sob Of acknowledging God in all our Ways, SERM. no good end; they can neither fatisfy the XII. demands of reafon and confcience, yield to is ourfelves any true enjoyment, nor pleafe God. The Ieaft attention to our natural fentiments concerning right and good, and to our notions of the Deity, of his nature and attributes, will convince us, that the duty of thankf- giving is not fulfilled in what the prophet calls the calves of óúr lips, nor are our words of any value at all, farther than as they pro- ceed from a fincere prevalent affe uion, in which gratitude effentially confifls. Let us therefore always carefully attend to the habi- tual temper of our fpirits ; try whether the bent of them be to entertain a delightful fenfe of the daily communications of the di- vine goodneis to us ; and, whatever occurs to us in the courfe of things, whether ordi- nary, or in a peculiar fenfible manner affet- ing our condition, to raife our thoughts to the contemplation of God's interpofing as the fovereign, wife and gracious difpofer. And let us conflantly endeavour to cultivate fuch a temper, by often engaging our minds to fuch defigned and deliberate meditation as /hall tend to raife and confirm it. The natural operation of gratitude in the heart is to think often and with pleafure on the benefador,
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