wards the prevention of it. Were the sense of this deeply engraved on all our minds, with what care and diligence, with what seriousness and zeal would ministers deal with the people committed to their charge, that by any means they might save some? How would parents, and husbands, and wives, employ all their diligence and industry, and make use of the most useful methods for reclaiming their nearest relations, and pulling them from the brink of hell? Lastly, what holy violence would each of us use, for saving ourselves from this common ruin, and making our calling and election sure? This, I say, is the use of what we have been speaking, and may Almighty God so accompany it with his blessing and power, that it may be so happily effectual to so excellent a purpose. And unto this God, &c.

SERMON V.

THE DUTY AND PLEASURE OF PRAISE AND

THANKSGIVING.

PSALM Cvii. 15.

"O that men would praise the Lord for his goodness, and for his wonderful works to the children of men !"

THERE is scarce any duty of religion more commonly neglected, or more slightly performed, than that of praise and thanksgiving. The sense of our wants puts us upon begging favours from God; and the consciousness of our sins constrains us to deprecate his wrath: thus interest and self-love send us to our prayers. But alas! how small a part hath an ingenuous gratitude in our devotion! How seldom are we serious and hearty in our acknowledgments of the divine bounty! The slender returns of this nature which we make, are many times a formal ceremony, a preface to usher in our petitions for what we want, rather than any sincere expressions of our thankful resentment of what we have received. Far different was the temper of the holy Psalmist, whose affectionate acknowledgments of the goodness and bounty of God, in the cheerful celebrating of his praise, make up a considerable part of his divine and ravishing songs. How often do we find him exciting

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and disposing himself to join voice, hand, and heart together in this holy and delightful employment! "Bless the Lord, O my soul; and all that is within me bless his holy name.' My heart is fixed, O God, my heart is fixed; I will sing and give praise. Awake up, my glory; awake, psaltery and harp: I myself will awake right early." And, being conscious of his own insufficiency for the work, he inviteth others unto it, calling in the whole creation to assist him: "O sing unto the Lord a new song; sing unto the Lord, all the earth.-Give unto the Lord, O ye kindreds of the people, give unto the Lord glory and strength." "Praise ye the Lord. Praise ye the Lord from the heavens: praise him in the heights. Praise him, ye sun and moon: praise him, all ye stars of light. Mountains, and all hills; fruitful trees, and all cedars: beasts, and all cattle; creeping things, and flying fowls." "Bless the Lord, all his works, in all places of his dominion." Many such figurative expressions occur, and allowance must be made for the poetical strain: but in the text we have a proper and passionate wish, "O that men would praise the Lord!"

"O that men," &c. Man is the greatest priest of this lower world, by whom all the homage and service of the other creatures is to be paid to their common Lord and Maker: "God hath made him to have dominion over the works of his hand: He hath

put all things under his feet. All sheep and oxen, yea, and the beast of the field, the fowl of the air, and the fish of the sea, and whatsoever passeth through the paths of the seas." And the divine bounty in maintaining these poor creatures redoundeth unto him,

and therefore it is highly reasonable that he should pay the tribute of praise for them, who are not capable to know their dependence on God, or their obligations unto him. The young lions are said to 66 roar, and seek their meat from God." "" "The young ravens do cry unto him." But these are only the complaints of languishing nature, heard and relieved by the God of nature; but not directly and particularly addressed to him. Man alone is capable to entertain communion with God, to know his goodness, and to celebrate his praise.

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"O that men would praise the Lord!" Praise is the acknowledgment of the goodness and excellency of a person; and though the desire of it, in us who have nothing of our own but folly and sin, and whose best performances have a miserable alloy of adherent corruption, be a blameable vanity and presumption, yet certainly it is highly reasonable for God, who is the Author and Fountain of all good, to require and expect it from his creatures. He hath made this great world as a temple for his honour, and it should continually resound with his praise. It is true, all the praises of men and angels can add nothing to his happiness and glory; yet there is a fitness and congruity in the thing; and it is our happiness as well as our duty to perform it: for "it is good to sing praises to our God: for it is pleasant, and praise is comely." This is the blessed employment of the holy ones above; and if ever we taste the pleasures. of heaven upon earth, it is then when our souls are ravished with an overflowing sense of the divine goodness, and our mouths are filled with his praise.

"O that men would praise the Lord for his good

ness!" All the attributes of God deserve our highest praise; power, wisdom, and goodness, are all one in him; but as we have different conceptions of these, goodness is that lovely attribute which doth peculiarly attract our affection, and excite our praise.

Our love to God doth not so much flow from the consideration of his greatness, whereby he can do whatever he will, as from the consideration of his goodness, that he always willeth what is best; that his almighty power hath infinite wisdom to regulate it, and unspeakable bounty to actuate and exert it.

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"O that men would praise the Lord for his goodness, and for his wonderful works to the children of men !" The divine goodness doth spread and extend itself over all the parts of the universe, and embraceth the whole creation in its arms; it not only displayeth itself most illustriously to the blessed inhabitants of the region above, but reacheth also to the meanest worm that crawleth on the ground. The beasts of the field, and the fowls of the air, and the fishes of the sea, and the innumerable swarms of little insects which we can hardly discern with our eyes, are all subjects of that almighty care; by him they are brought forth into the world, by him they are furnished with provision suitable for them: "These all wait upon thee," saith the Psalmist, "that thou mayest give them their meat in due season: that thou givest them they gather: thou openest thine hand, they are filled with good." But here, to excite us to thankfulness, he makes choice of an instance wherein we ourselves are more nearly concerned, and exhorteth" to praise the Lord for his wonderful works to the children of men." If the goodness of