God; and then how Reasonable it is that s E R M. we should comply with it.

Our Enquiry into what is meant here, will be very fhort: For who is there, that understands any thing of Religion, but knows, that the offering Praise and Thanks to God implies, our having a lively and devout Sense of his Excellencies, and of his Benefits; our recollecting them with Humility and Thankfulness of Heart; and our expreffing these inward Affections by fuitable outward Signs; by reverent and lowly Poftures of Body, by Songs, and Hymns, and Spiritual Ejaculations; either Privately, or Publickly; either in the Customary and Daily Service of the Church, or in its more folemn Affemblies, convened upon Extraordinary Occafions? This is the Account, which every Christian easily gives himself of it; and which, therefore, it would be needlefs to enlarge upon. I fhall only take notice on this Head, That Praise and Thanksgiving do, in Strictnefs of Speech, fignify things fomewhat different. Our Praife

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SERM. Praife properly terminates in God, on the I. account of his natural Excellencies and

Perfections; and is that Act of Devotion by which we confefs and admire his feveral Attributes: But Thanksgiving is a narrower Duty, and imports only a grateful Senfe and Acknowledgment of past Mercies. We praise God for all his glorious Acts, of every kind, that regard either Us, or Other Men; for his very Vengeance, and those Judgments which he fometimes fends abroad in the Earth: But we thank him (properly fpeaking) for the Inftances of his Goodness alone; and for fuch only of thefe, as We ourselves are fome way concerned in. This, I fay, is what the two Words strictly imply: But fince the Language of Scripture is generally lefs exact, and ufeth Either of them often to exprefs the Other by, I fhall not think myself obliged, in what follows, thus nicely always to distinguish them.

Now the great Reasonableness of this Duty of Praise or Thanksgiving, and our feveral Obligations to it, will appear; if

we either confider it abfolutely in itself, SERM, as the Debt of our Natures; or compare

it with other Duties, and fhew the Rank it bears among them; or fet out, in the laft place, fome of its peculiar Properties and Advantages, with regard to the devout Performer of it.

I. The Duty of Praife and Thanks- I. giving, confidered abfolutely in itself, is, I fay, the Debt, and Law of our Nature. We had fuch Faculties bestowed on us by our Creator, as made us capable of fatisfying this Debt, and obeying this Law; and they never, therefore, work more naturally and freely, than when they are thus employed.

'Tis one of the earliest Inftructions given us by Philofophy, and which hath ever fince been approved and inculcated by the wifest Men of all Ages, That the Original Defign of making Man was, that he might Praife and Honour Him who made him. When God had finished this goodly Frame of Things we call the World, and put together the feveral

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SERM. Parts of it, according to his infinite Wif dom, in exact Number, Weight, and Measure; there was ftill wanting a Creature in these lower Regions, that could apprehend the Beauty, Order, and exquifite Contrivance of it; that, from contemplating the Gift, might be able to raise itself up to the great Giver, and do Honour to all his Attributes. Every thing indeed that God made did, in fome Senfe, glorify its Author, inafmuch as it carried upon it the plain Mark and Imprefs of the Deity, and was an Effect worthy of that firft Caufe from whence it flowed; and Thus might the Heavens be faid, at the firft Moment in which Pfal.xix. 1. they food forth, to declare his Glory, and the Firmament to fhew his Handywork: But this was an imperfect and defective Glory; the Sign was of no Signification here below, whilft there was no one here as yet to take Notice of it. Man, therefore, was formed to fupply this Want; endued with Powers fit to find out, and to acknowledge, these unlimited Perfections; and then put into this Tem

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ple of God, this lower World, as the SER M. Prieft of Nature, to offer up the Incense of Thanks and Praife for the mute and the infenfible Part of the Creation.

This, I fay, hath been the Opinion all along of the most thoughtful Men, down from the moft ancient Times: And tho' it be not Demonftrative, yet is it what we cannot but judge highly reasonable, if we do but allow, that Man was made for fome End or other; and that he is capable of perceiving that End. For then, let us fearch and enquire never fo much, we shall find no Other Account of him that we can reft upon fo well. If we fay, That he was made purely for the good Pleasure of God; this is, in effect, to fay, that he was made for no Determinate End; or for none, at least, that We can difcern. If we fay, That he was defigned as an Inftance of the Wisdom, and Power, and Goodness of God; this indeed may be the Reason of his Being in general; for 'tis the common Reason of the Being of every thing befides. But it gives no Account, why he was

made