abuse of words too enormous As therefore no moment of our life wants sufficient matter and every considerable portion of time ministers notable occasion of blessing God as he allows himself no spacious intervalls or discontinuances of doing us good so ought we not to suffer any of those many days vouchsafed by his goodness to flow beside us void of the signall expressions of our dutifull Thankfulness to him nor to admit in our course of life any long vacations from this Duty If God incessantly and through every minute demonstrates himself gracious unto us we in all reason are obliged frequently and daily to declare our selves gratefull unto him So at least did David that most eminent example in this kind and therefore most apposite to illustrate our Doctrine and to enforce the practice thereof for Every day saith he I will bless thee I will praise thy Name for ever and ever Every day The Heavenly bodies did not more constantly observe their course then he his diurnal revolutions of praise Every day in his Kalendar was as it were Festival and consecrated to Thansgiving Neither did he adjudge it sufficient to devote some small parcels of each day to this Service for My Tongue saith he shall speak of thy Righteousness and of thy praise all the day long and again My mouth shall shew forth thy righteousness and thy salvation all the day for I know not the numbers thereof The Benefits of God he apprehended so great and numerous that no definite space of time would serve to consider and commemorate them He resolves therefore otherwhere to bestow his whole life upon that employment While I live I will praise the Lord I will sing praises unto my God while I have any being and I will bless the Lord at all times his praise shall continually be in my mouth No man can reasonably pretend greater impediments or oftner avocations from the practice of this duty then he upon whom the burthen of a royal estate and the care of governing a populous nation were incumbent yet could not they thrust out of his memory nor extinguish in his heart the lively sense of Divine goodness which notwithstanding the company of other secular encumbrances was always present to his mind and like a spirit excluded from no place by any corporeal resistence did mingle with and penetrate all his thoughts and affections and actions So that he seems to have approached very near to the compleat performance of this Duty according to the extremity of a literal interpretation and to have been always without any intermission employed in giving thanks to God The consideration methinks of so noble a pattern adjoyned to the evident reasonableness of the Duty should engage us to the frequent practice thereof But if the consideration of this excellent example do not yet certainly that may both provoke us to emulation and confound us with shame of Epictetus a Heathen Man whose words to this purpose seem very remarkable 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 saith he in Arrian's Dissert 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. That is in our language If we understood our selves what other thing should we doe either publickly or privately than sing Hymns to and speak well of God and perform Thanks unto him Ought we not when we were digging or plowing or eating to sing a sutable Hymn to him Great is God in that he hath bestowed on us those instruments wherewith we till the ground Great is God because he hath given us hands a throat a belly that we grow insensibly that sleeping we breath Thus proceeds he should we upon every occurrence celebrate God and superadd of all the most excellent and most Divine Hymn for that he hath given us the faculty of apprehending and using these things orderly Wherefore since most men are blind and ignorant of this should not there be some one who should discharge this office and who should for the rest utter this Hymn to God And what can I a lame and decrepit old man do else then celebrate God Were I indeed a Nightingale I would do what belongs to a Nightingale if a Swan what becomes a Swan but since now I am indued with Reason I ought to praise God This is my duty and concernment and so I do neither will I desert this employment while it is in my power and to the same song I exhort you all Thus that worthy Philosopher not instructing us only and exhorting with pathetical discourse but by his practice inciting us to be continually expressing our Gratitude to God And although neither the admonition of Prophets nor precepts of Philosophers nor the examples of both should prevail yet the precedents methinks of dumb and senseless creatures should animate us thereto which never cease to obey the law imposed on them by their Maker and without intermission glorifie him For The Heavens declare the Glory of God and the Firmament sheweth his handy-work Day unto day uttereth speech and Night unto Night sheweth Knowledge There is no speech nor language where their voice is not heard 'T is St. Chrysostom's Argumentation 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 saith he 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. 'T were an ugly thing that Man endued with Reason and the most Honourable of all things visible should in rendring Thanks and Praise be exceeded by other Creatures neither is it onely base but absurd For how can it be otherwise since other creatures every day and every hour send up a doxology to their Lord and Maker For The Heavens declare the Glory of God c. If the busie Heavens are always at leisure and the stupid Earth is perpetually active in manifesting the Wisedom Power and Goodness of their Creatour how shameful is it that we the flower of his creation the most obliged and most capable of doing it should commonly be either too busie or too idle to do it should seldom or never be disposed to contribute our endeavours to the advancement of his Glory But 2. Giving thanks always may import our Appointing and punctually Observing certain convenient times of performing this Duty that is of serious meditation upon and affectionate acknowledgment of the Divine Bounty We know that all persons who design with advantage to prosecute an orderly course of action and would not lead a tumultuary life are wont to distinguish their portions of time assigning some to the necessary refections of their Body others to the divertisement of their Minds and a great part to the dispatch of their ordinary business otherwise like St. James his double-minded man they would be unstable in all their ways they would ever fluctuate in their resolutions and be uncertain when and how and to what they should apply themselves And so this main Concernment of ours this most excellent part of our Duty if we do not depute some vacant seasons for it and observe some periodical recourses thereof we shall
as not to discern God's Hand when it was made bare raised up and stretched out in the atchievement of most prodigious works not to reade Providence when set forth in the largest and fairest print such as those of whom 't is said in the Psalm Our fathers understood not thy wonders in Aegypt and those of whom 't is observed in the Gospel Though he had done so many miracles before them yet they believed not such as the mutinous people who although they beheld the earth swallowing up Corah with his Complices and a Fire from the Lord consuming the men that offered Incense yet presently did fall a-charging Moses and Aaron saying Ye have killed the People of the Lord. No wonder then if many do not perceive the same Hand when it is wrapp'd up in a complication with inferiour causes when it is not lifted up so high or so far extended in miraculous performances The special Providence of God in events here effected or ordered by him is indeed commonly not discernible without good judgment and great care it is not commonly impressed upon events in characters so big and clear as to be legible to every eye or to any eye not endued with a sharp perspicacy not implying an industrious heedfulness the tracts thereof are too fine and subtil to be descried by a dimme sight with a transient glance or upon a gross veiw it is seldome so very conspicuous that persons incredulous or any-wise indisposed to admit it can easily be convinced thereof or constrained to acknowledg it it is often upon many accounts from many causes very obscure and not easily discernible to the most sagacious most watchful most willing observers For the instruments of Providence being free agents acting with unaccountable variety nothing can happen which may not be imputed to them with some colourable pretence Divine and humane influences are so twisted and knit together that it is hard to sever them The manner of Divine efficacy is so very soft and gentle that we cannot easily trace its footsteps God designeth not commonly to exert his hand in a notorious way but often purposely doth conceal it Whereas also it is not fit to charge upon God's special hand of Providence any event wherein special ends of wisedom or goodness do not shine it is often hard to discover such ends which usually are wrap'd in perplexities because God acteth variously according to the circumstances of things and the disposition capacity or state of objects so as to doe the same thing for different ends and different things for the same end because there are different ends unto which Providence in various order and measure hath regard which our short and narrow prospect cannot reach because God in prosecution of his ends is not wont to proceed in the most direct and compendious way but windeth about in a large circuit enfolding many concurrent and subordinate designs because the expediency of things to be permitted or performed doth not consist in single acts or events but in many conspiring to one common end because we cannot apprehend the consequences nor ballance the conveniencies of things in order to good ends because we are apt to measure things by their congruity to our opinions expectations and affections because many proceedings of God depend upon grounds inaccessible to our apprehension such as his own secret Decrees the knowledge of mens thoughts close purposes clandestine designes true qualifications and merits his prescience of contingent events and what the result will be from the combination of numberless causes because sometimes he doth act in methods of Wisdom and by rules of Justice surpassing our capacity to know either from the finiteness of our nature or the â—eebleness of our reason or the meanness of our state and circumstances here because also the Divine administration of affairs hath no compleat determination or final issue here that being reserved to the great day of reckoning and judgment It is further also expedient that many occurrences should be puzzling to us to quash our presumption to exercise our faith to quicken our industry to engage us upon adoâ—ing that Wisedom which we cannot comprehend Upon such accounts for such causes which time will not give me leave to explain and exemplifie the special Providence of God is often cloudy is seldom so clear that without great heed and confideration we can perceive it But however to do so is plainly our duty and therefore possible For our Reason was not given us to be idle upon so important occasions or that we should be as brute Spectatours of what God doeth He surely in the Governance of his noblest creature here discovereth his Being and displayeth his Attributes we therefore carefully should observe it He thereby and no otherwise in a publick way doth continually speak and signifie to us his mind and fit it is that we his subjects should hear should attend to the least intimations of his pleasure To him thence glory should accrue the which who but we can render and that we may render it we must know the grounds of it In fine for the support of God's Kingdom for upholding the reverence due to his administration of Justice among us it is requisite that by apparent dispensation of recompences Duty should be encouraged and Disobedience checked very foolish therefore we must be if we regard not such dispensations So Reason dictateth and Holy Scripture more plainly declareth our obligation to consider and perceive God's doings To doe so is recommended to us as a singular point of wisedom whose is wise and will observe these things they shall understand the loving-kindness of the Lord. Let him that glorieth glory in this that he understandeth and knoweth me that I am the Lord which exercise loving-kindness judgment and righteousness in the earth Who is wise and he shall understand these things prudent and he shall know them For the ways of the Lord are right c. We are vehemently provoked thereto Understand ye brutish among the people and ye fools when will ye be wise They are reproved for neglect and defailance who do not regard the work of the Lord nor the operation of his hand The not discerning Providence is reproached as a piece of shameful folly A brutish man knoweth not neither doth a fool understand and of woful pravity O ye hypocrites ye can discern the face of the Skie but how is it that ye cannot discern this time To contemplate and study Providence is the practice of Good men I will meditate on all thy works saith the Psalmist chiefly respecting works of this kind and The works of the Lord are great sought out of all them that have pleasure therein It is a fit matter of Devotion warranted by the practice of good men to implore God's manifestation of his Justice and Power this way O Lord God to whom vengeance belongeth shew thy self lift up thy self thou
judgments O Lord. For thou Lord art high above all the Earth It is to them ground of exceeding comfort to receive so clear pledges of God's Love and Favour his Truth and Fidelity his Bounty and Munificence toward them expressed in such watchful care over them such protection in dangers such aid in needs such deliverance from mischiefs vouchsafed to them Such Benefits they cannot receive from God's hand without that chearfulness which always doth adhere to gratitude I will saith David sing unto the Lord because he hath dealt bountifully with me Because thou hast been my helper therefore in the shadow of thy wings I will rejoyce My lips shall greatly rejoyce in thee and my Soul which thou hast redeemed I will be glad and rejoyce in thy mercy for thou hast considered my trouble and hast known my Soul in adversities The Lord hath done great things for us whereof we are glad Let all those that put their trust in thee rejoyce let them ever shout for joy because thou defendest them They are also greatly refreshed with apprehension of the happy fruits sprouting from such dispensations of Providence such as are the Benefit of mankind the Peace and prosperity of the Civil State the Preservation settlement enlargement advancement of God's Church the support of Right the succour of Innocence the maintenance of Truth the encouragement and furtherrance of Piety the restraint of Violence the discountenance of Errour the correction of Vice and Impiety In these things they as faithful servants of God and real friends of Goodness as bearing hearty good will and compassion to mankind as true lovers of their Country as living and sensible members of the Church cannot but rejoyce Seeing by these things their own best interest which is no other then the advantage of Goodness their chief honour which consists in the promotion of Divine Glory their truest content which is placed in the prosperity of Sion are highly furthered how can they look on them springing up without great delight and complacence O saith the Psalmist sing unto the Lord for he hath done marvellous things He hath remembred his mercy and truth toward the house of Israel all the ends of the earth have seen the salvation of our God And Sing O heavens cryeth the Prophet and be joyful O earth and break forth into singing O ye mountains for the Lord hath comforted his people and will have mercy on his afflicted And When saith he ye shall see this the comfort of God's people your heart shall rejoyce and your bones shall flourish like an herb and the hand of the Lord shall be known toward his servants and his indignation toward his enemies Even in the frustration of wicked designs attended with severe execution of vengeance on the contrivers and abettours of them they may have a pleasant satisfaction they must then yeild a chearful applause to Divine Justice The righteous saith the Psalmist shall rejoyce when he seeth the vengeance and Let the wicked saith he perish at the presence of God but let the righteous be glad let them rejoyce before God yea let them exceedingly rejoyce Whence at God's infliction of Judgement upon Babylon it is said in Jeremy Then the heaven and the earth and all that is therein shall sing for Babylon and at the fall of Mystical Babylon in the Apocalyps 't is likewise said Rejoye over her thou heaven and ye holy Apostles and Prophets for God hath avenged you on her Farther V. The next Duty prescribed to good men in such cases is to trust in God that is to have their affiance in God upon all such like occasions in all urgencies of need settled improved and corroborated thereby This indeed is the proper end immediately regarding us of God's special Providence disclosing it self in any miraculous or in any remarkable way to nourish in wel-disposed minds that Faith in God which is the root of all Piety and ground of Devotion Such experiments are sound arguments to perswade good men that God doth govern and order things for their best advantage they are powerful incentives driving them in all exigencies to seek God's help they are most convincing evidences that God is abundantly able very willing and ever ready to succour them They saith the Psalmist that know thy Name will put their trust in thee for thou Lord hast not forsaken them that seek thee And I saith he will abide in thy tabernacle for ever I will trust in the covert of thy wings For thou O God hast heard my vows thou hast been a shelter for me and a strong tower from the enemy It is indeed a great aggravation of diffidence in God that having tasted and seen that the Lord is good having felt so manifest experience of Divine goodness having received so notable pledges of God's favourable inclination to help us we yet will not rely upon him As a friend who by signal instances of kindness hath assured his good will hath great cause of offence if he be suspected of unwillingness in a needful season to afford his relief so may God most justly be displeased when we notwithstanding so palpable demonstration of his kindness by distrusting him do in effect question the sincerity of his friendship or the constancy of his goodness toward us VI. Good men upon such occasions should glory All the upright in heart shall glory Should glory that is in contemplation of such Providences feeling sprightly elevations of mind and transports of affection they should exhibit triumphant demonstrations of satisfaction and alacrity It becometh them not in such cases to be dumpish or demure but jocund and crank in their humour brisk and gay in their looks pleasantly flippant and free in their speech jolly and debonair in their behaviour every way signifying the extream complacency they take in God's doing and the full content they taste in their state They with solemn exultation should triumph in such events as in victories atchieved by the glorious Hand of God in their behalf in approbation of their cause in favour toward their persons for their great benefit and comfort They may not as proudly assuming to themselves the glory due to God but as gratefully sensible of their felicity springing from God's favour se jactare se laudibus efferre as the Hebrew word doth signifie that is in a sort boast and commend themselves as very happy in their relation to God by virtue of his protection and aid They may not with a haughty insolence or wanton arrogance but with a sober confidence and chearfulness insult upon baffled impiety by their expressions and demeanour upbraiding the folly the baseness the impotency and wretchedness thereof in competition with the wisedom in opposition to the power of God their friend and patron For such carriage in such cases we have the practice and the advice of the Psalmist to warant and direct
us In God saith he we boast all the day long and praise thy Name for ever Thou Lord hast made me glad through thy work and I will triumph in the works of thy hands We will rejoyce in thy salvation and in the Name of our God we will set up our banners Glory ye in his holy Name let the heart of them rejoyce that seek the Lord. Sing unto him sing Psalms unto him talk ye of all his wondrous works Save us O Lord our God and gather us from among the heathen to give thanks unto thy Name and to triumph in thy praise Such should be the result upon us of God's merciful Dispensations towards his people I shall onely further remark that the word here used is by the Greek rendred 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 they shall be praised which sense the Original will bear and the reason of the case may admit For such Dispensations ever do adorn integrity and yeild commendation to good men They declare the wisdom of such persons in adhering to God in reposing upon God's help in imbracing such courses which God doth approve and bless they plainly tell how dear such persons are to God how incomparably happy in his favour how impregnably safe under his protection as having his infallible wisedom and his invincible power engaged on their side This cannot but render them admirable their state glorious in the eyes of all men inducing them to profess with the Psalmist Happy is the people which is in such a case yea happy is that people whose God is the Lord. And of such a people that declaration from the same mouth is verified In thy Name shall they rejoyce all the day long and in thy righteousness shall they be exalted For thou art the glory of their strength and in thy favour their horn shall be exalted Such are the Duties suggested in our Text as suting these occasions when God in special manner hath vouchsafed to protect his people or to rescue them from imminent mischiefs by violent assault or by fradulent contrivance levelled against them I should apply these particulars to the present Case solemnized by us but I shall rather recommend the application to your sagacity then farther infringe your patience by spending thereon so many words as it would exact You do well know the Story which by so many years repetition hath 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 on your minds and by 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 You will easily discern how God in the seasonable discovery of this execrable Plot the master-piece of wicked machinations ever conceived in humane brain or devised on this side Hell since the foundation of things in the happy deliverance of our Nation and Church from the desperate mischiefs intended toward them in the remarkable protection of Right and Truth did signalize his Providence You will be affected with hearty Reverence toward the gracious Authour of our salvation and with humble dread toward the just awarder of vengeance upon those miscreant wretches who digged this pit and fell into it themselves You will be ready with pious acknowledgment and admiration of God's Mercy his Justice his Wisedom to declare and magnifie this notable Work done by him among us You must needs feel devout resentments of Joy for the Glory arising to God and the Benefits accruing to us in the preservation of God's Anointed our just Sovereign with his Royal posterity in the freeing our Country from civil Broils Disorders and Confusions from the yoaks of Usurpation and slavery from grievous Extortions and Rapines from bloudy Persecutions and Trials with the like spawn of disastrous and tragical consequences by this Design threatned upon it in upholding our Church which was so happily settled and had so long gloriously flourished from utter ruine in securing our profession of God's Holy Truth the truly Catholick Faith of Christ refined from those drossy alloys wherewith the rudeness and sloth of blind Times the fraud of ambitious and covetous Designers the pravity of sensual and profane men had embased and corrupted it together with a pure Worship of God an edifying administration of God's Word and Sacraments a comly wholsome and moderate Discipline conformable to Divine Prescription and Primitive example in rescuing us from having impious Errours scandalous Practices and superstitious Rites with merciless violence obtruded upon us in continuing therefore to us the most desirable comforts and conveniences of our lives You further considering this signal testimony of Divine Goodness will thereby be moved to hope and confide in God for his gracious preservation from the like pernicious attemps against the safety of our Prince and welfare of our Country against our Peace our Laws our Religion especially from Romish Zeal and Bigottry that mint of woful Factions and Combustions of treasonable Conspiracies of barbarous Massacres of horrid Assassinations of intestine Rebellions of forrein Invasions of savage Tortures and Butcherics of holy Leagues and pious Frauds through Christendom and particularly among us which as it without reason damneth so it would by any means destroy all that will not crouch thereto You will in fine with joyous festivity glory and triumph in this illustrious demonstration of God's Favour toward us so as heartily to joyn in those due acclamations of blessing and praise Blessed be the Lord who hath not given us a prey to their teeth Our soul is escaped as a bird out of the snare of the fowlers the snare is broken and we are escaped Allelujah Salvation and glory and power unto the Lord our God For true and righteous are his judgments Great and marvellous are thy works O Lord God Almighty just and true are thy ways O thou King of Saints Blessed be the Lord God of Israel who only doth wonderous things And blessed be his glorious Name for ever and let the the whole earth be filled with his glory Amen and Amen The Twelfth Sermon PSAL. 132. 16. I will also cloath her Priests with salvation THE context runs thus The Lord hath sworn in truth unto David he will not turn from it Of the fruit of thy body I will set upon thy throne If thy children will keep my covenant and the testimony that I shall teach them their children also shall sit upon thy throne for evermore For the Lord hath chosen Sion he hath desired it for his habitation This is my rest for ever here will I dwell for I have desired it I will abundantly bless her provision I will satisfie her poor with bread I WILL ALSO CLOATH HER PRIESTS WITH SALVATION and her Saints shall shout aloud for joy There will I make the horn of David to bud c. If all not only Inaugurations of persons but Dedications even of inanimate things to some extraordinary use hath been usually attended with especial significations of joy and festival solemnity with great reason the Consecration of a person to so high and sacred a Function as that of a Christian Bishop
the praise and glory of Him in whose name they rule to whose favour they owe their power and dignity in whose hand as the Prophet saith is their breath and whose are all their ways For all men will be ready most awfully to dread Him unto whom they see Princes themselves humbly to stoop and bow no man will be ashamed or unwilling to serve Him whom he shall observe that his Lords and Governours do concern themselves to worship the world cannot but have a good opinion of Him a participation of whose power and majesty yields such excellent fruits it will not fail to adore Him whose shadows and images are so venerable 'T is a most notorious thing both to reason and in experience what extreme advantage Great persons have especially by the influence of their practice to bring God himself as it were into credit how much it is in their power easily to render Piety a thing in fashion and request For in what they doe they never are alone or are ill attended whither they goe they carry the world along with them they lead crowds of people after them as well when they goe in the right way as when they run astray The custom of living well no less then other modes and garbs will be soon convey'd and propagated from the Court the City and Country will readily draw good manners thence good manners truly so called not onely superficial forms of civility but real practices of goodness For the main body of men goeth not quà eundum sed quà itur not according to rules and reasons but after examples and authorities especially of great persons who are like stars shining in high and conspicuous places by which men steer their course their actions are to be reckon'd not as single or solitary ones but are like their persons of a publick and representative nature involving the practice of others who are by them awed or shamed into compliance Their good example especially hath this advantage that men can find no excuse can have no pretence why they should not follow it Piety is not onely beautified but fortified by their dignity it not onely shines in them with a clearer lustre but with a mightier force and influence a word a look the least intimation from them will doe more good then others best eloquence clearest reason most earnest endeavours For it is in them if they would apply themselves to it as the wisest Prince implies to scatter iniquity with their eyes A smile of theirs were able to enliven Vertue and diffuse it all about a frown might suffice to mortifie and dissipate wickedness Such apparently is their power of honouring God and in proportion thereto surely great is their obligation to doe it of them peculiarly God expects it and all equity exacts it What the meaner rank of servants who are employ'd in baser drudgeries whose fare is more course whose wages are more scant who stand at greater distance from their Lord and receive no such ample or express marks of his favour what these doe is of some consequence indeed but doth not import so much to the Master's reputation their good word concerning him their good carriage toward him doth not credit him so much But those whom he employs in matters of highest trust and importance to his affairs whom he places in the nearest degree unto himself seats even in his own throne upon his own tribunal whom he feeds plentifully and daintily maintains in a handsome garb allows largely as their deportment doth much reflect on their Lord's esteem as they are highly capable of advancing his repute so all the rules of ingenuity and gratitude all the laws of justice and equity do oblige them earnestly to endeavour it And it is indeed no less their concernment to doe so For if there be disorders prejudicial to the Master's honour and interest frequently committed in the family 't is those servants must be responsible if due order be there kept to his glory and advantage they shall chiefly be commended and peculiarly hear the Euge bone serve They must be loaded with other mens faults or crowned for other mens vertues as their behaviour hath respectively contributed to them Those universal Rules of equity proposed in the Gospel will in God's reckoning with and requiting men be punctually observed To whomsoever much is given of him much shall be required answerable to the improvement of what is delivered in trust shall the acceptance be I have insisted somewhat more largely on this point because our Text hath a particular aspect thereon the words being uttered upon occasion of Eli then Judge in Israel his not using authority to these purposes his forbearing to redress a grievous abuse committed by his own Sons to the disservice and dishonour of God Whence to persons of his rank is this law especially directed upon them is this duty chiefly incumbent on them assuredly as sure as God is true if they will observe the Duty the Reward shall be conferred God will certainly not onely preserve the Honour they have already but will accumulate more Honours on them These are general Truths the particular application of them is ours God I pray vouchsafe his grace and blessing that it may be made to our benefit and comfort III. I should now shew why the Duty is required of us or how reasonable it is I must not and the matter is so palpable that I need not spend many words on that God surely doth not exact honour from us because he needs it because he is the better for it because he for its self delights therein For beside that he cannot want any thing without himself that he cannot any-wise need mortal breath to praise him or hands of flesh to serve him who hath millions of better creatures then we absolutely at his devotion and can with a word create millions of millions more fitter then we to honour him the best estimation we can have of him is much below him the best expression we can make is very unworthy of him He is infinitely excellent beyond what we can imagine or declare his Name is exalted above all blessing and praise his glory is above the earth and heaven So that all our endeavours to honour him are in comparison to what is due but defects and in a manner disparagements to him 'T is onely then which should affect our ingenuity to consider his pure goodness that moves him for our benefit and advantage to demand it of us 1. For that to honour God is the most proper work of Reason that for which primarily we were design'd and framed for as other things were made to afford the matter and occasion so Man was designed to exercise the act of glorifying God whence the performance thereof doth preserve and perfect our nature to neglect it being unnatural and monstrous 2. For that also it is a most pleasant duty He is not a man hath lost all natural
the least homage we in gratitude owe and can pay to Almighty God to avow our dependence upon and obligation to him for the good things we enjoy to acknowledge that his favours do deserve thanks to publish to the world our experience of his goodness to proclaim solemnly with the voice of thanksgiving his most deserved praise resembling him who abounds in such expressions as these I will sing of the mercies of the Lord for ever with my mouth will I make known his faithfulness to all generations I will publish with the voice of thanksgiving and tell of all his wondrous works I will speak of the glorious honour of thy Majesty and of thy wondrous works I have not hid thy righteousness in my heart I have declared thy faithfulness and thy salvation I have not concealed thy loving-kindness and thy truth from the great congregation Thus if a gratefull affection live in our hearts it will respire through our mouths and discover it self in the motion of our lips There will be a conspiracy and faithfull correspondence between our mind and our tongue if the one be sensible the other will not be silent as if the spring works the wheels will turn about and the bell not fail to speak Neither shall we content our selves in lonesome tunes and private soliloquies to whisper out the Divine praises but shall loudly excite and provoke others to a melodious consonance with us We shall with the sweet Singer of Israel cite and invoke Heaven and Earth the celestial quire of Angels the several estates and generations of Men the numberless company of all the Creatures to assist and joyn in consort with us in celebrating the worthy deeds and magnifying the glorious name of our most mighty Creatour of our most bountifull Benefactour Gratitude is of a fruitfull and diffusive nature of a free and communicative disposition of an open and sociable temper it will be imparting discovering and propagating it self it affects light company and liberty it cannor endure to be smothered in privacy and obscurity It s best instrument therefore is Speech that most natural proper and easie mean of conversation of signifying our conceptions of conveying and as it were ttansfunding our thoughts and our passions into each other This therefore glory of ours and best organ that we have as the Psalmist seems to call it our Tongue we should in all reason devote to the honour and consecrate to the praise of him who made it and who conserves it still in tune And the farther to provoke us we may consider that it hath been the manner prompted by Nature and authorized by general practice for men of all nations and all times and all ways by composed Hymns and panegyrical Elogies to express their gratitude for the gifts of Nature and for the Benefits indulged by Providence in their publick Sacrifices and solemn Festivities extolling the excellent qualities of their imaginary Deities and reciting the famous atchievements of their Heroes and supposed Benefactours to whose favourable help and blessing in their conceit they owed the fruits of the earth the comforts of life the defence and patronage of their countries being indeed mistaken in the object but not transgressing in the substance of the Duty paying a due debt though to false creditours And I wish we were as ready to imitate them in the one as we are perhaps prone to blame them for the other For certainly acknowledgments of the Divine Goodness and solemn testifications of our thankfull sense thereof what-ever the abused world may now imagine was always is now and ever will be the principal and most noble part of all Religion immediately addressed to God But moreover 6. This Duty requires endeavours of real Compensation and a satisfactory Requital of Benefits according to the ability and opportunity of the receiver that we do not onely verbally dicere and agnoscere but really agere and referre gratias that to him who hath by his beneficence obliged us we minister reciprocal assistence comfort and relief if he need them and be capable to receive them however by evident testimonies to discover our ready disposition to make such real returns and withall to sute our actions to his good liking and in our carriage to comply with his reasonable desires For as the earth which drinketh the rain often coming upon it and having been by great labour tilled and manured with expence yieldeth yet no meet herbage or fruit agreeable to the expectation of him that dresseth it but is either wholly barren or produceth onely thorns and briars is as the Apostle to the Hebrews tells us to be reprobated and nigh unto cursing that is deserves no farther care or culture to be employed on it and is to be reputed desperately worthless so is he that we may apply an Apodosis to the Apostle's comparison who daily partaking the influences of Divine Providence and Bounty affords no answerable return to be accounted execrably unthankfull and unworthy of any farther favour to be shewed toward him 'T is true our righteousness or beneficence so the word there signifies doth not extend unto God His Benefits exceed all possibility of any proportionable requitall He doth not need nor can ever immediately receive any advantage from us we cannot enrich him with our gifts who by unquestionable right and in unalterable possession is Lord and Master of all things that do actually or can possibly exist nor advance him by our weak commendations who already enjoyeth the supreme pitch of glory nor any way contribute to his in it self compleat and indefectible Beatitude Yet we may by apposite significations declare our willingness to serve and exalt him we may by our obsequious demeanour highly please and content him we may by our charity and benignity to those whose good he tenders yield though not an adequate yet an acceptable return to his Benefits What shall I render unto the Lord for all his benefits saith David in way of counsell and deliberation and thereupon resolves I will take the cup of salvation and call upon the Name of the Lord I will pay my vows unto the Lord. Seasonable benedictions officious addresses and faithfull performances of vows he intimates to bear some shadow at least some resemblance of compensation And so did his wise Son likewise when he thus advised Honour the Lord with thy substance and with the first-fruits of thy encrease Almighty God though he really doth and cannot otherwise doe yet will not seem to bestow his favours altogether gratis but to expect some competent return some small use and income from them He will assert his rightfull title and be acknowledged the chief proprietary by signal expressions of our fealty and the payment of some though inconsiderable quit-rent for our possessions derived from him he will rather himself be seemingly indigent then permit us to be really ingratefull For knowing well that our performance of