Lord's table It ought to be a joyful, thankful application of the blessings of Chrift's purchase to your fouls. Be strong in faith, giving glory to God; not only celebrate his love, but improve it, by asking, in faith, every thing neceffary to your sanctification and peace.-I shall shut up all, by defiring you to use the Pfalmist's preface, in going unto God, who says, in the 3d verse, O send out thy light and thy truth; ' let them lead me, let them bring me into thy holy hill, and to thy tabernacles.' In order to raise and elevate your minds, to fix and engage your unfettled hearts, apply to God, who hath the hearts of all men in his hand, that he would dispose you for his fervice; that he would shed abroad his love in your hearts, and make you joyful in his house of prayer. And my earnest prayer to God for you, is, that he would, at this time, convert some, or (why should we limit him?) every profane finner in this afssembly; pull off the mask of hypocrites, and shew them their own likeness; that he would make it a joyful communion to many of you, and a profitable communion to all. Amen.

SERMON VI.

The Christian's disposition under a fenfe of mercies received.

PSALM CXVI. 7.

Return unto thy rest, O my foul, for the Lord hath dealt bountifully with thee.

IT is the language of nature, as well as of grace, to cry to God in distress. When great extremity shows the weakness of all other help, there remains fo much of God written on the confciences even of the most profligate, as excites them to this duty. The truth of this observation appears from many scripture examples, as well as every day's experience. But though bad men may cry to God for deliverance from fuffering, they knowlittle, if any thing at all, of returning to Godin duty and gratitude, for the mercy received, Pfal. lxxviii. 34,-37. When he flew them, then they fought him; and they returned, and inquired early after God. And they remembered that God was their rock, and the high God ' their Redeemer. Nevertheless, they did flatter him with their mouth, and they lied unto him with

P

' their tongues. For their heart was not right with him; neither were they stedfast in his covenant.' See also the account of the ten lepers, Luke xvii. 12,-17. And as he entered into a certain village, there met him ten men that were lepers, • which stood afar off, and they lifted up their voices, and said, Jesus, Master, have mercy on us. • And, when he saw them, he said unto them, go • shew yourselves unto the priests; and it came to * pass, that, as they went, they were cleansed. And • one of them, when he saw that he was healed, turn' ed back, and, with a loud voice, glorified God, and fell down on his face, at his feet, giving him thanks; ⚫ and he was a Samaritan: and Jefus answering, faid, • Were there not ten cleansed? but where are the 'nine?' They all cried alike for the cure; but the greatest part foon forgot their obligation to their merciful Saviour.

It is no way difficult to account for this behaviour in bad men; but, alas! it is melancholy to think how much of this unhappy disposition is to be found even in the best. When the preffure of any trial is felt, they flee to God as their refuge and security; with fervent fupplication, and earnest wrestling, they intreat his help. But, though we must not charge any fincere servant of God with an entire forgetfulness of his goodness, or open desertion of his service; yet, I am afraid, that many are very defective in this particular; and that few, very few, preserve the same folicitude to improve their mercies, as to obtain them.

My intention is to apply this to us, who have late

ly been at the Lord's table; and, I hope, before going there, not a few were earnest in their prayers for the divine presence. Urged by the fufferings of this mortal body, the lofs of outward comforts, the power of inward temptations, or a defire of the re turn of an absent God, or the quickening of a sloth ful fpirit, they fought consolation in this holy ordi nance; they went to seek the Lord, going and weeping. I hope also, and believe, that many went not in vain, but 'found him whom their foul loved, found him, and would not let him go.' All such ought to imitate the Pfalmist in the spirit that breathes through the whole of this psalm; and, particularly, in the words of my text: Return unto thy rest, O my foul, for the Lord hath dealt bountifully with

thee.

I need only fay, in a very few words, that the whole psalm is an expression of his gratitude for deliverance from great fufferings, from enemies cruel and treacherous. They were also of an inward, as well as an outward kind, as all his trials did ordinarily bring fin to remembrance, and fill him with a humbling sense of the awful judgments of a holy and righteous God. He seems alfo to have been particulary exercised in prayer to God, his all-fufficicient help: ver. 3, 4. 'The sorrows of death com• passed me, and the pains of hell gat hold upon me: • I found trouble and forrow. Then called I upon the name of the Lord; O Lord, I beseech thee, deliver my foul.' He thereupon celebrates the mercy of God, and wearing the bonds of love, defires to express his obligations in the strongest terms, and

to fatisfy them by the most chearful obedience: ver. 12. What shall I render unto the Lord for all his • benefits towards me?'

In difcoursing further, at this time, I shall just observe, that the words of the text contain the Pfalmist's resolution: Return unto thy rest, O my foul. and the reafon on which it is founded; for the Lord hath dealt bountifully with thee. These two, as applicable to the servants of God in general, and ourselves in particular, I shall distinctly confider, not in the order of the words, but in the order of

I. I shall describe the state of those with whom God hath dealt bountifully.

II. Explain the import of the Pfalmist's resolution, which ought to be theirs: Return unto thy reft, O my foul.

i And then shall make some practical improvement of the fubject.

I. Then, I shall describe the state of those with whom God hath dealt bountifully; and I am just to describe this, in its great lines, from experience, bea feeching every one present to hear it with application; and to add such circumstances to the several particulars, as will make them completely fuitable to his own state-Observe, then,

1. That the Lord hath dealt bountifully with those from whom he hath removed any affliction under which they groaned, and for: deliverance from which they prayed. - If we would count