43$ HAPPINESS OF SEPARATE SPIRITS. pleasures of society amongst his fellow-spirits- in those blessed mansions, His zeal for the -welfare of his country, and of the churchof Christ in it, carried him out to the most expensive and toilsome services in hit younger and his middleage. He employed his time, his spirits, his interest and his riches for the defence of this poor nation,"when forty years 'ago it was ,i» the utmost danger of popery and ruin.* And doubtless the spirits Of thejust in hea- ven are not utterly unacquaintedwith the affairs of the kingdom of Christ on earth. He rejoices and will rejoiee among his fel- low- 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 accom- plishment of all the promises of Christ to his church, when it shall be freed from sins and sorrows, from persecution and all mixtures' of superstition, and shall be presented to the Father, `a glorious church without spot or wrinkle,' - in perfect beauty andjoy, . 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'I,,ord 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 himselfin commu- nion. with oneof their churches, which wad underthe pastoral care of thereverend Dr. John Owen, where be continued an honou- rable member under successive pastors till the' day of his death. Nor was he ashamed to own and support that despised -interest, 'nor to frequent those assemblies, when the spirit of persecution "raged highest in the days of king Charles and king Jam'es'the econd. Hewas a present refuge for the oppressed, and the special providence of God secured him and his friends from the pry rfthe oppressor. 'He was always a devout and diligent at- tendant on public ordinances till these last years of his life, when 'the infirmities ofage growingupon him, confined hint to his pri- vate retirements..... But if' age confined him, death gave him a release. He is exalted now to the church in heaven; and has taken his place in that glorious assembly, where he worships among them before the .throne : Therehe has no need to relieve his memory by the swiftnessof his pen, whichwasbisperpetual practice inthe church on earth, and by which means he often entertained his family in ss He was three times chosen representative in parliament for his county of LeicesteObiro, in those years when a sacred zeal for liberty and religion strove hard to bring in the bill of eccldsipe,to prevent the Duke of 'Stork, afterwards Eng, Jame, it. from inheriting the trawn'ef England..
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