Thirty-Six Sermons, Collection of sermons 1 · Group of sermons 3 · Sermon 5

Thirty-Six Sermons · Collection of sermons 1 · Group of sermons 3 · Sermon 5

p. 233AD POPULUM.

The Fifth Sermon.

At St. Paul's Cross London, Nov. 21. 1624.

1 Tim. IV. 4.

For every Creature of God is good: and nothing to be refused, if it be received with Thanksgiving.

OF that great and Universal Apostasie, which should be in the1. Church through the tyranny and fraud of Antichrist; there are elsewhere in the Scriptures more full, scarce any where more plain Predictions, than in this, passage of St. Paul, whereof my Text is a part. The Quality of the Doctrines foretold Vers. 1. contrary to the Faith, Erroneous, Devillish; [aaVers 1. Now the Spirit speaketh expresly, that in the latter times some shall depart from the Faith, giving heed to seducing Spirits, and doctrines of Devils.] The Quality of the Doctors, foretold, verse 2. Liars, Hypocritical, Unconscionable; [bbVers. 2. Speaking lies in Hypocrisie, having their consciences seared with a hot Iron.] But lest these generalities should seem not sufficiently distinctive; each side charging other (as commonly it hapneth where differences are about Religion) with Apostasie and Error, and Falshood, and Hypocrisie: the Apostle thought it needful to point out those Antichristian Doctors more distinctly, by specifying some particulars of their devillish Doctrines. For which purpose he giveth instance in ccVers. 3.two of their Doctrines, whereof he maketh choice, not as being simply the worst of all the rest, (though bad enough) but as being more easily discernable than most of the rest; viz. a Prohibition of Marriage, and an injunction of Abstinence from certain meats. Which particulars, being so agreeable to the present Tenets of the Romish Synagogue, do give even of themselves alone, a strong suspicion, that there is the seat of Antichrist. But joyned unto the other Prophecies of dd2 Thes. 2. 3. &c.2 Thess 2:3St. Paul, and eeApoc. 13. 11, &c.Rev 13:11St. Iohn, in other places, make it so unquestionable; that they who will needs be so unreasonably charitable, as to think the Pope is not Antichrist, may at the least wonder, (as ffMoulins accomplishment in the Preface.one saith well) by what strange chance it fell out, that these Apostles should draw the picture of Antichrist in every point and limb, so just like the Pope, and yet never think of him.

p. 234The words of the Text, are the ground of a Confutation; indeed properly2. and directly of the later of these two Errors only, concerning Abstinence from certain meats: but yet so, as it strongly overthroweth the other too, concerning Marriage; and in truth generally, all other superstitious Precepts or Prohibitions of like Nature. Marriage being the holy Ordinance of God, as Meats are the good Creatures of God: and neither Marriage, nor Meats, nor any other Creature or Ordinance, being to be refused as upon tye of Conscience; provided ever, they be received with such thankfulness, and such other requisite conditions, as become Christian men. For every Creature of God is good; and nothing to be refused, if it be received with thanksgiving.

Which words give us occasion to consider of Three points, which according3. to the number and order of the several clauses in this Verse are these. First, the 1.Quality of Gods Creatures, as they come from him, and are given to us: [Every Creature of God is good.] Secondly, the Use of Gods Creatures, consisting2. in their lawfulness unto us, and our liberty unto them: [And nothing to be refused.] Thirdly, a Condition necessary on our parts, lest the Creatures otherwise3. good and lawful, should become unto us evil and hurtful; and that is Thankfulness: [If it be received with Thanksgiving.] The two first set out the bounty of God towards us; who hath made a world of Creatures, and all good, and hath not envied us the use of any of them: and the third, containeth our duty unto God in regard thereof; viz. to return unto him, for the free use of all his good Creatures, the tribute of our Thanks. Of these three points it is my purpose, by Gods grace, and with your patience, to speak in such manner, as shall be most for our edification; in such measure as the usual hours will allow; and in such Order as the Text giveth them: and first of the first, from the first clause thereof; Every Creature of God is good.

By Creature understand, not only such as are appointed for nourishment: but4. even all kind of created Beings; the aa…n. 1. 1.Heaven and the Earth, and bb…od. 20. 11.all things therein contained cc…l. 1. 16.visible and invisible, with all their several Properties and Accidents. Of all and each of these the Apostles assertion is true; Every Creature of God is good. He concludeth all kinds of meats to be good; because they are the Creatures of God: which argument were not good, if every Creature were not good. And by goodness understand, not only that goodness ad intra, whereby every thing is simply and metaphysically good, in regard of the nature, perfection, and being thereof: but that goodness, ad extra, too, whereby every thing is in the kind, and in some measure endowed with an ability to do some good without and beyond it self. You may call them an ddScalig. …. 307. sect.absolute, and a Relative goodness. And every creature hath both of these. There being in the meanest and basest of Gods Creatures, not only an Absolute Goodness, whereby it is perfect in its proper kind, Quà Ens, as it hath a being and existence; but also a Relative Goodness too; and that two-fold. One, respecting God the Creator: whose glory, more or less, it serveth to shew forth, Quà Creatura, as it is the Work of his hands. Another, respecting its eeforeign, …. in Prot. … Menon.Fellow-Creatures: to some of whom it is some way or other serviceable, Quà pars Mundi, as it is a part of the whole; but especially, serviceable unto Man, for whose service (next under the glory of God) the whole was Created. The summ is, Every Creature which God hath made is good. Good, absolutely and in it self, as a Thing: Good, in that it setteth forth the glory of him that made it, as a Creature: Good, as a part of the World, for the service it doth to man, and other Creatures.

Hereof we need neither further, nor other testimony, than Gods own approbation5. registred in the story of the Creation, Gen. 1. Where we may see Gods allowance stamped, both upon the several Creatures of each several day, that they were ffn. 1. 4, 12, 21, 25.good: and also upon the whole frame of the Creatures, p. 235when the work was finished; that behold they were ggIbid. v. 21.Exceeding good. Et nusquam in toto corpore menda fuit. In this goodly Systeme and fabrick of Nature that which is beyond all, is, the Harmony and conjuncture of the parts, exceeding in goodness, beauty and perfection: yet so, as no one part is superfluous or unprofitable; or, if considered singly and by it self, destitute of its proper goodness and usefulness. As in the Natural Body of a man; not the least member, or string, or sinew, but hath his proper office and comeliness in the body: and as in the Artificial Body of a Clock or other Engine of motion, not the least wheel, or pin, or notch, but hath his proper work and use in the Engine. God hath given to every thing he hath made, that hhWisd. 11. 20.Wis 11:20number, weight and measure of perfection and goodness, which he saw fittest for it unto those ends for which he made it. Every Creature of God is good.

A truth so evident; that even those among the Heathen Philosophers, who6. either denied or doubted of the Worlds Creation, did yet, by making iiforeign. Arist. 1. Ethic. 6.Ens and Bonum, terms convertible, acknowledge the goodness of every Creature. It were a shame then for us, who kkHeb. 11. 3.Heb 11:3Through faith understand that the worlds were framed by the word of God; if our assent unto this truth should not be by so much firmer than theirs, by how much our evidence for it is stronger than theirs. They perceived the thing; we the ground also: they saw it was so; we, why it is so. Even because it is the work of God; A God full of goodness; a God who is nothing but goodness; a God llPars naturae eorum est esse bònos. (De Diis.) Senec.essentially and infinitely good, yea, very Goodness it self. As is the Workman, such is his **foreign. Plat in Timaeo.workmanship.

Not for degree, (that is here impossible;) but for the truth of the Quality: nor alike good with him, but like to him in being good. In every Creature there are certain tracts and footsteps, as of Gods Essence, whereby it hath its Being: so of his Goodness too, whereby it also is good. The mmSee Aug. passim in scriptis contr. Manichaeos.Manichees saw the strength of this Inference: Who, though they were so injurious unto the Creatures, as to repute some of them evil; yet durst not be so absurd, as to charge the true God to be the cause of those they so reputed. Common reason taught them, that from the good God could not proceed any evil thing: no more than Darkness could from the light of the Sun, or Cold from the heat of the fire. And therefore, so to defend their Error, as to avoid this absurdity, they were forced to maintain another absurdity (indeed a greater, though it seemed to them the less of the two) viz. to say there were two Gods, a good God, the Author of all good things; and an evil God, the Author of all evil things. If then we acknowledge that there is but nn1 Cor. 8. 6.1 Cor 8:6one God, and that one God good; (and we do all so acknowledge:) unless we will be more absurd than those most absurd Hereticks, we must withal acknowledge all the Creatures of that one and good God to be also good. He is so the causer of all that is good; for ooJam. 1. 17.Jas 1:17Every good gift, and every perfect giving, descendeth from above from the Father of lights: as that he is the causer only of what is good: (for with him is no variableness neither shadow of turning, saith St. Iames.) As the Sun, who is Pater luminum, the fountain and Father of lights (whereunto St. Iames in that passage doth apparently allude) giveth light to the Moon, and Stars, and all the lights of Heaven, and causeth light wheresoever he shineth, but no where causeth darkness: so God the Father, & fountain of all goodness, so communicateth goodness to every thing he produceth, as that he ppErrat, si quis putet illos (Deos) nocere velle, qui non possunt Sen. Epist. 95. Nec dant malum, nec habent. Ibid.cannot produce any thing at all, but that which is good: Every Creature of God then is good.

Which being so; certainly then, first (to raise some Inferences from the Premisses for our farther instruction and use) certainly I say; Sin and Death, and such things as are evil, and not good, are not of Gods making, they are none of his Creatures: for all his Creatures are good. qqJam. 1. 13.Jas 1:13Let no man therefore say, when he is tempted, and overcome of sin, I am tempted of God: neither let any7. man say, when he hath done evil, It was God's doing. God indeed preserveth the Man, actuateth the Power, and ordereth the Action to the glory of his Mercy p. 236or Iustice: but he hath no hand at all in the sinful defect and obliquity of a wicked action. There is a natural (or rather transcendental) Goodness, Bonit as Entis, as they call it, in every Action, even in that whereto the greatest sin adhereth: and that bbMali author non est, qui omnium quae sunt author est: quia in quantum sunt, in tantum bona sunt. Aug. 83. Quaest. 21.Goodness is from God, as that Action is his Creature. But the Evil that cleaveth unto it, is wholly from the default of the Person that committeth it; and not at all from God. And as for the Evils of Pain also; neither are they of Gods making. ccWisd. 13. 16.Wis 13:16Deus mortem non fecit, saith the Author of the Book of Wisdom, God made not death, neither doth he take pleasure in the destruction of the living: but wicked men by their words, and works, have brought it upon themselves: Perditio tua ex te Israel, Hosea 13. ddHos. 13. 9.Hos 13:9O Israel, thy destruction is from thy self: that is, both thy sin, whereby thou destroyest thy self, and thy Misery whereby thou art destroyed, is only and wholly from thy self. Certainly, God is not the cause of any Evil, either of Sin or Punishment. Conceive it thus: not the Cause of it (formally, and) so far forth as it is Evil. For otherwise, we must know, that (materially considered) all Evils of Punishment are from God: for eeAmos 3. 6.Amos 3:6Shall there be evil in the City, and the Lord hath not done it? Amos 3. 6. In Evils of sin, there is no other, but only that Natural or Transcendental goodness (whereof we spake) in the Action: which goodness though it be from God, yet because the Action is morally bad, God is not said to do it: But in Evils of Punishment, there is, over and besides that Natural Goodness, whereby they exist, a kind of Moral Goodness, (as we may call it, after a sort; improperly, and by way of reduction) as they are Instruments of the Iustice of God: and whatsoever may be referred to Iustice, may so far forth be called good: and for that very goodness, God may be said in some sort to be the Author of these evils of Punishment, though not also of those other evils of Sin. In both, we must distinguish the Good from the Evil: and ascribe all the Good, wheresoever it be, (Transcendental, Natural, Moral, or if there be any other) to God alone; but by no means any of the Evil. We are unthankful, if we impute any good, but to him: and we are unjust, if we impute to him any thing but good.

Secondly, from the goodness of the least Creature, guess we at the ffWisd. 13. 1, &c.Wis 13:1excellent8. goodness of the great Creator. ggA. Gell. 1. Noct. Attic. 1.Ex pede Herculem. God hath imprinted, as before I said, some steps and footings of his goodness in the Creatures: from which we must take the best scantling, we are capable of, of those admirable and inexpressible and unconceivable perfections that are in him. There is no beholding of the body of this Sun, who dwelleth in such a aa1 Tim. 6. 16.1 Tim 6:16a Glorious light as none can attain unto; that glory would dazle with blindness the sharpest and most Eagly eye that should dare to fix it self upon it, with any stedfastness: enough it is for us, from those bbTanta haec formarum variet as in rebus conditis, quid nisi quidam sunt radii Deitatis? demonstrantes quidem quòd verè sit à quo sunt; non tamen quid sit, prorsus definientes. Bern. Ser. 31. in Cant.rays and glimmering beams which he hath scattered upon the Creatures, to gather how infinitely he exceedeth them in brightness and glory. ccBern. ibid.De ipso vides, sed non ipsum: We see his, but not Him. His Creatures, they are our best, indeed our only instructers. For though his revealed Word teach us, that we should never have learned from the Creatures without it: yet, (fitted to our capacity) it teacheth no otherwise, than by resemblances taken from the Creatures. ddRom. 1. 19, 20.Rom 1:19Rom 1:20foreign, as St. Paul calleth it, Rom. 1. the whole Latitude of that, which may be known of God, is manifest in the Creatures: and the invisible things of God not to be understood but by things that are made. St. Basil therefore calleth the world eeBasil.foreign, the very School where the knowledge of God is to be learned: And there is a double way of teaching, a twofold method of training us up into that knowledge in that school: that is to say, ffAquin. 1. qu. 12. 12.Per viam Negationis, and per viam Eminentiae, First ggforeign. Dama…. 1. de fid. Orthod. 4Viâ Negationis: look whatsoever thou findest in the p. 237Creature, which savoureth of defect or imperfection; and know, God is not such. Are they limited? subject to change, composition, decay, &c? Remove these from God; and learn that he is infinite, simple; unchangeable, eternal. Then Viâ Eminentiae: look whatsoever perfection there is in the Creature in any degree; and know that the same, but (infinitely and incomparably) more eminently, is in God. Is there Wisdom, or Knowledge, or Power, or Beauty, or Greatness, or Goodness, in any kind, or in any measure in any of the Creatures? Affirm the same, but without measure, of God… and learn that he is infinitely wiser, and skilfuller, and stronger, and fairer, and greater, and better. In every good thing, so differently excellent above and beyond the Creatures; as that, though yet they be good, yet compared with him, they deserve not the name of good, hhMar. 10. 18.Mark 10:18There is none good but one, that is God, Mar. 10. None good, as he: simply, and absolutely, and essentially, and of himself such. The creatures that they are good, they have it from him; and their goodness dependeth upon him: and they are good but in part, and insome measure, and in their own kinds. Whensoever therefore we find any good from, or observe any goodness in any of the Creatures: let us not bury our meditations there, but raise them by those stairs (as it were) of the Creatures, to contemplate the great Goodness of him their Creator. We are unhappy truants; if in this so richly furnished School of God's good Creatures; we have not learned from them at the least so much knowledge of him and his goodness, as to admire and love, and depend upon it and him. Look upon the workmanship, and accordingly judge of the Workman: Every Creature of God is good: surely then the Creator must needs excel in goodness.

Thirdly, there is in men, amongst other cursed fruits of self-love, an aptness9. to measure things, aaNon ex sui natura, sed ex suo commodo, vel incommodo. Aug. 12. de Civit. 4.not by the level of exact truth, but by the model of their own apprehensions. Who is there that cannot fault anothers work? The bbPlin. 35. Nat. Hist. 10.Cobler could espy something amiss in Apelles his master-piece; because the Picture was not drawn just according to his fancy. If a thousand of us hear a Sermon, scarce one of that thousand, but he must shew some of that little wit he hath in disliking something or other: There the Preacher was too elaborate, here too loose: that point he might have enlarged, contracted this; he might have been plainer there, shewed more learning here; that observation was obvious, that exposition enforced, that proof impertinent, that illustration common, that exhortation needless, that reproof unseasonable: one misliketh his Text, another his Method, a third his Stile, a fourth his Voice, a fifth his Memory; every one something. A fault more pardonable, if our censures stayed at the works of men, like our selves; and ccLucian in Hermotimo.Momus-like, we did not quarrel the works of God also, and charge many of his good Creatures, either with manifest ill, or at leastwise with unprofitableness. ddSee Sirac, 39. 16, 17, &c.Why was this made? Or why thus? What good doth this, or what use of that? It had perhaps been better, if this or that had never been; or if they had been otherwise. Thus we sometimes say or think. To eeNe tanti artificis opus in aliquo reprehendere vanitate humanae temeritatis audeamus. Aug. 12. de Civit. 4.rectifie this corruption, remember this first clause of my Text, Every Creature of God is good. Perhaps thou seest not, what good there is in some of the Creatures? Like enough so: but yet consider, there may be much good which thou seest not. Say, it giveth thee no nourishment: Possibly it may do thee ffforeign. Damasc. 2. de fid. Orthod. 12.service in some other kind. Say, it never yet did that: yet it may do hereafter. Later times ggQuam multa animalia hoc primum cognovimus saeculo? & quidem multa venientis avi populus ignota nobis, sciet. Senec, 7. Nat. qu. 31.have found out much good use of many Creatures, whereof former ages were ignorant: and why may not after-times find good in those things which do us none? Say, it never did, nor ever shall do service to man, (although who can tell that?) yet who knoweth but it hath done, or may do service to some other Creature, that doth service to man? Say, p. 238not that neither: yet this good thou mayest reap even from such Creatures, as seem to afford none; to take hh…tur qui…n assu…s & re…is, ad …dinem; …dam to…is, ad pa…m; qui…n ordi…, ad justi… quibus…onside…, ad ali…eritatis …ntum.knowledge of thine own ignorance, and to humble thy self thereby, who art so far from comprehending the essence, that thou canst not comprehend the very works of God. The most unprofitable Creatures profit us, at least this way: aa… 3. quaest.Visu, si non usu, as Bernard speaketh; if not to use them, yet to see in them as in a glass Gods wisdom, and our own ignorance. And so they do us good; if not bb…. Serm. 5. …t.cedendo in cibum, if not exhibendo ministerium, in feeding and serving us; yet exercendo ingenium, as the same Bernard speaketh; in exercising our wits, and giving us a sight of our ignorance.

But yet those Creatures, which are apparently hurtful to us; as Serpents, and Wild beasts, and sundry poysonous plants; but above all, the Devils, and cursed Angels: May we not say, they are ill, and justly both blame and hate them? Even these also are good, as they are the Creatures of God, and the workmanship of his hands. It is only through sin that they are evil either to us, as the rest; or in themselves, as the Devils. These (now wicked) Angels were10. glorious Creatures at the first: by their own voluntary transgression it is, that they are now the worst, and the basest. And as for all the other Creatures of God, made to do us service; they were at first, and still are good in themselves: if there cleaveth to them any evil, whereby they become hurtful to us, that is by accident; and we have to thank none but our selves for that. For who, or what could have harmed us, if we had been followers of that which was good? It was cc…. 8. 20.not of their own accord, but through our sinfulness, that the Creatures became subject unto vanity, and capable either to do, or to suffer ill. They had been still harmless, if we had been still faultless: it was our ddforeign. …ost. in …om. 25.sin, that at once forfeited both our innocency, and theirs. If then we see any ill in them, or find any ill by them; let us not lay the blame, or wreak our hatred upon them: let us rather bestow our blame and hatred where it is most due; the blame upon our selves, the hatred upon our sins. If Balaam had done justly, he should have spared the ee…. 22. 27,Ass, and have corrected himself: but the false Prophet doth the fault, and the poor beast must bear both blame and strokes. When we suffer, we curse; or at the easiest, blame the Creatures: this weather, that flood, such a storm, hath blasted our fruits, sanded our grounds, shipwrack'd our wares, and undone us. When alas, these have neither heart nor strength against us, but what our selves put into them by our sins. Every sense of evil therefore in or from the Creatures, should work in us a sense of our disobedience unto God; should encrease in us a detestation of the sins we have committed against God; should teach us by condemning our selves, to acquit the good Creatures of God: which as they are good in themselves, so should they have been ever and only good unto us, if we had been true to our selves, and continued good and faithful servants unto God. They are all good: do not thou accuse any of them, and say they are evil: do not thou abuse any of them, and make them evil.

Hitherto of the first Point, the goodness of the Creatures, [Every Creature of 11.God is good.] Followeth the second, which is their Use: consisting in their lawfulness unto us, and our; liberty unto them; every Creature of God is good, and nothing to be refused. [Nothing.] That is, most agreeable to the argument of the former verse, nothing fit for food: but more generally, (and so I rather think the Apostle intendeth) no Creature of God, whereof we may have use or service in any kind whatsoever. Nothing, which may yield us any comfortable content for the support of this life, in point of health, ease, profit, delight, or otherwise (with due sobriety, and other requisite conditions) nothing is to be refused. By which Refusal, the Apostle meaneth not a bare forbearance of the things; (for, that we both may, and in many cases ought, p. 239so to refuse some of the Creatures, shall anon appear:) but the thing he forbiddeth, is, the forbearance of the Creature, as upon immediate tye of Conscience; viz. either out of a superstitious opinion of the unlawfulness of any creature, for some supposed natural or legal uncleanness in it; or out of a like superstitious opinion of some extraordinary perfection, or operative and effectual holiness in such refusal. The Point is this. All the Creatures of God are lawful for us to use: so as it is against Christian liberty, either to charge the use of them with sin, or to place holiness in the abstaining from them.12.

Our Apostle often teacheth this Point. In Rom. 14. at vers. 20. [aaRom. 14. 20.Rom 14:20 All things are pure:] and at vers. 14. there he delivereth it as a certain truth, and upon knowledge, [bbIbid. 14. I know, and am perswaded by the Lord Iesus, that there is nothing unclean of it self,] and therefore he imputeth it as an error and weakness in judgment, to them that refused some kind of meats out of a superstitious opinion, or but timorous fear of their unlawfulness, at vers. 2. [ccIbid. 2. One believeth he may eat all things: another, who is weak, eateth herbs:] And in 1 Cor. 10. [dd1 Cor. 10. 25.1 Cor 10:25 Whatsoever is sold in the Shambles, that eat, asking no question for Conscience sake:] and anon vers. 27. [eeIbid. 27. If an unbeliever bid you to a feast, and you be disposed to go; Whatsoever is set before you, eat, asking no question for Conscience sake.] And, to the end we might know the liberty he there giveth to extend to all other Creatures, as well as meats; he pronounceth of them all universally at vers. 23. [ffIbid. 23. foreign, All things are lawful for me.] And so he doth in Tit. 1. 15. universally too; [ggTit. 1. 15.Titus 1:15 Omnia munda mundis, To the pure all things are pure.] From all which Testimonies we may conclude, there is no unlawfulness or impurity in any of the Creatures, but that we may with security of conscience, freely use them without sin. If we use them doubtingly against Conscience, or indiscreetly against Charity, or otherwise inordinately against Sobriety; they become indeed in such cases sinful unto us: But that is through our default, not theirs, who sinfully abuse that, which we might lawfully use. And that abuse of ours, neither aaRom. 14. 14.Rom 14:14defileth the things themselves; nor ought to bb1 Cor. 10. 29, 30.1 Cor 10:291 Cor 10:30prejudice the liberty of another, that may use them well.

And as there is no sin in the use: so neither is there any Religion or perfection 13.to be placed in the refusal of any of Gods Creatures. Rather on the contrary, to abstain from any of them, out of a conceit of any such perfection or holiness, is it self a sinful superstition. Our Apostle ranketh it with Idolatrous ccCol. 2. 16.Col 2:16Angel worship, and condemneth it as sinful and superstitious, Col. 2. from Verse 16. to the end of the Chapter. The subjecting of our selves to those and such like ordinances, Touch not, Taste not, Handle not, though it may have a shew of Wisdom in Will-worship, and in a voluntary humility and neglecting of the body, yet it is derogatory to that liberty wherein Christ hath set us free, and reviving of those rudiments of the world, from which we are dead with Christ. Every Creature of God is good; and nothing to be refused, out of a superstitious either fear of unlawfulness, or opinion of holiness.

Now the Ground of this our Right or Liberty unto the Creatures is double:14. the one, Gods Ordinance at the first Creation; the other, Christs purchace in the work of Redemption. At the Creation, God made all things for mans use, as he did man for his own service; and as he reserved to himself his absolute Soveraignty over Man; so he gave unto man a kind of limited ddGen. 1. 29.Gen 1:29Soveraignty over the Creatures in Gen. 1. eePsal. 8. 6.—quòd nos in hoc pulcherrimo domicilio voluerunt (Dii) secundas sortiri, quòd terrenis praefecerunt. Sen. 2. de ben. 16.Ps 8:6He hath put all things in subjection under our feet, saith David, Psal. 8. Which Dominion over the Creatures was one special branch of that glorious ffGen..1. 17.Image of God in us, after which we were created: and therefore was not, nor could be absolutely ggBonis naturae mala adventitia dum non succedunt, sed accedunt, non exterminant, conturbant, non deturbant. Bern. in Cant. Serm. 82.lost by sin; but only decayed p. 240and defaced, and impaired; as the other branches of that Image were. So that albeit man by sin lost a great part of his Soveraignty, (hh…òst. in m. 9. foreign, as speaketh St. Chrysostome, especially so far as concerneth the execution of it; many of the Creatures being now rebellious and noysom unto Man, and unanswering his commands and expectations: yet the Right still remaineth even in corrupt nature; and there are still to be found some tracings and Characters, as in man of superiority, so in them of subjection. But thoseiiforeign. Dam. …d. Or…. dim, and confused, and scare legible: as in old Marbles, and Coins, and out-worn Inscriptions, we have much ado to find out what some of the Letters were.

But if by sin we had lost all that first title we had to the Creature wholly and utterly: yet as God hath been pleased graciously to deal with us, we are5. fully as well as before. God the Father hath granted us, and God the Son hath acquired us, and God the Holy Ghost hath sealed us a new Patent. By it, whatsoever Defect is, or can be supposed to be, in our old Evidence, is supplied; and by virtue of it, we may make fresh challenge, and renew our claim unto the Creatures. The blessed Son of Godaa1. 20. Having made peace through the blood of his Cross, hath reconciled us to his Father; and therein also reconciled the Creatures both to us and him: reconciling by him (saith our Apostle, Col. 1. 20.) foreign all things (not men only) unto himself. For God having given us his Son bb…. 1. 2.the Heir of all things; hath he not cc1. 8. 32.with him given us all things else? Hath he not permitted us the free use of his Creatures in as ample Right as ever? dd…. 8. 36.If the Son have made us free, we are free indeed. And as verily as Christ is Gods, so verily (if we be Christs) all things are ours. This Apostle setteth down the whole series and form of this spiritual Hierarchy, (if I may so speak) this subjection and subordination of the Creatures to Man, of Man to Christ, of Christ to God, 1 Cor. 3. ee…r. 3. 22,All are yours, and ye are Christs, and Christ is Gods.

Strengthened with this double title, what should hinder us from possession? 16.Why may we not freely use that liberty, which was once given us by God, and again restored us by Iesus Christ? Why should we not ff…. 5. 1.stand fast in, and contend earnestly for the maintenance of that liberty, wherewith Christ hath set us free: by rejecting all fancies, opinions, and Doctrines, that any way trench upon this our Christian Prerogative; or seek either to shorten, or to corrupt, our freedom unto, and power over the Creatures? First, if any shall oppose the legal Prohibitions of the Old Testament; whereby some Creatures were ggv. 11.forbidden the Iews, pronounced by God himself unclean, and decreed unlawful: it should not trouble us. For, whatever the principal reasons were, for which those prohibitions were then made unto them (as there be divers reasons given thereof by Divines both ancient and modern;) certain it is, they now concern not us. The Church, during her non-age and pupillage, (though she were hh…al. 4. 1, 2.Heir of all, and had right to all; yet was to be held under Tutors and Governours, and to be trained up under the Law of Ceremonies asii…al. 3. 24, 25. under a School master, during the appointed time. But, kk…al. 4. 4.When the fulness of the time appointed was come, her wardship expired, and livery sued out (as it were) by the coming and suffering of Christ in the flesh: the Church was then to enter upon her full Royalties, and no more to be burdened with those llforeign. Gal. 4. 9.Gal 4:9beggarly rudiments of legal observances. The mm…ol. 2. 14.hand-writing of Ordinances was then blotted out; and the muddy nn…ph. 2. 14.partition wall broken down; and the legal impurity of the Creatures scowred off by the ooforeign Da …s. 4 de fid. thod. 4.blood of Christ. They have little to do then, but withal much to answer; who, by seeking to bring in Iudaism again into the Christian Church, either in whole or in part, do thereby, as much as lieth in them, (though perhaps unawares to themselves, yet indeed and in truth) ppial. 5. 2, 4,evacuate the Cross of Christ. In p. 241thatbbActs 10. 11, 15.Acts 10:11Acts 10:15 large sheet of the Creatures, which reacheth from Heaven to the Earth, whatsoever we find, we may freely kill and eat, and use every other way to our comforts without scruple. God having cleansed all, we are not to call or esteem any thing common or unclean; God having created all good, we are to2. refuse nothing. If any shall oppose, secondly, the seeming morality of some of these prohibitions, as being given ccGen. 9. 4.Gen 9:4before the law of Ceremonies, pressed from ddLev. 17. 11, 14.Lev 17:11Lev 17:14Moral Reasons, and confirmed by eeActs 15. 20, 29.Acts 15:20Acts 15:29Apostolical Constitution since; upon which ground some would impose upon the Christian Church this, as a perpetual yoke, to abstain from blood: Or, thirdly, the Prophanation which some3. Creatures have contracted by being used in the exercise of idolatrous Worship, whereby they become Anathema, and are to be held as execrable things, asffJosh. 7. 1.Josh 7:1 Achan's wedge was, and the gg2 King. 18. 4.2 Kgs 18:4Brazen Serpent which Hezekiah stamped to powder; upon which ground also, some others have inferred an utter unlawfulness to use any thing in the Church, which was abused in Popery, by calling them Rags and Reliques of Idolatry, neither this nor that ought to trouble us. For although neither my aim, (which lieth another way) nor the time will permit me now to give a just and full satisfying answer to the several Instances and their grounds; yet the very words and weight of my Text, do give us a clear resolution in the general, and sufficient to rest our Consciences, and our Iudgments, and Practice upon; that, notwithstanding all pretensions of reason to the contrary, yet these things, for so much as they are still good, ought not to be refused. For the Apostle hath here laid a sure foundation, and impregnable, in that he groundeth the use upon the power; and from the Goodness of the Creature inferreth the lawfulness of it. [Every Creature of God is good, and nothing to be refused.] He concludeth, it is therefore not to be refused, because it is good. So that look whatsoever Goodness there is in any Creature, that is, whatsoever natural power it hath, which either immediately and of it self is, or may, by the improvement of human Art and Industry, be taught to be of any use unto man, for necessity, nourishment, service, lawful delight or otherwise; the Creature wherein such goodness or power is to be found, may not be refused as upon tie of Conscience, but that power and goodness it hath, may lawfully be employed to those uses for which it is meet in regard thereof. Ever provided, we be careful to observe all those requisite conditions, which must guide our Consciences, and regulate our Practice, in the use of all lawful and indifferent things. They that teach otherwise, lay burdens upon their own Consciences, which they need not, and upon the Consciences of their Brethren which they should not; and are injurious to that liberty which the blessed Son of God hath purchased for his Church, and which the blessed Spirit of God hath asserted in my Text.

Injurious, in the second place, to this branch of our Christian liberty, is the 17.Church of Rome, whom St. Paul in this passage hath branded with an indelible note of infamy; inasmuch as those very Doctrines, wherein he giveth instance, as in Doctrines of Devils, are the received Tenets and Conclusions of that Church. Not to insist on other prejudices done to Christian liberty, by the intolerable usurpation of aa2 Thes. 2. 3.2 Thess 2:3the man of sin, who exerciseth a spiritual Tyranny over mens Consciences, as opposite to Evangelical liberty, as Antichrist is to Christ; let us but a little see how she hath fulfilled St. Paul's Prediction, in teaching lying and devilish Doctrines, and that with seared Consciences and in Hypocrisie, in the two specialties mentioned in the next former Verse, viz. forbidding to marry, and commanding to abstain from Meats.

Marriage, the holy Ordinance of God, instituted in the bbGen. 2. 18.Gen 2:18place and estate of18. Innocency, honoured by ccJoh. 2. 2.John 2:2Christ's presence at Cana in Galilee; the Seedplot of the Church, and the dd1 Cor. 7. 2.1 Cor 7:2sole allowed remedy against Incontinency and p. 242burning lusts, by the Apostle commended as eeHeb. 13. 4.Heb 13:4honourable in all men, and commanded in case of ff1 Cor. 7. 9.1 Cor 7:9ustion to all men, is yet by this ggRev. 17. 13.Rev 17:13purple strumpet forbidden, and that sub mortali, to Bishops, Priests, Deacons, Sub deacons, Monks, Friars, Nuns; in a word, to the whole Clergy (as they extend that title) both Secular and Regular. Wherein, besides the Devilishness of the Doctrine in contrarying the Ordinance of God, and in denying men, subject to sinful lusts, the lawful remedy, and so casting them upon a necessity of sinning; see if they do not teach this lye with seared Consciences? For with what Conscience can they make the same thing a Sacrament in the Lay, and hhBellarm. de Monach. cap. 34.Sacrilege in the Clergy? With what Conscience permit Stews, and forbid Marriage? With what Conscience alledge Scriptures for the single life of Priests, and yet confess it to be an iiAquin. 2. 2. qu. 88. 2. Bellar. de Cler. cap. 18. Becan. 1. man. Controv. 13. ca. 11.Ordinance only of Ecclesiastical, and not of Divine right? With what Conscience confess Fornication to be against the Law of God, and Priests Marriage only against the Law of holy Church, and yet make Marriage in a Priest a kkCoster. …id. cap. …. … ….far fouler sin than Fornication or Incest? With what Conscience exact a vow of Continency from Clerks, by those Canons which ll…. …. qu. … ▪ …. c. 12. …. 1. ca. Dilectissimis.defend their open Incontinency? With what Conscience forbid lawful Marriages to some, and yet by dispensation allow unlawful Marriages to others?

And is not the like also done in the other particular concerning Meats? The Laws of that Church forbidding some mmBenedictines and Carthusians.Orders of men, some kinds of19. Meats perpetually, and all men some Meats upon certain days; and that not for civil Respects, but with opinion of satisfaction, yea, merit, yea, and Supererogation too. In which also, besides the Devilishness of the Doctrine, in corrupting the profitable and religious exercise of fasting, and turning it into a superstitious observation of Days and Meats; judge if they do not teach this Lye also, as the former, with seared Consciences. For, with what Conscience can they allow an ordinary Confessor to absolve for Murder, Adultery, Perjury, and such petty crimes, but reserve the great sin of eating flesh upon a Friday or Ember-day, to the censure of a Penitentiary, as being a matter beyond the power of an ordinary Priest to grant absolution for? With what Conscience make the tasting of the coarsest flesh a breach of the Lent-fast, and surfeiting upon the delicatest Fishes and Confections, none? With what Conscience forbid they such and such meats, for the taming of the flesh, when they allow those that are far more nutritive of the flesh, and incentive of fleshly Lusts? With what Conscience enjoyn such abstinence for a penance, and then presently release it again for a Peny? Indeed the Gloss upon the aaDist. 84. ca. Presbyter.Canon, that doth so, hath a right worthy and a right wholesom note: Note, saith the bbGloss. Ibid.Gloss, That he who giveth a Peny to redeem his Fast, though he give money for a speritual thing, yet he doth not commit Simony, because the Contract is made with God. If these men had not seared up their Consciences, would they not, think you, feel some check at the broaching of such ridiculous and inconsistent stuff, as floweth from these two heads of Devilish Doctrines, of forbidding to marry, and commanding to abstain from Meats?

I deny not, but the Bawds of that strumpet, the Doctors of that Church,20. have their colourable pretences wherewith to blanch over these errors, else the Lyes would be palpable, and they should not otherwise fill up the measure of their Apostasie, according to the Apostles Prophecy, in teaching these Lyes in Hypocrisie. But the colours, though never so artificially tempered, and never so handsomly laid on, are yet so thin, that a steddy eye, not bleared with prejudice, may discern the Lye through them, for all the Hypocrisie; as might easily be shewn, if my intended course led me that way, and did not rather direct me to matter of more profitable and universal use. Having therefore done with them, it were good for us, in the third place, (that we might know our own p. 243free-hold with better certainty, and keep our selves within our due bounds;) to enquire a little what is the just extent of our Christian liberty unto the Creatures, and what restraints it may admit. A point very needful to be known for the resolution of many doubts in Conscience, and for the cutting off of many questions and disputes in the Church, which are of very noysom consequence, for want of right information herein. I have other matter also to entreat of, and therefore since I may not allow this Enquiry so large a Discourse, as it well deserveth, I shall desire you to take into your Christian Consideration these Positions following.

The first, Our Christian liberty extendeth to all the Creatures of God. This21. ariseth clearly from what hath been already delivered; and the testimonies of Scripture for it are express. aaRom. 14. 20.Rom 14:20All things are pure; bb1 Cor. 10. 23.1 Cor 10:23All things are lawful; cc1 Cor. 3. 22.1 Cor 3:22All are yours: elsewhere, and here, nothing to be refused.

The second Position. Our Christian Liberty equally respecteth the using, and the not using of any of God's Creatures. There is no Creature but a Christian man, by virtue of his Liberty, as he may use it upon just occasion, so he may22. also upon just cause refuse it. dd1 Cor. 6. 12.1 Cor 6:12All things are lawful for me, saith St. Paul, but I will not be brought under the power of any thing. Where he established this Liberty in both the parts of it; Liberty to use the Creatures, or else they had not all been lawful for him; and yet Liberty not to use them, or else he had been under the power of some of them. Whence it followeth, that all the Creatures of God stand in the nature of things indifferent; that is, such as may indifferently be either used or not used, according as the rules of godly discretion, circumstances duly considered, shall direct.

The third Position. Our Christian Liberty for the using or not using of the23. Creature, may without prejudice admit of some restraint in the outward practice of it. Ab illicitis semper, quandoque & à licitis; I think it is St. Gregory's: A Christian must never do unlawful, nor yet always lawful things. St. Paul had liberty to eat flesh, and he used that liberty, and ate flesh; yet he knew there might be some cases wherein to abridge himself of the use of that liberty so far, as ee1 Cor. …. 13.not to eat flesh whilst the world standeth. But what those Restraints are, and how far they may be admitted without prejudice done to that liberty, that we may the better understand, let us go on to▪

The fourth Position. Sobriety may and ought to restrain us in the outward practice24. of our Christian liberty. For our Diet, all Fish, and Flesh, and Fowl, and Fruits, and Spices, are lawful for us, as well as Bread and Herbs; but may we therefore with thriftless prodigality and exquisite riot fare deliciously and sumptuously every day, under pretence of Christian liberty? Likewise for our Apparel, all stuffs and colours, the richest Silks, and Furs, and Dyes, are as lawful for us, as Cloth, and Leather, and Sheeps-russet; Christian liberty extendeth as well to one as another. But do we think that liberty will excuse our pride, and vanity, and excess, if we tuffle it out in Silks and Scarlets, or otherwise in stuff, colour, or fashion unsuitably to our Years, Sex, Calling, Estate, or Condition? In all other things of like nature; in our Buildings, in our Furniture, in our Retinues, in our Disports, in our Recreations, in our Society, in our Marriages, in other things, we ought as well to consider, what in Christian Sobriety is meet for us to do, as what in Christian liberty may be done. Scarce is there any one thing, wherein the Devil putteth slurs upon us more frequently, yea, and more dangerously too (because unsuspected) than in this very thing, in making us take the uttermost of our freedom in the use of indifferent things. It therefore concerneth us so much the more to keep a sober watch over our selves and souls, in the use of God's good Creatures, lest otherwise under the fair title and habit of Christian Liberty, we yield our selves over to a carnal Licentiousness.

p. 244The fifth Position. As Sobriety, so Charity also may, and ought to restrain25. us in the outward exercise of our Christian Liberty. Charity, I say, both to our selves and others. First, to our selves: for regular Charity beginneth there. If we are to aaMatth. 5. 29, 30.Matt 5:29Matt 5:30cut off our right hand, and to pluck out the right eye, and to cast them both from us, when they offend us, much more then ought we to deny our selves the use of such outward lawful things, as by experience we have found, or have otherwise cause to suspect to be hurtful either to our bodies, or souls. So a man may, and should refrain from meats, which may endanger his bodily health; but how much more then from every thing, that may endanger the health of his soul? If thou findest thy self enflamed with lust, by dancing; if enraged with choler, by game; if tempted to Covetousness, Pride, Uncleanness, Superstition, Cruelty, and sin, by reason of any of the Creatures, it is better for thee to make a Covenant with thine eyes, and ears, and hands, and senses (so far as thy Condition and Calling will warrant thee) not to have any thing to do with such things, than by gratifying them therein, cast both thy self and them into hell. Better by our voluntary abstinence to depart with some of our liberty unto the Creatures, than by our voluntary transgression forfeit all, and become the Devil's Captives.26.

But Charity, though it begin at home, yet it will abroad; and not resting at our selves, reacheth to our Brethren also; of whom we are to have a due regard in our use of the Creatures. An Argument wherein St. Paul often enlargeth himself, as in Rom. 14. and 1 Cor. 8. the whole Chapters throughout, and in a great part of 1 Cor. 10. The resolution every where is, That bb1 Cor. 14. 26.1 Cor 14:26all things be done to edification; that things lawful become cc1 Cor. 10. 23.1 Cor 10:23inexpedient, when they offend, rather than edifie; that though ddRom. 14. 20.Rom 14:20all things indeed are pure, yet it is evil for that man which useth them with offence; that albeit flesh and wine, and other things be lawful, yet eeIbid. vers. 21.it is good neither to eat flesh, nor to drink wine, nor to do any thing whereby a man's brother stumbleth, or is offended, or is made weak. Hitherto appertaineth that great and difficult common place of Scandal, so much debated and disputed of by Divines. The Questions and Cases are manisold, not now to be rehearsed, much less resolved, in particular: But the Position is plain in the general, that in case of Scandal, for our weak brother's sake, we may, and sometimes ought to abridge our selves of some part of our lawful Liberty.

Besides these two, Sobriety and Charity, there is yet one restraint more,27. which ariseth from the Duty we owe to our Superiours, and from the bond of civil Obedience, which if it had been by all men as freely admitted, as there is just cause it should, how happy had it been for the peace of this Church? Concerning it, let this be our sixth Position; The determination of Superiours may, and ought to restrain us in the outward exercise of our Christian Liberty. We must aa1 Pet. 2. 13, 15, 16.1 Pet 2:131 Pet 2:151 Pet 2:16submit our selves to every ordinance of man, saith St. Peter, 1 Pet. 2. 13. and it is necessary we should do so; for so is the Will of God, Vers. 15. Neither is it against christian Liberty if we do so, for we are still as free as before; rather if we do not so, we abuse our liberty for a cloak of maliciousness, as it followeth there, vers. 16. And St. Paul telleth us, we bbRom. 13. 5.Rom 13:5must needs be subject, not only for fear, because the Magistrate ccIbid. ver. 4.carrieth not the Sword in vain, but also for conscience sake, because ddIbid. ver. 1.the powers thus are, are ordained of God. This duty so fully pressed, and so uniformly by these two grand Apostles, is most apparent in private Societies. In a family, the Master, or Pater-familias, who is a kind of petty Monarch there, hath authority to prescribe to his Children and Servants in the use of those indifferent things, whereto yet they, as Christians, have as much Liberty as he. The Servant, though he be ee1 Cor. 7▪ 22.1 Cor 7:22the Lord's free-man, yet is limited in his diet, lodging, livery, and many other things by his Master; and he is to submit himself to his Masters p. 245appointment in these things, though perhaps in his private affection he had rather his Master had appointed otherwise; and perhaps withal, in his private judgment, doth verily think it fitter his Master should appoint otherwise. If any man, under colour of christian Liberty, shall ff1 Tim. 6. 3, 5.1 Tim 6:31 Tim 6:5teach otherwise, and exempt Servants from the obedience of their Masters in such things, St. Paul in a holy indignation inveigheth against such a man, not without some bitterness, in the last Chapter in this Epistle, as one that is proud, and knoweth nothing, as he should do, but doateth about questions and strife of Words, &c. Vers. 3, 5.

Now look what power the Master hath over his Servants for the ordering of28. his family; no doubt the same at the least, if not much more, hath the supreme Magistrate over his Subjects, for the peaceable ordering of the Common-wealth, the Magistrate being Pater patriae, as the Master is Pater-familias. Whosoever then shall interpret the determinations of Magistrates in the use of the Creatures, to be contrary to the liberty of a Christian; or under that colour shall exempt inferiours from their obedience to such determinations, he must blame St. Paul; nay, he must blame the Holy Ghost, and not us, if he hear from us, that he is proud and knoweth nothing, and doateth about unprofitable Questions, Surely, but that experience sheweth us it hath been so, and the Scriptures have fore told us that gg1 Cor. 11. 19.1 Cor 11:19it should be so, that there should be differences, and sidings, and partakings in the Church; a man would wonder how it should ever sink into the hearts and heads of sober understanding men, to deny either the power in Superiours to ordain, or the necessity in Inferiours to obey Laws and Constitutions so restraining us in the use of the Creatures.

Neither let any man cherish his ignorance herein, by conceiting, as if there29. were some difference to be made between Civil and Ecclesiastical Things, and Laws, and Persons in this behalf. The truth is, our liberty is equall in both; the power of Superiours for restraint equal in both, and the necessity of obedience in Inferiours equal in both. No man hath yet been able to shew, nor I think ever shall be, a real and substantial difference indeed, between them to make an inequality. But that still, as civil Magistrates have sometimes, for just politick respects, prohibited some Trades, and Manufactures, and Commodities, and enjoined other-some, and done well in both; so Church-Governours may, upon good considerations, (say it be but for Order and Uniformitiessake,) prescribe the Times, Places, Vestments, Gestures, and other ceremonial Circumstances to be used in Ecclesiastical Offices and Assemblies: As the Apostles in the first Council holden at Ierusalem, in Acts 15. laid upon the Churches of the Gentiles for a time, a hhActs 15. 28, 29.Acts 15:28Acts 15:29restraint from the eating of Blood, and things sacrificed to Idols, and strangled.

Thus we see our christian Liberty unto the Creatures, may without prejudice30. admit of some restraints in the outward exercise of it; and namely, from the three respects of Christian Sobriety, of Christian Charity, and of Christian Duty and Obedience. But now in the comparing of these together, when there seemeth to be a repugnancy between one and another of them, there may be some difficulty; and the greatest difficulty, and which hath bred most trouble, is, in comparing the cases of scandal and disobedience together, when there seemeth to be a repugnancy between Charity and Duty. As for example: Suppose in a thing which simply and in it self we may lawfully, according to the Liberty we have in Christ, either use or forbear; Charity seemeth to lay restraint upon us one way, our weak brother expecting we should forbear, and Duty a quite contrary way, Authority requiring the use, in such a case what are we to do? It is against Charity to offend a brother; and it is against Duty to disobey a Superiour; and yet something must be done, either we must use, or not use; forbear, or not forbear. For the untying of this knot, (which, if we p. 246will but lay things rightly together, hath not in it so much hardness as it seemeth to have;) let this be our seventh Position. In the use of the Creatures, and all indifferent things, we ought to bear a greater regard to our publick Governours, than to our private Brethren, and be more careful to obey them, than to satisfie these, if the same course will not in some mediocrity satisfie both. Alas! that our brethren who are contrary-minded, would but with the spirit of sobriety admit common reason to be Umpire in this case: Alas! that they would but consider, what a world of Contradictions would follow upon the contrary opinion, and what a world of Confusions upon the contrary practice. Say what can be said in the behalf of a Brother; all the same, and more may be said for a Governour: For a Governour is a Brother too, and something more; and Duty is Charity too, and something more. If then I may not offend my Brother, then certainly not my Governour; because he is my Brother too, being a man, and a Christian, as well as the other is. And the same Charity that bindeth me to satisfie another Brother, equally bindeth me to satisfie this. So that, if we go no farther, but even to the common bond of Charity, and relation of Brotherhood, that maketh them equal at the least, and therefore no reason, why I should satisfie one that is but a private Brother, rather than the publick Magistrate, who (that publick respect set aside) is my Brother also. When the Scales hang thus even, shall not the accession of aaSi tantopere cavenda sunt scandala parvulorum, quanto amplius praelatorum. Bern. de praecept. & disp.Magistracy to common Brotherhood in him, and of Duty to common Charity in me, be enough to cast it clear for the Magistrate? Shall a Servant in a Family, rather than offend his fellowservant, disobey his Master? And is not a double scandal against Charity and Duty both (for Duty implieth Charity) greater than a single scandal against Charity alone? If private men will be offended at our Obedience to publick Governours, we can but be sorry for it: We bbPrudenter advertat qui hoc cogitat, scandalum scandalo non bene emendari. Qualis emendatio erit, si ut aliis scandalum tollas, alios scandalizas? Bern. de Praecept. & disp.may not redeem their offence by our disobedience. He that taketh offence where none is given, sustaineth a double person, and must answer for it, both as the giver and the taker. If offence be taken at us, there is no woe to us for it, if it do not come by us; ccMat. 18. 7.Matt 18:7Woe to the man by whom the offence cometh: and it doth not come by us, if we do but what is our duty to do. The Rule is certain and equitable; the respect of private scandal ceaseth, where lawful Authority determineth our liberty; and that restraint which proceedeth from special Duty, is of superior reason to that which proceedeth but from common charity.

Three Moderators then of our christian liberty to the Creatures we are to allow31. of, Sobriety, Charity, and Duty; unto every of which a just regard ought to be had. Neither need we fear, if we suffer Sobriety on one side, and Charity on another, and Duty on a third, thus to abridge us in the use of our christian liberty; that by little and little it may be at length so pared away among them, that there may be little or nothing lest of it. To remove this suspicion, let this be our eighth and last Position. No respect whatsoever can, or ought to diminish the inward freedom of the Conscience to any of the Creatures. And this inward freedom is it, wherein especially consisteth our Christian Liberty to the Creature. This freedom we are all bound to maintain to the utmost of our powers, and not to suffer our selves to be made aa1 Cor. 7. 23.1 Cor 7:23the servants of men, (otherwise than in bbGal. 5. 13.Gal 5:13serving one another by love,) but to ccGal. 5. 1.Gal 5:1stand fast in the liberty wherein Christ hath set us free. Now this liberty consisteth in a certain resolution of Judgment, and a certain perswasion of Conscience arising thence, that all the creatures of God are in themselves lawful, and free for us either to use or refuse, as we shall see it expedient for us; and that neither the use, nor the forbearance of them, doth of it self either commend or discommend us unto God, or any way either please him as a part of his Worship, or offend him as a transgression of his Law. ddRom. 14. 17.Rom 14:17The Kingdom of God is not meat and p. 247drink, saith St. Paul; ee1 Cor. 8. 8.1 Cor 8:8Neither if we eat, are we the better; neither the worse, if we do not eat; nor on the contrary. Now here is the Wickedness, and the Usurpation of the High-Priest of Rome, that he challengeth to himself a spiritual Power over the Consciences of men, which is the greatest tyranny that ever was, or can be exercised in the world, laying impurity upon the things he forbiddeth, and annexing operative holiness, and power both satisfactory and meritorious, to the things he injoyneth. Which Usurpation, whosoever hateth not in him with a perfect hatred, is justly unworthy of, and shamefully unthankful for that liberty and freedom, which the blessed Son of God hath purchased for▪ his Church.

But this inward freedom once established in our hearts, and our Consciences 32.fully perswaded thereof, let us thenceforth make no scruple to admit of such just restraints in the outward exercise of it, as Christian Sobriety, Charity, and Duty shall require. For we must know, that the Liberty of a Christian is not in eating, and drinking, and doing what and when, and where and how he list; but in being assured, that it is all one before God, (in the things themselves barely considered) whether he eat or not eat, wear or not wear, do or not do, this or that; and that therefore, as he may upon just cause eat, and wear, and do, so he may upon just cause also refuse to eat, or wear, or do this thing or that. Indeed otherwise, if we well consider it, it were but the empty name of liberty, without the thing: for how is it liberty, if a man be determinately bound the one way, and tied ad alteram partem contradictionis precisely, and not left indifferent and equal to either? If then the regards of Sobriety, Charity, or Duty, do not require a forbearance, thou knowest every creature of God is good, and nothing to be refused; thou hast thy liberty therefore, and mayest, according to that liberty, freely use that Creature. But if any of those former respects require thou shouldst forbear, thou knowest that the Creature still is good, and as not to be refused, so not to be imposed: thou hast thy liberty therefore here, as before, and oughtest, according to that liberty, freely to abstain from that Creature. Both in using and refusing, the Conscience is still free; and as well the use as the refusal, and as well the refusal as the use, do equally and alike belong to the true liberty of a Christian.

We have seen now, what liberty God hath allowed us, and therein we may33. see also his great goodness and bounty towards us, in making such a world of Creatures, and all of them good; [Every Creature of God is good] and not envying us the free use of any of those good Creatures; [Nothing to be refused.] But where is our Duty answerable to this Bounty? Where is our thankfulness proportionable to such receipts? Let us not rejoyce too much in the Creatures goodness, nor glory too much in our freedom thereunto, unless there be in us, withal, a due care, and Conscience to perform the Condition, which God requireth in lieu thereof; neither can their goodness do us good, nor our freedom exempt us from evil. And that condition is, the Duty of Thanksgiving, expressed in the last clause of the verse, [if it be received with thanksgiving.] Forget this Proviso, and we undo all again, that we have hitherto done, and destroy all that we have already established concerning both the goodness of the Creature, and our liberty in the use thereof; for without thanksgiving, neither can we partake their goodness, nor use our own liberty with comfort. Of this therefore in the next place, wherein the weight of the Duty considered, together with our Backwardness thereunto, if I shall spend the remainder of my time and meditations, I hope my labour (by the blessing of God, and your prayers) shall not be unprofitable, and my purpose therein shall find, if not allowance in your judgments, at least in your Charity, Excuse. To speak of which Duty of Thanksgiving in the full extent, and by way of common place, were to enter into a spacious field, indeed a very sea of matter without p. 248bottom. For mine own ease therefore and yours, I shall confine my self to that branch of it, which is most immediately pertinent to my Text, viz. That tribute of Thanks which we owe unto God for the free use of his good Creatures, forbearing to meddle with the other branches thereof, otherwise than as they fall within the reach of this, by way either of Proportion or Inference.

And first, we are to know, that by Thanksgiving in my Text, is not meant34. only that subsequent act, whereby we render unto God praise and thanks for the Creature, after we have received it, and enjoyed the benefit of it, which yet is most properly Thanksgiving, but we are to extend the word farther, even to those precedent acts of Prayer and Benediction, whereby we beseech God to give his blessing to the Creature, and to sanctifie the use of it to us. For what in this verse is called Thanksgiving, is in the next verse comprehended under the name of aaVers. 5. hic.Prayer. And we shall accordingly find in the Scriptures elsewhere, the words foreign and foreign, the one whereof signifieth properly Blessing, the other Thanksgiving, used oftentimes promiscuously the one for the other. The Blessing which our blessed Saviour Jesus Christ used at the Consecration of the sacramental bread, bbLuke 22. 17, 19.Luke 22:17Luke 22:19St. Luke and cc1 Cor. 11. 24.1 Cor 11:24St. Paul express by the word foreign; ddMatth. 26. 27.Matt 26:27St. Matthew and eeMark 14. 22, 23.Mark 14:22Mark 14:23St. Mark, by foreign. And the Prayer of Blessing used before the eating of common Bread, is by ffMatth. 15. 36.Matt 15:36every of the four Evangelists in some places described by the word foreign. And by three of them in other-some places, ggMatth. 14. 19. Mark 6. 14. Luke 9 16.Matt 14:19Mark 6:14Luke 9:16by foreign. And the name hhSee Casaub. exercit. 16. in Baron. sect. 33.foreign is sometimes found in the Writings of the Ancients, for the Sacrament of the Lord's Supper; the more usual name whereof is foreign, or the holy Eucharist. And we in our ordinary manner of speech, call as well the Blessing before meat, as the Thanksgiving Mark 8. 6. Joh. 6. 11. Acts 27. 35.Mark 8:6John 6:11Acts 27:35after, by the common name of Grace, or saying of Grace. Both these then together, Grace before meat, and Grace after meat, a Sacrifice of Prayer before we use any of the good Creatures of God, and a Sacrifice of Praise after we have used them; the Blessing wherewith we bless the Creature in the Name of God, and the Blessing wherewith we bless the Name of God for the Creature: both these, I say, together, is the just extent of that Thanksgiving, whereof my Text speaketh, and we are now to entreat.

Concerning Meats and Drinks, unto which our Apostle hath special reference35. in this whole passage, this duty of Thanksgiving hath been ever held so congruous to the partaking thereof, that long and ancient custom hath established it in the common practice of Christians, not only with inward Thankfulness of heart to recount and acknowledge God's goodness to them therein, but also outwardly to express the same in a vocal solemn form of Blessing or Thanksgiving, that which we call Grace, or saying of Grace. Which very Phrases, whether or no they have ground, (as to me it seemeth they have) from those words of our Apostle, 1 Cor. 10. ii1 Cor. 10. 30.1 Cor 10:30For if I by Grace be a partaker, why am I evil spoken of, for that for which I give thanks?) I say, howsoever it be with the Phrase, sure we are, the thing it self hath sufficient ground from the examples of Christ, and of his holy Apostles; from whom the custom of giving Thanks at meals seemeth to have been derived throughout all succeeding Ages, even to us. Of Christ himself we read often, and in every of the Evangelists, that he blessed and gave thanks in the name of himself and the People, before meat; in the 14, and 15, of kkMatth. 14. 19. & 15. 36.Matt 14:19Matt 15:36Matthew, in 6, and 8. of llMark 6. 41. & 8. 6.Mark 6:41Mark 8:6Mark, in 9. of mmLuk. 9. 16.Luke 9:16Luke, and in 6. of nnJoh. 6. 8.John 6:8Iohn. And in Matth. 26. that after meat also, when Supper was ended, he and his Disciples ooforeign. Matth. 26. 30.Matt 26:30sang an Hymn before they departed the room. And St. Luke relateth of St. Paul, Acts 27. when he and his company in the Ship, who were well toward three hundred persons, were to refresh themselves with food after a long Fast, that he took p. 249bread, and first bbActs 27. 35.Acts 27:35gave thanks to God in the presence of them all, and then after brake it, and began to eat: yea, St. Paul himself so speaketh of it, Rom. 14. as of the known practice of the Church among Christians of all sorts, Weak and Strong. He that was strong in the Faith, and knew the liberty he had in Christ to eat indifferently of all kinds of Meats, flesh as well as herbs; did eat of all indifferently, and gave God thanks for all. The weak Christian too, who made scruple of some kinds of flesh or other Meats, and contented himself with herbs, and such like things, yet gave God thanks for his herbs, and for whatsoever else he durst eat. ccRom. 14. 6.Rom 14:6He that eateth, eateth to the Lord, (saith he there, at vers. 6.) for he giveth God thanks: and he that eateth not, to the Lord he eateth not, and giveth God thanks too. Notwithstanding they differed in their judgments and opinions, and consequently in their practice, concerning the lawful or unlawful use of some meats: yet they consented most sweetly, and agreed both in their judgment and practice, in the performance of this religious service of Thanksgiving.

So then giving of thanks for our meats and drinks before and after meals, in36. an outward and audible form, is an ancient, a commendable, an Apostolical, a Christian practice: ordinarily requisite as an outward Testimony of the inward thankfulness of the heart; and therefore not to be omitted ordinarily, neither but in some few cases. There being the like necessity of this duty, in regard of inward thankfulness, as there is of vocal prayer, in regard of inward Devotion; and of outward Confession, in regard of inward belief: and look what Exceptions those other outward duties may admit▪ the very same mutandis mutatis, and in their proportion, are to be admitted here. But not only meats and drinks but every other good Creaturè also of God, whereof we may have use, ought to be received with a due measure of thankfulness. And if in these things also, so often as in good discretion it may seem expedient for the advancing of Gods glory, the benefiting of his Church, or the quickening of our own Devotion, we shall make some outward and sensible expression of the thankfulness of our hearts for them: we shall therein do an acceptable service unto God, and comfortable to our own souls. For, for this cause God instituted of old, among his own people, divers solemn feasts and sacrifices, together with the sanctifying of the first fruits, and of the first born, and divers other ordinances of that nature: as, on the other side to be fit remembrancers unto them of their duty of thankfulness: so to be as well good testimonies, and fit expressions of their performance of that duty.

But if not always the outward manifestation thereof: yet God ever expecteth37. at least the true and inward thankfulness of the heart, for the use of his good Creatures. aaCol. 3. 17.Col 3:17Whatsoever you do in word or deed, do all in the name of the Lord Iesus, giving thanks unto God and the Father by him, Col. 3. bbPhil. 4. 6.Phil 4:6Be careful for nothing: but in every thing by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving, let your request be made known unto God, Phil. 4. ccPsal. 103. 1, 2.Ps 103:1Ps 103:2Bless the Lord, O my soul (saith David in Psal. 103.) and all that is within me, praise his holy name: Praise the Lord, O my soul, and forget not all his benefits. Forget not all his benefits: as much as to say, by an ordinary Hebraism, forget not any of all his benefits. He summoneth all that is in him, to bless God for all he hath from him: he thought it was necessary for him, not to receive any of the good Creatures of God, without Thanksgiving. Which necessity of Thanksgiving will yet more appear, if we consider it, either as an act of Iustice, or an act of Religion: as it is indeed and truly both.

It is first, an Act of Iustice. The very Law of Nature, which containeth38. the first seeds and principles of Iustice, bindeth every man that receiveth a benefit, to a thankful Acknowledgment of it first, and then withal (Ability and Opportunity supposed) to some kind of Retribution. The best Philosophers p. 250therefore make Gratitude ddCic. 2. de invent. 13. & 36.a branch of the Law of Nature; and so account of it as of a thing, than which there is eeQuid tam contra officium, quam non reddere quod acceperis? Ambros. 1. Offi. 31. Nullum officium referenda gratia magis necessarium est. Cic. 1. de Offic.not any Office of Vertue more necessary: as nor any thing on the contrary more detestable, than Ingratitude. You cannot lay a ffErunt homicidae, tyranni, fures, adulteri, raptores, sacrilegi, pr…ditores: infra ista omnia ingratus est. Senec. 1. de benef. 10.fouler imputation upon a man, nor by any accusations in the World render him more odious to the opinions of all men; than by charging him with unthankfulness. Ingratum dicas, omnia dixeris: do but say, He is an unthankful wretch; you need say no more, you can say no worse, by any mortal creature. Verily, every benefit carrieth with it the force of an Obligation; and we all confess it: if we receive but some small kindness from another, we can readily and complementally protest our selves much bound to him for it. Indeed when we say so; we often speak it but of course, and think it not: but yet when we do so, we speak more truth than we are aware of. For, if it be in truth a kindness in him, we are in truth and equity bound to him thereby. The common saying is not without ground, Qui beneficium accipit, libertatem vendidit. Some men therefore refuse kindnesses and courtesies at other mens hands; because forsooth they will not be beholden to them. Which though it be a perverse and unjust course, and indeed a high degree of unthankfulness, (for there is unthankfulness, as well in ggNon solum is gratus debet esse, qui accepit beneficium; veram etiam is, cui potestas accipiendi fuit. Cic. de Provinc. Consul. Tàm teneor dono quàm si demittar onustus. Hor. 1. Ep. 7.not accepting a kind offer, as in not requiting a good turn;) and therefore also a high degree of folly, (for it is a foolish thing for a man, out of the bare fear of unthankfulness one way, to become wilful, unthankful another;) though, I say, it be a fond and perverse course in them: yet it argueth withal in them a strong apprehension of the Equity of that principle of Nature and Iustice, which bindeth men that receive benefits ad foreign, to a necessity of requital and retribution. Truth it is, to God our Heavenly, Father first, and then to our Earthly aaSirac. 7. 28.Parents, none of us can reddere paria: none is able to make a full requital to to either of them; especially not to God. But that freeth us not from the debt of thankfulness, as not to our Parents, so neither to God: it rather bindeth us the faster thereunto. The same Law of Nature, which teacheth us to requite a good turn to the utmost, where there is wherewithal to do it, and withal a fair opportunity offered; teacheth us, where there wanteth either ability or opportunity, to endeavour by the best convenient means we can to testifie at least the thankfulness of our hearts, and our unfeigned desires of requital. Which bbIn beneficio reddendo, plus animus, quàm census operatur: magisque praeponderat benevolentia, quàm possibilitas referendi muneris. Ambros. 1. Offic. 32.desire and endeavour if every ingenuous man, and our earthly Parents, do accept of, where they find it, as of the deed it self: can we doubt of ccUt▪ desint vires, tamen est laudanda voluntas: Hac ego contentos aguror ess… D…s. Ovid. de Pont.Gods acceptation of our unfeigned desire herein, though infinitely and without all proportion short of a just requital and retribution? David knew right well, that when a man hath done all he can, he is but an ddLuk. 17. 10.Luke 17:10unprofitable servant, and eeJob 22. 2.Job 22:2cannot be profitable unto God, as he that is wise may be profitable to himself and his neighbours; and that ffPsal. 16. 2, 3. Nulla ex nobis utilitas Deo speranda est. Senec. 1. de benef. cap 3. Nec ille collato eget, nec nos ei quicquam conferre possumus. Ibid. cap. 9.Ps 16:2Ps 16:3his goodness, though it might be pleasurable to the Saints that are on the earth, yet it could not extend unto the Lord. All this he knew: and yet knowing withal that God accepteth the will for the deed, and the desire for the performance; he doubted not to raise up his Language to that key, in Psal. 116. Quid retribuam? What requital shall I make? What shall I render unto the Lord, for all his benefits towards me? I will take the Cup of Salvation, and call upon the Name of the Lord. This thankful heart he knew God valued, as a Sacrifice: nay, ggPsal. 116. 12, 13.Ps 116:12Ps 116:13preferred before Sacrifices. For having rejected them at Vers. 8. [hhforeign. Xenoph. 1. foreign. I will not reprove thee for thy Sacrifices, &c.] He exacteth this at Vers. 14. of Psal, 50.] Offer unto God thanksgiving, &c.] God respecteth not so much the Calves out of our stalls, or the fruits from off our grounds: as these iiPsal 50. 8, 14.Ps 50:8Ps 50:14Vitulos labiorum, these calves of our lips, as the Prophet; and these p. 251kkHos. 14. 2.Hos 14:2Fructus labiorum, these fruits of our lips, as the Apostle calleth them, [llHeb. 13. 15.Heb 13:15 Let us offer the sacrifice of praise to God continually, that is, the fruit of our lips, giving thanks to his name, Heb. 13.] More than this, in his Mercy he will not desire: less than this, in all Reason we cannot give. Thankfulness is an Act of Iustice: we are unjust, if we receive his good Creatures, and not return him thanks for them.

It is not only an Act of Iustice: it is an Act of Religion too, and a branch of39. that service whereby we do God worship and honour. aaPsal. 50. 23.Ps 50:23Whoso offereth praise, he honoureth me, Psal. 50. ver. last. Now look what honour we give unto God, it all redoundeth to our selves at the last with plentiful advantage, [bb1 Sam. 2. 30.1 Sam 2:30 Them that honour me, I will honour, 1 Sam. 2.] Here then is the fruit of this religious act of Thanksgiving; that it sanctifieth unto us the use of the good Creatures of God, which is the very reason S. Paul giveth of this present speech in the next Verse. Every Creature of God is good, saith he here, and nothing to be refused, if it be received with Thanksgiving: for, saith he there, ccVer. 5. hic…it is sanctified by the Word of God, and Prayer. Understand not by the Word of God there, his written Word, or the Scriptures, as some yet give the sence, not without violence to the words, though the thing they say be true: but more both naturally to the construction of the Words, and pertinently to the drift and scope of our Apostle therein, understand rather the Word of his eternal Counsel and decree, and of his power and providence, whereby he ordereth and commandeth his Creatures in their several kinds, to afford us such service and comforts, as he hath thought good. Which sanctifying of the Creatures by the Word of Gods decree and providence, implieth two things: the one, respecting the Creatures, that they do their kindly Office to us; the other, respecting us, that we reap holy comfort from them. For the plainer understanding of both which, instance shall be given in the Creatures appointed for our nourishment: and what shall be said of them we may conceive of, and apply unto every other Creature in the proper kind thereof.

First then, the Creatures appointed for food, are sanctifyed by the word of God; 40.when together with the Creatures he giveth his blessing, to go along with it: by his powerful word, Commanding it, and by that Command enabling it to feed us. Which is the true meaning of that speech in Deut. 8. alledged by our Saviour against the Tempter, [ddDeut. 8. 3. Mat. 4. 4.Deut 8:3Matt 4:4 Man liveth not by bread only, but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God.] Alas, what is Bread to nourish us without his word: Unless he say the word, and command the Bread to do it, there is no more sap or strength in Bread, than in stones. The power and nutritive virtue which the Bread hath, it hath from his decree; because the word is already gone out of his mouth, that eePsal. 104. 15.Ps 104:15bread should strengthen mans heart. As in the first Creation, when the Creatures were produced in actu primo, had their beings given them, and natural powers and faculties bestowed on them, all that was done by the word of Gods powerful decree, [ffPsal. 33. 9.Ps 33:9 He spake the word, and they were made; he commanded, and they were created.] So in all their operations in actu secundo, when they do at any time exercise those natural faculties and do those Offices for which they were created; all this is still done by the same powerful word and decree of God, [ggHeb. 1. 3.Heb 1:3 He upholdeth all things by the word of his power. As we read of bread, so we often read in the Scriptures of aaLev. 26. 26. Psal. 105. 16. Ezek. 4. 16. Firmamentum panis. Vulg.Lev 26:26Ps 105:16Ezek 4:16the staff of bread: God sometimes threatneth he will break the staff of bread. What is that? Bread indeed is the staff of our strength; it is the very stay and prop of our lives: if God break this staff, and deny us bread, we are gone. But that is not all, bread is our staff: but what is the staff of Bread? Verily, the Word of God, blessing our Bread, and commanding it to feed us, is the staff of this staff: sustaining that virtue in the bread, whereby it sustaineth us. If God break this staff of bread, if he withdraw his blessing from the bread, p. 252if by his countermand he inhibit or restrain the Virtue of the Bread; we are as far to seek with bread, as without it. If sanctified with Gods word of blessing; a little pulse bbDan. 1. 12, 15.Dan 1:12Dan 1:15and water, hard and homely fare shall feed Daniel as fresh, and fat, and fair, as the Kings dainties shall his Companions: a cc3 King. 19. 6, 8.Cake and a cruse of water shall suffice Elijah nourishment enough to walk in the strength thereof forty days and nights: a few ddJoh. 6. 9, 12.John 6:9John 6:12barly loaves and small fishes shall multiply to the satisfying of many thousands, eat while they will. But if Gods Word and Blessing be wanting; eeGen. 41. 20, 21.Gen 41:20Gen 41:21the Lean Kine may eat up the Fat, and be as thin, and hollow, and ill-liking as before: and we may, as the Prophet Haggai speaketh, ffHag. 1. 6.Hag 1:6eat much, and not have enough, drink our fills, and not be filled.

This first degree of the Creatures Sanctification by the Word of God, is a41. common and ordinary blessing upon the Creatures; whereof, as of the ggMatt. 5. 45.Matt 5:45light and dew of Heaven, the wicked partake as well as the godly, and the thankless as the thankful. But there is a second degree also, beyond this; which is proper and peculiar to the Godly. And that is, when God not only by the word of his Power bestoweth a blessing upon the Creature: but also causeth the Echo of that word to sound in our hearts by the voice of his holy Spirit, and giveth us a sensible taste of his goodness to us therein: filling our hearts not only hhActs 14. 17.Acts 14:17with that joy and gladness, which ariseth from the experience of the Effect, viz. the refreshing of our natural strength, but also joy and gladness more spiritual and sublime than that, arising from the contemplation of the prime cause, viz. the favour of God towards us in the face of his Son: that which David calleth the iiPsal. 4. 6.Ps 4:6light of his countenunce. For as it is the kind welcome at a friends Table, that maketh the chear good, rather than the quaintness or variety of the dishes, kkOvid. Metamorph. 8.Super omnia vultus accessere boni; so that llProv. 15. 17.Prov 15:17a dinner of green herbs with love and kindness, is better entertainment than a stalled Ox with bad looks; so the light of Gods favourable countenance, shining upon us through these things, is it, which mmPsal. 4. 6, 7.Ps 4:6Ps 4:7putteth more true gladness into our hearts, than doth the Corn, and the Wine, and the Oil themselves, or any other outward thing that we do or can partake. Now this sanctified, and holy, and comfortable use of the Creatures, ariseth also from the Word of Gods decree; even as the former degree did, but not from the same decree. That former issued from the decree of common Providence; and so belonged unto all, as that Providence is common to all. But this latter degree proceedeth from that special Word of Gods decree, whereby for the merits of Christ Jesus, aa1 Cor. 15. 45.1 Cor 15:45the second Adam, he removeth from the Creature that bbGen. 3. 17.Gen 3:17curse wherein it was wrapped through the sin of the first Adam. And in this the wicked have no portion; as being out of Christ: so as they cannot partake of Gods Creatures, with any solid or sound comfort; and so the Creatures remain (in this degree) unsanctified unto them. For this reason, the Scriptures stile the ccHeb. 12. 23.Heb 12:23Faithful Primogenitos, the first-born; as to whom belongeth ddDeut. 21. 17.Deut 21:17a double portion: and eeRom. 4. 13.Rom 4:13Haeredes Mundi, heirs of the World; as if none but they had any good right thereunto. And S. Paul deriveth our Title to the Creatures, from God, but by Christ; [ff1 Cor. 3. 22, 23.1 Cor 3:221 Cor 3:23 All things are yours, and you are Christs, and Christ is Gods:] As if these things were none of theirs, who are none of Christs. And in the Verse before my Text, he saith of meats, that ggVer. 3 hic.God hath created them to be received with thanksgiving of them which believe, and know the truth; as if those that wanted Faith and Saving Knowledge, did but usurp the Bread they eat. And indeed it is certain the wicked have not right to the Creatures of God, in such ample sort, as the Godly have. A kind of Right they have, and we may not deny it them: given them by Gods unchangeable ordinance at the creation: which being a branch of that part of Gods Image in man, which was of natural, and not of supernatural grace, might be, and was foully defaced by sin: but was not, neither could be wholly lost, as hath been hhSee before, sect. 14.already in part declared. A p. 253Right then they have: but such a right, as, reaching barely to the use, cannot afford unto the user true comfort, or sound peace of Conscience, in such use of the Creatures. For, though nothing be in, and of it self unclean; for, Every Creature of God is good: yet to them that are unclean, ex accidenti every Creature is unclean and polluted, because it is not thus sanctified unto them by the Word of God. And the very true cause of all this, is the impurity of their hearts, by reason of unbelief. The Holy Ghost expresly assigneth this cause, iiTit. 1. 15.Titus 1:15To the pure all things are pure: but to them that are defiled and unbelieving is nothing pure: but even their mind and conscience is defiled. As a kkSincerum est nisi vas, quodcunque infundis acescit. Hor. 1. Epist. 2.nasty vessel sowreth all that is put into it: so a Conscience not llFide purificans corda. Acts 15. 9.Acts 15:9purified by Faith, casteth pollution upon the best of Gods Creatures.

But what is all this to the Text, may some say: or what to the Point: What is all this to the Duty of Thanksgiving? Much every manner of way; or else blame S. Paul of impertinency; whose discourse should be incoherent and unjoynted, if what I have now last said were beside the Text. For since the Sanctification of the Creature to our use, dependeth upon the powerful and good Word of God, blessing it unto us: that Duty must needs be necessary to a sanctified use of the Creature, without which we can have no fair assurance unto our Consciences, that that Word of Blessing is proceeded out of the mouth of God. And such is this Duty of Thanksgiving: appointed by God, as the ordinary means, and proper instrument, to procure that Word of Blessing from him. When we have performed this sincerely and faithfully; our hearts may then with a most chearful, but yet humble confidence, say Amen, so be it: in full assurance that God will joyn his Fiat to ours; Crown our Amen with his: and to our So be it of Faith and Hope, add his of Power and Command: blessing his Creatures unto us, when we bless him for them; and sanctifying their use to our comfort, when we magnifie his goodness for the receipt. You see therefore how, as unseparable and undivided companions, the Apostle joyneth these two together: the one, as the Cause, the other, as the Means of the Creatures sanctification; [it is sanctified by the Word of God, and Prayer:] By the Word of Gods powerful decree, as the sole efficient, and sufficient Cause: and by the Prayer of Thanksgiving (for such Prayer he meaneth, as either hath Thanksgiving joyned with it, or else is a part of Thanksgiving, or Thanksgiving a part of it:) by Prayer I say and Thanksgiving, as the proper Means to obtain it. This is the blessed effect of Thanksgiving, as it is an Act of Religion. And thus you have heard two grand Reasons, concluding the necessity of Thanksgiving unto God, in the receiving and using of his good Creatures. The one, considering it as an Act of Iustice: because it is in the only acceptable discharge of that obligation of debt, wherein we stand bound unto God for the free use of so many good Creatures. The other, considering it is an Act of Religion: because it is the most proper and convenient Means to procure from the mouth of God a word of Blessing, to sanctifie the Creatures to the uses of our lives, and to the comfort of our Consciences. This Thanksgiving being an Act both of Justice and Religion: whensoever we either receive or use any good Creature of God without this, we are unjust in the Receipt, and in the Use Prophane. It is now high time we should from the Premises infer something for our farther use and edification.

And the first Inference may be, shall I say for Trial; or may I not rather say43. for Conviction? Since we shall learn thereby, not so much to examine our Thankfulness, how true it is; as to discover our Unthankfulness, how foul it is. And how should that discovery cast us down to a deep condemnation of our selves for so much both Unjustice and Prophaneness, when we shall find our selves guilty of so many failings in the performance of such a necessary Duty both of Iustice and Religion? But we cannot abide to hear on this ear: We p. 254unthankful to God? Far be that from us: we scarce ever speak of any thing we have, or have done, or suffered; but we send this Clause after it, I thank God for it. And how are we unthankful, seeing we do thus? It is a true saying, which one saith; Thanking of God, is a thing all men do, and yet none do as they should. It is often in udo, but seldom in imo: it swimmeth often upon the tip of our tongues, but seldom sinketh into the bottom of our hearts. I thank God for it, is, as many use it, rather a aaUsu quodam magis quàm▪ sensu, vel affectu, personare in ore multorum gratiarum actionem advertere est. Bern. in Cant. Ser. 13.By-word, than a Thanksgiving: so far from being an acceptable service to God, and a magnifying of his Name; that it is rather it self a grievous sin, and a taking of his holy Name in vain. But if we will consider duly and aright, not so much how near we draw unto God with our lips, as how far our hearts are from him when we say so: we shall see what small reason we have, upon such a slender lip-labour to think our selves discharged either of the bond of thankfulness, or from the sin of unthankfulness. Quid verba audiam, fact a cum videam? Though we say, I thank God, a thousand and a thousand times over; yet if in our Deeds we bewray foul unthankfulness unto him, it is but Protestatio contraria facto: and we do thereby but make our selves the greater and deeper lyars.

Every sin is spacious and diffused, and spreadeth into a number of branches:44. this of ingratitude not least. Yet we will do our best to reduce all that multitude to some few principal branches. There are required unto true Thankfulness Three things; Recognition, Estimation, Retribution. He that hath received a benefit from another, he ought first, faithfully to acknowledge it; secondly to value it worthily; thirdly, to endeavour really to requite it. And whoso faileth in any of these, is (so far as he faileth) unthankful more or less. And do not some of us fail in all; and do not all of us fail in some of these? For our more assured, whether Examination, or Conviction; let us a little consider how we have and do behave our selves in each of the three respects; in every of which, we will instance but in two kinds; and so we shall have six degrees of Ingratitude: still holding our selves as close as we can to the present point, concerning our Thankfulness or Unthankfulness, as it respecteth the use we have of, and the benefit we have from the good Creatures of God.

And first, we fail in our Recognition, and in the due acknowledgment of45. Gods blessings. And therein first, and let that be the first degree of our unthankfulness; in letting so many blessings of his slip by us, without any regard, or so much as notice taken of them: Whereas Knowledge must ever go before Acknowledgment, and Apprehension before Confession. There is a twofold Confession to be made unto God: the bbConfessio gemina est: aut Peccati, aut Laudis. Aug. exp. 2. in Ps. 29. foreign. Chrysost. in Psal. 93.Ps 29Ps 93one of our sins; the other, of his goodness. That belongeth to Repentance; this to Thankfulness. Both of them consist in an Acknowledgment: and in both, the acknowledgment is most faithful, when it is most punctual: and in both, we come to make default, for want of taking such particular information, as we ought, and might. In our Repentance we content our selves commonly with a general Confession of our sins; or at the most, possibly sometimes make acknowledgment of some one or a few grosser falls, which gall our Consciences, or which the World crieth shame of: and if we do that, we think we have made an excellent Confession. So in our Thanksgivings, ordinarily we content our selves with a general acknowledgment of Gods goodness and mercies to us; or sometimes possibly recount some one or a few notable and aaBeneficia quaedam magnitudo non patitur excidere: sed numero plura, & temporibus diversa es…luunt. Senec. 3. de benef. 5.eminent favours, such as most affect us, or whereof the World taketh notice: and this is all we do. But we do indeed in both these, deal unfaithfully with God, and with our own souls. If we desire to shew our selves truly penitent, we should take knowledge (so far as possibly we could) of all our sins, small and great (at least the several species and kinds of them, for the Individuals are infinite:) and bring them all before God in p. 255the Confession of Repentance. And if we desired to shew our selves truly thankful; we should take notice (so far as possibly we could, and in the species at least) of all Gods blessings, small and great: and bring them all before him in the Confession of praise. We should even bbJoh. 6. 12.John 6:12Colligere fragmenta, gather up the very broken meats, and let nothing be lost, those ccColligere fragmenta, né pereant, id est, nec minima beneficia oblivisci. Bernard. in Cant. serm. 51.small petty blessings, as we account them, and as we think, scarce worth the Observation. Did we so: how many baskets full might be taken up, which we daily suffer to fall to the ground, and be lost? Like Swine under the Oaks, we grouze up the Acorns, and snouk about for more, and eat them too, and when we have done, lye routing, and thrusting our Noses in the Earth for more: but never lift up so much as half an eye, to the Tree that shed them. Every crum we put in our mouths, every drop wherewith we cool our tongues, the very Air we continually breath in and out through our throats and nostrils, a thousand other such things whereof the very commonness taketh away the Observation, we receive from his fulness: and many of these are renewed every morning, and some of these are renewed every minute: And yet how seldom do we so much as take notice of many of these things? How justly might that complaint which God maketh against the unthankful Israelites, be taken up against us? ddIsa. 1. 3.Isa 1:3The Oxe knoweth his Owner, and the Ass his Master's Crib: but Israel doth not know, my people doth not consider.

The second degree of our Unthankfulness to God, and that also for want46. of faithful Acknowledgment, is, in ascribing the good things he hath given us to our own deserts, or endeavours, or to any other thing or Creature, either in part, or in whole, but only to him. Such things indeed we have, and we know it too, (perhaps but too well) but we bestirred our selves for them, we beat our brains for them, we got them out of the fire, and swet for them; we may thank our good friends, or we may thank our good selves for them. Thus do we aaHab. 1. 16.Hab 1:16Sacrifice unto our own nets, and burn incense to our drag, as if by them our portion were fat, and our meat plenteous. And as bbLuke 13. 1.Luke 13:1Pilate mingled the blood of the Galileans with their own Sacrifices; so into these spiritual ccPsal. 50. 14.Ps 50:14Sacrifices of Thanksgiving, which we offer unto God, we infuse a quantity of our own swink and sweat, of our own wit and fore-cast, of our own power and friends, still some one thing or other of our own; and so rob God, if not of all, yet of so much of his honour. This kind of unthankfulness God both foresaw and forbad in his own people, Deut. 8. warning them to take heed, vers. 17. lest when they abounded in all plenty and prosperity, ddDeut. 8. 14, 17.Deut 8:14Deut 8:17They should forget the Lord, and say in their hearts, My power, and the might of my hand hath gotten me this wealth. The very saying or thinking of this was a forgetting of God. eeIbid. 18.But (saith Moses there) Thou shalt remember the Lord thy God: for it is he that giveth thee power to get wealth, &c. The whole Chapter is none other but a warn-word against unthankfulness. All ffEst superbia, & delictum maximum, uti datis tanquam innatis; & in acceptis beneficiis gloriam usurpare benficii. Bernard. de dilig. Deo.glorying in our selves, all vain boasting of the gifts of God, or bearing our selves high upon any of his blessings is a kind of smothering of the receipt: and argueth in us a kind of lothness to make a free acknowledgment of the Giver's bounty; and so is tainted with a spice of unthankfulness in this degree. gg1 Cor. 4. 7.1 Cor 4:7If thou didst receive it; why dost thou glory, as if thou hadst not received it? Saith my Apostle elsewhere. He that glorieth in that, for which he even giveth thanks; doth by that glorying, as much as he dareth, reverse his Thanks. The Pharisee, who hhLuke 18. 11.Luke 18:11thanked God he was not like other men; did even then, and by those very thanks, but bewray his own wretched unthankfulness.

Besides a faithful Recognition, in freely acknowledging the benefit received;47. there is required unto thankfulness a just Estimation of the benefit, in valuing it, as it deserveth? Wherein we make default, if either we value it not at all, or undervalue it. The third Degree then of our Ingratitude unto God, is the Forgetfulness p. 256of his benefits. When we so easily iiApparet illum non s…pe de reddendo cogitâsse, cut obrepsit oblivio. Sen. 3. de benef. 1. Perveniunt eò quò, ut ego existimo, pessimus quisque & ingratissimus pervenit; ut obliviscantur. Ib. 5.forget them, it is a sign we set nought by them. Every man readily remembreth those things, he maketh any reckoning of: in so much that although old age be naturally forgetful, yet kkNec verò quenquam senum audivi oblitum, quo loco thesaurum obruisset: Omnia quae curart meminerunt: vadimonia constituta, qui sibi, quibus ipsi debeant. Cic. de Senect.Tully saith, He never knew any man so old, as to forget where he had hid his gold, or to whom he had lent his moneys. In Deut. 8. Moses warneth the people (as you heard) to aaDeut. 8. 14.Deut 8:14beware, lest being full, they should forget the Lord that had fed them; and David stirreth up his soul in Psal. 103. to bbPsal. 103. 2.Ps 103:2bless the Lord, and not to forget any of his benefits. We all condemn Pharoah's Butler of unthankfulness to Ioseph, (and so we may well do; for he afterwards ccGen. 41. 9.Gen 41:9condemned himself for it:) in that having received comfort from Ioseph, when they were fellow-prisoners, he yet ddGen. 40. 23.Gen 40:23forgat him when he was in place where, and had power and opportunity to requite him. How inexcusable are we that so condemn him? seeing wherein we judge him, we condemn our selves as much, and much more: for we do the same things, and much worse. He forgat Ioseph, who was but a man like himself: we forget God. He had received but one good turn; we many. It is like he had none about him to put him in mind of Ioseph; for as for Ioseph himself, we know he lay by it, and could have no access: we have God himself daily rubbing up our Memories, both by his Word and Ministers, and also by new and fresh benefits. He, as soon as a fair occasion presented it self, confest his fault, and remembred Ioseph; thereby shewing his former forgetfulness to have proceeded rather from Negligence than Wilfulness: we after so many fresh Remembrances and blessed Opportunities; still continue in a kind of wilful and confirmed Resolution, still to forget. Well may we forget these private and smaller blessings; when we begin to grow but too forgetful of those great and publick Deliverances God hath wrought for us. Two great Deliverances, in the memory of many of us, hath God in his singular mercy wrought for us of this Land: such as I think, take both together, no Christian Age or Land can parallel; One formerly, from a foreign Invasion abroad; another since that, from an Hellish Conspiracy at home: both such, as we would all have thought, when they were done, should never have been forgotten. And yet, as if this were Terra Oblivionis, the Land where all things are forgotten, how doth the memory of them fade away, and they by little and little grow into forgetfulness! We have lived to see Eighty eight almost quite forgotten, and buried in a perpetual Amnesty, (God be blessed, who hath graciously prevented, what we feared herein!) God grant that we, nor ours ever live to see November's fifth forgotten, or the solemnity of that day silenced.

A fourth Degree of unthankfulness is, in undervaluing Gods blessings, and48. lessening the worth of them. A fault whereof the murmuring Israelites were often guilty: who although they were brought into a eeExod. 3. 8, 17.Exod 3:8Exod 3:17good Land, flowing with milk and honey, and abounding in all good things both for necessity and delight; yet as it is in ffPsal. 106. 24.Ps 106:24Psal. 106. They thought scorn of that pleasant Land: and were ever and anon, and upon every light occasion repining against God and against Moses, always receiving good things from God, and yet always discontent at something or other. And where is there a man among us that can wash his hands in innocency, and discharge himself altogether from the guilt of unthank fulness in this kind? Where is there a man so constantly and equally content with his portion, that he hath not sometimes or other either grudged at the leanness of his own, or envied at the fatness of anothers lot? We deal with our God herein, as Hiram hid with Solomon. Solomon gave him Twenty Cities in the Land of Galilee: but because the Countrey was low and deep (and so in all likelihood the more fertile for that) aa1 Kings 29. 11, 13.they pleased him not; and he said to Solomon, what Cities are these thou hast given me? and he called them Cabul; that is to say, dirty. So we are witty to cavil and to quarrel at Gods p. 257gifts, if they be not in every respect such, as we, in our vain hopes or fancies, have ideated unto our selves. This is dirty, that barren; this too solitary, that too populo us; this ill-wooded, that ill-watered, a third ill-aired, a fourth ill-neighboured. This bbforeign, Jude 16.Jude 1:16grudging and repining at our portions, and faulting of God's gifts, so frequent among us, argueth but too much the unthankfulness of our hearts.

The last thing required unto Thankfulness (after a faithful Acknowledgment 49.of the receipt, and a just Valuation of the thing received) is Retribution and Requital. And that must be real, if it be possible; but at the least it must be votal in the Desire and Endeavour. And herein also (as in both the former) there may be a double fail; if, having received a benefit, we requite it either not at all, or ill. Not to have any care at all of Requital, is the fifth degree of Unthankfulness. To a Requital (as you ccSee before Sect. 38.heard) Iustice bindeth us, either to the party himself that did us the good turn, if it may be, and be either expedient or needful, or at the least, to his. David retained such a grateful memory of Ionathan's true Friendship and constant Affection to him, that after he was dead and gone, he hearkened after some of his friends, that he might requite Ionathan's love by some kindness to them. [dd2 Sam. 9. 1.2 Sam 9:1 Is there yet any left of the house of …ul, that I may shew him kindness for Jonathan's sake?] And surely he were a very unthankful wretch, that having been beholden to the Father, as much as his life and livelihood is worth, would suffer the Son of so well deserving a Father to perish for want of his help, and would not strain himself a little, even beyond his power (if need were) to succour him. Indeed to God, as we heard, we can render nothing that is worthy the name of Requital, we must not so much as think of that. But yet somewhat we must do, to express the true and unfeigned thankfulness of our hearts, which though it be nothing less, yet it pleaseth him for Christ's sake to interpret as a Requital. And that to him and his; to him by seeking his glory, to His, by the fruits of our Christian Charity. We adventure our states and lives, to maintain the honour and safety of our Kings in their just wars, from whom perhaps we never received particular favour or benefit, other than the common benefit and protection of Subjects. And are we not then foully ingrateful to God, to whose Goodness we owe all that we have or are; if, for the advancement of his glory, and the maintenance of his truth, we make dainty to spend the best, and most precious things we have, yea, though it be the dearest heart-blood in our bodies? But how much more ungrateful, if we think much, for his sake to forgo Liberty, Lands, Livings, Houses, Goods, Offices, Honours, or any of these smaller and inferiour things? Can there be greater unthankfulness, than to grudge him a small, who hath given us all? In these, yet peaceable times of our Church and State (God be thanked) we are not much put to it; but who knoweth how soon a heavy day of trial may come, (we all know it cannot come sooner, or heavier than our sins have deserved;) wherein woe, woe to our unthankfulness, if we do not freely and chearfully render unto God of those things he hath give us, whatsoever he shall require of us. But yet even in these peaceable times there want not opportunities, whereon to exercise our Thankfulness, and to manifest our desires of requital, though not to him, yet to his. To his Servants and Children in their Afflictions; to his poor distressed members in their manifold necessities. These opportunities we never did, we never shall want, according to our Saviour's Prediction, (or rather Promise) aaMatth. 26. 11.Matt 26:11Pauperes semper habebitis; The Poor you shall always have with you, as my Deputy-receivers; but me (in person) ye shall not have always. And what we do, or not do, to bbMatth. 25. 50.Matt 25:50these, whom he thus constituted his Deputies, he taketh it as done or not done unto himself. If when God hath given us Prosperity, we suffer these to be distressed, and comfort them p. 258not, or victuals, to perish, and feed them not; or cloathing, to starve, and cover them not; or power, to be oppressed, and rescue them not; or ability in any kind, to want it, and relieve them not: Let us make what shews we will, let us make what profession we will of our Thankfulness to God, what we deny to these we deny to him; and as we deal with these, if his case were theirs (as he is pleased to make their case his) we would so deal with him. And what is to be unthankful, if this be not?

And yet behold, unthankfulness, more and greater than this; unthankfulness50. in the sixth, and last, and highest, and worst degree. We requite him evil for good. In that other we were unjust, not to requite him at all; but injurious also in this, to requite him with ill. It sticketh upon King Ioash as a brand of infamy for ever, that he slew cc2 Chron. 24. 22, 23.2 Chr 24:222 Chr 24:23Zachary the Son of Iehoiada the High-Priest, who had been true and faithful to him both in the getting of the Kingdom, and in the Administration of it, recorded to all Posterity, 2 Chron. 24. Thus Ioash the King remembred not the kindness which Iehoiada the Father had done him, but slew his Son; and when he died, he said, The Lord look upon it, and require it. And it was not long before the Lord did indeed look upon it, and require it; the very next verse beginneth to lay down the vengeance that God brought upon him for it. And yet compared …th ours, Ioash his ingratitude was nothing. Iehoiada was bound as a Subject to assist the right Heir, God is not bound to us, he is a Debtor to none. Ioash had right to the Crown before Iehoiada set it on his head: we have no right at all to the Creature, but by God's gift. Ioash, though he dealt not well with the Son, yet he evermore esteemed the Father so long as he lived, and was advised by him in the Affairs of his Kingdom; we rebel even against God himself, and cast all his Counsels behind our backs. Ioash slew the Son, but he was a mortal man, and his Subject, and he had given him (at least as he apprehended it) some affront and provocation; we by our sins and disobedience crucifie the Son of God, ddSym. Nic…n.The Lord and giver of life, by whom, and in whom, and from whom we enjoy all good Blessings, and of whom we are not able to say that ever he dealt unkindly with us, or gave us the least provocation. But as Israel (whom God calleth eeDeut. 32. 15.Deut 32:15Iesurun, and compareth to an Heifer fed in large and fruitful Pastures) going always at full bit, grew fat and wanton, and kicked with the heel; so we, the more plentifully God hath heaped his blessings upon us, the more wantonly have we followed the swinge of our own hearts, and the more contemptuously spurned at his holy Commandments. It was a grievous Bill of complaint, which the Prophet in the name of God preferred against Israel, in Hosea 2. That his ffHos. 2. 8.Hos 2:8Corn, and Wine, and Oyl, and the Silver, and Gold which he had given them, they imployed in the Service of Baal an abominable Idol. If when God giveth us Wit, Wealth, Power, Authority, Health, Strength, Liberty, every other good thing; in stead of using these things to his glory, and the comfortable relief of his Servants, we abuse them, some or all, to the service of those Idols which we have erected to our selves in our hearts; to the maintenance of our Pride and Pomp, making Lucifer our God; of our Pelf and Profits, making Mammon our God; of our swinish pleasures and sensuality, making our ggPhil. 3. 9.Phil 3:9Belly our God: Are we not as deep in the Bill as those Israelites were? As unjust as they? As prophane as they? As unthankful every way as they? Flatter we not our selves: Obedience to God's Commandments, and a sober and charitable use of his Creatures, is the best, and surest evidence of our Thankfulness to God, and the fairest requital we can make for them. If we withdraw our obedience, and fall into open rebellion against God; if we abuse them, in making them either the occasions or instruments of sin to the dishonour of God, and damage of his Servants; we repay him ill and unworthily for the good we p. 259have received, and are guilty of Unthankfulness in this foulest and highest degree.

Now we have seen what we are, let us say the worst we can by unthankful 51.ones; call them Wretches, Caitiffs, Churles, any thing; load them with infamies, disgraces, contumelies; charge them with Injustice, Prophaneness, Atheism; condemn them, and with them the vice it self, Unthankfulness, to the pit of Hell: do all this, and more, and spare not; and as David did at Nathan's Parable, when we hear any case or example of ingratitude in any of the former degrees, whether really done, or but in a Parable, pronounce sentence upon the guilty, aa1 Sam. 12. 5.1 Sam 12:5The man that hath done this thing shall surely die. But withal let us remember, when we have so done, that our hearts instantly prompt us what Nathan told David, bbIbid. 7.Thou art the man. We, we are the men, we are these unthankful ones; unthankful to God, first, in passing by so many of his blessings without taking any consideration of them; unthankful, secondly, in ascribing his Blessings wholly or partly to our selves, or any other but him; unthankful, thirdly, in valuing his Blessings so lightly, as to forget them; unthankful, fourthly, in diminishing the worth of his Blessings, and repining at our portion therein; unthankful, fifthly, in not rendring to him and his, according to the good he hath done for us; but sixthly, and most of all, unthankful in requiting him evil for good, and hatred for his good will. Dealing thus with him, let us not now marvel, if he begin to deal something strangely, and otherwise than he was wont with us. If he deny us his Creatures, when we want them; if he take them from us when we have them; if he withhold his blessing from them, that it shall not attend them; if we find small comfort in them, when we use them, if they be unanswering our expectations, when we have been at some pains and cost with them; if, as the Prophet speaketh, ccHagg. 1. 6.Hag 1:6We sow much and bring in little, we eat and have not enough, we drink and are not filled, we cloath us and we are not warm, and the wages we earn we put into a bag with holes: if any of these things befal us, let us cease to wonder thereat; our selves are the causers of all our woe. It is our great unthankfulness that blasteth all our endeavours, that leaveneth with sowerness whatsoever is sweet, and turneth into poison whatsoever is wholesom in the good Creatures of God. It is the ddVer. 5. hîc.Word of God, and Prayer, that sanctifieth them to our use; and they are then good when they are received with thanksgiving. So long as we continue unthankful, we are vain if we look for any sanctification in them, if we expect any good from them.

I have now done with my first Inference, for Trial, or rather Conviction: 52.I add a second of Exhortation. The duty it self being so necessary as we have heard; Necessary, as an Act of Iustice for the receipt of the Creature; and necessary as an Act of Religion for the sanctifying of the Creature: how should our hearts be enflamed with an holy desire, and all our powers quickned up to a faithful endeavour, conscionably to perform this so necessary a duty? One would think, that very necessity, together with the consciousness of our former unthankfulness, should in all reason be enough to work in us that both desire and endeavour. In all reason it should so; but we are unreasonable, and much ado there is to perswade us to any thing that is good, even when we are perswaded. Wherefore to enforce the exhortation more effectually, I must have leave to press the performance of this duty upon our Consciences, with some farther Inducements, and important Considerations.

Consider, first, the excellency of the Duty. There are but three heads, 53.whereto we refer all that is called good; Iucundum, Utile, Honestum; Pleasure, Profit, and Honesty. There is nothing desirable and lovely, but in one or other of these three respects. Each of these singly we account good, but that p. 260excellently good, wherein they all concurr. We love things that will give us delight, sometimes when there is neither profit, nor credit in them; we love things that will bring us profit, though possibly neither delightful greatly, nor s…emly; and we love things that we think will do us honesty, oftentimes without regard either of Pleasure or Profit. How should we then be affected to this duty of giving thanks, and singing Praises unto our GOD, wherein all those do jointly concurr, and that also in an excellent measure? David hath wrapped them all together in one verse in the beginning of Psal. 147. aaPsal. 147. 1.Ps 147:1Praise ye the Lord, for it is good; yea, it is a pleasant thing, and praise is comely. It is good, it will bring you profit; it is pleasant, it will afford you delight; and it is comely, it will do you honesty; and what can heart wish more? Again, many good virtues and graces of God in us shall expire together with us, which though they be eternal in their fruit and reward, yet are not so as to their proper Acts; which after this life shall cease, because there shall be neither need, nor use of them then, bb1 Cor. 13. 8.1 Cor 13:8Whether there be Prophecies, they shall fail; or whether there be tongues, they shall cease; or whether there be knowledge, it shall vanish away. There shall be no use of taming the flesh by Fasting, or of supplying the want either of others by Alms, or of our selves by Prayer. Nay, even Faith and Hope themselves shall have an end; for we shall not then need to believe, when we shall see; nor to expect, when we shall enjoy. But giving of Thanks, and Praise, and Honour, and Glory unto God, shall remain in the Kingdom of Heaven, and of Glory. It is now the continual blessed ccRev. 4. 8, 11. & 7. 11, 12.Rev 4:8Rev 4:11Rev 7:11Rev 7:12exercise of the glorious Angels and Saints in Heaven, and it shall be ours when we shall be translated thither. O that we would learn often to practise here, what we hope shall be our eternal exercise there! Oh, that we would accustom our selves, being ddEph. 5. 18, 20.Eph 5:18Eph 5:20filled in the Spirit, to speak to our selves in Psalms, and Hymns, and spiritual Songs, singing and making Melody in our hearts to the Lord, giving thanks always for all things unto God and the Father, in the Name of our Lord Iesus Christ, as speaketh our Apostle, Ephes. 5.

Consider, secondly, the multitude, and variety, and continuance of God's54. Blessings, and let that provoke thy Thankfulness. If thou hadst received but one or a few benefits, yet thanks were due even for those few, or for that one, more than thou art able to return. But what canst thou alledge, or how excuse thy unthankfulness, when his mercies are renewed every morning, nay, every eeOmni momento me tibi obligas, dum omni momento mihi tua magna beneficia praestas. Aug. Solil. cap. 18. Tot munera, quae sine intermissione diebus ac noctibus (Dii) fundunt. Senec. 4. de bene…. 3.moment? when he is ever ffPsal. 145. 16.Ps 145:16opening his hand, and pouring out his blessings, and ggPsal. 68. 29.Ps 68:29loading, and even overwhelming thee with his Benefits, as if he did vie with thee, and would have thee see how easily he can overcome thy evil with his goodness, and infinitely out-strip thine infinite ingratitude with his more infinite munificence? His Angels are about thee, though thou knowest it not; from a thousand unknown dangers he delivereth thee, which thou suspectedest not: he still continueth his goodness unto thee, and repreiveth thy destruction, though thou deservedst it not. What should I say more? thy very life and being thou owest to him▪ hhActs 17. 28.Acts 17:28In whom we all live, and move, and have our being: thence resolve with holy David, to sing praise unto the Lord, iiPsal. 104. 33.Ps 104:33as long as thou livest; and to sing praise unto thy God, whilst thou hast thy being. Many and continual receipts should provoke many and continual Thanks.

Consider, thirdly, thy future necessities. If thou wert sure of that thou hast, that thou and it should continue together for ever, and never part; and that thou couldest make pretty shift to live upon the Old stock hereafter, and never stand in need to him for more, there might be so much less need to55. take care for giving thanks for what is past. But it is not so with any of us; of what we have, we are but Tenants at Courtesie, and we stand continually p. 261upon our good behaviour, whether we should hold of him any longer, or no; and much of our future happiness standeth upon our present thankfulness. And with what face can we crave to have more (and yet more we must have, or we cannot subsist) if we be not thankful for what we have? ggBern. Serm. 77.Peremptoria res est ingratitudo, saith St. Bernard, it cutteth off all kindness. hhAugust. Soliloq. c. 18.Ventus urens & exsiccans, like that iiExod. 14. 21. Gratiarum cessat decursus, ubi recursus non fuerit Bern. Serm. 50.Exod 14:21strong East-wind, which in a night dried up the Red Sea; it holdeth off the streams of God's bounty from flowing, and drieth up those Channels whereby his mercies were wont to be conveyed unto us. Certainly this is one special cause why God so often saith us Nay, and sendeth us away empty when we ask, even because we are so little thankful to him for former receipts. The kkEccl. 1. 7. Su… reddantur origini fluentae gratiae, ut uberius fluant. Bern. Ser. 89.Eccl 1:7rivers return all their waters to the Sea, from whence they had them; and they gain this by the return, that the Sea feedeth them again, and so by a continual fresh supply, preserveth them in perpetual being and motion. If they should llAlioquin, nisi ad fontem redeant, exsiccantur. Pern. Ibid.with-hold that tribute, the Sea would not long suffice them nourishment. So we by giving, receive; and by true paying the old debt, get credit to run upon a new score, and provoke future blessings, by our thankfulness for former; as the earth by sending up vapours back to Heaven from the dew she hath received thence, filleth the bottles of Heaven with new moisture, to be poured down upon her again in due season, in kindly and plentiful showers. By our Prayers and Thanksgivings we erect a Ladder, like that which mmGen▪ 28. 12.Gen 28:12Iacob saw, whereon the Angels ascended and descended, we preserve a mutual entercourse betwixt Heaven and Earth, and we maintain a kind of continual trading, as it were, betwixt God and us. The Commodities are brought us in, they are God's blessings; for these we traffick by our Prayers and Thanksgivings. Let us therefore deal squarely, as wise and honest Merchants should do. Let us keep touch, and pay; it is as much as our credit is worth. Let us not think to have Commodities still brought us in, and we send none out, nnHorat. …. Ep. 1.Omnia te adversum spectantia, this dealing cannot hold long: rather let us think, that the quicker, and speedier, and more returns we make, our gains will be the greater; and that ooforeign. Chrys. in Gen. hom. 26. foreign. Ibid. hom. 25.the oftner we pray and praise God for his blessings, the more we secure unto our selves both the continuance, and the increase of them.

Consider, fourthly, thy misery, if thou shouldst want those things which God 56.hath given thee. (a) Carendo magis quam fruendo. Fools will not know(p) foreign. Tum denique homines nostra intelligimus bona, quum quae in potestate habuimus, ea amisimus. Plaut. in captiv. 1, 2. that true worth of things but by wanting, which wiser men had rather learn by having them. Yet this is the common Folly of us all; we will not prize God's blessings as we should, till he for our unthankfulness, take them from us, and teach us to value them better before we have them again. We repine at God's great blessings, we grudge at his gentle Corrections, judging these too heavy, those too light. We think our very Peace a burden, and complain of plenty, as some would do of scarcity; and undervalue the blessed Liberty we have of treading in his Courts, and partaking his holy Ordinances; and all this, because by his great goodness we have so long enjoyed them; and this is our guise in every other thing proportionably. Did we but feel a while the miseries of our Neighbour-Countrys, who want the Blessings which we thus slight; or could we but fore-think what our misery should be, if we (as they) had our Throats ever before the Sword, or were wasted with extreme Famines and Pestilences, or lived either in thick darkness, without the Gospel, or under cruel Persecution for it. Did we thus, though our hearts were as hard and cold as stones, it could not be but those thoughts would soften them, and inflame them to magnifie and bless the holy name of God for our long and p. 262present peace, for that measure of plenty whatever it be which we yet have, and for the still continued liberty of his glorious Gospel and sincere Worship among us. God grant, that from our wretched unthankfulness, he take not just occasion, by taking these great blessings from us, to teach us at once both how to use them better, and how to value them better.

Consider, fifthly, thy Importunity with God, when thou wantest any thing,57. and according to that, proportion thy thanks when thou hast it. I remember what aaBern. l. 4. de consid. ad Eugen.Bernard writeth of the Popes Servants and Courtiers in his time: Importuni ut accipiant, inquieti donec acceperint, ubi acceperint, ingrati. When Suiters come to the Popes Court with their businesses, the Courtiers and Officers lie in the wind for them, greedily offering their service, and never quiet with them till they have got something; but by that they have got the money, they have forgot the man; and having first served their own turn, they then leave the business to go which way it will. Not much unlike is our dealing with God. When we bbMultos videmus usque hodiè satis importunè petentes, quod sibi deesse cognovevint, sed paucos admodum novimus, qui dignas super acceptis beneficiis gratias agere videantur. Bern. Serm. de diversis 27.would have something, some outward blessing conferred, or some outward calamity removed, (for thankless devotions seldom look farther than after these outward things;) we are, as St. Chrysostome speaketh, ccChrysost. in Psal. 137.Ps 137foreign, very eager and earnest with God, we must have no Nay; we wrestle with him, and that stou…ly, as if we would out-wrestle ddGen. 32. 25, 26.Gen 32:25Gen 32:26Iacob for a blessing, and we will not let him go till we have obtained it. But foreign, saith Chrysostome there: When our turn is served, and we have what we would have, by and by all our devotion is at an end, we never think of thanks. All the ten Lepers begged hard of Christ for a cleansing; the Text saith, eeLuke 17. 13, 17.Luke 17:13Luke 17:17They lift up their voices, they were all loud enough whilst they were Suitors: Sed ubi novem? There returned not to give God thanks for their cleansing, of the whole ten, any more than barely one single man. It is our case just. When we want any of the good Creatures of God for our necessities, we ffPsal. 81. 10.Ps 81:10open our mouths wide, till he ggPsal. 145. 16.Ps 145:16open his hand, and fill them with plenteousness; but after, as if the filling of our Mouths were the stopping of our Throats, so are we speechless and heartless. Shame we to be so clamorous, when we crave from him; and so dumb 58.when we should give him thanks.

Consider, lastly, how freely God hath given thee, what he hath given thee. hhBern. in Psal. Qui habitat. Serm. 14.Dupliciter gratis, saith Bernard, sine merito, sine labore. Freely both ways; freely without thy desert, and freely without so much as thy pains. Freely, first, without thy desert. Iacob, a man as well deserving as thou, yet confessed himself, iiGen. 32. 10.Gen 32:10Not worthy of the least of all God's Mercies. And St. Paul cutteth off all challenge of desert, by that Interrogatory, kkRom. 11. 35.Rom 11:35Who hath first given him, and it shall be recompensed him? As who should say, No man can challenge God, as if he owed him ought. If he have made himself a Debtor to us by his Promise, (and indeed he hath so made himself a debtor to us) yet that is still gratis, and for nothing; because the Promise it self was free without either llNulla Deo dandi beneficii causa est. Sen. 4. de benef. 3. Ego rebar spontaneas esse numinum benignitates ultroque ab his fluere inexpectata benevolentiae munera. Arnob. cont. Gent. l. 3. Deus nulli debet aliquid, qui omnia gratuito praestat. Et si quisquam dicet, ab illo aliquid deberi merit is suis, certe ut esset non ei debebatur; non enim erat, cui deberetur. Aug. 3. de lib. arb. 16.Debt in him, or Desert in us. Nay more, God hath been good to us, not only when we had not deserved it▪ but (which still more magnifieth his bounty, and bindeth us the stronger to be thankful,) when we had deserved the quite contrary. And how is it possible we should forget such his unspeakable kindness, in giving us much good, when we had done none, nay, in giving us much good, when we had done much ill? And as he gave it sine merito, so sine labore too; the Creature being freely bestowed on us, as on the one side not by way of reward for any desert of ours, so neither on the other side by way of wages for any labour of ours. To shew that God giveth not his Blessings for our labour meerly, he sometimes giveth them not, where they are laboured for; and again he giveth them sometimes where they are not laboured for. If in the ordinary dispensation of his Providence, p. 263he bestowed them upon them that labour, as Solomon saith, eeProv. 12. 24. & 13. 4.Prov 12:24Prov 13:4The diligent hand maketh rich; and seldom otherwise, for ff2 Thes. 3. 10.2 Thess 3:10He that will not labour, it is fit he should not eat;) yet that labour is to be accounted but as the means, not as a sufficient cause thereof. And if we dig to the root, we shall still find it was gratis; for even that power to labour was the gift of God, ggDeut. 8. 18.Deut 8:18It is God that giveth thee power to get wealth. Yea in this sence, hhSee before Serm. 3. ad Cler. Sect. 18.nature it self is grace, because given gratis and freely, without any labour, preparation, disposition, desert, or any thing at all in us.

All these considerations, the excellency of the Duty, the continuance of59. God's Blessings, our future necessity, our Misery in wanting, our Importunity in craving, his free Liberality in bestowing, should quicken us to a more conscionable performance of this so necessary, so just, so religious a Duty. And thus having seen our Unthankfulness discovered in six points, and heard many Considerations to provoke us to thankfulness, it may be we have seen enough in that to make us hate the fault, and we would fain amend it; and it may be we have heard enough in this to make us affect the Duty, and we would fain practise it, may some say, but we are yet to learn how. The Duty being hard, and our backwardness great, what good course might be taken, effectually to reform this our so great backwardness, and to perform▪ that so hard a Duty? And so you see, my second Inference for Exhortation breedeth a third, and that is for direction; which for satisfaction of those men that pretend willingness, but plead ignorance, I should also prosecute, if I had so much time to spare: wherein should be discovered, what be the principal causes of our so great Unthankfulness; which taken away, the effect will instantly, and of it self cease. Now those Causes are especially, as I conceive, these five, viz. 1. Pride, and Self-love; 2. Envy, and Discontentment; 3. Riotousness, and Epicurism; 4. Worldly Carefulness, and immoderate Desires; 5. Carnal Security, and foreslowing the time. Now then, besides the application of that which hath already been spoken in the former Discoveries and Motives, (for every Discovery of a fault doth virtually contain some means for the correcting of it; and every true Motive to a duty, doth virtually contain some helps unto the practice of it:) besides these, I say, I know not how to prescribe any better remedies against unthankfulness, or helps unto thankfulness, than faithfully to strive for the casting out of those sins, and the subduing of those Corruptions in us, which cause the one, and hinder the other. But because the time, and my strength are near spent, I am content to ease both my self and you, by cutting off so much of my provision, as concerneth this Inference for Direction, and desire you that it may suffice for the present, but thus to have pointed at these Impediments, and once more to name them. They are Pride, Envy, Epicurism, Carefulness, Security.

I place Pride where it would be, the foremost, because it is of all other60. iiMaximè facit ingratos nimius sui suspectus, & insitum mortalitati vitium se suaque mirandi. Sen. 2. de benef. 26.the Impediment of Thankfulness. Certainly there is no one thing in the World, so much as Pride, that maketh men unthankful. He that would be truly thankful, must have his eyes upon both; the one eye upon the Gift, and the other upon the Giver; and this the proud man never hath. Either through kkCaecus amor sui. Hor. 1. Carm. od. 18.self-love he is stark blind, and seeth neither; or else through Partiality, he winketh on one eye, and will not look at both. Sometimes he seeth the Gift, but too much, and boasteth of it; but then he forgetteth the Giver, he ll1 Cor. 4. 7.1 Cor 4:7boasteth as if he had not received it Sometimes again he over-looketh the Gift, as not good enough for him, and so repineth at the Giver, as if he had not given him according to his worth. Either he undervalueth the Gift, or else he overvalueth himself; as if he were himself the Giver, or at least the Deserver; and is in both unthankful. To remove this impediment, whoever desireth to be thankful, p. 264let him humble himself, nay, empty himself, nay, deny himself, and all his desert; confess himself with Iacob, aaGen. 32. 10.Gen 32:10less than the least of God's mercies, and condemn his own heart of much sinful bbSacrilegus invasor gloriae tuae. Bern. in Can. Serm. 13.sacrilege, if it dare but think the least thought tending to rob God of the least part of his honour.61.

Envy followeth Pride; the ccSuperbiae prima sob…les inanis gloria—mox invidiam gignet. Greg. 31. Mor. 31.daughter the Mother, a second ddNon potest quisquam & invidere, & gratias agere. Sen. 3. de benef. 3.great Impediment of thankfulness. The fault is, That men, not content only to look upon their own things and the present, but eeVehemens, & importunum malum in… idia, quae nos inquietat, dum comparat. H…c mihi prastitit, sed illi plus, sed illi maturiùs. Sen. 2. de benef. 28.comparing these with the things of other men, or times, instead of giving thanks for what they have, ffIllis non tam jucundum est, multos post se videre, quam grave aliquem ante se. Sen. Ep. 73.repine that others have more or better; or for what they now have, complain, that it is not with them as it hath been. These thoughts are enemies to the tranquillity of the mind, breeding many discontents, and much unthankfulness; whilst our ggMatth. 20. 15.Matt 20:15eyes are evil, because God is good to others, or hath been so to us. To remove this impediment, whoever desireth to be truly thankful, let him look upon hhforeign. Plut. de tranquil. anim. Nulli ad aliena respicienti, sua placent. Sen. 3. de ira 30.his own things, and not on the things of other men; and therein consider, not so much what he wanteth, and fain would have, as what he hath, and could not well want. Let him think, that what God hath given him, came from his free bounty, he owed it not; and what he hath denied him, he withholdeth it either in his Iustice for his former sins, or in his Mercy for his farther good, that God giveth to no man all the desire of his heart in these outwardly things, to teach him not to look for absolute contentment in this life, least of all in these things. If he will needs look upon other mens things, let him compare himself rather iiQuodque aliena capella gerat distentius aber, tabescat, neque se majo…i pauperiorum turb. e comparet? Hor. 1. Ser. Sat. 1. foreign. Plu. ubi supra.with them that have less, than those that have more; and therein withal consider, not so much what kkNec ea intuemur, quae nos aliis praeposuere, sed ea sola …uae ser…na praecedentium ostentat. Sen. 3. de benef. 3.himself wanteth which some others have, as what he hath which many others want. If a few that enjoy God's Blessings in these outward things in a greater measure than he, be an eye-sore to him, let those many others, that have a scanter Portion, make him acknowledge that God hath dealt liberally and bountifully with him. We should do well to understand that saying of Christ, not barely as a Prediction, but as a kind of Promise too (as I have partly intimated llSee Sect. 49.before) The mmMatth. 26. 11.Matt 26:11poor you shall always have with you; and to think that every Beggar that seeketh to us, is sent of God, to be as well a Glass wherein to represent God's bounty to us, as an Object whereon for us to exercise ours. And as for former times, let us not so much think how much better we have been, as how well we are; that we are not so well now, impute it to our former unthankfulness, and fear, unless we be more thankful for what we have, it will be yet and every day worse and worse with us. Counsel very needful for us in these declining times, which are not (God knoweth, and we all know) as the times we have seen; the leprous humour of Popery secretly stealing in upon us, and as a Leprosie spreading apace under the skin; and penury and poverty, as an ulcerous sore, openly breaking out in the very face of the Land. Should we murmur at this, or repiningly complain that it is not with us, as it hath been; God forbid, that is the way to have it yet, and yet worse: Rather let us humble our selves for our former Unthankfulness, whereby we have provoked God to withdraw himself in some measure from us, and bless him for his great mercy, who yet continueth his goodness in a comfortable and gracious measure unto us, not withstanding our so great unworthiness and unthankfulness. Thousands of our Brethren in the world, as good as our selves, how glad would they be, how thankful to God, how would they rejoice and sing, if they enjoyed but a small part of that peace and prosperity in outward things, and of that liberty of treading in God's Courts, and partaking of his Ordinances, which we make so little account of, because it is not every way as we have known it heretofore?

p. 265The third Impediment of Thankfulness, is Riot and Epicurism: that which62. the Prophet reckoneth in the Catalogue of Sodom's sins, aaEzek. 16. 49.Ezek 16:49Fulness of Bread, and abundance of Idleness. This is both a Cause and a Sign of much unthankfulness. foreign, and foreign, Fulness, and Forgetfulness; they are not more near in the sound of the words, than they are in the sequel of the things: bbDeut. 8. 10, 11.Deut 8:10Deut 8:11When thou hast eaten, and art full, Then beware lest thou forget the Lord thy God, Deut. 8. It much argueth, that we make small account of the good Creatures of God, if we will not so much as take a little pains to get them: but much more, if lavishly and like prodigal fools we make waste and havock of them. He that hath received some Token from a dear Friend, though perhaps of little value in it self, and of less use to him: yet if he retain any grateful memory of his friend, he will ccQuod non me movet aestimatione: Verùm est foreign mei sodalis, Catul.value it the more, and set greater store by it, and be the more careful to preserve it, for his Friend's sake: but if he should make it away-causelesly, and the rather, because it came so easily, (as the Ding-thrift's Proverb is, Lightly come, lightly go;) every man would interpret it as an evidence of his unfriendly and unthankful heart. But Riot is not only a Sign; it is also a Cause, of unthankfulness: in as much as it maketh us value the good things of God, at too low a rate. For we usually value the worth of things, proportionably to their use; judging them more or less good, according to the good they do us, be it more or less. And how then can the Prodigal, or Riotous Epicure, that consumeth the good Creatures of God in so short a space, and to so little purpose; set a just price upon them, seeing he reapeth so little good from them? A pound, that would do a Poor man, that taketh pains for his living, a great deal of good, maintain him and his Family for some weeks together; perhaps put him into fresh trading, set him upon his legs, and make him a man for ever: what good doth it to a prodigal Gallant, that will set scores and hundreds of them flying at one Afternoons sitting in a Gaming-House? Shall any man make me believe, he valueth these good gifts of God as he should do, and as every truly thankful Christian man would desire to do; that in the powdering and perfuming of an Excrement that never grew from his own scalp, in the furnishing of a Table for the pomp and luxury of a few hours, in making up a rich Suit to case a rotten Carcass in, in the pursuit of any other lustful vanity or delight, expendeth beyond the proportion of his revenue or condition, and the exigence of just occasions? To remedy this, whoever would be truly thankful, let him live in some honest Vocation, and therein bestow himself faithfully and painfully, bind himself to sober, discreet, and moderate use of God's Creatures; remember, that Christ would not have the very broken meats lost; think, that if for every word idlely spoken, then by the same proportion for every penny idlely spent, we shall be accountable to God at the day of Judgment.

Immoderate Care, and Sollicitude for outward things is another aaNon patitur aviditas quenquam esse gratum. Senec. 2. de benef. 27. Nullum habet malum cupiditas majus, quàm quod est ingrata. Id. Epist. 73.impediment of Thankfulness. Under which Title I comprehend Covetousness especially, but not only: Ambition also, and Voluptuousness, and every other Vice, that consisteth in a desire and expectation of something bbNovis semper cupiditatibus occupati, non quid habeamus, sed quid petamus, inspicimus. Quid domi est, vile est. Sequitur autem, ut ubi quid acceperis, leve nov…rum cupidit…s fecerit, author quoque eorum non sit in pretio.—Ideoque caduca memoria est, futuro imminentium, Id. 3. de benef. 3.for the future. Which desire and expectation, if inordinate, must needs in the end determine in unthankfulness. For the very true Reason, why we desire things inordinately, is, because we promise to our selves more comfort and p. 266content from them, than they are able to give us; this being ever our Error, when we have any thing in chase, to sever the Good which we hope from it from the Inconveniencies that go therewith, and▪ looking only upon that, never so much as to think of these. But having obtained the thing we desired, we find the one as well as the other, and then the Inconveniences we never thought of before, aaNihil …què adept …, & concupiscentibus gratum. Plin.abateth much of the weight and the price we formerly set thereupon, and taketh off so much from the estimation we had of the good: whereby it cometh to pass, that by how much we over-valued it in the pursuit, by so much we undervalue it in the possession. And so▪ instead of giving thanks to God for the Good we have received, we complain of the Inconveniences that adhere thereunto: and so much underprize it, as it falleth short of our expectation; and look how far we do underprize it, so far are we unthankful for it. To remove this Impediment: whoever would be thankful, let him moderate his desires after these outward things; fore-cast as well the inconveniences that follow them, as the Commodities they bring with them; lay the one against the other, and prepare as well to disgest the one, as to enjoy the other.

The last Impediment of Thankfulness, is Carnal Security joined ever with64. Delays and Procrastinations. When we receive any thing from God, we know we should give him Thanks for it, and it may be we think of doing such a thing: but we think withal, another day will serve the turn, and so we put it off for the present, and so forwards from time to time; till in the end we have quite forgotten both his benefit, and our own Duty, and never perform any thing at all. My Text doth after a sort meet with this corruption: for here the Apostle saith, the Creature should be received with thanksgiving; as if the thanks should go with the receipt, the bbQui gratus futurus est, statim dum accipit, de reddendo cogitat. Sen. 2. de benef. 25.receipt and the thanks both together. To remove this Impediment: consider, how in every thing Delays are hurtful and dangerous: how our Affections are best and hottest at the first, and do in process of time insensibly deaden, and at last die, if we do not take the opportunity, and strike (as we say) whilest the Iron is hot; how that, if pretensions of other businesses or occasions may serve the turn to put off the tendering of our devotions, and rendering of our thanks to God, the Devil will be sure to suggest enow of these pretensions into our heads, and to prompt us continually with such Allegations, that we shall seldom or never be at leisure to serve God, and to give him thanks.

Let us remember these five impediments, and beware of them; Pride, Envy, 65.Epicurism, Wordly Carefulness, and Delay. All which are best remedied by their contraries. Good helps therefore unto thankfulness are, 1. Humility, and Self denial; 2. Contentedness, and Self-sufficiency; 3. Painfulness, and Sobriety; 4. The Moderation of our desires after earthly things; 5. Speed and Maturity. And so much for this third Inference of Direction. I should also have desired, if the time would have permitted, although my Text speaketh of our Thanksgiving unto God precisely as it respecteth the Creature; yet to have improved it a little farther by a fourth Inference: that if we be thus bound to give God thanks for these outward blessings, how much more ought we then to abound in all thankfulness unto him for his manifold aaEph. 1. 3.Eph 1:3Spiritual blessings in heavenly things in Christ; for Grace and Election, for Mercy and Redemption, for Faith and Justification, for Obedience and Sanctification, for Hope and Glorification. If we ought to pray for, and to give thanks for our bbMatth 6. 11.Matt 6:11daily bread, which nourisheth but our bodies, and then ccMatth. 15. 17.Matt 15:17is cast into the draught, and both it and our bodies perish: how much more for that ddJoh. 6. 51.John 6:51Bread of life, which came down from heaven, and feedeth our Souls unto eternal life, and neither they nor it can perish: If we p. 267must say for that, Give us this day our daily bread: shall we not much more say for this eeJoh. 6. 34.]John 6:34Lord evermore give us this bread? But I have done. Beseech we now Almighty God to guide us all with such holy discretion and wisdom, in the free use of his good Creatures; that keeping our selves within the due bounds of Sobriety, Charity, and civil Duty, we may in all things glorifie God: and above all things, and ffEp. 5. 20▪for all things give thanks always unto God and the Father in the Name of our Lord Iesus Christ. To which our Lord Jesus Christ, the blessed Son of God, together with the Father, and the Holy Spirit, three Persons, and one only wise, gracious, and everlasting God, be ascribed (as is most due) by us and his whole Church, all the Kingdom, the Power, and the Glory, both now and for evermore.

Amen, Amen.