IF this be the cafe in the little concerns which pass between man and man: if the fmall degree of goodness which we possess, leads us to be thus pleafed with a grateful mind, and to feel fuch abhorrence of the contrary, how do the great and numberlefs bleffings which the Almighty has beftowed upon us call for our thankfulness and praise. And how displeasing in the fight of infinite goodness must that heart be, which is infenfible to them: and yet those bleffings which are constantly and regularly enjoyed, are too apt to lose their influence on our gratitude, from the very circumstances which ought to heighten their value,their frequency, and familiarity. There are, indeed, men to be found of the most amiable difpofitions towards their fellow creatures, who would fhudder at the thought of neglecting an earthly benefactor; who yet altogether forget without any sense of shame or notion of guilt, the great fountain of all our our happiness, upon whofe mercy and goodnefs all that we have or hope for depends. AND the beft of us would do well to ask our hearts frequently, whether we uniformly retain such a sense of God's goodness to us as as we ought? Religion is too often. confidered in a forbidding point of view, as filling the heart with melancholy fuggestions and defponding terrors; but this is men's own fault, because they will view it on the dark fide; let them accustom themfelves to behold it in its bright and genuine afpect; let them exercise their minds in contemplating the goodness of the Lord; let them cultivate in their breasts the feelings of love and gratitude for the bleffings they experience, and then, to cherish a sense of his fatherly love, to utter forth his praises with joyful tongues from the fulness of their hearts, to regard him in all they do, will be confidered not merely as their duty, but as the privilege of their nature, their honor, their happiness-Praife the Lord! O my foul, and forget not all his benefits. THE benefits conferred by God on man, to which I will endeavor to direct your attention at present, are those which are mentioned in our daily fervice, under the heads of our creation, our preservation, and all the bleffings of this life. Were it in my power to give you the most imperfect notion of the ftructure of the human body, of the minute exactnefs with which the almost innumerable parts of it, and all of them anfwering fome useful purpose, are adjufted, and the manner in which their different operations are carried on for the ends of existence and enjoyment: no heart can be fo infenfible, as not to be ftruck with admiration and love at the wonderful marks of wisdom and goodness difplayed in our formation. FROM FROM the body, let us turn our thoughts to the fuperior part of our nature, the foul: confider the various powers of the underftanding, affections, and will, and, what results from them, that distinguishing moral fense with which we are endowed; raifing our nature to fuch a degree of excellence as places us in the fcale of existence but a little lower than the Angels, and renders us capable of the fublimeft fatisfactions. The power of fearching out and difcerning right from wrong, truth from falfehood, of directing our affections and pursuits to worthy and appropriate objects, and of receiving delight from felf approbation, was intended to be the diftinguishing privilege of man. And tho' unhappily, through the tranfgreffion of our firft parents, and much more through our own neglect and mifmanagement, our understandings are in a great degree darkened and impofed on, our affections disordered and mifplaced on improper objects, our wills averfe from what world in which our love will be perfected, and confequently perfect our enjoyment. The more we love God, the more we shall defire and endeavour to be like him, and the more we study to be like him, the more will our affections be fixed upon that state where we shall fee him as he is; and from feeing him as he is, the more we shall love him, and the more we do this, the happier we fhall be. Who can form the moft diftant notion of that exultation of heart which will arife from the real view to which we shall be admitted of perfect excellence, and our feeling, past all doubt, that this perfect excellence will be the fource to us of unalloyed happiness for ever and ever! AND now how bleffed must be the condition of that man, who finds himself going on from one degree of ftrength to another, animated with increafing earnestness to ap pear |