538 / 674
Lra
NO
PAIN
AMONG
THE
BLESSED.
[bISC.
lx.
all
its weaknesses
together. The spirits
of
the
blessed
know
nothing
of
those frailties,
nor
shall
the
bodies
of
the saints,
new-
raised
from
the
dust,
bring
back any
of
their
old
infirmities
with
them.
These
blessed
creatures
know
well how
entirely dependent
they
are
for
all things
upon God, their Creator, without the
need
of
pains and
maladies
to
teach them, for they live every moment
with
God, and
in a full
dependence upon
him
:
They are
supported
in
their
life,
and
all its
everlasting
blessings,
by
his
immediate
presence,
power,
and
mercy.
They have
no need
of
pain
in
those
fields
or gardens
of
pleasure
to teach them the
evil
of
sin
:
they
will
remem-
ber
all the sorrows
they have
passed through
in
their
mor-
tal
state,
while they were
traversing the
wilderness
of
this
world, and they
know
that
sin was
the
cause
of
them
all,
They
.see
the
evil
of
sin
in
the
glass
of
the divine holi-
ness, and the hateful
contrariety
that
is in
it
to
the
nature
of
God,
is
discovered
in the
immediate light
of
all bis
perfections,
his wisdom, his
truth
and
his
goodness.
They
behold.
the
evil
of
sin
in
the marks
of
the
sufferings
of
their
blessed
Saviour
;
he
appears
in glory
"
as
the Lamb
that
was
slain," and carries
some memorials
of
his
death
about
him,
to
let
the saints
know
for ever what
he has
suffered to
make
atonement
for their
sins.
Nor
have the blessed above any need
to
learn
how
dreadfully God
can punish
sin
and sinners,
while they
behold
his
indignation going forth
in
a
long and
endless
stream,
to make the wicked enemies
of
God
in hell
for
ever
justly
miserable
:
And
in
this sense
it
may
be said,
that "
the
smoke of
their torments
comes
up
before
God
and
his holy angels, and his
saints
for
ever
;"
Rev.
xiv.
10.
Nor
do these
happy
beings.
stand
in need
of
new
sensations
of
pain,
to
teach them the
exceeding
great-
ness
of the
love
of
Christ,
who
exposed himself
to
in-
tense
and srrìarting anguish,
both
of
flesh
and
spirit, to
procure their
salvation:
For
while ,they dwell
amidst the
blessedness
of that
state,
which
the Redeemer purchased
with the
price
of
his own
sufferings, they
can never for-
get
his love.
Nor
do they
want,
to
learn
in
heaven
the
value
of
the
word
of
God and
his
promises,
by
which
they
were
supported under their
pains
and
sorrows
in
this
mortal state. Those promises have
been
fulfilled to
them
partly
on
earth,
and
a more glorious
and abun
-