SECTION XX.

PSALM XXXIV. i.-" His praise shall continually be in my mouth."

REV. vii. 12.-" Glory, and thanksgiving, and honour, be to our God for ever and ever."

It is argued that praise and glory as offered to God must be unnecessary, because He must be infinitely glorious in Himself.

Certainly the Divine Being cannot need our praises the praises of poor low mortals, who are assimilated by Isaiah to grasshoppers, when compared to God, who sitteth above the circle of the heavens. He cannot need our praises, who" is exalted above all blessing and praise."* He cannot receive accession of happiness from our thanksgivings, for His felicity is independent of precarious accident. And yet praise and glory from mortals may be absolutely necessary on their part as an indication of their feelings towards the Lord of all; and indeed they have elegantly been termed "a sweet necessity."

* Neh. ix. 5.

Thus earthly fathers merit the meed of gratitude from their children, and benefactors from those whom they have assisted; and this without regard to the fact, whether this return produces pleasure or profit to the objects of this gratitude. Gratitude, indeed, is an instinct of noble feeling, which is never genuine unless it proceed from the heart by a spontaneous impulse; not staying to calculate nicely, and consider if it produces satisfaction; but being borne along by a generous ardour, it feels constrained to pay its offering, and to manifest the sincerity of its devotion. And thus gratitude to God for His unnumbered mercies breathes out its thanksgivings, not because it thinks it is adding anything to the divine felicity, but because it is as a confined fire which labours to be free, and cannot but find at length the means of being so.

So clearly, indeed, did Christ see the necessity, in the very nature of things, of thanksgiving to God, that when some of the Pharisees called upon him to stop the voices of the disciples who were "praising God with a loud voice for all the mighty works they had seen," he exclaimed, "I tell you, that if those should

hold their peace, the stones would immediately cry out."*

In fact, the practice of mankind in all ages is opposed to this objection; for never has the time existed since the creation when praise has not ascended like the incense to Heaven, and when glory has not been given to God's great name. We may, indeed, as reasonably expect to quench the light of the sun, as to smother the aspirings of gratitude to God in the breast of religious men. Nor certainly can it be pretended that the sincere offerers of praise and glory to God have been the most stupid, or the most ungenerous, or the most vicious, of the sons of men.

What, therefore, cannot be eradicated from the heart must have its foundations deeply based in the laws of nature; and what is thus based, must be declared by all reasonable men to have the sanction of God Himself, and therefore to be beyond the reach of censure or of cavil.

* Luke xix. 40.

SECTION XXI.

PSALM CXXXVI. 17.-" Who smote great kings, for His mercy endureth for ever;" 21, " And gave away their land for an heritage, for His mercy endureth for ever."

IT has been thought a strange inference from the mercy of God, that He slays kings, and gives away their kingdoms.

A very little reflection will convince us that there is but little reasonableness in this idea. For was it no mercy to mankind, when Attila, and Nero, and Sylla, were cut off and prevented from committing further ravages on their fellow-creatures? Is there no good to men when offenders of all kinds are punished, and the violators of the peace and property of society are seized on by the strong arm of the law? And is it an uncommon thing to hear it said, when a tyrannical lord, or a griping miser, or a hard-hearted father, hath ceased to live, "What a blessing that he is gone!" "What

a mercy that he is no longer able to oppress and to tyrannize !"*

Thus Cicero assures Catiline, that "should

* See more in the remarks on Psalm cxl. 10,

he order him to be instantly seized and put to death, he has reason to believe that good men would rather reproach him with tardiness than with cruelty."*

The same writer thus also addresses Verres :+

"A man of this guilty character does not present himself here merely to receive the common punishment due to avarice, his monstrous and importunate nature calls for some unparalleled punishment. We do not require merely that the goods he has robbed should be restored to their owners: but this man's punishment must expiate the violated ceremonies of the immortal gods and the blood of many innocents. For For you have brought to judgment, not a thief, but a common despoiler; not an adulterer, but the violator of chastity; not a sacrilegious person, but the inveterate enemy of all sacred rites; not a ruffian, but a most savage butcherer of citizens and allies."

And Seneca addresses in the same spirit a supposed offender:-" You have an incorrigible spirit; you have drunk to the dregs the cup of iniquity, and have so mingled it with your very vitals, that it cannot quit you but with them. We will deserve your thanks; we *Cic. in Catil. 1. 2. + Cic. Orat. vi. in Verr.