strained to acknowledge : nor, if we were always thus engaged, would any trouble or sorrow be able to molest us : our very afflictions would rather give energy to our souls, and enlarge at once our subjects of praise, and our disposition to abound in it.]
3. Is it not a necessary employment?
[It is grievous on such a subject as this to insinuate any thing of an alarming nature : but, if men will not be '' con- strained by love," we must endeavour to " persuade them by the terrors of the Lord."
God declared to his people of old, that, if they would not serve him with joyfulness and gladness of heart for the abundance of all things which he had so liberally bestowed upon them, they should endure all the curses denounced in his law'^. With how much greater force does this threatening come to us, if we neglect to praise him for the infinitely greater benefits he has conferred on us ! We ourselves feel indignant if great and acknowledged vir- tues be despised, or eminent favours be disregarded. And shall God ever look with complacency on those who are blind to his excellencies, and insensible of his favours ? Whatever we may imagine to the contrary, none shall ever join the choir above, whose hearts have not been tuned to sing God's praise below.]
^ Deut. xxviii. 45, 47.
Ps. xxxiv. 1 1 — 16. Come, ye children, hearken unto me ; I will teach you the fear of the Lord. What man is he that desireth life, and loveth many days, that he may see good P Keep thy tongue from evil, a?id thy lips from speaking guile. Depart from evil, and do good : seek peace, and pursue it. The eyes of the Lord are upon the righteous, and his ears are open nnto their cry. The face of the Lord is against them that do evil.
TO enlighten a dark world, and to guide wanderers into the paths of peace and holiness, is the most glo- rious office that can be committed to a human being. So at least David thought : for though he was well qualified to teach men the science of music (in which he eminently excelled), or the art of war (in which he was a great proficient) , or the principles by which states and kingdoms should be governed, he con- sidered none of those employments comparable to that of instructing men in the principles and practice of true religion. As a prophet of the Lord, (for at
the