200 THE WORLD TO COME. Thus I have run over the chief lessons of instruction or, doctrine, which may be derived from our sensations of pain here in, this world : But there is no need of this sort of discipline in the blessed regions of heaven to teach the inhabitants such truths. They well remember what feeble helpless creatures they were, when they dwelt in flesh and blood ; but they have put off those fleshly garments of mortality, with 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 thern. 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 well remember all the sorrows they have passed through in their mortal 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 holiness, and the hateful con- trariety that is in it to the nature of God, is discovered in the immediate light of all his 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 dread- fully God can punish sin and sinners, while they behold his indig- nation going forth in a long and endless stream, to malte 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 intense and smarting anguish.both of flesh and spirit, to procuretheir salva- tion: For while they dwell amidst the blessedness of that state; which the Redeemer purchased with the price of his own suffer- ings, they can never forget, his love. NM' do they want to learn in heaven the yalue 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 in a more glorious and abundant manner in the
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