DISC. DO NO PAIN AMONG THE 'BLESSED."" 499 posed offence, or even sometimes without provocation. o happy state and blessed mansions of the saints, when this body of sin shall be destroyed, and all the restless atoms that disquieted the flesh, and provoked the spirit to impatience, shall be buried -in the dust of death, and ne- ver, never rise again ! 6. " Pain carries a temptation with it, sometimes to repine and murmur at the providence of God." Not fa- low-creatures alone, but even our sovereign Creator comes within the reach of The peevish humours,: which are alarmed and roused by sharp or continual pain. Jo- nah the prophet, when he felt thesultry heat of the sun smite fiercely upon hirn, and the gourd which gave hint a friendly shadow was withered away, he told God him- self in a passion, that " he did well to be angry, even unto death," Jonah iv. 9. And even the man of Uz; the pattern of patience, was sometimes transported with the smart and maladies that wereupon him, so that he complained against God, as well as complained to him, and usedsome very unbecoming expressions toward his his Maker. When we are under the smarting rebukes of providence, we are ready to compare ourselves with others who are in peace, and then the envious and the, murmuring humour breaks out into rebellious language, " Why am I thus afflicted more than others ? Why hast thou set me as a mark for thy arrows? Why dost thou; not let loose thy hand and cut me off from the earth? ".<<k But in heaven there is a glorious reverse of all such unhappy scenes: There is no pain nor any temptation to murmur at the dealings of the Almighty: There is no-. thing that can incline us to think hardly of God : The days ofchastisement are for ever ended, andpainful disci- pline shall be used no more. We shall live for ever in the embraces of the love of God, and he shall be the object of our everlasting praise: Perfect felicity without the interruption of one uneasy thought, or ever forbids the inhabitants of that world to repine 'ut their situation un- der the eternal smiles of that blessed being that made them: 7. To add no more, " Pain and anguish of the flesh have sometimes prevailed so far as to distract the mind as well as destroy the body." It has overpowered all the :: reasoning faculties of man ; it hal destroyed natural life, and brought it down to the grave: The senses have been x2
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