PSALM 1XV. 11.

Thou crownest the year with thy goodness.

AMONG other feasts of the Lord, which the Jewish church was appointed to observe, (and many annual feasts they had for one fast,) one is called, The feast of in-gathering at the end of the year, according to the civil computation of their year. The feast we are, this day, solemnizing with joy, in communion with all the religious assemblies of our land, being appointed by authority on the last day of the year, according to the vulgar reckoning, may be looked upon as our feast of in-gathering: in it we appear before the Lord, in whom all our joys must terminate, and to whom all our trophies must be consecrated. Remember therefore the law of those feasts, that none must appear before the Lord empty if our hearts be here empty, what will it avail us that our congregation is full? It is the soul that appears before God: if that be empty of holy joy in God, and holy concern for the welfare of the public, which ought to fill us on such occasions, it is but the carcass and shell, without the life and kernel, of a Thanksgiving-day.

Let this feast at the end of the year be kept to the honour of that God who is the Alpha and Omega, the First and the Last; both the spring, and the centre, of all our glories. As we must begin every day and year with him, so with him we must end both. For of him, and through him, and to him are all things.

Praise is waiting for God this day in our English Zion, and to him must the vow be performed; the vow of thanksgiving to God for his mercies to

the land of our nativity; in the peace whereof we have our share; and in the praises whereof we are unworthy of the name of Englishmen, if we do not cheerfully bear our part. And how can we sum up our acknowledgments of God's favours to our nation, in more proper words than those of my text, Thou crownest the year with thy goodness. Common providence crowns every year with the goodness of God; but special providences crown some years more than others with it.

I. Every year is crowned with God's goodness. We of this land have as much reason to say so as any other people; for, like Canaan, it is a land which the eyes of the Lord our God are always upon, from the beginning of the year even unto the end of the year. He who appoints the bounds of men's habitations, has appointed very well for us: The lines are fallen to us in such pleasant places, as forbid us to envy the situation of any of our neighbours, or of any nation under heaven.

As we have daily mercies to give thanks for, in the close of every day; so we have yearly mercies to give thanks for, in the close of every year, even the blessings of "Heaven above," and the "Earth beneath;" for both which we are indebted to him who made heaven and earth, and continues the ordinances of both for the benefit and comfort of that mean, unworthy creature,―man.

1. The annual revolutions of the heavenly bodies, and the benefit we receive by their light and influences, in the several seasons of the year. Summer and winter crown the year; God made both, and | both for the service of men, as well as night and day. The shadows of the evening are not more acceptable to the weary labourer, than the winter

Exod. xxiii. 16.

b Ps. lxv. 1.

. Deut. xi. 12.

d Ps. lxxiv. 16.

e Job vii. 2.