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THIF.
HAPPINESS
OF
SEPARATE
SPIRITS.
DISC.
Ir.
fully
engaged
in
recounting
to
each other
the wondrous
steps of providence,
wisdom
and
mercy,
that
seized
them
from
the
very
borders of
hell
and despair,
and
brought
them through
a
thousand dangers
and
difficul-
ties
to the possession
of that
fair
inheritance. When
the
great God
shall
unravel the scheme
of
his
own counsels,
shall unfold every
part of
his mysterious
conduct, and
set before them
the
reason
of
every
temptation
they
grap-
pled with, and of
every sorrow they felt
here
on
earth,
and
with what
divine and successful influence they all
wrought together
to
train them up
for
heaven, what mat-
ter of surprising delight
and charming
conversation
shall
this
furnish
the
saints
with
in
that
blessed world
?
And
now
and then
in
the midst
of
their
sacred
dialogues,
by
a
sympathy of
soul
they
shall
shout
together
in
sweet
harmony,
and
join
their
exalted
songs
to
him
that
sits
upon
the throne, and
to
the
Lamb.
"
Not unto
us,
O
Lord,
not unto
us,
but
to thy
power,
to
thy
wisdom, and
to thine
abounding
mercy,
be
renown and honour
to
everlasting
ages."
Nor
is
it
improper
or
unpleasant
to
suppose that among
the
rest of
their
celestial conferences; they
shall
spew
each other the
fair
and
easy
solution
of
those
difficulties
and
deep
problems
in
divinity,
which
had
exercised and
perplexed
them here
on
earth, and
divided them into
little angry parties.
They
shall look
back
with holy
shame
on some
of their learned
and senseless
distinctions,
and
be ready to
wonder
sometimes
what
trifles
and
im-
pertinences
had
engaged
them
in
dark
and furious
dis-
putes. Darkness
and
entanglement
shall
vanish
at
once
from
many of those
knotty
points
of
controversy,
when
they behold them
in
the light
of
heaven
:
And
the rest
of
them
shall
be
matter of
delightful
instruction
for
su-
perior
spirits to
bestow upon those of lower
rank,
or
on
souls lately arrived
at
the regions of light.
In
short,
there
is
nothing written
in
the books of na-
ture, the records of providence,
or
the
sacred volumes
of
grace, but
may
minister materials at
special seasons
for
the
holy
conference of the
saints
on
high. No
history
nor prophecy,
no
doctrine
nor
duty,
no
command
nor
promise, nor
threatening
in the
bible,
but
may
recai
the
thoughts of
the heavenly
inhabitants,
and engage
them
in
sweet conversation.
All
things
that
relate to