Selected quad for the lemma: fire_n
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A52045
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A peace-offering to God a sermon preached to the honourable House of Commons assembled in Parliament at their publique thanksgiving, September 7, 1641 : for the peace concluded between England and Scotland / by Stephen Marshall ...
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Marshall, Stephen, 1594?-1655.
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1641
(1641)
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Wing M766; ESTC R14789
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35,078
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57
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concludes the Psalme Who so is wise and will observe these things even they shall understand the loving kindnesse of the Lord And ye may further observe that the thankfull men recorded in the Scriptures have not let slip from their observation the very circumstances of Gods dealings towards them not onely the substance of the mercie in a grosse summe but all circumstances which have accompanied it as time place manner meanes Secondly this soul thankfulnesse must have affections suitable to the mercies bestowed when our heart is affected according to Gods dealing this is thankfulnesse And these affections are chiefly love and joy I love the Lord because he hath heard the voice of my prayer And then they must rejoyce in his mercy Rejoyce in the Lord ye righteous it becomes the just to be thankfull Thou Lord hast made me glad through thy work therefore will I triumph in the works of thy hands Mercies are not mercies deliverances are not deliverances to men who are not glad of them God gave David a great deliverance from his rebellious sonne Absolon he upon the news weeps and cries out O Absolon my sonne my sonne Was this thankfulnesse God hath wrought a great deliverance for us can those men whose fingers itcht for blood and are grieved at our peace be thankfull for this deliverance Thirdly the last thing which makes up this soul-thankfulnesse is the laying up and registring these mercies of God in our memorie to lay them up in our treasurie not as some do their bundles of old writings in their counting-house never looking on them in seven yeers but in a memory which may suggest to them upon every occasion what great things God hath done for them A memory which will lay Gods mercies before them as the Chronicles which Ahasuerus read when he could not sleep in the night God requires it should be so The righteous Lord hath so done his marvellous works that they ought to be had in thankfull remembrance This thankfull memory feeds the heart with continuall matter of praise fils the thoughts with admiration of Gods dealing towards them shews them how Gods mercies passe their understandings in the manner of them in the measure of them making the soul stand amazed thankfull hearts have found so much good in remembring of Gods mercies that they have been carefull to keep Registers and set up Monuments to help their memorie endited Psalmes to bring to Remembrance gave Names to places where mercies were received new Names to times when they were received write the Names of their deliverances upon their children that the sight of them might quicken their memories and thoughts Yea God himself used to take new Names to himself as he gave new mercies sometimes calling himself The God that brought Abraham from Vr of the Caldees then the Lord that brought them out of the land of Aegypt then the Lord that gathered his people out of the North countrey and now since the greatest deliverance of all The God and Father of our Lord Iesus Christ And all to help their memories 2. This is the Inside of a thankfull man but if praise be in the heart it will not be kept in but it will be like oyle in the right hand like the word in Ieremies heart like a burning fire in his bones which he could not contain within The tongue will be set on work and beares a great part in this Musick of thankfulnesse confessing to God publishing to others I will tell you what God hath done for my soul My tongue shall ever be talking of thy wondrous works and of thy praise all the day long Our tongue is therefore called our glory because with it we glorifie God As praise is Gods glory so our tongue in exalting him is our glory Now this tongue-praise is not confined to saying of a grace singing of a Psalme uttering a Benedictus or Te Deum laudamus but in all speech which tends to exalt God and sets forth his excellency Iunius told the mercies of God when he wrote his owne life And Davids tongue was ever talking of Gods praise because his speech one way or other rended to exalt God Thirdly true thankfulnesse is expressed in the life as one truly saith the life of thankfulnesse consists in the life of the thankfull The praising of God and ordering our conversation aright are not onely inseparable but exegeticall interpretations one of another Now this life Thankfulnesse stands in these two things First in using Gods mercies to the right end this is to praise him indeed without this all other thankfulnesse is but complement formalitie and hypocrisie Set this down for an everlasting truth that its impossible God should be praised with an abused mercie Did Israel and Judah praise God for their faire jemels of gold and silver which God had given them when they made to themselves Images of men and committed whoredome with them Did they praise him for their broidered garments their fine floure oyle and honey wherewith God clothed and fed them Did they praise him for their sonnes and daughters when they sacrificed them unto devils Read the sixteenth of Ezekiel and you will finde the contrary I shall give you one example which will cleare it beyond all contradiction and that is of Hezekiah God gave him a most miraculous recovery he was sick to death and it is thought he was sick of the plague God not onely healed him but made the Sun go back for six houres at least and by this miracle told all the world that the God who loved Hezekiah had recovered him from death to life Now mark Hezekiahs thankfulnesse as soon as he got up he makes a Psalme wherein he confesses his unworthinesse his bitter affliction Gods gracious restoring of him goes to the Temple and sings it resolves to sing it all the dayes of his life who would not think but this man had been thankfull But Hezekiah abused this mercie his heart grew proud he began to think himself the most remarkable man in the world discovers this vanity of his heart to the Ambassadours of the king of Babylon See now what God judged of his thankfulnesse Hezekiah was sick to death and God spake to him and gave him a signe but Hezekiah rendred not again according to the benefit done unto him for his heart was lifted up Never doth a man render according to the mercie who abuseth the mercie The second thing in life thanksgiving is the rendring back again to God what God requires by way of homage or Lords-rent Quid retribuam What shall I render to the Lord is every thankfull mans Psalme Now although no man can give unto God any thing worthy of him yet there are foure things which God requires and accepts from all his thankfull people by way of homage First an humble broken contrite heart a self-renouncing
pithy sentences all tending to exalt the praises of God I know not In this all Interpreters agree that for this third and last reason they all deserve to be called Songs of degrees and therefore any sentence of them will deserve and call for the highest degree of our reverend attention to the unfolding of it This Psalme and three or foure other of these Songs of degrees was unquestionably penned by King David who therefore counted himself the man raised up on high because he was the anointed of the Lord and the sweet singer of Israel esteeming it a greater mercie that the Spirit of God spake by him then that the Nations were subdued under him But upon what occasion he penned it whether historically speaking of what was alreadie done or prophetically foretelling deliverances to come either that out of Babylon or that from Antiochus Epiphanes Interpreters agree not but we need not trouble our selves about it because when ever the particular storie fell out without question the Spirit of God intended it to suite the like condition of the Church in all ages so that even we enjoying the same mercie and called to performe the same duty may say for our sakes no doubt this Psalme was written The matter whereof is that which David usually cals a new song even praise to our God yea the most pleasant and comely praise recording his dealing to his peculiar people to his own inheritance in such mercies which he dispences not to other Nations and may all be reduced to these two heads First an Antecedent or a doctrine Secondly a Consequent or the use of that doctrine The Antecedent or doctrinall part is laid down and explained in the five first verses the summe whereof is that God and God alone is on his peoples side to deliver them in all their most deadly and desperate dangers The Consequent or use of this doctrine is laid down in these three verses which I have read Blessed be the Lord c. And it contains 2. branches 1. Therefore his people praise him because he is on his peoples side ver. 6. 7. 2. Therefore his people will trust in this mightie God who is alwayes their help in the time of trouble vers. 8. The first branch or the use of thanksgiving I have chosen to speak of this day wherein for the more quickning of their souls to praise God the Prophet first repeates and illustrates the danger they were in before deliverance came and secondly the author time manner and way of their deliverance and then thirdly celebrates this mercie in his return of praises Blessed be the Lord c. The danger they were in is in this verse and elsewhere in the Psalme set out by 3. sorts of comparisons all expressing the strength malice and rage of their enemies and their own nearnesse to be ruined and destroyed by them First they are compared to men strong men proud men wrathfull men whose rage was kindled cunning men subtill men unweariable men like men that go about to set nets and snares to catch birds entangling them before they are aware Secondly they are compared to wilde beasts that go roving and roaring about to catch their prey whom there is no pacifying they had almost swallowed us up quicke A prey to their teeth Thirdly they are compared to the most masterfull and mercilesse creatures of fire and water their wrath was kindled against us the proud waters had almost swallowed us So that look what potent cruell cunning men can do look what ravenous wilde beasts Lions Tigers Beares Dragons c. are able to do look what fire and water raging fire and proud water look what all these are able to do and then you may judge what the Churches Danger was before Deliverance came Secondly The deliverance the author time and manner of it we have expressed in these words God hath not given us a prey to their teeth our soul is escaped as a bird out of the snare the snare is broken and we are delivered The lastly follows the return of their praises for Gods needfull helpe in the time of trouble The 2. first branches their danger and deliverance I shall but briefly touch taking them in onely as a foundation or groundsill whereupon the building of thanksgiving which we are this day to reare up may the more firmly and conspicuously stand Their danger from these enemies thus described teaches us among what neighbours Gods people live in this world and what they are to expect from them What ever the Lions paw or Foxes skin open force and secret cunning is able to bring to passe they must continually look to be put in practise against them thus it ever hath been thus it ever shall be till Christ have subdued all their enemies under their feet The Jews when they dwelt in their own land of Canaan were thus compassed on the East they had the Moabites Ammonites Assyrians and Caldeans on the West the Philistines on the North the Syrians on the South the Arabians and Aegyptians and these were all alike maliciously bent against them and when ever God let any of them loose they presently executed all that their wrath strength and policie could bring to passe against them And just so hath it been with the Church of Christ ever since they dwell among men that are set on fire even the sonnes of men whose teeth are speares and arrows and their tongue a sharp sword They are hated and persecuted of all men so that what Paul said of his own case the whole Church may say of hers I know not the things that shall betide me save that the holy Ghost witnesseth in every Citie that bonds and afflictions abide me And would you know the cause of it It comes partly from the condition and qualitie of Gods people in this world their lives and conversations are contrary to other men they dare not runne with them to the same excesse of sin this their neighbours think strange of and this their holy life gives checke to others and armes their consciences against them and therefore they hate them This you shall see in Revel. 11. 10. to be the cause why all the inhabitants of the earth were so mad against the two witnesses that is the small number of them that bore witnesse to Christs truth in the time of Antichrists apostasie because these two witnesses tormented them that dwelt upon the earth and partly the outward condition of Gods people is most what meane and contemptible they have indeed glorious things but these are hidden from the eyes of the world their out-side appeares as their Saviours did when he conversed here upon earth without forme or comelinesse there was no beautie why they should desire him They have little countenance from men few of them are wise noble or mighty but they are the foolish weake and base ones of the world Now