Ps. ciii. 1 — 5. Bless the Lord, 0 my soul, and all that is within me bless his holy name. Bless the Lord, 0 my
' sold, and Jorget not all his benefits: who forgiveth all thine iniquities; ivho healeth all thy diseases : who redeemeth thy life from destruction ; who crowneth thee with loving-kind- ness and tender mercies : who satisfieth thy mouth with good things, so that thy strength is renewed like the eagle's.
IT is a favourite opinion of some divines, that we are bound to love God for his own perfections, with- out having any respect to the benefits which we receive from him. But this appears to us to be an unscriptural refinement. That God deserves all pos- sible love from his creatures on account of his own perfections, can admit of no doubt : and we can easily conceive, that persons may be so occupied with an admiration of his perfections, as not to have in their minds any distinct reference to the benefits
they
Mi PSALMS, cm. 1 — 5. [406^.
they have received from him : but that any creature can place himself in the situation of a being who has no obligations to God for past mercies, and no ex- pectation of future blessings from him, we very much doubt : nor are we aware that God any where re- quires us so to divest ourselves of all the feelings of humanity, for the sake of engaging more entirely in the contemplation of his perfections. Nor indeed can we consent to the idea, that gratitude is so low a virtue \ On the contrary, it seems to be the prin- ciple that animates all the hosts of the redeemed in heaven ; who are incessantly occupied In singing praises to him who loved them, and washed them from their sins in his own blood. By this also all the most eminent saints on earth have been distin- guished. In proof of this, we need go no further than to the psalm before us, wherein the man after God's own heart adores and magnifies his Bene- factor, for some particular mercies recently vouch- safed unto him. To instil this principle into your minds, and to lead you to a measure of that devotion with which the sweet singer of Israel was inspired, we shall,
I. State the grounds we have to praise God —
To enumerate all the benefits we have received from God, would be impossible. We must content ourselves with adverting to them in the peculiar view in which they are set before us in the text. "We would call you then to consider,
1. The freeness and undeservedness of them — [It is this which gives a zest to every blessing we enjoy: in this view, the very food we eat, and the air we breathe, demand our most grateful acknowledgments. The Psalmist begins with speaking of himself as a guilty and corrupt creature, who, unless pardoned and renewed l)y the grace of God, mu«t have been an everlasting monument of his righteous displeasure. The same thought also should be uppermost in our minds. We should contrast our state with that of the fallen angels, who never had a Saviour vouchsafed unto them ; and with that of the unbelieving world, who, in consecjuence of rejecting the Saviour, have perished in their sins. What claim had we, any
more " Deut. xxviii. 47.