When

things bitter to you, because his fweet prefence is away, it is matter of praife.-There is here ground to fing of judgment, in that defertion makes you prize the light of his countenance the more, faying, "O to fee thy power and glory, as I have seen it in the fanctuary !” the night of desertion makes you welcome the rifing of the Sun of righteousness, it is a happy parting; that contributes to make a joyful meeting.There is here ground to fing of judgment, in that defertion makes you hate fin that caufed the fame, as a stone in the pipe, hinders the current of the water: that desertion is matter of praise, that makes fin odious to you, as that which robs you of your best jewels, and that makes you lament his abfence, and the cause of it. It is indeed matter of fighing, to want his prefence; but it is matter of finging, to lament his abfence. It is ground of forrow, to be without him at any time; but it is ground of praise, that you cannot live contentedly without him: I mean not a finful dif content, that frets at his abfence; but a holy difcontent, that longs for his prefence, and laments his abfence; this I call matter of praife.-There is ground to fing of judgment, in that Chrift drank cut all the wrath of God out of the cup of desertion, when he fuffered that heavy defertion himself, that made him cry, "ELI, ELI, LAMASABACHTHANI; My God, my God, why haft thou forfaken me ?"Further, there is ground to fing of judgment here, in that this defertion makes the expectation of heaven fweet here, and the poffeffion of it pleasant hereafter; when the believer longs for heaven the more now, and loves it the better, then is it not matter of praife? O there is no hiding, no defertion, no cloud there, but a conftant vifion of glory; "We fhall be like him, for we fhall see him as he is."In a word, there is ground to fing of judg ment, in that desertion makes room for faith and hope, till vision and fruition come. It is matter of forrow indeed, when there is occafion to fay, "Verily thou art a God that hideft thyfelf, O God of Ifrael, the Saviour;" but it is matter of praife, when the foul is brought

to

to fay, "I will wait on the Lord, that hideth his face from the house of Jacob, and I will look for him," Ifa. viii. 17. It may be, ye get a breathing now and then in the air of fenfible manifeftations, but ye muft up to faith and hope again; and through the cloud ye must look for him, and blefs him when he helps you to do fo; for, though it were a killing defertion, or a flaying-like difpenfation, yet there is reafon to fing, when he helps you to fay, "Though he flay me, yet will I truft in him."--Thus you fee what ground there is to fing of judgment, even when defertion is the judgment.

4. What ground to fing of judgment may a child of God have, when fin is a part of the judgment; when either the fins of others are the affliction, or his own fins are the affliction? When the fins of others are the affliction, can there be any ground to fing of judgment? When I fee the generation loaden with fins and abominations, grievously departing from the Lord, furely it is ground of fighing and lamentation; and it is duty to figh and cry for all the abominations that are done in the midit of Jerufalem, Ezek. ix. 4. It is true, and yet the fong of praise muft not go down among the children of God; for there is ground to fing in this cafe, when ye can fay, "I beheld tranfgreffors, and was grieved. For, as it is child-like to be grieved for the injuries done to your Father; fo it is Chrift-like, for he was grieved for the hardness of their hearts: Yet it is matter of fing. ing, as it is a mark of love to God; for one may weep for his own fins from fear of hell, but he weeps for the fins of others from love to God.-It is matter of finging, when the more fin you fee in others, it makes you hate fin the more, and fwim against the ftream when the faster they run to hell, it makes you run the faster to heaven, and fets you a-praying; that when they are haftening to the prifon, ye may haften to a palace.-It is matter of finging, when the fins of others are the glafs wherein you fee your own hearts, and fee the roots of all that wickednefs to be within you; and therefore are made the more thankful, that God refrains you by his power from doing the fame; and conftrains you

by

by his grace to do otherwife. When ye are helped to fay thankfully, what the Pharifee faid boaftingly, The Lord be thanked that I am not as other men; and that I have not fo learned Chrift.-It is matter of finging alfo, when their fins make you more holy; and when their unfavourinefs makes your graces to fend forth a fragrant fmell: and when thereby the Lord gives you an occafion to convince and convert them; and to be the inftruments of doing good to their fouls.-Well, fay ye, but the great question is, when my own fins are the affliction, can there be any ground to fing of judgment? Indeed finning can be no ground of finging; for fin is in itself a damnable thing, worle than hell and, in God's name, I will fay, Whatever tends to difcourage holinefs, and encourage fin, let it be ANATHEMA; and curfed be the preaching that tends to encouragement of fin; yea, curfed be the thought, in the preacher or hearer, that makes the doctrine of grace an encouragement thereto. Many fuch thoughts may enter into us all; but may vengeance from heaven come down upon them, and deftroy them in us, that we may not blafpheme a holy, finlefs Jefus, to make him a minifter of fin. However, fin being the worst of all affliction and judgment, it would be an everlasting damp to the fong of mercy and judgment, if a fovereign God could not, in his infinite wisdom, bring a fong of praise out of the evil of fin. Why then, there is ground to fing, notwithstanding of fin, when God makes your fin a burden to you, and you to look upon yourselves as wretched becaufe of it, faying, "O wretched man that I am! Who fhall deliver me from the body of this fin and death?" When the burden of fin makes you weary of this life; faying with Rebecca, 'I am weary of my life becaufe of the daughters of Heth.' -There is ground to fing notwithstanding of fin, when God makes the prevalency of fin the mean of drawing you to a Saviour, and to the blood of Chrift that cleanfes from all fin; when daily fin makes daily application to the fountain open for fin and uncleannefs; when the bitternefs of fin makes Chrift fweet and precious to you, and the fting of fin draws out your eye to look to the

brazen

brazen ferpent; and fo the man fees God get more glory, and Chrift more honour, and his righteoufnels more renown, then he fings and glories in his infirmi ties, that the power of Chrift may reft upon him.There is ground to fing, notwithstanding of fin, when the fenfe of fin makes a man to judge himfelf, and condemn himself, that he may not be judged and condemned of the Lord; when it makes him examine himfelf more frictly, faying, "Search me, O God, and try if there be any wicked way in me:" and obferve himlelf more closely, fo as to watch over his heart and way, fo as to find out fin, and expel it, thro' grace, and live more circumspectly for the future.There is ground to fing notwithstanding of fin; when fin makes a man to abhor himself, and to repent in duft and afhes; when it makes him, with David, to water his couch with his tears; and with Peter, to go out and weep bitterly, and lays him low in the duft before the Lord: Therefore, as one fays, Better is the fin that makes us humble, than the duty that makes us proud.' The hypocrite's rifing is the mean of his fall; but the believer's fall, is the mean of his rifing. While the fenfe of his fin makes him holy, and fenfe of his pride makes him humble, his hypocrify fincere, his hardnefs makes hini foft, his carnality makes him fpiritual; happy that victory of fin over a man, that iffues in a bloody war against it: yet no thanks to fin, but to a fo vereign wife God, that turns the malady into a medicine. If any fhould hereupon take encouragement to fin, let them confider, if they do fo, whether their fpot can be the fpot of God's children; for, to fin, that grace may abound, is a prefumptuous fin of the highest degree; and true grace dare not draw fuch a bitter conclufion from fuch fweet promifes; or, if a child of God fhould do fo, and make bold with fin, let him confider, if this be all his kindness to his friend? Though God do not damn you, he may fend a hell in this life, and fill you with horrors, terrors, and agonies of foul, fuch as I fpake of before: let this therefore be a rail to keep you back from the burning mountain. To fing of judgment in refpect of VOL. II. 1G

you to

fin,

fin, is not to fing of our folly in committing it, but to fing of God's wifdom in deftroying it: you have no caufe to fing of fin, which of itfelf brings death, ruin, and damnation; but ftill caufe to fing of `judg ment concerning fin, or of the Lord's executing judgment upon it.But what if hell be the judgment at laft, would you have me to fing in that cafe? I fear I go to hell when all is done; I fear I never get to heaven; and how fhould I fing? I anfwer, Have you not caufe to fing, that ye are out of hell, and that it is not as yet your lot? But I will tell you, if you were beginning to fing, it would be the beginning of heaven: "Bleffed are they that dwell in thy house; they will be fill praifing thee." Will you fay, as an honeft exercifed Chriftian once faid, when tempted to fear hell, and thereupon to give over the duties of religion, Why, fays he, if I fhall never praife him in heaven, I fhall endeavour to praife him all that I can ' on earth.' This would be a fweet token that you fhall fing in heaven for ever, among the redeemed. And thus you fee, whether we view judgment with refpect to affliction, temptation, defertion, or fin, in what refpects it is that we are to fing of judgment; it is even to fing of the mercy that God exercifes in thefe judgments: and fo "I will fing of mercy and of judgment." It comes all to this, as if the pfalmift fhould fay, "I will fing of MERCIFUL JUDGMENTS;" for judgment is mercy, as it is the matter of the fong: or, to take them separately, "I will fing of mercy IN mercies ;" and, "I will fing of mercy IN judgment :" and fo I will fing of my blinks and of my fhowers; I will fing both of my cloudy and my clear day; both of my ups and downs; both of fmiles and frowns; I will fing both of frowning and favourable-like difpenfations; "I will fing of mercy and judgment; to thee, O Lord, will I fing."-So much for the fecond head.

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III. The Third general head propofed was, What this finging imports; and how we are to fing of mercy and judgment to the praife of God. I fhall fpeak a little to the quality and import of this fong.

ift, The