DISC. IN,] NO PAIN AMONG THE BLESSED. 503 Nor will the body at the final resurrection of the saints be made for a mediumof any painful sensations.. All the pains of nature are 'ended, when the fifst union be- tween flesh and spirit is dissolved. When this body lies down to sleep . in the dust, it shall never awake again withany of the principles of sin or pain in it : " Though it be sown in weakness, it is raised in power; though it be sown in dishonour, it is raised in glory," 1 'Cor. xv. 4 . and we shall be made like the Son of God, with- out sorrow and without sin for ever. Argument III. " There are no moral causes or rea- sons why there should be any thing of pain provided for the heavenly state." And if there be no moral reasons for it, surely God will not provide pains for his creatures without reason ! But this thought leads me to the next general head of my discourse. SEcTio'N III. The third general enquiry which I proposed to make was this, "What may be the, chief moral reasons, motives, or designs of the blessed God in sending pain on his creatures here below ; and at the same time I shall spew that these designs and purposes of God are finished,: and they have no place in heaven." I. Then, " Pain is .sometimes sent into our natures to awaken slothful and drowsy christians out of their spiri- tual slumbers, or to rouse stupid sinners from a state of spiritual death:" Intense and sharp pain of the flesh has oftentimes been the appointed and effectual .means of providence to attain these desirable ends. Pain is like a rod in the hand of God, wherewith he smites sinners that are dead in their trespasses, and his Spirit joins with it to awaken them into spiritual life. This rod is sometimes so smarting and severe, that it will make a senseless and ungodly wretch look upwards to the hand that smite it, and take notice ,of the rebuke of heaven, though all the thundering and lightning of the word, and all the terrors of hell denounced there, could not awaken them. Acute pain . is also a common instrument in our heavenly Father's hand, to recover backsliding saints from their segure and drowsy frames of spirit. David. often found it so, and speaks it plainly in Es. xxxviii. K 4
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