ties to be where its treasure is-attending upon it with their tribute of praise. And if Jesus the Redeemer be our treasure, then we shall constantly attend upon him with the praises of a grateful heart: but he cannot be our treasure, until we desire to have some interest in him, and therefore I add in the last words of the definition that the heart must be sensible of the mercies of redemption: for it is certain we cannot be disposed to thank God for mercies, of which we have no desire to taste, neither indeed will we thank him, unless we have a lively perception, and are perfectly sensible of his mercies; consequently our thanksgiving will be according to our sense of them. If we find him bestowing upon us great and numerous, and unmerited favours, then our thanks will rise in proportion to what we experience. But still he, who has no sense of God's mercies, can have no motive to offer him any thanks: because thanksgiving is only expressing with the mouth, and the other faculties what the heart feels; and therefore if the heart, which is the spring, be not moved, it is impossible the other faculties should have any motion. The Psalmist says, "O praise the Lord, for it "is a good thing to sing praises unto our God, yea, a "joyful and pleasant thing it is to be thankful:" here he supposes, that we must first rejoice in the mercies of God, before we can find it a joyful and pleasant thing to be thankful for them; because we cannot return him praises with joy for that, in which we have found no joy. It is as impossible for us to rejoice in that thing, of which we have not an affectionate sense and perception, as it would be for a dead man to rejoice: and therefore thanksgiving can arise only from a grateful heart, which is sensible of the blessings of redemp

tion.

This is the nature of the duty; the reasons for prac tising it follow-O give thanks unto the Lord, for he is good-he is essential goodness, being the origin and fountain from whence all created goodness flowed. Goodness in the deity denotes that disposition, whereby

he is inclined to communicate happiness. It was owing to this beneficent attribute, that he created the beautiful system of the world out of nothing, and made all the living creatures in it to share and partake of his goodness; and therefore after he had finished the works of creation and formation, he pronounced them all to be very good. And they were good, and they continued so, until sin corrupted them. For sin brought in all evil which is the opposite to goodness, and then the remembrance of God's former goodness only aggravated our guilt, and made our evil more inexcusable: and before our guilty consciences could be set at rest, we must have a firm reliance upon some more amiable attribute than goodness, which we sinners had offended against, and which does not imply any disposition to forgive the offence. God had been good to the innocent, but he must be just to sinners. If he had freely exercised his goodness to us while innocent, yet when we offended, we put ourselves out of the reach of his goodness, and then justice took place: and when justice was extreme to mark what we had done amiss, what could sinful wretched man hope for? Nothing from goodness: because its former favours had been abused and repaid with ingratitude; therefore guilt and misery must have been our portion for ever, unless some more gracious attribute than goodness, should be revealed to us, and therefore the holy Spirit makes mercy, even eternal mercy, wait upon goodness, that it may become a proper subject of thanksgiving, "O give thanks unto the Lord, for he is good, for "his mercy endureth for ever." Goodness was shewn to the innocent-mercy is for the guilty and we can thank God for the goodness of creation, when we have experienced the mercies of redemption. Mercy is that disposition in the Deity, whereby he is inclinable to relieve the miserable: it is the attribute of pity and compassion, which can be exercised only upon them who are in distress. Mercy has for its object sin, with all its miserable consequences; and it is exercised in

removing them; and the person by whom it is exercised is our most compassionate high priest Christ Jesus, to whose mercy it is owing that we were not consumed: for when goodness could no longer employ its kind offices for us, then our merciful God was pleased to bring into execution that gracious plan of redemption, which had been contrived before all worlds, and by which many sons were to be brought into glory. The holy, blessed, and glorious Trinity, out of infinite love and compassion, were pleased to agree upon this plan, and to sustain distinct offices in the economy of it, and as their persons are equally infinite, their œeconomical actions must consequently be equally infinite. God the Father covenanted to demand perfect satisfaction for sin, and to accept the perfect satisfaction made by the obedience and sufferings of God the Son, which he covenanted to make in our stead, and as our representative in the human nature. And God the holy Spirit covenanted to render the obedience and sufferings of Christ effectual to believers, and by his grace to carry on the whole work of redemption in their hearts. St. Paul assures us, that the covenant of grace, which is the fountain of all mercy, was made before the foundation of the world, and this he repeats in several of his epistles. The Psalmist teaches the same doctrine, and frequently calls upon us to thank God, because his mercy is for ever and ever-because his mercy is everlasting and in the next text, because his mercy endureth for ever; the word endureth is inserted by the translators: for there is no verb in the original; neither in strictness of speech could there be any; because there was no time, wherein this mercy was not exercised, neither will there be any time when the exercise of it will fail. It was begun before all worlds, when the covenant of grace was made, and it will continue to the ages of eternity, after this world is destroyed. So that mercy was, and is, and will be, for ever, and sinful, miserable man may always find relief from this eternal mercy, whenever the sense of his misery

disposes him to seek for it. And does not this motive loudly call upon us to give thanks? Because there is mercy with God-mercy to pity the miserable-and even to relieve them-although they do not deserve it: for mercy is all free grace and unmerited love. Oh! how adorable then and gracious is this attribute? How sweet is it and full of consolation to the guilty? May God bring all the comforts of it to your hearts, and if you desire, if you would know, what these comforts are, ask the redeemed of the Lord, and they will tell you, that his mercies are great beyond description. They can say, upon their own experience, that they have found the mercies of redemption to be in number, in value, and in duration, more and greater than they can express and to their experience the holy Spirit refers you in the 2d verse, The redeemed of the Lord shall say so they shall say that he is good, and that his mercies are eternal. What then is this redemption of which they speak in such high terms? And why do they make it the chief subject of their thanksgiving? The reason follows, because he redeemed them from the hand of the enemy. Moses has given us in the law a clear and full idea of what we are to understand by the word gal, here rendered redeemed. If any person was either sold for a slave, or carried away for a captivè, then his kinsman, who was nearest to him in blood, had the right and equity of redemption. But no other person was suffered to redeem. And such a kinsman is called the redeemer, when he paid down the price for which his relation was sold to be a slave, or paid the ransom for which he was led captive. And there is another remarkable instance in the law, wherein it was provided, that in case any person was found murdered, then the nearest to him in blood was to prosecute the murderer, and to bring him to justice, and this nearest relation thus avenging the murder is called by the same name a redeemer. And how beautifully is the office of our great Redeemer represented under these three instances? He was to us such a redeemer in spirituals, as

these were in temporals: for sin had brought all mankind into slavery and captivity, and had murdered us. We are slaves to sin, and captives to Satan: St. Paul confesses both-sold unto sin, says he, and led away captive under the law of sin. And in this state of bondage and captivity we had a most cruel tyrant to reign over us, even he who was a murderer from the beginning, and who employed us in those slavish services, where we could find no peace in time, nor any rest to eternity: for he gave us no wages but deathdeath of the body in this world, and death of the soul from God in the next world for ever. O miserable man, who shall deliver thee, who shall redeem thee from the body of this death? Thou art entirely, eternally miserable in thyself; but thou mayest thank God, through Christ our Lord, that there is a redeemer who is able to save thee. He has every qualification which the law required in a redeemer, and he is besides almighty: for he is true and very God, equal in all things with the Father and the holy Spirit: and as soon as sin was in the world, he entered upon his gracious office of redeemer: for he was the lamb slain in type and figure from the foundation of the world. And when he had a body prepared for him, wherein he was to be slain indeed, and was made flesh of our flesh, then he completed the legal character of a redeemer. When he was pleased to unite our human nature to his divine, then he was nearest of kin to us. By this wonderful union he became our brother, and next to us in blood. And thus he was perfectly able to fulfil the law of our redemption, which suffered none to have the right and equity of redeeming, except the nearest kinsman. And to this our God condescended. O! amazing instance of his divine love. That God should be united to man and partake of our human nature, that we might partake of his divine, this is the great mystery of godliness. We can never adore, never praise him enough for it, because by it we receive full redemption. This most high