ry 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 come up before God and his holy angels, and his saints for ever."

Nor do these happy beings stand in need of new sensations of pain, to teach them the exceeding greatness of the love of Christ,' who exposed himself to intense and smarting 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 forget his love.

value

Nor do they want to learn in heaven the 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 heavenly world. They relish the sweetness of all those words of mercy, in reviewing the means whereby divine grace sustained them in their former state of trial, and in the complete accomplishment of the best of those promises

in their present situation amidst ten thousand end

less blessings.

And if any of them were too cold and remiss, and infrequent in their applications to the mercy-seat by prayer, when they were here on earth, and stood in need of chastisement to make them pour out their prayers to God, yet they can never forget 'the value of this privilege,' while they themselves dwell round about the throne, and behold all their ancient sincere addresses to the mercy-seat answered and swallowed up in the full fruition of their present glories and joys. Praise is properly the language of heaven, when all their wants are supplied, and their prayers on earth are finished; and whatever further desires they may have to present before God, the throne of grace is ever at hand, and God himself is ever in the midst of them to bestow every proper blessing in its season that belongs to the heavenly world. Not one of them can any more stand in need of chastisement or painful exercises of the flesh to drive them to the throne of God, while they are at home in their Father's house, and for ever near him and his all-sufficiency. It is from thence they are constantly deriving immortal supplies of blessedness, as from a spring that will never fail.

SECTION V.

I proceed now to consider in the last place, what are the 'practical lessons which pain may teach us while we are here on earth' in our state of proba

1

tion and discipline, and shall afterward make it evident, that there is no need of pain in heaven for the same purposes.'

1. The frequent returns of pain may put us in mind 'to offer to God his due sacrifices of praise for the months and years of ease which we have enjoyed;' we are too ready to forget the mercy of God herein, unless we are awakened by new painful sensations; and when we experience new relief, then our lips are opened with thankfulness, and our mouth shews forth his praise: Then we cry out with devout language, 'Blessed be the Lord that has delivered us!' When we have been oppressed for some time with extreme anguish, then one day, or one hour of ease fills the heart and the tongue with thankfulness; blessed be the God of nature that has appointed medicines to restore our ease, and blessed be that goodness that has given success to them! What a rich mercy is it under our acute torments, that there are methods of relief and healing found among the powers of nature, among the plants and the herbs, and the mineral stores which are under ground? Blessed be the Lord, who in the course of his providence has given skill to physicians to compose and to apply the proper means of relief! Blessed be that hand that has planted every herb in the field or the garden, and has made the bowels of the earth to teem with medicines for the recovery of our health and ease, and blessed be his name who has rebuked our maladies, who has constrained the smarting diseases to depart by the use of balms and balsams that are happily applied!

While we enjoy the benefits of common life, in health of body and in easy circumstances, we are too often thoughtless of the hand of God, which showers down these favours of heaven upon us in a long and constant succession; but when he sees fit to touch us with his finger, and awaken some lurking malady within us, our ease vanishes, our days are restless and painful, and tiresome nights of darkness pass over us without sleep or repose. Then we repent that we have so long forgotten the God of our mercies; and we learn to lift up our praises to the Lord, that every night of our lives has not been restless, that every day and hour has not been a season of racking pain. Blessed be the Lord that enables us, without anguish or uneasiness, to fulfil the common business of the day; and blessed be his hand that draws the peaceful curtains of the night round about us! And even in the midst of moderate pains, we bless his name who gives us refreshing slumbers; and we grow more careful to employ and improve every moment of returning ease, as the most proper way of expressing our thankfulness to our Almighty

healer.

Alas, what poor, sorry, sinful creatures are we in' the present state, who want to be taught the value of our mercies by the removal of them! The man of a robust and vigorous make, and a healthy constitution, knows not the true worth of health and ease, nor sets a due value upon these blessings of heaven; but we are taught to thank God feelingly, for an easy hour after long repeated twinges of pain: We bless ́

that goodness which gives us an easy night after a day of distressing anguish. Blessed be the God of nature and grace, that has not made the gout or the stone immortal, nor subjected our sensible powers to an everlasting cholick or tooth-ach.

2. Pain in the flesh more effectually teaches us 'to sympathise with those who suffer.' We learn a tenderness of soul experimentally by our own sufferings. We generally love self so well, that we forget our neighbours under special tribulation and distress, unless we are made to feel them too. In a particular manner, when our nature is pinched and pierced through with some smarting malady, we learn to pity those who lie groaning under the same disease. A kindred of sorrows and sufferings works up our natures into compassion; and we find our own hearts more sensibly affected with the groans of our friends under a sharp fit of the gout or rheumatism, when we ourselves have felt the stings of the same distemper.

Our blessed Saviour himself, though he wanted not compassion and love to the children of men, since he came down from heaven on purpose to die for them,. yet he is represented to us as our merciful High Priest, who had learnt sympathy and compassion to our sorrows in the same way of experience as we learn it. He was "encompassed about with infirmities," when he took the sinless frailties of our nature upon him, that he might learn to pity us under those frailties. "In that he himself hath suffered being tempted, he is able to succour them that are