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42b
THE HAPPINESS
OF
SEPARATE
SPIRITS.
[DISC.
It,
But
this
thought
leads
me to the
fourth
argument
for
the
increase
of knowledge
in
heaven.
4.
There
have
been,
and there
are many
future
pro
vidences
on earth, and
transactions
in
heaven,
in
which
the
spirits
of the
just
have
a very
great and dear con
-
cernment,
and therefore they
must
know
them
when
-they
come to
pass
;
and yet
it
is
by
no means
probable,
that
they are
known
in all
their
glorious
circumstances
beforehand
by
every spirit
in
heaven.
Let
us
descend
a
little
to some
particular instances,
and
see
whether
we
cannot make
it
appear
from
scrip-
ture,
with most convincing evidence,
that
the
saints in
heaven obtain
some
additions
to
their
knowledge,
by
the
various
new transactions
in
heaven and
in
earth.
When our
blessed Lord had
fulfilled
his state
of
sor-
rows and
sufferings
on
earth, and ascended into heaven
in
his glorified
human nature,
with
all
the
scars
of ho-
nour, and
the ensigns of
victory
about
him;
when
the
Lamb
appeared
in
the midst
of the throne with
the
marks of slaughter
and death upon
him,
and
presented
himself before God
in
the midst of angels and
ancient
patriarchs, with the accomplishment
of
all
the types
and
promises
about
him
written
in
letters
of blood
;
did not
those blessed angels,
did not
the spirits
of
those pa-
triarchs,
learn something more
of the
mysteries
of
our redemption, and the wondrous
glories
of
the
Redeemer,
than
what
they were
acquainted
with be-
fore
?
And
did not this new glorious scene spread new
ideas, new joys and wonders
through
all
the heavenly
world
?
Can the principalities and powers
in
heavenly
places
gain
by
the
church
on
earth
any
farther discoveries
of
"
the manifold wisdom of God
?"
Eph.
iii. 10.
And
can we
believe
that
when
Christ, the head of the church,
entered
into heaven
in
so
illustrious a
manner, that
these
powers, principalities and
blessed
spirits,
got
no
brighter
discoveries
of
divine wisdom
?
To
what purpose
do
they
look
and
pry
into these things;."
1
Pet.
i.
12.
if
after
all
their
searches they make
no
advances
in
know-
ledge
?
And must angels
be the
only
pro6cients
in
these
sublime
sciences, while human
spirits
make
no
improve-
ment?
Can it be supposed
that
those
ancient fathers,
Abraham,
Isaac, and
Jacob,
to
whom the promises were