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THE HAPPINESS
OP
SEPARATE
SPIRITS.
fDISC,
IT,
separate
souls, may
be
easily
proved many ways,
viz.
from
the
very
nature
of
human
reason
itself
:
from
the
narrowness, the weakness
and limitations even
of
our in-
tellectual
faculties
in
their best estate
;
from
the immense
variety
of objects that
we
shall
converse
about
;
from
our
peculiar
concern
in
some
future providences, which
it
is
not
likely
we should know before
they
occur:
and
from
the
glorious
new scenes of the resurrection.
1.
We
may prove
the increase
of knowledge
amongst
the
blessed above,
from
the
very
nature of
human
reason
itself,
which
is
a
faculty of
drawing
inferences,
or some
new
propositions and conclusions,
from
propositions
or
principles
which we
knew
before
Now
surely we shall
not
be
dispossessed
of
this
power when
we
come
to
hea-
ven.
What
we learn
of God
there, and the glories
of
his nature,
or his
works,
will assist
and incline
us
to
draw
inferences
for his
honour, and
for
our
worship of
him.
And if
we could be supposed
to
have ever
so
many
propositions
or
new principles of
knowledge crouded
into
our
minds
at the
first
entrance
into
heaven, yet
surely
our
reasoning faculty
would
still be
capable of making
some
advance
by way
of
inference,
or
building
some
superstructure
upon
so
noble
a
foundation. And who
knows the intense pleasure that
will arise
perpetually
to
a contemplative mind,
by
a
progressive and
infinite
pur-
suit
of
truth
in
this
manner, where
we are secure
against
the
danger of
all
error and mistake, and every
step we
take
is all
light
and
demonstration.
Shall
it
be
objected
here,
that
our reason
shall be
as
it
were
lost
and
dissolved
in
intuition and immediate sight,
and
therefore
it shall
have no room or
place
in
that
happy
world?
To
this I
would reply, shat we
shall
have
indeed much
more
acquaintance
with spiritual objects
by
immediate
intuition, than
we
ever had here
on
earth
;
but
it does
not
follow
thence, that
we shall
lose
our reason. Angels
have immediate
vision
of
God and divine things
;
but
can we suppose they
are
utterly
incapable of drawing
an
inference, either
for
the
improvement
of
their knowledge,
or
the direction
of
their practice
?
When
they behold any
special and more curious piece of divine workmanship,
can they
not
further
infer
the exquisite
skill or wisdom
of
the
Creator? And
are
they not
capable of concluding,
that
n
M