Jam. 1. 17. the fole entire Object of his Obedience and Gratitude, ftill finging a Quid retribuam Domino? What fball I render unto the Lord? (my fecond part now in order to be confidered) Quid habes quod non accepifti? What 1 Cor. baft thou which thou haft not received? and if 4.7. lif thou haft received it,Why boafteft thou as if thou badft not received it? No man can receive any John 3. thing, except it be given him from above. E-27. very good and perfect Gift is from above, and cometh down from the Father of Lights. Origo fontium & fluminum omnium Mare; Virtutum, Dominus, faith holy Bernard; As all Waters come from the Sea: So all Graces and Bleffings flow from God, and are derived.unto us from that boundless Ocean of all good. Si quis callet ingenio, fi quis nitet eloquio, fi quis moribus placet, inde eft; faith the fame Father: Art thou rarely furnished with the rich treafures of Learning and Knowledg? or grac'd with volubility of Speech and Elocution? Art thou powerful in attracting the Eys and Affections of Men by thy graceful Deportment and winning Behaviour? "Tis-all from him. He all-fufficient, and lacking nothing, powreth down on us a rich and Pl. 145. 16. and plentiful fupply of all things. He openeth his band, and filleth every thing living with plenteousness. And therefore, as all Springs and Fountains of Water have their fecret and fubterraneous paffages, through which unceffantly they run into the Seas; that thence again they may return in their perennal offices and courfes for our use and commodity; Why fhould not the fpiritual Rivers too (I mean the Gifts and Graces of the Mind) be refunded and delivered back again, without ftop or intermiffion, in the full and faithful currents of Praise and Thanksgiving, unto their proper Head and Fountain; that thence again they may never furceafe to water and make fruitful the fields of our Souls. In all things then let us give Thanks, and ftill return all Bleffings and Benefits unto his Praife and Glory, from whofe grace and favour they have been derived. In all things (faid I) let us give Thanks? All giving of Thanks is not acceptable before God. Read we not of the Pharisee in the Gofpel, and of the form of his Thanksgiving? how he ftood up most pertly, and prayed, prayed, and gave God Thanks, that he was Luk. 18. not like other Men, Extortioners, Unjust, 13. Adulterers, or like the Publican that stood afar off; he fafted twice in the Week, and paid Tithes of all that he poffefs'd? But fee the up-fhot,and mark the Censure the infallible Judg pafs'd upon him,I tell you (faith Chrift) this man (that is,the poor Publican) went home juftified rather than he. His Thanksgiving was so far off from being accepted with God,that it was utterly rejected as most abominable. What fayeft thou, proud Pharifee? Art thou not like other Men? Art thou no Extortioner, in the first place? I fay thou art,and in the very denial thereof thou granteft it; for whereas thou crackest and boastest of thy Purity and Holiness,and glorifieft thy felf so much in thine own Works and Worth,thou provest thy self an Extortioner, and a notorious one too; for thou wrestest and extortest the Glory from God, of which he hath faid, He will not Elay 48. give it to another. Nay,read we not of many more befide the Pharifee, who as much mistake the Fountain and first Original of all the Bleffings and BeC nefits II. : Hof. 2. 9. nefits they receive? In the first of Habak- ftill Dan. 4. ftill fixed and terminated on God, the other on our Selvs, or fome fecondary Agent. Therefore both devoutly framed,and rightly levell'd, was that Confeffion of the Church, Efay 26. 12. Omnia opera noftra operatus es tu Domine; All our works haft thou wrought in us,0 Lord: and therefore, Non nobis; Not unto us, O Lord, but unto thy Name, be the Praife. Now the falfe Honour hath ftill fome fubordinate Agent or fecondary Means for its Object; thus Nebuchadonofor vaunts himfelf in the height and Tropick of his Pride, faying of Babylon, Is not this great Babylon that I have built, for the houfe of the Kingdom, 30. by the Might of my Power,and for the Honour of my Majefty? Thus Sampfon arrogantly ufurpeth God's honour,faying, With the Jaw-bone Jud. 15. of an Afs, heaps upon heaps; with the Faw-bone 16. of an Afs have I flain a thousand men. What was the Lord's doing alone,and fhould have been the more wonderful in his Eys, he most arrogantly challengeth to himself. Thus, as it is in the 10 of Efay, verse 15, the Hatchet and the Saw magnifie themselvs against the Workman, when fecondary Means rob the firft Agent of his Honour. Thus (in a word). C 2 every |