rious perfections, and of our whole dependance upon him, and an holy fear, and love, and reverence of God in our hearts.

And indeed it is for want of this, that fo many people forget their Maker, and grow carelefs, profane, unthankful, and wicked; becaufe God is feldom or never in their thoughts. They will not take notice of the ways and works of God, and what daily reafons they have to love, and adore him. They receive his bleffings, and will not acknowledge him; fo that he gives them over to a reprobate mind, to a mind insensible and void of judgment.

Το prevent this very great judgment, let us, before I conclude, confider, how this duty of acknowledging and praifing God, and owning our dependance upon him, may be put into practice, in one inftance or other, every day, every hour of our lives.

And be affured of it, Chriftians, you can do nothing more pleafing to God, nor more beneficial to yourselves.

God has given most of us understanding fouls. To make us value this mighty blessing, he now and then fends among us a poor idiot. Inftead of making a jeft of such an object of compaffion, let us bless God, who has been fo good to us, as to give us reason; and let us beg of him to give us grace never to abuse it.

He

He has given you an healthful body. You fee many others labouring under infirmities. Be not unthankful to God for fo great a favour. And if the fame good God thinks it best for you, and for his glory, to vifit you with fickness, you will still have reason to be thankful, if that sickness of the body fhall, through his grace, be a means of healing the your foul.

diseases of

You have a convenient place to fleep in, and you have the comfort of fleep. Confider how many want one or both these bleffings, and you can hardly forget to give God thanks every morning of your life.

You have health and ftrength to labour, and to get an honeft livelihood for yourself and family. Think often of this, and you will be thankful to God, who, for good reafons known to himself, has denied many others this bleffing.

Every meal you fit down to fhould put you in mind of your dependance upon God for life, and food, and power to take it. And they that eat without praifing God, and begging his bleffing upon his gifts, act too like beasts, and are in danger of perishing with them.

When God gives us feasonable wealth, favourable feed times, the former and the latter rains in their season, and plentiful harvests, how are we bound to thank him for thefe general bleffings to ourselves and others! And

when

when he denies us these bleffings, which he never does but for our good, we are bound, even then, to be thankful.

ance.

You are in want of the neceffaries of life, and are indebted to others for help and affistWhat is your duty? Why, to bless God for your condition, which is the very beft for you, (because he hath appointed it) and to thank God that he has enabled others to help you, and for that he has given them grace, and a heart to do it.

The fame gracious God gives another every thing that his foul can defire: for what end, when others want bread? Why, he makes him his steward, he puts thefe talents into his hands, and he will fully reward him, if he improves them to his Lord's honour, and the benefit of his Mafter's family.

You have escaped fome great danger, or fad misfortune: they very first thing you will do-which you ought at least to do, if you have any sense of religion-is, to give God thanks for your deliverance.

You have been fick, and God has been gracious to you, and hearkened to your prayers, and the prayers of others, for your recovery. Will you expect that your prayers will be heard hereafter, if you neglect to praise God for his late mercies?

You have the great comfort of dutiful children. Will you not thank God, every day of your life, for fo great a bleffing? You

will furely do fo, when you look into the world, and fee how many parents are made miferable by the unhappy and bad lives of their children.

In short; it will be impoffible to recount all the occafions a good Chriftian will have, and take, to praise God for his mercies; for all the known, and for all the unobferved favours, deliverances, vifitations, chastisements, and graces, of his Holy Spirit, vouchsafed unto himself, his friends, and family.

But above all things, let no man, who calls himself a Chriftian, forget or neglect to praise God, for his ineftimable love in the redemption

the world by our Lord Jefus Chrift; for the means of grace, and for the hope of glory. All our happiness in this life, and in the life to come, depends upon this invaluable bleffing, and on our being truly fenfible of, and thankful for it.

To conclude:-The practice of this great duty of praifing God for his works, and for his mercies, will preserve in our fouls a constant and lively sense of his glorious perfections; which will be a means of making us truly religious, and will make all other religious duties eafy and pleasant to us.

His almighty power will make us dread offending him; the fenfe of our dependance upon him, and his continual care of us, will incline us to love him with all our heart and foul; and the grateful remembrance of his past mercies will

E 2

will make us put our whole truft in him for the time to come.

May God give us all grace to confider these things; that we may with heart and voice join with the heavenly company mentioned in the Revelations, faying, Thou art worthy, O Lord, to receive honour, and power, and glory; for Thou haft created all things, and for thy glory they are, and were created.

To him therefore be afcribed all honour and glory, by us and all his faithful fervants, for ever and ever. Amen.

SERMON