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Pfal. 116. 12.

What shall I render unto the Lord for all his Benefits towards me?

Roffes and Loffes, Perfecutions and Afflictions, as they are, for the most part, the lot and portion of the Righteous; so are they the lifts 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 futable 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 Aio (les, quick Pet. 2. and Living Stones, unless we be firft hewen, cut, and fquared (as it were) with fundry 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

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and burden of the Building: So likewife in that other, it pleaseth God oft-times to lay the hardest preffure, and heaviest weight of affliction and mifery, upon his best Saints, and most dearly beloved Children. But, Why doth he fo? Why doth he most afflict, and lay his hand heaviest on, those that are nearest and dearest unto him? St. Auftin will refolve this Question; Ideo jufti premuntur (faith he) ut preffi clament, clamantes exaudiantur: To no other end and purpose doth God fuffer his untainted FoJephs and fpotlefs Daniels to be flung into pits and prifons, dens and dungeons of deepest calamity, than that they should de profundis clamare, from thofe depths call and cry unto him, and in his good time find relief and inlargement from him.

If we look back, and refle& our thoughts a while on the primitive World, fee we may the hands of a cruel and accurfed Cain mercilefly butchering his innocent Brother Abel:

Fraterno primi maduerunt fanguine muri. And looking but a little further, we may defcry an Efau's feet fwiftly posting on in

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the revengeful perfuit of his Brother Jacob. If there be an Elijah, a Prophet, and Man of God, there will foon ftart up a Jezebel, a Daughter of Belial, fiercely to persecute him: If an Amos, an Amaziah, to profcribe and banish him the Court; and if a David, a Saul too, to tofs him and hunt him to and fro like a Partridg in the Mountains. But, Non fi male nunc & olim, fic erit femper; The Heavens are not always over-caft with fackcloth and darkness, 'twill doubtless in time clear up again, when the Sun fhall recompense his former absence with a more grateful approach. Heavinefs may endure for a night, but joy cometh in the morning : The rod of the ungodly, though it fall, yet fhall it not rest not rest upon the righteous; and albeit many and manifold be their troubles, yet in time the Lord delivereth them out of all,and encompaffeth them about with songs of deliverance, as he did Royal David in this place.

The Pfalm is wholly gratulatory, wherein the Prophetical King, and Kingly Prophet, and fweet Singer of Ifrael, doth folemnly commemorate and chant forth not only the

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feveral Bleffings and Benefits which Almighty God had conferred on him, but those imminent and apparent dangers also, which with a mighty Hand and out-ftretched Arm he had fecured him from.

The Text confifteth of three general parts.

1. David's Gratitude or Thankfulness ; What shall I render?

2. The Object thereof,or Perfon to whom he is about to address himself, and that is, The Lord.

3. The Motives or Inducements thereunto, All his Benefits. [What fball I render unto the Lord for all his Benefits towards me.] Of these in their order. And first of David's Gratitude or Thankfulnefs Quid retribuam? What shall I render?

God never gives a good Man a single or folitary Bleffing, but at the fame 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 Bleffings lately received by them. How cheerfully did Mofes

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and Miriam fing Praifes unto God, for their Exod. miraculous Deliverance from Pharaoh, and 14. his Hoft? The like did Barak and Deborah in their triumphant 'Emvínov, for saving|Jadg. 5. them out of the hands of Jabin and Sifera: yea, thus it is for the most part with the Ifrael of God, whose fafety he willing to make, in a manner, as evident as his Power, gaineth the heighth of his Praife from the depth of their Mifery. Thou haft delivered my Soul from death, mine Eys from tears, and my Feet from falling, at the 8th verfe of this Pfalm, 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 himfelf from Ingratitude; for he gives Thanks unto the Lord: He gives Thanks, (Ifay) whil'ft in a ferious and folemn Query he prepares them; and whil'ft he doth confefs his Debt, he pays it. Which payment by words is not more easie than true, it being a Gift which both accompanies a Bleffing, and is One. And this fociety of Bleffings our Understanding may observe, even in thofe things which are. without

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