day, and before company came in, and went out into a solitary place, and there prayed (Mark i. 35).

4. In the morning we have received fresh mercies from God, which we are concerned to acknowledge with thankfulness to His praise. He is continually doing us good, and loading us with His benefits. Every day we have reason to bless Him, for every day He is blessing us; in the morning particularly; and therefore, as He is giving out to us the fruits of His favour, which are said to be "new every morning" (Lam. iii. 23), because though the same we had the morning before, they are still forfeited, and still needed, and upon that account may be called still new; so we should be still returning the expressions of our gratitude to Him, and of other pious and devout affections, which, like the fire on the altar, must be new every morning (Lev. vi. 12).

Have we had a good night? and have we not an errand to the throne of grace to return thanks for it? How many mercies concurred to make it a good night; distinguishing mercies, granted to us, but denied to others! Many have not where to lay their heads; our Master himself had not: "The foxes have holes, and the birds of the air have nests, but the Son of man hath not where to lay his head;" but we have houses to dwell in, quiet and peaceable habitations, perhaps stately ones; we have beds to lie in, warm and easy ones, perhaps beds of ivory, fine ones, such as they stretched themselves upon who were at ease in Zion; and are not put to wander in deserts and mountains, in dens and caves of the earth, as some of the best of God's saints have been forced to do, of whom the world was not worthy. Many have beds to lie on, yet dare not or cannot lie down in them, being kept up either by the sickness of their friends or the fear of their enemies. But we have laid us down, and there has been none to make us afraid; no alarms of the sword, either of war or persecution. Many lay them down and cannot sleep, but are full of tossings to and fro until

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the dawning of the day, through pain of body or anguish of mind. Wearisome nights are appointed to them, and their eyes are held waking; but we have laid us down and slept without any disturbance, and our sleep was sweet and refreshing, the pleasant parenthesis of our cares and toils. It is God who has given us sleep, has given it us as He gives it to His beloved. Many lay them down and sleep, and never rise again; they sleep the sleep of death, and their beds are their graves: but we have slept and waked again, have rested, and are refreshed; we shake ourselves, and it is with us as at other times, because the Lord has sustained us; and if He had not upheld us, we had sunk with our own weight when we fell asleep (Ps. iii. 5).

Have we a pleasant morning? is the light sweet to us? the light of the sun, the light of the eyes, do these rejoice the heart? and ought we not to own our obligations to Him who opens our eyes, and opens the eyelids of the morning upon us? Have we clothes to put on in the morning, garments that are warm upon us (Job xxxvii. 17), change of raiment, not for necessity only, but for ornament? We have them from God; it is His wool and His flax that is given to cover our nakedness, and the morning when we dress ourselves is the proper time of returning Him thanks for it; yet, I doubt, we do it not so constantly as we do for our food when we sit down to our tables, though we have as much reason to do it. Are we in health and at ease? have we been long so? We ought to be thankful for a constant series of mercies, as for particular instances of it, especially considering how many are sick and in pain, and how much we have deserved to be so.

Perhaps we have experienced some special mercy to ourselves or our families, in preservation from fire or thieves, from dangers we have been aware of, and many more unseen. Weeping, perhaps, endured for a night, and joy came in the morning;

and that calls aloud upon us to own the goodness of God. The destroying angel, perhaps, has been abroad, and the arrow that flies at midnight, and wastes in darkness, has been shot in at others' windows, but our houses have been passed over. Thanks be to God for the blood of the. covenant, sprinkled upon our door-posts; and for the ministration of the good angels about us, to which we owe it that we have been preserved from the malice of the evil angels against us, those rulers of the darkness of this world, who, perhaps, creep forth like the beasts of prey, when He makes darkness and it is dark. All the glory be to the God of the angels.

5. In the morning we have fresh matter ministered to us for the adoration of the greatness and glory of God. We ought to take notice, not only of the gifts of God's bounty to us, which we have the comfort and benefit of,—they are little narrow souls that confine their regards to them, but we ought to observe the more general instances of His wisdom and power in the kingdom of providence, which redound to His honour and the common good of the universe. The nineteenth Psalm seems to have been a morning meditation, in which we are directed to observe how "the heavens declare the glory of God, and the firmament sheweth his handywork;" and to own not only the advantage we receive from their light and influence, but the honour they do to Him who stretched out the heavens like a curtain, fixed their pillars, and established their ordinances, according to which they continue to this day, for they are all His servants. "Day unto day utters this speech, and night unto night sheweth this knowledge;" even the eternal power and Godhead of the great Creator of the world, and its great Ruler. The regular and constant succession and revolution of light and darkness, according to the original contract made between them, that they should reign alternately, may serve to confirm our faith in that part of Divine revelation which gives us the history of the creation, and the promise of

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God to Noah and his sons (Gen. viii. 22); His "covenant with the day and with the night" (Jer. xxxiii. 20).

Look up in the morning, and see how exactly the dayspring knows its place, knows its time, and keeps them how the morning light takes hold of the ends of the earth, and of the air, which is turned to it as clay to the seal, instantly receiving the impressions of it (Job xxxviii. 12-14). I was pleased with an expression of a worthy good minister I heard lately, in his thanksgivings to God for the mercies of the morning: "How many thousand miles," said he, "has the sun travelled this last night to bring the light of the morning to us poor sinful wretches, that justly might have been buried in the darkness of the night!" Look up and see the sun as a bridegroom richly dressed, and greatly pleased, coming out of his chamber and rejoicing as a strong man to run a race: observe how bright his beams are, how sweet his smiles, how strong his influences and, if there be no speech or language where their voice is not heard, the voice of these natural preachers, proclaiming the glory of God, it is pity there should be any speech or language where the voice of His worshippers should not be heard, echoing to the voice of those preachers, and ascribing glory to Him who thus makes the morning and evening to rejoice. But whatever others do, let Him hear our voice to this purpose in the morning, and in the morning let us direct our praises unto Him.

Have we been, according

6. In the morning we have, or should have, had fresh thoughts of God, and sweet meditations on His name, and those we ought to offer up to Him in prayer. to David's example, "remembering God upon our beds, and meditating upon Him in the night-watches?" When we awake can we say as he did, "We are still with God?" If so, we have a good errand to the throne of grace by the words of our mouths, to offer up to God the meditations of our hearts, and it will be to Him a sacrifice of a sweet

your.

If the heart has been inditing a good matter, let the tongue be as the pen of a ready writer, to pour it out before God (Ps. xlv. 1).

We have the Word of God to converse with, and we ought to read a portion of it every morning: by it God speaks to us, and in it we ought to meditate day and night, which if we do, that will send us to the throne of grace, and furnish us with many a good errand there. If God in the morning by His grace direct His Word to us, so as to make it reach our hearts, that will engage us to direct our prayer to Him.

7. In the morning, it is to be feared, we find cause to reflect upon many vain and sinful thoughts that have been in our minds in the night season; and upon that account it is necessary that we address ourselves to God by prayer in the morning, for the pardon of them. The Lord's prayer seems to be calculated primarily in the letter of it for the morning; for we are taught to pray "for our daily bread this day:" and yet we are then to pray, "Father, forgive us our trespasses;" for as in the hurry of the day we contract guilt by our irregular words and actions, so we do in the solitude of the night, by our corrupt imaginations, and the wanderings of an unsanctified, ungoverned fancy. It is certain, "the thought of foolishness is sin" (Prov. xxix. 9). Foolish thoughts are sinful thoughts; the first-born of the old man, the first beginnings of all sin; and how many of these vain thoughts lodge within us wherever we lodge? Their name is Legion, for they are many; who can understand these errors! They are more than the hairs of our head.

And dare we go abroad till we have renewed our repentance, which we are every night, as well as every day, thus making work for? Are we not concerned to confess to Him who knows our hearts, their wanderings from Him, to complain of them to Him as revolting and rebellious hearts, and bent to backslide; to make our peace with the blood of Christ, and to pray