One of these will be the certain and eternal dwelling-place of the souls that are prepared for them, and there must they pass their long immortality, either in joy or in sorrow, without a change; and yet the foolish and besotted tribes of mankind seem to have abandoned all thought and concern about them. A dangerous lethargy, or distraction!

What shall we do to cure sinners of this madness? Shall I try to rouse these indolent unthinking wretches out of their dangerous and mortal slumbers with the loudest voice of thunder and divine terror? But the lethargy of sin is proof against all these terrors and thunders. Shall I call for a fountain of tears into my eyes, and weep over them with the tenderest sympathy and compassion? But they feel not any meltings of pity for themselves, nor are their hearts to be softened by all our tears and wailings. Shall I beseech them in the name of Christ by the bowels of bis dying love, and the blood and anguish of his sufferings for our salvation? But even these divine and astonishing instances of tenderness and mercy make no impression on their souls. While Satan holds them in his chains, they are sleeping the sleep of death. O for a word of sovereign and alinighty grace to reach the centre of their spirits! To shake all the powers of their nature! To awaken them to behold their eternal interest! and to prepare for heavenly felicity!-Awake, O sleepers, ere the angel of death seize you, and the grave shut its mouth upon you; then all your seasons and Lopes of mercy are cut off for ever, and you will awake hopeless immortals..

I shall conclude this discourse with one word of exhortation to those who are in any measure wrought up to a preparation for the heavenly blessedness. "O happy creatures! whatsoever pains you have taken, whatever conflicts you have endured in the matter of your own salvation, yet let God and his grace have all the honour of this work. It is to God you owe your sacrifices of praise. He that hath wrought you up for this felicity is God. It was he who awakened you first, and set you a thinking of your most important concerns: It was he that led you first into the way of salvation by Jesus Christ his Son, and hath thus far crowned your labours and your prayers with success and blessing. Every stumbling-block in your way might have thrown you down to perdition: Every temptation might have turned you back from this glorious pursuit: Every enemy of your souls might have discouraged or overcome you, if God and his grace had not been engaged on your side.

It is he hath upheld you when you were falling, he hath taken you by the hand and led you right onward when you were wandering, and he hath supported you by his divine cordials of promise when you were fainting. It is God who hath enabled

you to maintain your conflict with all the mighty obstacles of your faith and hope; it is his grace hath renewed your nature, hath weaned you from this vain flattering world, and given you a sacred relish of divine blessedness. It is he who hath formed you again after his own image, and hath trained you up, and made you meet for the inheritance of the saints in light. Call up all your powers to praise his goodness, and say, Bless the Lord, O my soul, and all that is within me, bless his holy name: Bless the Lord for ever, and forget not all his benefits; Ps. ciii. 1, 2. It is God who hath called me out of darkness into his marvellous light, and given me to see the things that belong to my everlasting peace. It is God who washed away my iniquities in the blood of his own Son, and hath renewed me unto holiness by his blessed Spirit. It is God who hath taken me out of the family of sin and satan, and given me a place among his children; who hath begun to prepare me for the joys and blessings of heaven, and in his own time he will fulfil all my hopes, and complete my felicity. Walk before him with all holy care and watchfulness, and take heed that you lose not the things which you have wrought, nor the things which God has wrought in you, but that persevering to the end you may receive the full reward, and obtain the crown of everlasting life; 2 John, verse 8. Amen.

DISCOURSE IX.

No Pain among the Blessed.

Rev. xxi. 4.-Neither shall there be any more Pain.

THERE have been some divines in ancient times, as well as in our present age, who suppose this prophecy relates to some glorious and happy event here on earth, wherein the saints and faithful followers of Christ shall be delivered from the bondage and miseries to which they have been exposed in all former ages, and shall enjoy the blessings which these words promise. Among these writers some have placed this happy state before the resurrection of the body; others make it to belong to that first resurrection which is spoken of in Rev. xx. 6. But let this prophecy have a particular aspect upon what earthly period soever, yet all must grant it is certainly true concerning the heavenly state; from whose felicities, taken in the literal sense, these figurative expressions are derived to foretel the happiness of any period of the church in this world; and in this sense, as part of our happiness in heaven, I shall understand the words here, and propose them as the foundation of my present discourse.

Among the many things that make this life uncomfortable and render mankind unhappy here below, this is one that has a large influence, namely, that in this mortal state we are all liable to pain, from which we shall be perfectly delivered in the life to come. The Greek work which is here translated pain, signifies also toil and fatigue and excessive labour of the body, as well as anguish and vexation of the spirit: But since in the two other places of the New Testament where it is used, the word more properly signifies the pain of the body, I presume to understand it chiefly in this sense also in my text.

I need not spend time in explaining what pain is, to persons who dwell in flesh and blood: There is not one of you in this assembly but is better acquainted with the nature of it by the sense of feeling, than it is possible for the wisest philosopher to inform you by all his learned language. Yet that I may proceed regularly, I would just give you this short description of it :"Pain is an uneasy perception of the soul, occasioned by some indisposition of the body to which it is united;" whether this arise from some disorder or malady in the flesh itself, or from some injury received from without by wounds, bruises, or any thing of the like kind. Now this sort of uneasy sensations is not to be found or feared in heaven.

In order to make our present meditations on this part of the blessedness of heaven useful and joyful to us while we are here on earth, let us enquire : ́

I. What are the evils or grand inconveniences that generally flow from the pains we suffer here; and as we go we shall survey the satisfactions which arise by our freedom from them all in heaven. II. What just and convincing proofs may be given that there are no such uneasy sensations to be felt in heaven, or to be feared after this life.-III. What are the chief reasons or designs of the blessed God in sending pain on his creatures in this world; and at the same time I shall shew that pain is banished from the heavenly state, because God has no such designs remaining to be accomplished in that world.-IV. What lessons we may learn from the painful discipline which we feel while we are here, in order to shew there is no need of such discipline to teach us those lessons in heaven. Let us address ourselves to make these four enquiries in their order.

SECTION I.-First." What are the evils which flow from pain, and usually attend it in this life; and all along as we go we shall take a short view of the heavenly state, where we shall take a short view of the heavenly state, where we shall be released from all these evils and inconveniences."

1. "Pain has a natural tendency to make the mind sorrowful as well as the body uneasy," Our souls are so nearly united to flesh and blood, that it is not possible for the mind to possess perfect happiness and ease, while the body is exposed to so many occasions of pain. It is granted, that natural courage and strength of heart may prevail in some persons to bear up their spirits under long and intense pains of the flesh; yet they really take away so much of the ease and pleasure of life, while any of us lie under the acute sensations of them. Pain will make us confess that we are flesh and blood, and force us sometimes to cry out and groan. Even a stoic in spite of all the pride of his philosophy, will sometimes be forced by a sigh or a groan, to confess himself a man. What are the greatest part of the groans and outcries, that are heard all around this our globe of earth, but the effects of pain, either felt or feared.

But in heaven, where there is no pain, there shall be no sighing or groaning, nor any more crying, as my text expresses. There shall be nothing to make the flesh or the spirit uneasy, and to break the eternal thread of peace and pleasure that runs through the whole duration of the saints: Not one painful moment to interrupt the everlasting felicity of that state. When we have done with earth and mortality, we have done also with sickness and anguish of nature, and with all sorrow and vexation for ever. There are no groans in the heavenly world to break in upon the harmony of the harps and the songs of the blessed; no sighs, no outcries, no anguish there to disturb the music and the joy of the inhabitants. And though the soul shall be united to the body new-raised from the dead to dwell for ever in union,

yet that new-raised body shall have neither any springs of pain in it, nor be capable of giving anguish or uneasiness to the indwelling spirit for ever.

2. Another evil which attends on pain is this, that "it so indisposes our nature as often to unfit us for the businesses and duties of the present state." With how much coldness and indifferency do we go about our daily work, and perform it too with many interruptions, when nature is burdened with continual pain, and the vital springs of action are overborne with perpetual uneasiness? What a listlessness do we find to many of the duties of religion at such a season, unless it be to run more frequently to the throne of God, and pour out our groanings and our com plaints there? Groanings and cries are the language of nature, and the children of God address themselves in this language to their heavenly Father: Blessed be the name of our gracious God, who hears every secret sigh, who is acquainted with the sense of every groan, while we mourn before him and make our complaints to him, that we cannot worship him, nor work for him as we would do, because of the anguish and maladies of nature.

And what an indisposition and backwardness do we feel in ourselves to fulfil many of the duties towards our fellow-creatures while we ourselves are under present smart and anguish ? Pain will so sensibly affect self as to draw off all our thoughts thither, and centre them there, that we cannot so much employ our cares and our active powers for the benefit of our neighbours: It abates our concern for our friends, and while it awakens the spirit within us into keen sensations, it takes away the activity of the man that feels it from almost all the services of human life. When human nature bears so much it can act but little.

But what a blessed state will that be, when we shall never feel this indisposition to duties, either human or divine, through any uneasiness of the body? When we shall never more be subject to any aneasiness of the body? When we shall never more be subject to any of these painful impediments, but for ever cast off all those clogs and burdens which fetter the active powers of the soul? Then we shall be joyfully employed in such unknown and glorious services to God our Father, and to the blessed Jesus, as require much superior capacities to what we here possess, and shall find no weakness, no weariness, no pain throughout all the years of our immortality; Rev. vii. 15. None of the blessed above are at rest or idle, either day or night, but they serve him in his temple, and never cease. And chapter iv. 8. no faintness, no languors are known there. The inhabitants of that land shall not say, I am sick: Everlasting vigour, chear