ther doubted of his Power nor Good-will; but being fully affured of both, he confidently prefented his Petition to him, which our Saviour immediately granted; faying, Receive Sight, thy Faith has made thee whole. The true Secret, therefore, to obtain the Cure of all our fpiritual Diftempers, is to ask it with a hearty Confidence in the Grace and Mercies of our Redeemer; as, on the contrary, one Reason why our Prayers prove often ineffectual, is, because they are not attended with this holy Difpofition; for instead of placing all our Trust in God, and making our Addreffes to him with an unfhaken Faith, and entire Dependance on him, we either have a fecret Confidence in our own Strength and Industry, or a Diffidence of his Goodnefs, or the Power of his Grace,

It is true, if a Sinner confiders nothing but himself, the Number and Enormity of his Sins paft, and the prefent Difficulties he has to ftruggle with, afford Matter for fuch melancholy Reflections, as fuffice to make him defpond: But when he turns his Eyes towards Jefus Chrift, his Saviour and Redeemer, and confiders him as an inexhauftible Source of Mercy, and vested with a Power equal to his Goodnefs, does he not then discover fuch folid Grounds of Hope, as will not only remove all DiffiE 3 dence

dence and Miftruft, but even encourage him to present his Petitions with the most affured Confidence of Success ? For may he not then justly reason thus with himself? It is true my Sins are very great, but the Mercies of my Redeemer are yet infinitely. greater: My Wounds are dangerous, but Hothing is incurable to the Hand of an Omnipotent Phyfician: Did he not come into the World to fave Sinners? My being then a Sinner ought not to difcourage me from hoping for a Share in the Bleffings he came to beftow: Take Courage then, my Soul; what Reafon haft thou to defpair, unless it be of thy own Strength? For thou can't do nothing of thyself; but defpair not of his Power or Mercy, who is infinite in both. With thefe Confiderations, I fay, a Sinner muft encourage himself to approach with Confidence to the Throne of Grace; and there continue to cry out for Mercy, until the Divine Goodness, moved with his earnest Prayer, fpeaks to his Soul what Chrift faid to the blind Man, Thy Faith bath made thee ound.

But when this happy Hour is come, and that, by God's Bleffing, he now finds a Hatred to Sin deeply fixed in his Heart, his Paffions fubdued fo far as to be Mafter of them, and himfelf walking fteadily in

the Obfervance of God's Holy Law, which are the true Symptoms of a fincere Converfion, he muft then follow his Guide a few Steps farther, and alfo imitate the grateful Behaviour of the Beggar after the Recovery of his Sight: Which fhall be the Subject of the following Entertainment.

TheXLVIIIth ENTERTAINMENT.

The Beggar's Gratitude to Chrift for his Cure.

And immediately he received Sight, and followed him, and glorified God. Luke xviii. 43.

N my laft Difcourfe, I drew fome mo

ral Inftructions from the blind Beggar's Behaviour, whereby he moved Chrift to have Compaffion on him; and from the Method he took to obtain that Bleffing, I marked out the moft confiderable Steps by which a Sinner muft approach the Throne of Mercy, in order to obtain the Grace of a perfect Converfion, and the Cure of his Soul: But the Gratitude of this poor Beggar, fet forth by the Evangelift, in the E 4 Praises

Praifes he paid to God for the Bleffing he received, and immediately following Christ, is fo inftructive a Leffon for all Sinners now delivered by God's Grace from their former fpiritual Blindness, that I intend to make it the whole Subject of this Difcourfe

The Gospel then tells us, that as foon as the Blind-Man had received Sight, he immediately follow'd Chrift, praifing and glorifying God: He was fo transported with the deep Senfe of the Favour he had received, that he could neither think nor fpeak of any Thing elfe: He expreffed his Gratitude by Words, in praifing and glorifying God; and he fhewed it in his Actions, by immediately following Chrift; and we cannot doubt, but he proclaimed every where the Praifes of his Benefactor, and retained as long as he lived a grateful Remembrance of the Bleffing he had beftowed upon him.

It is certain, that to praife and glorify God for Benefits received, is fo effential and indispensable a Duty, that God demands it of us, as a Tribute due to him for all Bleffings whatsoever, whether spiri tual or temporal: This appears plainly in St. Luke's Relation of the Ten Lepers cured by Chrift, and fent to fhew themselves to he Prieft, as it was commanded by the

Law

Law of Moses: However, tho' they were all cured, but One of the Ten returned back to glorify God, and pay his Acknowledgments to the vifible Author of his Cure: But hear how feverely Christ cenfured the Ingratitude of the other Nine in the following Words: Were there not Ten cleanfed? But where are the Nine? There were not found that returned to give Glory to God, but only this one Stranger. Whence it is manifeft, that thofe Nine Lepers were wanting to a Duty which God required of them, and that our Saviour was highly offended at it.

Ingratitude is certainly a Vice moft odi ous both to God and Man: For no Man bestows a Favour, but expects at least the Return of a grateful Heart, when no other can be made: And this Debt is always exacted the most rigorously, because every Man has it in his Power to pay it; nay, the most generous and difinterefted Souls are most apt to refent a Neglect of it; because, it being the only Reward they look for from Men, if they be robbed of it, they lose the whole Fruit of their Generofity in this World. Now if this be fo betwixt Man and Man, how much more juftly muft Almighty God, whofe Bounty to his Creatures is infinite, be offended at the Sin of Ingratitude; fince it robs him E 5

not