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.SECT.
11
THE HAPPINESS
OF
SEPARATE
SPTRTTS.
311
Now
it'is
evident the apostle here means their spirits
which
are in heaven,
and
departed
from these mortal
bodies,
because
the
train of
blessed
companions, which
he
describes
just
before, leads
our
thoughts
to
the invisi-
ble world,
If
we
can suppose
any
part
of
these two verses
to
refer
to
earth,
and our present
state,
it
must
be when he says,
ye
are
'come to
mount
Zion, to the city
of
the living
God,
that
is,
to the
visible
church
of
Christ,
under
the gospel
dispensation.
But
then
he
adds, you
are come also
to
the
heavenly
Jerusalem,
which
may
probably include all
the
inhabitants
of
heaven
in
general;
and descending
to
:particulars,
he adds, to an
innumerable company
of
an-
gels,
and
to
the general
assembly
and church
of
the
first
born
who
are written
in
heaven
:
whereby
we
must
'un-
derstand
the
whole invisible
church
of
God among men,
if
we
do
not
confine
it
to
those who
are already
of the
church triumphant. And next
he
leads
us to
God
the
Judge
of
all,
and
to
spirits
of
just
men
made
perfect;
that
is,
spirits .released
from
flesh
and
blood, who
have
stood
before
God their
judge,
and are
determined
to
a
state
of
perfection
in
heaven.
Besides,,
when
St.
Paul
speaks
of
fellow
-
christians here
on
earth,
it
is
not
his manner
to call
them spirits,
but
Men,
or
brethren,
or saints,
&c.
therefore
by
the
naked
and
single
term
spirits,
he
distinguishes these persons
from
those who
dwell
in
mortal
bodies,.
and
raises
our
.
thoughts
to
the world
of
blessed souls,
released
from
the
wretched
ties
and bondage of
flesh
and blood,
the spirits
of
good men
departed
from this
earth, and
dwelling
in
the
better
regions
of
heaven.
I
would
here
take notice
also,
that
the
apostle perhaps
in this place chuses
rather
to call them
just
or righteous
,men, which
is
a
term
used
frequently
both
in
the Old
and
New Testament, that
he
might include the
patriarchs
and the
Jewish
saints
as well as
the
souls
of departed
christians. Abraham, Isaac, and
Jacob, Noah,
Daniel,
and
David, Job,
Moses, and Elijah,
dwell in
that
happy
world,
:with
a thousand other spirits
of
renown
in
the
ancient
church, as
well as
the spirits
of
those
that
have
seen the
,
Messiah,
and
believed in
Jesus of Nazareth.
What
a
noble
and wondrous
assembly
!
What
an
amaz-
ing
and
blissful
society
of
human
souls,
:gathered from