520 / 674
500
NA
PAIN
AMONG
THE
BLESSED.
[.DISC. IX.
confounded, and the understanding overwhelmed
with
severe and racking pain, especially
where
there
hath
been
an
impatient
temper
to
contest
with them.
Extreme
smart
of
the
flesh
distresses feeble
nature, and turns
the
whale frame
of it
upside down in.wild
confusion
:
It
has
actually worn out
this
animal frame, and stopped
all
the
springs
of
vital motion.
The 'gout
and the stone
have
brought
death upon
the
patient
in this
manner
;
and
a
dreadful manner of
dying
it
is,
to
have breath,
and
life
and nature
quite oppressed and destroyed
with intense
and painful
sensations.
But
when
we
survey
the mansions
of
the
heavenly
world,
we shall find
none of these
evils
there
:
No
danger of
any
such
events
as
these'; for
there
is
no
pain,
no sorrow, no crying, no
death,
nor destruction
there. The
mind shall be for ever
clear and serene
in the ease and happiness
of
the
separate state:
And
when the body shall
be
raised
again,
that
glorified body,
as
was
intimated a little
before, shall have
none
of
the
seeds
of
distemper
in
it,
no
ferments
that
can rack
the
nerves,
or create anguish;
no fever,
or
gout, or stone,
was
ever known
in
that
country,
no
head -ache
or
heart-
ache
have
ascended thither.
That
body
also shall
be
capable
of
no
outward wounds
nor
bruises, for
it
is
raised only for happiness,
and
leaves
all
the causes
of
pain behind it.
It
is
a body made
for
immortality and pleasure
;
there the
sickly
christian
is
delivered
from
all
the maladies
of
the
flesh,
and
the
twinges
of
acute pain
which
made
him
groan here
on
earth
night and
day.
There
the martyrs
of
the religion
of
Jesus, and
all
the
holy confessors
are
free from their
cruel tormentors,
those
surly
executioners
of
heathen
fury,
or
antichristian
wrath
:
They
are for ever released
from racks,
and
wheels,
and
fires,
and
every engine
of
torture
and
smart.
Immortal
ease
and
unfa.ding
health
and chearfulness run through their eternal
state, and
all
the powers
of
the man
are
composed for the most regular
exercises
of
devotion and
divine joy.
Thus
I
have
endeavoured
briefly to
set the different
states
of
heaven
and
earth
beföre you under
this distin-
guishing
character,
that "
all
the tempting,
the distress -
ing,
and mischievous
attendants
and
consequences
of
pain," to
which
we
are exposed in
our mortal
life,
are
for
ever
banished from the heavenly world.