I could wish that my voice could speak to all the kingdome that I might tell them what God expects from all their hands But though that cannot be I am called this day to speak to you Right Honorable and beloved who are the Representative Body of the kingdome and whose thankfulnesse will be interpreted by God and man to be the thankfulnesse of the whole kingdome you must think of some such way of praising God as becomes your high places and callings and the whole kingdome which you represent if single persons praise God upon a ten stringed Instrument you must do it upon a ten thousand stringed Instrument some thing worthy of a Parliament of England such a Parliament for whom God hath done such great things When King Solomon offers a peace-offering he brings two and twenty thousand fat beeves and an hundred and twenty thousand fat sheep there is thankfulnesse fit for a King to shew And when David would shew his Gratitude to God in preparing to build him an house he offered a thousand thousand talents of silver and an hundred thousand talents of gold which comes to above three and thirtie thousand cart-load of silver allowing two thousand weight or six thousand pound sterling to every load and of gold seventy millions of French crowns besides brasse and iron without weight And when he and his people had added much more unto it he admired Gods goodnesse to give them a heart to offer so willingly and excuses the smalnesse of his own gift as being prepared in a time of trouble Let not therefore your Thankfulnesse be in trifles lowprizd serve not God with that which costs you nothing And if indeed you would do something heroicall worthy of your selves take him for your pattern who for his thankfulnesse was called the man after Gods own heart and that is David who when God had delivered him from all his enemies and established him in his kingdome expresses in the hundred and first Psalme wherein his thankfulnesse should appeare weigh the Psalme seriously it comprehends the sum of what I have to say to you I will sing saith he of mercie and judgement that is I will celebrate thankfully all Gods mercifull administrations unto my soul how would he do this Answ. In binding himself in his rule of walking towards three sorts of persons with whom he had to do First himself Secondly his family And thirdly his kingdome For his own person he would be holy he would walk uprightly in the midst of his house For his family he would have no wicked person about him no slanderers liars proud or deceitfull persons he would root them out as pests to his family And he would search throughout the whole kingdome to have his family stored with good servants Thirdly for his kingdome he would root out wicked men without exception of persons and that early that so his whole kingdome might be a City of the Lord a people with whom God might delight to dwell Here is an example fit for a King and Parliament to follow oh that God would encline your hearts this day to resolve to begin first with your own persons else you will never be sincere for the rest Now God hath called you and separated you for his work be not the vassals of Satan factors or pensioners for his enemy who hath thus far be trusted you Secondly look to your families do as Jacob did at Bethel when he payed his vow of thanksgiving unto God he made all his family bury their Idols under an oke that so when hereafter any of you shall be mentioned it may truly be said such a Noble-man such a Parliament man and the Church in his house that your families may be little Congregations of Saints with whom God may delight to dwel Not like Taverns and Alehouses houses of lewd and debaucht persons where Zim and Jim dwels dolefull creatures fit onely to be agents for Satan as it is much feared many of them are untill this day Thirdly then look to sweep the Church and kingdome blessed be God you have begun well you have been happie Instruments to ease many pressures But beloved there is yet much work to be done yet the root of our evils is not taken away yet the Ministery is not purged yet the great Cities and Towns and many thousand other places in the kingdome want bread for their souls and the portions of the Levites honorable maintenance for them who should do the work of the Lord in many places are not yet provided yet there remains much rubbish to be carried away as yet the honour of the Lords day is not fully vindicated as yet the Lords Temple is not builded nor the Scepter of Christ throughly set up These are services fit for a thankfull Parliament if you neglect these and cause a cessation in building the Temple and let it lie unfinished as it was in Cyrus his dayes if there be a Pâ—rez-Vzizah a breach in bringing in the Ark of God unto us Now you have built your own house and procured Civill Liberties should you let Gods house lie waste should you be as many fear you are lesse zealous in Gods cause then in your own I solemnly professe unto you the God of heaven will require it at your hands and the hands of your posteritie he will curse all your blessings and overturn what you think you have established But the people of God in whose hearts and prayers you daily are expect and hope for these great things from you This do in the fear of the Lord and ye shall prosper 2. This Right Honorable is that I had to say to you from the Lord if now you that are the residue of this great Assembly enquire what you shall do and how you shall testifie your thankfulnesse I answer if you will go and ring Bels make Bonfires feast one another and send portions to the poore for whom nothing is provided I have nothing to say against it I think you shall do well But this I beseech you do go home and pray God to encline the hearts of the Parliament to practise what this day they have heard write down a Catalogue of all the great things which God hath this yeer done for us and let your children know them and the Lord put it into the heart of some wise observer of the times so to write them that the present and future generation may be blessed with a true Narration of these wonderfull mercies give every one of you up your selves to the Lord to be his servants abuse not your peace and Libertie with Idlenesse riot and excesse or in being choked with enlarging your selves with worldly businesses but make that use of our peace which the Church did in the ninth of the Acts and the 31. vers. Then had the Churches rest and peace and what use made they of their peace They
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
hath bestowed upon you and if you be found to be the people who thus requite him who are thus advanced and work all these abominations God will ere long say of you as David said of Nabal Surely in vain have I kept all that this fellow hath and he hath requited me evill for good I will not leave any thing that pertains to him in vain have I done all which I have done for these men they have requited me evill for good I will strip them naked I will deprive them of all my abused mercies I will spend my arrows and heap mischiefs in stead of mercies upon them 4. Are there not abundance to whom this thankfull rendring of a contrite heart of bodies and souls consecrated to Gods service reverent waiting upon him in his ordinances and doing good to others thereby to praise God to whom I say these things are the darkest riddles in the world who think God never doth enough for them and think any thing too much for them to do to God But to leave this generall complaint I beseech you Right Honorable and beloved to see what great cause we have to be abased concerning our great Ingratitude for the admirable mercies which God hath bestowed us this very last yeer This one yeer this wonderfull yeer wherein God hath done more for us in some kinds then in fourescore yeers before breaking so many yokes giving such hopes and beginnings of a very Jubilee and Resurrection both of Church and State This yeer wherein we looked to have been a wonder to all the world in our desolations and God hath made us a wonder to the world in our preservation giving us in one yeer a Return of the prayers of fourty and fourty yeers Now look abroad into the kingdome enquire as Ahasuerus did of Mordecai what honour and dignity is done to the Lord for all this my heart would bleed were it rightly affected in the expressing of it We scarce make any shew of thankfulnesse but manifest the very power of Ingratitude Alas there are many whose hearts are grieved at the great things which God hath done for us turning a Jubilee into Lamentations I know not better how to expresse the spirit of these men then by that in the 8. of Ezekiel Among all the abominations which the Lord shewed the Prophet whereby he was provoked to go far off from his sanctuary one was a company of women sate weeping for Tammuz they wept because they they had lost their Idoll so these grieve because they fear to loose their toyes and fooleries which provoke God against us Others bring up an ill report of Gods goodnesse and his worthy Instruments who can see no wood for trees ever enquiring in discontent what is done all this yeer the Parliament hath sate long abundance of money given but what have they done for us Indeed lesse is done then might have been had we been truly thankfull but much more is done then ever thou or I had cause to hope our eyes should see when it is Gods mercie we are not all as Sodome art not thou a wretched man to say what is done by way of sleighting what thy eyes see this day Others deny not but God hath done great things this last yeer and all their enquirie is What is to be done next who as swine under the pear-tree devoure all that fals and whine for more never looking to the hand that shakes down to them in the meane time return nothing to God abate not an ace of any of their former courses whereby God was offended as proud vain wanton worldly prophane this yeer as the last yea a greater torrent of sin for ought I can hear rusheth in and fearfully prevails and domineers in most places God is free in his goodnesse and will be mercifull to whom he will be mercifull and the wickednesse of a Nation can set no bounds or limits to his goodnesse else we should certainly conclude that this drie winde from the wildernesse this ingratitude of ours would even sweep and drive away all Gods mercies from us Yea may I not must I not Right Honorable and Noble Senators humble you even you before the Lord this day even in this day of your rejoycing to make you begin this your Passeover with eating some bitter hearbs have you rendred to God according to the mercies of this yeer I think you may say of Gods dealing towards you as never Parliament could say God hath carried you in his bosome prevented and discovered great designes against you queld great adversaries before you restored great priviledges unto you appeared as your Councellour in all your darknesses opened a doore an out-gate in all your straits all rubs and stumbling blocks before you God hath made them but as vantage ground to raise you higher What should I say you have found your gracious Soveraigne granting I think all your suits hitherto your Rights and Liberties are establisht and your houses built if it were possible you should surpasse the very Angels in thanksgiving Now let your servant be bold with you what glory and honour do you return to God How have you observed the goings of your God and King amongst you With what admiring thoughts are your hearts filled what Reformation appears in your hearts and lives what cost are you at for this God how strongly have you engaged and consecrated your selves and all which you have for his service and glory Lay your hand upon your heart and think in this your day of rejoycing whether your continuance in your old sinfull wayes your unbeliefe your ebbing and flowing in your spirits according as humane hopes and helps have come and gone your not zealously laying to heart the cause of Christ his worship and servants may not make the Lord say of you as of Hezekiah the Lords and Commons of England prayed unto God and the Lord heard them and gave them a signe but they rendred not again according to the benefits done unto them If it be so the good Lord humble you under it and turn away the guilt of this great sinne from you and from us all for Christ Jesus sake and so much for the use of Humiliation Secondly one more for exhortation and I have done Oh that I were able to speak something to raise up your hearts to the practise of this excellent service I shall confine my self to these two heads First a few Motives to quicken you to the duty Secondly a few Directions to guide you in it First the man lives not who owes not this homage or quit-rent unto God yea even for every thing which he hath finde out the man who lies under one evill so great as he hath deserved or enjoyes one mercie which he hath not freely received and that man shall go scot-free from the dutie of thankfulnes Now even common honesty will call for the discharge of this ingenuous equall
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 Batchelour in Divinity Minister of Finchingfield in ESSEX Psalme 147. Praise the Lord O Jerusalem praise thy God O Sion for he hath strengthened the Bars of thy Gates and blessed thy children within thee He maketh Peace in thy Borders Published by Order of the said House LONDON Printed by T. P. and M. S. for SAMUEL MAN dwelling in St. Pauls Church-yard at the signe of the Swan 1641. TO THE HONORABLE House of Commons assembled in PARLIAMENT THe mercies which God hath shewed to these two Nations of England and Scotland giving us such great cause and matter of Thanksgiving causing our sheafe to arise and stand upright making us with Saul higher by the shoulders then all our brethren these mercies I say deserve so to be recorded that posterity should be compelled to read and admire them but who is sufficient for this thing It was said of Claudian that he wanted matter suitable to the excellency of his wit but where is the head or heart suitable to this matter Who can utter these mighty works of the Lord who can shew forth all his praise For my own part had I put my self upon this work to utter these mean conceptions upon this great subject before so great and honorable Audience I might justly have been condemned for abusing both the one and the other But you were pleased to command my service in preaching on the day of your publique and solemne Thanksgiving it may be because I was then neer at hand and after your Reverent attention had testified that you received them as the counsell of God you were further pleased expresly to desire me forthwith to print and publish what in my weaknesse I then delivered I suppose for the better memoriall of these great deliverances I could have pleaded much why these poore notes should not be exposed to publike view Treatises to be read by all should be long meditated often reviewed Excellent pictures should be engraven in brasse and not cast in clay the setting forth these mercies and quickning up answerable Thankfulnesse are above the Abilities of any man much more beyond the capacity of my self the weakest and unworthiest of many thousands But your Order left me not at liberty to do what I desired you have thus made them your own the more facile I shall hope to finde you and all Ingenuous Readers towards my weaknesses which not presumption but my obedience hath made thus publique This further encouragement I have little things have been accepted with God and man in testimoniall of Thankfulnesse a female a Turtle a handfull of wheat-floure by God himself a handfull of water a bunch of grapes c. by great Kings and Emperours And even under this Notion also I humbly present you with this ensuing discourse I have no more to say for my self but much I have to beg of God that you Noble Senatours and the Right Honorable Lords who joyned with you in this peace-offering may wholly consecrate your selves to advance his glory who hath done these great things for us all that your faithfull endeavours to do what is behind joyning with your Thankfulnesse for what is past the event may be answerable to your desires even the glory of God and the good and safety both of Church and Common-wealth which is the daily prayer of Your devoted servant STEPHEN MARSHALL A SERMON PREACHED before the Honorable House of Commons at their publike Thanksgiving The Preface to the SERMON RIght Honorable and beloved It was a priviledge and mercie which the Lord promised by the Prophet Isaiah That they should reioyce with Ierusalem who had mourned with her This mercie the Lord hath in great degree vouchsafed to my self this day the same good hand that cast it to be my lot though most unfit and unworthie to help this Honorable Assemblie in the day of their humiliation to dig pits in the valley of Bachah hath now designed me to sing with them in the valley of Berochah That after I had helped to carry out their precious seed with teares I should come with ioy and help to gather in their sheaves that after our Lamentations we should together sing Canticles and Halleluiahs unto our God Thus the Lord in mercie mingles rain and sunshine Oh that we had hearts suitable to all his administrations The duty of this day is to reioyce and to give praises unto God a service easier to the flesh then that of fasting and mourning but harder to the spirituall part In a day of humiliation even wicked men have affections stirring in them consciousnesse of evill guiltinesse of minde sense of wrath astonishing and oppressing feares arising from the apprehension of neare and unavoidable danger are naturall meanes to make even Pharaohs Ahabs and Ninevites mourne and humble themselves before God But in keeping a day of spirituall reioycing unto God little or no help is to be expected from the flesh and that is one reason why commonly dayes of thanksgiving are translated with much lesse affection life and savour then dayes of humiliation You should therefore have chosen Asaphs Ieduthuns and Hemans who might skilfully have helped you to lift up the praises of God but it s now no time to complaine of your choice neither will it be needfull if the Lord please to be present who can make the tongue of the dumbe to sing and can ordain his praise out of the mouthes of babes and sucklings trusting therefore his assistance I beseech you attend to his holy Word as you shall finde it written PSALME 124. verse 6 7 8. Blessed be the Lord who hath not given us as a prey to their teeth Our soul is escaped as a bird out of the snare of the fowler the snare is broken and we are escaped Our help is in the Name of the Lord who made heaven and earth I Studied to have found out a Text which might every way have been suitable with the mercies which this day we are to celebrate but I confesse I could not do it and I do greatly question whether GOD ever did such a thing for matter and manner as he hath now done for these two unworthy Nations This Text which I have chosen comes very neare in the matter and way of our deliverance very home to the duty which this day wee are to performe The Psalme is stiled a Song of degrees a title peculiar to fifteen short Psalmes set downe together whether they bee so called because they were to bee sung with an exalted voice or because they were to be sung upon the staires of the Temple where the Singers were to stand or whether for the supereminencie of the matter contained in them they being so full of short grave and
against her sometimes God crushes their intentions while they are in the shell Thus Jeroboams hand withered when he said against the Prophet Lay hold of him Thus the Emperour Valens could not write when he should confirm Basils banishment Sometimes God meets them in the midst of their enterprise and thus he put his bridle in the jaws and his hook in the nostrils of Senacherib when he was coming against Hezekiah But oftentimes he lets his people come into great extremitie Josephs feet are hurt in the stocks the iron enters into his soul The Israelites tale of brick shall be doubled David shall be hunted like a Patridge in the mountains The 3. Children shall be thrown into the fiery furnace Daniel cast into the Lions den The Decree for rooting out of the Jews established by the Law of the Medes and Persians before any hope of deliverance comes But then when extremity is come the Lord never fails to be a help in the needfull time of trouble All the former examples prove it Abundance of promises assure us of it Our own experience can abundantly testifie it Yea I think were all the examples in the world lost of Gods helping his people at a pinch they might be all revived in the experience of Gods dealing with this unworthy Nation especially in these two Instances which I shall give you The first is that of the Powder treason when the neck of the whole State the glory both of the Church and the flourishing Common-wealth lay upon the block and the Instruments of death lifted up and a few houres had done that which all the world could not have repaired and our case so much the more helplesse because all was done in the dark we could suspect no danger In that extremity our God sends his Angel and delivers us from all the expectation of his enemies 2. The other which is as remarkable is this great mercie which we have now received and this day come to celebrate I speak to wise men and therefore my words may be few you all know our estates our Liberties our Religion and what ever we may cal ours were in a manner irrecoverably lost through the malice and practise of wicked Instruments and a dreadfull cloud hath these two or three yeers been gathering and hanging over our heads continually readie to dissolve into showers of blood the two Nations readie to imbrue their hands in each others blood the most observing people in the Kingdome expecting nothing but certain ruine and our neighbours round about us did conclude that we should soon be made the most desolate people in the world help we could see none our Prophets were growne fools and our spirituall men mad The Judges and Rulers who should have been our help had many of them their hands in the means of our destruction We were tantum non swallowed up in confusion And when the foundations were thus dissolved what could the righteous do onely with Iehoshaphat mourne before God and acknowledge Lord we have no help we know not what to do but our eyes are towards thee and now lo our God hath brought all about and wrought a great deliverance as we see this day And would you know the grounds why it should be so I could give you reasons enough why God should help his people they are his people in covenant with him he hath redeemed them by the blood of his Sonne he hath promised to help them their cause is his own they betake themselves onely and wholly to his help But why he should put off his help till a time of extremitie why he should suffer his people to come to so lowe an ebbe this is a thing which many wonder at To satisfie you in this I can never give a better reason then our Lord himself gives in the 11. Joh. There you shall finde when Lazarus was very sicke sicke almost unto death his two sisters sent a messenger to Christ to tell him Lord he whom thou lovest is sick they thought he whom thou lovest is sick was argument enough to fetch Christ presently but though Christ loved Lazarus he tarried two or three dayes and sent this answer This sicknesse is not unto death but for the glory of God that the Sonne of God might be glorified thereby as if he should say The true cause of this great sicknesse and my delaying to come presently is not because Lazarus should be tormented or killed but because Christ should be glorified So the very cause of Gods putting off and delaying to help and letting things come to an extremitie is not because he would have his people afflicted and his enemies to triumph and be exalted but it is to gain the more honour and glory to his own Name to manifest his wisedome power love and goodnesse in creating deliverances for them Such mercies as come in an ordinarie way are commonly interpreted to come from an ordinarie love but mercies and deliverances coming in an unexpected time in an extraordinary way and manner in them Gods love and goodnesse is most apparantly seen and acknowledged God loved Hezekiah as well at other times as when he sent an Angel to kill nine score thousand of his enemies at one time in one night and when at another time he made the Sunne go back ten degrees in the diall of Ahaz making one day as long as two in token of his deliverance God loved the three Children as well at other times as when he preserved them in the fiery furnace so as the smell of fire should not be upon them And Daniel was as deare to God at other times as when he shut up the Lyons mouthes that they could not hurt him But his power over them his mercie and goodnesse to them his justice against their enemies never was so exalted as in deferring so long so unexpectedly helping them in their greatest extremity Themselves not onely finde it but their enemies are then constrained to acknowledge it All Moses Sermons and threatnings could not make the Aegyptians so much acknowledge Gods being on his peoples side as when they having promised themselves to overtake them to divide the spoile of them to have their lust satisfied upon them to have their hands destroy them when they were entangled in the land when the Wildernesse and the Sea had shut them in God then came in and made the Sea a path for his people and the waters a wall to them but took off the Aegyptians Chariot wheels and turned the waters upon them Then they are constrained to cry out Let us flee from the face of Israel for the Lord fighteth for them against the Aegyptians Thus you see this truth cleared that God never fails his people in a time of need let us briefly make these two or three Vses of it First for our Instruction we hence learne that all plots against the Church and people of
God must prove successelesse in the event how wise how cunning how strong soever they are who manage an ill cause against the Lord and against his Church though for a time with that little horn in the 7. of Daniel they may be very stout and speak very great things and make warre with the Saints and prosper though they may carry the ball long at their foot they can never winne the goale God will come in an adversary against them he will awake as one out of sleep like a mighty man that shouts by reason of wine and put them to a perpetuall reproach Search all the Scriptures and you shall finde that this is the heritage of the servants of the Lord that no weapon that is formed against them shall prosper either their plot fails or the thing which they intended is turned another way Their plot failed not in the 6. of Daniel they aymed to get Daniel into the Lions den and in they got him but they little thought that the event should be Daniels preservation and exaltation and their own destruction So the devill and his Instruments failed not in their plot in getting Christ upon the Crosse but they little thought that this bruising of our Saviours heel should prove the breaking of the Serpents head The redemption of the Church and the leading of all the power of darknesse captivity captive Mark this all ye wisemen and great Polititians of the world that dare drive designes against the cause of God and his Church write it down and say your unworthy Minister taught you this day from God Though ye take counsell together it shall come to nought though ye speak the word it shal not stand for God is with us Hamans wife long ago could tell her husband if Mordecai was of the seed of the Jews he should never prevail against him but should surely fall before him Weigh therefore all your designes in the ballance of the Sanctuary lay aside all carnall and sinfull projects put your selves and all your reason under Christs footstool take Gamaliels counsell refrain from opposing those men who advance Gods work you cannot overthrow it lest haply ye be found even to fight against God Secondly this may be a mighty and wonderfull refreshing to all the servants of God in their deepest and heaviest pressures and afflictions though one deep call to another though thou seem to be cast beyond the Antarctick pole though all humane hope and help fail though thy heart fail and thy flesh fail thy God will never fail though thou art at thy wits end thou hast no cause to be at thy faiths end take Gods book in thy hand finde out the promises how God hath engaged himself to help at a pinch and when thou hast got a promise of deliverance then beleeve that heaven and earth shall be jumbled together rather then one jot or title of Gods promise shall not come to passe in due time Nay though he seeme to break his promise beleeve it not for so he seemed to do to Mary and Martha he sent them word Lazarus sicknesse was not to death and he seemed to fail for Lazarus died but they should have beleeved any thing rather then that that sicknesse should have been unto death Object But what if I can finde no promise that God will deliver me out of this strait I answer either thou art in covenant with God or not if thou be not in covenant if thou be an unbeleever an impenitent person I assure thee there is no promise in all this book of God that speaks one word of comfort to thee All Gods promises are yea and Amen to them who are in Christ Jesus I should wrong God and his truth and thy soul in speaking one word of comfort to thee But if in truth thou reliest upon Christ the bent of thy heart be turned to God and so thou be brought under the line of his covenant then I say to thee if there be no promise for thy strait thy strait is not greatly to be regarded God hath made promises to deliver thee from every evill work from what ever might hurt thee and thou needst not feare that which cannot hurt thee Thirdly and lastly Right Honorable and beloved how should this steel your spirits and raise up your hearts and make you with Jehoshaphat lifted up in the wayes of God you have great works to do the planting of a new heaven and a new earth amongst us and great works have great enemies they are attended with great dangers and oftentimes great fears ceize upon the spirits of Moses himself when he looks upon the work which he knows too great for him But could you remember that you walk not onely under Gods protection but under a promise that he will come in when ever you need him how boldly might you place your help in the Name of this God who hath made heaven and earth Set you your hearts to Gods work God hath set his heart upon you to deliver you and he can do it Darius set his heart on Daniel to deliver him and laboured it but could not do it But it is but for your God to command deliverance and it comes I may say the lesse because of all the experience you have had of Gods fulfilling this since your meeting together how often have you been at your wits end how often have you ebb'd and flowed and yet in all your extremities God hath come in beyond your expectation Trust still in this God seek him in his own way and say thus with your selves He is our rock our fortresse he will deliver us his truth shall be our shield and buckler Yet remember that I do not teach you that ye can never be left to suffer in a good cause that were to preach contrary to the Gospel all Christs disciples must take up their crosse and follow him you shall read in the 11. of Daniel ver. 33. That they that understand among the people and instruct many shall fall by the sword and by flame by captivitie and by spoil many dayes and when they fall they shall be holpen with little or no help but yet mark what follows their fall shall onely be as the silver fals into the furnace There are three ends why the Refiner of silver puts it into the fire First to try it whether it be pure or reprobate silver Secondly to better it to purge out the drosse Thirdly to burnish it to make it more beautifull So these shall fall to try them and to purge and make them white neither shall it be so long as their enemies please but even to the time of the end to the time appointed by God Resolve therefore upon it that if ye do suffer if evill do betide you in a good way and for a good cause your sufferings will be better for you then freedome from sufferings they shall be onely to try you
to purge you and to make you white and at the appointed time deliverance will come which if it be a while deferr'd you shall be liberally pay'd for your forbearance Thus I have done with the second part of my Text and now I proceed to the third Branch of my text which I most aymed at the use which the Church makes of this goodnesse of God Blessed be the Lord c. The Hebrew word Barach when it is applied from the creature to God signifies Benedicere laudare offerre munus To Blesse to speak well of to offer a gift to praise This is our work this day and so without any more Preface I come to handle that lesson which is our maine duty viz. That the praising of God is the service which Gods people are to performe when ever God delivers them This is a Doctrine which needs much explication and application but little proofe No one lesson more inculcated in the whole Scriptures frequently commanded Call upon me in the time of trouble and I will hear thee and thou shalt praise me All that seek the Lord shall praise him Oh that men would praise the Lord for for his goodnesse foure times repeated in one Psalme At least an hundred times in one expression or other it is enjoyned in this book of the Psalmes Oh praise the Lord praise ye the Lord pressed and repeated almost in every verse of diverse Psalmes as if the Prophet knew not what other duty to call for 2. This duty was likewise typified in the old Law They had two sorts of sacrifices shadowing out morall duties some petitionary whereby they sought God for the mercies which they needed Others were Eucharisticall peace-offerings wherein their praises were rendred unto God and these was to be as constant as their Supplicatory or Expiatory sacrifices 3. The duty hath alwayes been practised by all Gods servants the time would fail me to tell of Noah Abraham Jacob Moses all the good Judges Kings Priests and Prophets whose Hallelujahs were as constant as their Hosannaes When ever they had sought God and found him their next work was to magnifie and praise him And for the rule and practise of the Christian Church I shall passe by many exhortations and examples and satisfie you abundantly with one place which is the fourth of the Revelation That Chapter is a description of Christs presence in the Christian Church and of all their service and carriage towards him there ye have the Lambe sitting upon the throne in the midst of his people there ye have also all the multitude of his Saints in all the foure quarters of the world shadowed out by the foure beasts there ye have the multitude of Christs Ministers shadowed out by the foure and twenty Elders sitting upon their seats Now mark what all the service is which these foure beasts and foure and twenty Elders perform to him that sits upon the throne it is expressed vers. 9. to be nothing else but to give glory honour and thanks to him that lives for ever and ever So that all Christian worship publique and solitary whatever the corps of it be the soul of it is nothing but honour and glory and praise to our God through Jesus Christ Many reasons might be given why praise and thanksgiving should be rendred unto God All excellency and honour is his originall due All good things are received from his hand freely Now common honesty requires that undeserved favours should be received with thankfulnesse A benefit received and a Return of praise are inseparable among all Civill Nations But I shall insist onely upon this one This service of praise is the onely Quit-rent or Homage which God hath reserved to himself for all the mercies which he bestows upon his Church Vnderstand it I beseech you I say what ever the Lord doth for his Church and people he hath reserved not a shoe-latchet save onely his praise and glory Which to understand know that there are three things meet in every mercy First the thing it self which is given suppose food rayment health life peace wife children or what ever we enjoy Secondly there is the sweetnesse of it the comfort which may be drawn out in the use of it Thirdly there is the glory of it or the commendation that may arise from it the honour or praise which exults out of it The two first God freely gives away he hath made nothing but he freely bestows he gives heaven to the Saints and Angels he gives the earth to the sonnes of men he gives all creatures living upon earth for their use And allows them to take all the sweetnesse and comfort which can possibly be drawn out of his free gifts le ts them drink and be filled with the juyce and marrow of every mercie onely his glory he will never part with his glory and praise he will give to none They say Quit rents and Royalties are so prized by Lords of Mannors that they will not sell them under thirtie or fourty yeers purchase But the Lords Royalty and Homage of praise and thanksgiving is more precious unto him then heaven and earth In somuch that it is all one in his account not to be acknowledged God and not to be praised Yea so deare is his praise and glory that it was the utmost and highest end he propounded to himself in creating upholding and governing this goodly frame of heaven and earth even that his glory and excellency might shine forth that as of him and by him so all things might be for him And as all things were made for his praise so the creature man was in speciall manner made to be a fit bayliffe or gatherer in of Gods Quit-rent of praises from all the rest of the creatures and to pay it unto himself And this David acknowledges in the 8. Psalme and magnifies as an infinite advancement of man above all the rest of the creatures that Gods glory which is above the heavens should be ordained to proceed out of the mouth of such a poore worme as man is Nay if we look yet further into it we shall finde that when all mankinde had sinned and sell short of the glory of God would not praise him and could not praise him the Lord therefore bought a peculiar family to himself by the blood of his Sonne that he might have a people of his own to praise him who might while they are here upon earth collect gather in and offer up the praises due unto his Name And therefore he cals his redeemed ones his sonnes and daughters which he hath created for his glory This is plainly taught in the 22. Psalme in the latter end whereof ye have a description of the Church or kingdome of Christ which as there is said shall be gathered out of all Nations and all sorts of people some that are fat and mighty
upon earth some of the poore that lie in the dust who want bread to keep themselves alive all these shall be counted to the Lord for a generation a seed who shall serve him and what shall this service be even to declare and set forth his righteous works from generation to generation here is all this holy seed hath to do first to seek him then to praise him to enioy him and to glorifie him So that what Solomon said of fearing God and keeping his Commandments this is the whole duty of man The same I may say of thanksgiving praise God and glorifie him for this is the whole duty of the Church in this world And not onely in this momentany pilgrimage but even to all eternitie if you would know what the triumphant Church doth how the glorious Saints and Angels are employed this one word Hallelujah expresseth it fully praise ye the Lord And by this time I hope you see good reason why our praises should succeed our prayers and accompany our deliverances But will some say all this labour might have been spared is there any man who will not praise God Doth the man live who is not willing and ready to give God the praises due unto his Name I answer Indeed if to praise God were no more then most people think it were the most universall common easie cheap and constant duty in the world such who never kept a holy fast in all their life time such who neither pray to God in their family nor in their chamber do yet if their carnall minds may be the iudge praise God an hundred times Every day their ordinary phrase is I thank God I praise God Ask but of their welfare well I thank God they say Enquire of their families all well I praise God Every mouth is filled with the praises of God blessing proceeds out of the same mouth which is full of cursing young men and maids old men and children can all praise God But alas most men are infinitely mistaken in this dutie a thankfull man who can finde there is not in all the world a duty more rare to be found a duty more spirituall more difficult more costly then the duty of praise Let me therefore that we may not mistake when we come to application give you briefly the Institution of a thankfull man according to the word and I will bring it all to these two heads First the qualification of the person of a thankfull man who and what he is Secondly the Ingredients into the duty or what makes it up Who the man is And what his work is First who is the man that may praise God Answ. Onely the godly man True it is all men even the worst are bound to do it it lies upon them as a duty but it belongs not to them as a priviledge it is the priviledge onely of the righteous they may do it Rejoyce in the Lord ye righteous it becomes well the just to be thankfull Let the high praises of God be in their mouthes Their praises please the Lord better then a bullock that hath horns and hoofs Not so the wicked they have a woolfe by the eares in this work if they do it not God will have his glory out of them Pharaoh Senacherib Herod such as proudly seek to rob him of his glory shall yeeld him his glory in their righteous destruction they would not do it with singing they shall do it with howling On the other-side if they bring their peace-offerings God spreads the dung of their sacrifices upon their faces They are an abomination to him See this notably expressed in the 50 Psalme vers. 7. and so forward the Lord shâ—wed how little pleasure he took in the sacrifice of beasts in comparison of the sacrifice of praise and thanksgiving Offer unto God thanksgiving and pay thy vows to the most high Call upon me in the time of trouble and I will deliver thee and thou shalt glorifie me This God takes pleasure in Mark now what follows But unto the wicked saith God what hast thou to do to take my covenant into thy mouth who required these things at thy hands so that you see whether wicked men praise God or praise him not they are abhorred by him Just as some great Lord of a Mannour who having an enemy holding lands of him will compell him to do suit and service and yet abhorres him in his suit and service But Israel may rejoyce in God let them praise him in the dance let them sing praises to him with timbrell and harpe for the Lord takes pleasure in his people The second quare what makes up the duty Now you have found the man wherein stands his work Answ. When God appointed the sacrifice of peace-offerings he made it an indifferent thing whether it were a male or female so it were the best they had the best it must be Cursed be that deceiver who hath a male and sacrificeth a corrupt thing unto God Were a female the best it was accepted provided it were a whole one To bring a limbe of a torne beast should I accept this at your hands saith the Lord He will have all or none A whole one then it must be Now this whole peace-offering is made up of these 3. things The first is the soul which is the fat and inwards of it Secondly the tongue which is the glory of it Thirdly the life which indeed is the life of thankfulnesse 1. First the soule the heart and spirit this must chiefly be looked to having to do with the Father of spirits with God the searcher of the heart I will praise God saith David with my whole heart My soule praise the Lord and all that is within me praise his holy Name My heart is fixed O God my heart is fixed I will sing and give praise Now to this soul-praising of God are required principally these three things First A A minde observing the wayes and mercies of God a spirit inquisitive into Gods wayes not out of Athenian curiosity but as Bees flie from flower to flower to gather honey to digest them into matter of praise and thanksgiving God makes it an argument of an unthankfull heart not to consider his wayes nor the operations of his hands And on the other side it is an argument of a thankfull heart to take pleasure in searching out the works of God See how David sets this down in the 68. Psalme ver. 14. They have seen thy goings O God the goings of my God my King in the sanctuary then follows The singers went before the players on Instruments followed after Blesse ye God in the Congregation First they observe Gods footsteps then blesse him in the Congregation And in the 107. Psal. after the Prophet had set down the variety of Gods administrations for which he should be praised he thus
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