IDISGOURSE, IL 18.9 Q. Another use of bodily pain and anguish in this world is, "to punish men for their faults:and follies to make them know what- an evil and bitter thing it is to sin against. God; and thereby :fo guard them against new temptations; Jer..u. 19. Thy own wickedness shall correct thee, and thy backslidings shall reprove thee; that is, by means of the smarting chastisements: they bring upon men. When. God makes the sinner taste of the fruit of his own ways, he makes others also observe how hateful a thing every sin is in the sight. of God, which he thinks fit so terribly to punish. + This is one general reason why special diseases, mala- dies, and plagues:; are spread over a whole nation, viz. to punish the sins of the inhabitants, when they have provoked' God by public and spreading iniquities. War and famine, with all their terrible train of anguish and agony, and the dying . pains, which they diffuse over a kingdom, are rods of punish- ment in the hand. of God, the Governor of the world, to declare from heaven and earth his indignation against an ungodly and an unrighteous age. This indeed is one design of the pains and torments of hell, where God inflicts pain without intermission : And this is some- times the purpose of God in his painful providences here on earth : Shall I rise yet higher and say, that this was one great design in the eye of God, when it pleased the Father to bruisehis best beloved Son, and. put him under the impressions of extreme pain Is. lüi. 10. viz. to, discover to the world the abominable vil that was in sip ? While Jesus stood in the stead of sinners, then his soul was exceeding sorrowful even to death, and he sweat drops of blood ; Luke xxii. 44. under the pressure of his agonies, to let the world see what the sin of man had deserved : And sometimes God smites his.own children in this world with smarting strokes of correction, when they have indulged any iniquity, to shew the world that God hates sin in his own people wheresoever lie finds it, and to bring his children back again to; the paths of righteousness. But "in the heavenly state there are no faults to punish, no follies to chastise." Jesus our surety in the days of his flesh, has suffered those sorrows which made atonement for sin, and that anguish of his holy soul, and the blood of his cross; have satisfied the demands of God ; so that with honour he can pardon' ten thousand penitent criminals, and provide an inheritance of ease and . blessedness for them for ever. 'When once weere dis missed from this body, the spirit is thoroughly sanctified;- atilt there is no fire of purgetory.neetlful to burn out the remains of sin : Those foolish invented flames are but false fire, kindled by the priests of Rome to fright the souls of the dying, and to squeeze money out of them, to purchase so many vain. and idle
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