A MODEL OF True Spiritual Thankfulness. Delivered in a SERMON Before the Honourable House of COMMONS, Upon their day of THANKSGIVING, being Thursday, Feb. 19 1645, for the great Mercy of God, in the Surrender of the City of Chester into the hands of the Parliaments Forces in CHESHIRS, under the Command of Sir WILLIAM BRERETON. By THO. CASE, Preacher in Milkstreet London, and one of the Assembly of Divines. ISA 1.25.3. The strong people shall glorify thee, the city of the terrible Nations shall fear thee. ISA 1.26.2. Open ye the gates, that the righteous Nation which keepeth the Truth, may enter in. London, Printed by Ruth Raworth, for Luke Fawn, at the sign of the Parrot in Paul's Churchyard. 1646. Die Lunae, 23 Februarii, 1645. ORdered, by the Commons assembled in Parliament, That Master Rous do give Thanks to Master Case and Master Woodcock for the great pains they took in the Sermons they preached at the entreaty of this House on Thursday last (being a day set apart for a day of public Thanksgiving for the taking of Chester) and to desire them to print their Sermons. And it is ordered, that none shall print their Sermons without licence under their hands writing. H. Elsing, Cler. Parl. D. Com. I appoint Luke Fawn to print my Sermon. THO. CASE. To the Honourable House of Commons in Parliament now assembled. NOBLE SENATOR'S, TO serve Your and the Kingdom's Thankfulness for the late mercy of God, in putting Chester into your possession; give me leave from the Press to present unto your view what might have been burdensome from the Pulpit; a short List or Catalogue of some eminent Providences, wherewith the mercy of the day being clothed, will appear very rich and glorious. 1. And first, you may please to observe, that the very lengthening of the Siege, was the advance of the Design, while in the issue it appears to have been nothing else but an ambushment of Providence laid of purpose to draw on the enemy to their own destruction: Surely their pride and power have not met with a more burdensome stone in all their bold and confident Adventures, than the Siege of Chester; upon which God bath broken them with breach upon breach, and blest you with victory upon victory worth many chester's; and when he had done, cast that also in for an advantage. Thus many times do we look upon disappointments of our hopes, as frowns of displeasure, which afterwards we find to be Plots of Mercy. Who would not wait upon that God; who if be withhold a mercy for a while, pays interest for the forbearance, of more worth many times than the principal itself. 2. That in three Storms of the greatest disadvantage that height of walls, depth of trenches, impregnableness of Forts, and multitudes of enemies (as many in the City as yours in the Siege) could render, the Forces were confessed by the enemy to have done more execution than they received, either in their assault or retreat: wherein one particular providence must not be silenced: * Lieut. Col. Ven●bles. an active Commander who was four times upon the walls; and though through the unexpected disadvantages of the design, not seconded according to expectation, yet was brought off harmless, save only a slight wound on his arm, to mind him what arm it was that made his rescue. 3. That in all the Sallies which the enemy hath made upon the Parliaments Quarters, they had more cause at their returns into their strong Hold, to wring their hands then to thing their bells, being always sent home with more blows than they give. 4. That our Engines during the Siege have constantly done more execution upon the enemy within, then theirs have done upon our men without, though the odds of all offensive and defensive advantages were on their side; whereby God would manifest the difference, between having walls and bulwarks for Salvation, I●a. 26.1. and having Salvation for walls and bulwarks. 5. It was only an unexpected Help to our side, that a Blind of Providence caused them to leave the Prospect of a Steeple so near the City-walls undemolished from whence our men did perform daily justice upon the Rebels, slaying one of their steruest, and divers others. So God oftentimes beats the enemy with their own weapons. 6. The patience and constancy of your Soldiery, was eminently remarkable, which was such, as though there were temptations enough to storm it, as extremity of weather, want of pay, clothes, food, unparallelled hard duty all the time of the siege, being forced many times to fetch their water from * ● Sam. ●●. 15. the gate of Bethlem, and that not for wantonness, but for necessity; their bread from the enemy's Quarters▪ the stores of the languishing Country being drained, and expected supplies from neighbouring Counties failing, to the extreme harassing and hazarding of their Forces both abroad and at home: I say such notwithstanding was their constancy and patience, that none of all these could conquer it; Providence always stepping in with timely Supplies and admirable Resenes in their deepest discouragements and desertions. In the mount the Lord hath been seen. Gen. 22.14. 7. The nature of your Forces which performed this service, renders it the more observable; they being not an united Brigade culled and formed for such a design, but a collective Body out of some few adjacent Counties, the more capable of discontent, and uncapable of Commands, had not God put a singular Spirit of Wisdom and Activity into the Commanders, and of willingness or awe into the Soldiers: So that here you have that word made good again: Zech. 46. Not by might nor power, but by my Spirit, saith the Lord of Hosts. 8. The enemy were not so high all the time of the Siege in their demands, but your terms were as honourable in the Surrender; which received this addition, Magmon est testimohium pro ●o qui judicium ad ●●sario comminit. Abulens. that the enemies themselves confess Conditions were never better kept since the wars began. A testimony out of the mouth of an adversary, is double honour. 9 Of what Consequence the Success is, let Chester's expectation from Ireland, and the preparations of the Irish Cutthroats for Chester the Key of this Kingdom, the Rest of that poor fainting County; the trembling of all the malignant neighbouring Strong Holds in Wales; and the securing of your Northern Leagur from the approach of an enemy: the opening of the way of Trade between London and these parts; the dashing in pieces of the Enemy's Designs, who lo, were hastening now to the Infallible relief of their Garrisons in Cheshire and Lancashire; the reducing of the North, the absolute Conquest of Scotland, and then back again to the sharing of England: for all this, and more too (Sisera-like) they had not only designed, but dispatched in their vain Confidences: The strengthening the hands of our Friends thorough the whole Kingdom, who shall hear and rejoice; the weakening of the Enemy, who shall hear, and their heart shall melt for fear. Let these, I say, and many other Improvements (too many for an Epistle, but not too many for our Thankfulness to inquire into) let these Speak. 10. And all this, whether it have not been the cheapest Purchase the Parliament hath made, since it was constrained to redeem this poor sold Nation with Money and Blood, I appeal to yourselves, and to that exhausted County, which in the pursuit of this Service hath, to their exceeding Honours, issued not much less (if I be not misinformed,) then 40000 l. the very last vital blood that was left in their veins. Psal. 110. ●●. Surely the Lord made them a willing people in this day of his power. There is yet a passage or two wherein you shall behold Mercy and truth meeting together, Righteusnesse and peace kissing each other. 11. Upon the same day that the enemy began to fortify the City of Chester, and make their Outworks, that very day three years, the Parliaments Forces entered the same: Feb. 3. 1642. Feb. 3. 1645 12. The King mustered the Cheshire Forces, summoned, disarmed the Train-bands upon Holt-Heath, Sept. 24 1642. and upon the same day three years, the King's Army was routed upon Routon-we may rightly call it Routing-Heath: and another Brigade which was intended for a Reserve, commanded by the Earl of Lichfield and the Lord Gerard, defeared upon Holt-Heath (as I take it so it is called) where the Earl of Lichsield was slain; and all this in the King's view, He then standing in Phoenix-Tower in Chestr. Lord, when thy hand is lifted up, they will not see; but they shall see; I pray God to Repentance, and not to Shame. Vide Passages and Treaties of the Siege and taking of Chester. Honourable Parriots, these sew passages to which you have already further discoveries, and may finde more, hold forth much of God; His Wisdom, his Strength, his Justice, his Mercy, beaming forth in the Light of this day. And this you may observe, as the result of all; It is Fidelity God prospers and Crowns in his Service. Now that God who hath made your Armies faithful to you, make you every day more and more faithful to himself; that what was Moses Honour, and His too who is Moses and your Lord▪ the Lord Jesus, may be the Parliament of England 's renown to all Generations, They were faithful to him that appointed them in all his House, in doing all things according to the pattern: Which as it was the travel of this Cautionary, Heb. 3.2. not Accusatory Sermon (now the second time waiting upon your Commands) so it shall be the daily prayer of. Your Honours, not more desirous to live, then to serve Christ in you, THO. CASE. To the truly Noble Sir William Brereton, Baronet, Commander in Chief of the Parliaments Forces in Cheshire; and to all those worthy Commanders and Gentlemen, whom God hath honoured with the beginning, managing, and now happily finishing of the Work in Cheshire. Honourable and ever to be honoured Gent. WHat Encomium the Apostle gave the beloved Disciple, I hope the world will give me leave to bestow upon you, without the the least suspicion of Flattery; You do faithfully whatsoever you do in the Public Trust committed to you: 1. Joh. v. 5. and I beseech you look upon it as Gods honouring of you, more than your honouring of God: a heart to be faithful, and happiness to be successful in God's designs, is a double engagement: which I hearty desire may not lift up your hearts, unless it be in the ways of God, in whose Name you have gone out and prospered. So that you may go and bear a part in his * Barak. Judg. 5.13. Excellency's Song: Then he made him that remaineth to have dominion over the Nobles, among the people the Lord made me have dominion over the mighty. As an acknowledgement of which honour God hath done you, give me leave humbly to suggest a few Returns of Thankfulness that will no less become you, than crown and perfect your work. 1. Make it, I beseech you, your prime design to surrender up that City to God which God hath surrendered up to you, by engaging your best abilities and interests for the bringing in and encouragement of a learned, godly, Orthodox Ministry into the City, the Spiritual Militia that must secure the peace thereof. If Heresy and Schism break in, I shall set down and cry, Chester is lost the second time; and in which more miserable, it will not be easy to determine. Agrippins to Nero. 2. Study oneness in your affections, and oneness in your Counsels: Unity and you are unconquerable. Remember whose suggest it was, Divide & impera. 3. Let your distinguishing favours run countermotion to the enemies: let Malignants have no more encouragement than may demonstrate you more studious of their Reformation then their Ruin: Let them have no more cause to call the proud happy, Hagg. 3.15. Vers. 18. nor to say, They that work wickedness are set up: but let them return, and discern between the righteous and the wicked, between him that serveth God and him that serveth him not. 4. Be tender (O be tender, I say, as of your own lives) of the willing faithful party who in City or Country have served you in this Cause of Christ and the Parliament, to the very last drop of livelihood and blood: O to study now the Rest, Refreshing, Recruiting of that languishing people more than your own interests and advantage, will render you more truly honourable than all your Victories, and bring the blessing of perishing families upon you and your posterity. To that end, imitate the true gallantry of Nehemiah: read his 5 Chapter, especially from the 14 verse to the end; and the Lord grant you may get it by heart. Then shall they that are delivered from the noise of the archers in the places of drawing water, rehearse the righteous acts of the Lord, Judg. 5.11. even the righteous acts towards the inhabitants of the Villages in Cheshire; then shall the people of the Lord go down to the gates. 5. Study Self-conquests, Sin-victory. He that is slow to anger is better than the mighty, and he that ruleth his spirit, than he that taketh a City. Prov. 16.32. Fortior est qui sequam qui fortissima vincit moenia. If after ye have conquered the Lusts of men, you are conquered by your own Lusts; if after you have led your enemies captive, Satan can take you captive at his will; you are undone for ever. The Lord make you, every way, more than Conquerors, etc. 2 Tim. 2.26. Rom. 8.37. 6. Lastly, remember what General Joab did when he had taken Rabbah of the Ammonites, and do ye likewise now ye have taken this Cheshire-R●bbah; send for King David; yea, send for that King who is David's son and David's Lord, King JESUS; give him possession, and set the Crown of glory upon his Head, bowing your beads before him, and casting down your Crowns, saying, Not unto us, O Lord, not unto us, but to thy Name give the praise. Ezek. 48.35. O let not the City be called by your Name; but let the Name of the City be from this day, Jehovah-shammah, The Lord is there. Worthy Sirs, what is now my faithful advice to you, shall be always the humble request for you at the Throne of Grace, of Psal. 115.1. Your Honours to serve you in all Gospel offices, THO. CASE. To the Mayor, Aldermen, and the rest of the Citizens and Inhabitants of the City of Chester, Grace with Peace be multiplied. Right Worshipful and Beloved, I Desire to rejoice with you and for you; in this great mercy of God, in restoring you to your Habitations, from which some of you have been so long divorced; or to your Liberties, in the surprise whereof you have been no better than prisoners in your own Houses: Which that it may be a mercy indeed, give me leave, as one that loves you, to commend unto you a few Cautions. 1. Take heed, I beseech you, now that you are returned to your old Houses, you do not return to your old sins; now you are restored to your Civil Liberties, you do not backslide to your former sinful Liberties: What they were, you best know: give me leave to mind you what your Christian friends in the Kingdom have taken notice of and bewailed in you: Pride in your apparel, sumptuousness in your houses, excessive delicacy on your Tables; (whose sins these were, Ezek. 16.49 will tell you) profanation of Sabbaths, contempt of the faithful Ministry of the Word, compliance with Episcopal Superstition formality in Religion, almost scorn of the godly, and of the power of Godliness, and the like. Gal. 4.16. I speak not these things to shame you, but as a Minister of Christ and a friend to admonish you; and I hope I shall not become your enemy because I tell you the truth. I'll assure you, Friends, you have as much cause to keep days of Humiliation in Chester for your old sins, as days of Thanksgiving for your new Mercies. A voice was heard upon the high places, Jer. 3.21. weeping and supplication of the children of Israel; for they have perverted their way, and have forgotten the Lord their God. This was the posture of Israel returning out of Captivity, and I wish from my soul it may be Yours. 2. Inquire the way to Zion with your faces thitherward; and to that end, purchase to yourselves an inward, spiritual, Jer. 50.5. powerful Ministry, whatever it cost you. Say not you are poor; or if you do, know that this is the next way to recruit your estates: the Gospel never comes to a people; it bears its own charges with advantage: Prov. 23.23. O then, buy the truth and sell it not; buy it at any price, sell it at no price. Prove God herewith, I beseech you, and see if he do not open the windows of heaven and pour out a blessing upon you, and make your later end (with Job) more prosperous than your beginning. Mal. 3.10. Job. 42.12. 2 Tim. 3 5. 3. Labour to be Christians in good earnest: A form of godliness will not serve the turn (it is a moth that will insensibly eat out the beauty & strength of a Church or people) Study the power of it. You have now made an Experiment, whose service is better, Deut. 28.47, 48. Gods or your Enemies. If God be God (with you now) serve him, and serve him like Himself; Be perfect as your heavenly Father is perfect: Matth. 5. ult. if after all this you dally with God, and settle upon your lees again, I must prophesy to you in the Name of the Lord; The troubles you have suffered have been but the beginnings of your sorrow. 4. From henceforth know your friends from your foes; learn to distinguish between Compliments and Realities: The Bramble said to the trees, Come and put your trust under my shadow. Trust Brambles no more. 5. Study Thankfulness for this blessed turn of Providence in returning your Captivity. They say abroad in the Kingdom, The Lord hath done great things for you: Judg. 9.15. Will not you echo back again, Yea, the Lord hath done great things for us, whereof we rejoice? The Lord teach you to prise your naked walls more than you have done formerly your sumptuous surnisht houses; to improve your Freedoms to better purpose than ever heretofore. How you may be thankful, this ensuing Sermon, preached for the Celebration of your Deliverance, will direct. You bear the greatest share in the mercy, I wish you may bear the greatest share in the duty. 6. Finally, Brethren, farewell: Be perfect, be of good omfort, be of one mind, live in peace, and the God of Love and Peace shall be with you. So prays Your real friend and servant in the Lord, Tho. Case. A Model of true SPIRITUAL THANKFULNESS. Delivered in a Sermon before the Honourable House of COMMONS, Upon their day of thanksgiving (being Thursday the 19 of Febr. 1645.) for the great Mercy of God in the Surrender of the City of CHESTER into the hands of the Parliaments Forces in Cheshire under the Command of Sir William Brereton. PSAL. 107.30, 31. Then are they glad because they be quiet: So he bringeth them into the desired haven. O that men would praise the Lord for his goodness, and for his wonderful works to the children of men! IN the two former Psalms, the holy Psalmist doth celebrate the mighty Acts of God in the deliverance and preservation of his Church. In this Psalm he contemplates the wonders of Providence towards all Mankind: For after he had in the beginning of the Psalm finished the mention of his mercy and loving kindness to his Redeemed, in the eight first Verses, he descends to take notice what God doth. For the Hungry, Vers. 9 For the disconsolate and afflicted, Vers. 10, 11, 12 13, 14. For the sick and languishing, Vers. 17, 18 19, 20. F●r Seamen and such as travel upon the waters; from the 23 to my Text. He takes notice what he doth in the great turns of Providence, turning plenty into famine wherein his Justice is magnified, V●rs. 33, 34. And (back again) famine into plenty, wherein his Mercy is advanced, Verse 35.36, 37 38. What he doth in breaking the power of mighty Princes turned Oppressors and Tyrants, in making them contemptible, and ●ain like, Vagabonds to wander up and down in desert and hungry places, Vers. 40. And in lifting up the heads and restoring the habitations of their poor oppressed Subjects and People, Vers. 41. Upon each of these admirable Turns of Providence the Psalmist sets a Crown of glory, breathing out his enlarged and repeated desires, that when men have the comfort, God might have the praise of all his wonders of Providence. Oh that men would praise the Lord for his goodness etc. It is the burden of the Song; Oh that men would praise the Lord! My Text is the fourth repetition of this gracious breathing, poured out over the fourth work and wonder of Providence; namely. The admirable and even stupendious deliverances which God vouchsafes Mariners and Seamen in many a black, dreadful, furious, death-threatnin● storm and tempest, expressed to the life in the 23, 24, 25, 26 27, 28, 29 Verses. I shall not meddle with the Deliverance itself, though, if I should, it would be neither impertinent nor improper for the work of this day: for certainly a man might easily run a parallel between the state of the Mariner in th● storm, and the condition of this poor and yet bleeding Church and State. In Ireland and England. We that have gone down into the Sea, this Red-sea of Blood, and have had our business now for these four or five years in these great waters of Civil war; surely we have seen the works of the works of the Lord, and his wonders in the deep: Verse 24 If ever people saw the works, the wonders of the workings of Jehovah, we have. We have lived (I think I may safely speak it) in the greatest Age of wonders that ever the Church knew. We use to say Miracles are ceased; but truly, if men have ceased to do Miracles, God hath not; and yet he hath done them by men too, in this Deep of England's, and Scotland's, and Ireland's troubles and afflictions. For he commandeth and ●●●seth up the stormy wind, Verse 25. which lifteth up the waves thereof. Surely all the storms and tempests that have beaten upon these three Kingdoms, have not come by chance and fortune; this af●●iction hath not risen out of the dust: but as it was with Sol●mon, af●er his heart began to departed from God, it is sa●d, 1 Kings 11.14. The Lord stirred up an Adversary unto Solomon, Had●d the Ed●mite, etc. And (Vers. 23.) God stirred him up another Adversary; Rezin the son of Eliadah. Adversary after Adversary, and all stirred up by God. So hath it been and is yet with us; Storm after Storm, Tempest after Tempest; one cloud of blood and wrath after another, Eccles. 12.2. (The clouds have returned after rain) and all raised up by God, in his righteous Judgement upon these sinful backsliding Nations: We have (as it followeth) been mounted up to heaven, and then hurled down again into the depths. Oh the various changes that have been upon us I Sometimes up, and sometimes down; sometimes raised up as high as heaven, by wonderful Deliverances and glorious Victories, anon cast down even as l●we as hell, As in the West, etc. by sad break of our Armies and loss of our Strong-holds. Surely our souls have been melted because of trouble. Our hopes have been melted, and our hearts have been melted. Oh how oft have I seen paleness in men's faces, the very shadow of death upon men's countenances I how oft have I seen men with their hands upon their loins, while fear hath taken hold upon them, and sorrow, a● pain upon a woman in travel? Have we not been in the day of sad tidings from the West, and other places in the Kingdom, Vers. 27. like drunken men full of the fury of the Lord, and rebukes of our God, reeling to and fro in our spirits, and staggering in our Counsels; at our wit's end: Parliament at their wit's end, and City at their wit's end, and Armies at their wit's end; 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 All their wisdom swallowed up, as the Hebrew signifies; nonplussed and lost, not knowing what to do next; unless it were, with the Mariners in my Text (for the most part the profanest of men) to go and cry to God in our trouble; Verse 28. betake ourselves to our fasting and prayers; when God hath showed himself easy to be entreated, 2 King. 20.12. very gracious at the voice of our cry, and hath brought us out of these distresses and straits wherein were, calming the storms, and stilling the waves, the pride and rage, Verse 30. the power and policy of our devouring Adversaries. Thus hath the Lord done, as often heretofore, so now wonderfully of late at Dartmouth and Plymouth, at Hereford, at Belvoyre, and at Chester, the Wonder of mercy which we this day celebrate. Thus you see if I should pitch upon the Deliverance itself, here would be a foundation upon which we might build a Discourse not unseasonable, or unsuitable to the work of the day. But it is not the Deliverance itself, but the Return, which hath called out my thoughts, and now humbly calls for your attention. And this Return is Twofold: 1. What they do: Then are they glad, etc. 2. What they should do: O that men would praise the Lord, etc. And to hold you in the porch no longer, though many Observations might be raised from the words, I shall only from the comparing of these two together, sc. What men do when mercies and deliverances come in, They are glad; with what they should do; O that men would praise the Lord for his goodness, etc. hold forth to you this Point of Doctrine: Every man in the world can be glad of mercies and deliverances: but the duty that God expects, is, that men should praise him for his mercies. Then are they glad: I, but that will not serve the turn; it is a Return of an high nature which God looks for: Oh that men would praise the Lord for his goodness, etc. Or thus, if you please. There is a great difference between Gladness and Thankfulness. It is one thing to be glad of a mercy or deliverance; it is another thing to be thankful for it. What that difference is, and wherein it doth consist, is all I intent to do upon the Doctrinal part of this Truth. They differ in these four things▪ sc. in respect of their 1. Nature. The difference between Gladness and Thankfulness 2. Rise or ground. 3. Duration. 4. Operation. 1. In their Nature. First, Gladness and Thankfulness differ in their Nature. Gladness or Joy is but a natural affection. Some of the Stoic Philosophers have defined or described it to be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, Chrysippus and other Stoics. Elatio animi propter aliquid quod optandum esse videatur; it is the lifting up, or widening, or enlargement of the heart upon the coming in of any suitable and desirable good. And it is found not only in * Psal. 105.38. Lam. 1.21. natural men, but even in the bruit creatures; even these, you see, do express in their way, a great deal of gladness and contentment when they meet with that which is suitable to their natures and dispositions. But now Thankfulness, which is here commended, is a divine grace wrought in the soul by the Spirit of God, whereby the heart is drawn out towards God in gracious and holy desires and endeavours to praise and exalt the Lord, who is the Author and Donor of the Mercy, as here it is expressed by this chiefest and highest act of Thankfulness: Oh that men would praise the Lord, etc. Let them exalt him, etc. And therefore this is to be found only in the Saints: Psal. 33.1. Rejoice in the Lord, ye righteous; for praise is comely for the upright. Let the Saints be joyful in glory; Psal. 149.5, 6. let them sing aloud upon their beds: let the high praises of God be in their mouths, etc. they be the Righteous only, the upright, the Saints, in whose bosoms this grace dwells, and who can manage this Spiritual service and duty of rejoicing and praising the Lord in a right manner. Indeed the holy Psalmist doth often express the workings of his heart upon the receipt of great deliverances and mercies, under the notion of gladness, all over the Psalms: but you are to take it as a Synonymon, or t'other expression of thankfulness; not a mere stirring of natural joy and complacency in and for deliverances and mercies; but the Spiritual movings and sparkling of his aff●●ction towards God; in witness whereof, you shall never finde that notion stand single, but (like the * 1 Cor. 6.17. Spirit of the holy man himself) joined unto the Lord, either as the Author or as the Object of his Gladness. I will be glad and rejoice in thee. Psal. 9.2. And Be glad in the Lord, Psal. 32.11. ye righteous. And Thou Lord hast made me glad through thy work, Psal. 92.4. etc. to show that his gladness was sanctified and spiritualised into the grace of Thankfulness. And indeed Grace is nothing else but the natural affection baptised (as I may so say) and regenerated by the holy Ghost and the Blood of Christ, faced and pointed upon God as its proper and highest object. Set your affection on things above, not on things on the earth. Coloss. 3.2. Set, and Set not: the affection is not changed in the matter of it, but in the object. So natural sorrow and grief, spiritualised and set upon the right object, sc. upon an * Mich. 7.9. offended God, is the grace of * ● Cor. 7.9. Repentance. And Anger sanct fied and faced upon God's dishonour, is Zeal. And Love fired with a flame from Christ, and carried up in that flame to Christ, is no longer the affection, but the grace of Love; & sic in caet. And thus natural joy and gladness heavenlized and set upon God, 2 Joh. 4.19. is the grace of Thankfulness. And this is the first difference: Gladness or Joy is but a natural affection Common to good and bad, to man and beast; but Thankfulness is that affection sprinkled with the Blood of Christ, proper only to the Saints, because (like the Saint himself) it is made partaker of the divine Nature. 2 Pet. 1.4. Secondly, they differ in their Rise or Ground. Second difference, Rise or Ground. The Rise or Ground of Gladness (as it is a mere natural affection) is merely the poss ssion of some suitable desirable Good which comes in, whether National, or Domestic, or Personal; together with those natural fruits and improvements which arise and grow upon it. As here in the Text, Then are they glad; what is the Rise? Because they b● quiet●● they are now out of those fears and dangers which made their hearts work as tempestuoussy as the Sea itself. Safety and rest are the ground of their joy: glad, the storm is over and they safe in the Haven. And so you may proportion it in your thoughts in other deliverances and mercies National or Private. Gladness riseth not higher than the bulk and body of the Good itself; as the rich fool in the Gospel looked upon his heap of wealth, and glads his soul in it, and in the advantages he promiseth himself from it: Soul, here are goods l●id up for many years; Luke 12.19. he shall need to take no more care or thought as long as he lives; take thine ease, eat, drink and be merry. The Grounds of Thankfulness. But now the Grounds and Rise of Thankfulness they are of a more generous and divine Nature; such as these: 1. A Spiritual Title. First, a Spiritual and Divine Right to mercies; a Scripture-title. What is that? Why the Saints have First, a Right of Sonship. The wicked have a Right to what they have, not only a civil right before men, but a divine right b●fore God; but it is but a Right of Creation; they have a right To the Creatures, but it is but a right Of the Creatures: But now th● S●ints have a right of Sonship; If children, Rom. 8.17. than heirs of God, and joint heirs with Christ. Whatever mercy or deliverance they have, it is part of their child's portion: though they are not joint-purchasers, yet they are joint-heirs with Jesus Christ: they have all by inheritance: Heb. 1.2. as Christ is Heir of all things; so they in him; All is you●s, and you are Christ's; and Christ is Gods. 1 Cor. 3.22, 23. And thus ●eing Children and Heirs, they have a Seco●d Right, and that is a Right of Promise or Covenant; and therefore Believers are called The children of promise, Rom. 9.8. because they be both a 2 Pet. 1.4. begotten and b 1 Tim. 4.8. maintained by promise: whatever they have, they have by promise: Godliness is profitable for all things, having the promise of the life that now is, and that which is to come. Others are fed out of the Common basket of Providence; they are fed out of the Ark of the Covenant, which is the great List of the promises. Every child of God, be he never so poor, is served in Plate: The words of the Lord are pure words, as Silver tried in a furnace of earth. He speaks of the word of promise. Psal. 12.6. So that if it be but bread and water, yet it is served in to a child of God in the silver and golden vessels of the Promises: And this affects them more than all the bulk and heap of mercies and comforts which they do possess, or that worldlings do possess. Thou hast put more gladness into my heart then in the time that their corn and their wine increased. Psal. 4.7. How? Why, by the shines of his face and favour, as Vers. 7. This is the Rise of a gracious Joy and Thankfulness, That what he hath, he hath not only by God's leave, but with God's love; not by Creatureship only, but by Sonship; not by providence only, but by promise. With the men of the world, the Principal is more than the Interest: but every child of God accounts his Interest more than the Principal. Therefore you shall find the Church glorying in this, That all her deliverances and mercies are Covenant-mercies. If God destroy her enemies, she looks upon it as a fruit of the Covenant. He is the Lord our God; his judgements are in all the world. She triumphs in the execution of God's righteous judgements upon the enemies of the Church; Psal. 105.7. but upon what ground? It follows, He hath remembered his Covenant for ever, etc. It was a deliverance of Promise as well as of Providence; a Covenant-mercie; in that she rejoiceth: Vers. 8. yea, if it be but bread and water, as I said before, she looks in what it is served. He hath given meat to them that fear him: Why? He will be ever mindful of his Covenant. Psal. 111.5. Her meat (how course soever) was served in in the great silver Cha●ger of the Covenant. And this was the rise of Thankfulness in the Church's Grace; q. d. Blessed be God that hath fed me with bread of promise, that hath commanded his Covenant to bring me in provision. And so for her deliverances and redemption from enemies temporal and eternal. He sent Redemption to his people, Verse 9 he hath commanded his Covenant for ever: holy and reverend is his Name. It was a Covenant-victorie and Redemption, and for this she bows her head, and adores the Name of the Lord. Now carnal people never look after these things, they be dry and empty notions to them; give them meat, so it be fat and dainty; give them Deliverances and Victories, so they be full and gallant; be it by promise or providence, come they in by sonship or creatureship; be it the Covenant that helps them, or Fortune, it is all one, they know no difference; and therefore rise no higher in their joy and gladness than the possession of their desirable good things. This is the first Rise. Second Ground, Return of Prayer. A Second Rise of Thankfulness is, The Return of Prayer. The children of God, when they have prayed, do not forget their prayers, as carnal people do: but when they have prayed, they look after their Prayers. Psal. 85.8. I will hearken what God the Lord will speak, etc. when he had done praying, he gins harkening. And so again, In the morning will I direct my prayer unto thee, Psal. 5.3. and I will look up. A child of God looks after his prayers, and he knows them when he sees them again, and says, Oh here comes the answer of such a prayer, the return of such a day of Humiliation: and this affects his heart, and this raiseth up his soul in the love and praises of God. Psal. 116.1. I love the Lord, because he hath heard my voice and my supplication. Yea, and for this he calls in help to this great work of praising God (as the disciples beckoned to their fellows to come and help them when they had taken such a great draught of fishes, that their ship began to sink again: so I say the Psalmist upon a great draught of mercles, which even sinks him again with the weight of them, calls in the Saints to his help: Come near, all ye that fear God, Psal. 66.16. and I will tell you what he hath done for my soul. Why, what was it? He tells you: I cried unto him with my mouth, Vers. 17. and he was extolled with my tongue. A speedy return of Prayer; q.d. I kept a day of prayer, wherein I sought him for such and such mercies and desiverances, and anon after he gave me occasion to keep a day of Thanksgiving for being found of me: and this endears his heart to God more than the mercy itself, whatever it was. Blessed be God that hath not turned away my prayer, Vers. 20. nor his mercy from me. This is the second Rise. A third Rise or Ground of Thankfulness, whereby it differs from mere natural Gladness, A third Ground, Spiritual advantages. is Spiritual Advantages. If National and Public Mercies and Deliverances, the Saints eye the Spiritual part of them. Surely salvation is nigh unto them that fear him. Psal. 85.9. When we were nigh to perishing, our God was nigh to save; to save us in such a Battle and in such a danger; to give up such and such a strong-hold out of which the enemies did vex and plague us, because he had a people among us that feared his Name. I, but now there was a Spiritual part in this Deliverance, and that follows: That glory may dwell in our Land: What is the glory of a people, but the Ordinances of God? The glory is departed from Israel, cried that dying Saint when the Ark of God was taken: 1 Sam 4.12. why so now, the Church looks upon the socuritie and improvement of the Ordinances of God, as the fruit of this deliverance, and that is the ground of her triumph. And so if they be personal mercies and deliverances, the people of. God inquire what portion will fall to the souls share, what improvement for grace they can find in their mercies. The living, the living shall praise thee, as I do this day; so sings Hezekiah. Have mercy upon me, Isa. 38.19. O Lord, consider my trouble which I suffer, Psal. 9.13, etc. That I may show forth all thy praise in the gates of the daughter of Zion; so prays David: both, single out the Spiritual part of the Deliverance: in the mouth of it, they find food for the grace of Thankfulness to feed on: That I may show forth thy praises; and that they make the ground or rise of their rejoicing. Yea, the Prophet David is so intent upon the matter, that whereas with carnal hearts the lean kine eat up the fat, the earthly part of a mercy devours the heavenly and spiritual; with this man after Gods own heart (and if ever he was so, it was in this) the spiritual part devours and swallows up the earthly, where he doth encourage his soul: Psal. 42.1. Hope thou in God; for I shall yet praise him, etc. He was waiting for a Deliverance from the persecutions of bloody Saul, and he hath forgot and lost both it and himself in the heavenly-soul-part of the mercy: he saw it would be fuel for the grace of love and thank fullness, and that so takes up all his thoughts, that he can speak nothing else but praise, praise: not, I shall yet be delivered: but, I shall yet praise him, etc. Oh happy Loss indeed I to lose Earth in Heaven I to lose the Creature in God I lose the mercy of God in the God of mercy I Surely he that so loseth a mercy, finds it with infinite advantage. I might instance in more particular graces; but I must leave much to your own enlargement. But there is yet an higher Rise than all these of the Saints Thankfulness for Mercies and Deliverances; and that Fourthly, is, that God is exalted. The fourth Rise, God's exaltation. Exod. 15. Thus if you will peruse that song of Moses, Exod. 15, from the first Verse and so forward, you shall find that which most affects him and the children of Israel, in the drowning of Pharroh and the Egyptians in the Red-sea, was not so much their being freed from the fear of the Egyptians pursuit, as that thereby God was exalted: I will sing unto the Lord; Vers. 1. for He hath triumphed gloriously. The Lord is my strength and my song, my father's God; Vers. 2. and I will praise him. Pharaoh's chariots and his host hath He cast into the Sea: not so much that it was done, as that God did it. Thy right hand, O Lord, is become glorious in power: Vers. 6. thy right hand, O Lord, hath dashed the enemies in pieces. And in the greatness of thine excellency thou hast overthrown them that risen up against thee. Vers. 7. The blast of thy nostrils, etc. Vers. 8. Thou didst blow with thy wind, etc. Vers. 10. Who is like unto thee, O Lord, among the gods! And The Lord shall reign for ever and ever. Vers. 18. Thus they lift up God, because he hath lifted up himself. And so the Saints in the Revelation, when they repeat this Song (for it is said, Rev. 15.3. They sang the song of Moses the Servant of the Lord) they harp upon this string, Great and marvellous are thy works, Vers. 4. Lord God Almighty: who shall not fear thee, O Lord, and glorifio thy Name? In a word, you have three Psalms almost together; Psalm 93, 97, and 99: what the Victories and Deliverances were, I cannot tell you; but this is the triumph in all, The Lord reigneth. This is the last and the highest Rise of pure Thankfulness and Praise, That God sets himself up above his enemies: That the Lord gets glory and greatness to his own Name: Be thou exalted, O Lord, in thine own strength; so will we sing and praise thy power. Psal. 21.13. I come now to the third difference between Gladness and Thankfulness, which is this; They differ in their Duration. Third Difference, Duration. Gladness for the most part is but a present impetus of spirit, a sudden impression upon the first arrival of unexpected, or long-●xpected desires, overspreads the heart; but stays no longer than the sense of the good rejoiced in is fresh upon the spirit. As on the contrary, Nullum violentum est perpetuum. you see there be some sudden gusts and eruptions of grief which like a land-flood lays all under water, but are quickly gone. Mercies and Deliverances to a carnal heart are like flowers that upon their first cutting smell very sweet, and they are put then in the bosom: or like Tulips, which upon the first gathering are very betutiful and delightful to the eye, and serve a day or two to discourse on; but anon after, they grow stolen, and out they go to the dunghill. The holy Ghost hath compared this kind of Gladness to the crackling of thorns: As the crackling of thorns under a pot, Eccles. 7.6. so is the laughter of a fool. I think I do carnal people no wrong in expounding this Text over their joy; for in Scripture-sense, all natural men are fools, and their gladness and joy shows them to be so; there is no solidness nor duration in it; it is like the crackling of thorns, is makes a great noise, but is quickly out. But now Thankfulness or Spiritual rejoicing is longer lived by far; and therefore you shall find God charging the memories of his people with the keeping of all the passages of his love and providence; Deut. 8.2. Thou shalt remember all the way wherein the Lord thy God led thee these forty years in the wilderness, a great work certainly, we see it is no easy matter to remember all the way wherein the Lord hath led us these four years; what is it to remember the mercies of forty years! yet as great as it is, as God doth charge it upon his people, so David chargeth himself with it: Bless the Lord, O my soul, and forget not all his benefits. One ingredient into Thankfulness, is a good memory, Psal. 103.2. which like the Ark must preserve the rod, and the pot of manna, and the Law; the Fatherly Corrections, the Miraculous Provisions, and the glorious Ordinances where with God blesseth his people. And it seems David studied his charge so well, that in answer thereunto he undertakes with God: I will sing praise unto my God while I have my being. Psal. 104.33. his Thankfulness is as long lived as himself, it knew no other termination than life itself: yea, life must not bound his praise; I will praise thee for ever; Psal. 52.9. that is his engagement to God; and if that be too narrow, he will put an ever at the top of that ever; Psal. 145.1. I will bless thy Name for ever and ever; nothing short of eternity shall terminate his Thankfulness: the Reason is, because (as you have seen) Thankfulness takes its Rise from durable and unchangeable grounds; the Covenant of God, and his glory, which like himself are eternal, and immutable: He hath commanded his Covenant for ever: holy and reverend is his Name, and therefore itself is unchangeable and eternal. This shall suffice for the third; I come to the fourth Difference. They differ in their Operations or Returns. Truly as the Rise, Fourth Difference, Operations. so the Operations of mere carnal joy and gladness are low, earthly, sensual; like culinary fire or smoke, which seems to aspire and ascend up to heaven, or, the element of fire; but gets not above the first region of the air: or like a lazy thick fog, which if it move upward a little, it falls presently down again with its own weight to the earth, from whence it arose: So it is with natural joy and gladness: For, First, either it is bounded and terminated within itself, Carnal joy sets up 1. Self. whilst upon the coming in of some desired or desirable good, it doth hug itself, Hab. 1.16. and bless itself: It sacrificeth to its own net, and burns incense to its own drag; i.e. ascribes to its own power, and policy, and wisdom, what is done, like the Babylonian Tyrant; By the multitude of my Charets am I come up to the height of the mountains, and the sides of his Carmel, etc. and I have digged and drunk water, and with the soles of my feet have I dried up all the Rivers of the besieged places. Here is nothing to be heard but I, and mine; and so all the Returns are dedicated to self: put on fine apparel, dress as brave as the Sun, eat the fat, drink wine in bowls, dance to the instruments of Music, set open the Cellar-doors, drink so many hogsheads empty, and their own full; this is an Oxford-day of Thanksgiving, and I would such days were only kept there; I would this were only the Thanksgiving of Cavaliers. But secondly, 2. Instruments if a carnal heart go out of itself, it is not upward; it is but forward to the Creature: it looks no higher than the second causes; it eyes the Instruments, and cries up Commanders and Soldiers, and puts the bays and garland upon their heads; Saul hath slain his thousands, and David his ten thousands. God hath little or no share in the triumph. Or thirdly, 3. Rests in duties. if carnal Joy keep a day or Thanksgiving as the very Philistines did so much, when that strong Garrison, Samson, was surrendered up into their hands, and offered a great Sacrifice to Dagon their god, Judg. 16.23. etc. I say, If Carnal joy go into the Temple, hear Sermons, sing Psalms, lift up the voice in Thanksgiving, in all these it gets no higher than the duty. The duty looks upon God, the heart doth not: or if God be propounded, God is not exalted: When ye fasted, etc. did ye at all fast unto me, Zech. 7.5. even unto me? And when ye did eat, and when ye did drink, did ye not eat to yourselves, and drink to yourselves? In fasting and feasting, that is, in days of Humiliation and in days of Thanksgiving, they rested the in duty: self was uppermost in both: God was the object of the duty indeed, but self was the end: Ye did eat and drink to yourselves. And when the duty is done, all is done: the Fasting of carnal people is but the holding downn the head like a bulrush for a day, and their Thanksgivings are but the holding up the head like a reed for a day. Nothing outlives the day or the duty. Public Duties are are the end of the carnal man's rejoicing: they are but the Medium of the holy man's rejoicing, that serves to advance him for further and higher Returns. Springs, we say, will rise as high as they fall; and so doth the Saint's Thankfulness: as it is a grace which comes down from heaven; so it is a grace that ascendeth up back again to heaven, True Thankfulness works itself out, and carrieth up the soul with it thither: and that 1. In exalting God. 1. In high admirations and exaltations of God. I will extol thee, O Lord; for thou hast lifted me up: thou hast lifted me up, and therefore I will lift thee up; Psal. 30.1. and he calls in others to help him in this great work; O magnify the Lord with me, Psal. 34.3. and let us exalt his Name together. And this is the duty the Psalmist here commends to the sons of men; O that men would praise the Lord: Let them exalt him also in the Congregation of the people, and praise him in the Assembly of the Elders. He would have God more exalted, and man less. Secondly, it works heaven-ward and God-ward in holy prayer: David got safe to the Crown thorough all his wars, 2. In Prayer. and troubles, and persecutions, resolves by way of Render, Psal. 116.13. I will call upon the Name of the Lord: and, to bind the Sacrifice with Cords to the horns of the Altar, he doubles the engagement upon his own soul, Vers. 17. I will offer to thee the Sacrifice of Thanksgiving, and call upon the Name of the Lord. One would have thought he might now have given over praying; God had put an end to his troubles, and he might put an end to his prayers: nay, but that is the note of an Hypocrite, to cease praying when troubles cease. What is the hope of the hypocrite? etc. Will he always call upon God? No, Job 27.10. there be two times when the Hypocrite will not call upon God: First, when troubles are too heavy: Secondly, when troubles are removed; despair will not suffer him to pray then, and laziness will not let him pray now. With the truely-thankful it is other wise: as prayer begets deliverance; so deliverance begets prayer; and so he shows that it is not necessity makes him pray only, but love. Love to prayer, and love to the God of prayer. That is a third thing wherein his Thankfulness operates, 3. In love. sc. Love; it carries out the heart in exceeding love to God. I will love thee, Psal. 18.1. Title. O Lord my strength, etc. so sings David, in the day that the Lord had delivered him from the hands of all his enemies, and from the hand of Saul. And this Love the Saints express in these three ways especially: 1. In labouring to know more of God: after God had done so many miracles and wonders for Israel, Moses presents God with this Petition: I beseech thee show me thy glory. Exod. 33.18. He had seen much of the wonders of God; now his love is fired with desires of seeing the God of these wonders. He would fain be acquainted with that God which did all those wonders. 2. In labouring to enjoy more of God, to have him for their God. Thou art great, and dost wondrous things: I, but that will not serve the turn: Psal. 86.10. Teach me thy way, O Lord, unite my heart to thee to fear thy Name: Vers. 11. he would know the way to God, that he might enjoy more communion with God. Unite my heart, etc. not the things of God, but God himself, will content a thankful heart; as Luther professed to God when the Princes and States of Germany sent him a whole Table full of Plate; Lord, saith he, thou shalt not turn me off with these things. A gracious heart could take little comfort in Victories and Deliverances, and other comforts, unless the God of those Victories and Comforts were his too. And therefore thirdly, this love doth express itself in glorying in God: So the Church in that Psalm of Thanksgiving, Psal. 48, Psal. 48.3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 12, 13. when she had told all the world the great Victories God had given by Land and Sea; how he had routed mighty Kings and Princes, and made them glad to betake themselves to their heels; they came, and so went home again: after she had led the Spectator round about the Line of Communication, and invited him to behold the beauty and strength of her Towers and Fortifications; she concludes the Psalm with this triumph, as that which infinitely transcended all the rest: This God is our God for ever and ever; Verse 14. The God that hath done all these wonders, is my God. She glories not so much in the Victories God had given her, as in interest in the God of those Victories. Well, that is the third thing wherein Thankfulness acts, Love to God. The Fourthly, Self-denial. Fourth is, Self-denial for God's sake: And after all this is come upon us, since our God hath punished us less than our iniquities deserve, and hath given us such deliverance as this; Exra 9.13.14. should we again break thy Commandments? so argued thankful Ezra. I tell you, Sirs, there is more Thankfulness in one act of Self-denial, then in twenty days of Thanksgiving. Fifthly, in Payment of Vows Fifthly, true Thankfulness works God-ward, in payment of vows: What shall I render, saith David? I will pay my vows. And again, vers. 18, I will pay my vows; to show he would be much, and watchful, Psal. 116.14. and exact in that Return of Thankfulness: And doubtless it is as proper a return as any; for all the mercies of God to his people, whether National or Personal, whether Victories or Supplies, they are all the making good of his Covenant to them, as I have showed * Vide pag. 8. before: He will ever be mindful of his Covenant; and therefore the sutablest Return that we can make, is the making good our Covenant to God; the payment of our Vows to him: Thy vows are upon me, Psal. 56.12. I will render praises eo thou. Sixthly, in Believing. Sixthly, in believing: Let God deliver a thankful heart, and it will trust him another time: And Israel saw that great work which the Lord did upon the Egyptians, Exod. 14.31. and the people believed the Lord, and his servant Moses: that was a thankful Return indeed: a people or person cannot more honour God, then by believing on him. Abrabam was strong in faith, Rom. 4.20. giving glory to God. God did this great work upon the Egyptians, on purpose that they might believe him ever after. The Psalmist observe it; Thou breakest the heads of the Dragons in the Waters; Psal. 74.14. Thou brakest the head of the Leviathan in pieces. Who was that Leviathan? who were these Dragons? Surely none other but Pharaoh and his Army, as huge as the Leviathan, as fierce as Dragons: Oh they had stings in their heads; I, but God broke their heads, and quenched their stings in the waters: To what end? Thou gavest him to be meat to the people inhabiting in the wilderness. What, did the Israelites powder up the carcases of these Leviathans and Dragons, the Egyptians, to serve them for Victuals while they kept Lent in the Wilderness? No, he gave them to be meat; not food for their bodies, but food for their faith; that as long as they should travel in the wilderness, where they should meet with innumerable multitudes of nonplussing oppositions and dangers, they might remember the Dragons and the Leviathan (as David after did the Lion and the Bear) and their faith might be strengthened when it had fed well on the remembrance of that wonder of salvation. And so it was for the present; Israel saw that great work which the Lord did upon the Egyptians; and they believed the Lord and his servant Moses: a blessed frame of heart and fruit of Thankfulness, would it have held: but there was their folly and unthankfulness; they would not feed upon this experience, and it became their sin and their ruin in the wilderness. How long will this people provoke me? Numb. 14.11. how long will it be ere they believe me for all the signs which I have showed them in the wilderness? In this Wilderness they shall wander, Verse 33. and there they shall die. But to proceed. Seventhly, in ordering the conversation. Psal. 50. ult. A Seventh operation of Thankfulness is, A well-ordering of the Conversation: He that offereth me praise, glorifieth me: but to him that ordereth his conversation aright, etc. It is a kind of honour done to God, to keep a day of Thanksgiving, to hear two Sermons, to sing Psalms, to pray and praise, etc. but the main work is the ordering of the Conversation, or, as the Hebrew signifies, disposing of one's way aright. Thankful lips do well, but thankful lives do better. A day of thanksgiving is somewhat, but a life of thanksgiving is all. Eighthly, in desires that others would praise God. Eighthy a thankful heart is filled with enlarged desires that others, that all would be thankful. The holy Psalmist here cries out to all that receive mercies, that they would return praise●, etc. He observeth how much men take in from God, and how little men lay out for God, and is troubled at it. He cries out as a man in pain and grief of spirit, Oh that men would praise the Lord! He would not willingly have God be a loser by any of the wonders he doth for the children of men: and surely this an high expression of Thankfulness, when the heart travels with holy desires that all the world might come in and be tributary to the glory of God: it is the design of the 148 Psalms throughout, the thankful Psalmist engageth heaven and earth, Angels and men, the whole Creation to come in and help him keep a day of Thanksgiving. A gracious heart doth not think it enough to praise God alone; though it would be praising God, were there none in heaven or earth to bear it company. To that end, Ninthly, Ninthly, in talking of God's works. sal P. 145. 10, 11, 12. a thankful heart delights to be talking of the wonderful works of God. Thy Saints shall bless thee, they shall speak of the glory of thy kingdom, and talk of thy power, to make known to the sons of men thy mighty acts. And the Psalmist doth not intent to bind this burden upon others, that he might might withdraw his own shoulders; no, he looks upon it as a privilege as well as a duty, and therefore engageth himself: I will speak of the glorious honour of thy majesty, Verse 5. and of thy wondrous works. A gracious heart delights to be spreading and publishing of the wonderful works of God, repeating and reckoning up all his loving kindnesses: I will mention the loving kindnesses of the Lord, and the praises of the Lord, Isa. 63.7. according to all that the Lord hath bestowed on me, and the great goodness rewards the house of Israel which he hath bestowed on them, according to his mercies, and according to the multitude of his loving kindnesses: so sings the Church, Isa. 63.7. And this the Saints do, to the end that they may not only provoke one another to set forth his praises, but that they may render their God glorious to all the world, and propagate and perpetuate the memory of his wonderful works to all generations: One generation shall praise thy works to another, and shall declare thy mighty acts: that is, one generation shall make over the report and memorial of the glorious cts of God unto another; that so he may have the glory of what he doth in one age, in all the succeeding ages and generations of the Church to the end of the world: Psal. 78.5. This was the testimony which the Lord established in Jacob, and the Law which he appointed in Israel; That they should make known to their children the strength and the wonderful works which God hath done; to what end? That the generation to come might know them, Verse 6. even the children which should be born, who should arise and declare them to their children, etc. according to this Law your may find them acting, Vers. 2, 3, 4. Verse 2. I will open my mouth, I will utter darksaying of old, Verse 3. Which we have heard and known, and our fathers have told us. Verse 4. We will not hid them from their children, showing to the generation to come the praises of the Lord, and his strength, and his wonderful works that he hath done. They had received the memorial of the wonders of God from their fathers, and they will hand it down to their children, that the wonders of God might be as eternal as the God of those wonders. And to that end, Tenthly, in longing to praise God in heaven. Tenthly and lastly, gracious spirits, in laid and enamelled with Thankfulness, because they can live but a while to praise God on earth, and their generations too shall not continue after them for ever, to do this work, therefore they breathe after heaven, where in the presence of God their praises shall be perfected and perpetuated here, they are weak, weary, full of natural and sinful mixtures and defilements; there, they shall be vigorous, active, pure, perfect, as unchangeable, as interminable as eternity itself. They rest not day and night, Revel. 8.4. saying, Holy, holy, holy Lord God Almighty, which was, and is, and is to come. Thankfulness is a pure flame of a restless motion, ever mounting upward till it come to its element, the Choir of Saints and Angels in heaven, where it shall sing everlasting Hallelujahs to him that sitteth upon the throne, and to the Lamb; where it shall keep a day of Thanksgiving that shall never know an evening. And thus have I done with the fourth and last difference between Gladness and Thankfulness, sc. their operations, and so with the whole Doctrinal part of my Discourse. I should now come to improve it to Use and Application; two ways especially: 1. By way of an Examination, 2. By way of Direction. But truly the very opening of the Doctrine unto you, hath done both these already to your hands, or at least furnished you with materials upon which you may do both yourselves. Take this Model or Platform of true Thankfulness, lay it before you, operate upon it in your serious and impartial thoughts; and if you would know whether you are a thankful people or no, you may easily resolve into an Use of Examination, while every branch under all these four heads of differences will serve you as Note of Trial, whereby you may make some Judgement upon the question Whether you do more than others of the world, in this great work of Thankfulness. And if you would know how you might be thankful, set this Model in your eye, and it will serve you as Directory, wherein every branch (again) will be a Rule whereby you may form and proportion your Thankfulness according to the Word, and the example of those Saints who have excelled in this grace and duty of Thankfulness. Truly, Honourable and Beloved, you had need to do it, and to do it with your best and purest intentions: for I profess to you, the most, not most of men only, but of Christians, do woefully mistake both this duty and themselves too. The world, yea, the greatest part of the Gospel-world, is extremely out in this great business of Thankfulness. It is sad and fearful to observe, with what skins, and shadows, and (almost) mockeries God is turned off, in stead of this pure, holy, spiritual, active grace and duty of Thankfulness: God looks for praise, and we turn him off with a natural, lazy, selfish Gladness. Some haply go not so far, but like the elder Brother in the Gospel stand murmuring & quarrelling without, whilst in our Father's house there is feasting and music. Many malignant spirits there be who fret, and repine, and gnash their teeth at the glorious Successes wherewith God hath been pleased to crown the out-going of his servants and people in these later days. But truly that sads not my spirit so much, as to see a people whom God hath strived to endear unto himself by so many miracles of preservation, Deliverances and Victories, to mock God out of his praise, and themselves (at length) out of their mercies. Surely we may weep over our Deliverances, and turn our days of Thanksgiving into days of mourning and lamentation, to consider how we dally with God, and put him off with a few empty, formal Compliments, in stead of that real, and spiritual, and vital duty which he expects and deserves at our hands. And therefore I said, when I heard I was designed to the service of this day I will not stand to analyse this mercy, nor take in pieces this work of God, the surrender of that strong impregnable Hold of Chester, though very great, and worthy to be sought out by all them that take pleasure in the works of the Lord; but I will tell the Parliament, and tell the Kingdom, what it is to be thankful, that they may see how much they are mistaken, and what wrath hangs over our heads for the carnality, rottenness, hypocrisy of our rejoicings over all the wonders which God hath done for England. And therefore, Noble Senators, and all you that stand before God this day, or to whom the words of this day may come, sit down I beseech you, seriously examine yourselves by, and compare yourselves with this Model of Thankfulness held forth to you this day, and see whether indeed you do come up to the Law of that Service, which all the wonders that God hath done for you, doth call for at your hands; and what course you are to take for the preventing and averting of that wrath which I am afraid is gone forth against us for this thing. I cannot stand to convince you by each particular in this Model. Give me leave to single out but one branch, and to deal faithfully with you in that particular; it is a main one, and such as will include many other. It is the fifth branch of the fourth head of Difference between Gladness and Thankfulness: namely. Paying of Vows, or keeping of Covenant with God. Noble Patriots, and all you that come hither to keep a day of Thanksgiving to God this day; come on, set up tribunals, and place Conscience thereon as an impartial Judge, to keep a little day of Judgement in your bosoms this day: We must all appear before the Judgemedt-seat of Christ one day; 2 Cor. 5.10. and how soon, the Lord only knows: Come, start not back; better judge ourselves then be judged of the Lord: If we cannot stand before our own Consciences, how shall we be able to stand before that Judge who is greater than our heart, and knoweth all things; 1 Joh. 3.20. the great-heart-maker, and the great-heart-searcher. Come on then, I say, and see whether in this one branch of Thankfulness we can approve ourselves to God to be a thankful people. I will not ravel into your bosoms to inquire with what dispositions of spirit, upon what grounds and interests; to what ends and references you entered into the Solemn League and Covenant; though I wish with all my heart that you would; perhaps you would find a pad in the straw; in your entrance into this Covenant, possibly you may discover rashness in opposition to judgement; hypocrisy, in opposition to truth and sincerity; it may be, base, low, carnal ends and aims, in opposition to Righteousness, which are the Qualifications of a religious Covenanter; Jer. 4.2. perhaps such workings of heart as sometimes brought the Sichemites into Covenant with the sons of Jacob; Gen. 34.23. Shall not their , and their substance, and every beast of theirs be ours? etc. perhaps the gaining of such an office, securing the estate, the keeping of such a Living, was in the eye, etc. Oh let the Kingdoms inquire into this, and let every man look into his own heart: for if it were so, know of a certin, that this was first source and fountain of all that sin and mischief which hath broken in upon us since the day of our Covenanting with God and with one another. But this I leave: the thing that I would close upon with your Consciences, is this: How have you kept your Covenant with God? Men and Brethren, have ye paid your vows unto the Lord, the Vows which ye uttered in this place in the day wherein you lifted up your hands to the most high God? If you shall say, Yea, we have paid our Vows, and (with Saul) We have obeyed the voice of the Lord; let me demand, with Samuel, What means then the lowing of the oxen, and the bleating of the sheep in mine ears? What means that brutish, and beastly noise of Heresy, and Schism, and Profaneness in mine ears? Did ye not indeed Covenant with God the preservation of Religion in the Church of Scotland, etc. and the Reformation of Religion in the Kingdoms of England and Ireland, in Doctrine, Worship, Discipline and Government, according to the Word of God, and the example of the best Reformed Churches? Oh what is the reason then that to this day, the House of God lieth waste? in some places there being no Ministry for want of Ordination; in others, indeed in all places, there being no Discipline or Government for want of a Rule according to the Word: no Discipline, I say, unless it be amongst those whose impatient zeal suffers them not to wait for your civil Sanction. Will ye say The time is not come; Hagg. 1.2. the time for building the Lords House is not come? I cannot give you the Prophet's answer; I must confess you have not spent your time in building your own houses, and ceiling them; nay, some of your houses have been pulled down to the ground, and the ceiling destroyed with axes and hammers, in the Psalmists language: But this I pray with all my soul, that you have not said so, long; The time is not come, the time is not come, we are not yet in a fitting posture, (Oh, my soul trembles to speak it) till God say The time is past, The time is past: Because I would have purged, and thou wast not purged; Ezek. 241.3. thou shalt not be purged; thou shalt not be purged from thy filthiness any more, till I have caused my fury to rest upon thee. Oh, if the Lord should speak such a word against us, England is undone for ever. I am much afraid, if you time it out sse any more, till I have caused my fury to rest upon thee. Oh, if the Lord should speak such a word against us, England is undone for ever. I am much afraid, if you time it out a little longer, you will have no materials to build the Lords house withal, unless you will build it with the shrubs and thorns of the wilderness. But further, how comes it to pass, I beseech you, since you are under the Covenant of God, to reform according to the Word, and example of the best Reformed Churches, that some are so startled at the very mention of such a Clause, According to the Word of God, and example of the best Reformed Churches, as if they saw a monster, some hideous apparition which had in it the face of Treason and Blasphemy? But I must proceed. Have you not Covenanted to extirpate Superstition, Heresy, Schism, Profaneness, and whatsoever shall be found contrary to sound Doctrine and the power of Godliness & c.? How comes it to pass then that these abound more than ever they did, and that under your Noses? while there is such a numerous increase of Errors and Heresies, as I blush to repeat what some have affirmed; namely, that there be no Isse then One hundred and eighty several Heresies propagated and spread in this neighbouring City, which hitherto hath been so famous for soundness of Doctrine and the power of godliness: and many of them also of such a nature, as that I may say, in Galvin's language, The Errors and Innovations under which we so much groaned of later years, were but tolerabiles ineptiae, tolerable trifles, children's play, compared with these damnable Doctrines, Doctrines of devils as the Apostle calls them: Polygamy, Arbitrary Divorce, Mortality of the Soul, No Ministry, no Churches, No Ordinances, No Scripture; yea, the very Divinity of Christ and the holy Ghost questioned by some, denied by others: And the very foundation of all these laid in such a Schism of boundless liberty of Conscience, viz. Believe what you will, and preach what you believe, and such lawless Separation of Churches; and all these not only whispered in corners, but preached on the house top, yea, published in Print before your faces with so much virulency and impudence, that I verily believe no Age since the Apostles times could ever parallel. Fathers and Brethren, Acts 18.17. how will you call this Keeping of Covenant with God? Had we a Parliament of Apostate julian's, August. Epist 166. of whom it is reported, that at what time he opened the Temples of the Heathenish gods, he set open the Christian Churches; called home all the Christians whom he had banished, both Orthodox and Heretic, and gave them, as we call it, Liberty of conscience; but as Austin more truly phraseth it, Libertatem perditionis, Liberty to destroy themselves; Eo modo putans Christianum nemen posse perire de terris, etc. for that was his policy and end, namely, by liberty of all Religions to destroy the true, and the professors thereof too: or had we a Parliament of careless Gallio's, we should not wonder: but for a Parliament of Christians, Protestants, Professors, the choicest, the most active that could be culled out of a Christian State, the like not under heaven; that these things should be done, and you hold your peace, and be able to keep your places, and not to put on righteousness as a breastplate, Isa. 59.17. and the garments of vengeance for your clothing, as it is said of God; this makes the Churches abroad to wonder what England's Parliament is a doing; and all at home that love the Lord Jesus Christ more than their own interests and notions, to be filled with unspeakable trembling and astoshnishment, to wit, what God means to do with this poor bleeding Church and State. But further: Have we not lifted up our hands to the most high God, to amend our lives, and each one to go before another in the example of a real Reformation? Ah God, where is it to be found? Is not the drunkard a drunkard still; and the swearer a swearer still; and the adulterer an adulterer still? etc. and Oh that I could but say with the Apostle, Such were some of you. Yea, what an improvement of wickedness is there in the Kingdom? as if the Covenant had blasted men's consciences, not their corruptions. But, that which is yet worse than all this, is, that this holy Covenant is become amongst many, a brand of infamy, a Cain's mark almost: Would ye stigmatize a man (in some places) to purpose? call him a Covenanter: He, he will take the Covenant. Ah Lord! it is able to make one's hair stand upright, to see what dirt and mire is cast into the face of this holy Covenant: Surely never was Covenant so abused, scorned, and trampled under foot as this is: and happy were we, if it were by the wicked and profane malignant party only. Ah how many have dealt with the Covenant, as the Scribes and Pharisees of old did, and the Antinomians of this age do with the Law of God, make it void, through their distinctions and glosses which they have put upon it? How many deal with it as the Papists do with the Scriptures, make it a nose of Wax and ● Leaden rule; a two-faced picture, an Any thing to serve their own turns? Do we thus requite God, Oh foolish people and unwise! Well, Sirs, we pray for the King's conversion, and talk of his coming home; but there is a place of Scripture sounds dreadfully in mine ears: For now shall they say, We have no king. When should Israel say so? Hos. 10.3. Surely when Zed●kiah was carried Captive into Babylon; of which you may read, 2 King. 24 15, 16, 17. and Chap. 25 7. They slow the sons of Zedekiah before his eyes, and put out the eyes of Zedekiah, and bound him in fetters of brass, and carried him to Babylon. Then did Israel cry We have no King: Alas, alas, they have put out the eyes of his Majesty, and carried him away captive: our King is in Babylon, among Idolaters and Murderers: We have no King, and it is just with God it should be so, because we feared not the Lord; we first cast off God, before our King did cast off us: we would not have God to be our King, and therefore he would not suffer our King to be our god: We have no King, because we feared not the Lord. And wherein did this fearlesness of God appear? It fellows, Vers. 4. They have spoken words swearing falsely in making a Covenant. What Covenant was that? Vers. 4. Some refer it to the Prophecies of the false Prophets, who though they prophesied lies to the people, a vision of their own head, yet they were so sacrilegiously impudent as to father their lies upon God, by setting his seal to their Prophecies, the form of oath which God himself did use, As I live, saith the Lord. Others refer these words to the Covenant which God threatens to disannul, The Covenant they made with death and hell. Isa. 28.18. But I conceive with others, the words do relate either to the Covenant which Zedekiah and the people made with the King of Babylon to serve him, and become his Vassals, of which you may read, Ezek. 17.12, 13, 14. The King of Babylon is come to Jerusalem, and hath taken the King thereof, Ezek. 17.12, 13, 13. etc. and made a Covenant with him, and hath taken an Oath of him, that the Kingdom might be base, i. e. be in subjection to the King of Babylon. This Covenant Zedekiah, and the Princes, and the people had solemnly confirmed both by Oath, and by lifting up or striking hand, vers. 18. Or else the words may relate to that other Covenant which Zedekiah, the Princes, the Priests, and the People of Judah had made with God, while this Captivity was yet threatened, Jer. 34.2, 3, 14, 15, 19 concerning the letting of their servants go free at the end of Seven years, according to the Law: Exod. 21.2. And ye were now turned, and had done right in my sight, in proclaiming liberty every man to his neighbour; and ye had made a Covenant before me in the house which is called by my Name. I say, To either or both of these Covenants, may the words refer; for in both these they swore falsely, not in regard of the matter of the Covenants for it was lawful and good: but in respect of their managing of it: Thoy have spoken words swearing falsely: there was nothing but words to be found in their covenanting; they were not real and substantial with God in this solemn Service; they broke their Covenant assoon as they had made it; that was their swearing falsely: so you may find it laid to their charge in the former places: Jer. 34.16. Ye were now turned, and had done right in my sight, etc. but ye turned and polluted my Name, and caused every man his servant and every man his handmaid to return, and brought them into subjection. Ye were turned, but ye turned: here is one turn too much: In the first turn, they made a Covenant with God; Verse 18. in the second, they broke it: I will give the men that have transgressed my Covenant, which have not performed the words of the Covenant which they had made before me. And no better dealt they in the Covenant they made with the King of Babylon, Ezek. 17.15, 16. to become his servants: He rebelled against him, etc. He broke the Covenant; He despised the Oath, and he broke the Covenant. And so again, vers. 18. And the breach of both these Covenants is aggravated from the Author of this Service; Deut 6.13. it is a part of Divine Worship: Thou shalt fear the Lord thy God, and serve him, and shalt swear by his Name; and by the object or witness of the Covenant: as God is the Author, so he is witness; thou shalt swear by his Name: God is called in, as a righteous Judge to take vengeance on the party that shall prevaricate, Vers. 19 in both which respects God calls it his Oath: Surely mine Oath which he hath despised, and my Covenant which he hath broken. Jer. 34.18. As also, it is aggravated in both places, from the solemnity of the making of the Covenant; as in that place in Jeremiah: They have not performed the words of the Covenant which they had made before me, when they out the calf in twain, and passed between the parts thereof. And so again, vers. 19 The people of the land which passed between the parts of the calf: which kind of Ceremony or Sanction, was taken from Gods own command to Abraham when he made a Covenant with him, Diodorus Tarsensis. Stabani & caesa formaban● foedera porca. Gen. 15. from whence also even the Chaldeans and Romans borrowed it, as they had other parts and parcels of Religion; by which Ceremony they did as it were silently imprecate this Judgement upon themselves, that they might be so divided as those beasts were, if they did violate their Covenant: from this solemnity, as from the other in Ez●kiel, etc. giving the hand, Ezek. 17.18. or as with us, lifting up the hand to the most high God, doth God aggravate their Covenant-violation; when lo, he had given his hand! God speaks with indignation, as of an eminent and remarkable treachery and perfidiousnes: When lo! he had given his hand. And for this indeed now they begin to judge themselves: We have no King because we feared not the Lord; that is, because we have not feared the Oath of the Lord, but have dealt falsely and treacherously in the Covenant: it is just with God we should have no King, that our King should break Covenant with us, that have broken Covenant with our God: yea, they judge themselves not only for what is past, but unworthy to finde mercy for the time to come: not only We have no King, but, What then shall a King do to us? q. d. We deserve never to see the face of our King any more, but to be left to perish in our Confusions and Divisions, while every man doth what is good in his own eye: or if our King should come back out of Captivity, What should he do to us? Can we expect a King should do us any good, while our God is angry with us for our Covenant-wickednesse? No; if he should come out of Babylon again, God might make him a curse in stead of a blessing, a plague and a snare to our destruction. Men and Brethren, this I take to be the sense of the place; and I need say no more. Surely every one of you here before God, have with trembling hearts prevented me in the Application: only let me add this: If God were so angry, and threatens so furiously the breach of a Covenant made with an Heathenish Tyrant, an Infidel (with whom the other Babylon, Mystical Babylon, teacheth no faith is to be kept) because it was made before God, and by the Name of God; shall he prosper? shall he escape that doth such things? Jer. 17.19. or shall he break the Covenant and be delivered? As I live, mine Oath that he hath despised, and my Covenant that he hath broken, even it will I recompense upon his own head, etc. Oh how shall she escape? yea, of how much sorer punishment shall we be thought worthy, if we be found guilty of so high a perjury in breaking and despising a Covenant made not only before God, in the Name of God, but with God himself. In so solemn and sacred a manner, with Fasting, and Prayer, and Sermons, and lifting up our hands to the most high God. Oh that as we have sinned with this people, and beyond, infinitely beyond the line and measure of their transgressions; so we would judge ourselves with them, in the bitterness of our spirits; We have no King, because we feared not the Lord; speaking words, swearing falsely in making a Covenant; and what then should a King do to us? We hope an end shall be put shortly to these bloody desolating wars; and we cry to the Sword, Oh thou Sword of the Lord, Jer. 47.6. how long will it be ere thou be quiet? put up thyself into thy scabbard, rest and be still: but the Sword will not obey our voice; and no wonder; for we have not obeyed the voice of the Sword; we have not heard the Sword, and who had appointed it: and therefore methinks I hear the Sword replying, How can I be quiet, since the Lord hath given me a charge against England? Vers. 7. Yea, methinks I hear God renewing the Commission of the Sword in the words of that threatening: I will bring a sword upon yo● that shall avenge the quarrel of my Covenant. We keep now a day of Thanksgiving for the surrender of a strong Hold in the Kingdom, Levit. 26.25. and God hath sent us in the glad tiding of a great Victory in the West, to fill up our joy, and to bespeak more days of Rejoicing and Thankfulness; but for my part, I fear that for these things the Sword hath yet a Commission to come up to London, to pass thorough the Kingdom; and that we shall hear ere long, as fast of Losing Cities, and Castles, and the strong Garrisons of the Kingdom, as now of gaining them; and read our Catalogue of Deliverances and Victories backward with sad hearts: Chester lost, Hereford lost, Dartmonth lost, & sic in caet. If you would prevent so sad a turn of things, give me leave humbly to commend to you these two short Advices. 1. Proclaim, I beseech you, a solemn Fast, wherein we may professedly humble and afflict our souls for our Covenant-violations, whereby God is so deeply provoked; and wherein (if it might seem good to your wisdoms) the Covenant might be renewed in a more solemn and serious manner with our God: that as Samuel called the people to Gilgal to renew the Kingdom upon Saul; so you that are England's samuel's, 1 Sam. 11.14. might call the people together to this Galgal (where the Lord first rolled away our reproach, by bringing us into the bond of the Covenant) to renew the Kingdom upon our Lord Jesus, whom God hath appointed to be King in his holy Hill of Zion. Psal. 2.6. For think not, Brethren, I beseech you, that because we have broken our Covenant with God, therefore we are disobliged from our Covenant: that were an easy way to get lose indeed, if when we are weary of our Vows, it were but to go and sin against them, and then we are disengaged: But it is with the Covenant as it is with the Law; there is a twofold obligation; the one to duty, the other to a curse; and if we break the one, the other will hold us fast enough. Did not my words take hold upon your fathers? How? Zech. 1 6. Surely not in the commanding power of them, but in the executionary power; they took hold on them with a vengeance: And therefore our way is to bring ourselves again under the commanding power, that we may not lie under the condemning cursing power of the Covenant. Indeed the Covenant is then broken, and not fully till then, when a people will not own their Covenant with God: and therefore Oh that the Lord would help us in this our day to consider the things that belong unto our peace, before they be hid from our eyes. 2. To that end, study real Thankfulness: To you that sit at the Stern, guiding the Ship of this Church and State in this troublesome Sea; let me commend unto you but this piece of Thankfulness: Set up God; Vers. 23. Exalt him in the congregation of the people, by setting up the Ministry of the Word: Let this be your wisdom and honour, that when God hath given up the strong Holds of the Kingdom to you, you would render them up back again to God, by placing able and faithful Ministers in those eminent places of the Kingdom, that may undeceive the poor mifled people, and to season them with Principles of Religion and Loyalty, to which they have been so long strangers. To that end, hasten I beseech you your Ordinance for Ordination: it were a sad thing that the strong Holds of the Kingdom should be taken for God, and kept for the Devil; for want of Pastors according ●o Gods own heart, and that may feed them with knowledge and understanding. Verse 32. Secondly, Pra●se him in the Assembly of the Elders, by setting up Church-Government according to your Covenant. What it is, I need not tell you; enough hath been said about this matter; and you are wise. I will not, I need not ask you, Whether you intent really and cordially to go about this Work, this greatest work wherewith God and the Kingdom have entrusted you: I know you do intent it; and if you do, Why not now? when the Lord hath so miraculously broken the power of the enemy, and (in so great a measure) subdued the Kingdom before you, as if God of purpose had created you an opportunity to give demonstration to the world, that you are in good earnest. Only let me say thus much to you, in that plainness you give the Ministers of the Gospel leave to use: Jesus Christ will not always wait upon States and Kingdoms; he will not always come a begging, as it were, to Parliament-doors. He that bids his Servants shake off the dust of their feet, Matth. 10.14. in case of refusal of their message, knows how to do it himself, Psal. 2.12. should he be angered out of his patience. Time is coming when Kings and Kingdoms would be as glad of Christ, as he would be now of them: When in their fears and dangers, when enemies be upon them, and ruin and desolation at their gates, then, Isaiah, lift up a prayer; then, send the Lamb to the Ruler, with supplications, Lord Jesus, come thou and rule over us: But as the Scotchman said of the Englishman's Will," Imprimis, I bequeath my soul to God, etc. I but, said he, Will he taken it man, will he taken it? so may I question concerning such tenders of Thrones and Kingdoms, Will Christ take them, will he accept of them? when haply they shall be surrendered upon no better terms then a desperate King would deliver up his Crown to any of his Neighbours, Vortinger, etc. even to a Stranger that would come and help him against his prevailing enemies; what Christ would do in such a case, judas you. And therefore Oh kiss the Son lest he be angry, Psal. 2.12. and ye perish from the way: when his wrath is kindled but a little, blessed are all they that put their trust in him. Happy Parliament, happy State, happy People, happy Person, that makes Christ their choice, and not their necessity. I have done: Only suffer me one word more. Take heed, I humbly beseech you, of setting yourselves down at the upper end of Christ's House and Table, and of suffering Him to be thrust down to serve as an underling at the lower and, to have no more than the lusts of some, and the humours and fancies of others, can spare him. But you have not so learned Christ: and therefore, to all you that stand before God this day▪ and to as many as desire to be a thankful people; let me add a word to close up all. Here is a Model, let it be your wisdom and honour to mould and form your Thankfulness for this days, and for all your mercies, upon it. 1. Give all diligence to possess yourselves of the grace of Thankfulness, as well as of the affection of Joy and Gladness: to that end, ply the Throne of Grace, and plead the accomplishment of that promise: A new heart will I give you, Ezek. 36.26. and a new spirit will I put into you: That is done, when all the natural affections have a divine, spiritual impress stamped upon them; when as they have born the image of the earthly, so now they bear the image of the heavenly. 2. Study, I beseech you, Spiritual Grounds and Rises from which your Thankfulness may take flight heaven ward; as, First, Scripture interest; study rather a good Title, then great Possessions; namely, to enjoy what you have, by Sonship as well as Creatureship; by co-inheritance with Jesus Christ; by promise as well as providence; with God's love, as well as by God's leave. Study the Covenant well; and then count thy interest better than the principal. I tell thee for thy comfort, if thou canst do so; if Scripture-interest can bring in more content and satisfaction to thy soul, than all earthly possessions; if Covenant-title can draw out and endear thy heart to G●d, more than all the deliverances and provisions cast in by providence; fear not, thou art a child of promise. Secondly, observe the Returns of Prayer: if thou hast been a praying Christian all this time of England's trouble, and art such a one as lookest after thine own prayers, knowest them when thou seest them again; if the hearing of thy prayer can endear thy heart to God, more than the bulk of thy mercy, whatever it is (of these visible treasures) I pronounce the a man or woman that hast more cause to rejoice then if God had given thee this days surrender, the City of Chester, solely and entirely to thine own share. Thirdly, be critical to spy out soul-advantages, the Spiritual part of every mercy; and wear them as the richest piece of all thy possessions. Fourthly, eye the Exaltations and liftings up of God in all his works, especially such as this day brings in to us, and let them lie nearest thy heart; they will keep it warm with an heavenly influence. 3. Be careful to maintain a faithful Remembrance of the mercies of God in your heads, and a settled constant frame of Thankfulness upon your hearts: for know this, The mercies of God cannot perish alone, but thou shalt perish with them: if thou forget them (that is, with a careless graceless forgetfulness) God will forget thee: if thou cast the mercies of God out to the dunghill, God will throw thee after them. O be often charging thy soul, Psal. 103, 2. with David; Bless the Lord, O my soul, and forget not all his benefits. 4. Design out for God the choicest and most spiritual Returns; such as you have beheld. First, set up God in your thoughts, exalt him in your admiring faculty: Psal. 66.3. Say unto God, How terrible art thou in thy works! through the greatness of thy power shall thine enemies submit themselves unto thee. Secondly, engage yourselves and others in Prayer to God: say, Psal. 63.2. O thou that hearest Prayer, to thee shall all flesh come: Be steadfast and unmoveable, always abounding in this work of the Lord, 1 Cor. 15. ult. forasmuch as you see your labour shall not be in vain in the Lord: He never said to the seed of Jacob, Seek ye me in vain. Isa. 45.19. Thirdly, let your Thankfulness work itself into pure flames of Love to God, and express it by labouring To Know more of God. Enjoy more Communion with God. Boast and glory more in God. Fourthly, study Self-denial; let there be but one will between God and thee, and let that will be Gods. He is a thankful man indeed, that in doing and suffering can say, Father, not my will, but thine be done. Fifthly, pay your Vows: If ever England, or thou prosper, it must be by keeping of Covenant, Ezek. 17.14. Be often rolling, that in thy soul: Psal. 56.12. I will render praises unto thee. Sixthly, Give glory to God by believing: by all the wonders that God hath done, learn to trust him in the n●xt straight; if faith have not produced these Deliverances, let these Deliverances produce faith: If happy they that have not seen, and yet believed; what shall become of them that have seen, and yet believe not? Seventhly, look to the ordering of your conversation, the dispesing of your way aright: The thankfulness of the life, is the very life of Thankfulness. Eighthly, widen your hearts in enlarged desires that others may praise God: go a begging from door to door thorough the whole Creation for praises for thy God. Ninthly, to that end, declare among the people his do: Psal. 9.11. Psal. 66.2. Sing forth the honour of his Name, make his praise glorious. It were a good becoming Solemnity on these days of Thanksgiving, if Christians in their private meetings together to feast and rejoice before the Lord, would make it a Law, that every one in their turn should remember and repeat some special eminent Victory or Deliverance wrought by God either for the Nation in general, especially since the coming together of this happy Parliament, and the beginning of these unhappy Wars; or for themselves in particular. Such conference as this would keep out vain and unprofitable discourse, preserve the memorial of Gods Loving kindnesses, exceedingly honour God, and adorn your Christian meetings together: surely such praise were comely for the upright. Christians, take all the ways you can, that God's praise may live when you are dead. Tenthly, be continually breathing after heaven, where the praises as well as the spirits of just men, are made perfect 〈◊〉 use Augustine's Contemplation with a little variation: O Lord●, says he, can no man see thy face and live? then let me die, that I may thy face: Say thou, O Lord, can no man praise thee and live? then let me die that I may live to praise thee for ever. And let me speak this one word to the comfort of all you who can spread, or (as the Hebrew signifies) measure your Thankfulness upon this Model, as Elijah spread himself upon the Shunemites dead son, 2 Kings 4.34. mouth to mouth, eyes upon eyes, and hand upon hand; limb upon limb, and part upon part; yea, that do make it a business so to do: you have begun your heaven on earth; die when you will▪ you may change your company, but not your work: you have begun an everlasting day of Thanksgiving: you have the Word of God for it; Who so offereth praise; Psal. 50. ult. glorifieth me; and to him that ordereth his conversation aright, will I show the salvation of God. AMEN. FINIS.