186 TEE WORLD TO COME. tyrs of the religion of Jesus, and all the holy confesssors are free from their cruel tormentors, those surly executioners of hea- then 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 unfading health and cheerfulness run through their eternal state, and all the powers of the man are composed for the most regular exercises of devotion and di- vine jóy. Thus I have endeavoured briefly to set the different states of heaven and earth before you under this distinguishing character, that " all the tempting, the distressing, and mis- chievous attendants and consequences of pain," to which we are exposed in our mortal life, are for ever banished from the hea- venly world. SECT. II. The second general enquiry was this, " What just and convincing arguments or proofs can be given, that there are no pains or uneasy sensationsto be felt by the saints in a future state, nor to be feared after this life." My answers to this ques- tion shall be very few ; because I think the thing must be suffi- ciently evident to those who believe the New Testament, and have liberty to read it. Argument I. " God has assured us so in his word, that there is no pain for holy souls to' endure in the world to come ?" My text may be esteemed a sufficient proof of it; for whatsoever particular event or period of the church on earth this prophecy may refer to, yet the description is borrowed from the blessed- ness of heaven; and if there shall be any such state on earth, much more will it be so in the heavenly world, whereof that period. on earth is but a shadow and emblem. We are expressly told ; Rev. xiv. 13, in order to encourage the persecuted saints and martyrs, Blessed are the dead who die in the Lord front henceforth, for theyrest from their labour's or pains, and their works follow them ; that is, in a way of gracious recompence. It is granted indeed by the papists themselves, that in hea- ven there is no pain ; yet they .suppose there are many and grievous pains for the soul to undergo in a place called purgatory after the death of the body, before it arrives at heaven. But give me leave to ask, does not St. Paul express himself with confidence concerning himself and his fellow christians -" that they shall be present with the Lord when they are absent from the body," 2 Cor. v. 8? Surely the state wherein Christ our Lord dwells after all his sufferings and agonies, is a state of ever- lasting ease without suffering ; and shall not his followers dwell with him ? Do we not read in the parable of our Saviour; Luke xvi. 22. that " Lazarus was no sooner dead, but his soul was carried by angels' into the bosom of Abraham, or paradise ?" Every holy soul, wherein the work of grace is begun, and sin With received its mortalwougd,. is perfectly sauctifies1 when it is
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