that the love of the world, and of fenfible things, is the chief fprings of all our actions and fentments. This dilagreeable truth is proved, not only by the nature of our vices, but even by the genius of our virtues; not only by the offences we commit against God, but by the very duties we perform in his fervice. A perfon fo ungrateful, as not to discover any gratitude to God, when he bestows temporal bleffings on him, can fcarcely be found. We praise God, when he delivers us from any public calamity, or from any domeftic adverfity; when he recovers us from dangerous illnefs; when he raifeth us up an unexpected friend, or a protector, who affifts us; when he fends us fome profperity, which renders life more easy. In fuch cafes as thefe, we render an homage to God, that cannot be refufed without ingratitude. But we are extremely blameable, when, while we feel the value of thefe bleffings, we remain infenfible of the worth of other blefings, which are infinitely more valuable, and which, merit infinitely more gratitude. A bleffing, that directly regards the foul, is more valuable than one which regards only the body. A bleffing, that regards our eternal happinefs, is of greater worth, than one which influenceth only the happinefs of this life. Whence is it then, that, being fo fenfible of bleffings of the first kind, we are fo little affected with thofe of the laft? How comes it to pafs, that we are fo full of gratitude, when God gives the ftate fome fignal victory; when he profpers its trade; when he ftrengthens the bonds, that unite it to powerful and faithful alfies; and fo void of it, while he continues to grant it the greateft bleffing that a fociety of rational creatures can enjoy, I mean a liberty to ferve God according to the dictates of our own confciences? Whence is it, that we are fo very thankful to God for preferving our lives from the dangers dangers that daily threaten them; and fo little thankful for his miraculous patience with us, to which it is owing, that, after we have hardened our hearts against his voice one year, he invites us another year; after we have falfified our promifes made on one folemnity, he calls us to another folemnity, and giveth us new opportuninies of being more faithful to him? Whence comes this difference? Follow it to its fource. Does it not proceed from what we just now said ? Is not love of the world, and of fenfible things, the grand fpring of our actions and fentiments? The world, the world; lo! this is the touchstone, by which we judge of good and evil ! An upright man judgeth in another manner : he will, indeed, blefs God for all his benefits; but as he knows how to arrange them, fo he knows how to prize each according to its worth, and how to apportion his esteem to the real value of them all. According to fuch an eftimatiop, what ought not our gratitude to God be to-day, my dear brethren! We may affure ourselves with the utmot truth, that had the Lord united in our houfes to-day. pleasures, grandeurs, and dignities; had he promised each of us a life longer than that of a patriarch; a family as happy as that of Job, after his misfortunes; glory as great as that of Solomon; he would have bestowed nothing equal to that bleffing, which he gave us this morning. He forgave thofe fins, which, had they taken their natural courfe, would have occafioned endlefs remorse, and would have plunged us into everlating mifery and woe. A peace was shed abroad in our confciences, which gave us a foretaste of heaven. He excited hopes, that abforb ed our fouls in their grandeur. Let us fay all in one word he gave us his Sop. "He that fpared not his own Son, how hall he not with him alfo freely give us all things?" Rom. viii. 32. 2. The gratitude of upright men is real. The praife of the Lord becomes them, becaufe, while they praife God for his benefits, they live to the glory of their benefactor. Every gift of God fornifheth us with both a motive and a mean of obedience to him. It is an excess of ingratitude to make a contrary use of his gifts, and to turn the benefits that we receive, against the benefactor from whom we receive them. What gifts are they, by which God hath most distinguished us? Thee he hath diftinguifhed by a penetrating genius, which renders the highest objects, the deepest myfteries, acceffible to thee. Wo be to thee! if thou employ this gift to invent arguments against the truths of religion, and to find out fophifms that befriend infidelity. An upright mran devotes this gift to his benefactor; he avails himself of his genius, to difcover the folly of foeptical fophifms, and to demonftrate the truth of religion. On thee he hath bestowed an aftonifhing memory. Wo be to thee! if thou ufe it to retain the pernicious maxims of the world. An upright man dedicates this gift to his benefactor; he employs his memory in retaining the excellent leffans of equity, charity, and patience, which the holy Spirit hath taught him in the feriptures. To thee he hath given an authorita. tive elocution, to which every hearer is forced to bow. Wo be to thee if thou apply this rare tulent to feduce the minds, and to deprave the hearts, of mankind. An upright man devotes this bleffing to the fervice of his benefactor; he ufeth his eloquence to free the minds of men from error, and their lives from vice. Towards thee God hath exercifed a patience, which feeais contrary to his ufual rules of conduct towards finners, and by which he hath abounded toward thee in forbearance and long-fuffering. Wo be to thee! if thou turn this bleffing into an opportunity of violating the commands of God; if thine F 2 thine obftinacy run parallel with his patience, and if, because sentence against an evil work is not executed speedily, thy beart be fully set in thee to do evil, Eccl. viii. 11. An upright man devotes this bleffing to his benefactor's service. From the patience of God he derives motives of repentance. How eafily might this article be enlarged how fruitful in inftruction would it be on this folemnity! But we proceed. 3. Gratitude to God well becomes an upright man, because it is humble; becaufe an upright man, by publishing the gifts of God's grace, divefls himself of himself, and attributes them wholly to the good nefs of him from whom they came. Far from us be a profane mixture of the real grandeurs of the Creator with the fanciful grandeurs of creatures ! Far be thofe praifes, in which he who offers them always finds, in his own excellence, the motives that induced the Lord to bestow his benefits on him! Two reflections always exalt the gifts of God in the eyes of an upright man; a reflection on his meannefs, and a reflection on his unworthinefs; and it is with this comeliness of humility, it I may venture to call it fo, that I wish to engage you to praife God for the bleffings of this day. 1. Meditate on your meanness, Contraft yourselves with God, who gives himself to you to-day in fuch a tender manner. How foon is the capacity of man abforbed in the works and attributes of God! Conceive, if thou be capable, the grandeur of a Being, who made the heavens by his word, and all the host of them by the breath of his mouth. Think, if thou be capable of thinking, of the glory of a Being, who exifted from all eternity, whofe understanding is infinite, whofe power is irrefiflible, whofe will is above controul. Behold him filling the whole universe with his prefence. Behold him in the palace of his glory, inhabiting the praises of the bleffed, Pfal. xxii. 3. furrounded by thoufand thousands, and by ten thousand times ten thoufand angels, who excel in ftrength, and who delight to fly at the first fignal of his will. Thou human foul! contemplate this object, and recover thy reason. What art thou? What was thine origin? What is thine end? Thou diminutive atom great only in thine own eyes; behold thyfelf in thy true point of view. Duft! afhes! putrefac tion glorious only at the tribunal of thine own pride; divest thyself of the tawdry grandeur in which thou loveft to array thyfelf. Thou va pour thou dream! thou exhalation of the earth evaporating in the air, and having noother confiftence than what thine own imagination gives thee; behold thy vanity and nothingnefs. Yet this dream, this exhalation, this vapour, this duft, and afhes, and putrefaction, this diminutive creature, is an object of the eternal care and love of its God. For thee, contempti ble creature the Lord ftretched out the heav ens; for thee he laid the foundation of the earthe 1 Let us fay more: For thee, contemptible crea ure! God formed the plan of redemption. What could determine the great Jehovah to communicate himself, in fuch a tender and intimate manner, to fo contemptible a creature as man? His goodness, his goodness alone. Although a fenfe of our meannefs should not terrify and confound us, yet it fhould exclude arrogance, and excite lowly fentiments: But what will our humility be, if we estimate the gifts of God's grace by an idea of our unworthiness? Let each recollect the mortifying hiftory of his own life. Remember, thou! thy fiery youth, in which, forgetting all the principles that thy pious parents had taught thee, thou didst acknowledge no law but thine own paffionate and capricious will Remember, thou that period, in which thy |