conscious of their own wants, and the value of his benefits,

"Enlarge, (or open wide,) thy This gracious grant, though

It

they made application to him. mouth, and I will fill it." given originally to Israel, extends to all the true worshippers of God, to all who hunger and thirst after righteousness. may also be considered as an invitation addressed to all who hear the gospel, encouraging the application of necessitous, perishing, hungry souls, who never applied to God before. I would propose to consider,

FIRST, The import and extent of the charge.

It is evidently an injunction and encouragement to prayer; to a humble application to God, and an enlarged expectation of good from him, answerable to our necessities and our requests. Its meaning is, Whatever you want, come to me for it. Let all your wants be I will supply upon me. you. I will satisfy your mouth with good. "I am God all sufficient." Ever treat me as such. Ask, and it shall be given you." But think not to ask once for all; you must come to me daily, apply repeatedly; keep constantly dependant; seek me, not occasionally, but live continually on my fulness. Extend and enlarge your desires, so as to comprehend the most excellent blessings. Ask, not for temporal blessings only, which are transient, uncertain, and insufficient to insure real happiness; but ask chiefly for spiritual blessings; blessings for the soul, which shall fit it to glorify and enjoy God. Ask, not merely for some of covenant; but for all of

Apply

the blessings of the well ordered them. Let the whole of God's salvation be the whole of your desire, and it shall undoubtedly be granted. not merely for some grace, enough to secure your credit, or ascertain your safety; but for great grace, that God may be greatly glorified; for great faith, great love, great activity, fortitude, and fruitfulness. Ask for blessings not merely for yourself: but for others also; for your fellow-christians, for the whole church. "Pray for the peace of Jerusalem; they shall prosper who love her." "They who mention the name of the Lord shall give him no rest, till he make his church a praise and rejoicing in all the earth.” Cultivate universal disinterested benevolence. Seek earnestly

the salvation of souls; of your family, and neighbours; of your fellow-sinners to all the ends of the earth. God loves a public spirit. If we were more concerned for the increase of Christ's kingdom, what personal benefits would be added! Embrace every opportunity of doing good to others. Unite fervent prayers and unwearied efforts to do good. Beware of the inconsistency of opening wide your mouth, and shutting close your hands, or folding them together for sleep. Seek not only their occasional and temporal good, but aim earnestly at the highest good of others, even their eternal welfare; yet gladly promote their temporal interest also, as far as you can consistently with other duties. Let the divine glory be the ultimate end in which all your desires terminate. Your own happiness consists in connexion and communion with God, in union to Christ and conformity to him; and so does the happiness of others. If then, you love your neighbour aright, you will seek this happiness for him. It is a poor love to a rational creature, which respects not his highest welfare. What a parent would that be, who to make a child happy for a day, should risque his being a beggar for life! And what a foolish parent, who to make a child rich and great, and as it was supposed happy for life, should risque or promote his being miserable for ever! If we love God rightly, we shall long to know, love, and serve him more and more ourselves; and to have him known, admired, loved, obeyed, and glorified by others, more and more; by greater numbers of our fellowcreatures, and in higher degrees.

SECONDLY: The ground we have to expect the fulfilment of this promise." I will fill it," says God. "Open -wide thy mouth, (i. e. extend thy desire,) and I will fill it.

Surely this teaches us, that the greater and more valuable the blessings are which we implore from the divine beneficence, the more sure shall we be to receive them in answer to prayer. We are universally dependant on God, and it becomes us to ask of him our daily bread, to acknowledge him in all our ways; in every thing by prayer and supplication making known our requests unto him. But, though

men are to be blamed, that they so seldom acknowledge God in any thing, yet they are still more to be blamed, that they seek not from him the chief good. Men may however possibly cry to God for inferior things, and apply in vain. Even good men may ask for temporal blessings and not receive them; because the things we suppose good, may not be good, or not good for us, or not good for us at present. But none shall seek to God for the best of blessings in vain. If we ask enough, we shall have it.

When Alexander told Anaxarchus to go to his treasurer, and ask what he wanted, the treasurer was astonished at his asking so great a sum, and would not pay it without consulting Alexander. "It seemed too much for one man to receive." But the king said, "It is not too much for Alexander to give. He does honor to my riches and liberality, by so large a request." So is God honored by the prayer

of faith.

Con

Consider the inexhaustible fulness and all-sufficiency of Jehovah. He is infinitely rich. A boundless ocean of bliss. The waters of the sea can as easily satisfy the great whales, which God has made to play therein, as they can the smallest marine insect that lives in them. sider the infinite liberality of the divine nature. God is the great benefactor of the universe. He takes a godlike pleasure in the communication of good; and the greater the blessing, the more his benevolence is displayed and gratified in the bestowment. No creature can have wants too numerous, or too extensive for him to be able or willing to supply. Though we are sinners, who have forfeited all good, and deserved all evil, yet God himself has provided a method of reconciliation, and laid up abundant goodness for such as are in the covenant of grace. "It has pleased the Father that all fulness should dwell" in the blessed Mediator. "He has received gifts for men." Every obstacle which might have hindered the communication of good to sinners is removed by Christ's mediation. Now therefore, the

more God bestows on the believing sinner for Christ's sake, the more he is honored and glorified. The exceeding riches of grace are the more illustrated. The Father gives a greater

proof of his love to Christ, and shows more clearly his love to obedience, and to the law which Christ so highly honored; thus both his government and grace are more exalted. When

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God bestows spiritual blessings, they may justly be considered as the earnest of more. For God never gave grace, without a design to give more grace; yea, and glory too. Eph. i. 14. God is not likely to be offended with our asking too much, if we ask for nothing but what is good; i. e. for nothing but what God can bestow with honor, and to our real advantage. Open wide thy mouth, (says he,) and I will fill it." As a good father would not give his son a serpent when he asked for a fish; a scorpion for an egg, or a stone for bread: so neither would he give him a serpent or a scorpion, even though the child should foolishly request it. Nor will God grant the improper and hurtful desires of his own children. Therefore, let us examine what is good, consult the divine word, and thence learn what to ask: and may we enlarge our desires after the supreme good!

While the worldling drinks in happiness, if it will bear the name, with the mouth of an insect, the Christian imbibes bliss as with the mouth of an angel. His pleasures are the same in kind, with the pleasures of the infinitely happy God.

XXV.

THE APPARENT VANITY OF MAN.

PSALM 1xxxix. 47.

Wherefore hast thou made all men in vain?

IT may be difficult to determine at what time this Psalm was made. Ethan and Heman are mentioned as cotemporary with Solomon; 1 Kings iv. 31. 1 Chron. xv. 19. and as eminent for wisdom, though not equal to him. This Ethan might survive that monarch, and compose this Psalm after his death, when the ten tribes revolted from Rehoboam, and Shishak plundered Jerusalem. Or a person of the same name might write it after the death of Josiah, or nearer the captivity.

Be that as it may, this sentence contains a passionate exclamation, expressing such sensations as the Psalmist would not mean to justify; which yet may afford us instruction, when we examine into the occasion of them, as well as when we seek after an antidote to rectify them.

FIRST, Let us investigate the ground of this complaint; or say, what circumstances seem calculated to tempt a wise and good man to indulge an apprehension that all men are made in vain ?

The consideration of the shortness and uncertainty of human life in general, is one occasion of this suspicion. Two thirds die under two years of age, and how many more in childhood! How few comparatively reach old age! How soon is the longest life past! How uncertain is every

moment! No circumstances can insure it! How much of life is filled with troubles! How much more with trifles! Ah! how vain is this mortal life! If this were all, man would indeed seem to have been made in vain.

Yet how evidently is this world all that most men pursue ! Who are they, that comparatively mind any thing else! Though they that possess the most of temporal good, evidently set their minds upon a thing of nought, which may leave them, and which they soon must leave. While others mind no future state; though one would think their troubles here must so embitter this world as to constrain them to look out for a better. Many are busy in doing nothing; many in doing worse than nothing. Some are weaving spiders' webs, others hatching cockatrices' eggs. Many torment themselves; many are a plague to others. And they regard no warning; but seem willing to risque their future portion with devils, if they may but in this life live like beasts.

The great mixture of hypocrites with sincere professors of religion, may induce a pious man to employ this language. In all ages there have been a number who have professed a regard to God, and a future state; but even among those whose professions have been founded on divine revelation, too many have plainly shown themselves to be hypocrites or selfdeceivers, and others have at least given ground for suspicion