o it could not be imagined, that he, in fuch exalted circumftances, would have been engaged and employed in it.

The object of this heavenly worship is no lefs a recommendation of it; not only God Creator, and God Preferver, but God our Saviour. If a fenfe of gratitude, duty and intereft, is not totally eradicate, the importance, neceffity and excellency of this exercife must at once appear: nor can any thing be more expreffive of a criminal thoughtlefuefs, than to ly under fuch a variety of obligations without acknowledgments, fuited in fome measure to the vaftnefs, freenefs and extent of them. If what is great and remarkable, for value and beauty among the creatures, excite to ftrains of wonder and praise; how much more should fuch exercise have place, refpecting him who is the fum, centre, and perfection of all poffible, imaginable, everlafting lovelinefs, and excellency. But if praife and veneration are due to him, becaufe of what he is in himself, abftracted from his love to finners in Chrift; when that furprifing circumftance is taken into the account, it becomes like a threefold cord, that cannot be broken.

The duty and exercise of praife is ftill further recommended to us, from its being the peculiar bufinefs of all the redeemed above. The need of prayer, as to them, has ceafed; and ceased, to return no more for ever; they have nothing to do but praife; nor will they ever act in a different capacity within the vail. Heaven continually rings with the ceafelefs echo of their exalted joy; fongs, in which, even angels cannot partake; and fongs, which, to themfelves, are peculiar,-abfolutely peculiar, and undivided. Can we then be bound for Immanuel's fhore, and yet not think of learning the language of that better country? Though encompaffed with manifold grounds

grounds of forrow and difcouragement, upon thinking of God our Saviour, and contemplating his words and works, we mult for abundant caule of praife: and therefore we thould try the exercife, and repeat the endeavour; as knowing that he whom we praife, can make the tongue even of the stammerer to fpeak plain. Of this we fhould the rather make confcience, because the want of relish for such exercise is a glaring characteristic of wicked men; who, preferring vain, lewd and idle fongs, to them of a fpiritual nature, and, by being entertained with any compofition, truly poetical and melodious, except what refpects religion and eternity, plainly declare, they have no lot nor part in this matter; and have no present ground of hope, that they shall ever join in the new fong of praise above.

You with whom the Lord has dealt graciously, whofe hearts he has changed by his Spirit, and whom he has made willing in the day of his power; you fee the delightful, honourable and ravishing employment referved for you, when you get to glory. Have you, at particular times, got fuch a loofing of your bonds, fuch a reviving in your bondage, that ye could not do otherways than fing, yea, fhout forth the praifes of your God and Saviour? Do you remember the time when, and the place where, this was the cafe with you? do you remember the duty and ordinance, by means whereof you were thus enlarged towards the Lord? did you look upon fuch difpenfations as Bethels, as the houfe of God, the gate of heaven, and the dawn of glory to you? were you then and there defiious of building tabernacles, and concluding that your mount ftood strong? All this is abfolutely nothing, to the joy, tranfport, and delight, in referve for you. Thefe earthen veffels could not bear the weight of joy, wherewith the exceeding great and

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eternal weight of glory, to be difpenfed in heaven, is pregnant: nor could they, till caft of new, be capable of acting their part in performing the new fong. Your higheft attainments in the exercife of praife here, are pitiful and groveling, compared with what the lowest faint in all the ranfomed affembly fhall be capable of.

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But, on the other hand, are you pained and perplexed, because fuch ftrangers to the exercife of praife? do you fee and feel fo many grounds of forrow, (hame and fear, that fighing, weeping, groan-. ing, complaining, or, at moft, praying, is all that you can win at? Is this fo much the cafe, that you have little or no acquaintance with that comfort and fatisfaction, which arife from the exercise of praise ? and can you not, with any degree of comfortable application to yourselves, realize the fatisfaction to be enjoyed from the performance of this new fong of praife in heaven? well, your heaven will only be fo much the fweeter, and your enjoyment of this fong the more ravishing, when you get there. proportion as thefe heavenly raptures are new, unexpected and unexperienced, they will prove the more delicious, entertaining and agreeable. Do you find, that, however elevated your minds, or howe ver depreft, you cannot exprefs yourfelves in fongs of praife? your very bodily frame is quite fubverfive of the external part of that exercise ? your ear dull, your voice unmelodious, and your tongue ftammering? when others fing in imitation of this new fong, cannot you fo much as join, without fpoiling the confort, and breaking the harmorny? for the fake of others, are you often either filent, while they fing or muft you only whisper, while they bout forth the praises of God and the Lamb? The day, my brethren, faft haftens, when this, with your other complaints, fall be done away; when your

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voices fhall be as tuneable, your tongues as melodious, and your ears as delicate, as, any of the fongsters in Immanuel's happy land in this, as in every other refpect, your bodies shall be fashioned like unto Chrift's glorious body. Do you find fuch unhappy intervals, from conftitutional defects, unavoidable occurences, or immediate temptations, that, inftead of finging the new fong of Mofes, fretfulness and diftraction worm out your peace, prey upon the vitals of your joy, make you burdens to yourselves, render you difagreeable to others, and not only mar and impede, but almost quite overturn, your views of joining the Mediator, with his company, in the blissful work? That fuch dufky and gloomy fhades may, in hallowed characters, fometimes have place, will not be denied; and that fuch circumftances are grounds of deep humiliation, must be admitted: but, as Chritians, your comfort lies in this, that, when got within the vail, you will be raised above the poffibility of interruption, in the praises of God; from whatever caufe, for whatever continuance, to whatever degree.

Be therefore, upon the whole, exhorted, to realize the happy period, when thefe former things fhall have paffed away: mean time, to be acting as those who are animated with fuch great and enlarged hopes. That you are, before the throne, to follow the glorious Man, in the new fong of praife, fhould confiderably heighten your value of that ftate, your ambition after that exercife, and your defire to mingle with that blef fed fociety. Study fuch chearfulness in the ways of God, as will tend to wipe off the common, but groundless reproach from the gofpel, as if it was dull and infipid in itfelf, and rendered its votaries gloomy and morofe. None, fure none, have fuch foundation of joy, none fuch caufe to fing, as you,

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candidates for everlafting blifs. Say not, in what ever circumstances, You have no ground of finging for, as long as you are out of hell, you ought to praife; and, praifing God for this, your notes may infenfibly rife to a wonderful imitation of the new fong itself.

You, on the other hand, who are ftill in a natural ftate, unacquainted with the power of converting and renewing grace, ftrangers to the influence of Chrift's refurrection on your hearts, and of the doctrines of the gofpel upon your lives; who know nothing of a bondage ftate, nor of that glorious liberty wherewith Chrift makes his people free; you, in this doctrine, fee glorious privileges and employments in which you have no part, for which you have no capacity. As far as your present state can forebode, all your finging and gladness will be circumfcribed by this life, and confined, abfolutely confined, toit: continuing and dying unconverted, you shall never join in the new fong, nor so much as fee the new Jerufalem; within the gates of that city, no fuch unclean things can enter. If you never, in any degree, enter into the spirit of praife here, is it to be imagined, can it, without impropriety, be alledged, that you are on the way to that land where praife is the chief employment, and worship all the bufinefs of the bleft inhabitants? If you will not fo much as join externally in the praises of God, but be dumb, while all around you join in the fong; can it be thought you have any lot in this matter? So far is the contrary the truth, that whatever your employment thro' eternity, praise fhall make no part of it. If you look on public praife with fuch indifference, as, without neceffity, to abfent from ordinances until that part of the fervice is over; and to retire again before praife are offered up; do not you difcover

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