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kindness is better than Life, my Lips Serm.II. Jhall praife thee. My Soul fhall be fatisfy'd with Marrow and Fatnefs; and my Mouth Jhall praise thee with joyful Lips. 'Tis the early Voice of the Convert, The Kings of the Pfalm Earth fhall praife thee, when they CXXXviii bear the words of my mouth; yea, they shall fing in the ways of the Lord. Men will fhow their pleafuré abroad. Such as are govern'd by a fenfual Taft of things, feel a Delight that cannot be pent up. They declare themselves in Roaring and Folly, and an Excefs of Riot. Now 'tis this Ordinance that fixes the diftinction between profane and facred Mirth: Be not Eph.V.18, drunk with Wine, but be ye fill'd with 19. the Spirit, Speaking to your felves in Pfalms. I need but remind you of the Example we have newly parted with. When Paul and Silas were in the Stocks, confin'd with Scandal and Danger, they fung fo loud, that the Prisoners beard them. This was the Fruit of that Redemption they felt in themselves,and preach'd to others; and it made good that Promife, That

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Serm.II. That the Wilderness should be as Eden, and the Defert as the Garden

"Ifa. LI. 3. of the Lord; Foy and Gladness being found therein, Thanksgiving and the Voice of Melody. This becomes the Triumph we have in God more than Boasting and Wrangling: It's a Duty to the praife. of his Grace who has made us accepted in the Beloved. Thus we fhould begin to enjoy a Mercy. When God was about to open a Spring in the WilNumb. dernefs, Ifrael fung a Song. ProXXI. 17. vidence has teftify'd to the Value of a Joy that fhows it felf this way. When Jehofaphat had ap2 Chron. pointed Singers to the Lord, who XX. 22. went out before the Army, and they begun to fing and praife; God fet

Ambushments against the Children of Moab and Ammon, and they were fmitten down before Judah.

§. 3. 'Tis a good means of declaring our Religion to the World. These two are made the fame thing, Praising God and Teaching Rom. XV. others; I will confefs to thee among the Gentiles, and fing unto thy Name. Nay, Chrift himfelf is brought in as making known his

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Heb.II.12.

Doctrine by this method: Saying, Serm.II. I will declare thy Name unto my Brethren, in the midst of the Congregation I will fing praife unto thee. And well then may it be faid of his People; It is good to fing Prai- Pfalm fes unto our God, for it is pleasant, CXLVII.1 and Praife is comely. Thus we render unto him the Calves of our Lips. Hof.XIV.2 It may be, there's no one Ordinance in either Publick or Family Worship fo fitted to this Defign.

I could fhow you from the Learned Bishop of Salisbury's Hiftory, how the Reformation in England profper'd by the mighty Zeal of People in this Work; and God own'd it with the fame Bleffing in France: but these things will have a more natural place among the Exhortations to this Duty. I'll therefore leave this Subject to the laft part of this Defign; and thither I refer you.

S. 4. It. promotes and fweetens other Ordinances. 'Tis good to begin with it; to ferve the Lord pf. C. 2. with Gladness, and come before his prefence with Singing. The Services of God's Houfe are fo far from clashing,

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Serm.II.clafhing, that they are a mutual Advantage to one another. Thus we find Neh. IX. One fourth part of the Day they read in the Law of God, and another fourth was taken up in worshipping; and when they had cry'd unto him, the Levites call'd upon 'em, to praise his glorious Name, which is exalted above all Bleffing and Praife. 'Twas thus that our Lord concluded his Feast of Love with the Difciples; After Supper they fung an Hymn. This Variety in publick Worship makes it more easy and beautiful. The Apostle blames the Corinthians for the Confufion of their Affemblys, I Cor. That every one of 'em had a Pfalm, a Doctrine, &c. but he allows the Parts themselves. It feems the most natural Clofe of our Devotions. When we have been receiving the Good Tidings of Salvation, and have heard it faid unto Sion, Thy God reigneth; 'tis the very.Letter of the Prophecy, that with the Voice PLCXLIX together we should fing. The Lord 4, 5, 6. doth therefore take pleafure in his People, and beautify the Meck with Salvation: That the Saints may be

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joyful

joyful in Glory, and fing aloud upon Serm.II. their Beds; that the high Praifes of God may be in their mouths.

S5. The Heavenly State which every upright Soul is breathing to, comes under this Defcription. When they that are in their Graves hear the Voice of the Son of Man. and live, they'l rife in Tune. Thy dead Men fhall live, together with Ifa.XXVI. my dead Body Shall they arife. Awake 19. and fing, ye that dwell in the Duft. 'Tis the only Ordinance of this World, that we meet with in a better; Prophecys fhall fail, Tongues 1 Cor. will ceafe, and the common means XIII. 8. of Knowledg vanish away. But it's the Blessedness of thofe that dwell Rev.XIV.3 in the Building of God, the House not made with hands, that they fhall ever praife him. The 144000 fing a new Song before the Throne. Now furely we should not have had the Joys and Worship of a dear Eternity put into thefe Names, if there were not fomething in the prefent Sweets of Duty to guide our Con- . ception of it. This is the Employment of Saints and Angels, a Meditation upon thofe Wonders D 3

that