[2.] In the old testament it is often called for, and sorted with duties that are of perpetual and immutable obligation. When sacrifice is rejected, prayer and praise is still reserved as the worship which God will still keep up in tlie church : Ps. 1. 13-15, ' Will I cat the flesh of bulls, or drink the blood of goats ? Ofier unto God thanksgiving ; and pay thy vows unto the Most High : and call upon me in the day of trouble ; I will deliver thee ; ' Ps. c. 2, ' Serve the Lord with glad-
VeR. 19.] SERMONS UPON EPHESIANS V. 415?
ness ; come before his presence with singing.' Now delighting in God is an essential fundamental duty.
[3.] In the new testament we are bidden again to sing psalms, as in the text, and Colossians iii. 16. And we are confirmed therein by the practice of Christ and his apostles : Mat. xxvi. 30, ' And when they had sung an hymn, they went out into the Mount of Olives.' So of Paul and Silas : Acts xvi. 25, ' And at midnight Paul and Silas prayed and sung praises to God.' And the consent of the churches of Christ. Pliny in his letter to Trajan mentioneth the christians' liymnos anfelu- canos, their morning songs, which they sung to Christ as God, as an usual practice in their solemn worship ; and Justin Martyr, v/xvovi KoX '7rpoaev-)(a<i rot ©e^ dvaTre/xTrofiev, that they did send up hymns and prayers to God ; all which proveth it a clear and unquestionable duty.
2. It is a delectable ordinance, that rather tendeth to cheering and refreshing than to toil : Ps. cxlvii. 1, ' Praise ye the Lord, for it is good to sing praises unto our God ; for it is pleasant, and praise is comely.' There is no part of God's worship that carrieth more motives with it in its own bosom ; so no part to which we are more indisposed, or want stirring up. All the motives and encouragements to any work do there concur ; it is ' good,' it is ' pleasant,' it is ' comely.' It is good or profitable ; for all God's praises are the believer's advantage, and the grounds of his hope and joy. It is pleasant, full of sweet comfort and refreshing. And it is comely, or honourable, to be heralds to proclaim the Lord's glory, or be employed in the work of angels. The angels, according to the opinion of the ancient Hebrews, do every day sing praises to God, and that in the morning, which they gather thence, because the angel said to Jacob, Gen. xxxii. 26, ' Let me go, for the day breaketh ; ' which the Targum of Jerusalem thus explaineth. Let me go, for the pillar of the morning ascendeth, and behold the hour approacheth when the angels are to sing. However that be, we are sure that the angels bless God, and do always laud his holy name. Usually when they are sent down to us, they come upon that errand : Luke ii. 13, 14, ' And suddenly there was with the angel a multitude of the heavenly host, praising God, and saying, Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace, good-will towards men.' And upon other occasions we find them blessing God and lauding his holy name ; they apprehend more of God's excellency and perfection in himself and in his works than we do, and are more sensible of his benefits than we are. Now if this be tlie work of angels, the highest and greatest of them, surely it should be more prized by us, or made not such a cold business as usually we make it, but a pleasant work ; for the object of it is God, our exceeding joy ; and we praise him by a redeemer, 'through whom we have received the atonement,' Kom. v. 11. And the very external act is by singing, the usual vent of our joy.
3. It is a profitable ordinance.
[1.] It subdueth the lusts and passions of the flesh by diversion, or directing us to a purer and safer delight. Much of the strength of the sin lieth in the sensual inclination, or the inordinate love of pleasure. Now if we can find sublime and chaste delight elsewhere, it taketli us off from the unlawful pleasures of the flesh. The context intimatetb
416 SERMONS UPON EPHESIANS V. [SeR. XXIV.
this, * Be not drunk with wine, but be filled with the Spirit,' &c. ; James V. 13, 'Is any among you aflfiicted? let him pray: is any merry? let liim sing psahus.' Spiritual joy is the best cure of carnal, for we keep our joy pure, and our delights are safe and healtliful.
[2.] It inspireth us with fortitude, courage, and constancy in wrest- ling for the truth ; for singing of psalms is our exultation in God, or our making our boast of him in defiance of all worldly powers that can hurt us ; as Paul and Silas when whipped and imprisoned, and many of the martyrs, raised their courage by singing of psalms.
[3.] It is profitable, as the psalm not only holdeth forth what the word read doth, but it stayeth and fixeth the heart upon the sweet and lively meditation of what we sing.