DISC. IX.] NO PAIN AMONG THE BLESSED. 507 christ would force the servants of God, and the followers of the Lamb, into sinful compliances with their idolatry; or a desertion of their post of duty : But the Spirit of. God has supported his children to bear a glorious testi- mony to pure and undefiled - religion ; and they have seemed to mock the rage of their tormentors, to defy all the stings of pain, and triumphed over all their vain at- tempts, to compel them to sin against their God. Oné would sometimes be ready to wonder, that a God of infinite. mercy and compassion should suffer his own dear children to be tried in so terrible a manner' as this; but utisearchable wisdom is with him, and he does not give an account to men of all the reasons and the rules of his conduct. This has been his method ofprovidence with his saints at special seasons, under the Jewish and the..christian dispensations, and perhaps under all the dispensations of God to men, from the days of Cain. and Abel to the present hour. Our blessed Lord has given us many warnings of it inhis word by his own mouth, and by all his three apostles, Paul, Peter, and John : " They that will live godly in Christ Jesus shall suffer persecu- tion ; ". 2 Tim. iii. 12. " Think it not strange therefore concerning the fiery trial ;" 1 Pet. iv. 12. " The devil, by his wicked agents, shall cast someof you into prison, that ye may be tried ; and ye shall have tribulation ten days, but fear none of the things which thou shalt suffer : Be thou faithful unto death, and I will give thee a crown of life ;" Rev. ii. 10. But blessed be God, that this world is the only state of such trials. As soon as the state of probation is finished, the,state of recompence begins. Such hard and painful exercises to try the virtues of the saints, have no place in that world whichwas not made for a stage of trial and conflict, but a palace of glorious reward. Heaven is the place where' crowns and prizes are dis- tributed to all those blessed ones who have endured temptation," and who have been faithful to the death. These sharp and dreadful combats with pain, have no place among conquerors, who have finished their war- fare, and have begun their triumph. 4.- " Pain is sent us by the hand of providence to teach us many a lesson both of truth and duty, which perhaps we should never have learned so well without it."
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