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A47286
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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.
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Kerswell, John.
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1665
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Wing K353A; ESTC R217555
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10,730
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31
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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 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 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 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 Lâ—m. â— 2â— 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 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 not to be balk'd or pass'd over in silence and that 's from Domestick Vsurpation 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 Vsurpation 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 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 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 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
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 CHARLS 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 thy self 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 Physick and Principal of Magdalen-Hall in OXON Honoured Sir THe learned Stoick wisely perpending the right way of receiving Good-turns with the just reddition and return of them in sutable Gratitude resembles it to a Game at Tennys where though it be a considerable part of the Play to receive the Ball with agility and skill nevertheless saith Seneca Nâ—â— dicitur bonus lusor De benefic l. 2. Ep. 32. nisi qui apte 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 ow you the which in my weak judgment 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 my self the Honour to prefix your Name which if you design favourably to accept I have all I aimed at and shall ever acknowledg my self 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 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 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 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 't will 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 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 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