The Prayer.
O Gracious God, who hast made so comfortable promises of security, aid and help to all those, that with faith, love and hope, adhere and trust to thée; Teach us in all our temptations, pressures and sorrows, to dwell in thy secret place, to rely upon thy visible assistance, and to abide under the shadow of the Almighty: [Ver. 1] Make us know, That thou art our Refuge, That thou art our Fortress, [Ver. 2] That thou art our God, That in thee alone must be our trust and con∣fidence.
Assaulted we are secretly and openly, the Fowler, the Divel, sets his snares for us, [Ver. 3] and hopes to take us in his Net, as a silly Bird; in danger we are to be devoured by the Sword, and the noysome pestilence. In the night we are surprized with terrours, [Ver. 5] too often affrighted with conspiracies and treasons of treacherous enemies, and the secret whispers of false friends. In the day of our prosperity, [Ver. 6] the kéen arrows of bloody enemies and persecutors are let flie at us; the pestilence, and pestilent plots of those which watch for our ruine, walk about in the darkness, and the malice of Tyrants by a perpetual destru∣ction, labours to waste us at noon-day, even in the sight of the Sun. Cover us, [Ver. 4] O gracious God, as the Hen doth her tender Birds, with thy feathers, and give us confidence under thy wings, assure our hearts by a lively faith of the Truth of thy promises, and let thy faithfulness in the performance, be unto us a Shield and a Buckler, by which we may receive and quench all the fiery darts of the Divel. O Lord, we have made thée, who hast no Superiour, our Refuge, our Sanctuary to flie to; we have made thée our habitation to rest, [Ver. 9] to dwell in, who art the most High, above all, and séest what is done be∣low, and sits in the highest Throne, and over-rulest the whole World: When then a thousand shall fall by our side, [Ver. 7] or ten thousand at our right hand; let not thy heavy indignation come near to us, let no evil befall us, that repose our confidence in thée, [Ver. 10] nor any plague come nigh our dwelling. Thou oftentimes, even in this World, takest vengeance upon the wicked, Pharaoh and his Host are drowned in the red Sea; Dathan and Abiram were swallowed up by the gaping earth; if it be thy good pleasure, O let our eyes behold and see the reward of the wicked; [Ver. 8] let us lay it to heart, and consider it, and rejoyce, when we sée the vengeance, but not for the calamities that befall these miserable men; but because thy justice is magnified, thy wisdom exalted, thy love and care of thy people, the poor flock of thy pasture, in a strange manner made apparent, by the punishment and recompence taken upon these impudent, obstinate and rebelli∣ous sinners, who have not set thée before their eyes.
As for thy people, direct them in thy Truth, and preserve them in the right way, [Ver. 11] make thy Law their light and guide, that their works may be good, and their lives holy; and as thou hast given a charge to those ministring Spi∣rits, the Angels, so command them to kéep thine in all their wayes, let them bear them up in their hands, [Ver. 12] employ their wisdom, power, will and intelli∣gence for their perseverance, that through their misguided affections of love and fear, they stumble not, and fall at those impediments, obstacles, scandals, Page 273and discouragements, laid in their way as so many stones, by the common ene∣my of thy Church, and his complices.
He is a roaring Lyon in our way, that goes about, [Ver. 13] seeking whom he may devoure: He is an Adder in our path, that is ready to bite our héel; give us power to tread upon him, and bruise his head: He, and the Tyrants, Persecutors, Sectaries and Hypocrites he hath raised, are as young Lyons and Dragons to us, arm us with magnanimity and constancy to trample them under our féet.
Our love we set upon thée, therefore deliver us, [Ver. 14] we know and ac∣knowledge thy Name, thy Power, thy Wisdom, thy Goodness, [Ver. 15] therefore once more honour us, and set us on high. We earnestly and instantly cry unto thée, and call upon thée, hear us therefore, and answer us; the sorrows of our hearts are enlarged, and our troubles are great, make then this promise good unto us, and be with us in trouble, let thy bow∣els yearn upon us, go along with us to our prisons, leave us not in our extremities, and make them know, that they who pursue us, do perse∣cute thée.
And in thy good time, O Lord, take us from our miseries, and take us to thy self; honour and glorifie us with thy Saints, in those Mansions which thou hast prepared for us, set us upon our promised Thrones, where we shall shine as the Sun in his glory; Even so come Lord Jesus, [Ver. 16] come quickly. This life, because short, and full of misery, will give no satisfaction; satisfie us with that, in which is length and eternity of dayes; here we live by faith, but there we shall experimentally see and féel, what we have believed; shew us therefore, O Lord, thy salva∣tion, and let us be happy in thy presence for evermore. Amen. Amen.
