prevailed for a happy settlement again Secondly The Providence of God was as marvellous on the other side in pulling down the Wicked when they were at their greatest height and exaltation v. 4 5. I said unto the Fools deal not foolishly and to the wicked lift not up the horn Lift not up your horn on high speak not with a stiff Neck These words shew that the Folly of wicked Men made them prodigiously insolent and so vain as to imagine it was impossible they should meet with a check much less see their Power broken But in the midst of these vaunts they not only recived a suddain rebuke but had their horn that is their Power cur off and utterly disabled from doing any further mischief Whereby the Almighty shew'd them their sensless confidence and taught them if they could learn to be no more so bold and arrogant The very same remark the Psalmist makes in another place upon one of these insolent haughty boasters viz. Cush the Benjamite VII Psal 16 17. His mischief shall return upon his own head and his violent dealing shall come down upon his own pate I will praise the Lord according to his righteousness and will sing praise unto the Name of the Lord most High. You see the use which David's pious heart made of such wonderful deliverances Which ought to be the more regarded because the Divine Wisdom on purpose suffers things to come to such an extremity the wicked to be lifted up so high and the good laid so low to make us sensible that it is a divine hand whereby we are delivered and that he may get himself a greater Name in the World and excite all our hearts to the higher gratitude And if these things may be applied at this day to any Nation in the World I think they may safely and in the very first place be applied unto us For our Earth and the inhabitants thereof have been in a manner dissolved The very foundations of our Government were about to be rased The whole Fabrick did not only shake and totter but was upon the point of being buried in its Rubbish When behold the hand of God supported it by supporting the Spirits and assisting the endeavours of many good and great Men who laboured to preserve it and on a sudden hath broken in pieces the Power that pusht at it to overthrow it and given us hope to see it shine in its Ancient Splendor and Glory For the Cloud that covered us and filled us with Melancholy Apprehensions is not only scattered but dispers'd without a Stormy Wind and Tempest Salvation is come to us by the help of that Illustrious Prince whom God hath made the great Instrument of our deliverance in a perfect Calm without any considerable disturbance We may take up the words of the Psalmist LXVI 10 c. Thou hast proved us O God thou hast tried us as Silver is tried Thou broughtest us into the Net thou laidest affliction upon our Loins Thou hast caused Men to ride over our heads c. but hast brought us forth into a wealthy place a State that is of Liberty Prosperity and Ease And therefore every one of us should resolve as it therefore follows I will go into thy house with burnt Offerings I will pay thee my Vows Which my Lips have uttered and my Mouth hath spoken when I was in trouble Come and hear all ye that fear God and I will declare what he hath done for my Soul. And truly it is but just that upon such a day as this we should recount the wonders of Gods Providence for which we ought to give him our highest thanks Come therefore and hearken while I declare what the Lord hath done for us in this Church and Kingdom First he hath in a signal manner vindicated himself from the aspersion of favouring unjust and irregular Courses In which Men prospered so long that they lookt upon it as an incouragement to proceed and presumed God was on their side whom they intitled to every ill favoured Design and Practice of their own Which now he hath so notoriously discountenanced that all the World may see he is not the Author of Confusion but of Peace And every one of us may learn to avoid that which is Evil though we should be invited by never such fair Opportunities to greaten our selves and to advance as we may fancy his Glory and the Interest of Religion by unlawful means Secondly God hath also marvellously justified the Truth of his Holy Gospel here professed and confounded the vain Traditions of Men which arrogantly coping with it and being made equal to it were in danger to subvert it We may truly say the Bible Triumphs in this Deliverance and hath gotten a glorious Victory over human Inventions Which are no less confuted by this Divine Providence then they have been by dint of Argument For the bold Asserters of them were no less confident of their Prevalency than of their Truth Both were presumed with equal assurance Which may induce us to hope there is no better Foundation for the one than we are sure there is for the other but that they both their Principles I mean and their Prevailing here stand upon the like tottering Terms Thirdly God hath vindicated likewise our Religion from that Contempt and Scorn which they cast upon it The Northern Heresy as they reproachfully called it hath got the better of their Catholique Religion The Suporters of which lately lifted up their horn so high and pusht at our Church so furiously as if they not only intended but were assured it should not stand much longer But the Righteous Lord hath made them fall by their own violence and hath put this New Song into our Mouths which is as proper now as in the days of Old. They are brought down and fallen but we are risen and stand upright XX. Psal 8. Fourthly whereby God gives us the fairest Opportunity that ever was put into our hands of healing all the Divisions and Breaches that are among good Men if they have any heart to make use thereof And we ought to rejoyce and give Thanks if it be but for the hope that we may become One and no longer look upon each other as Enemies but as Friends and Brethren who ought to come to Terms of Agreement Fifthly He hath hereby also preserved the best Laws in the World which contain the VVisdom of many Generations Sixthly And consequently hath put us into a way of setling the English Liberties which were sealed by the Blood of many of our famous Ancestors but in eminent danger by one bold stroke to be ravished from us Seventhly He hath revived likewise by this means the hope of all Protestants in the VVorld whose Eyes are upon us as the most potent People of that Religion in whose prosperity they rejoyce as in their own Eightly And why may I not add that this Providence gives us hope to see some deeds of darkness brought to
every little cross occurence This alone will turn his Thoughts from the Infinite Goodness of God in the most Signal Blessings which he bestows upon the Nation wherein he lives By which Means God will lose all the Praise of his Mercies because they will not be at all observed or regarded by such ungrateful Souls Who must first be disposed to be Serious Sober-Minded and Attentive to what is done in the World and is of universal Concernment to it before they can be made sensible of the loving kindness of the Lord. II. Which when we observe we must carefully remember and lay up in our Minds Or else these two Mischiefs will ensue First that we shall have only a Flash of Devotion kindled in us for a few moments And Secondly we shall thank the Divine Goodness only for present Mercies but not for those that are past We must imitate the Psalmist therefore in that Admirable Hymn Psal CIII 1 2. saying Bless the Lord O my Soul and all that is within me bless his holy Name Bless the Lord O my Soul and forget not all his benefits Of which there is no more remembrance in some Mens Minds than there are footsteps of a Bird newly flown by left in the Air. One may as well go to search out the Path of a Fish in the water as ask them which way God hath gone to do them good So thin so fluid and inconsistent are their Minds that they retain no impressions that are made upon them A most fearful Example of which we have in the Israelites who too soon forgot the Works of God and remembred not the multitude of his Mercies that they provoked him at the Sea even at the Red Sea At that very place where they had been newly saved by a most miraculous Providence Ps CVI. 7. 13. I beseech God we may never be guilty of the like Horrid Ingratitude Unto which there seems to be too great an Inclination in some among us who a few Weeks ago long'd and sigh'd for Deliverance from those Dangers which were ready to swallow us up And were no sooner delivered but as if nothing had been done for them they fell a murmuring against their Deliverer the great Instrument I mean of their Preservation Because every thing was not managed according to the model of their desires This is an Humour we must indeavour to cure if any of us have been infected with it Because it makes us soon forget the Works of God and that will make us unthankful For a thankful Temper of Spirit must be made and maintain'd by considering and often revolving those Observations of the Divine Providence which we have reposited in our mind We must frequently turn over as I may say the Leaves of the Book of Remembrance which we have written in our Hearts of the several Notes we have taken of the loving Kindness of the Lord. Which is so much of the Essence of Thankfulness that when we would express the contrary Ingratitude we say Men are unmindful of their Obligations Now that which will most impress the Benefits we have received upon our Minds is the observation of those Circumstances where with they were Cloathed and came attended to us As the manner how they were conveyed and that they were unlikely to be effected by such means that a Deliverance was unexpected and unlook'd for and yet the arrival of it most seasonable to save us from Ruine and that there was nothing in us to invite it but we rather deserved to be made more miserable and yet God took compassion upon us and made those very things contribute to our Salvation which were design'd for our Ruine These and such like other Circumstances which are very applicable to our present Case will make God's goodness admirable in our Eyes And that which strikes us with admiration will be longest remembred III. When we would give solemn thanks to God for his Mercies we must set our selves to consider and ponder the worth and value as well as count the multitude of them We must weigh as well as number them So the Psalmist teaches us if we compare the LVII Ps 7. with the CXXXIX 17. In the former he tells us his Heart was fixed his Heart was fixed so stedfastly setled that is that he would not let it stir from this Work and then he sang and gave praise And in the latter he admires God's Mercies first as they are invaluable O how pretious are thy Thoughts towards me O God and then as they are innumerable how great is the Sum of them Thus if we apply our Thoughts to the present Deliverance which God hath wrought for us we shall find the Miseries from which we are preserved so innumerable and consequently such a multitude of Mercies for which we are indebted and those so dear so precious all that we are worth either as Men or as Christians our Civil Rights and Liberties but especially our Holy Religion secured to us that it is impossible not to have our Hearts affected with God's goodness at present and if we keep those things in mind not to give thanks unto him as long as we live and praise him while we have any being That 's the next IV. We must by these Considerations affect our Hearts with God's Innumerable and Inestimable Mercies vouchsafed to us And make them sensible of the Obligation which they lay upon us So that we may say with David Ps LXIII 3. c. Because thy loving kindness is better than Life my Lips shall praise thee Thus will I bless thee while I live my Soul shall be satisfied as with Marrow and Fatness and my Mouth shall praise thee with joyful Lips. He speaks you see of God's Benefits with such a sensible relish as demonstrated he more than tasted the Sweetness of his Loving Kindness and valued the Love that gave them more than the best and most excellent of them We had need practice the foregoing Duties well of serious fixing our Heart and setting a just value and due price upon God's Blessings for otherwise we shall not be so affected towards him as we ought nor make him those Returns of Gratitude which he expects For such is the Imperfection of our Nature we are least apt to mind and observe those things which are nearest to us and in our quiet Possession Our Souls being herein like to our Eye which sees nothing that lies upon it and touches it but discerns it clearly when the Object is removed to some distance from it We mind not those Blessings while we enjoy them and have them in our hands which we hold to be very pretious when they are taken away and carried from our Embraces Without serious Consideration and frequent Reflections the more we have of the best things the less we shall be affected with them The Plentifulness of the Choicest Fare in the World makes it no Dainties with us but breeds in us such a fulness and satiety as makes it less
esteemed And so it is with all the rest of God's Blessings Those which we commonly and constanly enjoy though of never such value move us little unless we duly poise them in the Scales of serious Consideration Witness that great Blessing of Health of which it is pity we should not know the worth without being Sick. And the Blessing of Liberty which I beseech you let us learn to prize without being made Slaves V. When our Hearts are thus affected wtth God's Mercies and the Love from whence they flow there Naturally arises in us an Holy Joy in God which is the most agreeable Passion of all other and disposes us to say it is a good thing to give thanks unto the Lord and to sing Praises unto thy Name O most High. For this Joy is apt to burst out into Songs of Praise and indited all the Thankful Hymns we read in the Book of God. Such as that of the Children of Israel when the Lord turned their Captivity by an amazing Deliverance out of Babylon Then was their mouth filled with Laughter and their Tongue with Singing Then said they among the Heathen the Lord hath done great things for them The Lord hath done great things for us whereof we are glad Ps CXXVI 2 3. It is not casie to enumerate all the like instances of Joy and Gladness for private as well as publick Blessings which produced Songs of Praise as a part of their Thanksgivings According to that of the Psalmist Ps LIX 30. I will praise the Name of God with a Song and will magnifie him with Thanksgiving VI. But thankfulness doth not consist meerly in these Devout and Joyful Songs But in paying our Vows we made to God either in the time of our Affliction and Trouble or upon the first approaches of a Merciful Delivrance For these are two Seasons which commonly engage Men in Pious Vows to God when they are oppressed with Grief and Sorrow or when they are suddenly eased and overflowed with Joy. And the discharge of these Vows God himself requires as a Proof of our Sincere Thankfulness to him for his Benefits Ps L. 14. Offer unto God Thanksgiving and pay thy Vows unto the most High. Which the Psalmist promises in Ps CXVI 17 18. I will offer the Sacrifice of Thanksgiving and will call upon the Name of the Lord. I will pay my Vows unto the Lord in the presence of all his People And makes the whole World speak the same Language in Ps LXV 1 2. Praise waiteth for thee O God in Sion and unto thee shall the Vow be performed O thou that hearest Prayer unto thee shall all flesh come Not meerly with Prayers but with Dutiful Performance of their Vows VII And Good Men thought themselves bound upon such Occasions to renew their Pious Resolutions and tye themselves faster to God in holy purposes to please him in all things who was so gracious to them in such singular Benefits as challenged their highest Praises Thus you find David resolving never to forget to thank God for his Mercies to him Ps XXX 11 12. Thou hast turned for me my Mourning into Dancing thou hast put off my Sackcloth and girded me with Gladness To the end that my Glory may sing Praise to thee and not be silent O Lord my God I will give Thanks unto thee for ever And in the LXXI Ps 15 16. he says My mouth shall shew forth thy Righteousness and thy Salvation all the day for I know not the numbers thereof I will go in the strength of the Lord God I will make mention of thy Righteousness even of thine only Which is a Resolution to trust in God for ever of whose Goodness he had had such large Experience And never to depend upon any thing but only his Power Holiness and Faithfulness in performing all his Promises VVhich engaged him in a further Resolution to do the will of God in all things and live suitable to his Obligations Ps CXVI 7 8 9. Return unto thy rest O my Soul for the Lord hath dealt bountifully with thee For thou hast deliver'd my Soul from Death mine Eyes from Tears and my Feet from falling I will walk before the Lord in the Land of the Living These are three proper Resolutions to be made when our Hearts are dilated with Joy in God for the Benefits he hath bestowed upon us and we should endeavour to Seal such Resolutions upon our Hearts in those Solemn Words of the Psalmist which follow that affectionate Exclamation What shall I render unto the Lord for all his Benefits towards me v. 12. And his Resolution to pay his Vows in the Presence of all God's People v. 14. O Lord truly I am thy Servant I am thy Servant and the Son of thy Handmaid thou hast loosed my Bonds Ps CXVI 16. Where he not only Solemnly Devotes himself to God's Service but binds himself to be entirely his as much as a Servant was his Masters when he was Born in his House of the Body of his Slave or as a poor Captive was wholly his who had redeemed him from Thraldome or rescued him out of the hand of an Enemy in which he was like to Perish For that 's the proper Notion of the word SERVVS a Servant one that is Saved and not Slain when it was in the Power of a Conqueror to take away his Life Such a one owing his very Being in this World to him that Saved him from Destruction stands bound in all the Duty and Service that it is possible to be performed by him as long as he hath a day to live VIII But our Thankfulness is not compleated till we arrive by these Means at such an habitual Sense of God's Goodness as powerfully inclines us frequently to reflect upon it and alwaies to be making good our Promises and Resolutions of Obedience Our first Thanksgivings are to conclude in a Thankful Disposition which is the best Security for Future Performance Constant thanks will flow from those who are of a thankful Nature Which will incline us to a comportment agreeable to the liking of those who have obliged us that by a constant study to do what is pleasing to them we may become more acceptable in their Eyes and invite their further Favour According to which God himself declares he expects our thankfulness should end in this if we expect his endless Love. Psal L. 23. Whoso offereth Praise glorifieth me and to him that ordereth his Conversation aright will I shew the Salvation of God. Whatsoever falls short of Obedience is either but a Complement or no more than a good natur'd Fit. And as for Complements the more finely they are adorn'd and trimmed up with Songs of Praise with Vows and Protestations the more Nauseous and Fulsom they are because a studied piece of Flattery which the Divine Majesty abhors And as God himself calls this Flattery of him Ps LXXVIII 36. they slattered him with their Mouths c. So fits of good nature
light VVhereby the innocence of such worthies will be vindicated as have been unjustly defamed Ninthly All which God hath done for us on such a suddain that he would have been counted a Fool who should have spoken of such a Revolution a quarter of a Year ago Tenthly And it is brought to pass with the loss of very little Blood which I hope will not make this deliverance less but more valuable because we come by it so easily Eleventhly Nay more than this God hath made our Enemies themselves the first and not the mean est Instruments of their own Destruction All that they contrived against us turned most manifestly upon their own Heads Every step they took carried them backward and set them further off from the end at which they aimed Twelfthly and lastly we may hope that God hath vouchsafed these Blessings to us as a return of many earnest Prayers which have been made by good People among us And therefore in all these regards we ought to make the greater returns of Praise and thankful Obedience unto God. Who if we prove ungrateful to him can turn all our Joy into sudden Mourning our singing into sighing and instead of the garments of joy and gladness clothe us with Sack-cloth and Ashes because of our unworthy behaviour towards so gracious and great a Benefactor Let our Thankfulness therefore be great in some proportion to his wondrous Works 1. First in the Intenseness as I may call it and earnestness of our Minds to praise him with our whole heart as the Psalmist speaks cxi Ps 1 2. and to call up all that is within us to bless his Holy Name ciii 1. where the reason he gives for it v. 6. is very pertinent to our purpose the Lord executeth Righteousness and Judgment for all that are oppressed 2. And Secondly in the extension of it The greater our deliverance is the more the hand of God hath appeared therein so much the more time should we spend in thinking of it and labouring to affect our hearts with it that so we may praise his Name for ever saying with the Psalmist cxlv Ps 1 2. I will extoll thee my God O King I will bless thy Name for ever and ever Every day will I bless thee and I will praise thy Name for ever and ever For great is the Lord and greatly to be praised especially in such VVorks as these which we cannot sufficiently praise and therefore should desire and endeavour that Posterity may praise him for them as it there follows v. 4. One generation shall praise thy Works to another and shall declare thy mighty Acts c. But we are most of all concerned to express our unfeigned Thankfulness by a more solicitous care to please God in an exact Obedience VVithout which our Religious Services are but Hypocrisy and may prove a dangerous deceit making us cry peace peace when there is no peace for there is no peace saith my God to the wicked Especially if we should continue to do wickedly after such obligations to reform which will highly increase our guilt According to that of Ezra when the People were joyning themselves with the Heathen after their deliverance from Babylon ix 14 15. Seeing that thou our God hast punished us less than our iniquities deserved and given us such a deliverance as this should we again break thy Commandments Wouldst thou not be angry with us till thou hadst consumed us so that there should be no remnant nor escaping We have the greatest Reason in the VVorld to dread this and therfore let us fear the Lord and serve him and obey his Voice and not rebel against the Commandment of the Lord and then shall we continue to follow the Lord 1 Sam. xii 14. that is be an happy Kingdom setled in the secur'd possession of our Religion Laws and Liberties and not fear what Man can do unto us For God shows by what he hath done already that he hath a mind to do more He will not leave his own work imperfect but finish it in the firm establishment of what we injoy and in the Addition of other blessings which may make these Churches and Kingdoms a praise in the Earth For that his Name is near his wondrous VVorks declare IV. This is a point I would gladly have pursued if there had been room for it but the time will not suffer me to do much more than explain this phrase Thy Name is near The Name of God is in holy Language God himself who is therefore said to be near when any wondrous Work is done because it could not have been done without him 1. That 's certainly imported in this Form of Speech thy Name is near c. The Works are so strange that they plainly speak thou hadst a hand in them else they could not have been wrought The disappointment of the crafty speaks God's Wisdom the throwing down the mighty from their Seats declare his Power the great benefits he bestows on his People shows his Goodness his Punishments on the wicked proclaim his Justice the unexpected Evidence of all these manifests his Soveraign and uncontroulable Dominion the blowing away all the contrivances of many Years in a Moment tells us there is a vigilant Providence which sends deliverance in the opportunest Seasons the very changes and mutations that are made in the World are an argument of his immutable and unchangeable Nature which carries on one constant design of correcting Vice and incouraging Vertue For he makes no Changes merely for the Love of particular Men but for the Love of Religion and Piety which he resolves to promote by other hands when it is neglected by those who have Power to do it 2. But this may also be further suggested by this form of Speech that we ought to look upon every wonderful Work of God as a token of some other blessing he intends us besides the present he bestows upon us It s apparent he approaches and is desirous to joyn himself unto us and as the Scripture speaks to be Our God else he would not have done such strange things for us This was the way in which Manoah's VVife reason'd If the Lord were pleased to kill us he would not have received an offering at our hands neither would he have shewed us all these things nor would as at this time have told us such things as these And may we venture to argue with our selves after the same manner when he doth any thing extraordinary for us if he had a mind to destroy us nay did he not bear a favour to us he would not have taken such a seasonable care of us and wrought such an unexpected deliverance as this for us Which is a Meditation that renders the Goodness of God most admirable in our Eyes when we consider he is not content to bestow a single benefit upon us There are none of his blessings that come alone but are accompanied with a numerous train of good things which