tempted: For we have not an High Priest which cannot be touched with the feeling of our infirmities, but was in all points tempted like as we are," though he was always" without sin; and by the things which he suffered," he may be said, after the manner of men, to learn sympathy and pity' to miserable creatures, as well as obedience to God, who is blessed for ever, Heb. ii. 18. and iv. 15. and v. 2, 8.

3. Since our natures are subject to pain, it should teach us watchfulness against every sin, lest we double our own distresses by the mixture of guilt with them.' How careful should we be to keep always a clear conscience, that we may be able at all times to look up with pleasure to the hand of God who smites us, and be better composed to endure the pains which he inflicts upon us for our trial and improvement in grace. Innocence and piety, and a peaceful conscience, are an admirable defence to support the spirit against the overwhelming efforts of bodily pain: But when inward reproaches of mind, and a racking conscience join with acute pain in the flesh, it is double misery, and aggravated wretchedness. The Scourges and inward remorse of our own hearts, joined to the sorrows of nature, add torment to torment. How dreadful is it when we are forced to confess, I have procured all this to myself by intemperance, by my rashness, by my obstinacy against the advice of friends,' and rebellion against the commands of God!

Probably it was such circumstances as these, that gave the soul of David double anguish, "when his

bones waxed old, through his roaring all the day long, when day and night the hand of God was heavy upon him, and his moisture was turned into the drought of summer;" when he complained unto God, "thine arrows stick fast in me, and thy hand presseth me sore: There is no soundness in my flesh, because of thine anger; nor any rest in my bones, because of my sin. Mine iniquities are gone over mine head as an heavy burden, they are too heavy for me. Deep calls unto deep at the noise of thy water-spouts, all thy waves and thy billows are gone over me.' The deep of anguish' in my flesh calls to the deep of sorrow' in my soul, and makes a tremendous tumult within me. "" My wounds stink, and are corrupt, because of my foolishness: I am feeble and sore broken; I have roared by reason of the disquietness of my heart;" nor could he find any rest or ease till he acknowledged his sin unto God, and confessed his transgressions," and till he had some comfortable hope that "God had forgiven the iniquity of his sin." See this sorrowful scene exemplified in a very affecting manner in the 32d and 38th Psalms. Happy is the man that walks closely with his God in the days of health and ease, that whenever it shall please his heavenly Father to try him with smarting pain, he may find sweet relief from a peaceful conscience, and humble appeals to God concerning his own sincerity and watchfulness.

4. Pain in the flesh may sometimes be sent by the hand of God, to teach us to wean ourselves by degrees from this body, which we love too well; this

body, which has all the springs of pain in it.' How little should we be fond of this flesh and blood in the present feeble state, wherein we are continually liable to one malady or another; to the head-ach or the heart-ach, to wounds or bruises, and uneasy sensations of various kinds? Nor can the soul secure itself from them, while it is so closely united to this mortal body. And yet we are too fond of our present dwelling, though it be but a cottage of clay, feeble and ruinous, where the winds and the storms are continually ready to break in and distress us. A sorry habitation indeed for an immortal spirit, since sin has mingled so many diseases in our constitution, has made so many avenues for smart and anguish in our flesh, and we are capable of admitting pain and agonies at every pore.

Pain is appointed to be a sort of balance to the tempting pleasures of life,' and to make us feel that perfect happiness does not grow among the inhabitants of flesh and blood. Pain takes away the pleasures of the day and the repose of the night, and makes life bitter in all the returning seasons. The God of nature and grace is pleased, by sending sick. ness and pain, to loosen his own children by degrees from their fond attachment to this fleshly tabernacle, and to make us willing to depart at his call.

A long continuance of pain, or the frequent repeated twinges of it, will teach a Christian and incline him to meet death with courage, at the appointed hour of release.' This will much abate the fierceness of the king of terrors, when he appears as a sovereign

physician to finish every malady of nature. Death is sanctified to the holy soul, and by the covenant of grace this curse of nature is changed into a blessing. The grave is a safe retiring place from all the attacks of disease and anguish: And there are some incurables here on earth, which can find no perfect relief but in the grave. Neither maladies, nor tyrants can stretch their terrors beyond this life: And if we can but look upon death as a conquered enemy, and its sting taken away by the death of Christ, we shall easily venture into this last combat, and obtain an everlasting victory. Blessed be God for the grave as a refuge from smarting pains! Thanks be to God through Christ Jesus, who enables us to triumph over the last pain of nature, and to say, "O death where is thy sting? and O grave where is thy victory?",

In the fifth and last place, by the pains that we suffer in this body, we are taught to breathe after the blessedness of the heavenly state wherein there shall be no pain.' When the soul is dismissed from the bonds of flesh, and presented before God in the world of spirits without spot or blemish by Jesus our great Forerunner, it is then appointed to dwell among the "spirits of the just made perfect," who were all released in their several seasons from the body of flesh and sin. Maladies and infirmities of every kind are buried in the grave, and cease for ever; and if we survey the properties of the new raised body in the great resurrection-day, as described 1 Cor. xv. we shall find no room for pain there, no avenue or residence for smart or anguish. It will not be such a body of flesh and

blood which can be a source of maladies, or subject to outward injuries; but by its own principles of innate vigour and immortality, as well as by the power and mercy of God, it shall be for ever secured from those uneasy sensations which made our flesh on earth "painful and burdensome, and which tended toward dissolution and death. It is such a body as our Lord Jesus wore at his ascent to heaven in a bright cloud for ever incorruptible; "for flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God, neither doth corruption inherit incorruption. As we have borne the image of the earthly" Adam in the frailties and suffer. ings that belong to it, so shall we also bear the image of the heavenly," even the "Lord Jesus Christ who shall change our vile body, that it my be fashioned like unto his own glorious body, according to the working whereby he is able to subdue all things unto himself," Phil. iii. 21. "We shall hunger no more, we shall thirst no more, nor shall the sun light on us" with its parching beams, nor shall we be annoyed with fire or frost, with heat or cold, in those temperate and happy regions. "The Lamb which is in the midst of the throne shall feed" his people for ever there "with the fruits of the tree of life," and with unknown entertainments suited to a glorified state. "He shall lead them to living fountains of waters, and God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes.

<

Thus have I set before you the practical lessons' which pain is designed to teach us in our present state; and we find that a body subject to maladies