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as had as the rest, but sovereign grace put the spirit of praise in his heart. In like manner, when the believer's soul is sweetly assured that paternal love has been fixed upon him from everlasting, that he has been redeemed by atoning blood, and that the Holy Ghost has quickened him by invincible grace, surely a tribute of gratitude and praise must be paid to Jehovah?

But there is one mischief that Satan and his aide-de-camp, unbelief, puts in the way of praising God; it is by leading them to dispute what God has done for them. What! call in question what God has done? Are you dead or alive, in a spiritual point of view? If you have life Divine in your soul, though it be but a spark, He gave it to you. Have you blessed God for it? Have you thanked Him and taken courage? Oh! the power which unbelief has over many a dear child of God! "I dare not go to the Lord's table, I must not think of joining a Church yet, I must have some better evidence." Do you not know that all this is of the devil, who thus leads you to cherish unbelief? Go to self-examination. I do not want you to come to the table if you have no grace-I could not welcome you there; it is only for the children of God, who have been brought out of Egypt, and separated from the world; who have got away from the task-masters, and are journeying heavenwards, and who well know that they have no other dependence, that they have nothing to rely upon but the blood of atonement and the perfect work of the Lord Jesus Christ. What! call in question whether God has given them any grace? How basely ungrateful! It is enough to make them ashamed before God. My hearers, let us join in the expression, "Praise ye the Lord." "I will praise Him."

For some years past, blessed be His name, I have come to the point, "Once I was blind, now I see;" once I was a rebel against Christ, now I bow to His sceptre; I was once without a justifying righteousness, and went about seeking to establish my own; I am now stripped of that, and am clothed with the righteousness of God. “I will praise Him." I hope I should be able to follow out this vow, even if I were brought to accompany Paul and Silas, and had my back sore with stripes and my feet fast in the stocks. I will praise the Lord." Surely Paul and Silas were better off than the ruffian jailer; surely they were better off than the unconverted Jews; surely they were better off than any unconverted men on the face of the earth, for God was their God, and their Deliverer nigh at hand too. Oh! beloved, there are no circumstances under heaven in which a Christian can be placed, in which he ought not to come to this conclusion—“ I will praise the Lord." Shall I go a step further here, and while acknowledging paternal love, and atoning blood, and invincible grace in my soul, shall I look into His dealings with me, and praise Him for them all? Oh! it requires great grace to praise Him in all circumstancesto praise Him in the fire, to praise Him in the den of lions, to praise Him in passing through the rivers of water, to praise Him in flames, to praise Him in adversity as well as in prosperity, to praise Him in dark seasons as well as in light ones. "I will praise the Lord." I do hope to accomplish one thing, under God, this morning, if I accomplish no more to produce an overwhelming shame in all our hearts in consequence of the distance at which we have lived from Him, and our ingratitude to Him.

Moreover, "I will praise the Lord," being inspired with love. And this is the quintessence of the gospel. "The love of God shed abroad

in our hearts by the Holy Ghost given unto us." Here I fear again there will be a miserable lack discoverable. How much love hast thou to Jesus? Just measure it. Have you more love to Him than you have to your sin? Have you more love to Him than you have to your circumstances? Have you more love to Him than you have to your children? Have you more love to Him than you have to your parents? Have you more love to Him than you have to your brothers and sisters? Have you more love to Him than you have to your wife? Have you more love to Him than you have to your busband? Have you more love to Him than you have for your money? How much love have you to Jesus? Ah! my hearers, if the flame of love burns slowly, you cannot expect praise to rise very high. "I will praise Him," because I love Him. Now just allow a little comparison here. If you speak of a man as being a good workman, or an honest tradesman, you may praise him as such. If you speak of a friend, whom you have perhaps seen only once or twice, but who really acted a kind part towards you in your danger or difficulty, you are quite at liberty to praise him; but there is some dear friend, who has long been lying in your bosom, and you get into the same company with him, and are led to praise him, perhaps unwarrantably, perhaps enthusiastically. The question is put to you, "Why do you praise him?" "Because I love him." Now I want this to be done with regard to my Master. You may praise His works; you may praise His servants, as far as they are entitled to it; you may praise your brethren, as far as their brotherly affection is dealt out to each other; you may praise the ministry of His Church, you may praise the multitude of His dealings with you; but do you praise Him? How much? Just as much as you love Him-just as much as you are inspired with love to His dear name. I do not know whether I wish to hear any man speak more highly of his father according to the flesh than I do of mine. I say I loved him much, and he must have much of my praise. And when I go to my Father in heaven, and pour out my praises to Him, it is because I love Him. Oh! that I could fan the flame in the hearts of my hearers!

Moreover, will there not be, as a matter of course, an ardent panting after higher intercourse, more knowledge of Him, more intimacy with Him? The more we know Him the more we love Him; the more we love Him the more we trust Him; the more we rely on Him the more intercourse we maintain with Him, the more ardently our affections go forth towards Him, the more full, loud, and perpetual will be our praise, until we reach the standing I have referred to"His praise shall be continually in my mouth.'

III.--But now glance for a few moments at the expression which points to experimental godliness: "With my whole heart." Let us have no half-hearted work in religion, if you please. "With my whole heart." This, I think, includes spirituality, simplicity, and earnestness. "I will praise the Lord with my whole heart;" under the mighty teaching and holy anointings of thy Spirit. The Psalmist prays in one instance, "Unite my heart to fear thy name." Surely we may paraphrase it, "Unite my heart to praise thy name." I cannot divide it; I cannot give His glory to another, nor His praise to graven images, even as He will not give His glory to another, nor His praise to graven images; He is entitled to all. And when the

Psalmist says, "Give unto the Lord, give unto the Lord the glory due unto His name," I am prompted to ask, "How much is it?" All that the heart can pour forth, all that the mighty powers of the soul can muster, all that the energies with which God has endowed it can send up to His throne. Oh! this all centres in experimental Christianity. Now it is written in positive terms for our encouragement, "He that offereth praise glorifieth God." Mind you, it is not, "He that offereth praise most according to sounds;" it is not "He that offereth praise most in harmony with human inventions," but he that offereth it with his heart. Half-hearted praise is a mockery of God; half-hearted praise is offensive to Jesus Christ; half-hearted praise is just what Watts describes as

"Mocking Him with solemn sounds
Upon a thoughtless tongue."

Real heart-felt praise is when the powers of the soul are carried above the world, and led to contemplate all the glories of Jehovah-when the soul is embosomed in Deity, and is shouting out the hallelujahs which my text opens with, to the praise of His all-glorious name; and this will lead us to take up those other lines of Watts

"My willing soul would stay

In such a frame as this;
And sit and sing herself away
To everlasting bliss."

There seems something of emulation in this expression-" with my whole heart;" and sure I am, that when the Holy Ghost enables us to move upwards in the spirit of praise, troubles, difficulties, temptations, snares, enemies, afflictions, sorrows, death itself, have no power to harm us; the spirit of praise bears us above all, carries us within celestial regions, where we seem to mingle our praises with the hallelujahs of glorified spirits around the throne. "With my whole

heart.

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IV. But I must say a few words about the relative position. "In the assembly of the upright and in the congregation.' Where am I to find "the assembly of the upright?" It is true, "God made man upright," but how did He find him when He turned Adam out of paradise? Instead of finding him upright He found him with " every imagination of the thoughts of his heart only evil continually." Where, then, are the upright? Now the term "upright" is frequently used in the book of Psalms, and I think there are two significations attached to it. The first is, the Upright One; and when the consciousness of Jesus' presence is felt in the soul, how delightful is the work of faith! "In the assembly of the upright." Viewing the perfection of His work, and the integrity of His heart, and the great concern the Father has entrusted to His hands, and knowing that He is perfectly upright before the throne, pleading for His people, our hearts praise Him. But I dare not limit the signification to this. Some, however, who wish only to mystify Christianity, would limit this as meaning only the Upright One. I do not conceive that this is the case; I conceive that the household of faith are all made upright. And here, perhaps, I shall have to use a little severity. The household of faith were sinners, in common with all others, in their unre

generacy; but when God takes possession of the sinner's heart, in the manner I have described, in order to call forth His praises, I beg of you to mark, that He always makes that sinner upright in a twofold sense; He makes him upright towards God, and He makes him upright towards man. I have little hope of one without the other. He makes him upright before God, so that he will not even desire to be pardoned, to be justified, to be accepted, to be preserved, or to be saved, but in a way that shall perfectly accord with the honour of all the attributes and perfections of Deity. Now if I wished to be saved in a way that would violate God's justice and truth, I could not be upright before God. It is a dishonesty, it seeks to plunder God of His glory, to rob Jesus of His honour, to supplant the Holy Ghost, and put proud free-will in His place. It is not uprightness before God. Now "the assembly of the upright" (just the sort of Christians I like to worship with) are the persons who wish to be saved before God in a way that shall pay every farthing, the very last mite, to the holy law, without any compromise-in a way that shall fully satisfy the demands of inflexible justice-in a way which shall fully carry out the truth of God, where He says, “I will by no means clear the guilty." I do not want Him to violate His word for the sake of saving me. I want Him to save me in a way that shall honour all His perfections, glorify His dear name, set forth His truth, carry out His purposes and designs, accomplish His covenant plan, fulfil all His predestinating enactments-in a way that shall glorify Christ, as a Surety and Friend-in a way that shall employ the Holy Ghost to do all the work of grace in a sinner's heart, and bring from the sinner a revenue of praise for a full salvation to Israel's Triune God. I suppose I shall be thought very severe here. Look in your Bibles, and see whether I have stated what is correct. You do not find it so in Popery. There you find praise of priests, praise of cardinals, praise of Infidel armies-anything to accomplish their purpose. They do not praise the Lord. You do not find it among Arians and Socinians, for they will not own the Triune God of Israel at all. You do not find it among free-willers, for they praise themselves; and while they may praise God for providing a Saviour, and for the atoning blood that He shed, they will not praise Him for His perfections, His fulness, His stability, His inviolable certainty and security, but leave the matter uncertain, and contingent on something to be done by them. These are not "the upright before God."

The man that is upright before God, has owned or confessed the worst he knows of his case before the footstool of Divine mercy, he has thrown open his books, he has declared his insolvency to the law and justice of God, he adopts the very language of the Psalmist, “I acknowledged my sin unto thee, and mine iniquity have I not hid;" and instead of offering any compromise or making any specious promises, he betakes himself to the Divine Surety, of whom he obtains by faith a perfect obedience, a full satisfaction, a perfect righteousness, and presents them before God as His own. Thus he is accepted before the throne as an upright character, standing complete in Christ his Surety, in whom law and justice are perfectly satisfied on his behalf, and his prayer is, "Let integrity and righteousness preserve me, for I wait on thee." His condemnation is removed-his justification proclaimed his absolution is enjoyed (without the interference of Infidel priests) his sanctification is given to him, and his glorification waits for him.

Moreover, when God makes man upright before Him, so as not even to desire salvation in any othe: way but his own, He w be sure to make him upright among men; He will give him common integry He will make him what is commonly called nonest. You may bes him safely; his word is as good as his bond. He makes him uprigh before men. He will not do anything dishonest, you may trast thou sand of pounds in his hands. He may be subject to the contingencies of life, but not about final happiness. He is upright before men, as well as before God. The very thing I want o impress or your minds; you may call it severity if you like. That man is not upright before God, who is not upright in his dealings among raen-not upright in his intercourse with fellow-worms. He must be upright before men. This is "the assembly" which I wish to be in, and with which I wish to spend a happy eternity in praising my Lord.

"The grace of God that bringeth salvation hath appeared to all men, teaching us that, denying ungodliness and worldly lusts we should live soberly, righteously, and godly in this present world;"' and the man who is not thus taught of God, gives us no evidence that the grace of God has brought salvation into his heart. Alas! that there should be so much cause to complain that this teaching should be so little received, so little practised. I do not know a more disgusting character than the being who has made himself acquainted with the theory of Christianity, but never having felt the power of it in his soul, is living in the love and practise of sin, destitute of sincerity, and unfit for either the world or the Church. A perfect contrast to the upright man who says what he means, and means what he says, who lives under the constraining influence of the religion which he possesses at home and abroad, "making manifest the savour of the Redeemer's knowledge in every place." Oh, ye who profess to be clad in the righteousness of Christ, see to it that ye keep your garments unspotted from the flesh, let your light shine before men that they may be constrained to glorify your Father which is in heaven. Be concerned to hold fast the form of sound words, which we call the doctrines of grace, and be equally concerned to adore the doctrines of God our Saviour in all things.

Just mark something here like an incorporation, or fellowship. “In the assembly, and in the congregation." "I often hear persons object to go to the Lord's table, and to join churches, because there are so many things they do not like in them. Do not misunderstand me; I am speaking of “the assembly of the upright." Mingle with them, for they are a grand corps. They all sing of paternal love; they all sing of atoning blood; they all sing of invincible grace, and security for glory. I wish you to join their assembly. There is no knowing to what an extent the Lord's people may assist and aid each other in the great work of praising the Lord, by associating with each other. Just put this to a test in some of your interviews say over a cup of tea; you meet with some of your fellow-pilgrims, and perhaps begin to sing a hymn, and talk of the Lord's dealings with you, till you begin to vie with each other which shall praise Him most, and desire to put on your shoes of iron and brass, and go on singing His praises all through the wilderness. Oh, that the spirit of the Lord may rest upon us in our experience to-day in singing His praise.

Go a step further, with regard to this incorporation with the assembly and congregation of the upright, and do mark, that the spirit of Christian fellowship ought to make each other's personal comfort

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