Excerpted from “A Sermon Preached on the Publick Thanksgiving”:
I shall only further observe here, That [because]
God can never be at a Loss to save his People,
1. Let us Love the Lord our Deliverer.
Should not Salvation from Ruin work a kindly Sense in every grateful Breast, and enflame our Heart with Love?
2. We should Love one another.
Should not they who share in the Mercy of a Common Deliverance, reckon themselves bound and endeared to one another, and obliged to mutual Kindness and Good Will? I dare venture to say upon this Occasion, It will never be well with the Nation, till Good Men of all Persuasions, have learnt to drop their private Resentments and Party Quarrels, and more closely unite in Affection and Interest.
3. We should live, to him, and improve the Mercies he has saved.
Render to the Lord according to his Benefits, in returns of Duty as well as Love and Praise. Improve the Mercies restored and spared; the Blessings saved from Ruin; the envied Happiness of our Civil Liberties and Sacred Opportunities. View them as rescued from the Power of our Enemies, and use them with Thankfulness to the best Advantage.
4. Trust him for the future.
Commit the Care of the Nation’s Welfare to the God of our Salvation, as well as of our own Souls. Trust him in every Trouble and Danger, who has so often appeared and eminently saved. Wait a good Issue of present Uneasiness and Disturbance, not presumptuous and secure but yet not discouraged and affrighted.
There seems to be a Swell of Water after the Storm, and the foaming Waves are not quite settled into a Calm. Look to him who stills the Noise of the Sea, and the Tumult of the People ; and can easily say to a raging Tempest,
Peace, be still.#Thanksgiving #writing #education #history #literature #Christian
