mercy is great unto the heavens and thy faithfulness reacheth unto the clouds and Remember the marvellous works that he hath done his wonders and the judgments of his mouth He is the Lord our God his judgements are in all the earth and again Thy mercy O Lord is in the heavens thy faithfulness reacheth unto the clouds Thy righteousness is like the great mountains thy judgments are a great deep O Lord thou preservest man and beast How excellent is thy loving-kindness O God! and How precious are thy thoughts unto me O Lord O how great is the sum of them If I should count them they are more in number then the sand and again His work is honourable and glorious his righteousness endureth for ever and The Lord is good to all and his tender mercies are over all his works and Blessed be the Lord who daily loadeth us with his benefits In such manner ought we diligently to survey and judiciously to estimate the effects of Divine beneficence examining every part and descanting upon every circumstance thereof like those that contemplate some rare beauty or some excellent picture some commending the exact proportions some the gracefull features some the lively colours discernible therein There is not the least of the Divine favours which if we consider the condescensive tenderness the clear intention the undeserved frankness the chearfull debonairity expressed therein hath not dimensions larger then our comprehension colours too fair and lineaments too comely for our weak sight thoroughly to discern requiring therefore our highest esteem and our utmost thanks 'T is perhaps somewhat dangerous to affix a determinate value upon any of God's Benefits for to value them seems to undervalue them they being really inestimable what then is it to extenuate to vilifie to despise the greatest We should esteem them as we measure the Heavens with our eye as we compute the sands upon the shore as we would prize inexhaustible mines of gold and treasures of pearl that is by confessing heartily their worth surpasses the strength of our imagination to conceive and of our speech to utter that they are immense innumerable unconceivable and unexpressible But still 4. Giving thanks imports that Benefits be received with a willing mind a hearty sense a vehement affection The forementioned particulars are indeed necessary properties inseparable concomitants or prerequisite conditions to but a chearfull and cordial acceptance of Benefits is the form as it were and soul the life and spirit the principal and most essential ingredient of this Duty It was not altogether unreasonable though it went for a Paradox that dictate of the Stoicks That animus sufficit animo and That qui libenter accepit beneficium reddidit that he who with a willing and well-affected mind receives a courtesie hath fully discharged the duty of Gratitude that other endeavours of return and compensation are rather handsome accessions to it then indispensably requisite to the completion thereof For as in the Collation 't is not the gold or the silver the food or the apparel in which the Benefit consists but the will and benevolent intention of him that bestows them so reciprocally 't is the good acceptance the sensibleness of and acquiescence in the Benefactour's goodness that constitutes the Gratitude which who affords though he be never capable of yielding other satisfaction voluntate voluntati satisfecit and Regum aequavit opes animo 'T is ingenuity that constitutes respectively both a bountifull Giver and a thankfull Receiver A truly-noble Benefactour purely aimeth at not any material reward or advantage to himself it were trading this not beneficence but the good profit and content of him to whom he dispenseth his favour of which being assured he rests satisfied aud accounts himself royally recompensed Such a Benefactour is Almighty God and such a tribute he requires of us a ready embracement of and a joyfull complacency in his kindness even such as he expressed who said Because thy loving-kindness is better then life my lips shall praise thee and My soul shall be filled as with marrow and fatness and my mouth shall praise thee with joyfull lips and I will praise thee with my whole heart I will be glad and rejoyce in thee and Bless the Lord O my soul and all that is within me praise his holy Name No Holocaust is so acceptable to God as a Heart enflamed with the sense of his Goodness He loves not onely 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a merry giver but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a chearfull receiver also He would have us as to desire his favour with a greedy appetite so to tast it with a savoury relish He designs not onely to fill our mouths with food but our hearts also with gladness We must not seem to grudge or repine to murmur or disdain that we are necessitated to be beholden to him lest it happen to us as it did to them of whom 't is said While the meat was yet in their mouths the wrath of God came upon them and slew the fattest of them Yea 't is our duty not to be contented onely but to be delighted to be transported to be ravished with the emanations of his love to entertain them with such a disposition of mind as the dry and parched ground imbibes the soft dew and gentle showrs as the chill and darksome air admits the benign influences of heavenly light as the thirsty soul takes in the sweet and cooling stream He that with a sullen look a dead heart a faint sense a cold hand embraces the gifts of Heaven is really unthankfull though with deluges of wine and oil he makes the altars to o'reflow and clouds the sky with the steam of his sacrifices But yet farther 5. This Duty requires due Acknowledgment of our obligation significations of our notice declarations of our esteem and good acceptance of favours conferr'd 'T is the worst and most detestable of ingratitudes that which proceeds from pride and scorn and such is he guilty of who is either unwilling or ashamed to confess himself obliged who purposely dissembles a Benefit or disavows the Benefactour who refuses to render those most manifestly due and most easily discharged those neither toilsome nor expensive oblations of praise and acknowledgment This part of our duty requires that we offer to God not costly Hecatombs but the calves onely of our lips as the Prophet Hoseah speaks not the fruit of our hands but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 onely as the Apostle to the Hebrews styles it the fruit of our lips confessing to his name that we employ some few blasts of the breath he gave us on the celebration of his goodness and advancement of his repute I will praise the name of God with a song and will magnifie him with thanksgiving This shall please the Lord better then an oxe or bullock that hath horns and hoofs saith David And surely 't is
Doctrine for reducing Charity and Peace for reviving the spirit of Piety and bringing Vertue again into request for preserving State and Church from ruine we can have no confidence or reasonable hope but in the good Providence and merciful succour of Almighty God beside whom there is no Saviour who alone is the hope of Israel and Saviour thereof in time of trouble we now having great cause to pray with our Lord's Disciples in the storm Lord save us we perish Upon such Considerations and others whereof I suppose you are sufficiently apprehensive we now especially are obliged earnestly to pray for our King that God in mercy would preserve his Royal Person and inspire his Mind with Light and endue his Heart with Grace and in all things bless him to us to be a repairer of our breaches and a restorer of paths to dwell in so that under him we may lead a quiet life in all godliness and honesty I have done with the First Duty Prayer for Kings upon which I have the rather so largely insisted because it is very seasonable to our present condition II. The Other Thanksgiving I shall but touch and need not perhaps to do more For 1. As to general Inducements they are the same or very like to those which are for Prayer it being plain that what-ever we are concerned to pray for when we want it that we are bound to thank God for when he vouchsafeth to bestow it And if common Charity should dispose us to resent the Good of Princes with complacence if their Welfare be a publick benefit if our selves are interested in it and partake great advantages thereby if in equity and ingenuity we are bound to seek it then surely we are much engaged to thank God the bountiful Donour of it for his goodness in conferring it 2. As for particular Motives suting the present Occasion I need not by information or impression of them farther to stretch your patience seeing you cannot be ignorant or insensible of the grand Benefits by the Divine Goodness bestowed on our King and on our selves which this day we are bound with all grateful acknowledgment to commemorate Wherefore in stead of reciting trite stories and urging obvious reasons which a small recollection will suggest to you I shall only request you to joyn with me in the practice of the Duty and in acclamation of praise to God Even so Blessed be God who hath given to us so Gracious and Benign a Prince the experiments of whose Clemency and Goodness no History can parallel to sit on the throne of his Blessed Father and renowned Ancestours Blessed be God who hath protected him in so many encounters hath saved him from so many dangers and snares hath delivered him from so great troubles Blessed be God who in so wonderful a manner by such miraculous trains of Providence did reduce him to his Country and re-instate him in the possession of his Rights thereby vindicating his own just Providence declaring his salvation and openly shewing his righteousness in the sight of all people Blessed be God who in Him and with Him did restore to us our antient good constitution of Government our Laws and Liberties our Peace and Quiet rescuing us from lawless Usurpations and tyrannical Yoaks from the insultings of Errour and Iniquity from horrible Distractions and Confusions Ever blessed be God who hath turned the captivity of Sion hath raised our Church from the dust and re-established the sound Doctrine the decent Order the wholsome Discipline thereof hath restored true Religion with its supports advantages and encouragements Blessed be the Lord who hath granted us to continue these sixteen years in the peaceable fruition of those Blessings Praised be God who hath not cast out our prayer nor turned his mercy from us Praised be God who hath turned our heaviness into joy hath put off our sackcloath and girded us with gladness Let our mouth speak the praise of the Lord and let all flesh bless his holy Name for ever and ever The Lord liveth and blessed be our Rock and let the God of our salvation be exalted Blessed be the Lord God of Israel who onely doeth wondrous things and blessed be his glorious Name for ever and let the whole earth be filled with his glory Amen and Amen Blessed be the Lord God of Israel from everlasting to everlasting and let all the people say Amen Praise ye the Lord. The Eleventh Sermon PSAL. 64. 9 10. And all men shall fear and shall declare the work of God for they shall wisely consider of his doing The righteous shall be glad in the Lord and shall trust in him and all the upright in heart shall glory IF we should search about for a Case parallel to that which we do now commemorate we should perhaps hardly find one more patly such then is that which is implied in this Psalm and if we would know the Duties incumbent on us in reference to such an Occasion we could scarce better learn them other-where then in our Text. With attention perusing the Psalm we may therein observe That its great Authour was apprehensive of a desperate Plot by a confederacy of wicked and spitefull enemies with great craft and secrecy contrived against his safety They saith he encourage themselves in an evil matter they commune of laying snares privily they say who shall see them That for preventing the blow threatned by this design whereof he had some glimpse or some presumption grounded upon the knowledge of their implacable and active malice he doth implore Divine protection Hide me saith he from the secret counsel of the wicked from the insurrection of the workers of iniquity That he did conside in God's Mercy and Justice for the seasonable defeating for the fit avenging their machination God saith he shall shoot at them with an arrow suddenly shall they be wounded That they should themselves become the detectours of their crime and the instruments of the exemplary punishment due thereunto They added he shall make their own tongue to fall upon themselves all that see them shall flee away Such was the Case the which unto what passage in the history it doth relate or whether it belongeth to any we have recorded it may not be easie to determine Expositours commonly do refer it to the designs of Saul upon David's life But this seeming purely conjecture not founded upon any express words or pregnant intimations in the text I shall leave that inquiry in its own uncertainty It sufficeth to make good its pertinency that there was such a mischievous Conspiracy deeply projected against David a very great personage in whose safety the publick state of God's people was principally concerned he being then King of Israel at least in designation and therefore in the precedent Psalm endited in Saul's time is so styled from the peril whereof he by the special Providence of
shall then be seated upon unmovable Thrones their heads encircled with unfading Crowns their faces shining with rays of unconceivable Glory and majesty The less of Honour they have received here in this transitory moment of life the more thereof they shall enjoy in that future eternal state where with him who through the whole course of his life sought not his own honour but the honour of him that sent him who for the suffering of death was crowned with glory and honour who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross despising the shame and is set at the right hand of God with those who consecrated all their endeavours and who sacrificed their lives to the promoting of God's Honour they shall possess everlasting glory Which together with them God Almighty of his infinite mercy grant unto us all through Jesus Christ our Lord to whom with God the Father and God the Holy Ghost be for ever all Honour and Praise Amen The Fifth Sermon PROV 10. 9. He that walketh uprightly walketh surely THE world is much addicted to the Politicks the heads of men are very busie in contrivance and their mouths are full of talk about the ways of consulting our safety and securing our interests May we not therefore presume that an infallible Maxim of Policy proposing the most expedite and certain method of security in all our transactions will be entertained with acceptance Such an one the greatest Politician and wisest man for business if we may take God's own word for it that ever was or will be doth here suggest to us For the practice couched in our Text he otherwhere voucheth for a point of Policy telling us that A man of understanding walketh uprightly and here he recommendeth it as a method of Security He that walketh uprightly walketh surely Treating upon which Aphorism I shall by God's help endeavour first in way of Explication briefly to describe the practice it self then in way of Proof by some Considerations to declare that Security doth attend it For Explication To walk as well in the style of Holy Scripture as in other Writings and even in common speech doth signifie our usual course of dealing or the constant tenour of our practice Uprightly according to the original might be rendred in perfection or with integrity And by the Greek Translatours in several places is supposed chiefly to denote Sincerity and Purity of intention In effect the Phrase He that walketh uprightly doth import One who is constantly disposed in his designs and dealings to bear a principal regard to the rules of his Duty and the dictates of his Conscience who in every case emergent is ready to perform that which upon good deliberation doth appear most just and fit in conformity to God's Law and sound Reason without being swayed by any appetite any passion any sinister respect to his own private interest of profit credit or pleasure to the commission of any unlawfull irregular unworthy or base act who generally doth act out of good principles namely reverence to God charity to men sober regard to his own true welfare who doth aim at good ends that is at God's honour publick benefit his own Salvation other good things subordinate to those or well consistent with them who doth prosecute his designs by lawfull means in fair ways such as honest providence and industry veracity and fidelity dependence upon God's help and prayer for his blessing In short One who never advisedly doth undertake any bad thing nor any good thing to ill purposes nor doth use any foul means to compass his intents For Proof That such an one doth ever proceed with much security from the following Considerations may appear I. An upright walker is secure of easily finding his way For it commonly requireth no reach of wit or depth of judgment no laborious diligence of enquiry no curious intentness of observation no solicitous care or plodding study to discern in any case what is just we need not much trouble our heads about it for we can hardly be to seek for it If we will but open our eyes it lieth in view before us being the plain straight obvious road which common Reason prompteth or which ordinary Instruction pointeth out to us so that usually that direction of Solomon is sufficient Let thine eyes look right on and let thine eye-lids look straight before thee Turn not to the right hand nor to the left The ways of iniquity and vanity if we may call them ways which indeed are but exorbitancies and seductions from the way ill designs and bad means of executing designs are very unintelligible very obscure abstruse and intricate being infinitely various and utterly uncertain so that out of them to pick and fix â—n this or that may puzzle our headâ— and perplex our hearts as to pursue any of them may involve us in great difficulty and trouble But the ways of Truth of Right of Vertue are so very simple and uniform so fixed and permanent so clear and notorious that we can hardly miss them or except wilfully swarve from them For they by Divine wisedom were chalked out not onely for ingenious and subtle persons men of great parts of refined wits of long experience but rather for the vulgar community of men the great Body of God's subjects consisting in persons of meanest capacity and smallest improvement being designed to make wise the simple to give the young man knowledge and discretion to direct all sorts of people in their duty toward their happiness according to that in the Prophet A high way shall be there and it shall be called the way of Holiness the wayfaring-man though fools shall not erre therein They are in very legible characters graven by the finger of God upon our hearts and consciences so that by any considerate reflexion inwards we may easily reade them or they are extant in God's Word there written as with a Sun-beam so perspicuously expressed so frequently inculcated that without gross negligence or strange dulness we cannot but descry them For who with half an eye may not see that the practice of pious love and reverence toward God of entire justice and charity toward our neighbour of sober temperance and purity toward our selves is approved by Reason is prescribed by God to us Hence in the Holy Scripture as bad ways are called dark crooked rough slippery ways so the good ways are said to be clear plain direct even ways The path of the just say they is as a shining light All the words of my mouth are plain to him that understandeth or that considereth them My foot standeth in an even place The Law of his God is in his heart none of his steps shall slide Hence it is affirmed that an upright man doth hardly need any conduct beside his own honesty For The integrity saith Solomon of the upright shall guide them and The righteousness of