An Infallible Way to Fare Well, Chapter 48
CHAP. XLVIII.
THankfulness for one benefit, inviteth another: but how worthy is he to perish in the next danger, that is not thankful for escaping the former? Ingratitude forfeits mercies, as Merchants do all to the King, by not payment of Custom▪ Because Pharaoh saith, the River is mine own: therefore God saith, I will dry up the River, Ezek. 29. 3, 9. &c. Isa. 19. 5, 6. Tamberlain having overcome Bajazet, asked him whether he had ever given God thanks for making him so great an Emperor? He confest ingenuously, that he had never thought of it: To whom Tamberlain replied, That it was no mervail so ingrateful a man should be made such a spectacle of misery. All which wise Solomon confirmeth, Prov. 11. 28. and also Job, Chap. 31. ver. 24, 25, 28. Gods glory to him is as the Crown to the King: Now there is less danger in stealing any thing from the King, then his Crown, for if men rob him of his Tribute, or clip bis Coyn, he may perhaps pardon it: (though that were much, and he is not discreet that will run the hazard.) But if they go about to take his Crown from him, there is no hope of obtaining pardon for that.
God is very bountiful in all other things; his Wisdom he communicates, and his Justice he distributes, and his Holiness he imparts, and his Mercy he bestows, and his onelyonly Son he hath freely given, as Paul sheweth, 1 Cor: 1. 30, 31. But his Glory he will not give to another, as himself speaks, Isa. 42. 8. And indeed this is the main fruit and return that comes unto God from all his Works. This in the New Testament is as the fat of the burnt-offering was in the Old: and we know all the fat was the Lords, and he that did eat that, was to be cut off from his people, Levit. 3. 16. & 7. 25. If you will see it in an example, look up on Herod; who in stead of giving the glory of his gifts unto God, took it to himself, and was cut off from his people, by, or after a strange and unheard of manner, Acts 12.
And thus we see by what hath been said, that if pride, covetousness, hypocrisie, or any the like springs, shall set the wheels of our hearts a moving, our Honey will prove but gall, and our Wine, Vinegar; yea, if these be the ends of our doing duties, such an end will follow it, as we had better be without it, even such a misery at the end, as will know no end of misery.
Let men therefore beware they rob not God of his glory, which he so much stands upon, least Satan by God's just permission, rob them of their souls, which they ought so much to stand upon.
Again secondly, if the Grace of God be the Fountain ftom which all our endowments flow, and that God may be honored by our gifts, is the only end of our injoying them; let us not so much as share with God in squinting one eye at Gods, and another at our own honor; Yea if God wil reward no Work, nor bless it with his Grace, unless it be intended to his glory: Let us direct all our thoughts, speeches, and actions to his glory, as he hath directed our Eternal Salvation thereunto: Let us make God the Alpha and Omega, the first and the last, of all our actions and endeavours; Let us add this to all our other gifts, that we give the glory of them to God: As what else should men propose for their end, then that glory which shal have no end? Yea let us with one unanimous voice say, He hath given us all the Grace and Happiness we have, and we wil give him all the possible thanks and honor we can; let it be our main request and daily prayer: Teach us, O Lord, to receive the benefit of thy merciful favours, and to return thee the thanks and the glory, and that for ever and ever. And so much of the Ends, which we are to propound to our selves in our beneficence; the lets and impediment: follow.