A81220:104
A sermon pressing to, and directing in, that great duty of praising God. Preached…
A sermon pressing to, and directing in, that great duty of praising God. Preached to the Parliament at Westminster, Octob: 8. 1656. Being the day of their solemn thanksgiving to God for that late success given to some part of the fleet of this Common-wealth against the Spanish fleet in its return from the West Indies. / By Joseph Caryl, minister of the Gospel at Magnus near London Bridge.A sermon pressing to, and directing in, that great duty of praising God. Preached to the Parliament at Westminster, Octob: 8. 1656. Being the day of their solemn thanksgiving to God for that late successe given to some part of the fleet of this Common-wealth against the Spanish fleet in its return from the West Indies. / By Joseph Caryl, minister of the Gospel at Magnus near London Bridge.
London: printed by M. Simmons, 1657
Title page typeset from the transcription.
Modern spelling is a reading aid: the words are the author’s, only the spelling is modernized. Original shows the page as printed, with the transcription marks.
First, Lest we should not have praised him as we ought; or with this fear, that we have not come up to that holiness and spiritualness of the duty in which it ought to be performed. We have no reason to think we have done this work so well, as that all's well, but rather to fear that we have failed much in it. When we are at highest in any duty, we are below our duty, how much more in this duty of praise, which is our highest duty. Who can utter the mighty acts of the Lord, who can show forth all his praise? (Psal. 106. 2.) Had we (as the Apostle speaks in another case, • Cor. 13. 1.) the tongues of men and Angels, yea the best hearts of both, we could not show forth all his Praise; what then have we done with our stammering tongues and straitened hearts to the Praise of God?
First, Lest we should not have praised him as we ought; or with this fear, that we have not come up to that holinesse and spiritualnesse of the duty in which it ought to be performed. We have no reason to think we have done this work so well, as that all's well, but rather to fear that we have failed much in it. When we are at highest in any duty, we are below our duty, how much more in this duty of praise, which is our highest duty. Who can utter the mighty acts of the Lord, who can shew forth all his praise? (Psal. 106. 2.) Had we (as the Apostle speaks in another case, • Cor. 13. 1.) the tongues of men and Angells, yea the best hearts of both, we could not shew forth all his Praise; what then have we done with our stammering tongues and straitned hearts to the Praise of God?
Secondly, Praise the Lord with this fear, lest you should forget the benefits which you have praised him for. Holy David (Psal. 103. 2.) bespeaks his soul thus, Bless the Lord O my soul, and forget not all his benefits; that is, forget none at all of them: They that are afraid of forgetting the benefits of God, are most likely to remember them. Such fear will write the Praise of God upon your hearts, and provoke you to Praise him with your lives.