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his righteousness more renown, then he sings and glories in his infirmities, that the power of Christ may rest upon him.-There is ground to sing, notwithstanding of sin, when the sense of sin makes a man to judge himself, and condemn himself, that he may not be judged and condemned of the Lord; when it makes him examine himself more strictly, saying, "Search me, O God, and try if there be any wicked way in me:" and observe himself more closely, so as to watch over his heart and way, so as to find out sin, and expel it, through grace, and live more circumspectly for the future.There is ground to sing notwithstanding of sin; when sin makes a man to abhor himself, and to repent in dust and ashes: 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 dust before the Lord: Therefore, as one says, Better is the sin that 'makes us humble, than the duty that makes us proud. The hypocrite's rising is the mean of his fall; but the believer's fall, is the mean of his rising. While the sense of his sin makes him holy, and sense of his pride makes him humble, his hypocrisy sincere, his hardness makes him soft, his carnality makes him spiritual; happy that victory of sin over a man, that issues in a bloody war against it: yet no thanks to sin, but to a sovereign wise God, that turns the malady into a medicine.--If any should hereupon take encouragement to sin, let them consider, if they do so, whether their spot can be the spot of God's children; for, to sin, that grace may abound, is a presumptuous sin of the highest degree; and true grace dare not draw such a bitter conclusion from such sweet promises; or, if a child of God should do so, and make bold with sin, let him consider, if this be all his kindness to his friend? Though God do not damn you, he may send you to a hell in this life, and fill you with horrors, terrors, and agonies of soul, such as I spake of before: let this therefore be a rail to keep you back from the burning mountain. To sing of judgment in respect of sin, is not to sing of our folly in committing it, but to sing of God's wisdom in destroying it you have no cause to sing of sin, which of it

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self brings death, ruin, and damnation; but still cause to sing of judgment concerning sin, or of the Lord's executing judgment upon it.But what if hell be the judgment at last, would you have me to sing in that case? I fear I go to hell when all is done; I fear I never get to heaven; and how should I sing? I answer, Have you not cause o sing, 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 sing, it would be the beginning of heaven: "Blessed are they that dwell in thy house they will be still praising thee." Will say, as an honest exercised Christian once said, when tempted to fear hell, and thereupon to give over the duties of religion, Why, says he, if I shall never praise ' him in heaven, I shall endeavour to praise him all that I can on earth.' This would be a sweet token that you shall sing in heaven for ever, among the redeemed. And thus you see, whether we view judgment with respect to affliction, temptation, desertion, or sin, in what respects it is that we are to sing of judgment; it is even to sing of the mercy that God exercises in these judgments and so, "I will sing of mercy and of judgment." It comes all to this, as if the Psalmist should say, "I will sing of MERCIFUL JUDGMENTS;" for judgment is mercy, as it is the matter of the song: or, to take them separately, "I will sing of mercy IN mercies;" and, "I will sing of mercy IN judgment:" and so I will sing of my blinks and of my showers; I will sing both of my cloudy and my clear day; both of my ups and downs; both of smiles and frowns; I will sing both of frowning and favourable-like dispensations; "I will sing of mercy and judgment; to thee, O Lord, will I sing." So much for the second head.

III. The Third general head proposed was, What this singing imports; and how we are to sing of mercy and judgment to the praise of God. I shall speak a little to the quality and import of this song.

1st, The import of this singing: "I will sing to the Lord:" that is, I will praise the Lord; and it does not lie in the simple sound of a voice, but imports the glo

rifying of God with our hearts and lips, in our lives, and in our death or suffering.

1. To sing to the Lord, is to glorify him with our hearts; to give him the love and adoration of our hearts. In this singing, there is the inward act of the soul; "Bless the Lord, O my soul: and all that is within me, bless his holy name," Psal. ciii. 1. It imports a deep impression of God upon the soul, and a lively sense of his mercy in Christ, and of our unworthiness of it: and here the soul, and all that is within it, is acting and moving the judgment moves with admiration and wonder at God for his glorious grace; the memory moves with a thankful recording of his favours, "Forget not all his benefits:" the affections move with joy and delight in God, and love to him for the riches of his grace in Christ. O shall I not love the greatest and best of Beings, for the greatest and best of benefits! The heart is here employed: neither prayer nor praises, without the heart, are of any worth: many sing with their voice, when their hearts are a hundred miles off, gading here and there: but a fixed heart is a singing heart; "My heart is fixed, O Lord; my heart is fixed, I will sing and give praise." We are called to sing with grace in our hearts, Col. iii. 16. we are to sing with faith in our heart: He that is strong in the faith, glorifies God. We are to sing with love in our hearts, with fear in our hearts, and with joy in our hearts.

2. To sing to the Lord, is with our lips to glorify him: we are to give him the calves of our lips. When the heart is full of love, the tongue will be full of praise. Our tongues should be as well-tuned organs, to sound forth the high praises of God, pleading his cause, defending his truths, avouching his name, and confessing him before the world: "Thy loving-kindness is better than life, therefore my lips shall praise thee," Psalm lxiii. 3. When our hearts are inditing a good matter, our tongues will be as the pen of a ready writer, to speak of the things that concern the King, Psal. xlv. 1. when our hearts are glad, then our glory [i. e. our tongue] will rejoice, Psal. xvi. 9. and xxx. 12. O! the little heavenly discourse argues a very sad degeneracy.

3. To sing to the Lord, is, with our life to glorify him; when the love of our hearts, the calves of our lips, and the service of our lives, are presented unto God together, they make a harmonious song: the praise of the life is the life of praise: "Whoso offereth praise, glorifieth me," Psal. I. 23. When we devote all the actions of our life to his disposing-will, then we sing a song of praise unto God. When we live by faith on the Son of God; for no less is worth the name of life, but what is derived from him, and devoted to him, then we may be said to glorify him in our lives. It is a practical way of singing the praise of God, that is here intended by the Psalmist, as appears from the rest of the Psalm.

4. To sing to the Lord, is, with our death and sufferings to glorify him, as well as with our life and actions: thus we are called to glorify the Lord in the fires, Isa. xxiv. 15. Does God call you to suffer affliction in person, name, estate, family, or concerns; to suffer want of husband, wife, brother, sister, children, or other outward comforts? Why then, you sing of mercy and judgment, by suffering patiently and submissively; and God is as much glorified. by your passive obedience, as by your active. Whenever you are afflicted any way, believer, know that then God hath some employment for your graces, and expects praise thereby; yea, if he should call you to suffer death and martyrdom for his name, you are to sing his praise, by dying in and for the faith, as well as living by faith. O man, woman! could you die for him, that died for you? That is a great matter.- O it is a small matter to die once for Christ, said a martyr; if it might possibly be, I could wish that I might die a thousand • deaths for him!--Thus you see the import of singing to the Lord.

2dly, As to the qualities of this song; or how we are to sing of mercy and judgment. And,

1. We are to sing of mercy and judgment cheerfully. Singing is a cheerful work; we are to sing with melody in our hearts to the Lord, and to make a joyful noise unto God. It is an antedating of the joy

of heaven; though you be in a hell of troubles and trials, yet you have reason to praise him that you are not in a hell of fire and brimstone: though you had one hell on your back, and another in your bosom, you have reason to praise him, that you are not in the midst of hell, among devils.

2. We are to sing of mercy and judgment highly and loftily, saying, with the angels, "Glory to God in the highest." We are to praise him with the highest estimation, with the highest adoration, with the highest admiration, with the highest delight, the highest ravishment, the highest wonder: for, as he is highly exalted above all things and beings, and above all blessings and praises; so his mercies are the highest mercies, and his judgments the greatest deep; and therefore as we ought to sing loud and high, so we ought to sing low. Therefore,

3. We are to sing of mercy and judgment humbly and lowly. Pride and praise are inconsistent; and therefore we should join trembling with our praise and singing; having awful impressions of God upon our souls, and knowing the infinite distance betwixt him and us. When the twenty-four elders sing, they come down from their thrones, and cast down their crowns and their palms, Rev. iv. 10, as if they would say, We are not worthy to sit upon a throne, or to wear a crown in his presence: they make their crowns and their thrones a footstool unto him. When we sing of mercy and judgment, we are to mind, his judgments are a great deep, and we ought to be deeply humbled before him, saying, "O the depth of the riches both of the wisdom and knowledge of God! how unsearchable are his judgments, and his ways past finding out!" Rom. xi. 33.

4. We are to sing of mercy and judgment constantly and unweariedly. Every new mercy and judgment should be matter of a new song: and O, his mercies are new every morning, new every moment; and therefore we should still be singing and saying, "I will bless the Lord at all times; his praise shall be continually in my mouth," Psalm xxxiv. 1. "Let such as