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SECT..VT.1
-TEE
HAPPINESS
OF
SEPARATE
SPIRITS.
no
persons
there
that
will
tempt
or defile
us, or
lead
us
astray
from
the paths of purity and
peace.
holiness
to
the
Lord
is
inscribed
on
every soul there
;
nor
is
there
one
"Canaanite
in
that upper
house
of
the
Lord of hosts
;"
Zech.
xiv.
21.
.
But
this
is
not
all.
For
there
are many
of
the
saints
themselves here
on
earth that make but
very
indifferent
companions.
Some
of
them
are shamefully
ignorant, im-
prudent
and
foolish
:
and
we have
much ado
to
bear
with
their
folly.
Some
of
them
are
morose
and
conten-
tious, captious and peevish, envious and censorious,
and
ready
to
take
offence
on
the
slightest
occasions
;
a
look
or
a
smile
placed wrong
shall
disoblige
them,
a
mistaken
word
shall
affront
them
for
a
month, and
it
is
very
hard
work
to
humour
and please them
Or
we ourselves
per-
haps
are
foolish
and imprudent,
we
are
peevish
and
re-
senting, and
our fellow-christians have
as
much
to do
to
bear with
us
or
to
please
us.
There
are some
persons,
concerning whom
we
have.
reason
to
hope,' that their
hearts
in
the main are
right
with God,
but either
by
the
iniquity of their animal natures,
or
the power
of
their,
temptations,
they look
so
like
the men
of
this
world,
that
it
is
hard
to
distinguish them, and their society
is
dangerous,
or
at
least
very
unprofitable and
undesirable.
Some
of
us fall
into gross
mistakes, and
lead
our friends
into error, and
hand
in
hand
we
forsake
the truth,
Some
of
us
are
melancholy, and
sit
in
darkness;
then
we
spread
a
gloom
and heaviness over
all
our conversation,
and
banish
all
the joys
of
earth and heaven
:
or at
best, it
may
be,
and
in
our sprightly
days, we
fill
up the visiting
hour
with
trifles
and
impertinencies,
and there
is
little
of
heavenly and divine conversation among
us.
.
Poor
low groveling subjects
furnish our
tongues,
and
enter-
tain our
ears,
because
we
are
so
very
imperfect here on
earth
in
knowledge,
in
holiness,
or
in
divine joy.
But what
a
glorious difference
.
is
there.
in
the
society
above, where we
may be
secure
from
all
mistake and
falsehood,
from all
impertinence
and
folly in
the
longest
discourse
or
conference!
for every
spirit
there
is so
per-
fect
in
knowledge,
as
to
be
free from
error, and
has
so
divine
a
turn of mind, that nothing relishes
hut what
.
is
holy and heavenly.
No quarrels, no complaints are
found there
to
embitter our
converse,
to
diminish the
VOL.
iii.
2
G