ON HOSEA XIV.- VERSES 2, 3. 91 of mercy, with his promises of praise, and answering all the parts thereof, If God will be with me, and keep me, I will be his, and he shall be mine. If he single out me and my seed, to set us up as marks for his angels to descend unto with protection and mercy, and will indeed give this land to us, and return me unto my father's house ; then this stone which I have set up for a pillar and monument, shall be God's house, for me and my seed to praise him in ;" and accordingly we find he built an altar there, and changed the name of that place, calling it the house of God, and God, the God of Bethel. And lastly, " If God indeed will not leave nor forsake me, but will give so rich a land as this unto me, I will surely return a homage back, and of his own, I will give the tenth unto him again." So punctual is this holy man to stipulate for each distinct promise a distinct praise, and to take the quality of his vows, from the quality of God's mercies, Gen. xxviii. 20. 22. compared with verses 13. 15. Gen. xxxv. 6, 7. 14, 15. Lastly, Jonah out of the belly of hell cries unto God, and voweth a vow unto him, that he would sacrifice with the voice of thanksgiving, and tell all ages, that salvation is of the Lord, Jonah ii. 9. Thus we may consider praises as the matter of the church's covenant. II. As a fruit of true repentance, and deliverance from sin. When sin is taken away, when grace is obtained, then indeed is a man in a right disposition to give praises unto God. When we are brought out of a wilderness into Canaan, Deut. viii. 10. out of Babylon unto Sion, Jer. xxx. 18, 19. then saith the prophet, " Out of them shall proceed thanksgiving, and the voice of them that make merry," &c. When Israel had passed through the Red Sea, and saw the Egyptians dead on the shore, the great type of our
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