and the fidelity of his gracious covenant in Christ for whose sake all things are intended guided and collated for our good if we would so take them that whether God give or take whether he afflict or inlarge we may alwayes say with patient Job The Lord hath given the Lord hath taken as it pleaseth the Lord so come things to pass blessed be the name of the Lord for ever and ever Job 1.21 2. For Admiration the kingly Prophet saying Let my soul live and it shall praise thee Psal 119.175 declares not onely that he desired life for no other cause in chief but that he might therein give thanks and glorifie God but also that the praises of Gods children here have in some respects prelation above the hymns of glorified spirits Which Hezekiah also affirms protesting that Hell cannot praise God but the living the living he shall praise God Esa 38.18 whereupon those religious Kings notwithstanding the trust they had to celebrate among the Fathers immortal thanks petitioned that they might abide here to praise God In pirke avoth It was a wise apothegme of Rabbi Jacob that one hour of repentance and good works in this world is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 better than all the life of the world to come and one hour of refreshment in the world to come is better than all the life of this world The complete praises of the other world are without comparison diviner than our imperfect thanksgivings upon earth in regard of the acts themselves but praises here have their priviledge in that they be exemplary to sinners and converting praises not seldom attracting others from vanity to be companions in the true worshiping of God as godly Hezekiah hints in those words The father to the children shall make known thy truth Moreover divine praises here be operative and efficiently antecedent to our glory there After death the blessed rest Apoc. 14.13 and cannot promote in bliss and the state of glory in heaven is proportioned to the measure of vertue and praise upon earth whiles we are in the way every praise addes to the treasury of our future glory when we come home into our country we take up our standing and can proceed no further here must we furnish our everlasting mansions here must we lay up in store for our selves a good foundation for the future 1 Tim. 6.19 and procure that degree of honour wherein we would sempiternally praise God 3. For Exhortation urging us above all studies to intend thanksgiving and frequent Gods praises as in our Lords prayer we are taught to begin our petitions with praying first and principally Hallowed be thy name enable us and all thy creatures to glorifie and praise thee and in the close annexed in many Greek copies to that prayer Mat. 6.13 to ascribe Kingdom Power and Glory to God as the father of lights and donor of every good and perfect gift which is the summary of thanksgiving The hellishness of hell and most horrible evil there and that which most terrifies the godly in their contemplations is that the damned perpetually gnash their teeth Psal 112.10 and blaspheme and curse God that is blessed for ever Apoc. 16.10 11. They gnawed their tongues in pain and blasphemed the God of heaven because of their pains and repented not of their evils if reprobates do so on earth what will they â—o in hell And this is to the minds of them that fear God the heaven of heaven that there is no cessation nor end of praising God there Apoc. 5.13 none is silent in the heavenly Chorus Every creature which is in heaven and on the earth and under the earth and such as are in the sea heard I saying Blessing honour glory and power be unto him that sittteth upon the throne and unto the Lamb for ever Apoc. 7.9 10. Sect. 9 Swasives to thanksgiving Will you be pleased to ponder the commendations heaped upon sacred thanksgivings Psal 147.1 It is good to sing praises unto God it is pleasant and praise is comely It is good and by consequence hath force to draw and allure every rational will as convenient for it vox hominem sonat it is a speech for a man to men who will shew us any good therefore God commends this duty to us as men it is good it is right Eph. 6.1 it hath all reason for it It is pleasant not onely pleasing to God whose pleasure is more acceptable to the pious than any life but pleasant to the thanksgiver a duty which cannot possibly be performed without pleasure on his part For that our good Lord would have us rejoyce evermore 1 Thes 5.16 Be alwayes chearful he passes an injunction that we should in every thing be thankful vers 18. Would any learn to go easily away with his burthen 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 In pareticis c. 35. let him hearken to Saint Nile In adversity give thanks and the yoke of afflictions will be easie and light when and wherein soever we are discontent we detain praises in unthankfulness and give not God the honour of governing all things for the best Thank God unfeignedly for thy portion for thy corrections for all thy tryals and the Lords dealing ceases to be any longer displeasant to thee It is comely there is nothing so unseemly and odious as ingratitude nothing so amiable and decent in all eyes as thankfulness how then doth it become Psal 51.12 the free ingenuous and princely spirit wherewith we are sealed to officiate in this divine service and sacrifice continual thank-offerings to the God of our praise who hath made us his praise in preeminence of heavenly collations 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Pâ— Martyr Juâ—â—â—â—m O happy David for an heroick spirit in practising Divinity Psal 116.12 What shall I render unto God which is wisely expended by St. Basil to be the voice of one that was bravely in straits and saw his penury on all sides that he had nothing fit for retribution but to the utmost of his power he was willing to lay out himself and spend and be spent for God and that he was glad of an opportunity to serve his generation and advance the interests of his maker Honourable Lords there is no higher decorum than to study grateful returns do something worthy of God and your Nobility and this day of your triumph and joy And whereas your goods and goodness cannot reach to God but may reach to his substitutes the receivers and takers of the King of heaven let me beg leave to speak a word for Christs poverty in our Land that in reception of so transcendent blessings you would remember the poor and signalize this happy year with a provision that there may be no complaining no begging in our streets and work-houses may be erected in these rich and populous cities that all that are able to work may be blessed in eating the labour of their own hands Psal 128.2 and all that are absolutely
impotent be otherwise sufficiently relieved a work that all mankind must necessarily acknowledge excellent Hodieque in captivitate nullos mendicos habemus qui stipem postulent sed onnes aut Synagogarum proventibus aut divitum liberalitate sustentantur ita ut necessaria iis nunquam desint Menasses Ben-Israel conciliator p. 223. The Jews can provide for their poor throughout Christendome without begging may not Christians much better do the like Some neighbouring people in forreign parts prevent all need for their poor to beg what hinders this magnificent Kingdom to do the same Other Parliaments as fame goes have had this religious design under consideration but have left you the glory to complete the work and put it in execution Your Honours have raised such extraordinary hopes in these three Nations that they promise themselves from these two Houses the greatest benefits that can be procured by the best Parliament and therefore I had the boldness humbly to propose this motion to you And when I shall in three words have toucht upon three motives that exalt thanksgiving above all other service I will dismiss this honourable audience to the festivities of this joyful day 1. It is very remarkable that ever and ever is adjoyned to the close of the Doxology Mat. 6 13. because thanksgiving onely is an eternal and everlasting office prayer is a duty of time thanksgiving is a service of eternity after the day of Judgment petitions shall cease when once all desires are accomplished but giving of thanks shall be sempiternal Agobard ad câ—mores occâ—esiae Lugdâ—â—ens V. 612. that God hath filled up all our faculties of desiring and left us no more space nor room for prayer 2. Thanksgiving is an Angelical office therefore to set an estimate upon sacred hymns and praises Esa 6.2 3. You have the Seraphims of the supreme order veiling their faces and feet in token of reverence and flying as they sing in testimony of affection and longing to draw near to God and they being as it were chief chantors and leading the song all the Chorus of Angels accompany them with harmonious and according voices and with incredible gladness and exaltation of spirit 3. Thanksgiving as it is a Saint-like and Angelical performance so it is the proper service of heaven as it is the place of everlasting repose Hence Luke 2.14 they sing glory to God in the highest heavens as the seat of eternal praises Petition oft tends to our own good thanksgiving looks entirely at Gods glory which therefore is the grand duty and product of charity and the peculiar office of heaven where having whatsoever they can wish they have no other imployment but to bless the fountain of their blessedness Prayer pertains to viators and praise to comprehensors as satisfied in good and secured of eternity in bliss Dionysius Carthusianus Deum laudere est actus praeclarior quam Deum orare 1. qunniam actus ille est magis Angelicus 2. quia actus ille est simplicior ac purior quia per illum mâ—gis purè in Deum convertâ—mur per orationem vero ad nos ipsos aliquo modo reflectimur De S. Catharina sen 1. a godly and learned Writer shall conclude for me To praise God is a more eminent act than to pray unto God both for that it is a more Angelical act and because it is a purer and more sublimated act as in which we are purely inclined and converted to God whereas in prayer we reflect in some sort upon our selves This then of all other is a most celestial function to sing Hallelujahs to coassist with the heavenly inhabitants in praising God this is to be in Paradise to taste the first fruits and in a manner to have the exercises and fruitions of heaven upon earth Therefore with Angels and Archangels and all the company of heaven let us thank God through Jesus Christ our Lord. FINIS
third of that for the maintenance of a right Owner which was forcibly took from them to keep in an Intruder He that another day shall feel in himself a tentation of unreadiness to pay taxes to his Prince let him record this day wherein after many years slavery under the tyranny of servants our Sovereign Master being owned there was as universal and as real a thanksgiving as ever was known in England and he for one heartily cried out I thank God through Jesus Christ our Lord. Sect. 6 That spiritual blessings are the main objects for which the regenerate thank God in Christ And so we are conducted to our fourth resting-place That spiritual blessings are the main objects for which regenerate thank God in Christ As our Apostle here thanks God for the delivery from sin and the Psalmist quickens all his powers to unite their faculties in praising God for remission of sin and for sanctification Psal 103.1 2 3. Bless the Lord O my soul and all that is within me bless his holy Name who forgiveth all thine iniquities who healeth all thine infirmities This Truth is considerable for distinction for discretion for devotion For distinction this differenceth the Church and the world The love of the Father is not in the world 1 John 2.15 the Nations have some love of God as the prime good and being but it is without any consideration of Gods existing a Father to Christ and us in him therefore at the best it is but Philosophical love it is no Christian nor Theological charity Mat. 15.31 They glorified the God of Israel not the God of heaven and earth as he was discern'd in light of Nature to the world but the God of Israel as he was discovered by light of sacred Scripture to the Church In the Old Testament the Lord is familiarly styled the God of Abraham Isaac and Jacob not of Europe Asia and Africa nor the God of the four Elements c. to intimate that the saving knowledge is not by manifestation from the creature but by revelation to the Patriarchs Prophets Apostles c. Ephes 5.20 true thanksgiving and accepted with God is in the name of Christ to God and the Father to God not barely considered as God but to God as eternally the Father of our Lord Jesus and in good time our Father through Christ Col. 3.7 as Christians apprehend him and assume all the benefits for which they praise him qualified in the relation of a Father and the mediation of a Redeemer Let me adde this to your meditations Psal 4.6 7. the world many times word and mouthe some thanks to God for Corn and Wine and Oyle but never is thankful about any oblations of praise to God for succours purely Evangelical victory in tentations assistance against sin which ravisht Paul into this doxology Carnal men may for self-love really beg favors and pray give and forgive they cannot for Gods love cause their hearts to say hallowed be thy name because thou leadest not into temptation but deliverest from evil which is the effect of the Apostles thanksgiving For discretion to be intirely thankful we must distinguish betwixt our tentations and our sins Paul was grievously buffeted by motions to sin so as to wax weary of his life but all the while he resisted it was his infelicity not his fault it was concupiscence that sinned not St. Paul Rom. 7.17 and therefore in abatement of the agony he bursts out in thanksgiving Vid. in â—â—tis Sanctorum Ap. 29. Catherine of Senes a spiritual woman in her Age having been vext with all manner of blasphemous thoughts and horrid suggestions after some release and Christs gracious return inquires in a Soliloquie Where wast thou dear Lord when my poor heart was pierced with fiery darts and harased in woful wise and had for answer Fui in medio cordis tui I was in the centre of thy heart rendring those injections abominable withholding thy consent and enabling thee to stand out in resistance For devotion not to rest till we attain Christian inspiration and expirtion and be able with St. Paul to breath Gospel-ayrs Eph. 1.3 Blessed be God who hath blessed us with all spiritual blessings in which we are incomparably more happy than in any worldly enjoyments which then onely are matters of true content and thankfulness when they are embraced as tokens of Gods good will paternity and gracious reference in Christ Sect. 6 That our temporals require many thanks of Englishmen and our spirituals many more The occasion of this solemnity calls upon me to insist a while upon this subject that our temporals require many thanks our spirituals many more Our temporals require many thanks Psal 12.1 When the Lord turned again the captivity of Sion we were as them that dream It fares with us now as it did with the Jews discharged from their captivity in Babylon by the gallant Emperor Cyrus the turn was so unlikely that an helpless poor company of Bondmen should get out of the hands of the mightiest Lords in the world that when the Proclamation of Cyrus set them all free and encouraged his loyal subjects to relieve them for their passage and commanded his Officers to allow the expences for rebuilding the Temple out of his Imperial Exchequer it was so much beyond the hope of the distressed Jews that it lookt more like the dream of one asleep than the vision of one awake Likewise we in these our excessive joys can scarce believe our senses and hardly think our selves well awake that our vouchsafements are in reality and not the aiery imagination of dreamers Far be it from me to rip up and publish in a Pulpit the foul proceedings which the goodness of our most gracious King the wisdom of the Parliament the charity of the Nation would have buried in forgetfulness by an Act of oblivion give me leave onely to propose the Parable of Jotham Jud. 9.9 The Trees would needs be making themselves a King and tender the Kingship to the Olive-tree the Fig-tree and the Vine severally which are trees of the best quality and fruit but they all joyntly refuse to take supreme dominion then they offer it to the Bramble no tree but a sorry shrub and the Bramble at the first moving assumes domination that which the most noble Families trembled to hear of a younger sprig of a stock in the Gentry boldly ventures upon and mounts into the throne and seat of highest Majesty and State what is the issue verse 15. fire proceeds out of the Bramble and devours the Cedars Mark the profundity of divine Scripture in Simile's Lyranus out of Isidore informes us the Bramble is a petty bush Rhamnus est dumus parvus qui vento agitatus ex se enittitignem which tost up and down to and fro by the wind emits and springs fire out of it self in the hotter regions and countries the Bramble at times by the agitation of the wind conceives fire and
wastes it self and all the wood about it of which also our compatriot Edmund Bunnie avouches that himself had seen some experience In his Head Corner-stone l. 1. c. 11. sect 4. p. 235. The Bramble that domineer'd over these Kingdoms tempested with choler that the great ones that chose and advanced him did not confide in his shadow and Protectorship in a rage of heart-burning fosters discontents and contrives an inhibition against the meetings of the grand Officers of the Army without licence from him which kindled such a combustion among them that the Bramble was presently pulled out of the fence by his own allies and nearest affinity but the fire stayed not there but seised on the Cedars and chiefest of the Sword-men and made them so hot one against another that they were all soon down and the whole Malignant party quasht and laid in the dust and because they are in the dust I shall not trample on them But your Lordships are assembled to give God the glory of this overture and stupendious revolution and that for great cause considering that as God was blasphemed his Truth questioned his Religion disparaged inasmuch as men of most erroneous principles and most injurious practises triumphed and bare up by mis-apprehension of a continued series of Providences which were onely testimonies of Gods displeasure at our sins walking unworthy of a good government and our profession they were no hints of Gods approving their whimsies phansies and pretensions So now on the contrary by this miraculous dispensation our Lord is glorified with us at home and with others abroad declaimers are silenced and beholders compelled to wonder at the marvellous out-goings of God in the Land In Homer Laertes being sure that his son Ulysses after twenty years absence was indeed return'd and had quelled the abusers of his wife and family the old man exclaims 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Odyss ult High Jove father of heaven well then yet you gods are still about the wide world How then shall not Englishmen observing how our gracious Sovereign after many years expulsion and exile out of his Dominions is in the turn of Gods right hand when we were in desperate consusions without any forreign help or effusion of bloud suddenly admitted to his just and hereditary rights with the incredible satisfaction of the generality of his subjects lift up our voices and say Verily there is a reward for the righteous verily there is a God that judgeth in the earth Psal 57.12 And neighbour-Nations must needs say Psal 126.2 God hath done great things for them I the Lord hath done great things for us whereof we are glad and do now keep a Festival and shall for ever rejoyce Honourable and beloved no King upon the face of the earth hath such characters and demonstrations of heavenly favour to him as our Sovereign Lord King Charles which give more than humane assurances that God designs his most excellent Majesty a great blessing to these Nations and as glorious an ornament to Christendom as was Charlemaigne May we not then justly take in the two readings of this my Text gratia Deo and gratia Dei Lately we might have said Wretched men that we were who shall deliver us from this slayery baser than ever any gallant people suffered and now by Gods mercy we may say gratia Deo We thank God And again we may say Wretched men that we were who or what hath delivered us from the basest tyranny and must answer our selves gratia Dei the grace of God through Jesus Christ our Lord. Ye have heard how great and many thankes our temporals require now please to listen in a word that our spirituals require many more Psal 144.15 When David had held forth in most ample circumstances the felicity of a Kingdom in peace and plenty he closeth with this Epiphomema Happy are the people that are in such a case and immediately corrects himself Yea happy are the people whose God is the Lord So then our greatest happiness in a gracious King and mighty Kingdoms abounding in wealth and strength and policy and state and unanimity is but an embleme of the welfare and riches of a soul that can appropriate God to it self Micah 4.9 Now why art thou contracted in sorrow or is thy counsellor perisht and if thou hast the invincible King for thy defender why dost thou fear and if the eternal Spirit be thy Advocate and his Law thy Counsellor how canst thou miscarry 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The Septuagint divinely turn that Psal 129.1 When the Lord turned the captivity of Sion we were as them that are comforted for that greatest contents redemptions and bodily deliverances are but a shadow to the freedom of the soul from the dangers of sin and the solaces of the most prosperous are meer umbrages to the unutterable joyes in the holy Ghost and peace of Conscience which passeth all understanding and the fore-tasts of the holiest in this world of heavenly contentments are but quasi gaudia as they speak in the Civil Law or as they phrase it in the common Law misprisions of joy to the consolations in the world to come wherein they shall eternally sing praises and thanksgivings unto God Sect. 8 That thank-offerings to God through Christ are the highest sac ifice of the Church militant or Triumphant And thus we are brought to the last Stage That Thank-offerings to God through Christ are the highest sacrifice of the Church militant or triumphant whereas the praise of God is the soveraign end of all creatures being and continuance the praising of God which is the nearest relation and next acting to that end must of consequence be the most super-excelling work of heaven and earth the quintessence of all Divinity the flowre of all Theologicall duty and Divine service and clearly our best and highest office We shall improve the Use of this Doctrine for Information Admiration and Exhortation 1. For Information That it is the most noble state and height of the renewed soul not onely to be patient and contented but delighted and thankfull in all conditions When the regenerate recollecting how God causes all things to work together for his glory the good of the Universe the salvation of predestinates doe comply with him in absolute accommodation and in reverentiall respect of his gubernation accept from his divine hands prosperity adversity influences desertions good and evil with indifferent minds and with equall thanks Job 2.10 Shall we receive good at the hands of God De amico amato sect 7. and shall we not receive evill As Blaquere alledges for proof of his loving God Quoniam inter laetitias tribulationes quas mihi donas non facio differentiam That he put no difference between the joyes and tribulations which God confers Psal 25.10 All the wayes of God are mercy and truth There are no forth goings of his providence towards men that have not for their originall eternall mercy