her, Beer-lahai-roi, the well of him that liveth and looketh upon me, Gen. xvi. 13, 14.

They have ftamped the mercies upon the days in which they received them. Thus the Jews called those days in which God wrought their deliverance, Purim, after the name Pur, fignifying the lot Haman had caft for their lives; Efther ix. 26. Yea, they have called their mercies upon their children, 1 Sam. i. 20. Thus thankful fouls have striven to recognize their mercies, that God might not lose the praise, nor themselves the comfort of them.

Fifthly, The thankful perfon must be suitably affected with the mercies he receives. It is not a fpeculative, but an affectionate remem brance that becomes us: then God hath his glory, when the fenfe of his mercies melts our hearts into holy joy, love, and admiration. Thus David fits down before the Lord like a man astonished at his goodness to him; 2 Sam. vii. 20. "And what can David fay more? "for thou Lord knoweft thy servant." The mercies of God have made the faints hearts leap for joy within them: Pfal. xcii. 4 "Thou, Lord, haft made me glad through thy works; therefore " will I triumph in the works of thy hands." Mercies are not mer. cies, deliverances are not deliverances to us, if we that receive them are not glad of them.

Sixthly, The thankful perfon muft order his converfation fuitably to the engagements that his mercies have put him under. When we have faid all, it is the life of the thankful, that is the very life of thankfulness. Obedience and fervice are the only real manifeftations of gratitude. "He that offereth praise, glorifieth me: and to "him that ordereth his conversation aright, will I fhew the falvation " of God," Pfal. 1. 23. Set down this for an everlafting truth, That God was never praised and honoured by an abused mercy. God took it ill from Hezekiah, "That he rendered not again ac "cording to the benefit done unto him," 2 Chron. xxxii. 25. He that is truly thankful will fay as David, Pfal. cxvi. 12. "What fhall "I render to the Lord for all.his benefits?" We then glorify God with his mercies when we employ them to right ends, when we thankfully take our own share of comfort from them, receiving them with thanksgiving, as from the hand of a father. Mr Swinnock tells of a young man, who, lying upon his fick-bed, was always calling for meat; but as foon as it was brought him, he shook and trembled dreadfully at the fight of it, and fo continued till it was ta ken away; and before his death, acknowledged God's juftice, fo that in his health he ordinarily received his meat without thanksgiving. Use all God's mercies with thankfulness; God will remember them in fury, who forget him in his favours.

And think not what God beftows upon you is wholly for your own ufe: but honour God with your mercies by clothing the naked and

• Swinnock's Christian Man's Calling, page 409,

feeding the hungry, efpecially fuch as are godly. This is a due im provement of your eftates; thus you may make to yourfelves friends of the mammon of unrighteoufnefs. Ah, how little do we confider what praife, what glory we may occafion this way, from others, to the name of God! It is ftoried of * Dionyfius the Syracufian tyrant, that when he saw what heaps of gold and filver his fon horded up in his clofet, he asked him what he meant to let it lie there, and not to make friends with it, to get the kingdom after his death? O fon (faid he) thou haft not a fpirit capable of a kingdom. Thus honour the Lord with your fubftance; look upon all you have as your Master's talents, for which you must give an account: and to use and employ them for God, that you may give up your account with joy; and then you will fhew yourfelves thankful indeed. Thus you fee what is included in real thankfulness. O, it is another matter than we take it to be.

2. Next I promised to give you the grounds and reasons of this duty; why you are obliged after the reception of mercies to fuch a thankful return of praifes. And, among many, I will only fingle out thefe three, and briefly open them.

Firft, God requires and expects it. It is fo fpecial and peculiar a part of his glory, as he will never part with it. As great landlords oblige their tenants to a homage and fervice, when they make over their eftates to them, and referve a quit-rent to themfelves, which they value at a high rate; fo God, when he beftows deliverances of mercies upon us, ftill referves an acknowledgment to himself: and this is dear to him, he will not endure to be defrauded of it; much less that it be given to another. You find this reservation of praise exprefsly made by him in Pfal. 1. 15. "Call upon me in the day of

trouble, I will deliver thee, and thou shalt glorify me." Where you have the request, the grant, and the refervation in the grant, q. d. When I have granted thee thy defire, fee thou do not defrau d me of my glory. There be three things in every mercy, the matter of it, the comfort of it, and the glory of it. The two firft God makes over freely to us, he gives the mercies themselves, he allows us to fuck out all the lawful pleasure and delight that is in them; but the third he referves to himself, and will never part with it to any other. If an Hezekiah himself render not to God due acknowledgments, as well as God loves him, there fhall be great wrath upon him and Judah for the default, 2 Chron. xxxii. 26.

Secondly, You are under manifold engagements to render it to the Lord.

(1.) Common ingenuity obliges to a due acknowledgment of favours freely received; and unthankfulnefs on that score is the odium of mankind. Ingratum fi dicas, omnia dixeris. You cannot give a VOL. V.

3 G

*Fuflin, lib. 51.

man a more odious character among men, than to fay, He is an ungrateful man.

(2.) The examples of the very heathens will condemn you. They praised their gods, which yet were no gods, when they received any deliverance, Judges xvi. 24. Shall idols, dung-hill deities, receive their facrifices and praises, whilft the true God is forgotten?

Nay, (3.) Many of you have formally and exprefsly obliged your fouls to it, by folemn vows and promifes in the day of your diftrefs: and yet will you deal perfidiously with God? Will you not pay the vows which your lips have uttered? Certainly you can never free your fouls from the guilt of perfidiousness against God, whilst you give him not the glory due to his name.

3. Lastly, Your ingratitude is the ready way to deprive you of the mercies you have, and to with-hold from you the mercies you might have in your future diftreffes and wants. He that is ungrateful for mercies received, provokes God to remove them. Thus it fell out with ungrateful Ifrael, Hofea ii. 5, 8, 9. "She did not know, (i. e. "fhe did not with confideration and thanks duly acknowledge) "that I gave her corn, and wine, and oil. Therefore will I return, " and take away my corn in the time thereof, and my wine in the "feafon thereof; and will recover my wool and my flax." Thus they fuffered their mercies to lapfe into the Lord's hand for non-payment of their duties. If you are weary of your mercies, and willing to be rid of them, you cannot take a more effectual course than to forget from whom you had them, and with-hold his praife for them.

And then, for future mercies and deliverances, you have no ground to expect any more from God, whom you have thus requited for former favours. He that gives no thanks for one mercy, hath little ground to expect another. It was a fad word which God fpake upon this very provocation, Judg. x. 11, 12, 13. when a new distress befel Ifrael by the Ammonites, and they cried to the Lord for help, he tells them that he had many times delivered them from their enemies: "Yet (faith he) have you forfaken me, and served other gods. "Wherefore I will deliver you no more; go and cry to the gods "which ye have chofen, and let them deliver you in the time of "your tribulation." Q. d. With what face can you come to me for new mercies and deliverances, when yourselves know how former mercies have been abufed! Think ye that I am weary of my mercies to caft them away upon fuch unthankful wretches? No, expect no more mercies from nie, "I will deliver you no more." One of the fathers calls ingratitude, Obex infernalis, An hellish ftop, which interrupts the course and current of all God's mercies. Mercy is not only a precious thing, too good to be caft away, but it is a very tender thing, and God deeply refents the abuses of it. Thus you fee the grounds and reasons of your duty; it now remains that we apply it.

Ufe 1. Is it your unquestionable duty to return praises upon every receipt of mercies? Then, in the first place, bear your fhame and juft reproof for your manifeft unthankfulnefs. You dare not deny but you have received many fignal and eminent mercies from the hands of God. If you should deny that, I need go no farther to prove you prodigioufly ungrateful. But it is too manifeft to be denied: you have found God a very prefent help in trouble: his mercy hath often rescued you out of the jaws of death. Some of you have been in dangers in the deeps; in deaths oft: you have been put to your wit's end; all vifible hope and help failed. You might have faid with the Pfalmift, Pfal. cxiii. 4. "I looked upon my right " hand, and there was none; and upon the left, but refuge failed." You have seen your companions intombed before your eyes in the feas, and concluded in your own thoughts your turn was next. You have been in danger by barbarous enemie, that have chafed you upon the fea to make you a prey: yea, it may be you have been a prey to them, and never thought to have seen the land of your nativity, your houses, wives, and children, any more. You have languished under dangerous diseases, and that remote from friends and neceffary accommodations; you have loft your estates, and been reduced to a low ebb, and never thought to have seen a day of profperity any more: yet hath the Lord delivered you out of all your troubles. He hath provided unexpected means of prefervation, when the proud waters were ready to go over your fouls. And though others went down before your eyes, you were marked out for deliverance, God fpake to the raging waves, faying, Touch not this man, I will not deliver him up, though I have done fo by others. When cruel enemies chafed you, he delivered you, caufing the darkness of the night to interpofe seasonably betwixt you and them; as the dark fide of the cloud fhadowed Ifrael from the Egyptians that purfued them, Exod. xiv. 20. fometimes giving you a favourable gale, which blew mercy and deliverance to you: fometimes by ftrengthening you to resist their furious attacks, and delivering you from their rage: or if he delivered you into their hands, yet there he preferved you, enabling you to endure their feverities, or caufing the enemy to treat you well; and finding out a way which you knew not, to bring you at last out of the house of bondage.

He pitied you under your dangerous diseases; and though neceffary accommodations and means inight be wanting, he was your physician, and healed you; he recovered you immediately without means, or bleffed weak and fmall means to your good. When you were reduced by loffes and captivities to a low ebb, so that you might fay as the church, Lam. iii. 17. I forgat profperity; he hath not only recruited thy ftrength, but thy eftate alfo: and when both thy body and eftate, like an old leaky fhip, have been ready to fink, he hath ftopped the leaks in both, careened, repaired, and launched thee into the world again, as whole, as found, and as ftrong as ever.

And now, reader, fuffer me to account and expoftulate a little with thy confcience; what hath the fruit of all these mercies been to thee? And how haft thou carried it fince those days, towards the God of thy mercies? Haft thou indeed been melted by the fense of all this kindness, into love, thankfulnefs, and new obedience? Have these favours engaged thee to more ftrictnefs in thy duties, and greater watchfulness against fin? Haft thou faid, with that good man, Ezra ix. 13, 14. "And now my God, feeing thou haft punished me lefs "than mine iniquities deferve, and haft given me fuch deliverances as "thefe, fhould I again break thy commandments?" If it be fo, furely nercy and goodness fhall follow thee all the days of thy life. The Lord then reckons all thefe mercies well beftowed, and will never repent that he hath done thee good.

But I fear this is not thy cafe. Sure I am, there are some among you that have quickly forgotten the God that delivered you. Some that have abufed him to his face, by afcribing his mercies to good luck, chance, and fortune; not once owning him as your deliverer. And fome that have made his mercies weapons of fin, to wound him with al, wafting your eftates by prodigality, which were given to refresh your families, and God's poor; yea, abufing them to drunkenness and luxury. And is this the thanks you return him? For which of all my good works (faith Chrift to the Jews) do you ftone me? So fay I, for which of all God's kindneffes to you, do you thus difhonour, and abufe him? O let fhame cover your faces this day! Go, reader, fold down this leaf, and get thee to thy knees, and fay, I am the man to whom this reproof is fent. I have abused the God of my mercies, I have turned his grace into wantonnefs. Smite with Ephraim upon thy thigh, and fay, What have I done? Mourn heartily for thy unkindness to thy best friend, "The God that hath done thee good all "thy life long, and deferves other returns from thee than these."

Ufe 2. Lafly, It calls upon you all to be thankful for your mercies. Chryfoftom once wifhed for a voice like thunder, that all men might hear him. O that I could fo call you to this duty, that fome of you might effectually hear God's call in this exhortation!

Will you own the hand that delivers you, that feeds, clothes, and heals you? Will you refolve to live the life of praife, and render to the Lord according to the benefits you have received? Will you indeed walk humbly, and thankfully, under all your deliverances, and fucceffes, and glorify God by that wherewith he hath comforted and refreshed you? If there be any faving knowledge of God, and fpiritual fenfe of his love in your fouls, methinks I should prevail with you; for do but weigh thefe following arguments ferioufly, and they will engage you to it.

Argument 1. How freely have all your mercies ftreamed to you from the fountain of grace? There was nothing in you to engage it. The very notion of mercy includes freenefs; they are all bettowed upon us, not only as we are immerentes, but male merentes, undeferving,