Selected quad for the lemma: heaven_n
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A19189
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Bee thankfull London and her sisters; or, A sermon of thankfulnesse setting downe the kindnesse of God to vs ... by Robert Abbott ...
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Abbot, Robert, 1588?-1662?
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1626
(1626)
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STC 56; ESTC S100550
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29,366
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42
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Deut. 26. 2. must put it in a Basket and carried to the place which the Lord did choose Now why doth the Lord require all this of his people Surely this is one reason that hee might shew what reckoning he makes of thankfulnesse for all the mercies which we receiue from his hand And therefore must we be thankfull Againe we must praise God in respect of men both bad and good If we looke to bad men they doe encourage themselues to be thankfull to the gods of siluer and Dan. 5. 4. gold to whom no thankes is due as wee may see in Belshazzar and should not we much more doe it to him to whom all is due If we looke to good men they haue beene plentifull in this kinde of duty When the Flouds ceased thankfull Noah built an Altar and offered vnto the Gen. 8. 20. Lord. When God renewed his promise to Abraham he thankefully built an Altar to the Lord in the plaine of Gen. 13. 18. Mamre Agar had learned so much in religious Abrahams house therefore when God had comforted her in her banishment she called his Name Thou God lookest on me Gen. 16. 13. much more would the Iewes and therefore they thankfully kept a feast of remembrance for Hamans destruction Hest 9. and their deliuerance Thus all sorts of men haue incouraged vs to this duty Lastly we must praise God in respect of the excellency of the duty it selfe And this may bee seene in foure particulars First in this that our God doth account it a gift as Dauid saith Giue vnto the Lord glory Psal 29. 2. due vnto his name that is praise him Alas what are we that we should giue to God We must say with Dauid Who are wee that wee should be able to offer willingly to thee 1 Chron. 29. 14. our God For all things come of thee and of thine owne hand we haue giuen thee Yet it pleaseth God to account them gifts and we know that it is a more blessed thing to Acts 20 35. giue then to receiue Secondly God doth not onely account our praise a gift but a sacrifice the best gift as the Psalmist saith Let them offer sacrifices of praise Yet remember Psal 107. 22. that it is not a sacrifice of redemption for so is Iesus Christ alone but of thanksgiuing Therefore offer to God praise and pay thy Vowes vnto the most high Thirdly Psal 50. 14. God doth not onely account our praise a gift and a sacrifice but doth preferre it before all sacrifice Will I saith God eat the flesh of Bulls and drinke the bloud of Psal 50. 8. to 15. Goats offer to me praise As if he should say This is that which I prefer to all outward seruice as being a part of my inward worship And in another place he saith That is better then a Bullock that hath hornes hoofes i. a perfect Psal 69. 30 31. Bull. Take a Bullocke at the best and Praise is better then it and as with hornes through the mighty power of Mal. 1. God will push downe our enemies and as with hoofes will inable vs to wade thorow any difficulties Fourthly God doth not onely account our praise a gift a Sacrifice better then a sacrifice but by it giues vs communion with the seruice of the life to come in Heauen Men full of wants do pray but Angels and Saints full of grace and glory doe practise The Angels cryed saith the Prophet Holy holy holy is the Lord of Hosts The Angels said Esay 6. 3. saith Iohn Praise and glory and wisdome and thankes and honour and Apoc. 7. 11 12. power and might be vnto our God for euermore Amen These foure things doe manifest vnto vs the excellency of this duty to presse vs to lift it vp from the feet of swine and to set it like a Iewell in our hearts that it may giue luster vnto our liues and conuersations and may euidence that we liue to God and not to our selues Thus haue I shewed you in some measure why wee must praise God for his maruellous great kindnes which he hath shewed vnto vs. Vse Now therefore let vs be exhorted in the feare of God to sing ioyfully and freely with Dauid Blessed be our good God who hath shewed vs maruellous great kindnesse in City Towne and Country He might iustly haue giuen vs ouer as a prey to all his Plagues He might haue sent the Sword Es 1. 20. to deuoure vs and brought in the battaile of the Warriour Es 9. 5. which is with noise and with tumbling of garments in bloud He might haue sent vs a Famine and made the life of our Lamen 2. 19 20. young children faint for hunger in the corners of all our streets King 6. 28 29. and our cockering women to eat their fruit and their children Lam. 4 2 7 8. of a span long and our Nobles who are comparable to fine gold to be esteemed earthen Pitchers and our Nazarites who were whiter then Milke and purer then Snow to be blacker then a cole to haue their skinne cleaue to their bones and wither like a stocke Thus I say the Lord might haue done by making an Asses head at fourescore peeces of 2 Kings 6. 25. siluer and the fourth part of a cab of Doues dongue at fiue peeces of siluer through a fearefull Famine amongst vs. He might haue made the Plague of Pestilence more wonderfull and not only seazed vpon some few Cities and Townes amongst vs but coasted from Dan to Beershebah 2 Sam. 24. by his deuouring Angell from one part of the Kingdome Psal 91. 3. to the other to finde out men and women and children that might iustly haue beene appointed to dye What might not God in Iustice haue done vnto vs who are a rebellious and gaine-saying people Wee must needes say though God haue looked vpon vs for good and not for euill that we are full of sores from the crowne of the head to the sole of the foot as Daniel saith Wee haue Esay 1. 6. sinned and haue committed iniquity and done wickedly yea Dan. 9. 5 6. we haue rebelled and departed from thy precepts and from thy iudgements for we would not obey thy seruants the Prophets which spake in thy Name to our Kings to our Princes and to our Fathers and to all the people of the Land Who sees not that we haue beene heauy at the whole heart notwithstanding Esay 1. 5. all the Lords chastisements yea euen as wicked King Ahaz in the time of our tribulation Wee did trespasse more against the Lord when wee would bee 2 Chron. 28. 22. wanton in our Feastings yea in our Fastings as being loth that outward Discipline should speake angrily to our bellies which are our God though God haue spoken Phil. 3. angrily both to our bodies and soules And how could we doe otherwise Can the blacke-More change
traitors were discouered the Plague is ceassed and our enemies are yet disappointed Oh blessed be God Secondly wee must speake publickly of them for the generations to come The Prince must speake of them to his subiects the Minister to his people the Maister to his seruants one neighbour to another and the father to his children As the Iewes are said by the Rabbins the night before the Passouer to confer with their children on this wise The child said Why is it called the Passeouer The father answered because the Angell passed ouer and destroyed vs not The child said Why do we eate vnleauened bread The father answered because we were forced to make haste out of Aegypt The child said againe Why eate we soure hearbes The father answered to put vs in mind of the affliction in Aegypt so ought wee to deale in all the great and maruellous kindnesses of God Thus Dauid saith as I mentioned before Come ye children Psal 66. 16. hearken vnto me I will tell you what hee hath done for my soule And to this wee are exhorted by the Psalmist saying Sing vnto the Lord and praise his Name declare his Psal 96 2. 3. saluation from day to day Declare his glorie among all Nations and his wonders among all people Thirdly we must speake wisely of them that is so as it may easily bee discerned which fauours wee prize most Worldly men and godly men will both speake of Gods blessing them but it is except policy preuent with as much difference as there was in Isaacks giuing a blessing to Iacob and Esau The worldly man saith Blessed Genes 27. 28. 39. be God for the fatnesse of the eartth and for the dew of Heauen from aboue as if a fat earth were his best benefit but the godly man saith Blessed be God for the dew of Heauen and fatnesse of the earth and plenty of Wheat and Wine Thus is he wise in speaking of spirituall blessings with the highest straine if not alwaies in order yet in affection See it in Dauid My soule praise the Psal 103. 1. 2. 3. 4 5. Lord and all that is within mee praise his holy Name my soule praise the Lord and forget not all his benefits which forgiueth all thine iniquity and healeth all thine infirmities Here are the chiefe fauours which hee speaketh of and then he descendeth lower Which redeemeth thy life from the graue and which satisfieth thy mouth with good things This also must be our course Wee must thanke God for outward peace and prosperity but especially for the Gospell Wee must thanke God for our deliuerance from the Plague but especiall that he hath giuen vs to know the Plague in our owne hearts and to confesse it and turne 1. King 8. 38. from it vnto the liuing God Lastly we must speake constantly of them The mercies of God are shewed in prosperity and aduersity and we must speake of them in both estates as Iob who said The Lord giueth and the Lord taketh away blessed bee the Iob 1. 21. Name of the Lord yea they are renued euery morning Lam. 3. 23. and therefore must we say with the Psalmist In the morning in the euening and at noonetide will I praise thee because Psal 119. of thy righteous iudgements Thus haue I taught you how to be thankefull vnto God by Celebration that is speaking of Gods praises to others Secondly we must be thankfull vnto God by Inuocation which is that duty of thankfulnesse whereby in one branch of Prayer we speake of Gods praises to himselfe as when Christ saith I giue thee thankes O Father Lord Math. 11. 25. of Heauen and earth Now for the better performance of this duty we must properly doe three things First wee must humbly acknowledge our owne vnworthinesse of any fauour It is impossible that we should be truly thankfull till we see what Dunghills we are vpon vpon whom God casteth his beames and gather our worthinesse not by the worth of Gods blessings seeing a precious stone may be in a Toades head but by the glorious worthinesse which is in God who accounts it little enough for him to giue though it bee too much for vs as we are our selues to receiue Hence is it that Dauid cryeth out What is man that thou shouldst bee mindefull of Psal 8. 4. him and the sonne of man that thou shouldst so regard him And good Iacob when he did swimme in Gods fauours freely confessed that hee was lesse then the least of Gods Gen. 32. 10. mercies Thus ought it to bee with vs. As if wee should say O my God how vnworthy am I that I should liue when so many haue dyed that I should abound when so many haue wanted that I should haue ease when so many haue cryed for woe and paine What am I better then my brethren No Lord I am worse then many thousands who haue made their beds in the darke in this common calamity Thou knowest mine vnrighteousnesse and mine iniquity can I not hide and yet thou hast beene gracious and so forth Secondly we must amplifie the mercies of God wee must not extenuate the least of them as if they were ordinary but we must make the least of them in the ranke of those which are too great for vs. As Hannah when she had borne her Samuel sings The barren hath borne 1 Sam. 2. 5. seuen and Dauid when hee sate before the Lord said Who am I O Lord God and what is mine house that thou 1 Chro. 17. 16 17 hast brought me hitherto yet thou esteeming this a small thing O God hast also spoken concerning the house of thy seruant a great while and hast regarded mee according to the state of a man of high degree Euen thus must we doe as if we should say O blessed God my Father was an Amorite and my Mother an Hittite and thou mightest haue cast me into Hell from the wombe yet thou keptst mee when I hanged vpon my Mothers breast yea thou hast brought me vp in a Christian Church vnder Christian Kings who haue desired to serue God according to thy Word yea and thou hast continued the Gospell to mee euen vnto this day and though I haue beene vnworthy of them and therefore thou hast plagued me and mine yet as if I had been like King Dauid worth ten thousand of others thou hast kept mee from the common misery and so forth Thirdly we must more excellently conceiue of God then we can see him in his blessings If the whole world were full of Bookes as an Ancient saith and all the Creatures writers and all the water of the Sea Inke first all the Books should be filled all the Writers wearied all the Sea should be exhausted and drawne dry before one of Gods perfections could bee absolutely described In which respect Moses singeth Who is like vnto thee O Exod. 15. 11. Lord among the gods Who is like vnto thee