104 THIRD SERMON 2. We should be so much the more earnestly pressed unto this, by how much it is the greater evi- dence of our conversion unto God, and by how much more apt we are to call for mercies when we want them, than with the leper to return praises when we do enjoy them. Ten cried to be healed, but there was but one that returned glory to God. Vessels will sound when they are empty ; fill them and they are presently dumb. When we want mercies, then with Pharaoh we cry out for pardon, for peace, for sup- plies, for deliverance ; but when prayers are answered, and our turn served, how few remember the method which God prescribes, " Call upon me in the day of trouble, I will deliver thee, and thou shalt glorify me !" Psa. 1. 15. yea how many like swine trample on the meat that feeds them, and tread undr foot the mercies that preserve them ! How many are so greedily in- tent upon the things they desire, that they cannot see nor value the things they enjoy ! It is noted even of good king Hezekiah, that he did not render accord- ing to the benefits which he had received, 2 Chron. xxxii. 25. Therefore we should be exhorted in our prayers for pardon and grace; to do as the church here doth, to promise the sacrifices of thankfulness and obedience ; not as a price to purchase mercy, (for our good extends not unto God, Psa. xvi. 2.) but as a tie and obligation upon ourselves, to acknowledge and return the praise of mercy to him that gives it. And this the apostle exhorteth us unto, " that our requests should be made known unto God," not only with prayer and supplication, but with thanksgiving, Phil. iv. 6. 1 Thess. v. 17, l8. 1 Tim. ii. 1. which we find to have been his own practice, Eph. iii. 14. 20, 21. We should keep a catalogue of God's mercies to quicken us unto duty, as well as a catalogue of our
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