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SERMON VIII.

OF THE DUTY OF THANKSGIVING.

EPHES. V. 20.

Giving thanks always for all things unto God.

THESE words, although (as the very fyntax doth im- SERM. mediately discover) they bear a relation to, and have a fit VIII. coherence with, those that precede, may yet, (especially confidering St. Paul's ftyle and manner of expreffion in

vi. &c.

the preceptive and exhortative part of his Epiftles,) with- Vid. Rom. out any violence or prejudice on either hand, be fevered xii. Eph. from the context, and confidered diftinctly by themselves. And (to avoid encumbrance by farther comparison) so taking them we may observe, that every fingle word among them carries with it fomething of notable emphafis and especial fignificancy. The first [Giving thanks] expreffes the substance of a duty, to which we are exhorted. The next (I mean, in order of conftruction) [to God] denotes the object or term to which it is directed. The following [always] determines the main circumstance of this and all other duties, the time of performance. The laft [for all things] declares the adequate matter of the duty, and how far it should extend. These particulars I fhall confider feverally, and in order.

I. First then, concerning the duty itself, to give thanks, or rather, to be thankful; (for evxapisev doth not only fignify gratias agere, reddere, dicere, to give, render, or de

SERM. clare thanks, but also gratias habere, grate affectum esse, VIII. to be thankfully difpofed, to entertain a grateful affection, fense or memory: in which more comprehenfive notion I mean to confider it, as including the whole duty or virtue of gratitude due to Almighty God for all his benefits, favours, and mercies ;) I fay, concerning this duty itself, (abstractedly confidered,) as it involves a respect to benefits or good things received; fo in its employment about them it imports, requires, or fuppofes these following particulars.

1. It implies a right apprehenfion of, and confequently a confiderate attention unto, benefits conferred. For he that is either wholly ignorant of his obligations, or mistakes them, or paffes them over with a flight and fuperPf. cvii. 43. ficial view, can nowife be grateful. Whofo is wife, and will obferve these things, even they shall understand the Pf. Ixiv. 9. loving-kindness of the Lord. Men fhall fear, and shall declare the work of God; for they fhall wifely confider of Pf. cxi. 2. his doings. The works of the Lord are great, fought out of Pf. xxxiv. 8' all that have pleasure therein. O tafte (first, and then) fee that the Lord is good.

This is the method that great mafter of thanksgiving prescribes; firft experimental notice, then wife confideration, then grateful sense, then public acknowledgment. And those we find both by him and by the Prophet Ifaias (in the very fame words) reprehended as wickedly inPf. xxviii. grateful perfons, who regarded not the work of the Lord, nor confidered the operation of his hands. 'Tis part therefore of this duty incumbent on us, to take notice of diligently, and carefully to confider, the divine benefits; not to let them pass undiscerned and unregarded by us, as perfons either wofully blind, or stupidly drowsy, or totally unconcerned.

5.

Ifa. v. 12.

'Tis a general fault, that the most common and frequent, the most obvious and confpicuous favours of God, (like the ordinary phenomena of nature, which, as Ariftotle obferves, though in themselves most admirable, are yet leaft admired,) the conftant rifing of the fun upon us, the defcent of fruitful fhowers, the recourfe of temperate

VIII.

feafons, the continuance of our life, the enjoyment of SERM. health, the providential dispensation of wealth, and competent means of livelihood, the daily protection from incident dangers, the helps of improving knowledge, obtaining virtue, becoming happy, and fuch like most excellent benefits, we commonly little mind or regard, and confequently feldom return the thanks due for them. Poffibly fome rare accidents of providence, fome extraordinary judgment, fome miraculous deliverance, may rouse and awaken our attention: (as it is faid of the Ifraelites, When he flew them, then they fought him—and Pf. Ixxviii. remembered that God was their rock, and the high God 34, 35. their Redeemer :) but fuch advertency is not the effect so much of gratitude, as of curiofity or of neceffity: the notable rarity invites, or fome powerful impulse commands our notice. But the truly grateful industriously defign, and are ftudious to know throughly their obligations, that they may be able to render answerable returns for them.

2. This duty requires a faithful retention of benefits Axes in memory, and confequently frequent reflections upon ὅσις εὖ παθὼν

ἀμνημονεῖ.

Benef. cap.

1.

them. For he that is no longer affected with a benefit than it incurs the fenfe, and fuffers not itself to be difregarded, is far from being grateful; nay, if we believe the philofopher, is ingrateful in the worst kind, and highest degree. For, Ingratus eft, faith he, qui beneficium ac- Sen. iii. de cepiffe fe negat, quod accepit; ingratus eft, qui diffimulat; ingratus, qui non reddit : ingratissimus omnium, qui oblitus eft. He that falfely denies the reception of a benefit, and he that diffembles it, and he that doth not repay it, is ingrateful; but most ingrateful of all is he that forgets it. It is a fign the benefit made no deep impreffion on his mind, fince it left no discernible footstep there; that he hardly ever thought of making recompense, fince he hath fuffered himself to become altogether uncapable of doing it neither is there any hope of his amending the past neglect; no fhame, no repentance, no fair occafion can redeem him from ingratitude, in whom the very remembrance of his obligation is extinguished.

SERM.

If to be fenfible of a prefent good turn deferved the VIII. title of gratitude, all men certainly would be grateful: the Jews queftionless were fo. When Almighty God, by his wonderful power in extraordinary ways, delivered them from the tyranny and oppreffion of their prevalent enemies; when he caufed ftreams to guth forth from the bowels of a hard rock, to refresh their thirst; when bread defcended from heaven in fhowers, and the winds were winged with flesh, to fatisfy their greedy defires; then furely they were not altogether unfenfible of the divine goodness; then could they acknowledge his power, and be forward enough to engage themselves in promises of correfpondent obfervance toward him for the future. But the mischief was, immediately after, as the Pfalmift Pf. lxxviii. complains, They forgat his works, and the wonders he had fhewed them: They remembered not his hand, nor the day Neh. ix. 17. when he delivered them from the enemy. They refused to

11. 42.

18.

obey, neither were mindful of the wonders that God did Deut. xxxii. among them, as Nehemiah confeffes in their behalf. Of the rock that begat them they were unmindful, and forgot the God that formed them, as it is in Deuteronomy. They distrusted his promises, repined at his dealings, disobeyed his laws, and treacherously apostatised from his covenant. Such were the fruits of their ingrateful forgetfulness; which therefore that people is so often charged with, and so sharply reproved for by the Prophets.

kindness is

On the contrary, we find that great pattern of gratitude, Thy loving the royal Prophet David, continually revolving in his ever before thoughts, imprinting upon his fancy, ftudying and medimine eyes. tating upon, recollecting and renewing in his memory, lxxvii. 11, the refults of divine favour. I will remember, faith he, 13. cxliii. 5. thy wonders of old; I will mediate of all thy works, and

Pf. xxvi. 3.

ciii. 2.

talk of thy doings: and, I remember the days of old; I will meditate on all thy works; I muse on the works of thy hands: and, Bless the Lord, O my foul, and forget not all FC. Ixiii. s, his benefits: and, My mouth shall praise thee with joyful lips, when I remember thee upon my bed, and meditate on thee in the night-watches, because thou hast been my help. No place unfit, it feems, no time unfeasonable for the

7.

practice of this duty; not the place defigned for reft, not SERM. the time due to fleep, but, as David thought, more due to VIII. a wakeful contemplation of the divine goodness. Whofe vigilant gratitude we should strive to imitate, devoting our most solitary and retired, our most fad and serious thoughts (not the studies only of our closet, but the confultations allo of our pillow) to the prefervation of those bleffed ideas; that neither length of time may deface them in our fancy, nor other care thrust them out thence.

It was a fatirical answer, (that of Aristotle,) and highly opprobrious to mankind; who, being asked, Tí táxisov ynpácxes; What doth the fooneft grow old? replied, Xápis, Thanks: and fo was that adagial verse, "Aμ' ¿λéntai, xai Tédvnxev ĥ Xápis. No fooner the courtesy born, than the refentment thereof dead. Such reproachful aphorifms we fhould labour to confute, efpecially as they are applicable to the divine favours, by fo maintaining and cherishing our thanks for them, that they neither decay with age, nor prematurely die, nor be buried in oblivion; but may resemble the pictures and poetical descriptions of the Graces, thofe goodly daughters of heaven, fmiling always with a never-fading ferenity of countenance, and flourishing in an immortal youth.

The middle, we may obferve, and the safest, and the fairest, and the most confpicuous places in cities are usually deputed for the erections of statues and monuments dedicated to the memory of worthy men, who have nobly deferved of their countries. In like manner fhould we in the heart and centre of our foul, in the best and highest apartments thereof, in the places most exposed to ordinary observation, and most secure from the invafions of worldly care, erect lively reprefentations of, and lafting memorials unto, the divine bounty; conftantly attending to which we may be difpofed to gratitude. Not one bleffing, not the leaft favourable paffage of providence ought to perish with us, though long fince past, and removed out of the sphere of present sense.

We must not in our old age forget who formed us in Pf. lxxi. 6. the womb, who brought us into the light, who fuckled

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