. 2. The duty of prayer, both fecret and focial, how pleasant is it to them that are exercifed therein! Jer. xxxiii. 3. "Call upon me, and I will anfwer thee; and fhew thee great and mighty things, which thou knoweft not." We may fay in this, as with reference to the former head, what makes hearing fo unpleasant to many? Why, because, in hearing, they do not hear; for, if indeed they heard the voice of God, it would be the most pleafant thing in the world to them, it being a quickening voice, a heart-roufing, and raifing voice. So what makes prayer unpleafant? Why, because in praying, they do not pray. If people knew what it were, with Jacob, to wrestle with God in prayer, they would call the name of the place Bethel, The house of God, the gate of heaven;" they would call it Peniel, where they faw God face to face, Gen. xxviii. 17. xxxii. 30. Can any think it a grievous work for the guilty foul, to pray for pardon; or the polluted foul, to pray for cleanfing; for a loving child to converfe with his father, and fpeak to him? True, the atheistical heart fays, "It is in vain to serve the Lord: and what a wearinefs is it?" Mal. iii. 14. and i. 13. fuch will give him but a lame and lifelefs fervice. But the time cometh, when they who now defpife prayer, will betake themfelves to prayer; fickness, and death, and terror, will teach you to pray earnestly, who now put off with a few dead, formal, and heartless words. 3. The duty of praise and thanksgiving, how pleasant it is, to them that are exercifed therein! Surely they are not acquainted with this work, who know not the pleasure of it. If there be any thing pleasant in the world, it is the praife of God that flows from a loving, believing heart, filled with the majefty, mercy, goodness, and excellency of God in Chrift, to remember his great and wonderful works, to mention his glorious and adorable attributes, fhining in the face of Jefus, with a light that infinitely furpaffes the fun in its brightnefs. O! how pleafant is it, to fee and adore the Father in the Son, and the Godhead in the manhood of our Lord Jefus, and the riches of grace in the glass of the gofpel, the manifold wisdom of God? There is not a per a perfection of God, nor a promife of the covenant, nor a paffage of the gofpel, nor a part of the Spirit's work upon the foul, but contains fuch matter of praife to God, as might fill believing fouls with pleasure and find them moft delightful work. Surely they never knew the life of religion, who never took any pleasure in praise: they muft have a dangerous disease that makes them loath the fweetest things. See how the Spirit of God reprefents the sweetness of this exercise, Pfal. cxlvii. 1. cxlix. 1, 2. XCV. 1, 2, 3. xcvi. 1, 2, 3. " Praife ye the Lord; for it is good to fing praifes to our God; for it is pleafant, and praife is comely. Praife ye the Lord: fing unto the Lord a new fong, and his praise in the congregation of faints. Let Ifrael rejoice in him that made him; let the children of Zion be joyful in their King. O! come, let us fing unto the Lord: let us make a joyful noise to the Rock of our falvation. Let us come before his presence with thanksgiving, and make a joyful noise unto him with pfalms. For the Lord is a great God, and a great King, above all gods. O fing unto the Lord a new fong, fing unto the Lord, all the earth: fing unto the Lord, blefs his name; fhew forth his falvation from day to day. Declare his glory among the heathen, his wonders among all people." O what a joyful thing is it, when the force of love doth open our lips that our mouth may fhew forth his praife! Pfal. cxxxv. 2, 3. This is the recreation of faints and angels. How are they to be pitied who know no better diverfion, nor cure of melancholy, than in a bumper of ale, a flock of cards, a company of profane fwearers, drunkards, or debauchees! Whoever will furfeit on the pleafures of the flesh, there are a few happy fouls that are for David's one thing: "One thing have I defired of the Lord; that will I feek after, that I may dwell in the houfe of the Lord all the days of my life; to behold the beauty of the Lord and to enquire into his temple, Pfal. xxvii. 4.-For in the times of trouble he will hide me in his pavilion: in the fecret of his tabernacle fhall he hide me; he fhall fet me upon a rock: and now fhall my head be lifted up above mine enemies, round about me: therefore will I offer in his tabernacle, facrifi ces ces of joy; I will fing, yea, I will fing praifes unto the Lord," ver. 5, 6. 4. The duty of partaking in the facramental fupper, how pleasant is this to be worthy communicants! They that know what it is to meet with God at fuch occafions, will know that there is no pleasure on earth, comparable to that which is, fometimes found at this folemn feaft. This holy feaft is purposely provided by the King of faints, for the pleasant entertainment of his family. Therein the flain Lamb of God, our Paffover facrified for us, to take away our fins, is the pleafant food: as our finful pleasures were his forrows; fo his forrows are our joys; his pain, our pleafure; his death, our life; his fuffering, our feaft. See John vi. 33. 50, 51. "For the bread of God is he which cometh down from heaven, and giveth life unto the world. This is the bread that cometh down from heaven, that a man may eat thereof and not die. I am the living bread, that came down from heaven; if any man eat of this bread he fhall live for ever: and the bread that I will give is my flesh, which I will give for the life of the world." Here we have communion with God, as a reconciled God in Chrift, his eternal Son, whom he, the offended Majefty, fent to be our Redeemer, Saviour, and Surety: here we have communion with Chrift, as crucified and glorified for us, offered and exhibited to us, as our quickening and ftrengthening Head: and here we have communion. with the Holy Ghost, applying to our fouls the benefit of redemption, drawing us to the Son, and communicating light, life, ftrength, and comfort from him to us here we have communion with the body of Christ, his fanctified people, heirs of eternal life in Chrift: here we have pardon and falvation fealed, and the greatest mercies in the world brought down to us, in fenfible reprefentations, that the means may be fuited to the frailty and infirmity of our prefent flate. If you could never find any pleasure in these things, it is because you are alive to fin, and dead to God, and want fpiritual sense ; infomuch, that heaven itself would not be pleasant to you, unless your nature be changed, to make you change change your pleasure. If the children of God find, at any time, little pleafure in that ordinance, it is only when fome difeafe doth corrupt the appetite, and make the sweetest things feem bitter, when faith is not in exercise, and their fpiritual fenses are dulled. 5. The duties of Sabbath-days fervice, or of the work of the Lord's day. How pleafant is it to all that call the Sabbath a delight, and the holy of the Lord, honourable! Ifa. lviii. 13. How fweetly doth the exercised believer, then, go from flower to flower, gathering honey to his foul, and fo preparing for winter! How fweetly doth he go from promife to promife, from duty to duty, from prayer to reading and hearing, from reading and hearing to prayer again; and from prayer to praife; from public to private worship, and from private to public; from one edifying employment to another, from one edifying leflon to another, gathering honey and sweetness to his foul, and laying in provision for death and eternity! Alas! Sirs, if brutish wantons, who make the Sabbath but a play-day, an idle day, knew the ineffable delights that exercifed fouls find in fome of their Sabbath-days public and private worship, how would they blufh at their own folly and madness, that prefer a day in an ale-house, before a day in God's houfe! How confounded might they be, to hear king David faying, A day in thy courts, is better than a thousand?" O carnal, brutish finner! that Sabbathwork, which is your toil, is the faints recreation; and thefe follies which are your fport and recreation, would be their prifon, and ftocks, and toil; for they are delighted in waiting on that Lord, whom you know not. แ 6. The duty of holy conference is another pleasant portion of the work: however much this is worn out amongst the people of God, yet, as the duty is always binding, fo the exercife is pleasant to all that are engaged in it, who converfe with one-another, not by hear-fay, but by experience, about the communion they have had with God, the prayers he hath heard, the deliverances he hath granted, and the fupport and comfort in diftrefs that he hath allowed; their conflicts with temptation, and their conquells over it: they can direct each other in their difficulties, and comfort each other with the fame comfort, wherein they themselves have been comforted by the Lord; and fo edifying oneanother by their spiritual communication. O Christians! if your graces did not languish, and your foul lofe the relish of heavenly things, you would be more fond of and frequent in fellowship meetings, and holy converse with the godly; according to Mal.iii. 16. Heb. x. 24,25. iii. 13. "Then they that feared the Lord, fpoke often one to another; and the Lord hearkened and heard it: and a book of remembrance was written before him, for them that feared the Lord, and thought upon his name. And let us confider one-another, to provoke unto love, and to good works; not forgetting the affembling of our felves together, as the manner of fome is: but exhorting one-another; and fo much the more, as ye fee the day approaching.-Exhort one another daily, while it is called to-day, left any of you be hardened through the deceitfulness of fin." O Sirs, you who never could take pleasure in the converfe of the godly, upon fpiritual fubjects, what is the fubject of your communication with thefe with whom you confer? Do you talk of better things than God? or higher things than heaven? or things that more nearly concern you, than the matters of everlafling confequence? Go to a company of merry fellows, as you call them, and to a company of ferious, godly people, and fecretly write down all their words that you hear, from both companies, and read them over together, and feet which is the pleasantest or fweeteft. What a hotch-potch of nonfenfe, impertinence, levity, worldlinefs, pride, and folly, and perhaps impurity and profanity too, fhall you find in the one? and what favoury, neceffary, edifying difcourfer will you find in the other? It is far pleafanter , to be among bleating fheep, and finging birds, than among idle, prattling, foolifh companions: for, with the former, you fhall have fome natural good, without any mixture of finful evil; but, in wicked, foolish, company, what will you perceive, but how much nature is depraved? How finners are befide themselves, how Satan doth befool them, and how God is forgotten, while |