MERCIES MEMORIAL OR Israel's thankful Remembrance of God in their high estate for his mercifull remembring of them in their low estate In a Sermon before the Right Honourable the LORD MAYOR the Right Worshipful the ALDERMEN and the COMPANIES of the City LONDON on the 5th of November 1656. BY RALPH VENNING Psal 107.8 Oh that men would praise the Lord for his goodnesse and for his wonderful works to the children of men LONDON Printed for John Rothwell at the Fountain in Goldsmiths-row in Cheapside 1657. TICHBORN Mayor Tuesday the 11th of November 1656. IT is ordered that Mr. Venning be desired from this Court to Print his late Sermon at Pauls Sadler To the Right Honourable Sir ROBERT TICHBORN LORD MAYOR And the Right Worshipful The ALDERMEN of the City of LONDON Honourable and Honoured WHen I had received your Order for the Printing of this Sermon I procured the best Copy I could by which and the best memory I had of what I delivered I have endeavoured to present it to your view not without a little addition to some heads which then I could not enlarge The rest of this addresse My Lord and Gentlemen is not to complement and flatter you but earnestly yet humbly to beseech you that you would as Mordecai said to Hester seriously and studiously consider wherefore God hath brought you to this high estate hear the place and as the Prophet said of the rod him that hath appointed it Be pleased to Know and account that the doing your duty in your Place is the greatest honour of your place whereas else it will be said that your Places honoured you but you honoured not your Places Indeed 't is the fashion of this World to seek great things for themselves 't is their devotion to sacrifice to their own nets 't is their ambition to Lord it they are passionately enamoured with the Delights and Delicacies of this life which the heavenly St. John calls the lust of the eye the lust of the flesh and the pride of life 'T is all but lust and the lust of the World which World and which lust saith he passeth away and which the Wise Solomon on sad and dear bought experience calls vanity of vanities and vexation of spirit yet after all these things do the Gentiles seek But saith our blessed Lord and Saviour it shall not be so with you you are not your own and therefore shall not seek your own but are Christ's and therefore seek the things of Christ and endeavour to doe great things for God Oh be not led away with the error and example of this World's admirers to be fond of a poor and miserable because but temporary and perishing greatness 'T is a meer Pageant which is but a shew and a shew that passeth away as you know 'T was David's praise and 't will be yours if you tread in his steps that he served not onely his generation but the will of God in his generation or his generation according to the will of God Consider then what is the good and perfect and acceptable will of God that you may be in readinesse to every good word and work walking worthy of God to all well-pleasing Indeed to speak as the thing is you have none to please none to serve but God you may not be the servants of Men and you must not be the servants of Sin onely sanctifie the Lord in your hearts love him serve him let him be your fear and your dread Fear to displease the God you love and love to please the God you fear lest you be found which God forbid among them that had a name to live but were dead that had been professors of Christ but practitioners for selfe and for the World If the World frown and accuse you for non-conformity let it be to you a small thing as it was to the good as well as great Apostle to be judged by mans day seeing your judgement is with the Lord and give me leave to tell you let the World look as big and as sowre as it can you may safely and honourably avow it that the best way to please all or displease any with least danger is to please him who is all in all Remember with all that you must one day give an account of your Stewardship to the great God of Heaven and Earth who will not judge according to appearance but he searching hearts will judge righteous judgement and give to every man according to his works Now I wish with my soul that you may doe so well in this your day as that in that great and terrible day of the Lord you may hear the joyful sound of Well done good and faithful servants enter ye into your masters joy I shall add no more but my desire to God for a blessing on this Sermon that as your ears by what you heard so your eyes by what you see may affect your heart to live for that is to give thanks to God in your high estate who remembred us in our low estate So prayes Right Honourable And Right Worshipful Your humble Servant in the service of Christ Jesus RALPH VENNING Decemb. 1656. MERCIES MEMORIAL OR Israels thankfull remembrance of God in their high estate for his mercifull remembring of them in their low estate From PSAL. 136.23 Who remembred us in our low estate for his mercy endureth for ever FOr the compleating of the sense you are to reade it thus O give thanks unto the Lord who remembred us in our low estate for his mercy endureth for ever I presume it cannot I am sure it ought not to be said of us this day as it was said of them in Acts 19. ver 32. Some therefore cried one thing and some another for the assembly was confused and the more part knew not wherefore they were come together Who is such a stranger in this our English Israel as not to have heard of the Gunpowder Treason is there either Popish enemy or Protestant friend that knows not what a just Right and lawfull Title the fifth of November hath to this Observation and Solemnity If David would not have his soul forget all that is not any of all the benefits of God much less such as have a remark upon them for being signall and transcendent If Personall mercies deserve their memoriall surely Nationall mercies deserve a memorable celebration Of this then I may say as in the twelfth of Exod. ver 42. only turning night into day and Israel into England It is a day much to be observed unto the Lord for bringing them out of the Land of Egypt this is that day of the Lord to be observed of all the children of England in their generations But not to Preface away any more of your time in a case so cleer as this is not only known by us but acknowledged by our enemies we need not ask Is there any cause for they themselves have confest the cause This Psalm may be intitled
as the 38 Psalm is A Psalm to call to remembrance only with this difference that that Psalm calls misery and this Psalm calls mercy to remembrance which is so much the sweeter to be remembred It was penned on an occasion and to an end like this for which we are met this day to make a thankfull acknowledgment and a pious commemoration of the mercies of God to the States of the Common-wealth the Vessell in which all our Interests were imbarqued Let us then give thanks to the Lord who remembred us in our low estate for his mercy endureth for ever In the words which may have for Title Mercies Memoriall you have these three generall parts First Here is their remembring and an ackcowledgment of Gods remembring them who remembred us in our low estate Wherein you may observe 1. The Mercy it self in this word remembred 2. The Author of this mercy in this word who who is this who the Lord in the first Verse the God of Gods in the second Verse the Lord of Lords in the third Verse who remembred us 3. You have the Objects of this Act or the Receivers of this mercy in this word us who remembred us 4. You have the Season of this mercy or the time when this God thus remembred this People and that was in their low estate who remembred us in our low estate Secondly You have an account here of the true Reason and Originall of this Mercy and that is in these words for his mercy endureth for ever There is no reason to be given for Grace but Grace there is no reason to be given for Mercy but Mercy who remembred us for his mercy endureth for ever Thirdly You have a Duty inferred hereupon and that is that which as I told you before is to run in common to every Verse O give thanks unto the Lord who remembred us in our low estate for his mercy endureth for ever From this Analysis or Resolution of the words you have these four observable Propositions 1. That Gods Israel Gods own People a People that are nearest and dearest to him may yet be in a low estate us in our low estate 2. God remembers his People in their low estate quoties premebamur as one words it as often as ever we were low God remembred us when ever our estate was low or whatever our low estate was God remembred us in our low estate who remembred us in our low estate 3. The Reason why God remembers his People in their low estate is because his mercy endureth for ever he remembred us in our low estate for his mercy endureth for ever 4. Gods remembring his People in their low estate lays an obligation upon them to give thanks to the Lord O give thanks unto the Lord who remembred us in our low estate for his mercy endureth for ever The two first of these will take up the Doctrinall Discourse the third of these will be the Demonstration of the Discourse and the last the Application of the whole Then we shall say O give thanks unto the Lord when we have proved that he remembreth us in our low estate and that because his mercy endureth for ever This then is the Method which I shall observe First I shall open and explain the terms that we may understand this Truth Secondly Prove the truth of the Proposition that we may believe it And Thirdly Apply it that we may improve it which is the mercy of all our mercies For the explanation of the Contents here I shall propound only two Questions 1. When may a People be said to be in a low estate 2. What it is for God to remember his People in their low estate First When may a People be said to be in a low estate Some reade it when we were dejected and cast down as if he had said when we were faithless through fear when we were so overwhelmed that we knew not what to do when we were hopeless and least of all lookt for help then God remembred us and the things we feared came not upon us God being mercifull to us above all that we could ask or think But I did not nor shall handle it in this sense only let me say that Gods People are sometimes in this low estate low in faith low in hope and yet God remembers them so great is his goodness and our thankfulness should be the more But a People may be said to be in a low estate either 1. Actually or 2. Potentially First Actually and that more generally when they are in affliction and misery when they taste the wormwood and the gall as Jeremiah pathetically expresses it in his Lamentations when they are in want when they are low in estate or when as 't is said in Psal 107.39 they are diminished and from an high degree from a wealthy estate they are brought low through oppression affliction and sorrow when a People are under all or either of these oppression affliction or sorrow they may be said to be in a low estate But more especially they are said to be low with reference to the Text when they are in the Enemies hand that is when they are in the Enemies power as we may gather from the following Verse who hath redeemed us from our enemies And you shall finde that this is reckoned to be their low estate in 2 Chron. 28.18.19 The Philistines also had invaded the cities of the low countrey and of the south of Judah and had taken Bethshemesh and Ajalon and Gederoth and Shocho with the villages thereof and Timnah with the villages thereof Gimzo also with the villages thereof and they dwelt there for the Lord brought Judah low because of Ahaz King of Israel The Lord brought Judah low and this was the lowness of their condition that they were in the Enemies hands their Enemies had dominion over them and took possession of their Possessions Thus you have it also in Psal 79.7 8. For they have devoured Jacob and laid waste his dwelling places O remember not against us former iniquities let thy tender mercies speedily prevent us for we are brought very low This was the lowness of their condition that their Enemies had devoured Jacob and laid waste his dwelling places But this was not our case through mercy this was not our low estate Yet again therefore Secondly A People are said to be low potentially when they are in the way to be low when they are designed and destinated to a low condition by the craft and cunning malice of wicked men who wo unto them dig deep to hide their counsell from the Lord and whose works are in the dark saying who sees us and who knows us who sit in the lurking places secretly to murder the innocent whose eyes are privily set against the poor who lie in wait secretly as a Lion in his den to catch the poor as if there were no help in their God and he were not able to deliver them out
which of the Saints shall we turn who can say of all the Sons of Jacob that God hath forgotten them did not God remember Joseph in his low estate did not God remember Israel in their low estate and did not God remember David in his low estate Nay to speak of all at once did not God remember Christ in his low estate and this day speaks for us that God hath remembred us in our low estate And indeed my beloved we may take up that Song and sing it in the 124 Psalm If it had not been the Lord who was on our side now may England say If it had not been the Lord who was on our side when men rose up against us then they had swallowed us up quick when their wrath was kindled against us then the waters had overwhelmed us the stream had gone over our Soul then the proud waters had gone over our soul 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 fowlers the snare is broken and we are escaped our help is in the Name of the Lord who made heaven and earth This may we say thus may we sing Is it not so is there a contradiction to be made against this truth Nay my beloved the case was this that if God had not been on our side we had been swallowed up quick and our not being so shews God on our side that God remembred us in our low estate I shall therefore proceed to the third thing which is the reason why God remembreth his people in their low estate that is as in the Text for his mercy endures for ever he harps only on this string he reckons up a long Catalogue of many mercies and the reason of all these is mercy only mercy the reason of one is the reason of all as I told you before there is no reason for mercy but mercy no reason for grace but grace who is gracious why because he will and to whom he will be gracious so that you see that mercy in God is all the reason of mercy from God to man in his low estate it is not mans merit but Gods mercy it is not mans due but Gods gift it is not mans demand nor was it in this case mans desire but Gods grant who many times answers before they call and when they are yet speaking he is hearing it was not mans measure but Gods allowance it was not after the manner of men who use to go over where the stile is low this was not because man could make God a requitall but because God would act like himself it was not Gods profit but mans necessity it was not that God needed man but man needed God therefore grace still is as free after it is received as it was before it was given it was not deserved and cannot be requited God therefore gave as looking for nothing again that is nothing that can requite it and you shall have for this a double witness God speaks it and Saints speak it that God shews not mercy to man because man pleaseth him but because mercy pleaseth him indeed one end that God hath in shewing mercy is that man should please him but that is not the main motive for in truth to put mans will before Gods is such an hysteron proteron that if I may use so homely an expression in so solemn a case I say it is to put the cart before the horse You shall finde God speaking Ezek. 36.21 22 23. But I had pity for my holy Name which the house of Israel had profaned among the Heathen whither they went Therefore say unto the House of Israel Thus saith the Lord God I do not this for your sakes O house of Israel but for mine holy names sake which ye have profaned among the Heathen whither ye went And I will sanctifie my great Name which was profaned among the Heathen which ye have profaned in the midst of them and the Heathen shall know that I am the Lord saith the Lord God when I shall be sanctified in you before their eyes It is a fulsom Doctrine to flesh and blood to think it must be beholding for all to grace shame and confusion belongs to man mercy belongs to God man makes work for shame and for sorrow God works mercy as never obliged to it but for his holy Names sake and Jeremiah in his Lamentations makes this acknowledgement and so confirms the witness of God in Lam. 3.21 22. This I recall to my minde therefore have I hope it is of the Lords mercies that we are not consumed because his compassions fail not If it be of the Lords mercies that we are not consumed and brought to utter desolation surely then that we are remembred and delivered is for no other reason but because his compassions fail not but his mercy endureth for ever Thus I have given you the Doctrinall part with what brevity I could I come now to the Application First then it will afford us an information Secondly Some exhortations The Information is this Doth God remember his people in their low estate O happy how happy are they then that are the People of this God! that have the Lord for their God it is not every man in generall that is thus remembred no God hath his peculiars for whom he hath his peculiar favours indeed his mercy is over all his works he is good and doth good to all but there is a specialty to the houshold of faith and God that doth command us to do good to all but especially to the houshold of faith he doth but command us that which he patterns us therefore David makes his Prayer in Psal 106.4 5. Remember me O Lord with the favour that thou bearest unto thy people O visit me with thy salvation that I may see the good of thy chosen that I may rejoyce in the gladness of thy Nation that I may glory with thine inheritance O Lord favour me with the favours c. The good of Gods chosen is a choice good and so he goes on O remember me with the favours wherewith thou remembrest thy people It is an expression in Psal 146.5 Happy is he that hath the God of Jacob for his help whose hope is in the Lord his God Why the God of Jacob because God though he be every bodies God and God of the whole Earth yet he is Jacobs God in a more peculiar manner he is the God of all the World by the opening of his hands and filling them with such blessings and he is Jacobs God by opening his heart and filling him with those blessings and so far as heart is above hand so far are heartmercies above hand-mercies and so far are Gods people more happy then other people David hath a saying in Psal 144. ver ult Happy are the people that are in such a case yea happy is that people whose God
that enough Oh no But to doe good and to communicate forget not for with such sacrifices God is well pleased as much as to say the fruit of the lips without the fruit of the hand and of the life it is nothing Pray remember it this day and for ever herein saith Christ is my father glorified when you bring forth much fruit a little fruit serves not to give glory to God herein is my father glorified when you bring forth much fruit a little is as none my father is glorified when you bring forth much And so Phil. 1.11 Be ye filled with the fruits of righteousnesse which are by Jesus Christ unto the glory and praise of God observe it not onely righteousness and fruit of righteousness but fruits of righteousness and filled with them too so that you see it is not a little that will doe it Pray remember this that your good works may so shine before men that you that doe them may glorifie God also by your lips he hath but single but by your works he hath double glory for you that doe them glorifie God and they that see them done will glorifie God O therefor give a glorious example But let me add a few things more I beseech you that your obedience may be qualified towards God as your mercy hath been qualified from God towards you how that is I will tell you presently onely this of the present mercy It was a preventing mercy to be prevented with the blessing of good is the greatest kind of mercy deliverance from evil is good but to be delivered so as not to be in evil is much more good Who will not reckon it a greater mercy alwaies to be in health then to be delivered from sickness though both are mercies in this mercy we know not a mysterie in others we have this is not like peace the joyful daughter of a sorrowful mother this is not like health after a Pestilence but this prevents all these so much the greater mercy it took away no good from us it brought no evil upon us and how great was this mercy If this mercy had not been for ought that I know many of us had not had a being or else which is worse a being not worth the having But now to the qualifications of your obedience The first qualification of your mercy was this it was free mercy it came not upon constraint it was not forc't nor wrested out of the hands of God freely you have received freely give God loves to give cheerfully and the same God loves a cheerful giver Secondly Your mercy was according to your own heart every way grateful and acceptable to you let your obedience be so to God be like David men after Gods own heart Thirdly It was seasonable mercy it was in our low estate it was when you knew not what to doe for you knew not the danger you were in So let your obedience be seasonable then 't is beautiful Fourthly It was a signal mercy digitus Dethic the finger of God was here the enemy being judge signal mercies call for signal obedience therefore be you sure to doe some singular and signal things for God to return to the Lord according to the benefits received Oh say What What answerable thing shall I return the Lord for all his benefits But again Fifthly It is a continued mercy we enjoy our mercies from that mercy to this day it is not one mercy and not more but a chain of mercy not the mercy of a day or a year but the mercy of Ages well then let us be continual in obedience let us be Christians not for a day or for a fit but Christians throughout every day in the year not onely Christians here at Church but at home in the Closet and in the shop And then again Lastly Sixthly We have superadded to this multitudes of other mercies heap upon heap he loadeth us with his benefits every day yea many a time many a time we may now say hath he saved us he is the God of all our Salvations and his mercy endureth for ever Let us then multiply obedience and be alwaies abounding in the work of the Lord Shall mercies encrease and obedience decrease God forbid Take a few provoking considerations and I have done I might draw considerations from the Author of the mercy God a God that was offended by us a God that needed us not and a God that gaines nothing by us and yet this God remembred us in our low estate that should engage us I might also draw obligations from the Objects and that is us that were not only an undeserving but an ill-deserving and are not a suteable returning People I might draw Arguments from the mercy that God remembred us in all the senses spoken of before and I might draw arguments from the season in our low estate and from the excellency of the duty of thanksgiving 't is a comely thing it makes us like the Angels whose whole employment and liturgy is to give and live praise to God And from this also I might enlarge the discoveries of the obligation that his mercy endureth for ever But onely take these four Arguments 1. It is dangerous sinning after mercy received and the greater the mercy the more danger in the sinning the greater the mercy hath been the greater the danger of sinning will be God was angry with Solomon that he turned his heart from the Lord God of Israel I but what was it that heightned this why it was this that God had appeared to him twice So saith Ezra shall we again sin after such a mercy as this such a deliverance as this What could we then expect but that God should be angry with us till he had consumed us and there should be no remnant nor escaping Ezra 9.14 O sin no more least a worse thing come unto us God knows how to fetch all his pennyworths out of us he hath Plagues yet seven times more in store if he give them vent Woe to us See Judges 10.11 14. And the Lord said unto the Children of Israel did not I deliver you from the Egyptians and from the Amorites from the Children of Ammon and from the Philistins yet ye have forsaken me and served other Gods Wherefore I will deliver you no more go and cry unto the gods which you have chosen let them save you in the time of your tribulation O this this is a sad case I will deliver you no more If we forsake God and forget God after such remarkable Salvation let me tell you that we incur this that God should say I will deliver you no more 2. Our Mercies unless we make this answerable return to God our mercies are not compleat our mercies are long a compleating a mercy is never compleat to us till we have returned the glory of it to God mercies are not perfect mercies till praises are perfect praises See that in the 40 Psalm and the beginning
will cause all my goodness that is my glory that is my Name wherein I glory to pass before thee You have been honourable and why should I not hope you will be honourable still in good works there are poor Children here before your eyes that call upon you saying Remember us in our low estate there are many Hospitals that call for this remember us in our low estate And mark I beseech you what hath the name of pure Religion and what hath the name hath the nature of it Jam. 1.27 Pure Religion and undefiled before God and the Father is this to visit the fatherless and widows in their affliction and to keep himself unspotted from the World this is the great spot of the World that it is a cruel World a World without bowels of pitie and compassion a World that remembers not them that are in a low estate Mercy is the Churches Grace and the Churches Glory and therefore I beseech you that you will remember as occasion offers and when you are going out of these doors forget not these words Remember the poor There is nothing more unbecomming a people that have received mercy then to be hard hearted not to have bowels of mercie it is to put a blot on our own enjoyments and to be wanting to that which we proclaim with joy and triumph this day Oh love and pitie them that are in a low estate remembring that you your selves were sometimes low such were some of you Thou shalt saith God Deut. 10.19 Love the stranger for you were strangers in the house of Egypt and ye know the heart of a stranger Exod. 23.9 You have had experience what a sad and disconsolate heart attends a low estate let therefore the brother of a low degree rejoyce that he is exalted Jam. 1.9 yet so as to condiscend to men of low estate Rom. 12.16 we seldome forget God or man in our high estate but it may be said as Ezek. 16.22 in all thine abominations thou hast not remembred the daies of thy youth when thou wast naked and bare in a low estate It was the brand that Gallio lay under when the Saints were persecuted that he cared not for these things O it is a sad brand a very black character when it may be said of men that they do not care for these things But again Thirdly Doth God remember his people in their low estate O then let his People remember him in their high estate he hath set you on high O now remember him in your high estate it is but equal that if God remember us when we are low that we should remember God when we are high To sin against the deliverances of God and a God of deliverance too is double iniquity and yet it is mans great vanity and unhappiness that he is seldome more apt to forget God at any time then then when he hath most cause to remember him when he hath mercy before his eye yet then to forget a God see this Deut. 32.15 Of the rock that begat thee thou art unmindful and hast forgotten God that formed thee This was the sin of Jesurum he grew fat how why God fed him not with course fare not with brown bread and water but with dainties he fed him with Butter of Kine and Milk of Sheep with fat of Lambs and Rams of the breed of Bashan with Goats and with the fat of the Kidneys of Wheat and for his drink he had the pure blood of the grape and what then why then he kicked and forsook the God that made him God fed him and then he forsook him O strange One would think that then he should have rememberd him I but he then forsook God lightly esteemed the rock of his Salvation and so you shall see Hos 13.6 It is there laid to the charge of Ephraim saith he they were filled and as they were filled their hearts were exalted therefore they have forgotten me alas therefore they forgot what because God filled them no but yet then they were exalted and therefore they forgot God who filled their hand with good and their bellies with his hid treasure My beloved you see Times of enjoyment though most desirable to us are most dangerous to us times of fulness though most pleasing to us are too too often made by us most displeasing to God that that should be the day of all daies is strange therefore we have an exhortation given us Deut. 6.10 11 12. And it shall be when the Lord thy God shall have brought thee into the Land which he sware unto thy fathers to Abraham to Isaac and to Jacob to give thee great and goodly Cities which thou buildedst not and houses full of all things which thou filledst not and wells digged which thou diggedst not vineyards and Olive trees which thou plantedst not when thou shalt have eaten and be full then beware lest thou forget the Lord which brought thee forth out of the Land of Egypt from the house of bondage there is not such another time of danger as the full time Hence it was that holy Job was jealous of his children lest they were evil in a good day lest at the time of feasting they should curse God Man seldom turns his back more upon God then when he hath the greatest obligations even before his eyes to keep him close to God O therefore remember this that mercies are not given onely for us to use to our comfort but they are given for us to improve for Gods glory The Greaks have two expressions to set out riches by the one 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 things had or things in possession the other 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 things used or things improved now 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 they account the best which is things used it is the improvement of mercy that makes mercy a mercy indeed Hath God delivered us out of the hands of our enemies that we should commit abomination no but that we should serve him with holinesse all the daies of our lives if not what can we expect but that he should take away our mercies from us and remember us no more O therefore take heed that you do not while you are eating and drinking in remembrance of God that you do not forget God It is but too common that eating and drinking takes away mens stomachs as to spiritual things T is very sad that mercies which are given us to indear God to us that we might love him the more and serve him the better should be so abused by us as to love him the less and serve him the worse that we should take the corn and the wine and the oyle the silver and gold which God gives us and prepare them for Baal as they did Hos 2.8 and they Ezek. 16 17-21 But now what will you have us to doe you will say Why First Take notice not onely of the mercies of God but of God in the mercies not only of the deliverance
but of God in the deliverance for a deliverance is nothing so sweet as when the soul tasts God in it mercies are never so savory as when they savour of a Saviour study then not only the mercy but the God of mercy This did Jacob when his brother Esau asked him Whose are all these why saith he the Children that the Lord hath graciously given thy servant Gen. 33.5 mark it not only children or children which God hath given but children which God hath graciously given And so Samuel you find him 1 Sam. 7.12 not only taking notice of the mercy but of God in the mercy hitherto the Lord hath helped to have the help without God is to have help without a blessing and they that do not see God in it they have but half-mercy they have but the body of mercy to tast God in it and to enjoy God in it that is the mercy of the mercy So that in Num. 23. v. 23. Surely there is no inchantment against Jacob neither is there any divination against Israel according to this time it shall be said of Jacob and of Israel what hath God wrought Jacob and Israel shall not say loe what is wrought but what hath God wrought 't is the Lords doeing and therefore marvellous in our eyes we shall not look upon mercy as marvellous sweet and precious unless we see it is the Lords doing God remembred us saith David But again Secondly Do not onely take notice of God in mercy but as David doth here keep catalogues of the mercies of God Gods mercies are not to be forgotten you will remember the kindnesses of your friend all his favours and tokens you will keep your Books of account wherein all your debts shall be entered that they may be remembred and shall God be forgotten Memory is a slippery thing and many times le ts go quickly therefore did God command Israel to write down their deliverances they had not onely a table for Commands but a table for Salvations also for that that is written will abide littera scripta manet and records brings that to mind which else would not be thought upon by us as Mordecai was remembred by Ahasuerus God hath a Book of remembrance written for what you do and will not you have a Book of remembrance written for what he doth God hath it upon record you have not a good thought but God writes it down you shed not a tear but God bottles it up you make not a prayer but God puts it in his Book of remembrance now shall God do so for you not that God hath a weak memory but it is for your consolation and will not you write down his mercies You know you dare not trust your memories for your debters or your debts O my beloved will you commit every thing to Book but Gods dealings you can by your Book tell how much such a one owes you and that such a one is so much in your debt such a time so much and such a time so much but can you doe so by Gods dealings to you that such a time such a deliverance and such a time such a remarkable mercy Oh let a Book of remembrance be written But again Thirdly Lay to heart the mercy of God If it be written in a book and not in the heart it will have but little impression and therefore 't is commanded in the Scripture Deut. 4.9 Take heed to thy self and keep thy soul diligently least thou forget the things which thine eyes have seen and mark this least they depart from thine heart as if he had said let not thine heart forget as if the best memorie lay in the heart therefore saith he let not thy heart forget the sense of mercy is the best memory I and beloved let me tell you this mercy then works sweetly when it works inwardly when it doth not onely affect the eye and the ear but the heart Moreover you will not be able to give glory to God if you lay not mercies to heart Mal. 2. v. 2. If ye will not hear and ye will not lay it to heart to give glory unto my Name saith the Lord of Hosts I will even send a curse upon you and I will curse your blessings yea I have cursed them already because you do not lay it to heart all else will be nothing if you do not lay it to heart you cannot give glory to God But again Fourthly Give thanks unto the Lord who remembred us in our low estate this the very Text calls upon us for and let the redeemed of the Lord say and do so whom he hath redeemed from the hand of the enemy Psal 107.2 You may please to observe that in Scripture God hath these three Titles the Hope of Israel the Saviour of Israel and the Glory of Israel pray who was your Hope was not God who was your Saviour was not God pray then who shall be your Glory shall not God If we have had our mercies from God shall not God have our thanks The streames in this World the rivers of Water do all pay their tribute to the Fountain they come from the Sea and thither they go again All the world teacheth us to be true tributaries to God doth not all come from God by the same reason all ought to go to him for saith the Text of whom and to whom are all things de facto all is of him and de jure all ought to be to him First then Let me beseech you to give him the the calves of your lips let your glory awake and give glory to God the tongue of man is called his glory my heart is glad and my glory rejoyceth saith David Psal 16.9 And saith the Apostle Acts 2.26 my heart is glad and my tongue rejoyceth that which David calls glory Peter from the Septuagint calls tongue So in many places the tongue of man is called his glory and wherein in nothing but in glorifying God in any thing else it is his shame but in this that it speaks to the praise of God 't is the glory of man if man at any time say to God open my lips my mouth shall shew forth thy praise and this is required from us in Heb. 13.15 By him therefore let us offer the sacrifice of praise to God continually that is the fruit of our lips giving thanks to his Name God doth not think the fruits of our lips small things Why hast thou a tongue but to speak to the praise of God why hast thou lips but to give fruit to God And then Secondly Give thanks to God by the fruit of you lives the calves of your lips if they go alone are poor perishing calves thanks living is the best thanksgiving that can be therefore you shall find in Heb. 13.15 16. By him therefore let us offer the sacrifice of praise to God continually that is the fruit of our lips giving thanks to his Name and is that all is