HEAVENLY LIFE UPON EARTH. 237 17. (7) Be much in the evangelical work of praise. The more heavenly the employment, the more it will make the spirit heavenly. Praising God is the work of angels and saints in heaven, and will be our own everlasting work ; and if we were more in it now, we should be like to what we shall be then. As desire, faith, and hope, are of shorter continuance than love and joy ; so also preaching, prayer, and sacraments, and all means for expressing and confirming our faith and hope, shall cease, when our triumphant expres- sions of love and joy shall abide for ever. The liveliest emblem of heaven that I know upon earth, is, when then people of God, in the deep sense of his excellency and bounty, fròm hearts abounding with love and joy, join together both in heart and voice, in the cheerful and melodious singing of his praises. These delights, like the testimony of the Spirit, witness themselves to be of God, and bring the evidences of their heavenly parentage along with them. § 18. Little do we know how we wrong ourselves, by shutting out of our prayers the praises of God, or allowing them so narrow a room as we usually do, while we are copious enough in our confessions and petitions.. Reader, I entreat thee remember this ; let praises have a larger room in thy duties ; keep matter ready at hand to feed thy praise, as well as matter for confession and petition. To this end, study the ex- cellencies arid goodness of the Lord, as frequently as thy own wants and unworthiness ; the mercies thou hast received, and those which are promised, as often as the sins thou hast committed. "Praise is comely for the upright. Whoso offereth praise glorifieth God. Praise ye the Lord for the Lord is good ; sing praises unto his name, for it is pleasant.(p) Let us offer the sacrifice of praise to God continually, that is, the fruit of our lips, giving thanks to his name.(q) Ilad not David a most heavenly spirit, who was so much in this heavenly work ? Doth it not sometimes raise our heart, when we only read the- song of Moses, and the psalms of (p) Psalm xxxiii. 1. L 23. cxx. 5. (q) Heb. xiii. 15.
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