fometimes occafion; nor pursue it with the less ardour for the dangers which attend it. And though calamity should fucceed calamity, and our day of trial should prove as tedious as it is fevere, let it neither weaken our faith, nor fhake our conftancy; for in due feafon we shall furely reap, if we faint not. SERMON VIII. On the important Duty of Thanksgiving for public and private Mercies. PSALM XXXIV. Verses 1, 2, 3, and 4. I will bless the Lord at all times: His praise fhall continually be in my mouth.-My Soul fhall make her boaft in the Lord: the humble Shall hear thereof, and be glad.—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. THE HIS Pfalm, fo ftrongly expreffive of DAVID'S Confidence in GOD'S goodness to him under all his troubles, and the thankfulness of his heart in proclaiming his experience of the Divine mercies, is supposed to be penned at fome period of his escape from the perfecution of Saul.-Indeed, the whole history history of DAVID fhews us his day of trial was long and fevere; yet, what human heart ever glowed with greater warmth of gratitude, love, and piety, than that of this afflicted monarch to the Supreme Author of all human bleffings?-Nay, confident that it was not in the power of man fufficiently to celebrate the mercies, which the Almighty hath shewn to the fons of men; (for, as he justly says, who can express the noble acts of the Lord, or fhew forth all his praise ?)—He therefore calleth upon ALL things, animate and inanimate, and all the Hoft of Heaven, to praise the Name of the LORD:-for He Spake the word, and they were made: He commanded, and they were created. To this duty of thanksgiving there is such a secret pleasure annexed, as cannot be fufficiently described; and can only be known by minds impreffed with a true fenfe of religion, and the numberless mercies and benefits daily conferred on them by an omnipotent Creator, Saviour, and Preferver! IN a former discourse, I have endeavoured to recommend the duty of gratitude: that of thanksgiving, though perhaps not fo generally understood, is by no means less amiable P 3 amiable or less neceffary; but-confidering the fublimity of the fubject, and my own weak capacity to do it fufficient juftice in the illuftration-confcious alfo of the fuperior efficacy of example over precept-I shall, in the first part of this difcourfe, instead of argumentative perfuafion, collect examples of the most pious perfons recorded in the Holy Scriptures, eminent for their discharge of this amiable duty. After which, I fhall offer a few practical obfervations on it, confidered more particularly as a Christian duty. I SHALL begin then with the Royal Pfalmift, from whom I have taken the words of my subject;-as no one has ever been more fervent in thanksgiving, or more zealous to honour and glorify Gop on his deliverance from the dangers that attended him, in religious or focial life, the greatest part of his days. In this, as well as in other inftances, his light fhone moft clearly before men. In fix troubles, faid he, I have been delivered, and in feven I will not be afraid: and when, by the Divine aid, he had overcome his troubles, with what pious exultation did he break out into the raptures of thankf giving!Nor would he refrain from it, even even in the presence of all his people; for he laboured to bring others over to the fenfe and practice of this duty, in the words of my fubject-O magnify the Lord with me, and let us exalt bis Name together! He was conscious that our Omnipotent Benefactor required no more of us, in return for all his bleffings, than to fhew forth his praise :-Indeed, what else can we return, that is not already his own? His fupreme claims are fuch, that he hath faid-If I were hungry I would not tell thee, for the whole world is mine, and the fulness thereof; of which, the fowls of the air, the beasts of the foreft, and the cattle on a thoufand hills, make but a small part. Thefe, offered fundrily by the ceremonial law, GoD took no pleasure in; but exprefsly commanded, we should offer unto him thanksgiving, and pay our vows unto the Most High. Thus did the man after GOD's own heart.Many are the repetitions of his thanksgiving in various pfalms: in one, he calls upon foul, and all that is within him, to praise the Lord, and forget not all his benefits: and in another, he declares, I will fing praises unto my God, whilst I have any being: and he affures us, no less than twenty-feven times in a third, that the mercy of GOD endureth for ever. There P 4 his |