410 HAPPINESS' OF SEPARATE SPIRITS. iu successive seasons, that they may give to God; and to his Son Jesus Christ, revenues of due honour upon this account, as Ishall prove immediately. And indeed ifthe limits of their knowledge in heavenwere so fixed at their first entrance there, that they could never bevac quaintedwith any of these successive providences of God after wards, we here on earth have a great advantage above them, who see daily the accomplishment of his divine counsels; and adore the wonders of his wisdom and his love, and from this daily in- , crease of knowledge, we take our share in the growingjoys and blessings ofZion. But this thought leadsme to the fourth argu- ment for the increaseof knowledge in heaven. 4. There have been, and there are many future providences onearth, and transactions in heaven, in which the spirits of the just havea very great and dear concernment, and therefore they must know them when they come to pass ; and yet it is by no Means probable, that they are known in all their glorious circum- stancesbefore-handby every spirit in heaven. Let us descend a little to some particular instances, and see whether'we connot make it appear from scripture, with most con- vincing evidence, that the saints in heaven obtain some additions to theirs knowledge, by the various new transactions in heaven apd in earth. When our blessed Lord had fulfilled his state of sorrows and sufferings on earth, and ascended into heaven in his glorified human nature, with all the scars of honour, and the ensigns of victory about him ; when the Lamb appeared in the midst of the throne with the marks of slaughter and death upon him, and presented himself before God in'the midst of angels.and ancient partriarchs, with the accomplishment of all the types and pro- mises about himwritten in letters of blood ; did not those blessed angels, did not the spirits of those patriarchs, learn something moreof themysteries of our redemption, and the wondrous glo- ries of the Redeemer, than what they were acquainted with before.? And did not this new glorious scene spread new ideas, new joys -and wonders through all theheavenly world ? Can the principalities and powers in heavenly places gain by the church on earth anyfarther discoveries of the manifold wisdom of God? Eph. iii. 10. And can webelieve that when Christ, the head of the church, entered into heaven in so illustrious a manner, that these powers, principalities, and blessed spirits, got no brighter discoveries of divine wisdom ? 'ro what purpose do they look and . pry into these things; 1 Pet. i. 12. if after all their searches they makeno advances in knowledge? And must angels be the only proficients in these sublime sciences, while human spirits make no imprdvement? Can it be supposed that those ancient fathers, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, to whom the promises were made,
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