doth it gratis or undeserved As the Lord is righteous in all he doth against wicked men so he is gracious in all that he doth for the holyest of the sons of men yea he saveth them graciously not onely without their deservings but though they are very ill deserving Thus he proclaimes and entitles himselfe Exod. 34. 6. The Lord The Lord mercifull and gracious long suffering and aboundant in goodnesse and truth keeping mercy for thousands forgiving iniquity transgression and sin Here are a multitude of royall titles reckoned up in this proclamation yet the sum and substance of all may be collected and resolved into this one The Lord is gracious Surely then we ought to proclaime his praise in this title also The adverb of this word is often used in Scripture to note injuries received without cause or desert Thus David complains to God of his enemies Psal 35. 7. Without cause have they hid for me their net in a pâ—t which without cause they have digged for my soule And againe Psal 7. 4. I have delivered him that without cause is mine enemy or that is mine enemy gratis I never gave any cause in this world why Saul whom he calls at the head of the Psalm Cush the Benjamite should be mine enemy yet he is so And when men or nations make war upon us wrongfully or having been offered peace and friendship upon just and righteous tearms shall refuse and so become our enemies gratis without any just cause given them then usually the Lord doth arise to destroy enemies and help his own people gratis though they have given him no cause but are exceeding unworthy to receive any such help and mark of honour at his hands yea though they have provoked him as the Prophet speaks Amos 5. 12. by their mighty sins to sell them for nought Psal 44. 12. and to deliver them up into the hand of their enemies that they might satisfie their lust upon them This I find specially taken notice of in the Order published for this day of thanksgiving in thesewords The eminency of this mercy of God in weakning the common enemy of Religion and in encouraging and strengthning the hands of his servants in a vigorous prosecution of this engagement is much heightned by the freenesse of it being extended to us a froward unbelieving and unthankefull people who had just cause rather to expect from the Lord a renewing of his stroaks and to be still kept under his rebukes then that he should returne to us in loving kindnesse and tender mercy as he hath done in this late dispensation Now seing the Lord hath been thus gracious and favourable to us let me presse it once more O praise him for his graciousnesse That 's the proper cry of Saints When the great mountaine becomes a plain before Zerubbabel then he shall bring forth the head stone thereof with shoutings and cry grace grace to it Zech. 4. 7. that is The grace or free favour of God hath done it and the same grace and free favour will maintaine it And if the Lord shall make that Great mountaine the greatest mountaine of any state in the Christian world with which his people in these Nations are now contending by war to become a plaine before our Zerubbabel and before his helpers and assistants all the lines of our duty in praising him must center in this shout or cry grace grace And let it be the shout and cry of this day The Lord is gracious The Lord is gracious in what he hath done His favour not our force or strength hath obtained this great victory Yet that 's not all the Lord hath not onely saved us graciously but which is added in the text he hath saved us compassionately He is gracious and full of compassion The word signifies such kind of affections as parents have when their bowells are stirred toward their children seing them in any extremity or imminent danger 1 Kings 3. 26. when the true mother saw her child ready to be divided according to the award given by Solomon Her bowells saith the text yerned upon her son Compassion is an affection which besides love takes griefe into the composition of it such griefe as is full of simpathy or fellow feeling of the evill or misery which lyeth upon the party beloved Thus when the Lord seeth the Powers and Princes of this world ready to divide and devour his children who are dear to him as the apple of his eye his bowells are stirred and his compassions are kindled together And surely the Lord hath been touched and grieved with our affliction seing how we were in danger to be divided yea to be destroyed The Lord seems in this providence to speak to us as he did to Moses in the bush In seeing I have seen or I have surely seen the afflictions of my people and I know their sorrows as to this undertaking and I have helped them in pure compassion The Lord seems to say I have surely seen the anguish of some of their soules lest this buisnesse should miscarry I have seen how they have beene burthened as with the difficulty so with the costlines of this worke and I have had compassion on them I have surely seen by envy and discontents of many at home concerning it as also the pride and scorne of more abroad even saying as they of old what will they build in a day conquer nations in a day swallow up the world at once yea the Lord seems to say I have surely seen I have heard what strange constructions and interpretations have been made of former disappointments and delayes of success in this engagement yea I have surely seen how some would have rejoyced and triumphed at further with-drawings and disappointments And having seen all this my compassions are moved towards them and I am come forth for their help O praise the Lord who is full of Compassion He hath remembred us in our low estate for his mercy endureth for ever The third particular in the text for which we are to praise the Lord is his faithfulnesse of which David speaks in the close of the fifth verse He will ever be mindfull of his Covenant The Covenant of God is the collection or coalition of all his promises into this one which is the center in which their severall lines meet and upon which they move I will be their God and they shall be my people The Covenant of God is our title to God by that we claime him ours and if God be ours all is ours by that he hath given up himselfe to us and takes us up to himselfe Wee should praise the Lord. First For making such a Covenant Psal 56. 4. In God I will praise his word that is the word of his Covenant There 's our Treasure That 's our magazin Secondly We should praise him more for minding of it He is mindfull of his Covenant saith the text And that mindfulnesse of God hath two things in it First
A SERMON Pressing to and Directing in that Great Duty of Praising God Preached to the PARLIAMENT At Westminster Octob 8. 1656. BEING The day of their Solemn Thanksgiving to God for that late Successe given to some part of the Fleet of this Common-wealth against the Spanish Fleet in its return from the West Indies By JOSEPH CARYL Minister of the Gospel at Magnus near London Bridge LONDON Printed by M. Simmons and are to be sould by John Hancock at the first Shop in Popes-head-Alley next to Cornhill 1657. Thursday Octob 9. 1656. ORdered That the thanks of this House be given to Mr. Caryll for his great pains taken yesterday in his Sermon preached before this House in Margarets Westminster being a day set apart for publick Thanksgiving and that he be desired to Print his Sermon and that he have the like priviledge of Printing as hath been allowed to others in like Cases And that the Lord Broghill be desired to give him the thanks of this house accordingly Hen Scobell Clerk of the Parliament TO THE PARLIAMENT OF England Scotland Ireland AND The Dominions thereunto belonging THese are times of Action as well as of Consulation and this hath been your happinesse that while you have been consulting how to settle and assure as an earthly felicity may be called sure peace and Government at home God hath prospered those with a very signall successe who are acting in a war abroad And though successe be no infallible argument of a good cause yet a good cause receives a very comfortable encouragement by successe And as a neglect to goe on in doing good is not excusable even while we find that the good we are doing doth not goe on So when it doth our neglect is altogether inexcusable When God seems to stand still or as the Scripture sometimes saith to be a sleep 't is our duty to awake and work how much more when he appears eminently awake and at work for us 'T is not good to out-run providence and 't is as bad to loyter and lagge behind it The Arme of the Lord as the Prophet long since prayd hard it might Isa 51. 9. hath lately awakened for us The occasion of this Sermon is his witnesse it hath awakened and put on strength as in the ancient dayes in the generations of old it hath cut Rahab and wonded the Dragon in the Sea It hath broken some of the heads of Leviathan in peices and given him to be meat to his people inhabiting the wildernesse Psal 74. 14. And is not all this bottome enough for me to cry Awake Awake O arme of man O arme of the Parliament put on strength and be cloathed with a holy care courage for God and for his people though as yet but in a wildernes condition wherein we are much entangled with bryars and thornes and sometimes engaged in unbeaten paths many thousands will bear this witnesse with me that it is And my hearts desire and prayer to God for you is That your Counsels both in reference to this particular mercy for which you have so solemnly given thanks to God as also in reference to all those important affairs of these Nations that are in your hands may bear this witnesse also Else I must take the boldnes with much submission to say That your own Thanksgivings will give witnesse against you 'T is an act of high favour from God to bestow a mercy and 't is an act of much grace and faithfulnesse in man to improve it 'T is easier perishing for want of help from God then for want of a heart for God 'T is better to be in such streights that we know not what to doe then to make such little use of our enlargements as not to doe what we know And what an Obligation is there upon these three Nations and upon your Selves especially who are the representative of them to be more then active even very zealous for the publick good seing we daily find Sons of Beliall rising up who are active to the utmost against it T is honorable to imitate their industry whose undertakings we abhor and that their zeal in a bad matter should provoke ours in a good As therefore the Nations have reason to pay you many thanks for your unwearied labours and the issues of them to this day So the Lord give you to encrease more and more A good man may be weary in well doing but he shall never be weary of it And it should mightyly uphold our spirits not to be as the Apostle admonisheth the Galatians Chap 6. 9. weary in well doing because as it follows there we shall reap if we faint not That you may sow without fainting and reap with rejoycing is the vote of SIRS Your most humble Servant in this work of the Lord JOSEPH CARYL A SERMON Pressing to and Directing in that great Duty OF Praising GOD. PSALM 111. 1 2 3 4 5. Praise ye the Lord I will praise the Lord with my whole heart in the assembly of the upright and in the congregation The works of the Lord are great sought out of all them that have pleasure therein His work is honourable and glorious and his righteousnesse endureth for ever He hath made his wonderfull works to be remembred the Lord is gracious and full of compassion He hath given meat unto them that fear him he will ever be mindfull of his Covenant THIS Psalm is King Davids order for a day of Thanksgiving In which we may consider four things First the matter of the duty Secondly the encouragement to the duty Thirdly the manner and qualifications of the duty Fourthly the grounds of the duty The matter of the duty is laid down in the first words of the first verse Hallelujah praise ye the Lord. And lest any should think that their chiefe Magistrate invited them to a duty which he had no mind to himselfe he adds Secondly his own leading example in the next words for their encouragement I will praise the Lord. As if he had said I will not call you to this duty and withdraw from it my selfe my purpose is to bear a part and joyn with you in it 'T is a beautifull and blessed thing to see those who give the rule to be the example of it Praise ye the Lord saith David to the people I will praise the Lord. As he gives both the rule and the example of the duty so Thirdly the manner of it in a twofold qualification and that also from his own example in the same verse First He would praise the Lord not formally not because it was a custome to doe so when fresh mercies came in But because he loved to doe so for saith he I will praise the Lord with my whole heart that is I will praise him heartily and most affectionately There 's the first poynt in the manner Secondly he tells us that he would doe it very openly he would not be ashamed to praise God he would not doe it
in a corner Though he would doe it with all his heart yet he would not doe it onely in his heart but saith he I will praise him in the assembly of the upright Nor is that all he would doe it yet more openly I will praise him in the congregation I will praise him not onely in the assembly of the upright or in a meeting of some choice select ones but among good and bad even in the mixed multitude As if he had said As the Lord hath owned me and my cause and my people in the eye of all the world by his signall mercies so also will I own the Lord with signall praises Fourthly we have here the grounds of the duty And these are twofold or of two sorts First his experience of what the Lord had already done for him and his people Secondly his assurance of what the Lord was to them and would further be to and do for them The first sort of grounds upon which David gave order for a day of Thansgiving or the experience of what God had done is set down under four distinct adjuncts or attributes of his works 1. The Lord had not done small matters for them The works of the Lord are great at the second verse 2. The Lord had not done some obscure thing for them His work is honourable and glorious at the third verse 3. The Lord had not done some ordinary and common work for them His workes are wonderfull at the fourth verse 4. The Lord had not done some unprofitable wonders for them his work was beneficiall and advantagious He hath given meat to them that fear him at the fifth verse These are the four characters of the Lords works He had done great and honorable and wonderfull beneficial things for them and were not all these enough to cal up their hearts to the high to the highest praises of God All these make the first ground of Davids order for Thanksgiving The second ground of his order ariseth from the assurance of what God was to them and would further be to and do for them This is set forrh in three particulars 1. Praise the Lord for we have this assurance of him he is righteous and will be righteous His righteousness endureth for ever v. 3. 2. Praise the Lord for we have this assurance of him He is gracious and full of compassion v. 4. 3. Praise the Lord for we have this assurance of him He is faithfull and will be faithfull alwayes He will ever be mindfull of his Covenant v. 5 I am fallen upon a very rich mine of holy truths here 's that which is precious and here 's plenty of it greater plenty of precious and golden Oare then I shall be able to mint and stamp out into particulars at this time and therefore I purpose to propose but one generall point of duty from this large text and draw all the particulars of it together in a way of application for our better improvement of the occasion of this great and Holy Solemnity The point is plainly this It is our duty to pay the Lord speciall praises when he is pleased to bestow upon us speciall and remarkable mercies or speciall praises are due to the Lord for speciall mercies Here is speciall and speciall I expresse it so because to praise God is every days duty Thus the Apostle directs 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 But though praise be an every days work yet there is a day of specialty in prasing God For as it is our duty to pray continually to continue in prayer Col. 4. 2. yea to pray without ceasing 1 Thes 5. 17. yet there are some speciall seasons for prayer or peculiar praying times Call upon me in the day of trouble Psal 50. 15. And we have the same rule James 5. 13. Is any among you afflicted let him pray T is both our duty and our interest to pray though we are not afflicted but the duty of prayer is most incumbent upon us in affliction Trouble drives us to God and God only can drive away our troubles Again it is our duty to repent continually yet there are some speciall seasons for repentance as when we have fallen into great sinâ— or when we are under the fear of great calamities Isa 22. 12. And in that day a day of common danger did the Lord God oâ— Hosts call to weeping and mourning and to baldness and to girding with sack cloath all which are the most significant acts of repentance and soul humilition before the Lord. So I say though to give thanks be every days duty and that upon a threefold consideration First because every day we receive new mercies and have our former mercies renewed Secondly because every mercy is a witnesse of the goodnesse of God to us and of his power put out for us Thirdly because every the least mercy is more then we have either deserved at Gods hand or could get alone with our own hand and therefore we are bound by this threefold cord to praise the Lord every day yet upon some dayes we are bound more to praise him and that upon a fourfold consideration First Some speciall mercies shew forth more of God then our every days mercies doe more of the power more of the wisdome more of the love more of the mercy and goodnesse of God is stampt and imprest upon them then upon many other mercies Now the more of God appears in any mercy the more and the lowder it cals us to this duty of praising him The least appearance of God is praise worthy His great appearances are infinitely more then worthy of our greatest praises Secondly We have more urgent need of some mercys then of others Some are onely accessary mercies others are extreamly necessary Some concerne only the well being or bettering of our estate others the very being of it Some are only ornamental mercies others are substantiall some respect only the honour and flourishing condition of our affaires others the very life and subsistence of them they are such as we know not how to spare nor what to doe without them such speciall mercies urge us unavoydably to speciall praises Thirdly For some mercies the Lord hath been more then ordinarily sought to in prayer and with a greater exercise of faith and patience then ordinary waited upon for the receiving of them They that know the Lord and have acquaintance with him would not have any mercy without asking they pray for every morsell of bread they eat they love to see all come in a way of prayer through the promise But there are some mercies for which there hath been abundance of striving in our own hearts and much striving and tugging with God that we might attain them we for some mercies have wrestled all night like Jacob before we could prevaile and be Israels Princes with
God Now when such a mercy comes in as hath been thus specially prayed for and of which we may say when we receive it as Hanna said to Eli about her son Samuel for this child I prayed and the Lord hath given me my petition which I asked of him 1 Sam. 1. 27. So for this successe I praid for this mercy I fasted and mourned I wept and made supplication before the Lord and he hath given me my petition which I asked of him when a mercy hath been thus gained by prayer it ought and will be worne and enjoyed with praise and thankfulnesse Every answer or returne of prayer calls for a return of praises much more when it is an answer to many prayers to much prayer Then if ever praise waits for God in Zion Psal 76. 3. when in Zion that is in answer to the supplications made in Zion the Lord breakâ—th the arrows of the bow the sheild the sword and the battel I grant those mercies which have stood us in little pains in few prayers which have come in for little asking yea without asking oblidge us to praise God most because of his readinesse to hear and speedinesse in granting when God answers before we call how great a call have we to praise him after such an answer yet those mercies which have been most costly to us as to the duty of prayer are most sensibly constrayning upon us as to the duty of praise And although when through the free grace of God we find our prayers even prevented by our mercies the heart cannot but be stirred up mightily to the duty of praise yet when through our own sloath we have neglected to fetch in our mercies by prayer we usually find our hearts little pressed unto praise Fourthly Because when we pray much and wait long for eminent mercies we always implicitely and sometimes explicitely vow praises to the Lord and so bind our selves by vow to praise him And hence we find often in Scripture that praising God is expressed by paying vows to God Psal 50. 14. Offer unto God thanksgiving and pay thy vowes unto the most high that is offer that thanksgiving unto God which thou hastvowed to pay unto him And as we have it in that Psalm laid down in a proposition so in another Psalm we have it laid down in practice I will offer to thâ—e the sacrifice of thanksgiving and will 〈◊〉 upon the name of the Lord I will pay my vowes unto the Lord now in the presence of all his people Psal 116. 17 18. Our praises are debts and Solomon tells us it is very dangerous being in this debt When thou vâ—west a vow unto God defer not to pay it for he hath no pleasure in fools pay that which thou hast vowed Eccl. 5. 4. Owe no man any thing but to love one another saith the Apostle Rom. 13. 8. that is Owe no man any thing to his prejudice or in his wrong And though we can never come out of Gods debt and therefore must be alwayes paying yet when he finds us to our utmost paying he looks upon us as if wâ— owed him nothing Mercy received brings us in debt and praise returned brings us in Gods account out of debt The Lord through mercy takes praise as payment for his mercies We have reason to be very carefull in making this payment not onely because we owe so much but because we can pay no more So then if speciall mercies have the clearest manifestations of God in them if we have an urgent necessity to receive them if God hath been more sought that we might obtaine them if the vowes of God are upon us to praise him when ever they should be obtained who can be unconvinced That speciall praises are due and to be paid for speciall received mercies And if so Then consider First How sinfull it is to with hold and imprison the praises of God in a day of eminent and speciall mercy There are two things which we should take heed we doe not imprison First the Truths of God Secondly the Praises of God And I may freely say It is as dangerous to imprison the Praises of God as it is to imprison the Truths of God To imprison or hold the Praises of God in unthankfulnesse as it is to imprison or hold the Truths of God in unrighteousnesse There are many that hold the Truths of God in unrighteousnesse O take heed take heed that no such prisoners be found among you For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against those that doe so Rom. 1. 18. Now as it is dangerous to imprison the truths of God so it is as dangerous to imprison the mercies and the praises of God To hold them in unthankfulnesse hath not onely this danger in it that God will give us no more mercies seing we use those he hath given us so hardly and unworthily but it hath this danger in it also that it may provoke the Lord to poure out wrath upon us Eliphaz chargeth Job with imprisoning prayer Thou castest off fear and restrainest prayer before God Chap. 15. 4. That 's a sad frame of heart if when the spirit moves and urgeth to pray and there are workings of conscience which provoke to prayer even a naturall conscience may doe it then to restrain prayer notes a very ill habit of the soul for such give witnesse against themselves that they have cast off the fear of the Lord. Now as to restrain prayer so to restrain praise is an argument that men have cast off the fear of the Lord. And when once t is so with man his heart is at worst and his sin at full Therefore the Apostle Paul 2 Tim. 3. 2 gives this as one of the blackest caracters of those perilous times of which he there prophecyeth Men shall be lovers of their own selves c. unthankefull unholy without naturall affection They who have no spirituall affections to performe duty to God are often punished with a want of naturall affection towards one another We have cause to fear that this Prophecy is fulfilled upon this Generation that for unthankfulnesse many are given up not onely to unholinesse towards God but unnaturalnesse towards men O how are the mercies of God swallowed up in unthankfulnesse yea not onely swallowed up in unthankfulnesse but murthered in our murmurings and discontents to what a height then is the sinfulnesse of this age like to encrease seing they who with hold from God the glory of his mercies are in a readinesse to with hold obedience to his commands yea in that they with hold obedience to his greatest and most comprehensive commands How can it be but the unthankfull must needs be unholy seing unthankfulness is the sum of all unholiness A heathen could say Call a man unthankfull and you have called him all that 's bad or nought or as we speak you have Call'd him all to nought Let the unthankfull remember That the inanimate creatures will rise up
up silver as the dust and prepare rayment as the clay he may prepare it but the just shall put it on and the innocent shall divide the Silver As if God had said by Job I know oppressors never think their dust-heap big enough and therefore they care not whom they oppresse so they may but heap up Silver for themselves as the dust yea they heap up silver as the dust that they may be strong to oppresse well let them goe on and prosper let them prepare it but I will prepare heires for them which they never thought of unlesse how to oppresse and vex them The innocent shall divide the Silver And that word divide hath a sound of war in it seing after victories obtained spoiles are divided I know some are ready to take offence at this day of thanksgiving because it is a thanksgiving for prey But let such remember First 't is prey taken from an enemy Secondly 't is prey taken from an enemy who hath swallowed up Nations greater then his own without offence given or recompence made as a prey And thirdly we have enough in this text to answer such objectors here 's King Davids order for a day of thanksgiving because God had given meat or prey to his people as he hath given to us this day We have as much I might say more reason to give thanks to God for meat gotten by a lawfull war as for meat gotten by our lawfull labour Therefore let us eate it or enjoy the benifit of it and praise the Lord. If while this meat is in our mouths the praises of God be in our mouths too certainly if they be in our hearts and lives too we shall not need to fear though we cannot be too much caution'd about it that as it befell the Israelites who fell a lusting in the wildernesse the wrath of God should fall upon us and slay the fattest of us and smite downe the chosen men of our Israel Psal 78. 30 31. Indeed if we have either asked this meat for our lusts or having gotten it bestow it upon our lusts we may expect a severer vengeance then theirs Thus I have touched upon and made a briefe application of the first ground of praising God laid down in this context by a paralell of the works of the Lord for which David gave order for publique praises with the works of the Lord for which we are called to praise him this day They are Great and Honorable they are Wounderfull and Beneficiall He hath given meat or prey to them that fear him The second generall Ground why David ordered a day of praise was that assurance and holy confidence which he had of what God was and would further be unto them and doe for them And indeed what God himselfe is to us is far more valuable then all that he hath done for us And in all our outward enjoyments we should be drawn off from the mercies of God to the God of our mercies from all the works of God to God who hath wrought them So did David here though he spake and thought highly of what God had done for them yet his heart was especially carryed out to and taken up with the thoughts of God There are four particulars in which David gives instance for the exalting of the name of God in praises as to what he is in himselfe and as to what he will be unto his people First The Lord is righteous and just his righteousnesse or justice endureth for ever v. 3. He is not righteous in this or that act onely at this or that time onely but he is righteous in all and always Some men will doe righteously now and then here and there to this or that person yet they step awry at other times or in other cases and so do justice not with respect to truth but with respect to persons But the Lord doth justice at all times in all cases without respect of persons and therefore the Lords righteousnesse indureth for ever We are saved by and live upon the grace and mercy of God yet we cannot but and are much bound to acknowledge his righteousnesse and justice They in the Revelation Chap. 15. 2 3. Who had gotten the victory over the Beast and over his image and over the number of his name were seen by John standing on the Sea of glasse having the harps of God and singing the song of Moses the servant of God and the song of the Lamb saying Creat and marvellous are thy works O Lord God almighty just and true are thy wayes thou King of saints The ways of Christ are just towards his enemies as he hath threatned and they are true towards his own people as he hath promised He is the Amâ—n giving being and accomplishment to his own word The faithfull and true witnesse Rev. 3. 14. bearing his testimony to what he hath said by that which he doth so declaring his own righteousnesse And may not we now turne Davids Prophesie Psal 65. 5. By terrible things in righteousness thou wilt answer us O God may we not I say turne that Prophecy into a history and say By terrible things in righteousnesse thou hast answered us O God of our salvation who art the confidence of all the ends of the earth and of them that are afar off upon the sea O how much are we engaged to praise the Lord for his righteousnesse who hath avouched our right and declared himselfe against those who would not repaire our wrongs Thus did the same Holy David Psal 9. 2 3 4. I will be glad and rejoyce in thee I will sing praise to thy name O thou most high when mine enemies are turned back they shall fall and perish at thy presence for thou hast maintained my right and my cause thou sittest in the Throne judging right And as we are to praise the Lord because he hath been righteous or for the righteousnesse which he hath done so we are to praise him upon this assurance that he will ever doe that which is right For as he is the Father of Lights so also the judge of rights with whom there is no variablenesse nor shadow of turning His righteousnesse endureth for ever Praise ye the Lord. The second part of this second ground of praise is the graciousnesse of God The Lord is gracious and full of compassion v. 4. That proper name John derived from the Hebrew word here translated gracious was given in speciall by the Angells appointment to the Baptist Luke 1. 13. either because he was sent to preach the grace of God in Christ shortly after to be exhibited in the flesh or because he was bestowed upon his parents in their old age as a testimony of the favour and grace of God to them And thus all that God doth for his people flows from the fountain of his free grace and from his compassions which faile not The Lord deserveth highest praises from man because what he doth for man he
his remembring the Covenant which he hath made with us Secondly his doing or making of it good to us It is a common sin among men that they make Covenants but doe not mind them and that 's a sin very chargeable upon this Nation It is our interest as well as our duty to make and minde our Covenants with God Not to make a Covenant with him in some cases is sinfull but not to mind what we have made is more sinfull Not to mind Covenant with man is sinfull much more not to mind our Covenant with God Such is the weaknesse of some men that though they mind their Covenants they cannot do them or make them good And such is the sinfulnesse of many that they make Covenants and never mind them nor have any mind to make them good yea such is the wickednesse and perversnesse and perfidiousnesse of others that though they mind their Covenant yet they will not doe it yea they refuse to do it and which is wickednesse wound up to the hight chuse to deale falsly with God in Covenant Now as the terrour of the Lord should keep all men from such a hight of wickednesse so the example of the Lord should keep all men from the least and lowest degree of it For as the Lord is mindefull of the Covenant which he hath made so he mindeth it to do it yea his minding or remembring of it is his doing of it He can as easily keep his Covenant as make it and as soon fulfill his word as give it Thirdly God doth not only make and mind his Covenant but he is ever mindfull of it It never departs as wisdome counselleth us her councells should not Prov. 4. 21. from his eyes he keeps it in the midst of his heart and t is alwaies as written in the palmes of his hands he is mindfull of it not only without a totall Cessation but without so much as the least intermission O let all that are in Covenant with the Lord praise the Lord who will ever be mindfull of his Covenant Who among other mercyes promised in his Covenant hath promised to blesse them that blesse his Covenant people and to curse those that curse them And thus he hath been pleased to mind his Covenant to us in the mercy of this day I have now set before you those two Generall grounds of praise The experience of what God hath wrought for his people and the assurance of what God is to his people hereby to provoke your soules to rejoce in and praise the Lord The work of the Lord is great his work is honourable and glorious his work is wonderfull and beneficiall therefore praise him The Lord himselfe is righteous he is gracious and full of compassion in all that he hath done for us he is mindfull and will ever be mindfull of his Covenant to doe it more and more for us as the matter shall require Now what remains but that as I have paralelld our grounds of keeping this thanksgiving day with those of David in the text so I should both direct and presse you to paralell David by praising God in the same manner and with the same Spirit as he did I shall draw forth this directive Exhortation into four Conclusions taken up out of the text and body of this Psalm and so conclude First Praise God knowingly or understandingly The Lord cannot bear blind services and obedience nor doth he delight in blind praises and thanksgivings And as the Lord would have us to understand what it is to praise him some pretend praise to God who know not what it is to praise him so the Lord would have us understand what that is for which we praise him he would have us understand our mercies As when we repent we should search out and labour to know all our sins and all the sinfulnesse of them so when we praise God we should search out and labour to know all the mercies of God and the mercifulnesse of God to us in them This we have expresly in the text at the second verse The works of the Lord are great sought out of all them that have pleasure therein We must seek them out and find the compasse of them we must labour to understand and comprehend the height and depth and length and bredth of them as the Apostle speaks concerning the love of God They are great and their Greatnesse must be sought out But some may say If the works of the Lord are so great what need they be sought great things are obvious and easily seen we need not seek out the Sun I answer There is a twofold seeking First to find the work Secondly to find out the work that is to find the rarities and beauties the perfections and wonders of the work Thus though the Sun be a great work of God creating yet I may say there are very few that to this day have sought out the Sun that is who have seen the excellency perfection and glory of that Candle of Heaven we have not found the Sun as we ought though it shines every day to us Much lesse have we found out the providentiall works of God some of which shine as the Sun in the Heavens and yet we have not found them out The present work of God is so great that every one heares of it and t is every mans talke and discourse yet how few have studied to find out the perfections of it David describes the persons who do so They are saith he sought out of all them that have pleasure therein Then all they that are troubled at them who look sowre upon them or envy them who think a losse would serve their turns and ends better then this great gaine and to whom as the Prophet speaks in another case Isa 28. 19 It is a vexation only to understand the report that is to understand that such a thing is reported Surely these and such as these have no pleasure in this work of God and therefore will never seek it out Nor is it every kind of pleasure which we take in the works of God that makes us seek them out and so praise him spiritually and understandingly for them They who as many doe take onely a carnall or fleshly pleasure in them will seek no further then the flesh or outside of them and all their praises must needs symbolize with their spirits and be meerly carnall The true pleasure which we should take in this or any like work of God must arise upon these three grounds 1. As it is a returne of prayer David in that other Psalme where he puts the question to himself What shall I render unto the Lord for all his benifits unto me Psal 116. 12. had said v. 1 2. I Love the Lord because he hath heard my voyce my supplications because he hath enclined his eare unto me We never take so much spirituall pleasure in any of the providentiall works of God as in those
which with humble submission to his own good pleasure we have wrought him to by prayer 2. The pleasure which we should take in the works of God ought to arise from those more eminent evidences of the power and goodnesse or any other manifestations of God in them And indeed we should take pleasure in nothing but as somewhat of God appears in it As God is himselfe the chiefest good so the more of God is seen in handing our mercies to us the better they are And therefore we should be more affected with and take more pleasure in the appearances of God in our mercies then with our own advantages advancements by them We take pleasure as beasts onely if we take pleasure in what they are for us and not in what of God is in them As a believers hope and trust and confidence is in God alone for what he would have wrought so he hath greater joy and content and complacency in God himselfe then in any of his works 3. The pleasure which we should take in the works of God ought to arise from their aspect upon the Prophecies or as they look toward the fulfilling of Prophecies And indeed we may take pleasure in the saddest things that are done in the world when we see Nations tumbling and rowling in blood when we see the Towers falling and the mountains shaking though these are dismall sights yet we may take pleasure in them under this notion as they are a fulfilling of Prophecies and a bringing about of the Counsells of God Now They that can take pleasure in this speciall work of providence before us as it looks toward the fulfilling a Prophecy the powring out of the viall upon the Babylonish power which shall certainly be fulfilled in its season and certainly the season of it cannot be far off Euphrates the strength of mysticall Babylon must be dryed up and the great undertakings of Nations will at last exhaust that channell They I say who from such a contemplation of this work as it is an answer of prayer as it is a fulfilling of Prophecies and a clear demonstration of the power wisdome truth and faithfulnesse of God in both have pleasure in it these will search it out and so give praise to God knowingly and understandingly for it The second direction which the text holds out to our practice in this duty of Praise is To Praise him cordially that we have expresly in the first verse I will praise the Lord with my whole heart I might spend a whole hour about this whole heart but I onely name it doe not put God off with words or lip-praise this day let not yours be heartlesse praise and let it not be done with lesse then a whole heart halfe a heart or a divided heart will not serve in sacrifice if we have not a heart and a whole heart in the businesse it were better our bodies were not at all in it They who have two hearts or are double hearted in any duty and they who have no heart or but halfe a heart in it are an alike abomination to the Lord. Thirdly Davids example in the text directs us to praise the Lord openly and avowedly even In the assembly of the just and in the congregation v. 1. There are two degrees in the opennesse of Davids praise First he would doe it In the assembly of the upright or as some translate In the assembly of the Just Just or upright men have two sorts of assemblies or they assemble for two great ends First to worship and call upon God Secondly to advise and take counsell one with another The word here rendred an assembly is applicable to both sorts of assemblies 1. To a company of men met together to consult what to doe in any difficult case especially of publique concernment whether for peace or war And they who meet thus in Councell should be an assembly of just and upright men None are fit to direct the course of Justice but they who are Just nor to set things right in a Nation but the upright Every thing is in working as it is in being And what we find in our selves we are apt to impresse upon all we doe or take in hand The work bears the image and superscription of the workman As the vile person will speak villany Isa 32. 6. So the just person will speak justice and the words of the upright man will be of uprightnesse 2. The word is applyable also to any meeting or assembly of the godly for they are a secret company too They are secret ones and secrets are with them The secret of the Lord is with them that fear him Psal 25. 14. and he will shew them his Covenant or as the Margin hath it and his Covenant to make them know it Now when David resolves here to praise God in the Assembly of the Just we may understand him of either Assembly He would praise God in the assembly of his Counsellours where buisinesses are debated and beaten out There Successes are especially to be acknowledged He would doe it also in any assembly of gracious and upright soules And indeed Praise is comely for the upright Psal 33. 1. And 't is so not onely because they have most cause to Praise God but because they are most fit to doe it and because 't is most acceptable at their hand to the heart of God How beautifull and of how sweet a savour are their Praises for any mercy who as they have travel'd for it so they would walk worthy of it 'T is the best and most stately representation of heaven on earth to joyne with such an assembly of just men praising God But David would not stay there neither must we his Praise was yet more open I will praise him in the assembly of the just and in the congregation Which in opposition to the former is as if he had said I will praise the Lord before all comers let all the world come they shall be witnesses of his praise I will praise him bare-faced and bold-faced I care not who hears or who knows it I â—t it be told in Gath and published in the streets of Askelon Such Praises we are called to performe this day we are Praising God in the congregation Publick benifits must have publick acknowledgements There ought to be not onely sincerity but solemnity in such a work as this As they who sin before all men should also repent before all men So they who have been helped and saved before all men should as David professed againe Psal 116. 13 14. Take up the cup of salvation and pay their praise vowes unto the Lord in the presence of all his people Yea in the presence of all people enemies all if they are or could be present and let it be told to them if any will being absent even in Rome and Spaine that we this day have given thanks to God for giving us this Sea Victory and those Indian spoyles