did lie the burden of a royal estate, and | the care over a most populous nation; the which he fed with a faithful and true heart, and ruled prudently with all his power; who waged great wars, vanquished mighty enemies, achieved many glorious exploits, underwent many grievous troubles? Yet could not such engagements distract or depress his mind from a constant attendance on devotion: Iwill bless the Lord at all times, his praise shall be continually in my mouth. My mouth shall show forth thy righteousness and thy salvation all the day. I will abide in thy tabernacle for ever. So he declareth his resolution and his practice. Who is more pressingly employed than was Daniel, first president over so vast a kingdom, chief minister of state to the greatest monarch on earth? Yet constantly thrice a day did he pray and give thanks unto his God. Who can be more entangled in varieties and intricacies of care, of pains, of trouble, than was he that prescribeth unto us this rule of praying continually? Upon him did lie the care of all the churches; night and day with labour and toil did he work for the sustenance of his life, that he might not (to the disparagement of the Gospel) burden any man; perpetually he was engaged in all sorts of labour and travail, ever conflicting with perils, with wants, with inconveniences numberless yet did he exactly conform his practice to his rule, being no less indefatigable and incessant in his devotion, than he was in his business. Whoever managed a greater empire than Constantine ? Yet every day (as Eusebius reporteth) at stated times, shutting himself up, he alone privately did converse with his constant in devotion. So that experience clearly doth evidence, how reconcileable much devotion is to business; and that consequently the prosecution of the one cannot well palliate the neglect of the other. II. No better can any man ward himself from blame, by imputing the neglect of devotion to some indisposition within him thereto. For this is only to cover one fault with another, or to lay on a patch more ugly than the sore. It is, in effect, to say we may sin, because we have a mind to it, or care not to do otherwise. Our indisposition itself is criminal; and, as signifying somewhat habitual or settled, is worse than a single omission: it ought, therefore, to be corrected and cured; and the way to do it is, by setting presently upon the practice of the duty, and persisting resolutely therein: otherwise how is it possible that it should ever be removed? The longer we forbear it, the more seldom we perform it, the stronger surely will our indisposition grow, and the more difficult it will be to remove it. But if (with any degree of seriousness and good intention) we come indisposed to prayer, we may thereby be formed into better disposition, and by continual attendance thereon, we shall (God's grace co-operating, which never is wanting to serious and honest intentions) grow toward a perfect fitness for it: prayer by degrees will become natural and delightful to us. SERMON VIII. OF THE DUTY OF THANKSGIVING. God.* The most pious men, indeed, EPHES. v. 20.—Giving thanks always for have never been idle or careless men, but always most busy and active, most industrious in their callings, most provident for their families, most officious toward their friends, most ready to serve their country, most abundant in all good works; yet have they always been most all things unto God. THESE words, although (as the very syntax doth immediately discover) they bear a relation to, and have a fit coherence with, those that precede, may yet (especially considering St. Paul's style and manner of expression in the perceptive and exhortative part of his Epistles,) without any violence or prejudice on either hand, be severed from the context, and considered distinctly by themselves." Psal. xxxiv. 1; lxxi. 6; cxlv. 2; xxxv. And (to avoid encumbrance by farther * Καιροῖς ἑκάστης ἡμέρας τακτοῖς ἑαυτὸν ἐγκλείων, μόνος μόνῳ τῷ αὐτῷ προσωμίλει θεῶ.—Euseb. de Vita Const. iv. 22. a Psal. lxxviii. 72. 28; Ixi. 4. 2 Cor. xi. 28; 2 Thess. iii. 8. Dan. vi. 10. ■ Vide Rom. xii. Eph. vi., &c. с comparison (so taking them, we may ob- and by the Prophet Isaias (in the very serve, that every single word among same words) reprehended as wickedly inthem carries with it something of notable grateful persons, who regarded not the emphasis and especial significancy. The work of the Lord, nor considered the first [Giving thanks] expresses the sub- operation of his hands. "Tis part, therestance of a duty, to which we are ex-fore, of this duty incumbent on us, to take horted. The next (I mean, in order of notice of, diligently and carefully to conconstruction) [to God] denotes the object sider, the divine benefits; not to let them or term to which it is directed. The fol- pass undiscerned and unregarded by us, lowing [always] determines the main cir- as persons either wofully blind, or stucumstance of this and all other duties, pidly drowsy, or totally unconcerned. the time of performance. The last [for all things] declares the adequate matter of the duty, and how far it should extend. These particulars I shall consider severally, and in order. I. First, then, concerning the duty itself, to give thanks, or rather to be thankful (for euzugiorεir doth not only signify gratias agere, reddere, dicere, to give, render, or declare thanks, but also gratias habere, grate affectum esse, to be thankfully disposed, to entertain a grateful affection, sense, or memory in which more comprehensive notion I mean to consider it, as including the whole duty or virtue of gratitude due to Almighty God for all his benefits, favours, and mercies;) I say, concerning this duty itself (abstractedly considered,) as it involves a respect to benefits or good things received; so in its employment about them it imports, requires, or supposes these following particulars: 1. It implies a right apprehension of, and consequently a considerate attention unto, benefits conferred. For he that is either wholly ignorant of his obligations, or mistakes them, or passes them over with a slight and superficial view, can nowise be grateful. Whoso is wise, and will observe these things, even they shall understand the loving-kindness of the Lord. Men shall fear, and shall declare the work of God; for they shall wisely consider of his doings. The works of the Lord are great, sought out of all that have pleasure therein. O taste (first, and then) see that the Lord is good. This is the method that great master of thanksgiving prescribes: first experimental notice, then wise consideration, then grateful sense, then public acknowledgment. And those we find both by him b Psal. cvii. 43; lxiv. 9; cxi. 2; xxxiv. 8. 'Tis a general fault, that the most common and frequent, the most obvious and conspicuous favours of God (like the ordinary phenomena of nature, which, as Aristotle observes, though in themselves most admirable, are yet least admired,) the constant rising of the sun upon us, the descent of fruitful showers, the recourse of temperate seasons, the continuance of our life, the enjoyment of health, the providential dispensation of wealth, and competent means of livelihood, the daily protection from incident dangers, the helps of improving knowledge, obtaining virtue, becoming happy, and suchlike most excellent benefits, we commonly little mind or regard, and consequently seldom return the thanks due for them. Possibly some rare accidents of providence, some extraordinary judgment, some miraculous deliverance, may rouse and awaken our attention (as it is said of the Israelites, When he slew them, then they sought him-and remembered that God was their rock, and the high God their Redeemer ;)a but such advertency is not the effect so much of gratitude, as of curiosity or of necessity: the notable rarity invites, or some powerful impulse commands our notice; but the truly grateful industriously design, and are studious to know thoroughly their obligations, that they may be able to render answerable returns for them. 2. This duty requires a faithful retention of benefits in memory, and consequently frequent reflections upon them.* For he that is no longer affected with a benefit than it incurs the sense, and suffers not itself to be disregarded, is far from being grateful; nay, if we believe the philosopher, is ingrateful in the worst kind, and highest degree. For, ingratus * 'Αχάριστος ὅστις εὖ παθὼν ἀμνημονεῖ. e Psal. xxviii. 5; Isa. v. 12. d Psal. lxxviii. 34, 35. est, saith he, qui beneficium accepisse se negat, quod accepit; ingratus est, qui dissimulat; ingratus, qui non reddit: ingratissimus omnium, qui oblitus est. He that falsely denies the reception of a benefit, and he that dissembles it, and he that doth not repay it, is ingrateful; but most ingrateful of all is he that forgets it. It is a sign the benefit made no deep impression on his mind, since it left no discernible footsteps there; that he hardly ever thought of making recompense, since he hath suffered himself to become altogether uncapable of doing it; neither is there any hope of his amending the past neglect; no shame, no repentance, no fair occasion can redeem him from ingratitude, in whom the very remembrance of his obligation is extinguished. If to be sensible of a present good turn deserved the title of gratitude, all men certainly would be grateful: the Jews questionless were so. When Almighty God, by his wonderful power in extraordinary ways, delivered them from the tyranny and oppression of their prevalent enemies; when he caused streams to gush forth from the bowels of a hard rock, to refresh their thirst; when bread descended from heaven in showers, and the winds were winged with flesh, to satisfy their greedy desires; then surely they were not altogether unsensible of the divine goodness; then could they acknowledge his power, and be forward enough to engage themselves in promises of correspondent observance toward him for the future. But the mischief was, immediately after, as the Psalmist complains, They forgot his works, and the wonders he had showed them: They remembered not his hand, nor the day when he delivered them from the enemy. They refused to obey, neither were mindful of the wonders that God did among them, as Nehemiah confesses in their behalf. Of the Rock that begat them were unmindful, and forgot the God that formed them, as it is in Deuteronomy. They distrusted his promises, repined at his dealings, disobeyed his laws, and treacherously apostatized from his covenant. Such were the fruits of their in grateful forgetfulness; which therefore that people is so often charged with, and so sharply reproved for by the Prophets. the On the contrary, we find that great pattern of gratitude, the royal Prophet David, continually revolving in his thoughts, imprinting upon his fancy, studying and meditating upon, recollecting and renewing in his memory, the results of divine favour. I will remember (saith he) thy wonders of old; I will meditate of all thy works, and talk of thy doings: and, I remember days of old; I will meditate on all thy works; I muse on the works of thy hands: and, Bless the Lord, O my soul, and forget not all his benefits: and, My mouth shall praise thee with joyful lips, when I remember thee upon my bed, and meditate on thee in the night-watches, because thou hast been my help. place unfit, it seems, no time unseasonable for the practice of this duty; not the place designed for rest, not the time due to sleep, but, as David thought, more due to a wakeful contemplation of the divine goodness. Whose vigilant gratitude we should strive to imitate, devoting our most solitary and retired, our most sad and serious thoughts (not the studies only of our closet, but the consultations also of our pillow) to the preservation of those blessed ideas; that neither length of time may deface them in our fancy, nor other care thrust them out thence. No tesy born, than the resentment thereof dead. Such reproachful aphorisms we should labour to confute, especially as they are applicable to the divine favours, by so maintaining and cherishing our thanks for them, that they neither decay with age, nor prematurely die, nor be buried in oblivion; but may resemble the pictures and poetical descriptions of the Graces, those goodly daughters of heaven, smiling always with a never-fading serenThy loving-kindness is ever before mine Psal. lxxviii. 11, 42; Nehix. 17; Deut. eyes, Psal. xxvi. 3; lxxxvii. 11, 12; cxliii. 5; ciii. 2; lxiii. 5, 6, 7. • Sen. iii. de Benef. cap. 1. xxxii. 18. ity of countenance, and flourishing in an | and quality, the measure and quantity, immortal youth. the circumstances and consequences of them, be well expended; else the gratitude is like to be none, or very defective. For we commensurate our thankfulness, not so much to the intrinsic excellency of things, as to our peculiar estimations of them A cynic, perhaps, would not return more thanks for a diamond than for a pebble; nor more gratefully receive a talent of gold, than an ounce of copper; because he equally values, or rather alike contemns both. The middle, we may observe, and the safest, and the fairest and the most conspicuous places in cities, are usually deputed for the erections of statues and monuments dedicated to the memory of worthy men, who have nobly deserved of their countries. In like manner should we, in the heart and centre of our soul, in the best and highest apartments thereof, in the places most exposed to ordinary observation, and most secure from the invasions of worldly care, erect lively representations of, and lasting memorials unto, the divine bounty; constantly attending to which we may be disposed to gratitude. Not one blessing, not the least favourable passage of providence, ought to perish with us, though long since past, and removed out of the sphere of present sense. Wherefore we find our (never-to-beforgotten) example, the devout thanksgiver, David, continually declaring the great price he set upon the divine favours; admiring and displaying their transcendent perfections, their wonderful greatness, their boundless extension, their excessive multitude, their endless duration, their advantageous circumstances We must not in our old age forget who (the excellent needfulness, convenience, formed us in the womb," who brought us and seasonableness of them; together into the light, who suckled our infancy, with the admirable freeness, wisdom, and who educated our childhood, who gov- power of the Benefactor, shining forth in erned our youth, who conducted our and by them.) I will praise thee, O manhood through the manifold hazards, Lord (saith he) among the people, I will troubles, and disasters of life. Nor in sing unto thee among the nations: for our prosperity, our affluence of good thy mercy is great unto the heavens, and things, our possession of Canaan, should thy faithfulness reacheth unto the clouds. we be unmindful of him who relieved us And, Remember the marvellous works in our straits, who supplied our wants, that he hath done, his wonders, and the sustained our adversity, who redeemed judgments of his mouth. He is the Lord us from Egypt, and led us through the our God, his judgments are in all the wilderness. A succession of new and earth. And again, Thy mercy, O Lord, fresh benefits should not (as among some is in the heavens, thy faithfulness reachsavages the manner is for the young to eth unto the clouds. Thy righteousness make away the old) supplant and ex- is like the great mountains; thy judgpunge ancient ones, but make them rath-ments are a great deep: O Lord, thou er more dear and venerable to us. Time preservest man and beast. How excellent should not weaken or diminish, but rather confirm and radicate in us the remembrance of God's goodness; to render it, as it doth gold and wine, more precious and more strong. We have usually a memory more than enough tenacious of injuries and ill turns done to us: let it never be said, to the disgrace of that noble faculty, that we can hardly forget the discourtesies of man, but not easily remember the favours of God. But further, 3. This duty implieth a due esteem and valuation of benefits; that the nature h Psal. lxxi. 6. 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 than 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 1 Psal. cvii 3, 4; cv. 5, 7; xxxvi. 5, 6, 7; Deut. vi. 12; viii. 11. cxxxix. 17, 18; cxi. 3; cxlv. 9; lxviii. 19. every part, and descanting upon every | nevolent intention of him that bestows circumstance thereof: like those that them; so reciprocally it is the good accontemplate some rare beauty, or some ceptance, the sensibleness of, and acquiexcellent picture; some commending the escense in the benefactor's goodness, that exact proportions, some the graceful fea- constitutes the gratitude; which who aftures, some the lively colours discernible fords, though he be never capable of yieldtherein. There is not the least of the ing other satisfaction, voluntate voluntati divine favours, which, if we consider the satisfecit; and, regum æquavit opes animo condescensive tenderness, the clear inIt is ingenuity that constitutes tention, the undeserved frankness, the (respectively) both a bountiful giver, and cheerful debonairity expressed therein, a thankful receiver. A truly noble benhath not dimensions larger than our com-efactor purely aimeth at not any material prehension, colours too fair, and linea- reward, or advantage to himself (it were ments too comely for our weak sight thoroughly to discern; requiring therefore our highest esteem and our utmost thanks. "Tis 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 vilify, 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 pre-requisite conditions to; but a cheerful 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 Stoics, that animus sufficit animo, and that qui libenter accepit, beneficium reddidit: that he who with a willing and well-affected mind receives a courtesy, hath fully discharged the duty of gratitude; that other endeavours of return and compensation are rather handsome accessions to it, than indispensably requisite to the completion thereof. For, as in the collation it is not the gold or the silver, the food or the apparel, in which the benefit consists, but the will and beVOL. I. 10 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, and accounts himself royally recompensed.* Such a benefactor is Almighty God, and such a tribute he requires of us; a ready embracement of, and a joyful compla cency in his kindness; even such as he expressed, who said, Because thy lovingkindness is better than life, my lips shall praise thee: and, My soul shall be filled as with marrow and fatness, and my mouth shall praise thee with joyful lips: and, I will praise thee with my whole heart: I will be glad and rejoice 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 only ἱλαρὸν dóiny (a merry giver,) but ihagor déxiηy (a cheerful receiver) also.' He would have us, as to desire his favour with a greedy appetite, so to taste it with a savoury relish. He designs not only 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 it Quoties quod proposuit quis consequitur, capit operis sui fructum. Qui beneficium dat, quid proponit sibi? prodesse ei cui dat, et sibi voluptati esse: non sibi invicem reddi voluit; aut non fuit beneficium, sed negotiatio. Beneficii proprium est, nihil de reditu cogitare.Senec. Nec est dubium quin is qui liberalis benignusque dicitur, officium non fructum, sequatur. -Cic. de Leg. i. * Psal. lxiii. 3; civ. 33; lxxi. 22; lxiii. 5; ix. 1, 2; ciii. 1. 12 Cor. ix. 7, in Acts xiv. 17. |