N00431:39
The wonderful works of God commemorated. Praises bespoke for the God in heaven in…
The wonderful works of God commemorated. Praises bespoke for the God in heaven in a thanksgiving sermon; delivered on Decemb. 19. 1689. Containing just reflections upon the excellent things done by the great God, more generally in creation and redemption, and in the government of the world; but more particularly in the remarkable revolutions of providence which are every where the matter of present observation. With a postscript giving an account of some very stupendous accidents, which have lately happened in France. / By Cotton Mather. ; To which is added a sermon preached unto the convention of the Massachuset-Colony in New-England, with a short narrative of several prodigies, which New-England hath of late had the alarms of heaven in.
Boston: printed by S. Green & sold by Joseph Browning, 1690
PRAISES Bespoke for the GOD of Heaven, In a Thanksgiving SERMON. › Proposition 2: PROPOSITION II.
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.
PROPOSITION II.
We ought both to Sing, and to Spread, the praises which we owe unto the God of Heaven. Behold, a double Office incumbent on us, with respect unto those Acknowledgements which we are to pay unto our God; beside and beyond the first Motions of them, in our own Souls. Indeed the Spring of all the Acknowledgements which we make unto God, must be in our Hearts, and the gracious Opinions and Resentments which are first formed there. We must first look to this, that God be praised by the Thoughts in our minds, and, as the Psalmist speaks, by, All that is within us Blessing his Holy Name. They never will praise God sufficiently or acceptably, who cannot say, as in Luke 1, 46. My Soul ⟨p. 12⟩does, Magnify the Lord. As all worship of God, so particularly, all praising of God, must be performed in Spirit; otherwise it will not be in Truth. But the praises of God, being shaped in the Honourable Thoughts of our Souls, what are we then to do?
We ought both to Sing, and to Spread, the praises which we owe unto the God of Heaven. Behold, a double Office incumbent on us, with respect unto those Acknowledgments which we are to pay unto our God; beside and beyond the first Motions of them, in our own Souls. Indeed the Spring of all the Acknowledgments which we make unto God, must be in our Hearts, and the gracious Opinions and Resentmen's which are first formed there. We must first look to this, that God be praised by the Thoughts in our minds, and, as the Psalmist speaks, by, All that is within us Blessing his Holy Name. They never will praise God sufficiently or acceptably, who cannot say, as in