grounds of forrow and difcouragement, upon thinking of God our Saviour, and contemplating his words. and works, we muft fee abundant caufe of praise : and therefore we fhould try the exercise, and repeat the endeavour; as knowing that he whom we praise, can make the tongue even of the stammerer to speak plain. Of this we fhould the rather make conscience, because the want of relish for fuch 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 prefent ground of hope, that they shall ever join in the new fong of praife 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 praises 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 defirous of building tabernacles, and concluding that your mount flood ftrong? All this is abfolutely nothing, to the joy, transport, and delight, in referve for 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 highest attainments in the exercife of praise here, are pitiful and groveling, compared with what the lowest faint in all the ransomed affembly fhall be capable of.

But, on the other hand, are you pained and perplexed, becaufe fuch ftrangers to the exercife of praife? do you fee and feel fo many grounds of forrow, fhame and fear, that fighing, weeping, groaning, complaining, or, at most, 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 yourfelves, 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. In proportion as these 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 yourselves in fongs of praise your very bodily frame is quite fubverfive of the external part of that exercife? 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 spoiling 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 fhout forth the praifes of God and the Lamb? The day, my brethren, faft haftens, when this, with your other complaints, fhall 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 fongfters in Immanuel's happy land: in this, as in every other refpect, your bodies fhall be fashioned like unto Chrift's glorious body. Do you find fuch unhappy intervals, from conftitutional defects, unavoidable occurences, or immediate temptations, that, instead of finging the new fong of Mofes, fretfulness and diftraction worm out your peace, prey upon the vitals of your joy, make you bur dens 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 circumstances 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 praifes of God; from whatever caufe, for whatever continuance, to whatever degree.

Be therefore, upon the whole, exhorted, to realize the happy period, when these former things fhall have paffed away: mean time, to be acting as thofe 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 chearfulnefs in the ways of God, as will tend to wipe off the common, but groundless reproach from the gospel, as if it was dull and infipid in itself, 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 everlasting blifs. Say not, in whatever 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 still 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 gospel 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 prefent state can forebode, all your finging and gladness will be circumfcribed by this life, and confined, abfolutely confined, toit: continuing and dying unconverted, you fhall never join in the new fong, nor fo 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 praise 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 worthip all the bufinefs of the bleft inhabitants? If you will not fo much as join externally in de praifes 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 bes fore praife are offered up; do not you difcover

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the want of tafte for the work of heaven; and confequently, the, want of interest in that better world? In that unhappy ftate, though you could fecure a pass through the gates into the city, heaven and glory would afford no more happinets to you, than palaces to fwine, whofe groveling element is the mire. But you are not in the way to heaven, you are by no means candidates for glory. Others may, numbers will, be promoted to the work of praife, in the higher house with the ranfomed tribes; but you, dying in your irregeneracy, fhall be debarred, excommunicate, and expelled, as reprobate fouls. You will, indeed, fee the glorious Man with his company, but shall not mingle with them; you will fee the pearly port of Emmanuel's land, but fhall not fet foot upon it? you will fee the crowns of the redeemed, but shall not wear any of them; you will fee the Father put this new fong in their mouths, but shall not enjoy the least smile of his countenance. Think then, O think, how galling and tormenting fuch circumftances muft prove, how painful and diftreffing fuch fights. Though no pofitive punishment was in referve, would you not, in fuch things, feel the pains of hell, and groan under the weight of damnation? The defign, however, of fcripture, in fuch representations, is not to introduce defpair, or torment before the time; but only to give the alarm, in order to your recovery ere it be too late; for there is hope in Ifracl concerning this thing; it is at leaft poffible, that this new fong may be put into your mouths. Though thefe mouths, made for praise, have been employed as inftruments of unrighteoufnefs, in curfing, fwearing, lying, foolish talking, and finful jefting; employed in de famation, calumny and reproach, and in every thing below the man, unworthy the Chriftians, yet God

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