performing his promises to the godly. God's word is one of the chiefest benefits bestowed on man, and therefore should be a subject of our praises. Now, when this is verified in his providence, and we see a faithful performance of those things in mercy to his servants and in justice to his enemies, and the benefits and advantages of his law to them that are obedient, and the just punishment of the disobedient, and can discern, not only a vein of righteousness, but of truth, in all God's dealings, this is a double benefit, which must be taken notice of, and acknowledged to God's praise. O Christians, how sweet is it to read his works by the light of the sanctuary, and to learn the interpretation of his providence from his Spirit by his word! "I went into the sanctuary of God; then understood I their end" (Psalm lxxiii. 17): by consulting the Scriptures, he saw the end and close of them that walk not according to God's direction: his word and works do mutually explain one another. The sanctuary is the place where God's people meet, where his word is taught, where we may have satisfaction concerning all his dealings.

2. That, when any divine dispensation goeth cross to our affections, yea, our prayers and expectations, yet, even then, can faith bring meat out of the eater, and find many occasions of praise and thanksgiving to God; for nothing falleth out so cross, but we may see the hand of God in it working for good.

(1.) Though we have not the blessing we seek and pray for, yet we give thanks, because God hath been sometimes intreated: he hath showed himself a God hearing prayer, and is only delaying now until a more fit time wherein he may give us that which is sought: "Hope in God; for I shall yet praise him who is the health of my countenance and my God" (Psalm xliii. 5). Now we are mourning; but he is our God, and we are not left without hope of a blessed issue. God that hath been gracious, will be gracious again. He is our gracious father, when we are under his sharpest corrections; a father, when he striketh or frowneth: therefore, we are not without hope that he will give us opportunities again of glorifying his name.

(2.) We bless God for continuing so long the mercies which he hath taken from us. Former experiences must not be forgotten. Eben-ezer, "Hitherto hath the Lord helped us :" if he shall afflict us afterward, yet hitherto he hath helped us (1 Sam. vii. 12). If he take away life, it is a mercy that he spared it so long for his own service and glory; if liberty, that we had such a time of rest and intermission.

(3.) God is yet worthy of praise and thanksgiving for choicer mercies. yet continued, notwithstanding all the afflictions laid upon us. That we have his Spirit supporting us under our trials, and enabling us to bear them: " Rejoice, inasmuch as ye are partakers of Christ's sufferings; that, when his glory shall be revealed, ye may be glad also with exceeding joy. If ye be reproached for the name of Christ, happy are ye; for the Spirit of glory and of God resteth upon you" (1 Pet. iv. 13, 14). And that we have any peace of conscience: " Therefore, being justified by faith, we have peace with God, through our Lord Jesus Christ" (Rom. v. 1). That the hope of eternal life is not diminished, but increased, by our afflictions: "We glory in tribulations also; knowing that tribulation worketh patience: and patience, experience; and experience, hope; and hope maketh not ashamed; because the love of God is shed abroad in our

hearts by the Holy Ghost which is given unto us" (Rom. v. 3—5). That many of our natural comforts are yet left, and God will supply us by ways best known to himself.

(4.) That evils and afflictions which light upon us for the Gospel's sake, or righteousness' sake, and Christ's name's sake, are to be reckoned among our privileges, and deserve praise rather than complaint: "Unto you it is given, in the behalf of Christ, not only to believe on him, but also to suffer for his sake" (Phil. i. 29): if it be a gift, it is matter of praise.

(5.) Take these evils in the worst notion, they are less than we have deserved: "And after all that is come upon us for our evil deeds, and for our great trespass, seeing that thou our God hast punished us less than our iniquities deserve" (Ezra ix. 13). Babylon is not Hell, and still that should be acknowledged.

(6.) That no evils have befallen us, but such as God can bring good out of them: "All things work together for good to them that love God" (Rom. viii. 28). All things that befall a Christian are either good, or shall turn to good: either to good natural, "Ye thought evil against me; but God meant it unto good" (Gen. 1. 20); or good spiritual, "I know, O Lord, that thy judgments are right, and that thou in faithfulness hast afflicted me" (Psalm cxix. 75); or good eternal, “For our light affliction, which is but for a moment, worketh for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory" (2 Cor. iv. 17).

USE I.-For information; that God's righteous judgments are matter of praise and thanksgiving; an angel is brought in speaking: "Thou art righteous, O Lord, which art, and wast, and shalt be, because thou hast judged thus" (Rev. xvi. 5). Indeed, the formal object of thanksgiving and praise is some benefit: "Praise the Lord, for the Lord is good" (Psalm cxxxv. 3). We praise God for his judgments, because they are just and right; we praise God for his mercies, not only because they are just and equal, but comfortable and beneficial to us, and so a double ground of thanksgiving.

USE II.-For reproof; that we make more noise of a little trouble than we do of a thousand benefits that remain with us. We fret and complain and manifest the impatiency of the flesh, like a great machine or carriage: if one pin be out of order, all stoppeth; or one member hurt, though all the rest of the body be sound; or as Haman, the favours of a great king, pleasures of a luxurious court, all this availed him nothing, as long as Mordecai was in the gate (Esther v. 13): notwithstanding his riches, honours, multitude of children, great offices, this damped all his joy: "I have loved you, saith the Lord; yet ye say, Wherein hast thou loved us ?" (Mal. i. 2.) Non quod habet numerat, &c. Oh! let us check this complaining spirit: let us consider what is left, not what God hath taken away; what we may or shall have, not what we now want; what God is, and will be to his people, though we see little or nothing in the creature. DOCTRINE III.-That a heart deeply affected with God's providence, will take all occasions to praise and give thanks.

1. It is certain that our whole life should be a real expression of thankfulness to God. The life of a Christian is a life of love and praise, a hymn to God: "But ye are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a peculiar people; that ye should show forth the praises of him who hath called you out of darkness into his marvellous light" (1 Pet. ii. 9). Christianity is a confession: the visible acting of godli.

ness is a part of this confession, we are all saved as confessors or martyrs. Now, the confession is made both in word and deed. ›

2. There are special occasions of thanksgiving and praise to God, as the Apostle bids Timothy preach, εvraipwę draipwę, "in season, out of season" (2 Tim. iv. 2); meaning thereby, that he should not only take ordinary occasions, but extraordinary; he should make an opportunity where he found none. So we should press Christians to praise God, not only in solemn duties, when the saints meet together to praise, but extraordinarily redeem time for this blessed work; yea, interrupt our lawful sleep and repose, to find frequent vacancies for so necessary a duty as the lauding and magnifying of God's mercy.

3. As for rising up at midnight, we can neither enforce it as a duty upon you, nor yet can we condemn it. It was an act of heroical zeal in David, who employed his time waking to the honour of God, which others spent in sleeping; and we read that Paul and Silas sang praises at midnight, though then in the stocks, and they had been scourged the day before (Acts xvi. 25). And it is said, "None saith, Where is God my maker, who giveth songs in the night?" (Job xxxv. 10;) that is, giveth matter of praise if we wake in the night. And David saith elsewhere, "The Lord will command his lovingkindness in the daytime, and in the night his song shall be with me" (Psalm xlii. 8): day and night he would be filled with a sense of God's love and with songs of praise. Therefore, we cannot condemn this, but must highly commend it. Let men praise God at any time; and the more they deny themselves to do it, the more commendable is the action: yet we cannot enforce it upon you as a necessary duty, as the Papists build their nocturnal devotions upon it. That which we disapprove in them is, that those hours instituted by men they make necessary; that they direct their prayers to saints and angels, which should only be to God; that they mingle them with superstitious ceremonies and observances; that they pray and sing in an unknown tongue, without devotion, appropriating it to a certain sort of men, to clerks for their gain, with an opinion of merit. The primitive Christians had their hymnos antelucanos, but in persecution; their dλEKTоpopwvias, saith Clemens Alexandrinus; but what is this to superstitious night-services?

4. Though we cannot enforce the particular observance upon you, yet there are many notable lessons to be drawn from David's practice.

(1.) The ardency of his devotion, or his earnest desire to praise God : "at midnight," then when sleep doth most invade us, then he would rise up. His heart was so set upon the praising of God, and the sense of his righteous providence did so affect him, and urge him or excite him to this duty, that he would not only employ himself in this work in the daytime, and so show his love to God, but he would rise out of his bed to worship God and celebrate his praise. That which hindereth the sleep of ordinary men, is either the cares of this world, the impatient resentment of injuries, or the sting of an evil conscience: these keep others waking; but David was awaked by a desire to praise God. No hour is unseasonable to a gracious heart: he is expressing his affection to God when others take their rest. Thus we read of our Lord Christ, that he spent whole nights in prayer (Luke vi. 12). It is said of the glorified saints in Heaven, that they praise God continually: "Therefore are they before the throne of God, and serve him day and night in his temple; and he that sitteth on the throne shall dwell among them" (Rev. vii. 15). Now, holy men,

though much hindered by their bodily necessities, yet they will come as near as present frailty will permit: we oftentimes beg in the day, with some fervency of prayer and praise; but we faint ere even.

(2.) His sincerity, seen in his secrecy. David would profess his faith in God when he had no witness by him; "at midnight," then no hazard of ostentation. It was a secret cheerfulness and delighting in God: when alone, he could have no respect to the applause of men, but only to approve himself to God who seeth in secret. See Christ's direction, "But thou, when thou prayest, enter into thy closet; and when thou hast shut thy door, pray to thy Father which is in secret; and thy Father, which seeth in secret, shall reward thee openly" (Matt. vi. 6): his own practice, "Rising up a great while before day, he went out, and departed into a solitary place, and there prayed" (Mark i. 35): he went into a desert to pray; both time and place implied secrecy.

(3.) We learn hence the preciousness of time: it was so to David; see how he spendeth the time of his life. We read of David, when he lay down at night, he watered his couch with his tears, after the examination of his heart (Psalm vi. 6); at midnight he rose to give thanks; in the morning, he prevented the morning watches; seven times a-day praising God: morning, noon, night. These are all acts of eminent piety. We should not content ourselves with so much grace as will merely serve to save us. Alas! we have much idle time hangs upon our hands: if we would give that to God, it were well.

(4.) The value of godly exercises above our natural refreshings: the word is sweeter than appointed food: "I have esteemed the words of his mouth more than my necessary food" (Job xxiii. 12). David preferreth his praises of God before his sleep and rest in the night. Surely, this should shame us for our sensuality. We can dispense with other things for our vain pleasures: we have done as much for sin, for vain sports, broken our rest for sin. Some monsters of mankind turn night into day, and day into night, for their drunkenness, gaming, vain sports, &c.; and shall we not deny ourselves for God?

(5.) The reverence to be used in secret adoration. David did not only raise up his spirits to praise God, but rise up out of his bed, to bow the knee to him. Secret duties should be performed with some solemnity, not slubbered over. Praise, a special act of adoration, requireth the worship of body and soul.

USE.-Let David's example condemn our backwardness and sluggishness, who will not take those occasions which offer themselves. Mark; he gave thanks when we fret: at midnight, he rose to do it with more secrecy and fervency; this not to pray only, but to give thanks.

SERMON LXXI.

VERSE 63.—I am a companion of all them that fear thee, and of them that keep thy precepts.

In this verse, two things are observable :—

1. A description of the people of God: they are described by their principle, and by the course of their lives and actions, fear and obedience. 2. David's respect to them, "I am a companion of all them."

More particularly,

1. In the person speaking. The disparity of the persons is to be observed. David, who was a great Prophet, yea, a king, yet saith, "I am a companion of all them that fear thee." Christ himself called them his "fellows:" " Thy God hath anointed thee with the oil of gladness above thy fellows" (Psalm xlv. 7); and therefore David might well say, “I am a companion."

2. David saith of "all them." The universal particle is to be observed; not only some, but "all:" when any lighted upon him, or he upon any of them, they were welcome to him. How well would it be for the world, if the great potentates of the earth would thus think, speak, and do, "I am a companion of all them that fear thee." Self-love reigneth in most men: we love the rich and despise the poor, and so have the faith of our Lord Jesus Christ with respect of persons (James ii. 1): therefore this universality is to be regarded. Hearing of your faith and love to all the saints (Eph. i. 15), to the mean as well as the greatest. Meanness doth not take away church-relations (1 Cor. xi. 20). There are many differences in wordly respects between one child and another; yea, in spiritual gifts, some weaker, some stronger; but we must love all; for all are children of one Father, all owned by Christ: "He is not ashamed to call them brethren" (Heb. ii. 11). This, I say, is observable, the disparity of the persons on the one side, David; on the other, all the people of God.

First, Let us take notice of the description of the people of God: they are such as fear him, and keep his precepts; that is, obey him conscientiously, out of reverence to his majesty and goodness, and due regard to his will delivered in his word. The same description is used Acts x. 35, "In every nation he that feareth him [God], and worketh righteousness, is accepted with him." Note hence,—

DOCTRINE I.-The fear of God is the grand principle of obedience : "Oh! that there were such a heart in them, that they would fear me, and keep all my commandments always" (Deut. v. 20). Here consider, First, What is the fear of God.

Secondly, What influence it hath upon obedience.

First, What is the fear of God. There is a twofold fear of God, servile and filial.

1st, Servile; by which a man feareth God and hateth him, as a slave feareth his cruel master, whom he could wish dead, and himself rid of his service, and obeyeth by mere compulsion and constraint. Thus the wicked fear God, because they have drawn an ill picture of him in their minds: "I knew thee that thou art a hard man, &c.; and I was afraid” (Matt. xxv. 24, 25). They perform only a little unwilling and unpleasing service, and as little as they can, because of their ill conceit of God. So Adam feared God after his sin, when he ran away from him (Gen. iii. 10). Yea, so the devils fear God, and rebel against him: "The devils also believe, and tremble" (James ii. 19). This fear hath torment in it to the creature, and hatred of God; because, by the fear of his curse and the flames of Hell, he seeketh to drive them from sin.

2ndly, Filial fear; as children fear to offend their dear parents: and thus the godly do so fear God, that they do also love him, and obey him, and cleave to him; and this preserveth us in our duty: "I will put my fear in their hearts, that they shall not depart from me" (Jer. xxxii. 40). This is a necessary frame of heart for all those that would observe and obey God. This fear is twofold: