5. And lastly, if we be much in praising God, ice shall be much in joy, which easeth misery. For a man can never be miserable that can be joy- ful ; and a man is always joyful when he is thankful. When one is joyM and cheerful, what misery can lie upon him ? Therefore, it is a wondi'ous help in misery to stir up the heart to this spiritual sacrifice of thanksgiving by all arguments, means, and occasions. Our hearts are temples, and we are priests. We should alway, therefore, have this light and incense burn- ing in our hearts, as the fire did alway burn on the altar in Moses's time, that we may have these spiritual sacrifices to oifer continually. Whei'e this is not, the heart of that man or woman is hke ' the abomination of desolation,'
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Dan. xii. 11, which, when the daily sacrifice was taken away, was set up in the temple. And certainly where there is not praising of God, the heart is ' an abomination of desolation,' having nothing in it save monsters of base lusts and earthly affections.
Qiies. But how shall we know that God accepts these sacrifices of praise ?
Ans. How did he witness the acceptation of those sacrifices under the old law ? ' By fire from heaven,' Judges vi. 21 ; 1 Kings xviii. 24, et seq. This was ordinary with them. So, if we find our hearts warm, cheered and en- couraged with joy, peace, and comfort in praising God ; this is as it were a witness by fire from heaven that our sacrifices are accepted. Let this now said be eflectual to stir you up to this excellent and useful duty of thanksgiving, without multipl}ang of more arguments, save to put you in mind of this, that as we are exhorted to ' delight ourselves in the Lord,' Ps. xxxvii. 4, one way, among the rest, to do it, is to ' serve him with cheerfulness.' It is an excellent thing to make us delight in God, who loves a cheerful giver and thanksgiver. ' So will we render the calves of our lips.' But to proceed.
After this their solemn covenant and promise of yielding praise to God, that if he would forgive all their sins, and do good to them, then he should have the best they could do to him again : praise here is a promise of new obedience, which hath two branches,
1. A renunciation of the ill courses they took before.
' Asshur shall not save us ; we will not ride upon horses ; neither will we say any more to the works of our hands, Ye are our gods.'
2. Then there is a positive duty imjMed in these words, ' For in thee the fatherless findeth mercy.'
Whereof, the one springs from the other ; ' Asshur shall not save us, we will not ride upon horses ; neither will we say any more to the works of our hands. Ye are our gods.' Whence comes all these ? ' For in thee the fatherless findeth mercy.' Thou shalt be our rock, our trust, our confi- dence for ever. What will follow upon this ? ' Asshur shall not save us any longer; we will not ride upon horses,' &c. For we have pitched and placed our confidence better ; on him in whom ' the fatherless findeth mercy.'
' Asshur shall not save us.' The confidence which this people had placed partly in Asshur, their friends and associates, and partly in their own strength at home, now promising repentance, they renounce all such con- fidence in Asshur, horses and idols. * Asshur shall not save us,' &c.
First, for this, * Asshur shall not save us,' that is, the Assyrians, whom they had on the one side, and the Egyptians on the other : it being, as we see in the prophecies of Isaiah and Jeremiah, ordinary with God's people, in any distress, to have recourse to the Assyrians, or Egj'ptians, as if God had not been sufficient to be their rock and their shield. We see how often the Lord complains of this manner of dealing. ' Woe unto them that go down into Egypt for help, and stay on horses, and trust in chariots, because they are many,' &e., Isa. xxx. 2, and xxxi. 1. The prophets, and so this prophet, are very full of such complaints : it being one of the chief argu- ments he presseth, their falseness in this, that in any fear or peril, they ran to the shelter of other nations, especially these two, Egypt and Assyria, as you have it, ' Ephraim feedeth on wind, and foUoweth after the east wind ; he daily increaseth hes and desolation, and they do make a cove- nant with the Assyrians, and oil is carried into Egypt,' Hoseaxii. 1, that is,
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balm, who had this privilege above all other nations, to abound in precious bahns ; which balm and oil they carried into Egypt, to win their favour against the Assyrians. Sometimes they relied on the one, and sometimes on the other, the story and causes whereof were too tedious to relate. Wherefore I come to the useful points arising hence. ' Asshur shall not save us.' ^ 1. That man, naturally, is prone to put confidence in the creature.