : He joined himself in communion with one of their He was three times chosen representative in parliament for his county of Leicestershire, in those years when a sacred zeal for liberty and religion strove hard to bring in the bill of exclusion, to prevent the Duke of York, afterwards King James 11:. from inheriting the crownof England, 2 4
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