460 / 652
4SO
THE
HAPPINESS
OF
SEPARATE.
SPIRITS.
DISC.
It.
pleasure
of
society, or
to
draw the
heart
away from
God.
If
we
would
know what
the
society
of heaven
is,
let
us renew the memory
of the
wisest
and
holiest,
the
kind-
est and the best companions
that
we were ever
acquainted
with
here
on
earth
;
let us recollect
the
most pleasing
hours
that
we ever
enjoyed
in
their
society
;
let
us
divest
them of
all
their mistakes and weaknesses,
of
all
their
sins
and
imperfections;
and then
by
faith and
hope let
us divest ourselves
of
all
our own guilt and
follies
too;
let;us
fancy ourselves
engaged with
them
in
delightful
discourse
on
the
most divine
and most affecting subjects,
and
our hearts mutually raising each
other near
to
God,
and communicating mutual
joys: This
is
the state of
the
blessed,
this
the conversation
of
heaven,
this
and
more than this
shall
be
our entertainment when
we arrive
at
those
happy
regions.
This thought
would
very
naturally lead
me to
the men-
tion
of
our honoured and
departed
friend, but
I
withhold
myself
a
little, and must detain your expectation
till
I
have made
a
remark
or
two more.
REMARK
III.
Are
the spirits
of
the
just,
who
are de-
parted
from
earth,
made perfect
in
heaven
;
then they
are
not the proper subjects
for
our perpetual
sorrows
and
endless complaints.
Let
us
moderate our
grief, therefore,
for
that
very
providence
that
has
fixed
them
in
perfect
holiness and
joy.
We
lament their absence, and our
loss
indeed
is
great;
but
the spirit of
christian
friendship should teach
us to
rejoice
in
their exaltation. Is
it
no
pleasure
to
think
of
them
as
released
from
the bonds of
infirm
nature,
from
pains
of
mortality, and the
disquietudes of
a
sinful
world?
Is
it
not
better
to
lift
our
eyes
upward, and
view a
pa-
rent
or
a
beloved friend adorned with perfect grace and
complete
in
glory,
exulting
in
the fulness of joy
near
the
throne of
God,
than
to
behold him
labouring
under
the
tiresome disorders
of
old
age,
groaning under the anguish
and torment of acute
distempers, and
striving with the
troublesome attendants
of
this sinful
and painful
state?
Do
we profess fondness and affection
for
those
that
are
gone, and
shall
we not please
ourselves a little
in
their
happiness,
or
at least
abate
our mourning?
D:
>th
not
$t.
Paul
tell
the Corinthians, this
is
what
"
we wish;