ON HOSEA XIV.- VERSES 2, 3. 105 own sins to make us cry for mercy. And unto this duty of thanksgiving we may be excited : By the consideration of God's greatness. " Great is the Lord, and therefore greatly to be praised," Psa. cxlv. 3. The praises of God should be according to his name, Psa. xlviii. 10. xcvi. 8. All things were made for no other end, but to return glory to him that made them. Because all things are of him, therefore all must be to him, Rom. xi. 36. and this the very figure of the world teacheth us ; for a cir- cular line ends where it began, and returns back into its original point, by that means strengthening and preserving itself. For things are usually strongest when nearest their original, and the more remote from that, the weaker they grow. As a tree is strongest at the root, and a branch or bough next the trunk or stock, and the further out it goes from thence, the smaller and weaker it grows too ; and the further it is from the original of its being, the nearer it is unto not being : so all creatures are hereby taught, both for preservation of that being they have, and for supply of what perfections they want, and in both for the setting forth of the greatness of their Maker, (out of whose infinite Being all finite beings are sustained and perfected,) to run back unto God for whose sake they are and have been created. Rivers come from the sea, and therefore run back into the sea again. The trees receive sap from the earth, and within a while pay it back in those leaves that fall down to the earth again. Now as God hath made all creatures thus to show forth the glory of his greatness, so he will have them do it by these principles, and in that manner of working which he hath planted in them. Inanimate and mere natural creatures are bid to praise the Lord, Psa. cxlviii. 8, 9. but this they do
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