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 theatres too, wherein to exercise their Graces, to win the greater honour unto themselvs, and a nearer alliance with God. As in our material Building the Timber and Stones can have no sutable place, until the Skilful Artificer hath throughly hewen, 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 hewen, 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 [Page 6]and burden of the Building: So likewise in that other, it pleaseth God oft-times 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 Jo­sephs and spotless Daniels to be flung 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 inlargement 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 mercilesly 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 [Page 117]the revengeful persuit 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 Partridg in the Mountains. But, Non si male nunc & olim, sic erit semper; The Heavens are not always over-cast 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 [Page 8]several Blessings and Benefits which Al­mighty God had conferred on him, but those imminent and apparent dangers also, which with a mighty Hand and out-stretch­ed 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 Patriarchs and holy Men of Old, as Monuments of their dutiful Gratitude unto God for Blessings lately re­ceived by them. How cheerfully did Moses [Page 119]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 heighth of his Praise from the depth of their Misery. Thou hast delivered my Soul from death, mine Eys 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) whil'st in a serious and solemn Quaery he prepares them; and whil'st he doth confess his Debt, he pays it. Which payment by words is not more easie 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 [Page 10]without understanding: The Doves, at every grain they pick, look upward, as gi­ving Thanks: the Jewel, which is illu­strated by the Sun-beams, 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 Eccho. No marvel then, if holy David shew himself so sollicitous and inquisitive about some Boon or Gift to pre­sent his Lord withal. [...], saith Saint Basil; He is in a million of scrupulous Expostulations and Quaeries 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 [Page 121]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 fulness there­of; and so are the cattel 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 onely, 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 [Page 12]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 Eccho was held by Pythagoras in such sacred and reverent 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 Eccho 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 Eccho 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 [Page 123]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, Eccho-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 shew forth all his Praise! that they would not so far degenerate, as to suffer themselvs to be out-gone 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 dy 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 remembred not the kindness of Jehoiada: 2 Chron. 24. Gen. 23. Luk. 17.15. The chief Butler quickly forgat 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 te­stifie 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 forgat God their Saviour which had done so great things for them in Egypt, they remembred not his hand: Psal. 78. Hos. 13.6. for when they were filled, their heart was exalted. As the Mule having suck'd 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 onely Lord and Maker [Page 125]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 Knowledg? or grac'd with volubility of Speech and Elocution? Art thou powerful in attracting the Eys and Affections of Men by thy grace­ful Deportment and winning Behaviour? 'Tis all from him. He all-sufficient, and lacking nothing, powreth down on us a rich [Page 16]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 then 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 [Page 127]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 possess'd? But see the up-shot, and mark the Censure the infal­lible Judg pass'd 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 thy self so much in thine own Works and Worth, thou provest thy self 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 [Page 18]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 themselvs, 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 robbed 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 Oyl, 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 [Page 129]still fixed and terminated on God, the other on our Selvs, or some secondary Agent. Therefore both devoutly framed, and rightly levell'd, 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 Tropick 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 Sampson arrogantly usurp­eth God's honour, saying,Jud. 15.16. With the Jaw-bone of an Ass, heaps upon heaps; with the Jaw-bone 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 Eys, he most arrogantly challengeth to himself. Thus, as it is in the 10 of Esay, verse 15, the Hatchet and the Saw magnifie themselvs against the Workman, when secondary Means rob the first Agent of his Honour. Thus (in a word) [Page 20]every foolish and vain-glorious 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 Self-sufficiency, 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 Ʋniverse. And those Benefits which I, Thou, He, (in a word) All of us, receive from him, we receive them not dimidiated, [Page 131]or by halfs, minc'd or cut into parcels; but so perfect, entire, and compleat, that each one in particular may take and interpret them as conferr'd on himself alone: For, Do not all the coelestial Orbs and elementary Bodies? Do not those praedominant 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 it self; we must confess, with the fore-cited 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 [Page 22]Image of His, we wretched Creatures, with our Works of Darkness, have most a­bominably defaced, and cast our selvs head­long into the bottomless-pit of Eternal De­struction. Then when we lay weltring 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 selvs, and the things which were our own, he would needs hereupon become our God also, that so we might, in a manner, be compell'd to love him. O the Bowels of Compassion! O Love, never to be forgotten! O Clemency, Mercy, Goodness, incomprehensible! Won­derful, wonderfull, wonderful must this needs seem: For, whereas Angels, Arch-Angels, and such an innumerable Multitude of coe­lestial Powers and Spirits love their God so ardently, do him all Homage so willingly, [Page 133]and execute his Behests so faithfully; He nevertheless, as less regarding all this, ex­pects to be loved and enterteined 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 it self. If we, for his sake, resign up our very Being it self, 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. Redde ergo, Mat. 22.21. — Render therefore unto Caesar the things that [Page 24]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 dy not through Famine. The Air, that doth accommodate it self 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 Showrs, and with her silver Drops, in set and season­able time, doth crown thy Field; with good­ness. The Earth, as our common Mother (me-thinks) speaks thus to each one in par­ticular: ‘Behold, I sustein thee; I, like a Mother, bear thee in mine Arms; all ne­cessaries I provide for thee: I maintein 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; [Page 135]after Death I afford thee a place of Rest; I intomb 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 Eys 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 [Page 26]Period of his Love unto us. He hath freely given us his holy Word and Sacraments to sanctifie, nourish, and preserve our Souls unto Life everlasting.Ps. 147.20. He hath not dealt so with many other Nations, neither have the Heathen knowledg of his Laws; yea, as though that were yet too little, he hath given us his onely 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 Ourselvs; In our Redemption he gave us Himself, thereby restoring us to ourselvs: There­fore, thus given at the first, and restored again when we had lost our selvs, we ow our selvs for our selvs, and ow our selvs twice. But now, What shall we repay unto the Lord for Himself? Though we could repay Our Selvs 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, [Page 137]not to be balk'd or pass'd over in silence, and that's from Domestick Ʋsurpation and Tyranny, by the miraculous Restauration of his Sacred Majesty CHARLS the Se­cond; the best of Kings; the Father of his Country; the Extinguisher of Tyranny; the Restorer of Liberty; and the Founder of Tranquility; at whose joyful and victo­rious Approach, Rebellion and Ʋsurpation, 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 turn'd 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 Sheavs 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, [Page 28]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 antient 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 prise 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 [Page 139]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, &c. In prosperity, [Page 30]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 sinn'd, 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 acknowledg 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 selvs 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 Honor and Glory, throughout all Ages.

AMEN.