engage you to mix your worship with that of glorified intelligences, than this, on which we are come unto the city of the living God, the beavenly Jerusalem, to an innumerable company of angels, and to the first-born which are written in beaven? Heb. xii. 22, 23.

But, who are we, to be admitted into a fociety fo holy? Great God! Thou dost appear to us to-day, as thou didst formerly to thy prophet, sitting upon a throne, bigh and lifted up, and thy train filling the temple, Ifa. vi. 1. Around thee ftand the feraphims, covering themfelves with their wings in thy majestic prefence, and crying one to another, Holy, boly, boly, is the Lord of bosts, the whole earth is full of his glory, ver. 3. We are ftricken, as thy prophet was, with fuch a tremendous vifion, and each of us cries with him, Woe is me! I am undone! I am a man of unclean lips! and yet, mine eyes have seen the King, the Lord of bosts, ver. 5. O'great God! command one of thy feraphims to fly to us, as he flew to him; bid him touch our mouths, as he touched his, with a live coal taken from off the altar, ver. 6. and, in this day of grace and mercy, let him fay to each of us, Lo, this bath touchs ed thy lips, and thine iniquity is taken away; and thy sin purged! Amen, ver. 7.

"Praife is comely for the upright." The prating of God is a duty, of which we may form two different notions, a general and a particular notion. By a general notion of praife, I mean, the exercile of a man, who, being capable of examining fublime objects, and of comprehending grand fubjects, fixeth his attention on the attributes of God, feels the force of thofe proofs which establish the truth of them, is delighted with them to a certain degree, and is happy in publifhing their praife. I mean, by a particular notion of praifing God, the exercife of a man,

who, having received fome fignal favour of God, loves to exprefs his gratitude for it.

Each of thefe exercifes of praife fuppofeth re

etions and sentiments. To praife God in the first fenfe, to reflect on his attributes, to con verfe, and to write about them, without having the heart affected, and without loving a Being,., who is defcribed as fupremely amiable, is a lifeJefs praife, more fit for a worldly philofopher than for a rational chriftian.. To praife God in the fecond fenfe, to be affected with the favours of God, without having any diftinct notions of God, without knowing whether the defcriptions of the perfections, that are attributed to him, be flights of fancy or real truths, is an exercife more fit for a bigot, who believes without know.. ing why, than for a spiritual man, who judgeth all things, 1 Cor. ii. 15. If we diftinguith the part, which thefe two faculties, reflection and fentiment, take in thefe two exercises of praife, we may obferve that the firft, I mean the praise of God taken in a general fenfe, is the fruit of reflection, and the fecond of sentiment. The first is, if I may be allowed to speak fo, the praise of the mind; the fecond is the praise of the heart..

It is difficult to determine which of these two notions prevails in the text, whether the pfalmift. ufe the word praise in the first or in the fecond fenfe. If we judge by the whole fubject of the pfalm, both are included. The praife of the heart is eafily difcovered. Whether the author of the pfalm were Hezekiah, as many of the fathers thought, who fay, this prince compofed it after the miraculous defeat of Senacherib; or wheth-er, which is most likely, David were the compof er of it, after one of thofe preternatural deliverances, with which his life was fo often fignaliz ed; what I call the praife of the heart, that is,. a lively fenfe of fome ineftimable bleffing, is clearly to be feen. On the other hand, it is ftill clearer,

clearer, that the facred author doth not celebrate only one particular object in the pfalm. He gives a greater fcope to his meditation, and com. prifeth in it all the works, and all the perfections of God.

Although the folemnity of this day calls us lefs to the praife of the mind, than to that of the heart; although we intend to make the latter the principal fubject of this difcourfe; yet it is neceffary to attend a little to the former.

1. The praise of the Lord, taking the word. praife in the vague fenfe, that we have affixed to the term, is comely for the upright comely for none but for them.

and it iss

"Praife is comely for the upright." Nothing: is more worthy of the attention of an intelligent being, particularly, nothing is more worthy of the imitation of a fuperior genius, than the wonderful perfections of the Creator. A man of fu-perior genius is required, indeed, to ufe his tale ents to cultivate the fciences and the liberal arts; but after all, the mind of man, especially of that man to whom God hath given fuperior talents, which affimilate him to celeftial intelligences, was: not created to unravel a point in chronology, to learn the various founds by which different nations fignify their ideas, to measure a line, or to lofe itself in an algebraic calculation; the mind of.fuch a man was not created to ftudy the stars,» to count their number, to measure their magni-tude, to discover more than have yet been obferv ed. Nobler objects ought to occupy him. It becomes fuch a man to contemplate God, to guidethe rest of mankind, to lead them to God, who davelleth in the light, which no man can approach unto, 1. Tim. vi. 16. aid to teach us to attenuate the clouds, that hide him from our feeble eyes. It becomes fuch a man to ufe that fuperiority, which his knowledge gives him over us, to elevate our hearts above the low region of terrestrial

things,

things, where they grovel with the brute beafts, and to help us to place them on the bright abode of the immortal God. The praise of the Lord is comely for upright men.

I

But praife is comely only for upright men. believe it is needlefs now to explain the word uprightness. The term is taken in the text in the nobleft fenfe: this is a fufficient explication, and this is fufficient alfo to convince us that the praifing of God is comely for none but upright men. I cannot fee, without indignation, a phi-lofopher trifle with the important queftions that relate to the attributes of God, and make them fimple exercises of genius, in which the heart hath no concern, examining whether there be a God, with the fame indifference with which he inquires whether there be a vacuum in nature, or whether matter be infinitely divifible. On deter-mining the queftions which relate to the divineattributes, depend our hopes and fears, the plans we must form, and the courfe of life we ought to purfue; and with thefe views we should examine he perfections of God; thefe are confequences that should follow our inquiries. With fuch dif pofitions the pfalmift celebrated the praises of God, in the pfalm out of which we have taken the text. How comely are the praises of God ins the mouth of fuch a man !!

Let us follow the holy man a moment in his meditation. His pfalm is not compofed in fcholaftic form, in which the author confines himself to fixed rules, and fcrupulously following a philofophical method, lays down principles, and in-. fers confequences. However, he establisheth principles the most proper to give us fublime ideas of the Creator; and he fpeaks with more precif-ion of the works and attributes of God, than the greatest philofophers have fooken them.

How abfurdly have philofophers treated of the origin of the world? How few of them have

reasoned

reafoned conclufively on this important fubje&t? Our prophet folves the important queftion by one fingle principle, and what is more remarkable, this principle, which is nobly exprefféd, carries the clearest evidence with it. The principle is this: By the word of the Lord were the heavens made, and all the host of them by the breath of bis mouth. This is the most rational account that was ever given of the creation of the world, The world is the work of a felf-efficient will, and it is this principle alone that can account for its creation. The most fimple appearances in nature are fufficient to lead us to this principle. Either my will is felf-efficient, or there is fome other being whofe will is felf-efficient.

What I fay of myself I fay of my parents, and what I affirm of my parents I affirm of my more remote ancestors, and of all the finite creatures from whom they derived their existence. Most certainly, either finite beings have felf-efficient wills, which it is impoffible to fuppofe, for a finite creature with a felf-efficient will is a contradiction; either, I fay, a finite creature hath a felf-efficient will, or there is a first caufe who hath a felf-efficient will; and that there is fuch a being, is the principle of the pfalmift: By the word of the Lord were the beavens made, and all the host of them by the breath of his mouth.

If philofophers have reafoned inconclufively on the origin of the world, they have spoken of its government with equal uncertainty. The pfalm ift determines this queftion with great facility, by a fingle principle, which refults from the former, and which, like the former, carries its evi dence with it. "The Lord looketh from heav en: he confidereth all the works of all the inhab itants of the earth," ver. 13, 14. This is the doctrine of Providence. And on what is the doctrine of Providence founded? On this principle: God fashioneth their bearts alike, ver. 15. Attend