0 Christians, it highly concerns you to bear all your losses cheer- fully and thankfully, ' In everything give thanks,' saith the apostle ; ' for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus concerning you,' 1 Thes. v.
18. Chrysostom speaks excellently : i ' This,' saith he, ' is the very will of God, to give thanks always;' this argues a soul rightly instructed. Hast thou suffered any evil ? if thou wilt, it is no evil. Give thanks to God, and then thou hast turned the evil into good. Say thou as Job said when he had lost all, ' The Lord hath given, and the Lord hath taken away ; blessed be the name of the Lord.' What evil hast thou suffered ? What ! is it a disease ? This is no strange thing to us, seeing our bodies are mortal and naturally born to suffer. What ! dost thou want money ? this may be gotten here, and lost hei-e. What- soever evils or losses therefore do oppress thee, give thou thanks, and thou hast changed the nature of them. Job then did more deeply wound the devil, when, being stripped out of all, he gave thanks to God, than if he had distributed all to the poor and needy. For it is much more to be stripped of all, and yet to bear it patiently, generously, and thankfully, than for a rich man to give alms, as it here happened to righteous Job. But hath fire suddenly taken hold upon thy house, destroyed thy house, and consumed thy whole substance ? Remember the sufferings of Job. Give thanks to God, who could, though he did not, have hindered that mischance ; and thou shalt be sure to receive as equal a reward, as if thou hadst put all into the bosom of the in- digent. This he repeateth over again, and saith thy reward, being thankful, is equal to his who gave all he had to the poor. To wind up your hearts to thankfulness and cheerfulness under this late deso- lating judgment, consider (1.) God might have taken away all,2 It is good to bless him for what he has left, (2.) He has taken away more from others than he has taken away from you — ergo, be thankful.
^ Chrysost., torn. v. homil. 63,
' When a gentleman in Athens had his plate taken away by Ahashuerus, [?] as he was at dinner, he smiled upon his friends, saying, I thank God that iiis hiyhness hath Uft me anything. [A curious misprint apparently, for Alcibiades. Cf. Vol. 1. 348. — G.]
250 London's lamentations on [Isa. XLII. 24, 25.
(3.) You arc unwortliy of tlie least mercy, you deserve to be stripped of every mercy ; and therefore be thankful for anything tliat is left. God has a sovereign riglit over all you have, and might have stripj)ed you as naked as the day wherein you were born. (4.) God has left you better and greater mercies than any those were that he has stripped you of — viz., your lives, your limbs, your friends, your relations, yea, and the means of grace, which is better than all, and more than all otiier mercies — ergo, be thaidvful. (5.) The Lord has given those choice things to you, as shall never be taken from you — viz., himself, his 8on, his Spirit, which shall abide with you for ever ; his grace, which is an abiding seed; and his peace, which none can give to you nor take from you. — ergo, be thankful, though God has laid all your pleasant things desolate, John xvi. ; 1 John iii. 9. (6.) Thankfulness under crosses and losses, speak out nuich integrity and ingenuity of si)irit. Hypocrites and profane i)ersons are more apt to blaspheme than to bless a taking God — ergo, be thankful. The ancients say, Ingratum dixcris, omnia dixcris. Say a man is unthankful, and say he is any- thing. Ingratitude is a monster in nature, say some, a solecism in manners, a paradox in grace, damming up the course of donations divine and human. If there be any sin in the world against the Holy Ghost, said Queen Elizabeth in a letter to Henry the Fourth of France, it is ingratitude. The laws of Persia, Macedonia, and Athens, con- demned the ungrateful to death ; and unthankfulness may well be styled the epitome of vices. Ingratitude was so hateful to the Egyptians, that they used to make eunuchs of ungrateful persons, that no posterity of theirs might remain. Well, sirs, remember this, the best way to get much, is to be thankful for a little. God loves to sow much where he reaps mucli. Thankfulness for one mercy makes way for another mercy, as many thousand Christians have experienced. Tiie Lords impost for all his blessings is our thankfulness ; if we neglect to pay tliis impost, the commodity is forfeit, and so will take it back. Our returns must be according to our receipts. Good men should l)e like the bells, that ring as pleasantly at a funeral as at a wedding. They should be as thankful when it goes ill with them, as when it goes well with them. Cicero comi)lained of old that it was a hard thing to find a thankful man. Oh how hard a thing is it to find burnt citizens really, cordially, frequently, and j^ractically thank- ful that tliey are alive, that they are out of the grave, out of hell, and that yet they have bread to eat, and clothes to wear, though their habi- tations are laid in ashes, and all their pleasant things destroyed ! But, 8. The eighth duty that lies upon those who have been burnt up, is to keep in their hearts a constant remembrance of the late dreadful conflagration. God expects that his children should commemorate his judgments as well as his mercies. The sore judgment that God inflicted upon Sodom is mentioned thirteen times in the blessed Scrip- ture, and all to work us to mind it, and to abhor those sins that laid that city desolate, Isa. xxvi. 8, 9 ; Ps. cxix. 30, 120. The Lord looks that his people should keep up fresh in their memories such judgments that have been long before executed: Jer. vii. 12, ' Go to my ]>lacc which was in Shiloh, where I set my name at the first, and see what I (lid to it for the wickedness of my people.' The ark of old stood at
IsA. XLII. 24, 2o.] THE LATE FIEKY DISPENSATION. 251