Speculum Gratitudinis; OR, David's Thankfulness UNTO GOD FOR All His Benefits.  
Expressed in a Sermon on the 29th of May, 1664. being Whitsunday, and the Day of the happy Birth and Return of our Gracious KING, CHARLES the Second.  
By John Kerswel, B. D. and Rector of Goddington in Oxford-shire.  Psal. 103.1, 2. 
Praise thou the Lord, O my Soul, and all that is within me praise his holy Name.  
Praise thou the Lord, O 〈◊〉 Soul, and forget not all his Benefits.  Seek for an apt and convenient time to be at leisure to thyself, and meditate often on God's Benefits and Blessings. Tho. a Kempis, of the Imitation of Christ, l. 1. c. 20. 
London, Printed for the Author, 1665.   

TO THE Noble and Learned Gentleman JAMES HYDE, Doctor in Physic, and Principal of Magdalen-Hall in OXON.  
Honoured Sir,  
THe learned Stoic wisely perpending the right way of receiving Good-turns, with the just reddition and return of them in suitable Gratitude, resembles it to a Game at Tennis; where, though it be a considerable part of the Play to receive the Ball with agility and skill, nevertheless (saith Seneca) N●● dicitur bonus lusor, 
De benefic. l. 2. Ep. 32.  nisi qui apt & expedite pilam remiserit quam exceperat; None deserves the commendation of a good Gamester, unless he send it back again with equal vigour and dexterity. Whereupon out of an unfeigned sensibleness of your respective kindness, and ever obliging courtesies, I began to consider, how I might serram reciprocare, and give some reciprocal testimony of those manifold respects I owe you; the which in my weak judgement I conceived I could not more seasonably perform, than in a Subject or Argument of Gratitude, to which I have at present taken the boldness to give myself the Honour to prefix your Name; which if you design favourably to accept, I have all I aimed at, and shall ever acknowledge myself  
Your most obliged Friend and Servant J. K.   
Psal. 116.12. 
What shall I render unto the Lord for all his Benefits towards me?  
CRosses and Losses, Persecutions and Afflictions, as they are, for the most part, the lot and portion of the Righteous; so are they the lists and theaters too, wherein to exercise their Graces, to win the greater honour unto themselves, and a nearer alliance with God. As in our material Building the Timber and Stones can have no suitable place, until the Skilful Artificer hath throughly hewn, cut, and squared them: Even so in that spiritual and heavenly Building, (not made with hands) we cannot be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, 
1 Pet. 2.5.  quick and Living Stones, unless we be first hewn, cut, and squared (as it were) with sundry tribulations and afflictions. Again, as in the one, the greatest and goodliest piece of Timber endures the greatest stress, as being most entrusted and charged with the weight and burden of the Building: So likewise in that other, it pleaseth God ofttimes to lay the hardest pressure, and heaviest weight of affliction and misery, upon his best Saints, and most dearly beloved Children. But, Why doth he so? Why doth he most afflict, and lay his hand heaviest on, those that are nearest and dearest unto him? St. Austin will resolve this Question; Ideo justi premuntur (saith he) ut pressi clament, clamantes exaudiantur: To no other end and purpose doth God suffer his untainted joseph's and spotless daniel's to be fling into pits and prisons, dens and dungeons of deepest calamity, than that they should de profundis clamare, from those depths call and cry unto him, and in his good time find relief and enlargement from him.  
If we look back, and reflect our thoughts a while on the primitive World, see we may the hands of a cruel and accursed Cain mercilessly butchering his innocent Brother Abel:  
Fraterno primi maduerunt sanguine muri.  
And looking but a little further, we may descry an Esau's feet swiftly posting on in the revengeful pursuit of his Brother Jacob. If there be an Elijah, a Prophet, and Man of God, there will soon start up a Jezebel, a Daughter of Belial, fiercely to persecute him: If an Amos, an Amaziah, to proscribe and banish him the Court; and if a David, a Saul too, to toss him and hunt him to and fro like a Partridge in the Mountains. But, Non si male nunc & olim, sic erit semper; The Heavens are not always overcast with sackcloth and darkness, 'twill doubtless in time clear up again, when the Sun shall recompense his former absence with a more grateful approach. Heaviness may endure for a night, but joy cometh in the morning: The rod of the ungodly, though it fall, yet shall it not rest upon the righteous; and albeit many and manifold be their troubles, yet in time the Lord delivereth them out of all, and encompasseth them about with songs of deliverance, as he did Royal David in this place.  
The Psalm is wholly gratulatory, wherein the Prophetical King, and Kingly Prophet, and sweet Singer of Israel, doth solemnly commemorate and chant forth not only the several Blessings and Benefits which Almighty God had conferred on him, but those imminent and apparent dangers also, which with a mighty Hand and outstretched Arm he had secured him from.  
The Text consisteth of three general parts. 

1. David's Gratitude or Thankfulness; What shall I render?  
2. The Object thereof, or Person to whom he is about to address himself, and that is, The Lord.  
3. The Motives or Inducements thereunto, All his Benefits. [What shall I render unto the Lord for all his Benefits towards me.]    
Of these in their order. And first of  
David's Gratitude or Thankfulness; Quid retribuam? What shall I render?  
God never gives a good Man a single or solitary Blessing, but at the same time makes him as well thankful as happy: Hence we read of Altars erected and built by Noah, Abraham, and other Patriarches and holy Men of Old, as Monuments of their dutiful Gratitude unto God for Blessings lately received by them. How cheerfully did Moses and Miriam sing Praises unto God, for their miraculous Deliverance from Pharaoh, 
Exod. 14.  and his Host? The like did Barak and Deborah in their triumphant 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, for saving them out of the hands of Jabin and Sisera: 
Judg. 5.  yea, thus it is for the most part with the Israel of God, whose safety he 〈◊〉 willing to make, in a manner, as evident as his Power, gaineth the height of his Praise from the depth of their Misery. Thou hast delivered my Soul from death, mine Eyes from tears, and my Feet from falling, at the 8th verse of this Psalm, whereupon there follows at the 12th, a Quid retribuam? What shall I render? God delivers David from death, and other dangers, and David straightway delivers himself from Ingratitude; for he gives Thanks unto the Lord: He gives Thanks, (I say) whilst in a serious and solemn Quaery he prepares them; and whilst he doth confess his Debt, he pays it. Which payment by words is not more easy than true, it being a Gift which both accompanies a Blessing, and is One. And this society of Blessings our Understanding may observe, even in those things which are without understanding: The Doves, at every grain they pick, look upward, as giving Thanks: the Jewel, which is illustrated by the Sunbeams, coloureth the beams: and the Earth which receiveth moisture from the Sky, repays it back again in vapours and exhalations; and each good Tree returns Thanks, as it were, for its goodness, by its fruitfulness: yea, the very Rocks and Stones, which receive a sound from the Air, (before it be fully given) return it by an Echo. No marvel then, if holy David show himself so solicitous and inquisitive about some Boon or Gift to present his Lord withal. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, saith Saint Basil; He is in a million of scrupulous Expostulations and Queries within himself, about that matter. But after all search and inquest made, he finds 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, All too little, and below the worth of such a Benefactor.  
Quid retribuam? What shall I render? He saith not here, Quid tribuam simply; What shall I give? But Quid retribuam? What shall I give back? Acknowledging that all which he possessed he first received from God. Domini est terra, & plenitudo ejus; The earth is the Lord's, 
Psal. 24.  and the fullness thereof; and so are the  upon a thousand hills, We are but Usu-fructuaries, and Tenants at Will; if perhaps for a while we enjoy the possession of things, howbeit the propriety is none of ours: So that none of us all can give deproprio; retribuere, render up only, and give back, we may. Which again Royal David most emphatically and amply acknowledged, in his Eucharistical Solemnity and Stupendious Preparations for the building of the Temple, saying; Thine, O Lord, is Greatness, and Power, and Glory, and Victory, and Praise; for all that is in Heaven and Earth is thine: Thine is the Kingdom, O Lord, and thou excellest as Head over all. 
1 Chron. 29.11, 12, 13, 14, 16.  Now therefore, our God, we thank thee, and praise thy glorious Name. But who am I? and what are my People? that we should be able to offer willingly after this sort? for all things come of thee, and of thine own hand have we given thee. O Lord our God, all this abundance that we have prepared to build thee an House for thine holy Name, is of thine own hand, and all is thine. Where our Royal Prophet seems almost as much taken up in preparing Materials for the Temple of the Lord, as in pouring out Blessings, and accumulating Praises, unto the Lord of the Temple.  
I have read that an Echo was held by Pythagoras in such sacred and reverend Estimation, that he even adored it as some admirable and divine thing; especially if there were any wind up and stirring at the production thereof. An Echo now, we know, is but the multiplication or reflection of some sound or other, occasioned through the Refraction of the Air in some hollow opposite place (as the Philosopher describes it) or as the Wise man calls it, 
Wisd. 17.19.  The rebounding Echo of the hollow Mountains. Which Philosophical conceit, (or rather Poetical Fiction) is by Franciscus Georgius thus drawn into a Moral. Seeing that (saith he) Man was made at the Word of God's command, and proceeded from him as some sacred Blast or heavenly Breath (for, inspiravit in faciem ejus, & fecit animam viventem, he breathed on him, and so made him a living Soul) tunc redit vox flante vento, quando gratia reflectitur in Deum, quantum potest; then (saith he) our Voice, Echo-like, returns in a gentle Blast and sweet Rebound, when we sacrifice unto the Lord with the voice of Thanksgiving, and our tongues resould with his Praises. 
Ps. 107.  O that men would therefore praise the Lord for his goodness, and declare the wonders that he doth for the children of men! That (invited and excited by Royal David's example) they would sacrifice unto him the Sacrifice of Thanksgiving, and show forth all his Praise! that they would not so far degenerate, as to suffer themselves to be outgone in point of Gratitude by the dumb Creatures! for even the Ox knoweth his Owner, and the Ass his Master's Crib: 
Esay 1.3.  and the Storks both feed and carry the old ones that brought them forth. Many Stories tell us likewise of grateful Lions, kind Eagles, and trusty Dogs, qui etiam mori pro dominis, that are ready to die for and with their Masters, as Saint Ambrose hath observed.  
But come we now to Men, and oh! what Ingratitude and Unkindness we presently meet with there: Joash remembered not the kindness of Jehoiada: 
2 Chron. 24. Gen. 23. Luk. 17.15.  The chief Butler quickly forgot Joseph; and of ten Lepers that were cleansed, there returned but one to offer his Thanks.  
Hereupon the Lord was so highly incensed against degenerate and ingrateful Israel, that he summoned heaven and earth to testify against them. 
Esay 1.2.  Hear, O ye Heavens, and hearken, O earth, (saith he) I have nourished and brought up Children, but they have rebelled against me. And again, They forgot God their Saviour which had done so great things for them in Egypt, they remembered not his hand: 
Psal. 78. Hos. 13.6.  for when they were filled, their heart was exalted. As the Mule having sucked to the full, presently flingeth at the Dam; so Jesurun waxed fat and kicked; 
Den. 32.15.  he forsook the Lord that made him, and lightly esteemed the Rock of his Salvation. How beit 'tis otherwise with our Royal Prophet here, who never baulks the fountain of living Waters for Cisterns, broken Cisterns which hold no water; rightly making his only Lord and Maker the sole entire Object of his Obedience and Gratitude, still singing a Quid retribuam Domino? What shall I render unto the Lord? (my second part now in order to be considered) Quid habes quod non accepisti? 
1 Cor. 4.7.  What hast thou which thou hast not received? and if thou hast received it, Why boastest thou as if thou hadst not received it? 
John 3.27. Jam. 1.17.  No man can receive any thing, except it be given him from above. Every good and perfect Gift is from above, and cometh down from the Father of Lights. Origo fontium & fluminum omnium Mare; Virtutum, Dominus, saith holy Bernard; As all Waters come from the Sea: So all Graces and Blessings flow from God, and are derived unto us from that boundless Ocean of all good. Si quis callet ingenio, si quis nitet eloquio, si quis moribus placet, inde est; saith the same Father: Art thou rarely furnished with the rich treasures of Learning and Knowledge? or graced with volubility of Speech and Elocution? Art thou powerful in attracting the Eyes and Affections of Men by thy graceful Deportment and winning Behaviour? 'Tis all from him. He all-sufficient, and lacking nothing, poureth down on us a rich and plentiful supply of all things. He openeth his hand, and filleth every thing living with plenteousness. And therefore, as all Springs and Fountains of Water have their secret and subterraneous passages, through which uncessantly they run into the Seas; that thence again they may return in their perennal offices and courses for our use and commodity; Why should not the spiritual Rivers too (I mean the Gifts and Graces of the Mind) be refunded and delivered back again, without stop or intermission, in the full and faithful currents of Praise and Thanksgiving, unto their proper Head and Fountain; that thence again they may never surcease to water and make fruitful the fields of our Souls.  
In all things than let us give Thanks, and still return all Blessings and Benefits unto his Praise and Glory, from whose grace and favour they have been derived.  
In all things (said I) let us give Thanks? All giving of Thanks is not acceptable before God. Read we not of the Pharisee in the Gospel, and of the form of his Thanksgiving? how he stood up most pertly, and prayed, and gave God Thanks, 
Luk. 18.13.  that he was not like other Men, Extortioners, Unjust, Adulterers, or like the Publican that stood afar off; he fasted twice in the Week, and paid Tithes of all that he possessed? But see the upshot, and mark the Censure the infallible Judge passed upon him, I tell you (saith Christ) this man (that is, the poor Publican) went home justified rather than he. His Thanksgiving was so far off from being accepted with God, that it was utterly rejected as most abominable. What sayest thou, proud Pharisee? Art thou not like other Men? Art thou no Extortioner, in the first place? I say thou art, and in the very denial thereof thou grantest it; for whereas thou crackest and boastest of thy Purity and Holiness, and glorifiest thyself so much in thine own Works and Worth, thou provest thyself an Extortioner, and a notorious one too; for thou wrestest and extortest the Glory from God, of which he hath said, 
Esay 48.11.  He will not give it to another.  
Nay, read we not of many more beside the Pharisee, who as much mistake the Fountain and first Original of all the Blessings and Benefits they receive? In the first of Habakkuk, at the 15 and 16 Verses, we meet with the Nimrods' of the Earth, who when they took up all with the Angle, and catched it in their Net, and gathered it in their Yarn; they then Sacrificed to their Net, and burnt Incense to their Yarn, as if by them their Portion became fat, and their Food plentiful. That is, They flattered themselves, and gloried in their own Wit and Strength, as if thereby they had gotten all their Victories, with increase of Wealth, and Honour, and what not? and so they rob God of his Glory. In requital of the like Ingratitude, when superstitions People, in the time of Hosea, ascribed unto their Lovers, (that is, to their Idols) the gift of their Bread and Wine, Corn and Oil, Wool and Flax, Silver and Gold; then Almighty God returned in high displeasure, and took away his Corn in the time thereof, and his Wine in the season thereof, 
Hos. 2.9.  and recovered his Wool and his Flax, which he had lent them for a time to cover their nakedness withal. The right Praise and Thanksgiving indeed is always distinguished from the Pharisaical and false Honour, by the Object: The one being still fixed and terminated on God, the other on our Selus, or some secondary Agent. Therefore both devoutly framed, and rightly levelled, was that Confession of the Church, Esay 26.12. Omnia opera nostra operatus es tu Domine; All our works hast thou wrought in us, O Lord: and therefore, Non nobis; Not unto us, O Lord, but unto thy Name, be the Praise. Now the false Honour hath still some subordinate Agent or secondary Means for its Object; thus Nebuchadonosor vaunts himself in the height and Tropic of his Pride, saying of Babylon, Is not this great Babylon that I have built, 
Dan. 4.30.  for the house of the Kingdom, by the Might of my Power, and for the Honour of my Majesty? Thus Samson arrogantly usurpeth God's honour, saying, 
Jud. 15.16.  With the Jawbone of an Ass, heaps upon heaps; with the Jawbone of an Ass have I slain a thousand men. What was the Lord's doing alone, and should have been the more wonderful in his Eyes, he most arrogantly challengeth to himself. Thus, as it is in the 10 of Esay, verse 15, the Hatchet and the Saw magnify themselves against the Workman, when secondary Means rob the first Agent of his Honour. Thus (in a word) every foolish and vainglorious Person exalteth himself, and, like an empty Scale, quickly mounts upwards; whereas the Wise man, like the fuller and weightier one, still inclines downward in all Humility, making it the greatest Argument of his sufficiency, to disclaim all Selfsufficiency, and his highest Perfection, to confess his Imperfections; and thus, with our Royal Prophet here, he maketh God (as in all Right and Reason he ought) to be the proper Object of his Praise and Thanksgiving.  
And so from the Object of David's Thankfulness, I proceed to his Motives or Inducements thereunto, God's Benefits; All his Benefits towards him. [What shall I render to the Lord for all his Benefits towards me?]  
Chrysostom, in his Comment on Galat. 2. thus magnifieth the boundless Bounty of Almighty God, 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉. He prosecuteth each individual person with no less measure of Affection than he doth the whole Universe. And those Benefits which I, Thou, He, (in a word) All of us, receive from him, we receive them not dimidiated, or by halfs, minced or cut into parcels; but so perfect, entire, and complete, that each one in particular may take and interpret them as conferred on himself alone: For, Do not all the celestial Orbs and elementary Bodies? Do not those predominant and greater Lights, the Sun, and Moon, and whole Choir of heavenly Tapers, dispense and impart their comfortable Light and sweet Influences alike to this sublunary and inferior World? There's no singular Person, or single Creature, (if capable) but hath the same Interest and Share in them, which all (collectively) participate and enjoy. Now, if the Proportion of these, all these Benefits be taken with reference to us, who without him are very Nothing, and Vanity itself; we must confess, with the forecited Father, 
Chrisostom.  that there is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, and that they are far greater than the narrow Scantling of our hearts can conceive or imagine.  
First, He hath created us, and into such dead Clods of Clay as we were, hath he inspired the Breath of Life, and fashioned us after his own Image; which bright and glorious Image of His, we wretched Creatures, with our Works of Darkness, have most abominably defaced, and cast our selus headlong into the bottomless-pit of Eternal Destruction. Then when we lay weltering and polluted in our Blood, 
Ezek. 16.5, 6.  and no Ey pitied or had compassion on us, He passed by, and saw us when we were in our Blood, and said unto us, Live: yea, when we were in our Blood, He said unto us, Live. Then when we were not able to come unto him, he came unto us, and that when we were his greatest Enemies, and through the singular Wisdom of his Goodness stole into our Affections: For, seeing how that naturally we were addicted and given to love our selus, and the things which were our own, he would needs hereupon become our God also, that so we might, in a manner, be compelled to love him. O the Bowels of Compassion! O Love, never to be forgotten! O Clemency, Mercy, Goodness, incomprehensible! Wonderful, wonderful, wonderful must this needs seem: For, whereas Angels, Arch-Angels, and such an innumerable Multitude of celestial Powers and Spirits love their God so ardently, do him all Homage so willingly, and execute his Behests so faithfully; He nevertheless, as less regarding all this, expects to be loved and entertained of us Men, of us terrene, abject, and ungrateful Wretches. Wherefore he bowed the Heavens, and came down, and was incarnate for our Sake, for our Love. Thus much hath a most glorious infinite Majesty done gratis, for very Nothing: Thus much hath a most merciful Father, and Lord of all things, done for those which were far worse than nothing, when he might, in his Justice, in the Breath of his Displeasure have blasted us, and resolved us again into our primordial Elements, and very Nothing itself. If we, for his sake, resign up our very Being itself, than which naturally nothing is more near and dear unto us, alas! What do we? We offer him the poorest Offerture, and nothing but what was his own before, and that by far more and greater Right than our own. Numisma Caesaris Imago, Homo Dei: The Coin bears the Stamp and Inscription of Caesar the King; but Man, the Similitude and Impress of God, the King of Kings. Red ergo, 
Mat. 22.21. — Render therefore unto Caesar the things that belong unto Caesar, and to God the things that are God's; for both are their Due. Neither hath he created us alone, but all other things for our Use and Commodity. Look but up to Heaven, and that gives thee Light, by the Ministry of the Sun by Day, of the Moon and Stars by Night, that thou walk not in Darkness; that sends thee down those sweet Influences, whereby divers things spring up and grow, that thou perish or die not through Famine. The Air, that doth accommodate itself for thee to breath on, that cools thee, tempers that internal Heat of thine, lest it should consume thee. The Water servs thee with Rain, with soft and seasonable Showers, and with her silver Drops, in set and seasonable time, doth crown thy Field; with goodness. The Earth, as our common Mother (methinks) speaks thus to each one in particular: Behold, I sustain thee; I, like a Mother, bear thee in mine Arms; all necessaries I provide for thee: I maintain thee with the very fruit of mine own Bowels: Whether in Life or Death, I never forsake thee; in thy Life-time I suffer thee to tread and trample on me with thy Feet; after Death I afford thee a place of Rest; I entomb thee in mine own Bowels. Neither hath his Love unto us here been terminated and shut up: He hath not only made us, and all other things for our use and service, but he hath gone on and continued still his Mercy towards us, by preserving us too, ever since we were born, nay, before ever we drew in this common Air: 
Ps. 139.16.  His Eyes were upon us in our Mother's Womb, when as yet our Substance was imperfect, and all our Members in continuance were fashioned, when as yet there was none of them: And he hath all this while been content to stay for Thanks, until by the leisure of Nature our Understandings have been made as capable of his Blessings as our Bodies were, and yet, all this while, we have paid him nothing; Nothing (I am sure) as we should; nothing as we ought. His Mercies are renewed every Morning (saith the Prophet) yea, 
L●m. ●. 2●.  every Moment: We move not a Foot which he moveth not; we neither open nor shut an Ey without his especial help. Neither is here yet a Period of his Love unto us. He hath freely given us his holy Word and Sacraments to sanctify, nourish, and preserve our Souls unto Life everlasting. 
Ps. 147.20.  He hath not dealt so with many other Nations, neither have the Heathen knowledge of his Laws; yea, as though that were yet too little, he hath given us his only begotten Son, and with him all things; even that Gift of Gifts, his blessed Spirit of Grace, and holy Unction, on this day of Pentecost.  
In our Creation Christ gave us Ourselus; In our Redemption he gave us Himself, thereby restoring us to ourselus: Therefore, thus given at the first, and restored again when we had lost our selus, we owe our selus for our selus, and owe our selus twice. But now, What shall we repay unto the Lord for Himself? Though we could repay Our Selus ten thousand times, What are we in comparison of Christ the Son of God? So then, though we had as many Lives to spend as Drops of Blood to shed, we could never recompense his Love.  
There is yet behind another Redemption, not to be balked or passed over in silence, and that's from Domestic Usurpation and Tyranny, by the miraculous Restauration of his Sacred Majesty CHARLES the Second; the best of Kings; the Father of his Country; the Extinguisher of Tyranny; the Restorer of Liberty; and the Founder of Tranquillity; at whose joyful and victorious Approach, Rebellion and Usurpation, with their horrid Attendant Confusion, are chased away, and Concord and Loyalty recalled in their room.  
If the Lord had not been on our side (may England now say) If the Lord himself had not been on our side (may his late afflicted Church say) and had he not turned our Captivity as the Rivers in the South, we had till this time gone on our way weeping and sowing in Tears, despairing ever of a joyful Harvest, and of bringing our Sheaus with us. But blessed be God, who hath not wholly given us over as a Prey unto our Enemies, but hath plucked us, at the last, as a Firebrand out of the Fire. Blessed be God, who hath directed the heart of a most sagacious and faithful Counsellor (much like to another Hushai, or Nehemiah) to contrive the happy means, and pave the way, for our Deliverance. Blessed be God, who hath stirred up the Spirit of a prudent and magnanimous Chieftain (like a second Moses or Cyrus) to effect it, and bring it to pass, by rescuing us out of those miserable Calamities and Distractions which we so long groaned under, and by restoring us to our ancient Freedom, with all the just Rights and Immunities thereof.  
Tell me, O ye Redeemed of the Lord, ye that yet stand amazed at the strangeness of your Deliverance; Tell me, Men and Brethren, and all that hear me this day, How can we sufficiently aestimate, or worthily prize so rich a Blessing? What Return shall we make unto the Lord for This, and all other his Mercies, the Number whereof is numberless, and their Measure beyond all measure? Assuredly, render something we must; for this is the Nature and Property of Him, who is Optimus Maximus, our best and greatest Benefactor, who openeth his hand, and filleth every thing living with his Goodness, and giveth us all things richly to enjoy. 
1 Tim. 6.17.  That as in conferring Benefits he is most liberal and free; so is he likewise a most just and severe Exacter of his ordinary Tribute of Thanks: Not because he any ways stands in need of any thing from us; (for, if thou be righteous, 
Job 35.7.  what givest thou Him? or what receiveth he at thine hand?) but because it is his most just and lawful Due, he demands it; requiring the Reciprocation and Return of our Duties for our own Good and Benefit, and not for any Advantage of his.  
Then let our Mouth (as holy David exciteth us) be filled with thy Praise all the Day long, O Lord. What is that (saith devout St. Austin) All the Day long; but without intermission? In prosperis, quia consolaris; in adversis, quia corrigis; antequam essemus, quia fecisti; cùm essemus, quia salutem dedisti, etc. In prosperity, because thou comfortest us; in adversity, because thou chastisest us; before we were, because thou created'st us; when we were, because thou preserved'st us; when we had sinned, because thou forgavest us; when we turned unto thee, because thou drawed'st us; and if we persevere, because thou wilt crown us.  
Thus, even thus, let our Mouth be filled with thy Praise all the Day long, O Lord, and without intermission; and let us, with our Prophet here, express the manner of our Thanksgiving: Let us take the Cup of Salvation, and call upon the Name of the Lord: Let us pay our Vows unto the Lord, now, in the presence of all his People. And because we can render him Nothing, let us render him a Confession, That we can render him Nothing: For such is the Longanimity and Forbearance of our heavenly Creditor, that if we do but acknowledge our Willingness along with our Inability to repay him, He will accept our Will for the Debt, and our bare Confession for a full Discharge.  
Thus then let us do; Let us humble our selus under his mighty Hand, confess our own Defects and Imperfections, and so give Him alone all Glory.  
To the King Eternal, Immortal, Invisible, the only Wise God, be all Honour and Glory, throughout all Ages.  
AMEN.