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THE HAPPINESS
OF
SEPARATE
SPIRITS.
[DISC. I1.
saith Zachary
the prophet,
whom
they
sold
for
thirty
pieces of
silver.?
Vile indignity and impious madness
!
Behold
he now
appears
like
the
man
who
is
fellow,
or
companion
to the
Lord
of
hosts.
It
is
he,
saith
Ma,
lachi,
it
is
he,
the messenger
of
the covenant,
who
came
suddenly
to
his
own
temple.
There
I
held
hire in my
withered
arms,
saith
aged Simeon,
and
rapture
and pro
-,
phecy
came
upon
me
at
once,
and
I
expired
in
joy
and
praises."
And
we
hope
our mother
Eve stood up among
the
rest of
them, and beheld and confessed the promised
seed,
of
the
woman.
"
O blessed
Saviour,
that
didst
break
the head
of
the serpent, though
thy heel was
bruised,
and hast abolished the mischief
that
my
folly.
and
his
temptation had brought into
thy new
created
world
t''
Now
could
we
ever suppose
all
this to
be done
in
the
upper
regions, with no
new smiles
upon the counte-
nances
of
the
saints, no special
increase
of joy
among'
the
spirits
of
the
just
made perfect
?
God
himself
stands
in
no
need
of
the magnificence
of
,these
transactions
Christ
Jesus
receives the
new
honours, and
all
the old
inhabitants
of
heaven taste
new
and unknown satisfac-
tion
in the
honours
they pay to
their exalted
Saviour.
Some
of
the ancients
were
of opinion,
that
the
souls
of
the fathers before the ascension
of
Christ
were
not
admitted
into the
holy
of
holies,
or the
blissful vision
of
God;
but
that it
was
our
Lord Jesus,
our great
High
-
priest at
his
ascent
to
the
throne, led the
way
thither
:
.He
rent
the
veil
of
the lower heaven, and
carried
with
brim
the
armies
of patriarchal
souls
into
some
upper
and
brighter, and more
joyful
regions, whereas before
they
were
only
admitted into
a
state
of
peace
and
rest.
Whether
this
be so
or
no;
'the
scripture
does
not
suffici-
ently declare
:
But
whatsoever region
of
heaven
they
were placed
in,
we
may be well
assured
from
the
very
nature of
things,
that
such
transactions
as
the
triumphant
ascent of
Christ, could
never
pass
through
any
of
the
upper
worlds
without enlarging the
knowledge
and the
joy
of
the
blessed
inhabitants.
When
our Lord Jesus Christ sat
down
at
the right
-
hand of
God,
he "
prevailed
to
open the book
of
divine,
counsels
and decrees;" Rev.
v. 5.
and
to
acquaint
him-