465 / 652
gâCT.
vu.]
THE HAPPINESS
OF
SEPARATE
SPIRITS.
455
much
instruction
myself,
where
I
was
called
to he an
instructor.
Nor
can
I
think
such
inquiries and such communica-
tions
as
are
suitable
to
the
affairs
of the upper world,
are
unpractised among the
spirits
of
just
men
made
per-
fect
there;
for
man
is
a
sociable
creature,
and enjoys
communion with
his
fellow-saints
there
;
as
well as
with
his
Maker
and
his Saviour.
Nor
can
the spirit
of
our
honoured and departed
friend, be
a
stranger
to
the plea-
sures
of
society
amongst
his fellow-
spirits
in
those blessed
mansions.
His
zeal
for
the
welfare
of
his
country,
and
of the
church
of Christ
in
it,
carried
him
out
to
the most
ex-
pensive
and
toilsome services
in his
younger
and
his
mid-
dle age.
I-ie
employed
his
time,
his
spirits,
his
interest
and
his
riches
for
the defence of
this
poor
nation, when
forty
years ago
it
was
in
the utmost
danger
of
popery
and
ruin.
And
doubtless
the spirits
of
the
just
in
heaven
are
not
utterly unacquainted
with the
affairs
of the kingdom
of
Christ
on
earth.
He
rejoices,
and
will
rejoice
among
his fellow- saints,
when happy tidings of the militant
church,
or
of
the religious interests
of
Great-Britain,
are brought
to
the
upper
world
by
ministering
angels.
He
waits
there
for
the
full
accomplishment of
all
the
promises of Christ
to his
church, when
it shall
be
freed
from sins
and sorrows,
from
persecutions and
all
mixtures of superstition,
and
shall be
presented
to
the
Father,
a
glorious
church without
spot
or
wrinkle,
in
per-
fect
beauty and joy.
His
doors
were ever open, and
his
carriage always
friendly
and courteous
to
the ministers
of
the gospel,
though they were distinguished
among themselves
by
names
of
different parties
;
for
he loved
all
that
loved
our
Lord
Jesus
Christ
in
sincerity.
He
chose
indeed
to
bear
a
part
in
constant public
worship with the
Protestant
Dissenters,
for
he
thought
their
practice
more
agreeable
to
the rules
of the
gospel
:
He
joined
himself
in
communion with one
of
their
He
was
three
times chosen representative in
parliament
for his
county
of Leicestershire,
in
those
years when
a
sacred
zeal
for
liberty and religion
strove
hard to bring
in
the
bill
of exclusion,
to
prevent the Duke of York,
afterwards King James
11:.
from
inheriting the
crown
of England,
2
4