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Published online by Cambridge University Press: 15 July 2022
The Beauty of Gratitude. Its principal Causes. Amity and Communion the great effect of its Nature. The true Character of a Grateful Person. GOD's Incommunicable Attributes enjoyed by Gratitude. All Angels and Men are a Grateful Person's Treasures, as they assist him in Praises. He sacrifices all Worlds to the Deity, and supreamly delighteth to see him sitting in the Throne of Glory.
GOD having prepared the way to Gratitude by infusing generous and noble Principles into the Soul, beautified the Exercise of it by divers other provisions, that conspire to make it amiable and delightful. By the one he made it Possible, by the other desirable.
ONE of the greatest ornaments of this Vertue, is the Grateful Sence of Benefits received: For in it the Felicity of the Receiver consisteth; on it his Grateful behaviour dependeth; by it he is made Grateful, or Acceptable; and it is one of the great Ends intended in the Gift bestowed by the Donor, whose Satisfaction ought to be regarded highly by every honest and worthy Receiver. That Grateful Sence is the crown of the Gift, the Light wherein its Beauty appears, the Temple of its Honour as it were, the Womb wherein it is conceived, and findeth its life and value perfected.
SHOULD we stand upon the Explication of these, we should have little room for the Fruits and Effects of Gratitude, which are the principal things intended in this Chapter. But in short you may take this account. The greatest Benefits we can receive, are but Abortive, or rather turned into Curses, without a Grateful acknowledgment of them: All Gifts are but Carkasses devoid of Life, unless inspired with that Sence, which maketh them Delightful. For as Causes without Effects are not Causes; so Blessings, if they Bless not, are falsely reputed Blessings. No Benefit can be Blessings, unless they are crowned with our Complacency. They must be conceived the Mind before they can be transformed into Joyes before they can produce those Praises which are the musick of the Benefactors Soul, as well as of the Receivers. They are not conceived, unless they are quickened with the Life of the Receiver, not are they reputed Blessings, till they are had in Reputation.
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