him; fing pfalms unto him; talk ye of all his wondrous works; glory ye in his holy name; remember his marvellous work which he hath done."

But fhall we put off our good and gracious benefactor with mere lip-fervice? GOD forbid. Your worthy Governor has honoured God in his late excellent proclamation, and GoD will honour him. But fhall our thanks terminate with the day? No, in no wife. Our text reminds us of a more noble facrifice, and points out to us the great end the Almighty JEHOVAH propofes, in beftowing fuch fignal favours upon a people,That they fhould obferve his ftatutes, and keep his laws."

This is the return we are all taught to pray, that we may make to the Moft High God, the Father of mercies, in the daily office of our church," That our hearts may be un"feignedly thankful, and that we may shew forth his praise,

hot only with our lips, but in our lives, by giving up our"felves to his fervice, and by walking before him in holiness

and righteoufnefs all our days." O that these words were the real language of all that use them! O that there were in us fuch à mind! How foon would our enemies then flee before us? And GOD, even our own GOD, would yet give us more abundant bleffings!

And why fhould not we " obferve God's ftatutes, and keep his laws?" Dare we fay, that any of his commands are grievous? Is not CHRIST's yoke, to a renewed foul, as far as renewed, easy; and his burden comparatively light? May I not appeal to the most refined reafoner, whether the religion of JESUS CHRIST be not a focial religion? Whether the Moral Law, as explained by the LORD JESUS in the gospel, has not a natural tendency to promote the prefent good and happiness of a whole commonwealth, fuppofing they were obedient to them, as well as the happiness of every individual? From whence come wars and fighting amongst us? From what fountain do all thofe evils, which the present and past ages have groaned under, flow, but from a neglect of the laws and ftatutes of our great and all-wife law-giver JESUS of Nazareth? Tell me, ye men of letters, whether Lycurgus or Solon, Pythagoras or Plato, Aristotle, Seneca, Cicero, or all the antient lawgivers and heathen moralifts, put them all to

gether,

gether, ever published a system of ethics, any way worthy to be compared with the glorious fyftem laid down in that much defpifed book, (to ufe Sir Richard Steel's expreffion) emphatically called, the Scriptures? Is not the divine image and fuperscription written upon every precept of the gofpel? Do they not fhine with a native intrinfic luftre? And, though many things in them are above, yet, is there any thing contrary to the ftricteft laws of right reafon? Is not JESUS CHRIST, in fcripture, ftiled the Word, the Logos, the Reafon? And is not his fervice a reasonable fervice? What if there be myfteries in his religion? Are they not without all controverfy great and glorious? Are they not myfteries of godliness, and worthy of that God who reveals them? Nay, is it not the greatest mystery, that men, who pretend to reason, and call themselves philofophers, who fearch into the arcana nature, and confequently find a mystery in every blade of grafs, fhould yet be fo irrational as to decry all myfteries in religion? Where is the fcribe? where is the wife? where is the difputer against the chriftian revelation? Does not every thing without and within us, confpire to prove its divine original? And would not felf-intereft, if there was no other motive, excite us to obferve God's ftatutes, and keep his laws?

Befides, confidered as a proteftant people, do we not lie. under the greatest obligations of any nation under heaven, to pay a chearful, unanimous, univerfal, perfevering obedience

to the divine commands.

The wonderful and furprifing manner of God's bringing about a reformation, in the reign of King Henry the Eighth; his carrying it on in the bleffed reign of King Edward the Sixth; his delivering us out of the bloody hands of Queen Mary, and deftroying the Spanish invincible armada, under her immediate proteftant fucceffor Queen Elizabeth; his discovery of the popish plot under King James; the glorious revolution by King William; and, to come nearer to our own times, his driving away four thousand five hundred Spaniards, from a weak (though important) frontier colony, when they had, in a manner, actually taken poffeffion of it; his giving us Louisbourg, one of the strongest fortreffes of our enemies, contrary to all human probability, but the other day, into

.

our hands thefe, I fay, with the victory which you have lately been commemorating, are fuch national mercies, not to mention any more, as will render us utterly inexcufable, if they do not produce a national reformation, and incite us all, with one heart, to keep God's ftatutes, and obferve his laws.

Need I remind you further, in order to excite in you a greater diligence to comply with the intent of the text, that though the storm, in a great measure, is abated by his Royal Highness's late fuccefs, yet we dare not fay, it is altogether

blown over?

The clouds may again return after the rain; and the few furviving rebels (which I pray GoD avert) may yet be suffered to make head against us. We are ftill engaged in a 'bloody, and, in all probability, a tedious war, with two of 'the most inveterate enemies to the interefts of Great-Britain. And, though I cannot help thinking, that their present intentions are fo iniquitous, their conduct fo perfidious, and their fchemes fo directly derogatory to the honour of the Most High GoD, that he will certainly humble them in the end, yet, as all things in this life happen alike to all, they may for a time, be dreadful inftruments of fcourging us. If not, GoD has other arrows in his quiver to fmite us with, befides the French King, his Catholick Majefty, or an abjured Pretender. Not only the fword, but plague, peftilence, and famine, are under the divine command. Who knows but he may fay to them all," Pafs through thefe lands?" A fatal murrain has lately fwept away abundance of cattle at home and abroad. A like epidemical disease may have a commiffion to seize our perfons as well as our beafts. Thus GOD dealt with the Egyptians who dare fay, he will not deal fo with us? Has he not already given fome fymptoms of it? What great numbers upon the continent have been lately taken off by the bloody-flux, fmall-pox, and yellow-fever? Who can tell 'what further judgments are yet in ftore? However, this is certain, the rod is yet hanging over us and I believe it will be granted on all fides, that if fuch various difpenfations of mercy and judgment do not teach the inhabitants of any land to learn righteoufnefs, they will only ripen them for a greater ruin. Give me leave, therefore, to dismiss you at this time with that folemn awful warning and exhortation,

with which the venerable Samuel, on a public occafion, took leave of the people of Ifrael: " Only fear the LORD, and serve him in truth, with all your heart: for confider how great things he hath done for you. But if ye fhall still do wickedly, [I will not fay as the Prophet did, You shall be confumed; but] ye know not but you may provoke the LORD Almighty to confume both you and your king." Which GOD of his infinite mercy prevent, for the fake of JESUS CHRIST to whom, with the Father, and the Holy Ghoft, three perfons, but one GOD, be all honour and glory, now and for evermore. Amen, Amen,

SERMON

SERMON

VII.

Thankfulness for Mercies received, a neceffary Duty.

A Farewel Sermon, preached on board the Whitaker, at Anchor near Savannah, in Georgia, Sunday, May 17, 1738.

PSALM, Cvii. 30, 31.

Then are they glad, because they are at reft, and so be bringeth them unto the haven where they would be.

O that men would therefore praise the LORD for his goodnefs, and declare the wonders that he doeth for the children of men!

N

UMBERLESS marks does man bear in his foul, that he is fallen and eftranged from GOD; but nothing gives a greater proof thereof, than that backwardness, which every one finds within himself, to the duty of praise and thanksgiving.

When GOD placed the first man in paradife, his foul no doubt was fo filled with a fenfe of the riches of the divine love, that he was continually employing that breath of life, which the Almighty had not long before breathed into him, in bleffing and magnifying that all-bountiful, all-gracious GOD in whom he lived, moved, and had his being.

And the brighteft idea we can form of the angelical hierarchy above, and the fpirits of just men made perfect, is, that they are continually ftanding round the throne of GOD, and 'ceale not day and night, faying, "Worthy art thou, O Lamb

that