4 496 NO PAIN AMONG THE BLEbSE.D. [DISC. IX. joy can he find in magnificent buildings, in gay and shin- ing furniture, in elegant gardens, or in all the glittering treasures of the Indies, when the gout torments his hands and his feet, or the rheumatism afflicts his limbs with in- , tense anguish ? If pain attacks any part of the body, and rises to a high degree, the luxuries of life grow tasteless, and life itself is imbittered to us : Or when pains less acute are prolonged through weeks and months, and perhaps stick in our flesh all the night as well as in the day ; how vain and feeble are all the efforts of the bright and gay things around us to raise the soul into chearful- ness : ThereforeSolomon calls old age " the years wherein there is no pleasure." Ecc. xii. J. because so many aches and ails in that season pursue us in a continual succes- sion ; so many infirmities and painful hours attend us usually in that stage of life, even in the hest situation that mortality can boast of, as cuts off and destroys all our pleasures. But O what a wondrous, what a joyful change shall that be, when the soul is commanded to forsake this flesh and blood, when it rises as on thewings of angels to the heavenly world, and leaves every pain behind it, together with the body in the arms of death ? And what á more illustrious and delightful change -shall we meet with in the great rising day, when our bodies shall start up out of the dust with vigorous immortality, and without any spring or seat of pain ? All the unknown enjoyments with which heaven is furnished, shall be taken in by the enlarged powers of the soul with intense pleasure, and not a moments pain shall ever interrupt them. 4. Another inconvenience and evil which belongs to pain is, that " it makes time and life itself appear tedi- ous and tiresome, and adds a new burden to all other grievances. Many evidences of this truth are scattered throughout all nature, and on all sides of this globe. There is not one age of mankind but can furnish us with millions of instances. In what melancholy language does Job discover his sensations of the tiresome nature ofpain ? " I am made to possess months of vanity, and wearisome nights are appointed to me : When I lie down I say, when shall I rise and the night be gone? And I am full of tossing to and fro unto the dawning of the day ;" Job vii. 3, 4,. When pain takes hold ofour flesh it seems
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