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A46792
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A thanksgiving sermon preach'd upon the fifth of November, 1689 by Ben. Jenks.
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Jenks, Benjamin, 1646-1724.
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1689
(1689)
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Wing J623; ESTC R28742
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21,433
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42
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into the Dust at the remembrance of his Glory to whom all Nations are counted even less than Nothing and Vanity Not to dress a God in our Fancy such a one as our poor selves to worship our own misconceits instead of the True God who if we Adore not after the Canon of of his own Word 't is not so much honoring him as humoring our selves with the Will-worship not required at our hands Tho here we need not seruple those lowly Forms of Address which speak us sensible of the vast disproportion between us and our Glorious Maker whose least angry Finger on the Wall could so dash a great King in the midst of all his Jollity Dan. 5. that the thousand Lords his Guests and all his Concubines with the richest Fare and Wine and Musick could no more recover him to his late cheerfulness than they could cease to admire his present Dejection Nor is God less to be honored in his Merciful than in his Majestick Relations those allaying the brightness of his Glory and inviting us out of our Dust as with a Scepter extended to warrant our Approaches Indeed then is he most highly honored when most dearly loved for tho Fear may dwell with Hatred Honor is still the product of Love which sets upon its Object the greatest value and entertains it in the highest Room of the Soul. But we do rather Scandalize than Magnifie the God of Love If we fansie him in such horrid Appearances as fill us more with dread than love so that in our Worship we are only dragg'd to him and never taken up delightfully with him looking upon him only as the Malefactor at the Bar eyes the Scarlet Robe ready to appall the last residue of his Hope with a killing Sentence We must not endure any such Opinions of God as reflect disparagement on the Infinite Goodness which so eminently declares his Greatness in doing such noble works of Mercy as all the Power in the World could not and all the Patience in the World besides would not do But when we behold him as the Father of Mercies and Fountain of all Goodness the most amiable Being whose Love is as boundless as his Nature from which Love the mighty Frame of Nature sprang and who so loved the World even when lost that he took the most amazing method for our recovery to make us gainers even by the sad losses of our Fall putting our Salvation in much safer Hands than when it hung only upon our own Free Will and giving the surest word of Promise that he will put his Spirit in his People which shall cause them to walk in his Statutes and his Fear in their Hearts that shall not suffer them to depart from Him so that we are kept now by the power of God himself through Faith to Salvation By this sweet Contemplation of his first loving us the Divine Love is apt to limn its own Effigies on our Souls and powerfully incline us to him as the blessed and only centre of their Rest And what greater thoughts of God can we conceive in our Minds than to look upon him in Christ reconciling the World to himself by that Redeeming Love which well may be stiled Inestimable whose prevalent strains chang'd our Judge into our Advocate and made him pursue his Enemies with nothing but Bounty and compass them about only with Songs of Deliverance Here the heavenly Criticks themselves can but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 lift up the Curtain to pry into this Mystery of Divine Love but even the Tongues of Angels are at a loss when they would turn the Admiration into Expression Never can we more highly exalt the Name of God than to shew him to the World in such lovely Representations not only as the greatest but the best that has done such unspeakable things to approve his love and engage ours and still supplies a world of Creatures that all depend on him for their Being and every Comfort There are such Pleonasms and Redundancies of his kindness that a great deal still falls even to their share who will never so much as thank him for it And thus we do Magnifie the God infinitely Good when we stand in admiration of such Benignity that we should have any comfort with our lives when we have done so much to spoil all with our sins Yea that not a minute should pass but brings us a new favor from above and gives us more assurance still that he desires our felicity and cannot design our ruin who is love it self and hates nothing that he has made delights not even in the death of sinners nor is willing that any should perish indeed suffering none to perish for the want but only for the contempt of mercy who stands not watching for advantages against us but in fatherly consideration of our Frame makes merciful allowance for our Infirmities and all Dispensations still carry so sweet a savour of good Will to Men that not only when he gives us the smiles of the World 't is to draw us to himself with such Cords of Love but even when he threatens it is to prevent the evils denounced yea when he touches with the Rod 't is but to reduce us into the way of Bliss and supersede our eternal smart And thinking thus well of God we do magnifie the Lord and exalt his Name To do all to the Glory of God an Expression oftner us'd than understood is still to propose this End to our selves that the great and good God may be more known and admir'd rever'd and loved believed and obeyed by us and all Men aiming and endeavouring with whatever we are Masters of and all the interest we have in the World to do service to the Truth and promote the credit of God's holy Religion that it may look like it self in us and the way of Truth may not through our means be evil spoken of And when by due Methods we earnestly pursue our own felicity so we bring God the greatest Glory But that we should be willing to perish our selves for the advancement of his Glory as some have screwd it up is a thing so harsh and extravagant that the very naming it is enough to disprove it seeing God has wrought our Salvation in the frame of his own Glory and he can have no ends in our serving him but that we may thereby serve our own best advantage And this is the greatest honor he expects from us that we should do all we are able to promote our own and others happiest Interests in believing the infallible Truth of his holy Word and making the greatest Conscience in all things to be determined by it Nor only giving a total deference to his Will but reposing all our bliss in his Hands For we cannot honor one more than to reckon him worthy in all things to be hearkened to and sole-sufficient to be relied upon as the wisest and ablest best and willingest to do us good But the Properties of
this Eucharistical Sacrifice and after what manner we are to offer it that it may be such wherein God is well pleased we may gather from the Practice of the Man after his own Heart here in the Context 1. It must be with the Soul from the Altar of a Sensible Heart My Soul shall make her boast of God Ver. 2. To glory in him is one way of giving glory to him And well may we value our selves upon the honor to be obliged by such a One. And that this glorying may Imitate the Blessed Virgin 's whose Soul magnified the Lord It must not be a verbal flash like the crackling of Thorns on fire but making melody in our Hearts to the Lord. Indeed if the Heart is not thankful we are not at all thankful The most pompous Halelujahs and Magnificats are no more than sounding Brass and the tinkling Cymbal if not the over-flowings of enlarged Hearts The dead praise not the Lord Hearts dead in sin must needs be dead to the Divine Praises And when matters so stand within none of the Rhetorick of our complemental Harangues speak we never so good of his Name makes any Musick at all in his Ears who searches the Hearts and requires Truth in the inward parts Tho cavity of Instruments is requisite in common Service yet here hollow Instruments sound harsh and hideous and while they offer to praise God only divulge their own shame Yet 2. Tho it must not be only a Lip-Service we must not refrain our Lips neither but let our mouths shew forth his praise It shall ever be in my mouth V. 1. 'T is not to imprison up our Thanks so as to stifle the sense we have of his Favors nor hide his loving kindness in our Hearts making them as the silent Grave to swallow up all But out of their Abundance we must be speaking to his honor and not think it will sully our Speech to mention the loving kindness of the Lord. When our bodies are his Temple and our Tongues the living Bells articulately to sound his Praise how can we better imploy the speaking Faculty than in celebrating his Goodness that gave it What we are transported with we can hardly forbear to speak of if we are full of it 't is apt to float on our Tongues And if the Mercies of God affect our Hearts 't is fit we should express the same both to discharge a due Debt our selves and also to kindle the like Flame in others Indeed no Expression here can be too much that 's without Affectation and Hypocrisie Tho we not only extol him with our Tongues Psal 66.17 But our Tongues speak of his praise even all the day long Psal 35. last And we abundantly utter the memory of his great Goodness in a pious Vein flowing from the good Treasure of the Heart accustoming our selves to speak of the glorious Honor of his Majesty and of his wondrous Works to speak of the glory of his Kingdom and talk of his Power to make known the Fame thereof to the Sons of Men. As with Panegyrick pomp of Words this Sacred Orator sets it forth Psal 145. And even this cheap Oblation for which we go not to the Flock or the Field shall not fail of a good acceptance above when according to the Exhortation Heb. 13.15 We offer to God the fruit of our Lips giving thanks to his Name 3. To bless the Lord at all times as Ver. 1. not only by fits as it pleases us or when extorted from us upon some occasions extraordinary but with such a Heart * Herbert whose Pulse may be his Praise Our holy Living is the most effectual Thanksgiving For so while we live we shall praise the Lord and sing praises to our God whilst we have our Being Psal 146.2 To the offering of Praise therefore is presently subjoined ordering the Conversation aright Psal 50.23 And after he had ask'd Who can shew forth all his praise immediately he adds Blessed are they that keep Judgment and do Righteousness at all times Psal 106.2 3. For as the Heavens tho silent are said to declare the glory of God they are Preachers of his Praise because their vast and beautiful Fabrick their constant and regular Motions their sweet and powerful Influences tell the Supreme Majesty the excellent Attributes and glorious Perfections of him that there inhabits So when we justifie the Divine Laws by our Obedience and thus stand up to attest their high Reasonableness and Goodness instead of repining at them as hard Sayings and heavy Burdens shewing that really we do admire and applaud them for the blessed Products of an infinite Wisdom and Love to contrive and effect our everlasting Happiness Then do we give them the best Commendation to make all enamour'd with those Sacred Institutions which they not only hear set off in hollow Encomiums but see produce such happy Effects Herein is my Father glorified that ye bear much Fruit Jo. 15.8 The Fruits of Righteousness are by Jesus Christ to the glory and praise of God Phil. 1.11 That Men may so taste and see and bless the Giver of such increase I have glorified thee on earth I have finished the Work which thou gavest me to do saith our Blessed Saviour Joh. 17.4 Where he intimates that the doing of God's Will is the way to Hallow his Name When like the Luminaries above that warm and move too we send out the heat of Divine Love and regularly move in the sphere of Obedience without which indeed Honour is but an idle Complement unless we so delight to do his Will that our desires like the Cherubims Wings stand displayed ready even to spell out his Pleasure and prevent his Commands But a sad reckoning it would prove to us should we count that we are delivered to commit abominations and make the bolder with God's Precepts because we have tasted so deep of his Mercies as if his Goodness were our Warrant to despise him Thus licentious Men use to be worst when they fare best and in times of Festivity are the greatest Brutes not knowing how to be thankful and glad without being wanton and mad But such as fear the Lord are call'd upon to praise him Psal 22.23 And then do we most acceptably sing to the Lord a new Song when we apply our selves to lead a new Life when we look on our prosperity not so much a reward for doing well as an opportunity still to do better not an occasion to the flesh but an obligation to abound in his Praise The thansgiving of ill Men 't is but a fulsom harangue and offensive noise and indeed only reproaching the Name of God to speak good of it and do no good as becomes those that profess it Praise is comely for the upright but 't is marr'd in the Mouths of the wicked It is a Sacrifice and none but holy Persons are to officiate about holy things As long as we live ungodly we are in no capacity to praise God