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SECT.
VL3
THE HAPPINESS
OP
SEPARATE
SPIRITS.
451
even
your perfection
?"
2
Cor.
xiii.
9.
and
should
not
saints,
in
the
lower world, take
some satisfaction,
when
a
fellow
-saint
is
arrived at
the
sum
of
his
own wishes,
even
perfect holiness and
joy
on high
?
But
I
correct myself
here
;
nature must have
its
way
and
be
indulged
a
little
;
let
it
express
its
sensible
pain
at the
loss
of such
endearments.
A
long separation
from
those
who are
so
near akin
to us
in flesh
and
blood,
will
touch
the
heart
in
a
painful
place,
and
awaken
the ten-
derest
springs
of
sorrow.
The
sluices
must be allowed to
be
held
open
a
little
;
nature
seems to
demand
it as
a
debt to
love,
and grace
does not uttelry forbid
it:
When
Lazarus
died,
Jesus
"
groaned and
wept
;" John xi.
33,
35.
Yet let
not
sorrow
triumph and reign, and like
a flood
bre`ak
over
all
its
boúnds;
rather
give
the stream
of
it
a
little
diversion into
a
better channel. Come,
let
us
take
the
advice which our blessed Saviour gives to
the
daugh-
ters
of
Jerusalem,
who
attended
him to his cross
with
tears
;
Luke
xxiii.
28.
"
Weep
not
for
me,
but
if
you
must
weep,
do
it
for
yourselves and
your
children;"
be-
cause
you are
still
left
in
the valley
of
sin
and sorrow,
while
the
saints
departed
are arrived
at
the
land
of
peace,
and their feet stand upon the mountains
of
para-
dise.
Could
the voice
of
those blessed spirits made
perfect
reach
our ears,
we
should
hear them speak
in
the
lan-
guage
of their
Lord,
"
Weep
not
for
us,
but
for
your-
selves; you
are
still
encompassed with temptations
and
difficulties,
we have
surmounted them
all:
You are
wrestling
with many errors, and
entangled
in
dark and
noisy
controversies
;
we
are
perfect
in
knowledge, and
see
divine
mysteries
in a
divine light
:
You
are
labouring
in
the
race
;
we
are
crowned, and
have
received
the
prize:
You
are
striving
in
the
field
of battle, and
we
well
remember the toilsome
and painful conflict
;
we pity
you,
and
call
you
rather
to
weep
for
yourselves
than
for us
;
we
have finished
all
the war
through
divine grace,
and
are
secure
in
the city
of triumph:
You
are
yet
travelling
through
the
valley
of
tears,
we are refreshing ourselves
in
the
gardens of
pleasure,
and on
hills
of everlasting glad-
ness.
Hold on with
courage, and faith,
and patience
:
2
G
2