We ought not only to give thanks, but to be thankful, to meditate and study the praises of God. Om' whole life should be nothing else but a continual blessing of his holy name, endeavouring to bring in all we have, and to lay it out for God and his people, to see where he hath any receivers. Our goodness is nothing to God. We need bring no water to the fountain nor light to the sun. Thankfulness is full of invention, it de-saseth liberal things. Though it be our duty to be good stewards of our talents, yet thankfulness adds a lustre, and a more gi-acious acceptance, as having more of that which God calls for.
Our praising God should not be as sparks out of a flint, but as water out of a spring, natural, ready, free, as God's love to us is. Mercy pleases him, so should praise please us. It is our happiness when the best part in us is exercised about the best and highest work. It was a good speech of him that said. If God had made me a nightingale, I would have sung as a nightingale, but now God hath made me a man, I will sing forth the praises of God, which is the work of a saint only. ' All thy works bless thee, and thy saints praise thee,' Ps. cxlv. 10. All things are either blessings in their nature, or so blessed, as they are made blessings to us by the overruling command of him, who maketh all things serviceable to his. Even the worst things in this sense are made spiritual to God's people against their own nature. How great is that goodness^! which makes even the worst things good !
Little favours come from no small love, but even from the same love that God intends the greatest things to us ; and are pledges of it. The godly are more thankful for the least favours than worldly men for the greatest. ^The affection of the giver enhances the gift.
0 then let us labour to improve both what we have, and what we are, to his glory. It discovers that we love God, not only with all our understand- ing, heart, and affection, but, when with all our might and power, so far as we have advantage by any part, relation, or calling whatsoever, we endea- vour to do him service. We cannot have a greater honom* in the world, than to be honoured of God, to be abundant in this kind.
Our time here is short, and we shall all ere long be called to a reckoning ; therefore let us study real praises. God's blessing of us is in deed, and so should ours be of him. Thanks in words is good, but in deeds is better ; leaves are good, but fruit is better ; and of fruit, that which costs us most. True praise requires om- whole man, the judgment to esteem, the memory to treasm-e up, the will to resolve, the affections to delight, the tongue to speak of, and the life to express the rich favom-s of God. What can we think of ! what can we call to mind ! What can we resolve upon ! what can we speak ! What can we express in om- whole com-se better than the praises of him, ' of whom, and thi'ough whom, and to whom we and all things are !' Rom. xi. 36.
Our whole life should speak nothing but thankfulness ; every condition and place we are in should be a witness of our thankfulness. This will make the times and places we live in the better for us. ^A'Tien wc our- selves are monuments of God's mercy, it is fit we should be patterns of his praises, and leave monuments to others. We should think life is given us, to do something better than live in. We live not to live. Our life is not the end of itself, but the praise of the giver. God hath joined his glory and our happiness together. It is fit that we should refer all that is good
256 THE soul's conflict.
to his glory, that hath joined his glory to our best good, in being glorified in our salvation.
David concludes, that he should certainly praise God, because he had prayed unto him. Praj'ers be the seeds of praises. I have sown, there- fore I will reap. What we receive as a fruit of our prayers, is more sweet than what we have by a general providence.
Ohj. But how do we know that God hears our prayers ?
Ans. 1. If we regard them ourselves, and expect an issue. Prayer is a sure adventure. We may well look for a return.
2. It is a sign that God hath heard our prayers, when he stirs up thank- fulness aforehand upon assurance. Thankfulness cannot be without either the grace of God, by which we are thankful, or some taste of the things we are thankful for. God often accepts the prayer, when he doth not grant the thing, and will give us thereby occasion of thanksgiving for his wise care in changing one blessing for another fitter for us. God regards my prayers, when by prayer my heart is wrought to that frame which he requires, that is, an humble subjection to him, from an acknowledgment of my wants, and his fulness. There is nothing stirred up in our hearts by the Spirit, no, not so much as a gracious desire, but God will answer it, if we have a spirit to wait.