A Peace Offering to God

A PEACE-OFFRING TO GOD: OR, A Thanksgiving for the Princes safe return.

M Ay an Herald find out a rich Coat of Arms vngiuen, then may a Divine meet with a profitable subject vnhandled. Gratitude, a virtue whose beauty so equally blazeth in the eyes of all, whose name sounds so pleasantly in the ears of all, whose contrary is so odiously censured of all, to whom hath it been beholding for so much as a small Tract or Sermon? What Divine hath bestowed so much cost upon it, as to acquaint us with the Nature, Kinds, Canons, and Motiues of it? Men I confess, had the use of Logic before the Art was penned; and so David the King of all grateful persons with other the servants of God in all ages have in abundant measure expressed their thankfulness; yet no man will deny, but that rules, and directions orderly collected, and compiled, do much conduce to a more lively and certain practice, then wild and vnguided affections; and such helps God's Spirit in ordinary despiseth not.

All that I shall upon this sudden and extraordinary cause of public thanks undertake, is to be as the Wheel to the Bird, which with its course noise sets better Music on work; and out of this short Text of Gratitude, endeavor to bring some light to the duty enjoined, Give thanks.

Secondly, to show the extent of it's matter, In all things.

3. To enforce the practice frō this motive of motives, For this is the will of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.

Fourthly, to bring it home, and apply it, Towards you.

In handling whereof, if I shall procure any whit the more tribute of thanks and praise to God, I shall attain that which is the Queen of all causes, the end of my labor; yea, that which is the Queen of all ends, God's glory.

Give thanks. The nature and grace of thankfulness consists in a kindly reflection of Honor upon the Benefactor for the benefit received. Look what perfection a solid Body gives to the Sun beams, which having obscurely passed thorough the translucent Air, are by it made to rebound with a spreading increase of their luster and heat. Look what such an Echo as the seven fold porch of Thebes is to the sound of a Trumpet, such is Thankfulness to the Benefactor. And therefore in reference to Parents is the sum of piety; to Equals, of amity and humanity; to God, of Religion: yea, the very prime and sum of all Virtues and Duties, because it most directly and fully promotes & atchieues that which is the ende and scope of all the Creators works and gifts, His glory: He that praiseth me, honoreth me: and contrariwise, they glorified not God, neither were thankful.

To discuss here these School- Queries, whether it be a part of commutatiue or distributive Justice, whether a general virtue or special, distinct or confounded with Piety and Justice: whether voluntary or bounden; whether of debt and by Law, or mere honesty; whether the innocent or the penitent be more obliged; whether it may ad-equate or surpass the benefit, were to trouble your heads with frigid subtleties, in stead of warming your hearts with profitable matter. A thankful man had rather by ten times learn how to discharge this bond of needful duty, then to vntye these knots of curious wit.

To such a one I content my self to give the old Tripartite rule, let him see that his Soul, his Tongue, and his Life bear their parts, discharge their several offices in glorifying God, that so his thanks being Cordial, Oral, and Real, they may be complete and accepted of God. And first let them make sure of the first, especially when he hath to do with God, the Maker, Searcher, and Judge of the Spirits, who in these kinds of Offerings loves the fat, and the inwards: the deeper and hollower the belly of the Lute or Vial is, the pleasanter is the sound; the fleeter, the more grating and harsh in our ears: the voice which is made in the mouth is nothing so sweet as that which comes from the depth of the breast. Sing with grace in your hearts is the best tune to all the Psalms, without which if one could descant with the voice of an Angel, he were but as the sound of a tinkling Cymball. The very Alpha and Omega, the principal and total of our thanks with God, is as Bernard ends his Epistles and Counsels to one that inquired of him what God required of man, Give me thy heart, or keep all to thyself. If Benjamin come not, all the rest may stay behind. Unless therefore thou mean to offer the sacrifice of fools, and the lips of calves, begin and end as David his Psalms, My soul praise thou the Lord. Take also David's Commentary, And all that is within me praise his holy name. The first work is of the understanding to judge of the worth of the benefit, to consider the unworthiness of the receiver, to study a Quid retribuam. A fool cannot, and a proud man will not be thankful; the first, because he cannot estimate and weigh in the balance of Judgment, the value of the favor conferred upon him, or through melancholy conceitedness will not see what God hath done for them. The second because he conceives it no more, if not less then his due and desert, which is the reason that an Heretic overweening the strength of his naturals, or the merit of his works, cannot be thankful; which taught Prosper wittily and wisely to entitle his Poems Contra ingratos, without further naming the adversaries of God's grace. A rash man cannot be thankful, who for a fit only and brunt, sends up an extemporary God be thanked, whereas he ought fixedly, and seriously to study and devise how he might cast most honor upon his good God for his bounty to him.

The second care must be had of the Memory, that a deep impression be made, frequent refreshing and refrication be used with David's watchword, My soul, forget not all his benefits; which made him write down his passions, and give his Psalms the title of Record, or Remembrance. Obliuion is so far from excusing, that it self is the worst kind of Ingratitude, excluding all hopes of future thanks, and arguing a slight esteem of favors past, which so soon have set them behind back, and out of sight, in some blind corner of the mind. Our Memory is a natural mother to injuries, a stepmother to benefits, for the help whereof our grateful forefathers were wont to erect Pillars and Monuments, stamp Coines, give names to Places, dedicate Days, and keep anniversary Feasts, that so they might preserve a Vestall fire in their breasts, and not serve God with a flash of joy and blaze of thanks. A third work is the warmth of the affections, which if dead and cold, how can any fumes of Incense ascend? Excess of joy and gladness is instead of thanks, which the nearer it comes to a rapture and ecstacy (such an one as Peter was in, when he wot not what he said; or the Jews coming out of captivity, faring as one in a dream) the more pleasing it is unto God, though it express it self in abrupt and exorbitant passions and gestures, such as David's dancing unseemly in foolish Micholls, but most comely and kingly in God's eyes.

These acts of the soul are often all that God requires, but always the best fountain and spring of thanks, which sets the price upon the Offring; and makes the Turtle of the poor as welcome as the Ox of the rich, the Cruse and Mite of the Widow more worth then the Rivers of Oil and treasures of the wicked.

All this is but intrinsicall and immanent thanks; but God's favors are too great for one man's heart to comprehend or requite: and therefore he will not have them die in the breast of one man, and lie buried in silent admiration, but requires a transitiue expression and publication of them. How many aids and witnesses doth David summon to assist him in this work, the Mountains to leap, the Flouds to make a noise, the Hills to clap there hands: and which of his musical Instruments doth he not call upon? Sundry helps and signs of thankfulness hath Nature and Art found out and used; ringing of bells, displaying of banners, pomp and feasting, lights and fires, which while some condemn, they come near his fault that asked, What meaneth this wast? yet are all these but a poor and senseless kind of sacrifice performed by reasonless Deputies, if the thanks determine and end in these without more significant expression. Cheere of the countenance, gestures of the body, leaping and dancing are but dumb shows, the best Interpretour of the mind is the tongue, the glory of man, and glorifier of God. My tongue shall tell of thy wondrous acts▪ and my lips shall never cease to publish thy praise. This was all the fee Christ expected for his cures, Go and tell what God hath done for thee: words seem to be a poor and sleight recompense. But Christ (saith Nazianzen ) called himself the Word, and good words coming from a good heart are of great accompt and force with God and man.

David envied the Birds that might in their kinds sing God's praise in his Courts, and in imitation of them, who set themselves on the highest tops of Trees whence their notes may be furthest heard, he labored to spread God's praises in the greatest Congregations in Saul's Court, in all Companies he came in, in the Temple it self. By speech one man's heart conueies into another the cheerely conceptions and passions of his soul, and so multiplies praise, and sets others on work to bless God wit him, & the more the merrier, & the more mirth the more thanks; the greater the flock, the cheerelier noise; the fuller the Choir, the louder the Music, and one cheerely Bird often sets all the flock a chirping; one man showts, and the whole Hoste follows. John heard a voice from the Throne, saying, Praise ye our God, all his Servants small and great; and immediately a noise as of many waters, and mighty Thunderings, saying, Hallelu-iah, for the Almighty reigneth.

Yet because speech is transient, and of life for the present only, the Pennes and writings of thankful men have been of singular use to transmit and convey unto Posterity the noble Acts of God: one generation teaching another to keep like praises in store, that God's thanks may be immortal in Succession, and Propagation. Such fruit may our Statute have in after ages, penned for the perpetuation of God's invaluable deliverance from that Hellish-Powder-plott, were it as duly read as it was providently enacted.

When we have given God good words, it remains that we give him not words alone, but our real obedience, preferred by God to all our sacrifices: slay not our beasts, but our beastly lusts; give him not our goods, but our selves; not any dead, but a living and reasonable sacrifice. He that in way of thankfulness vows and performs the mortification of one dareling sin, the addition of one good duty, pleaseth God better then Solomon with his twenty thousand Beeues and Sheep. Would we know then how we should perfect our thanks, walk we with God, let us do righteousness, abound in Alms and Prayer; better our Piety and Charity, increase the works of our callings, bring forth more fruit in our kinds: for with such sacrifices God is most honored and best pleased. The Auncient and wonted thanks after victories & blessings, were reformation of vices, removal of Idols, sanctions and executions of good Laws, release of debts, bounty to the poor. The life of thankfulness consists in the lives of the thankful; otherwise it is but as one should sing a good song with his Voice, and play a bad one on his Instrumēt, which would make but a black Sanctis, and become such Saints. He that saith, God be thanked with his mouth, and in his life remains reprobate to every good work, hath the show of thanks, but the power of ingratitude, and is near the curse of the Fig-tree, full of leaves, and empty of fruit; for God is not mocked with words. Wherefore, O thou vain man, justify thy words by thy works, and thou shalt be blessed in thy deeds, and God, by the poor, blessed for them, who hath himself no need or profit of our works: but as great men turns over his fees and thanks to his poor Followers & Servants, and else us in plain terms, he reckons that done to himself which is done to the least of his; & smells as sweet a savor of Cornelius his alms, as of his prayers, and counts himself as much honored by a good housekeekeeper as by a Church-frequenter: but best by him that is both in truth, and from faith. A new Song becomes not the old man's mouth, & let him sing a new song that leads a new life, and thats the best harmony and makes the best Music in God's ear.

In all things. Now I have shown how thou mayest and must be thankful; if thou ask me wherein, or for what, I will ask thee, what thou hast of thine own, and what of right and desert? If nothing, then In all things give thanks. We have heard that a thankful man needs a good judgment: but we shall see that he needs no invention, if his heart be in tune, all things will bring matter to hand. Gratitude, is as large as Logic, that hath for his object things that are, and that are not. There be favors Priuatiue, and favors Positiue; there be good things bestowed, and evils kept from us; yea, the very evils that do betide us are turned to our good, and therefore we are bound to give thanks in all, and for All. Not with a Collectiue thanks by lump and whole sale, with a God be thanked for all his benefits, but distrioutiuely keeping a Bill of the particulars, and duly thanking as we daily receive them. This distribution is best made by a just gradation and Scale of discretion, ascending in our thanks according to the degrees of his favors.

First, he will be praised in all his creatures, whereof we have the sight or the use, even as if we had a propriety in them: for every one of us have no less benefit by the Sun and Air, then if we saw and breathed alone. The Hebrews have a Canon, that God would be praised in the least Emmet or Gnat, but magnified in the Elephant and Leviathan; admired in the Sun, Moon, Stars, Comets, Earthquakes, Thunders, and such extraordinary works: the praise of his wisdom and power lies asleep, and dead in every Creature, till man actuate and enliues it. The Heavens and the Earth, and all things therein are said to praise God; that is, (saith Augustine ) when thou considerest their order and beauty, and praisest the invisible Creator, they praise him with thy understanding and thy voice, which have none of their own, but are dumb and senseless.

In all the works of his provident administration: and here let public blessings have the precedency in thy thanks. It's not only self-love, but want of Judgment that makes fools prize a domestical and private welfare before the Commonwealth, and the good of the Kingdom, which is in it self the greater, and would in the long run be greater to the particular man. Is any cost bestowed on the private cabbin, comparable to the saving of the whole Ship? The very Heathens rejoiced more in their countries good, then in their own. Let Christians much more praise God for their Kings, Princes, and Rulers, by whose wise government they may live a quiet life under their Vines and Fig trees, and in all honesty and godliness worship God in their Chapels and Churches.

In all thy personal favors: among which the privative challenge a place; that is, such evils as pass by over thee. Famous is the Story of the good Bishop, that seeing a Toad by the way, lift up his heart unto God, that made him not such a creature. And Chrysostom wills us to walk into Hospitals and Lazar-houses, that by the sight of others miseries, we may be occasioned to thanks for our own freedom. Every man that seees another stricken, and himself spared, is to keep a Passover for himself.

In all the crosses that do befall us; yea, happily more then in them we count and call blessings; to call for afflictions we have no President, or Precept in Scripture; but to praise God for them, store of both: To count it exceeding joy, because of the exceeding gain; to count it an honor that we are counted worthy to suffer, as the Disciples that leaped and sung after their scourgings; and in this theme Basil spends all his Sermon, which he entitles giving of thanks in all things.

In all the gifts of God, whether for necessity or pleasure, of Nature or of Grace, temporal or eternal, more for necessities, then for delicacies, more for thy bread and water then for thy wine and oil, for thy clothes then for thy lace and ornaments▪ for thy health more then thy wealth, for thy good name above thy Jewels, the goods of thy soul above all goods. Plato observed this order in this thanks, that he was a man, a Grecian, an Athenian, and Socrates his Scholar. Alphonsus▪ that he was a King, a Philosopher, and a Christian: Theodosius, more that he was a member of Christ in his Church, then head of the Empire: Paul best of all, Blessed be God that hath blessed us with spiritual blessings in heavenly things. One spiritual is better then all corporal, and one eternal then all temporal.

In all thy spiritual blessings, preparations, preventions, excitations, motions, acts, confirmations, consummations, give all to the praise of his grace by which thou art that thou art; chiefly in those thou hast most wanted, and earnestly begged, in these let thy praises answer thy prayers. Samuel and Augustine, children of many prayers and fears, were also children of many praises and thanks.

In all and above all, for him that is All in all, thanks and praises. For he is worthy who hath redeemed us, and made us Kings and Priests unto himself: and if thanks be the will of God in Jesus Christ towards us, then sure I am it is his will, that all thanks be given him for Jesus Christ, in whom all the promises are Yea, and Amen.

In all things, in all times, and in all places; so the very Context implies; pray always, in all things give thanks. Wish with Epictetus, thou wert of the Nightingales unwearied spirit, ever to be singing day and night, at least with Bernard imitate the other Birds, which morning and evening, at the rise and setting of the Sun omit not to praise their Creator. These must be constant, set, and inviolable times. Occasionall times are when benefits are newly received, which otherwise soon wax stale, and putrefy as Fish: no part of the Thanks-offering might be kept unspent till the third day. Hezekiah wrote his Song the third day after his recovery: The living shall praise thee as I do this day. And if he had been as speedy in his thanks after his deliverance from Ashur, It may be (saith Lauater ) his Plate had never been carried into Babylon. All days of prosperity & mirth are seasonable for thanks, as Birds sing more in clear days then in gloomy. Let him that is sad, pray; and he that is merry, give thanks. The Jews three solemn Feasts were to be kept in three cheerful sensons▪ he Passover, at the first riping of corn; Whitsuntide, at the first reaping; Tabernacles, at the ende of Harvest. God loves a cheerful giver. Christ willed his Passion should be remembered when our spirits are refreshed with bread and wine. I will take the cup of Salvation, &c. Our joy which otherwise is a slippery passion, is then safe and fanctified, when it brings forth thanksgiving.

Were it hot now superfluous to say, to whom this thanks ought to be given? To whom but to him of whom we have all things? Yet we had rather change the name, and shift the debt to any save the right Creditor, ascribing events to Nature, Destiny, and Fortune, rather then to the living God; which is as if one should say, he ought no money to Seneca, but to Lucius Annius, which are but blind names of the same man. What is more common thē to rob God to pay the Instrument? The Fisher sacrificeth to his Net, the Husbandman will thank his dunghill for his crop, rather then him that gives the increase. God allows some praise to the Instrument. The sword of God, and the sword of Gideon: but when he hears us give more to the means then to the Author, he is jealous, and offended more justly then Saul with the people for singing of David's ten thousand, and Saul's thousand. Let Saloman have his thousand, and the keeper of the Vine two hundred. Adrian and Verus, Emperors of old, Selimus and Ferdinand of late are taxed in History for erecting monuments of victory to their horses, forgetting the Lord of Hosts. Let us learn of Paul in right down terms in all things to bless the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ.

Thus all things invite us to thanks; and yet Paul foreseeing our backwardness and excuses, opposeth to them all the will of God in Jesus Christ: For this is the will of God. The ungrateful like unto the sluggard, is witty in finding out pretexts and pretences, making a clog to hinder, of that which should be his goad to quicken him. God's name he will tell you, excels all thanksgiving, his blessings are innumerable, and why should he attempt impossibilities? and yet the same man in seeking of wealth and honor, will shoot at the fairest mark, though he take up his arrow short. Here unless he may do all, he will do nothing at all: but God's will is thou shouldest do thy good will, and he will accept thy will for the deed. And if thou shouldest say in thy heart, What addition shall my praise make to his honor, that is infinite and self-sufficient? was he not as happy before there was a man or Angel to praise him, as since? I might answer with a Schoolman, he counts it an increase ad extra, in the notice and glory of his attributes, though ad intra, in the perfection and excellency of them he cannot increase. But I had rather answer with our Apostle, It is his will. But we have need of his benefits; if he will allow us the profit, we may well allow him the praise; our emptiness calls for the one, and to his fullness belongs the other. Bradwardine as thankful an English heart as ever wrote, knits and vntyes the knot thus, Why should I go about to pay that debt which is vnpayable, and by paying whereof I run further in debt; for the grace and heart, the will and ability to be thankful is his gift, and for that I must be further obliged, as David when he built the Temple. But GOD forbid, saith he, that I should entangle mine heart in this chain of Ingratitude, and break asunder this my bond of thanks, because I cannot unloose it: let me rather know this to be my happiness, to whom I owe much, to owe more; to be as deep in his Books as I can, who loves to water where he plants, to heap favor upon favor, till he overcome us with favor; to him let me be ever owing, and ever paying, never discharged, but ever becoming more and more thankful, till I be wholly transformed into thankfulness, and when all is done, account myself indebted and unprofitable.

For this is God's will in Jesus Christ. God's will hath binding authority enough, but he adds a winning word, his will in Christ, commending the duty to us from God by that lovely Name. The force of the persuasion is, as if God should say to us, Behold, I have so loved you, as to give you my Son, and with him all things; and what return do I expect? what is my will, but that in all things you give me thanks in his Name. Thanks is my will, and pleaseth my will, as sweet odors do man's nostrils. Gratitude needs not, as other Virtues, Letters testimonial, or commendatory. David often tells us, it's comely and lovely enough of it self. Prayer is profitable, but praise is honorable: to Ask is a troublesome thing, and a mendicant word implying want, and therefore comes hardly and harshly from us; but praise becomes the Angels, yea the Son of God, and therefore should be welcome to us. It is a grace and praise to him that gives, as well as to him to whom it is given. How renowned in all Story hath been the practice of this virtue in David to Jonathan's, Abimelech's, and Barzilla's posterity; in Joseph to his parents; in Hannah (more honored for being the Author of a Song, then the mother of a son) in Cromwell's to Frescobald, Agrippa to Thaumastus servant for a cup of cold water in his troubles, Egelred to a Swine-heard: yea, in brute beasts, in Lions, Dragons, Eagles, and Faulcons, in Elephants, Fishes, Dogs: the contrary, most hateful in Judas, Achitophel, Pharaohs Butler, &c. not actionable, or finable by any legal or set mulct, as sufficiently censurable, but deserving, and left to excess of hatred by God's Judgment, and so generally reputed of all, the sum of all disgrace; the worst, yea all that can be said of a man; say this and say all; the main sin of the apostate Angels, and damned Spirits. Thanks the chief, if not the whole work of the glorified Seraphims, who vent and spend all their burning fire in the flames of GOD'S praise. How cheerfully should we redeem time to this blessed work? which because it is too large to be done in this spanlong life, it shall ever be doing in that eternity. What like evidence hath a Saint of GOD'S free and princely Spirit residing in his heart and tongue to this Frankincense, and free work, wherein our ingenuity is best tried, not extorted from us by our own necessities, as prayer, nor exacted by Law, or drawn by shame or penalty from us, but voluntary, and therefore best testifying us to be of God's willing people: which grace, where he gives, surely he will confer more of all kinds. For where do men delight to sow, but in fertile soils, where they reap most? Where do Musitions delight to sound their Instruments, but where the Echo multiplies thē most in their return? But our profit is too sordid a motive for this liberal virtue. Thanks is not thanks, if bribing and eying future favor, if anything more then the praise of past bounty, though there should never be need or receipt of anymore afterwards. But our dullness hath need of all spurs. David the Nightingale of Israel sets many a thorn to his breast, that vigilant cock clappeth oft his own wings. An ingenuous child desires no more but to know what his father loves. Isaac, if his diet be known, shall be sure of Venison enough: and if Saul take delight in David's Harp, he shall not want Music. A grateful Courtier desires but to know what the will and pleasure of his Sovereign is: and this is enough, and above all other bonds to a man sensible of the benefits of Creation and Redemption. What else is the difference and preeminence of the Gospel above the Law, but Thanks the one, and Debt the other? Which made Ursinus iudiciously give his Book of Obedience and Good works the title of Gratitude: which who so sleights or neglects, undoes and dissolves the whole bond of perfection, not of Humanity alone, but of all Christianity. God abhorring all that we can do with other respect or end, bidding the proud man and his merits perish, done in way of desert or pay, only accepting that which is done in the name of Christ, in way of thankfulness for him and his merit, who is the Altar which sanctifies and graceth the gold and the gift to the horns whereof it is best binding with the cords of thanks all our offerings: who is the great Master of Requests, having a golden Vial ready to offer up, and commend to his Father all the Incense of his Saints, and to give a sweet odour and perfume unto them, making the least Cup of water tendered in his name of precious account, without which all is abominable: And therefore he that would set a special gloss upon his sacrifice of thanks, let him with the acknowledgement of his vileness (as David, Who am I and my people? ) crave acceptance in his name, in whom God is well pleased: for this is his will in Christ Jesus our Lord, &c.

That Thanks in Thesi and general is God's will, it is now out of question: but there is yet another clause in my Text, Towards you, which bids us search, what is God's will in Hypothesi, in particular. Towards us: even to vswards of this Nation, this Assembly, towards thee and me, all and every one of us jointly and severally. First, it is requisite that we take good notice of our Receipts, and then balance them well with our Returnes; and so shall we see our Arrerages best, and what remains for us to do. Mark we advisedly what our own Writers, Historians, Poets usually applaud in our Nation; how they extol our Climate, our Soyle, our native Commodities, our Policies, Laws, Orders, Peace, Plentie, Prosperity, terming us Albion, quasi Olbion; Angli, quasi Angeli. Can too much in truth be spoken to the praise of God's bounty, and blot of our Ingratitude? How hath he lifted us up to Heaven, severed this Island with the seas of his mercies from all the world besides, and bordering kingdoms round about, setting it as a Queen in the midst of them, to hear news of wars, pestilence, bloodshed, and desolations, not to feel the least disturbance from within or without, scarce to hear a dog bark against it's long continued peace, unmatchable in present or past examples. Above all, what a golden Candlestick hath he placed in it, furnished with oil and lamps, I would I could say in every shaft and pipe of it; but so as I may well resemble it to a bright sky in a clear evening sparkling with Stars, though not in every part, yet in every Zone and quarter of it. What times can tell of the like light, learning, preaching, knowledge? Oh that I could say practice and thankfulness answerable. What an hedge or wall of fire and protection hath God made about us? what glorious salvations from foreign invasions, from domestical treasons, such as wilscarse be credible to after ages. Was Israel it self ever honored with more? To all these, when for a while of late we were in a damp of grief & fear in the absence of our Prince for a season, how suddenly hath he blown over that cloud? how speedily and happily hath he returned him, that we fare as people in a dream, can scarce tell how to believe our selves, or how to express our joys enough; how hath he filled our hearts with gladness! Oh that I may be able truly to say, our tongus with praise, and our lives with duties. In this fresh & last favor of his, he deals me thinks with us as Creditors with slow Debtors, where they have adventured much, they will sometimes shoot another arrow in hope to find and make good their former losses; as Seneca counsels his Ebutius to imitate the husbandman, who never leaves husbanding and manuring the barren ground, till he make it fertil, to heap benefit on benefit, till he awaken his unthankful friend, overcome him with kindness, and in the end by some welcome good turn excite his dullness, and extort thanks by that for all the former from him. I would I were as sure God should speed of his end, as I am sure this is his end, to put us to the blush for our former ingratitude, to win us at length to pay our debts and vows unto him. Some, and sundry of all sorts great and mean he hath, I doubt not, among us, grateful observers and receivers of his blessings. like a few berries after the shaking of a tree, which makes him forbear to lay the Axe to the root for a while: but the common thanks which he reaps at the hand of the multitude, is lukewarmness and Newtralitie at the best; in many lingrings after Superstition and idolatry; in the worser sort, desperate swearing, dissolute Sabbath keeping, brutish drunkenness, and uncleanness, falsehood in dealings till all burst again, vanity in fashion following, without shame or modesty. These are the dregs of our times, & blots of our feasts, which if not amended, may not a withdraught of all God's favors, a removal of his Candlestick, the worst of all plagues, be as certainly foreseen, and foretold, as if Visions and Letters were sent us from heaven, as to the 7. Churches of Asia? But I hope better things of our better sort, and love as little as may be to have mine eye & finger upon these sores, wishing we might see such a Book-fire as we read of Act. 17. made of all our clandestine Libels, seditious & male contented Pamphlets. I speak not against the precious balm of reproof, no not oil of Scorpions: let the righteous smite us with plain & faithful rebukes, and such smitings shall not wound the body, or break the head, but show us our defects without rancor and malice, pouring in no poison and venom, but oil and wine to heal our wounds, to excite us to thankfulness worthy the blessings heaped & renewed daily upon us; and what is the best thanks, but national and personal amendment of life? and what thanks is enough, what Hecatombs of sacrifices are sufficient for a God that hath done so much for us, and yet ceaseth not to do us good? I would know of the most ungrateful man what he can require of us more then he hath richly & abundanly deserved, were it to half, yea to all the wealth of the kingdom? I take not upon me to prescribe particulars. But suppose he should exact of us this particular, which I dare say would highly please him, and would I am sure be a most worthy and needful fruit of our gratitude to him. I will not mention a Ceremonial, circumstantial, superfluous matter of form and order, but a necessary substantial amends of what all confess to be amiss: a provision I mean, of a sufficient maintenance and Minister in every Parish of the Kingdom, a righting of what Popery hath wronged, a Restitution of what Religion first consecrated, Superstition misplaced, covetousness wholly alienated and impropriated. This could not in likelihood but prove a cure of all the maladies spiritual and temporal, a dispelling of our Egyptian fogs, a dispersing of the Frogs that yet remain as thorns in our sides, a quickening to all good works of piety and charity, a goad and spur to all kinds & fruits of thankfulness that God can require of us. Have I spoken of more then he requires, or we need, or of that which is impossible? the last will be the only plea, but withal the plea only of our ingratitude and infidelity, not disability. Is it harder now to restore, then at first to give? When God stirred up his people's affections, their Princes and Priests were fain to set mortmaines & bounds to their bounty, and stay their hands from giving more. What were a Subsidy or two for God & his church? If God give us hearts, wood and the sacrifice will soon be found, & brought to hand; and till this be done, a just brand of Ingratitude lies upon us. It's impossible for any application to extend to every particular. If every Soul would study thankfulness, God would direct to the best duties. If every English man would kindle a Bone-fire in his own heart, how would the flame break out, & shine abroad, and the smoke ascend up to the heavens? If every thankful man would take up his harp, and sing and play with his tongue and hand a new Song of thanks, how loud and full melody would it make, what joy would be on the earth, yea in the heavens to see our thankfulness and amendment. It is but every man's labor to sweep before his own door, and every man's Fagot to this fire, and the work were done, & God pleased. Give unto the Lord, you Potentates, glory and strength: give unto the Lord ye sons of the mighty, worship and praise due to his Name! You house of Aaron, and you that serve him in his Courts, praise ye the Lord, and stir up others to praise him. Let Israel and all that fear him say, his mercies endureth forever. What ever others shall do, My soul, praise thou the Lord.

A Post-script to the Reader.

A Thankful man is worth his weight in the gold of Ophir. Could I be as thankful as I ought to be, which, sure I am, I never shall be, yet can the thanks of a mean man procure but mean honor to God. Could I be as thankful as is possible for any one man to be, yet single thanks is like a single voice, which makes but simple music. But could I stir up thankful intentions & affections in every Reader, for example in thy heart, whose eye is now upon this advise, then wouldest thou also endeavor to work the like in others; and so a small number by multiplication might prove a large sum: as a great debt is often paid by a collection from many hands, which one poor man's ability could never have reached unto. That we may be aright thankful, it is requisite that with one eye we observe our sins and evils both public and personal; and with the other our favors and blessings, that the one may acquaint us with our unworthiness; the other may prevent male contented vngratefulnesse. Many a man would be much more thankful then he is, if he had but an hint of excitation and help of direction: as many a Scholar, if he had but a few Heads of Common places, would be rich in observations, which for want of such a sleight help vanish in the reading, and perish in the meditating. Behold therefore, I give thee here a Register or Inventory, which I wish thee to keep, and use as a Table of thanks due to God in kind, and negligently by thee paid. Which when thou perusest, thou mayest under every Head in the space left of purpose, record, not all and every favor, which is impossible, but the most memorable, and thankworthy; putting a special Selah of thanks upon them, as David upon his deliverance from the Bear, Lyon, and Goliath. It cannot but revive thy memory, and quicken thy affections, so often as thou shalt seriously review it.

A Thankful man's Calender.

COnsider in what times and places the lot of my life hath fallen. In what kings reign, in what nation, in what town, under what Magistracy, and Ministry.

What Parents, Schoolmasters, and Tutors? what wife, children, and servants hath God blessed me withal?

What sickness have I been delivered from? What dangers, casualties by sea or land? what suites and vexations by law, or otherwise?

What measure of health, and strength of body?

What talents of Wealth, Birth, Office, Authority, Repute?

What faculties of Understanding, Memory? what helps of Arts, Sciences, Education, &c.

When & how my conversion to God was wrought? what assurance of God's love in Christ, what peace and joy in the Holy Ghost, &c.

What Progress, growth, and increase have I made in grace, and in good duties of my place and calling?

What victory over temptations, and special sins, old and inveterate customs of evil?

When thou hast written down some particulars, then minister these Interrogatories between God and thyself, to thy conscience:

What times formerly, or now usually do I take to ponder and take notice of God's blessings? what daily observation make I of them? how many hours spend I weekly, or monthly in reuoluing the memory of them? what occasion take I to speak of them in company, to God's glory, rather then mine own ostentation?

What gain have my talents brought in to my Masters banks?

What benefit have my brethren by them? of what use is my life, parts of mind and body, &c. to my Country, Church, or Commonwealth?

What Alms and good deeds have I done, or intend to do?

What shall I render to God for all his benefits? how shall I add to my former thankfulness? what good service may I do him more then I have, that men may glorify my heavenly Father?

Bradwardini grata ad Deum Precatiuncula, lib. 3. De causa Dei.

DA mihi mendicanti & misero, qui tuus sum magis quam meus, imo non meus sed tuus, vt tibi patri luminum, cuius dona gratuita sunt omnes boni motus, actus, habitus, carentiae malorum actuum, bona positiua, priuatiua, gratias, quae mihi possibiles sunt agam maximas gratissimus. Da vt facilius cord & opere faciam quam ore proferam. Da iterum at{que} iterum precor, nihil vt mihi dulcius sit & delectabilius quam haec effectuosissime affectuosissime adimplere, incessanter semper & vbi{que} ab aete no in aeternum. Amen.

Quoties tentatio superatur, periculum declinatur, vitium subiugatur, annosa & inueterata animi passio sanatur laqueus deprehenditur, aut multum cupita virtus obtinetur, toties personare debet vox laudis ad singula beneficia.
Bernardus in Cant. Serm. 1.

August in Psal.

Quid est, tota die impleatur os meum laudibus? Sine intermissione te laudem, in prosperis quia consolaris, in aduersis quia corrigis antequam essem quia fecisti, quum essem quia salutem dedisti, quum peccassem quia ignouisti, &c.