Page images
PDF
EPUB

and pains, is a well appointed school, wherein our great Master gives us these divine instructions, and trains us up by degrees for the heavenly world. It is rough discipline indeed for the flesh, but it is wholesome for the soul: And there is many a Christian here on earth that have been made to confess, they had never learnt the practice of some of these virtues, if they had not been taught by such sort of discipline.

Pain, which was brought into human nature at first by sin, is happily suited by the providence of God to such a state of probation, wherein creatures born in the midst of sins and sorrows are by degrees recovered to the love of God and holiness, and fitted for a world of peace and joy.

But when we have done with this world, and departed from the tribes of motal men, and from all the scenes of allurement and temptation, there is no more need that such lessons should be taught us in heaven, nor any painful scourge made use of by the Father of spirits, to carry on, or to maintain the divine work of holiness and grace within us. Let us survey this matter according to the foregoing particulars.

Is it possible that while the blessed above are surrounded with endless satisfactions flowing from the throne of God and the Lamb, they should forget their benefactor, and neglect his praises?' Is it possible they should dwell in immortal health and ease without interruption, under the constant vital influences of the King of Glory, and yet want gratitude to the spring of all their blessings?

Nor is there any need for the inhabitants of a world, where no pains nor sorrows are found, to learn compassion and sympathy to those who suffer,' for there are no sufferers there: But love and joy, intense and intimate love, and a harmony of joy runs through all that blessed company, and unites them in an universal sympathy, if I may so express it, or blissful sensation of each other's happiness. And I might add also, could there be such a thing as sorrow and misery in those regions, this divine principle of love would work sweetly and powerfully towards such objects in all necessary compassion.

What if pain was once made a spur to our duties, in this frail state of flesh and blood? What if pain were designed as a guard against temptation, and a means to awaken our watch against new transgression and guilt? But in a climate where all is holiness, and all is peace, in the full enjoyment of the great God, and secured by that everlasting covenant which was sealed by the blood of the Lamb, there is no more danger of sinning. The soul is moulded into the more complete likeness of God, by living for ever under the light of his countenance and the warmest beams of his love.

What if we had need of the stings of pain and anguish in time past, to wean us by degrees from this body, and from all sensible things,' and to make us willing to part with them all at the call of God? Yet when we arrive at the heavenly world, we shall have no more need of being weaned from earth, we shall never look back upon that state of pain and frailty

with a wishful eye, being for ever satisfied in the affluence of present joys.

O glorious and happy state! Where millions of creatures who have dwelt in bodies of sin and pain, and have been guilty of innumerable follies and offences against their Maker, yet they are all forgiven, their robes are washed, and made white in the blood of Jesus,' their iniquities are cancelled for ever, and there shall not be one stroke more from the hand of God to chasten them, nor one more sensation of pain to punish them. Divine and illustrious privilege indeed, and a glorious world, where complete sanctification of all the powers of nature shall for ever secure us from new sins, and where the springs and causes of pain shall for ever cease, both within us and without us. Our glorified bodies shall have no avenue for pain to enter; the gates of heaven shall admit no enemy to afflict or hurt us: God is our everlasting friend, and our souls shall be satisfied with the "rivers of pleasure which flow for ever at the right hand of God." Amen.

DISCOURSE X.

THE

FIRST FRUITS OF THE SPIRIT,

OR THE

FORETASTE OF HEAVEN.

Rom. viii. 23.

And not only they, but ourselves also who have the first fruits of the Spirit, even we ourselves groan within ourselves, waiting for the adoption, that is, the redemption of the body.

SECTION I.

IT is by a beautiful figure of speech the Apostle had been describing, in the foregoing verses, the unna, tural abuse which the creatures suffer through the sins of men, when they are employed to sinful purposes and the dishonour of God their Creator. Permit me to read the words and represent the sense of them in a short paraphrase. Ver. 22. "We know that the whole creation groaneth and travelleth in pain together until now." The earth itself may be represented as groaning to bear such loads of iniquity, such a multitude of wicked men who abuse the creatures of God to the dishonour of him that made them: The air may be said to groan to give breath to those vile wretches who abuse it in filthi

ness and foolish talking, to the dishonour of God, and to the scandal of their neighbours; it groans to furnish men with breath that is abused in idolatry by the false worship of the true God, or the worship of creatures which is abominable in his sight: The sun itself may be said to groan to give light to those sinners who abuse both day-light and darkness in rioting and wantonness, in doing mischief among men and committing fresh iniquities against their Maker: The moon and stars are abused by adulterers and thieves, and other midnight sinners, when they any way afford light enough to them to guide them in their pursuit of wicked ways and practices. The beasts of burden' may be said also to groan and be abused when they bear the wicked sons and daughters of Adam to the accomplishment of their iniquities : And even all the parts of the brutal world, as well as of the inanimate creation, are some way or other made to serve the detestable and wicked purposes of the sinful children of men, and may be figuratively said to groan on this account. And if we have tasted of the fruits of the spirit of grace, we cannot but in some measure groan with the rest of the creation in expectation of the blessed day, when the creatures shall be delivered from this bondage of corruption, to which the providence of God has suffered them to be subjected in this degenerate state of things.

We hope there is a time coming, when the creatures themselves shall be used according to the original appointment of their Maker, agreeable to their own first design, and for the good of their fellow-crea

« PreviousContinue »