wherefore we muft praife him for the Lights of Heaven, and the feafons of the year, for the fruits and the beafts of the Earth, the Fouls and Fishes of the Air and Water, for the fire that warms us, the garments that cover us, the houses that shelter us, for meat and drink, fleep and innocent Recreations, for health and the remedies of our diftempers, for the invention of all Arts and Sciences, for the fecurities of Law and Government, the benefit of Commerce and Trade, for the authority of Magiftrates, the fociety of friends, the comfort of our Relations, and the content we take in our own Family,for faithful Husbands, loving Wives, dutiful Children and careful Servants: In fhort, for all that makes this world tollerable, and our Lives defirable, we must blefs and praise God: If we cannot think of them all at once, we must supply one time what we omit another; for the least of these deferve our hearty Thanksgivings.Let us confider which of all these we could well Ipare; fure I am they are all useful and beneficial to us. I confefs we are apt to regard these but slightly, because they are so common (m), whereas they are the better,because they are fo univerfal, and the commonefs of them expreffes the nobleness of their divine Author, who delights to profit all the world at once; We fhould rejoyce that our Brethren are fharers with us, and fince we have enough for our felves, our gratitude should not be lefs, that others alfo are provided for. Finally, let us take heed we do not by our ingratitude and contempt of thefe bleffings provoke God to take them from us, and teach us to value them by making us feel the want of them; for fome are fo foolish that nothing but the lofs of Mercy can teach them to esteem it; but we (m) Magnitudinem ducit, fol fpectato: em rerum confuetudo fubnifi cum deficit non habet, nemo admiratur lunam nifi labo rantem. Sen. nar. quæft.lib.I. fhall fhall I hope daily blefs God for all his Gifts, and fuffer none of them to flip out of our minds; and then we fhall have them all continued and encreased, and never want matter for our Praises. S.VI. t above all for thine inestimable Love in the Redemption of the world by our Lod Jelas Christ, for the means of grace, and the hopes of glozy.] (η) Βελτίων γαρ μερὶς ἡ ψυχὴ Plu. de tranquil. Prima mihi debes ani mi bona Juven.Sat.8. The next order of mercies are those that are Spiritu al, which though they affect us less than the Temporal, yet they profit us more, and are as much above them in real worth, as the Soul is more excellent than the body (n), fince they tend to the good of our immortal and nobler part; therefore we are here taught above all to praise God for thele: The beftMercies defervethe greate thanks, and fpiritual mercies art better in their nature, higher in their end, and more lafting in their duration, for they promote our everlafting happiness; fo that we ought to give more thanks for thefe than for all other bleflings Now as the Temporal Mercies were reduced to three heads, fo are the Spiritual alfo, and they do mutually anfwer one another. 1. Redemption anfwers to Creation, for this brought us out of nothing, that recovered us out of an Estate worfe than nothing; Creation made us capable of living in this World, Redemption of li ving for ever in the World to come. of Gate answers to our Prefervation, for this keeps our bodies, that faveth our Souls; Providence delivers us from prefent miferies, but the means of Grace re fcues many Souls from eternal Damnation. 3. hopes of Glozy anfwers to the blefings of this Life, 2. The means thefe these make our Subfiftence here to be comfortable for a while, but those not only comfort us here, but bring us to happiness that never fhall have any end. If we compare these spiritual Mercies with temporal,they far exceed them; if we look upon them by themselves, they are a compleat enumeration of all that God hath done for our Souls; and if we view them fingle, we fhall find every one of them big with miracles of Goodnefs, and affording us abundant matter of Thanksgiving. I. If we confider our Redemption, we shall find it to be a happy effect of God's inestimable Love; for how can we fufficiently prize that infinite Love of God, which fent his own dear Son to dye for his rebellious Servants? Which caused him to fuffer that we might escape?and appointed him to fuftain his wrath on Earth, that we might obtain his favour in Heaven? This is a Mercy above all other Mercies, yea it is this which makes all the reft to be Mercies: Had there been no Redemption, our Creation had only made us capable of endless Torments, and it had been better for us never to have been born than to be born to inevitable ruine (o). Without a Saviour our Prefervation had been like the fecuring a condemned malefactor to a more publick and Cidreadful execution; and all the bleffings of this lite had been no other than the Feaft prefented to the Perfian Captive intended to be facrificed, and fed that he might bleed more freely at the Altar; but Redemption alone makes all the others to be real favours. And indeed this Redemption is a mercy fo neceffary, that all mankind had perifhed without it; and isfo large, that all the old may be faved by it; it was an Attempt fo great, that none but our Logo Je (o)Math.xxvi. 14. fimplicitèr dum eft, multò melius effe non fubfistere, quàm malè fubfiftere.Hieron. las Christ durft undertake it, yet it is now fo perfectly accomplished that nothing remains to be added to it. If we think upon the wisdom that contrived it, the Love that effected it, the many millions of perithing Souls delivered by it, and the unspeakable benefits that all the world doth receive from it,we shall fay it was the greatest and noblest of all mercies: Have we peace with God, and poffibilities of Salvation? Are we filled with Expectations of Heaven,or free from the fears of Hell? We owe all this to this glorions Redemption, which fatisfied God's Juftice, and appeased his anger, engaged his Mercy to us, merited his Grace for us, and fettled an eternal Inheritance on us. Praise the Lord O Soul, my and forget not all his benefits, who forgiveth all thy Sin, and bealeth all thine Infirmities,ako faveth thy life from destruction, and crowneth thee with mercy and loving kind nefs, Pfal.ciii. 2,3,4. II, We must praise God for the means of Gjaci, for though all the World be redeemed by Jefus, yet on ly those can have benefit by this Redemption, who have Grace to apply it to themfelves; this glorious Price will be in vain to our particulars, if we want Faith and Re pentance, Hope and Charity,to lay hold of it. Now thef Graces are not given us by miracle or fudden Infpirati ons, but they are regularly and by degrees begot in us by the reading and hearing God's Word, by Prayers and the due ufe of the holy Sacraments, which being the Inftruments appointed by God to convey Grace to us, are called the means of Grace; and doubtless we have all these means fo purely retained,and duly adminiftred in this Church, that we have reafon to blefs God for them above all Nations in the Chriftian World. Let us there fore give him hearty thanks for our Baptifm, and admiffion into Chrift's Church, for our Confirmation in that holy Profession by Episcopal benediction, for our moft moft excellent Forms of Prayer and Praises, which we may daily enjoy in publick or private, for Holy Scripture conftantly read unto us in our own Tongue; for plain and pious Preaching which we hear every week to in#truct us in our duty, reprove our vices, and quicken us to all goodness; for the bleffed Communion of our Lord's body and blood which is offered to us,at leaft thrice every year, to renew our baptifmal Vow, to revive our Love to God, and encrease all our Graces: Good God! what care is there taken for our Salvation? How many. ways hath our heavenly Father tryed? How long hath he waited on us? Or what can we fay is wanting to make us full of Grace, and partakers of the Redemption wrought by Jefus Chrift? Bleffed be God, we have no Perfecution to keep us from the means, no mixtures of Idolatry to pollute us in the use of them, as in other Ages it hath been, and is in other Churches; fo that we have more reafon to bless God upon this account than any Nation under Heaven, if we did understand and would take notice of our own felicity in this kind. W III. Befidcs all this, we have the hope of Glozy: and truly if in this life only we have hope, we are of all men the most miferable,1 Cor.xv.19.fince many times the best of men have the fewest comforts, and the greatef fhare of miferies here; but let our present Condition be what it will, we can look beyond it, and behold a glorious Immortality provided for us, into which we shall shortly enter, and then all our forrows fhall have an end, fo that we have reason to say with St.Peter 1.ep. i.cap. 3,and 4.v. Bleffed be God—who hath begotten us to a lively hope through the Refurrection of Jefus Chrift from the dead: To an Inheritance incorruptible and undefiled, and that fadeth not away, referved in heaven for us. 'Tis true, we have not the actual Poffeffion as yet, but we have it in revertion, and enjoy it in hope already. We believe Gg we |