IF this be the cafe in the little concerns which pafs between man and man: if the fmall degree of goodness which we poffefs, leads us to be thus pleased with a grateful mind, and to feel fuch abhorrence of the contrary, how do the great and numberless 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 fense of shame or notion of guilt, the great fountain of all

Our

our happiness, upon whofe mercy and goodness all that we have or hope for depends.

AND the best of us would do well to ask our hearts frequently, whether we uniformly retain fuch 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 accuftom 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-Praise the Lord! O my foul, and forget not all his benefits.

2

THE benefits conferred by God on man, to which I will endeavor to direct your attention at prefent, 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 ufeful purpose, are adjusted, 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 refults from them, that diftinguishing moral sense with which we are endowed; raising our nature to fuch a degree of excellence as places us in the scale 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 purfuits 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 first parents, and much more through our own neglect and mifmanagement, our understandings are in a great degree darkened and impofed on, our affections difordered and mifplaced on improper objects, our wills averfe from what

is good, and prone to what is evil, and the natural fenfe of right and wrong becomes weak and confufed; yet, ftill the principles of true wiidom, of delight in goodness and excellence, of virtuous pursuits, of felf enjoyment, are, by the mercy of God, preserved, and lay the foundation of our recovery from this difordered state, thro' the gracious provifions of the Gospel of Chrift. By these powers of the foul, we enjoy all the fatisfactions of thought and reflection; by thefe, a thousand means of increasing the enjoyments of life are found out and ufefully applied; by thefe, we reap all the pleasures of love, friendship, and focial intercourse; and by thefe, we are made fenfible of the existence and perfections of our great and glorious Creator, and are enabled to offer up to him that adoration and praise which chiefly diftinguishes us from the rest of the creation: and further, our fouls are not fubject to decay or diffolution, but when