429 / 652
THE HAPPINESS
OF
SEPARATE
SPIRITS.
419
to
know
all
things
?
Or if
each
of
them have
their
stinted
size
of knowledge,
or
their limited number
of
ideas
at their
first
release
from
the
body,
then
they
are
everlastingly
cut
off
from
all
the surprizes
of pleasure
that
arise from
new
thoughts,
and
new scenes, and
new
discoveries. Does every saint
in
heaven read
God's
great
volume
of nature through and through
the
first
hour
he
arrives
there
?
Or
is
each spirit confined
to a
certain
number of
leaves,
and bound eternally
to
learn
nothing
new, but
to
review
perpetually
his
own limited
lesson
?
Dares
he not,
or can
he
not turn over
another
leaf,
and
read
his
Creator's name
in it,
and adore
his
wisdom in
new
wonders
of
contrivance
?
These things
are impro-
bable
to
such a
high
degree, that
I
dare almost
pronounce
them untrue;
The
book
of
providence
is
another volume
wherein
God writes
his
name
too.
Has
every single saint such
a
vast
and
infinite
length of foreknowledge
given
him
at his
first admission
into glory,
that
he
knows beforehand
all
the future scenes of providence, and
the
wonders
which
God
shall
work
in
the upper
and lower
worlds
?
I
thought
the
"lion
of
the
tribe of
Judah,
the
root
and
the
offspring
of
David, had been the
only
person
in
heaven
or
earth that
was
worthy
to
take
the book, and
to loose
the
seven seals
thereof;"
Rev.
v. 5.
Surely
the
meanest
of
the
saints
does not foreknow
all
those
great and
im-
portant
counsels
of God
which our
Lord
Jesus
Christ
is
intrusted with. And yet
we may
venture
to
say,
that
the
spirits
of
the
just
in
heaven
shall
know those
great
and important events that relate
to
the church
on
earth,
as
they
arise
in
successive seasons,
that
they may
give
to
God,
and
to his Son
Jesus
Christ,
revenues
of due
honour
upon'this
account,
as
I
shall prove
immediately.
And indeed
if
the
limits
of
their
knowledge
in
heaven
were
so
fixed
at their
first
entrance there,
that they
could never be
acquainted
with
any
of
these successive
providences
of
God
afterwards,
we
here
on
.
earth
have
a
great advantage
above them, who
see
daily the
accom-
plishment of
his
divine counsels, and adore
the wonders
of
his
wisdom and his
love; and
from
this daily
increase
of
knowledge,
we
take our
share in
the growing
joys.
and
blessings
of Zion,
2
E
2