your lives, your limbs, your friends, your Relations, yea and the means of Grace, which is better than all, and more than all other mercies: ergo be thankful. 5. The Lord has given those choice things to you, as shall never be taken from you: viz. himself, his Son, his Spirit, which shall abide with you for ever; his Grace which is an abiding seed, and his peace which none can give to you, nor take from you; 1ergo be thankful though God has laid all your pleasant things desolate. 6. Thankfulness under crosses and losses, speak out much integrity and ingenuity of Spirit. Hypocrites and profane persons are more apt to blaspheme, than to bless a taking God: ergo be thankful. The Ancients say, Ingratum dixeris omnia dixeris, say a man is unthankful, and say he is any thing. Ingratitude is a Monster in nature (say some) a Solecism in Manners, a Paradox in Grace, damming up the course of donations divine and humane. If there be any sin in the world against the Holy Ghost, (said Queen Elizabeth in a Letter to Henry the fourth of France) it is ingratitude. The Laws of Persia, Macedonia and Athens, condemned the ungrateful to death: and unthankfulness may well be styled the Epitome of Vices. Ingratitude was so hateful to the Egyptians, that they used to make Eunuchs of ungrateful persons, that no posterity of theirs might remain. Well Sirs, remember this, the best way to get much, is to be thankful for a little. God loves to sow much where he reaps much. Thankfulness for one mercy, makes way for another mercy; as many thousand Christians have experienced. The Lords Impost for all his blessings is our thankfulness: if we neglect to pay this Impost, the commodity is forfeit, ⟨p. 181⟩and so will take it back. Our returns must be according to our receipts. Good men should be like the Bells, that ring as pleasantly at a Funeral, as at a Wedding. They should be as thankful when it goes ill with them, as when it goes well with them. Cicero complained of old, that it was a hard thing to find a thankful man. Oh how hard a thing is it to find burnt Citizens really, cordially, frequently and practically thankful, that they are alive, that they are out of the grave, out of Hell, and that yet they have bread to eat and clothes to wear, though their habitations are laid in ashes, and all their pleasant things destroyed. But,
your lives, your limbs, your friends, your Relations, yea and the means of Grace, which is better than all, and more than all other mercies: ergo be thankful. 5. The Lord has given those choice things to you, as shall never be taken from you: viz. himself, his Son, his Spirit, which shall abide with you for ever; his Grace which is an abiding seed, and his peace which none can give to you, nor take from you; 1ergo be thankful though God has laid all your pleasant things desolate. 6. Thankfulness under crosses and losses, speak out much integrity and ingenuity of Spirit. Hypocrites and prophane persons are more apt to blaspheme, than to bless a taking God: ergo be thankful. The Ancients say, Ingratum dixeris omnia dixeris, say a man is unthankful, and say he is any thing. Ingratitude is a Monster in nature (say some) a Solecism in Manners, a Paradox in Grace, damming up the course of donations divine and humane. If there be any sin in the world against the Holy Ghost, (said Queen Elizabeth in a Letter to Henry the fourth of France) it is ingratitude. The Laws of Persia, Macedonia and Athens, condemned the ungrateful to death: and unthankfulness may well be styled the Epitome of Vices. Ingratitude was so hateful to the Egyptians, that they used to make Eunuchs of ungrateful persons, that no posterity of theirs might remain. Well Sirs, remember this, the best way to get much, is to be thankful for a little. God loves to sow much where he reaps much. Thankfulness for one mercy, makes way for another mercy; as many thousand Christians have experienced. The Lords Impost for all his blessings is our thankfulness: if we neglect to pay this Impost, the commodity is forfeit, ⟨p. 181⟩and so will take it back. Our returnes must be according to our receipts. Good men should be like the Bells, that ring as pleasantly at a Funeral, as at a Wedding. They should be as thankful when it goes ill with them, as when it goes well with them. Cicero complained of old, that it was a hard thing to find a thankful man. Oh how hard a thing is it to find burnt Citizens really, cordially, frequently and practically thankful, that they are alive, that they are out of the grave, out of Hell, and that yet they have bread to eat and clothes to wear, though their habitations are laid in ashes, and all their pleasant things destroyed. But,
- 1John 16. 1 John 3. 9.
