CONTENT S. SERMON I. The Duty of Praife and Thanksgiving. PSALM L. 14 Ο FFER unto God Thansgiving. Pag. 1. SERMON II, The Power of Charity to cover Sin. Charity fball Cover the Multitude of Sins. SERMON III, IV. The Miraculous Propagation of the Gospel. 23 A Little one ball become a thousand and a small one aftrong nation: 1, the Lord, will haften it, in his time. SERMON V. A Scorner incapable of True Wisdom. PROV. xiv. 6. A fcorner feeketh wisdom, and findeth it not, SERMON VI. 55 109 A Difcourfe occafioned by the Death of the Lady Cutts. ECCLES. vii. 2. His better to go to the boufe of mourning, than to go to the house of feasting for that is the end of all men; and the living will lay it to heart. C 2 129 SER SERMON VII. The Wisdom of Providence manifefted in the Exhort, That, first of all, fupplications, prayers, interceffions, and giving of thanks be made for all men for kings, and all that are in authority: that we may lead a quiet and peaceable life, in A PSALM L. 14 Offer unto God Thansgiving. MONG the many excellencies of this pious collection of hymns, for which fo particular a value hath been fet upon it by the church of God in all ages, this is not the leaft, that the true price of duties is there justly stated; men are called off from refting in the outward fhew of Religion, in ceremonies and ritual obfervances; and taught rather to practife (that which was fhadowed out by these VOL. I. A rites, rites, and to which they are defigned to lead) found inward virtue and piety. The feveral compofers of these hymns were prophets; perfons, whofe bufinefs it was, not only to foretell Events, for the benefit of the church in fucceeding times, but to correct and reform alfo what was amifs in that race of men with whom they lived and converfed; to preferve a foolish people from idolatry and false worship; to rescue the law from corrupt gloffes and fuperftitious abuses; and to put men in mind of (what they were fo willing to forget) that eternal and invariable rule, which before thefe pofitive duties, would continue after them, and was to be obferved, even then, in preference to them. The discharge, I fay, of this part of the prophetic office taking up fo much room in the book of Pfalms; this hath been one reafon, among many others, why they have been always fo highly efteemed; because we are from hence furnished. with a proper reply to an argument commonly made ufe of by unbelievers; who look upon all revealed religions as pious frauds and impoftures, on account of the prejudices they have entertained in relation to that of the Jews: The whole of which they firft fuppofe to lie in external performances, and then eafily perfuade themselves, that God could never be the Author of fuchla mere,piece of pageantry and empty formality, nor delight in a worship, which confifted purely in a number of odd unaccountable ceremonies. Which objection of theirs we should not be able thoroughly to answer, unless we could prove (chiefly out of the Pfalms, and other parts of the prophetic writings) that the Jewish religion was fomewhat more than bare outfide and fhow; and that inward purity, and the devotion of the heart, was a duty then, as well as now. One great inftance of this proof we have in the words now before us; which are taken from a pfalm of Afaph, written on purpose to fet out the weakness and worthleffnefs of external performances, when compared with more fubftantial and vital duties. To enforce which doctrine, God himself is brought in, as delivering it. Hear, O my people, and I will speak, O Ifrael and I will testify against thee: I am God, even thy God. The preface is very folemn; and therefore what it ushers in, we may be fure, is of no common importance: I will not reprove thee for thy farrifices, or thy burnt-offerings, to have been continually before me. That is, I will not fo reprove thee for any failures in thy facrifices and burnt-offerings, as if these were the only, or the chief things I required of thee. I will take no bullock out of thy houfe, nor he-goatout of thy folds. I prescribed not facrifices to thee, for my own fake, because I need ed them: For every beaft of the foreft is mine, and the cattle upon a thousand hills. Mine they are, and were, before ever I commanded thee to offer them to me; fo that (as it follows) If I were hungry, yet would I not tell thee; for the world is mine, and the fulness thereof. But can ye be fo grofs and fenfelefs, as to think me liable to hunger and thirst? as to imagine that wants of that kind can touch me? Will I eat the flesh of bulls, or drink the blood of goats?Thus doth he expoftulate. feverely with them, after the most graceful manner of the eastern poetry. The iffue of which is, |