VIII. of ours, we owe this most natural and easy, this SERM. most just and equal, this most sweet and pleasant duty of giving thanks. To whom if we wilfully refuse, if we carelessly, neglect to pay it, I shall only say thus much, that we are not only monstrously ingrateful, and horribly wicked; but abominably foolish, and deplorably miserable. I shall repeat this sentence once again, and wish it may have its due effect upon us: To this great, to this only Patron and Benefactor of ours, if we do not in some measure discharge our due debt of gratitude for his inestimable benefits and mercies, we are to be adjudged not only most prodigiously unthankful, most detestably impious, but most wofully stupid also and senseless, most desperately wretched and unhappy. I should now proceed to consider the circumstance of time determined in the word always; and the extension of the matter, implied in those words, for all things: and then to subjoin some further inducements or arguments persuasive to the practice of this duty. But the time (and, I fear, your patience) failing, I shall reserve them to some other opportunity. SERMON IX. OF THE DUTY OF THANKSGIVING. IX. EPHES. V. 20. Giving thanks always for all things unto God. SERM. HAVING formerly discoursed upon these words, I observed in them four particulars considerable : 1. The substance of a duty, to which we are exhorted, to give thanks; 2. The term unto which it is directed, to God; 3. The circumstance of time determined in that word always; 4. The extent of the matter about which the duty is employed, for all things. Concerning the two former particulars, wherein the duty consisted, and wherefore especially related unto God, I then represented what did occur to my meditation. III. I proceed now to the third, the circumstance of time allotted to the performance of this duty, expressed by that universal and unlimited term, always. Which yet is not so to be understood, as if thereby we were obliged in every instant (or singular point of time) actually to remember, to consider, to be affected with, and to acknowledge the divine benefits for the deliberate operations of our minds being sometimes wholly interrupted by sleep, otherwhile preoccupied by the indispensable care of serving our IX. natural necessities, and with attendance upon other SERM. reasonable employments, it were impossible to comply with an obligation to the performance of this duty so interpreted. And those maxims of law, Impossibilium nulla est obligatio, and, Quæ rerum natura prohibentur, nulla lege confirmata sunt, (that is, No law or precept can oblige to impossibilities,) being evidently grounded upon natural equity, seem yet more valid in relation to his laws, who is the Judge of all the world, and in his dispensations most transcendently just and equal. We may therefore observe, that the Hebrews are wont (in way of synecdoche, or grammatical hyperbole) so to use words of this kind, that their universal importance ought to be restrained by the quality or circumstances of the matter about which they converse. As when our Saviour saith, Ye shall be Matt. x. 22. hated of all men for my sake; all is not to be taken for every singular person, (since there were some that loved our Saviour, and embraced the evangelical doctrine,) but for many, or the most. And when David saith, There is none that doeth good ; Ps. xiv. 1. he seemeth only to mean, that in the general corruption of his times there were few righteous persons to be found. And so for ever is often used, not for a perpetual and endless, but for a long and lasting duration; and always, not for a continual, unintermitted state of being or action, but for such a perseverance as agrees to the condition of the thing to which it is applied. xxviii. 30. "Tis, for instance, prescribed in Exodus, that Aaron should bear the judgment of the children of Exod. Israel (the Urim and Thummim) upon his heart before the Lord continually; that is, (not in abso 20. 53. IX. SERM. lute and rigorous acceptation continually, but) constantly ever when he went into the holy place to discharge the pontifical function, as the context declares. And our Saviour in the gospel saith of himJoh. xviii. self, 'Eyà Távтoтe edídata, I always taught in the temple; that is, very often, and ever when fit occasion was presented. And the apostles, immediately Luke xxiv. after Christ's ascension, oav diañavròs èv tập iepộ, were, as St. Luke tells us, continually in the temple, praising and blessing God; that is, they resorted thither constantly at the usual times or canonical hours of prayer. In like manner those injunctions (of 1 Thess. v. nearest affinity) of rejoicing, of giving thanks alEph. vi. 18. ways, and particularly of praying without ceasing, (as I have shewn more largely in another discourse,) are to be taken in a sense so qualified, that the observance of them may be at least morally possible. 16, 17, 18. Luke xviii. Thus far warrantably we may limit the extension and mollify the rigour of this seemingly boundless term; but we can hardly allow any further restriction, without destroying the natural signification, or diminishing the due emphasis thereof. As far therefore as it is possible for us, we must endeavour always to perform this duty of gratitude to Almighty God: and consequently, 1. Hereby is required a frequent performance thereof: that we do often actually meditate upon, be sensible of, confess and celebrate the divine beneficence. For what is done but seldom or never, (as we commonly say,) cannot be understood done always, without a catachresis, or abuse of words too enormous. As therefore no moment of our life wants sufficient matter, and every considerable portion of time ministers notable occasion of blessing God; as he allows himself no spacious intervals or disconti- SERM. nuances of doing us good: so ought we not to suffer IX. any of those many days (vouchsafed by his goodness) to flow beside us, void of the signal expressions of our dutiful thankfulness to him; nor to admit in our course of life any long vacations from this duty. If God incessantly, and through every minute, demonstrates himself gracious unto us; we in all reason are obliged frequently and daily to declare ourselves grateful unto him. 28. So at least did David, (that most eminent example in this kind, and therefore most apposite to illustrate our doctrine, and to enforce the practice thereof;) for, Every day, saith he, I will bless Ps. cxlv. 2. thee; I will praise thy name for ever and ever. Every day. The heavenly bodies did not more constantly observe their course, than he his diurnal revolutions of praise: every day in his calendar was as it were festival, and consecrated to thanksgiving. Neither did he adjudge it sufficient to devote some small parcels of each day to this service: for, My Ps. xxxv. tongue, saith he, shall speak of thy righteousness and of thy praise all the day long: and again, My Ps. lxxi. 8. mouth shall shew forth thy righteousness and thy salvation all the day, for I know not the numbers thereof. The benefits of God he apprehended so great and numerous, that no definite space of time would serve to consider and commemorate them. He resolves therefore otherwhere to bestow his whole life upon that employment: While I live I will Ps. cxlvi. 2. praise the Lord: I will sing praises unto my God while I have any being: and, I will bless the Lord xxxiv. 1. at all times: his praise shall continually be in my lxxi. 6. mouth. No man can reasonably pretend greater 15. 24. civ. 33. |