376 HAPPINESS or SEPARATE SPIRITS. pity, from the love of earth, and sense, and sin, to a holy contempt of the world, ad a hatred of all that issinful ; from a neglect of religion to desires after God, and a delight in him ; from a mere formal profession of the gospel, to the faith and love of Christ, and a zealous pursuit of holiness and they place their highest hopes and their joys in things divine, spiritual, and eternal. III. Their lives are righteous, andconformable tothe will of God revealed in his word. So the term righteous signifies, I John iii. 7. He that Both righteousness is righteous. The just man makesit thebusiness of his life to do works of righteousness, takenin the largest sense ; to worship God, to seek his glory, to obeyhis will, whichis the rule of righteousness ; to do him all the service on earththat his station and circumstances admit of, and to deal faithfully and justly amongmen, and do them all the good that lies in hispower. These are the just men whose spirits are spoken of in my text. Now it is evident the apostle here means their spirits which are in heaven, anddeparted from these mortal bodies, be- cause the train of blessed companions, which he describes just before, leads our thoughts to the invisible world. Ifwe can suppose any part of these two verses to refer to earth, and our present state, it must be when he says, ye are come to mount Zion, to the city of the living God, that is, to the visible church of Christ, under the gospel. dispensation. But then he adds, you are come also to the heavenly Jerusalem, which may probably include all the inhabitants of heaven in general ; and descending to particulars, he adds, to an innumerable company ofangels, and to thegeneral assembly and church of the first born who are written in heaven: whereby we must understand the whole invisible church of God among men, if we do not confine it to those who are already of the church triumphant. And next he leads us to God the Judge ofAll, andto the spiritsofjust menmade perfect ; that is, spirits released from flesh and blood, who have stood before God their judge, and are determined to a state of perfection in heaven. Besides, when St. Paul speaks of fellow -christians here on earth, it is not his manner to call them spirits, but men, or bre- thren, or saints, &c. thereforeby the naked and single term spirits, he distinguishes these persons from those who dwell in mortal bodies and raises our thoughts to the world of blessed souls, re-. leased from the wretched ties and bondage of flesh and blood, the spirits of good men departedfrom this earth, and dwelling in the better regionsofheaven. I wouldhere take notice also, that the apostle perhaps in this place chusesrather to call them just or righteousmen, which is a term used frequentlyboth in the Old and New Testament, that he might include the partriarchs and the Jewish saints as well
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