be wholly engaged in the difcharge of this new fong; all within them will be excited, enlarged, drawn out, wrapped up, and quite loft in it; there will be no power of the mind unemployed, no faculty of the foul difengaged, no divided affection, no wandering thought, no interrupting occurence, nor any diffracting circumftance at all. The fong will be as fpiritual, the worship as refined, the praife as immaterial and fublime, as if the performance was confined to the foul, and to that alone.

But,

They will perform this new fong with their mouths, as well as hearts. In heaven, there can be no ufelefs, unemployed member; each will be adapted unto,-must be engaged in, the proper bufinels for which they were made; and praife being the most exalted exercife which, to the mouth, is competent; it would be highly unreafonable to fuppofe, that any fuch faculty will, in heaven, come fhort of its greateft,-higheft end. If on earth the mouth is fometimes fuitably employed in the exercise of praife, when the worshippers labour under numberlefs difadvantages; it is impoffible to imagine, that, when rendered more perfet,-most gloriously capable of that exercife, they should be less engag ed in it. The glorified ones in heaven, amongst whom doubtlefs the glorious Man Chrift is comprehended, are pofitively reprefented, in the language of infpiration, as uttering, with their mouths, this new fong of praife: "I heard (fays John) a " great voice, of much people, in heaven, faying, "Hallelujah, falvation, and glory, and honour, and

power, unto the Lord our God. And, again, "they faid, Hallelujah, and, Amen, Hallelujah," Rev. xix. 1, 3, 4. This is further evident, from a ceffation of this worship, mentioned in fcripture; "there was great filence in heaven (fays the apostle) "about the space of half an hour," Rev. viii. 1.

But

But as there can be no ceffation of worship, in an inward and spiritual view, where they ferve God day and night, without wearying; this filence muft have a refpect to the external performance of it.

:

Further, this new fong will, in heaven, be performed focially clofet devotion will then probably be no more; but the Head, with all his members, -joined, united, affembled, and employed together. Every circumftance that now renders public religion enfnaring and dangerous, will there be done away; every obligation to retirement and folitude, in the exercite of devotion, proportionally loofed; and all the fair company, the Redeemer and the redeemed, in a common church capacity, will, as with one mouth, utter this new, this delightful, fong of praife.

In fine, this new fong will be performed with harmony, elegance, fymmetry and proportion, even as to the external part of it. There will be no jarring voice, no difcordant note, no difagreeable found, amongst the whole countless fociety; all fhall be mufical, beautiful and melodious. To this purpose, they are reprefented as performing this worship upon inftruments of mufic; not that fuch inftruments will be ufed, or needed, in heaven; but only to show with what unexceptionable propriety that inimitable concert fhall be carried through: "I heard (fays John) the voice of harpers, harping with their harps: and they lung, as it were, a new fong before the throne; and no man could learn that fong, but the hun"dred and forty four thoufand (a definite for an "indefinite number) which were redeemed from "the earth," Rev. xiv. 2, 3 Never was time fo kept, nor harmony fo expreffed, as by thofe immaculate, diftinguished fongsters above.

SECT.

SECT. V.

The Father puts this new fong into the mouth of Chrift. It is the operation of his hand, the work of his power, the difplay of his veracity, and the glorious proof and manifeftation of all his perfections. He puts it not only into his mouth, in a perfonal, but in a myftical view; furnishing all the redeemed, as well as the Redeemer, with proper materials for praife; and he does fo by gathering in the outcafts of Ifrael, and bringing home prodigal children,-by loft fons and daughters being found, and dead fouls being made alive. If thefe delightful events, in the kingdom of grace, occafion joy and praise to angels; how much more must they be the occafion of it to the angel of the covenant, and to his ranfomed tribes, of whom fuch converts make a part? The joy of a man child being born, the joy of a loft child being found, the joy of the bridegroom over the bride, the joy of harvest, or the joy felt in dividing of spoil; what is it, compared with the more fubftantial joy, whereof, to the Man Chrift and his members, the converfion of finners is the fource and fpring?

The Father likeways gives continual ground for this new fong of praife, in the promotion, as well as production of grace; in building up elect finners, as parts of the fpiritual temple; and in rendering them more conform to the Lord Chrift, their common Head and King. In the fame proportion that the finner's understanding is enlightned, his heart encouraged, his hands ftrengthned, his way, in the paths of holiness, confirmed, and his foul beautified with falvation; in the fame proportion that finners are helped, through grace, to be faithful to the Lord, to follow him thro' good and bad report, to adorn the doctrines of the gofpel, to recommend religion

ligion to others, to mount up as on eagles wings, and to afpire after perfection; in that very proportion, does the Father afford matter for this new fong of praife, to Chrift and Chriftians. Nor is this the whole. For,

Jehovah the Father furnisheth the Redeemer, and the redeemed above, with proper materials for praife, in the difpenfation of glory, as well as of grace; in bringing finners to glory, as well as in fitting them for it. This is a circumstance vastly conducive toward the elevation of that new fong. Never did the arrival of a dear friend, long abfent, nor the confummation of a marriage, long wifhed for, yield the thoufand or ten thousand part of that tranfport and delight, to the perfons concerned; with which, on the tranflation of elect finners to Emmanuel's land, the glorious Man, with his venerable family, will be animated and filled. And,

To conclude, the Father puts this new fong into the mouth of Chrift as Man Mediator, and into the mouths of all the redeemed, from among men ; as he will, to eternity, continue them in fuch circumftances, of folid, rational, manly, growing, ceafelefs pleasure and happiness, that they fhall not be able to do otherways, than fing and give praife. It fhall then be no lefs natural for them to utter this new fong, than it was, while in the house of their pilgrimage, to groan, being burdened."

SECT. VI.

The exercise of praife is greatly recommended, from the example of the glorious Man Chrift Jefus. Never did praying appear in fuch a beautiful and engaging light, as in his practice on earth; nor will praife ever appear fo comely, and at the fame time majeftical, as from his pattern in heaven. It proves the exei cife to be noble, great and divine;

or

or 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 less 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 thoughtlefnefs, 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 fhould fuch exercise have place, refpecting him who is the fum, centre, and perfec, tion of all poffible, imaginable, everlasting 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 furprising circumftance is taken into the account, it becomes like a threefold cord, that cannot be broken.

The duty and exercife of praife is fill further recommended to us, from its being the peculiar bufinefs of all the redeemed above. The need of prayer, as to them, has ceased; 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