own felicity; for gratitude and thankfulness brings the foul to a nearer approach to God, if it be poffible, than his very prayers do; because it is the greatest motion of love and beneficence in the foul unto God that can be; and the nearer the foul is moved unto God, the nearer it is joined to its life, its perfection, its happinefs; the more it participates of the love, the goodness, the influence, the communication of the Divine Goodnefs.

OF

OF

PRAYER AND THANKSGIVING.

PSAL. CXVI. 12.

WHAT SHALL I RENDER UNTO THE LORD FOR ALL HIS BENEFITS TOWARDS ME.

THERE are two great duties that we owe unto God, which are never out of feafon, but fuch as we have continual occafion and neceffity to ufe whilft we live; namely, Prayer and Thanksgiving.

Prayer is always feafonable in this life, becaufe we ever ftand in need of it; we always want fomething, and have always occafion to fear fomething; although we could be fuppofed in fuch a state of happiness in this world, that we could not fay we wanted any thing, yet we have caufe to pray for the continuance of the happiness we enjoy, which is not fo fixed and ftable, but that it may leave us: I faid in my profperity, I fhall never be moved: thou hideft thy face and 'was troubled.' We are never out of the reach of the Divine Providence, either to relieve or afflict us; and therefore we are under a continual neceffity of prayer, either to relieve and fupply us, at least to preferve and uphold us.

Thanksgiving is likewife always feasonable, because we are never without fomething that we receive from the Divine Goodness, that deferves and requires our thankfulness. It may be we want Wealth; yet, have

we

we not health? If we want both; yet, have we not Life? If we want Temporal Bleffings, yet, have we not Eternal Everlasting Bleflings? If we have any thing that is comfortable to, or convenient for us, we have it from the Goodnefs and Bounty of God. And though we have not all we would, yet we have what we deserve not, and what we prize and value; and therefore while we have any thing, we have occafion of Thanksgiving to our great Benefactor.

But yet it feems, though both thofe duties be highly due and neceffary, yet, Thanksgiving bath a kind of preference even above Prayer itself, in thefe confiderations especially.

1. The duty of Thanksgiving feems to be a more permanent duty, even than prayer itfelf, and of a greater extent and durablenefs. The bleffed Angels, and the Saints that are, or fhall be fettled and fixed in a state of full and unchangeable happiness, that enjoy whatfoever they can defire, and therefore have no reason to pray for more, because they cannot enjoy more than they do; yet have an everlafting occafion of Thankf giving for that happiness they everlaftingly enjoy and as this is their everlasting occafion, fo it is, and fhall be, their everlasting bufinefs unto all eternity, to praife and glorify God. And as the beams of the Divine Goodnefs fhall everlaftingly fhine upon them, fo there will be an everlasting reflection, as it were, of the fame goodness in the neceffary and inceffant returns of Praife and Thanksgiving to them.

2. The duty of Thanksgiving feems to be a duty of more noble nature than even prayer itself, because it answers more appofitely and clofely the nobleft end in the world; namely, the Glory of God, which certainly is a more ultimate and noble end than even the very good of the creature. It is true, Almighty God receives no acceffion to his happinefs and perfection by all the honour and praife, and Thankfgiving that all the creatures in the world can pay him, yet the glory of his Majefty is the chief ultimate end why he made all things.

things. Thou art worthy to receive glory, and honour, and power; for thou haft created all things and for thy pleasure they are and were created1.' It is true, the proximate immediate reafon of the creation of all things was, that the redundant goodnefs of Almighty God might be communicated unto beings derived from him by creation. But the ultimate and more univerfal end was, that by this communication of the Divine Goodnefs unto fomething without himself, the glory, and honour, and praise thereof might return unto himself, who only can be the adequate end of himself, of all he doth. Thanksgiving therefore and praise answers the greatest and most noble end in the world: If I want and pray for what I want, my immediate end therein is my own good, and yet that end is too narrow, if I propound not to myself to praise and glorify the bounty of that God which answers my prayer.

3. Again, whereas all the irrational and inanimate creatures in the world do paffively praise Almighty God, in that they bear every one of them the infcription of his Wifdom, Goodness, Power; the reasonable and intellectual natures of Men and Angels have that noble advance, that they can and may actively and intentionally glorify and praise the goodness of God, and it is indeed the noblest harmony that they can make, when they fummon all their understanding, will, affections, all that is within them, to praife that God to whom they owe their being and benefits. And the Wife and Glorious God doth therefore communicate the fenfible, experimental, eminent influences of his mercy, goodness and bounty unto the reasonable and intellectual natures of Men and Angels, that they might touch and ftrike upon those noble ftrings of the heart, and mind, and affections, that they may thereupon return the harmony of Thanksgiving and Praise to the great Lord of the World. And furely the nanature of man, in its true state and temper, is as naturally and effectually moved to the returning of Thanks

'Rey. iv. 11.

giving to God for mercies received, as a well-tuned lute or other inftrument doth give an harmonious found upon the touches of a fkilful artist. And most certainly that nature is ftrangely out of tune and order, that upon mercies received makes not a fweet return of Thanksgiving and Praise. This, therefore, as it is the nobleft, fo it is the most natural production of the reafonable nature, the fulleft of congruity to the right difpofition of its faculties.

Almighty God fends upon the children of men benefits, bleffings, deliverance, favours: and the fruit that he doth (and that moft juftly) expect, is a crop of praife, glory, honour and thanksgiving; Call upon me in the day of trouble, and I will deliver thee, and thou fhalt glorify me. And it is a barren, degenerate, ftupid heart, that yields not fuch fruit of fuch a femination. So that Praife and Thanksgiving is connatural to our very faculties, the tribute that the rational nature naturally pays to the Divine Being, as his benefactor; the very fruit that the Great Lord of the Harvest expects for all his goodness and mercy.

4. The truth is, Thanksgiving is the very end of prayer and as the end is more noble than the means conducible to the end, so therefore is the duty, the business of Thanksgiving in itself, though equally neceffary, yet more noble than Prayer itself.

I want fomething that I would defire Almighty God to give me, and I therefore pray; my merciful Lord grants me my defire, and gives me what I pray for and therefore gives it, and gives it upon my prayer to him, that therefore his mercy and goodness may be more evident unto me, and that thereupon I may praise, and glorify, and give thanks unto him.

And if with the nine Lepers in the Gospel, I receive the benefit I ask, and do not with the tenth give glory to God for the benefit I receive, I disappoint both the giver for what he defigned in the gift, and difappoint my very prayers in that which is their juft and proper end.

And