daily bread, and will you not be thankful for spiritual food? You have tafted that the Lord is gracious, and received many fpiritual bleffings from him; illumination, conviction, relief and comfort; and do you count these as nothing? Do not these distinguishing mercies demand praise? Is not thankfulness the tribute which you ought to pay for them? Can you do lefs than acknowledge what God has done for your foul? Will you not say.

O, if I had a thousand tongues,
And could be heard from pole to pole,
I would to all the lift'ning world

Declare thy goodness to my foul!

The

*The chriftian hath as large a field for the exercife of his thankfulness, in praifing God, as he hath in the petitionary part of prayer, for his defires.--This duty circumfcribes heaven and earth; it takes: both worlds in its circumference. "In every thing give thanks." O what a copious theme hath God given his people, upon which to enlarge their meditations!" In every thing." The whole course and series of divine providence towards the faints, is like. a music-book, in every leaf of which there is a fong ready fet for them to learn, and fing to the praise of their God. To fkip over one note in a leffon may fpoil the grace of the mufic.

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The Pfalmift defired that others might affift him, and join with him in the work of praise. "O magnify the Lord with me, and let us exalt his name together. I fought the Lord, and he heard me, and delivered me from all my fears." If you are not thankful, God is robbed of the glory due unto his name, and your own foul is deprived of the comfort his mercies would otherwife afford you. May the Author of all good raise your affections to himfelf, and with all his other gifts beftow on you a thankful heart, to tafte thofe gifts with joy! With

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We are unworthy of the leaft mercy; and therefore God is worthy of praise for the least, because it is more than he owes us. Common mercies are many. "O God," fays David, "how great is the fum of them! If I fhould count them, they are more in number than the fand; when I awake, I am still with thee." As if he had faid, "There is not a point of time wherein thou art not doing me good. As foon as I open mine eyes in the morning, I have a new theme, to employ my praifeful meditations."

The fincerity of the heart is fhewn more in thankfulness for ordinary mercies, than for those which are more extraordinary. As it fhews a base difpofition when a man upon every flight temptation is drawn into fin, fo the foul difcovers a high degree of grace, to take the hint from every common mercy to blefs and praise God.' Gurnal.

out this, as you bury former mercies, fo you may deprive yourselves of future ones. For thankfulnefs for past favours, implies a fecret craving for more; but how can you expect that God will beflow on you what you ftill need, if you are not thankful for what you already poffefs? Labour therefore to rouse up your dull heart to the great and pleasant exercise of praise. Call upon your foul, and all that is within you, to blefs the Lord, and not to forget his benefits. Let your language be, "What fhall I render to the Lord for all his benefits towards me? I will take the cup of falvation, and call on the name of the Lord, I will pay my vows to the Lord, now in the prefence of all his people."

When all thy mercies, O my God,
My rifing foul furveys,
Transported with the view, I'm loft
In wonder, love and praise.

But to go a step farther. The Lord's people are not only chargeable with unthankfulnefs, but, in fome cafes, with an unfuitable behaviour, amidst the favours they receive from his hand. When his benefits have been showered down upon us in great abundance, our hearts have ftill been barren, and our lives unfruitful. Nay, perhaps, after sweet

enlargements, and divine manifeftations, we have funk into fupinenefs, and fecurity, or been drawn afide by temptation, and captivated afresh by the fin which easily befets us. This is fhameful in deed. "The Lord will speak peace unto his people, and to his faints; but let them not turn again to folly." There is great need for this caution.. And as it is an evil thing and bitter that any fhould. fin against God, it is more especially fo in thofe who have received peculiar favours from him. The more kindness he hath fhewn to any one, and the greater is the aggravation of his offences... On this ground it was, that the Lord thus spoke to his ancient people; "O generation, fee ye the word of the Lord! Have I been a wilderness to Ifrael? a land of darkness? Wherefore fay my people, We are lords; we will come no more unto thee? Can a maid forget her ornaments, or a bride her attire ? Yet my people have forgotten me days without number. The children of Ifrael and the children of Judah have only done evil before me,they have only provoked me to anger." As if all the world befide them were comparatively innocent.

For as thofe who have obtained mercy fin againft greater profeffions and engagements on their part, fo they fin against the greatest advantages and ob ligations conferred upon them by their gracious

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Benefactor. The principles he has implanted in their hearts are the effects of his favour, and in their own nature should be a defence against fin.› To have an enlightened mind, a renewed will, fanc tified affections, and an awakened confcience, are great advantages; and to fin against all these, is an high aggravation of the offence. David feems to have had a sense of this, when in his pénitent acknowledgment of his crimes before God, he faid, "Thou defireft truth in the inward parts; and in the hidden part thou fhalt make me to know wisdom;" or, as fome read it, thou haft made me to know wifdom: as if he had faid, These offences are worse in me than they would have been in those who have not these corrective principles to restrain fin, and to lead to the practice of holinefs.

We have said likewife, that those who have ob tained mercy fin against greater obligations laid upon them by their heavenly Father. Thus he fpeaks by the prophet Hofea; " I taught Ephraim to go, taking them by their arms; but they knew not that I healed them. I drew them with cords of a man, with bands of love. But my people are

bent to backfliding from me."

In another place,

Though I have bound and strengthened their arms, yet do they imagine mifchief again ft me. I have written the great things of my law, but they were

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