are judgments of a fatherly judge, rot of a wrathful judge, otherwife he could not fing of judgment. How little caufe hath the believer to be difcontent at outward trials? What! are you difcontent at that, out of which God is bringing a fong of praife in time, and a weight of glory through eternity! 8. Hence fee the mifery of the wicked. Whatever matter of finging the children of God have, yet ye have matter of fighing, howling, and lamentation; for ye are under the curfe of God, under the curfe of his law, and fo continue in a dreadful, damnable ftate; while ye are out of Chrift, all the mercies that ye meet with are curfes to you, and. all the judgments you. meet with, are drops of divine indignation, and pieces of hell. Your temporal mercies are curfes; "The profperity of fools deftroys them;" and fo your table is your fnare fpiritual mercies are curfes to you; from all the flowers of heavenly bleffings ye fuck poifon; the word is the favour of death to you; the gofpel is a ftumbling block to you, over which ye fall into perdition; and as the fame wind that blows one fhip to an haven, blows another on the rock, fo the fame breath of the minifter, that blows fome to heaven, blows you to hell: the facrament is a curfe to you, for ye eat and drink your own damnation; the Bible is a curfe to you, for the word of the Lord is against you, and ye are against it. What fhall I fay to you, gracelefs, Chriftlefs, defperate finner? O will you tremble and quake, left Chrift himself, the bleffing of all bleffings, and mercy of all mercies, be a curfe to you, and a fone of ftumbling, over which you will break your neck! for, he is fet up for the falling, as well as the rifing of many in Ifrael. O that this thunder would awaken fouls that are fleeping fecurely in a courfe of fin? As all mercies are curfes to a reprobate world, fo judgments are judgments indeed to you that live all your days without Chrift; for judgment without mercy is the portion of your cup every affliction is a judgment of wrathful and vindictive nature unto you. You will fav, O for patience under fuch a trouble and ficknefs! Poor graceless foul, fpeaking of patience under trouble; you you are thus contending with God, and firuggling likea fly under a mountain, and friving to be quiet under that which God hath fent to difturb you. God does not afflict men that are out of Chrift to exercife their patience, but to difturb their falfe peace and fecurity. O that God would awaken you! If God call for famine on the land, and make you feel the effects of this terrible drought, it is a judgment indeed, and a pledge of hell unto you; if God lay you on a fickbed, and affli&t you in your name, eftate, perfons, friends, all is a piece of hell to you; judgments to you are drops of vengeance. Again, 9. See how reprovable they are, from this doctrine, who never fing of mercy and judgment. Some never fing at all the praises of God: there is a gentle or rather deiftical fahion among fome in our day, in public ordinances, they do not open their mouth to fing with the congregation. Oh! will they ever fing in heaven, that fcorn to fing on earth? Many indeed fing with their mouth, that know not what it is to fing with their heart, nor fing with their life, to glorify God. Many never fing of mercy, notwithtanding of their receiving many mercies; they pray for what they want, but never praife for what they have: and there is much of this ingratitude among believers themfelves. Many again, inftead of finging of mercy, they flight their own mercies, and fight againft God with his own favours ; they abuse their peace to fecurity, their drink to drunkennels, their meat to gluttony, and their mercies to prefump ion. Do ye thus requite the Lord, O foolish people and unwife? Many, if they fing of mercy, they know not what it is to fing of judgment; "When God's judgments are in the earth, the inhabitants of the world fhould learn righteoufnefs." What are ye learning out of this great drought, whereby God is *The fummer in which this fermon was preached (viz. 1723.) was a very remarkable feafon for drought, there being fearce one drop of rain during the fummer months; on which account many were afraid that the ftaff of bread would have been cut off from them; though providence fo interpofed, that, by the frequent and heavy dews, there was, in the flue, abundance of corn for man, but little provender for the cattle. threatening to fend a famine on the land, and break the staff of bread? To fing of judgment, is to hear the rod, aud who hath appointed it; to fing of judgment, is to fee the hand of God in the affliction, to kifs the hand that fmites; to glorify God in the fires; to blefs him that remembers mercy in the midst of wrath; and to answer the call of God by fuch and, fuch a difpenfation. Many, inftead of finging of mercy and judgment, they flight both mercy and judgment; mercy does not melt them, and judgment does not move them. O take with the reproof. 10. See how comfortable this doctrine may be to all believers and lovers of our Lord Jefus Chrift; ye have ground to fing, not only of mercy, but of judgment: I know no cafe you can be in, believer, but there is room for finging: the faint may fing of mercy in the midft of judgment. O how can I fing, when I miffed my errand at this occafion? fays one let them give the praise that have got the profit; but for me, I am left under heavy judgment, under affliction, temptation, defertion; yea, and the prevalency and power of fin and corruption; and therefore there is no room for my finging, but rather for my fighing, mourning, and lamenting before the Lord, and to be humbled to the duft. Why, man, indeed it is not humility, but pride, that makes you refufe to praife: you underva. lue the day of fmall things, and any little measure of grace and mercy you enjoy, becaufe, forfooth, you have not all you would be at; and, it may be, God is faying, I will fend trouble after trouble upon you, till you be fo humbled as to be thankful for the leaft mercy, till you be thankful that you are out of hell, and thankful that you was not born in America, where people are worshipping the devil. O how many millions of mercies have you to blefs God for! And will you take offence at, or differ with your God, and deny him his due, because you get not all your will? You have ground of finging, believer, notwithstanding all that you have faid.-O! but how can I fing, when I find fin, by which God is difhonoured, rag ing in my heart; and corruptions, like fo many devils, roaring and domineering? If corruption were flain, I think I would fing, but no otherwife. Why, poor foul, I tell you, that you must even in that cale fing of mercy and judgment, and fing because he hath faid, " Slay them not, left thy people forget," Pfalm lix. II. If your corruptions were flain, as you would have them, you would, perhaps, forget your own weak. nefs; forget your deliverer; forget your dependance on him; forget prayer; forget pity towards these that are afflicted and toffed as you are: it may be, you would forget the fountain open; forget to make daily use of Chrift; forget to fympathize and bear with others, when they fall or are overtaken in a fault; forget to walk humbly; forget the fweet experiences of his pardoning and purging grace; and forget to call yourself a dog, when you go before him, faying, Truth, Lord, I am a dog, I am a devil, I am a lump of hell:- And therefore, tho' you may think it ftrange to hear of bleffing the Lord that corruptions are not flain outright, yet, fince infinite wifdom fees that nothing lefs will cure your forgetfulness while here, even blefs him, who hath faid, Slay them not, left my people forget.' Blefs him that he hath not only faid, of affliction, temptation, defertion, "Let not my people want them, left they forget;" but even of fins, corruption, and fpiritual enemies, "Slay them not, left my people forget:" better they be not flain, than that you forget to give Chrift the glory of his faving offices, by employing him daily to heal all your difeafes, and fight all your bat tles. 11. Hence fee the mark of a true believer, and try yourselves by this doctrine. Do you fing of mercy and judgment? I might tell you for marks, that if you have learned this fong of mercy and judgment, as the fong hath been introduced with forrowing, I mean with legal conviction and humiliation; fo you will find it interrupted with fighing, becaufe all the powers of hell and corruption will oppose this sweet exercife; you will find your harp muft perpetually be tuned by the hand of the Spirit, and that you are incapable to fing, H 3 till till he pen the fong; for it is with the believer as with the marygold, it opens and fhuts as the fun rifes and fets; and yet even when the fun is fet, as it were, that you cannot open and praife, you will find praile waiting for the Lord in Zion, Pial. xv. 1.; or as it may be rendered, Praife is SILENT for thee in Zion:" Why the Spirit of praife is fometimes filent, but yet it is a waiting filence; you will be waiting for the Spirit of praife to be poured out, and in the mean time acknowledging your debt of praife; and fo, while it is not fenfibly running out, it is gathering a dam, as it were, till the Spirit be poured out from on high, and then it will flow amain.-But, inftead of all other marks that might be mentioned, I offer this; If you be one that hath learned to fing of mercy and judgment, then you have got a difcovery of the glory of God's mercy and judgment, as reconciled together, and mutually embracing one-another in Chrift Jefus. There are two letters of God's name, Exod. xxxiv. 6, 7. the one is mercy and grace; "The Lord, the Lord God, merciful and gracious;" the other is juftice and judg ment; "The Lord that will by no means clear the guilty" and thefe are the two ftrings of the harp, on which the believer fings. Now, have you been taught of God, to reconcile thefe two letters of God's name, and fo' to play upon these two firings, by admiring the infinite wildom, that hath made them meet together, and ifs one-another in Chrift? Pfal. lxxxv. 10. Have you feen falvation springing out of both these, and glory arif ing to both thefe attributes of God, from Chrift's obedience to the death, whom God hath fet forth to be a propitiation! Have you feen mercy running in the channel of a complete fatisfaction to juftice, and fo God by no means clearing the guilty, without a facrifice and atonement? Many pretend to fing of mercy, and fay, I hope in God's mercy; but they know not what it is to fing of mercy, to the highest praife of mercy, in finding out a ranfom, whereby mercy is magnified, not to the difparagement, but to the highest praise of infinite juftice; becaufe judgment was execute upon the Sarey to the uttermoft, that the curfe of the law |