523 / 674
DISC.
IN,]
NO
PAIN
AMONG
THE BLESSED.
503
Nor
will
the body
at
the
final
resurrection of
the saints
be made for
a medium
of
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
with
any
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