DISCOURSE í1. 431 When we think of our pious friends departed, Our foolish imagination is too readyto indulge and improve our sorhow. We sit solitary in the parlour and the chamber, we miss them there, and we cry, "They are lost." We retire melancholy to the closet, and bewail a lost father, or lost mother, or perhaps a nearer and dearer relative. We miss them in our daily conversation, we miss them in all their friendly offices, and their endearing sensi-. ble characters, and we are ready to say again, "Alas, they aro lost." This is the language of flesh and blood, of sense and fancy. Come let our faith teach us to think and speak of them under a more chearful and a juster representation : They are not utterly lost, for they are present with Christ and withGod. They are departed our world, where all things are imperfect, to those upper regions where light and perfection dwell. They have left their offices and stations here among us, but they are employed in a far diviner manner, and havenew stations and nobleroffices on high. Their places on earth indeed know them no more, but their places in heaven knew them well, even those glorious man- sions that were prepared for them from the foundation ofthe world. Their place is empty in the earthly sanctuary, and in the days of solemn assembly, but they appear above in the heavenly Jerusa- lem as fair pillars and ornaments in the temple of God on high, and shall for ever dwell with him there. It is a very natural enquiry now, but where are these places ofblessed spirits ? What part of the creation is it, in which they have their residence? Is it above or below the sun ? Is their habitation in any of the planetary or starry worlds ? Or are they fled beyond them all ? Where is the proper place of their presence Let me propose a brief answer to these curious questions iu it few propositions. 1. The chief properties of spirits are knowledge and acti- vity; and they are said to be present there, where they have an immediate perception of any thing, and where they lay out their immediate activity or influence. So our souls are said to bepre- sent with our bodies, because they have immediate consciousness or knowledge of what relates to the body, and they moveit, and act upon it, or influence it, in an immediate manner. 2. God, the infinite Spirit, has an immediateand universal presence ; that is, he isimmediately conscious of, and acquainted with every thing that passes in all the known and unknown parts of the creation, and by his preserving and governing power managesall things. Wheresoever hedisplays his glory to sepa- ratespirits, that is heaven : and where he exerts his vengeance, that is hell, 3. Finite spirits have not such an immediate and universal presence. Their knowledge and their activity are confined to
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