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3S2
THE RATTINESS
OF
SEPARATE
SPIRITS.
DISC. ira
nits
of
the
just
made
perfect are before
the
throne of
God,
and
serve
him
day and night
in
his
temple;"
Rev.
vii.
15.
Ançt
though they
ina-y.
.
not
be:litet
älly:
engaged in
or.e
everlasting act
ofworship,
yet
they.
are
ever. busy in
some
glorious
services for
kirrt.
df
they
should be sent
on
any
message
to
other
worlds,
yet they
never,
wander
from.
the
sight
of their God
;
For
if
the
guardian
angels
of
children
"
always
behold the face of
our
heavenly
father;"
JYfat.
xviiir
10.
even
when,
they are
:employed
in
their
divine.
errands
to
our
would.;
much more
may
we sup
pose the spirits of
just
men ruade perfect
never
lose
the
blissful
vision,
whatsoever
their
employments shall,
or
can
be.
.
And as
'our
acts
of
worship
on
earth, and
converse
with
God are
very
imperfect,
so
isour
zeal
and activity
for
God.
extremely defective
;
but it.shall
be
ever.
bright
and burning
in
the upper
world.
When
we
would
exert
our
zeal
for
God
on
earth, how
many
corrupt
affections mix
with
that
zeal
and spoil it
?
Dead
flies,
that
cause
that
noble
ointment
to
send forth
a
stinking savour
!
How
much
of
self,
and
pride,
and
vain
ambition
too often mingles with
our desires
to
serve
Christ,. and
his
gospel
!
Some
have
preached
Christ.
out
of
vain glory; or
envy;
and a
mixture
of
these
vices may
taint
our
pious ministrations. When
we seem
to drive
furiously
like
Jehu
to
the
destruction of
the.
priests and
the worship
of
Baal,
too often the
wild -fire
of our lusts
and passions,
our
envy and wrath,
and secret revenge
join
together
to
animate our chariot- wheels.. When
we
are
ready
to say with him, come;
and
see my zeal
for
the Lord, perhaps God
espies
in
our hearts
too much
of
the
saine
carnal mixture
;
for
Jehu
exalted the true
God, that
he
might establish himself a
king;
2
Kings
16.
But
the
spirits
of
the
just
are perfect
in
zeal,
and pure
'from
all
mixtures.
Their
very
natures
are
like
the
angels, they
are
so
many
flames
of
sacred and unpol-
luted
fire,
the ministers
of God that
do
his
pleasure, and
then bide
their
faces
behind their wings; when they
have
done
all
for
God,
they
fall
down and
confess they
are'
nothing.
Temptation
and
sin
have no place in those happy
re
gions.
These are the
evils
that
belong to
earth
and
hell;
rut
within the
gates
of
heaven
nothing must
enter.
that
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