we shall have it, and our fecurity is as firm as the Truth of God can make it; and verily this bleffed hope is that, which bears up our hearts in the midft of all the miferies of this Life, this makes us love God and ferve him chearfully, this causeth us to despise the pleasures of Sin, which are but for a Season, and to contemn the fears of Suffering,and the terrors of Death it felf; This Hope is that Anchor of the Soul, by which it lays fuch hold on the divine Abyss of Mercies, that it rides fecure amidst all the storms and billows with which the World attempts to overwhelm it; This hope of Glory is a very comfortable,and a very profitable thing, for which we ought daily to praise God, and by doing so, we shall confirm it; by conftant and frequent reflecting upon our future happiness, and the divine Mercy which hath prepared it for us, our Faith will grow ftronger, and our hope more lively, fo that they will carry us on with joy to the end of our courfe, and then Faith fhall be turned into fruition, and hope fhall end in the actual poffeffion of this glory,and then we may make up what is wanting in the beft of our earthly Praises.

S.VII.Pd we beseech thee give us that due Sense of all thy mercies, that our hearts may be

unfeignedly thankful.]

The ferious confideration of the foregoing Catalogue of mercies is fufficient to strike us into admiration, if we be duly fenfible of them: and the devout Soul doth with great delight meditate upon the Greatnefs and Glory of the giver, the mifery and unworthiness of the receivers, the infinite number and the transcendent worth of the bleffings that are received, till it be fwallowed up in joy, and wonder at this vaft Abyss of the divine goodness; and then it is fit to pause a while. And in regard it is impoffible we should return fuch praises as

all

all this deferves; we must turn our Thanksgivings into Petitions, and pray to our gracious Father to add or e favour more to all the reft, even to make us unfeignedly thankful for them: Now no man is fo, but fuch as have a due Sense of these mercics wrought upon their hearts, fuch as rightly apprehend and truly value his in- finite Love in bestowing them. There are many who will by this and other Forms pretend to praife God,but alas fo long as their hearts are not touched with a due fense of his Mercies, their Praises are but formal and feigned, flight and cuftomary, and there is no agreement between their thoughts and expreffions; fo that all their gratulations muft needs be odious to him who fees them to be nothing but Hypocrify: Let us therefore beg that our hearts may be exceedingly affected with the loving-kindness of the Lord, and then we fhall need no artifice nor force to move us to give thanks, for our Souls will be filled with the Love of God (p), and that Love wil make us uneafie, till we have given vent to our thoughts by fincere Acknowledgments. And that we may endeavour as well as pray for this due benfe of God's goodness, which is the foundation of all real gratitude; we must obferve every little mercy in all its obliging Circumftances, and often fum them up together, we muft think of them frequently and feriouily, till we feel our frozen hearts warmed with holy love and delight: and when we are in this frame,we must set about this duty of Thanksgiving, and then we fhall find it very cafie and very sweet to us, very real and vigorous in it self, and very pleasant and acceptable to our heavenly Father.

(p) Laudat Deum veraciter qui eum a. mat. D.Auguft.

S.VIII.d that we may thew forth the Pzaile not only with our Lips, but in our Lives, by giving up our felves to thy Service, and by walking before thee in holiness and righteousness all our Days.]

There is a threefold effect of the forementioned bug Senle of God's mercies. First, it hath influence upon the heart, and makes that unfeignedly thankful. Secondly, upon the Lips, caufing them to be perpetually grateful. Thirdly, upon the Life, procuring it to be compleatly holy; of the firft we have fpoken already. Now if the eart be once truly thankful, the gratitude thereof will not long be contained there; for thefe holy flames once kindled will break forth at the Lips,for out of the abundance of the heart the mouth Speaketh, Math.xii.34, whereupon David, who never wanted a thankful heart, faith, I will always give thanks unto the Lord, his Praifefball ever be in my mouth, Pfal. xxxiv. 1. His mercies to us are publick, and done fo openly, that all the world may,or do, fee them; wherefore we muft not ftifle or conceal his praife in the fecret corners of our hearts, nor pretend we give him thanks in our private thoughts, for that is but an Excufe for ingratitude (q), and no just return for Mercies fo apparent; wherefore we muft openly praise God with our Lips in publick, and let our praifes have as many witneffes, if poffible, as his favours to us have had fo fhall we spread the glory of God further, and excite others to joyn with us and affift us: Yet when we have thus praised God, our Duty is

rem,

(q) Quidam furti. è agunt graias & in angulo, ad aunon eft ista verecundia fed infiei andi genus, ingratus efi qui remotis arbiIris gratias agit.Sen. de benef. 1.2. cap. 23.

not prefently at an end; or we must not only pzaile him

wuh

(r) si à vita bona mungnam declines, lin mat. Aug hom. 16. gua Bacet, vita cla

with our Lips, but also glorifie him in our Lives, as we are taught in thisForm out of Holy S.Angustine, who faith, Let not your Tongue and your Voice only praife God, but your Confcienee your life and actions alfo ; for though we now praise God in the Church while we are together, yet when we return every one to his bome, we shall give over thefe vocal Praises; but if we do not give over living well, then we praise him for evermore. Aug. homil. 16. And doubtless this is the best and most real Thanksgiving of all other; for if the Tongue be filent, the Actions of á Holy man declare that he truly loveth God (r), they publish to all the world, that he esteems himfelf obliged by the divine favours, that he is fenfible of them, and fo thankful for them, as to be ashamed to displease fo gracious a Father:Whereas the most pompous and folemn Thanksgivings,presented by a wicked wretch, are but Hypocrify,and odious in God's fight, because their good words do not bring him fo much glory, as their evil ACtions bring him difhonour; and their praifes are in vain (s), because their abufing of his Mercies, breaking his Laws, and provoking him to anger, make it manifeft,that they were never fenfible of his goodness, nor obliged by it, fo as to love him or reverence him, to defire his favour, or feek his glory: There is a Contradiction between their Praifes and their Deeds, which is fufficiént to demonftrate, that they are highly ingrateful, let them never fo often verbally give thanks rightly therefore doth the wife man affirm, Praife is not feemly in the mouth of

do

(5) ματων γὰρ — δοκάσι τιμάν gdy Deòv di Sià TWV Egyar auToy άT!Loves Theoph. in Mat.xv.

Qui male rivunt, non laudant Deun, lingua blafphemant quia etfi prædicant td. Aug. in Pfal. 47.

a finner, Ecclus.xv.5. but on the contrary David faith, It becometh well the just to be thankful,Pfal.xxxiii.1.There is a bleffed Harmony between the Heart,the Lips and the Life of a Holy man, and all of them agreeing make a moft ravishing Concord in the ears of God; He hath a thankful heart,and his mouth is frequently exercised in Thanksgivings and all his Actions are the Verifications of his Praifes; for when the Offices of the Church are over, he returns home with a heart full of the diwine Love, and his whole Conversation publifheth afterwards, that he is conquered and made Captive the force of God's ftupendious and amazing goodness, fo that he can no longer refift the mighty power thereof, for it hath caufed him to give up himself wholly to ferve his glorious Benefactor, and obliged him to walk before God in Holinels and Righteoufnels fo long as he breathes upon the Earth. And oh how vifible is this thankfulness! When it produceth fuch noble effects, as to make a man refolved to defpife all the pleasures of Sin rather than offend God, and to chuse the most difficult parts of Virtue and Piety to obtain and fecure his Love: When it caufeth us to delight in his Service,and defire his favour above all things; when we love what he loveth, and hate what he hateth, wishing nothing fo much as to please him, and dreading nothing more than to offend this Father of Mercies, and Fountain of all goodness. Pray we then, that the divine bounty may have this happy effect upon us, that it may fhame us from our Sins, and encourage us in our duty, and then God's bleffings will not only be occafion of our prefent Praifes,and Inftruments of our comfort on Earth, but means of our eternal Salvation, and caufes of our endlefs felicity in Heaven, God's mercies will make us love him,and be thankful, and our Love and Gratitude will move him to give us more ftill, and the encrease of his

favours