ken it: For v.23. The Church in it's diftrefs cryes out, Up Lord why fleepest thou? Awake, and be not abfent from us fo long,v.24.Wherefore bideft thou thy face, and forgetteft our mifery and trouble and at length ver. 26. Arife and help us, and deliver us for thy mercy fake or as the old learned Tranflations had it, O Lord arife help us, and refeue us for thy names fake.. The fum is, that if we are already oppreffed by our Enemies, or difcern they are rifing up, and making preparation to fet upon us, we muft moft earnestly cry unto God in thefe Words, that he will arife for us, when they rife up against us, and then we need not queftion, but all thofe evils, which Men or Devils contrive against us, fhall be brought to nought; for if he do but arife,our Enemies fhall be scattered without one ftroak, Pfalm Ixviii. 1. He can look them into confufion, and veni,vidi,vici, is only true of him, the brightness of whofe prefence makes all that hate him flee before him: Having therefore fuch a God to take cur part: Firft, we defire him to help us, that is to bear us up, and fupport us against their furious affaults, and alfo to refcue and deliver us from them at length,that they may trouble us no more: We delight not in contending with them, nor do we pray for their confufion, but our own Peace: We fly not to humane aids, but with the old weapons of the primitive Chriftians, Holy Prayers and Tears, we feek to defend our Mother, the Chuech (m): We go not by violence to right our felves, but commit our Caufe to God, who we hope will arife and help us; not for any merit in us, but for his own name fake: 'tis certain,that we juftly deserve to suffer, and if we were fo vain as to think otherwife, God would let our Enemies prevail on pur

(m) Stabimus & pugnabimus ufque ad mortem, fi ita oppor

tuerit, pro matre nofird, non fcutis gladiis, fed precibus Aetitufque ad Deum, S.Bern.Epift.221.

pofe

pose to humble us; but far be it from us to fue unto his Majefty in our Name: No, we petition him to deliver us for his own fake, because we are called by his name, and have trufted in his name, and fpoken great things of his name; fo that upon these accounts we hope he will not let us perish, left his name fuffer by our Fall : Ifrael was unworthy of deliverance, as we also are, nevertheless he helped them for his name's fake, that he might make his power to be known,Pfal.cvi.8.

4. God we have heard with our Cars, and cur Fathers have declared unto us the noble W o2ks, which thou didst in their days, and in the old time befoze then. Pfal.xliv.1.]

It is the property of Affliction to make men pray earneftly, and the Supplications, which we make in difirefs, if they be wanting in any thing, it is in Faith, and hope: Wherefore when the Prieft obferves, how paffionately the people cry unto the Lord to arife and help them, he encourageth them to hope chearfully, as well as pray earnestly, by repeating the firft Verfe of the xliv.Pfalm, which was compofed (faith our excellent Paraphraft) in fome time of general oppreffion by forreign Enemies- and begins with a commemoration of Gods former mercies, as a ground of confidence in, and Prayer to him for deliverance out of prefent dangers (n). Which fufficiently fhews how exceeding proper ly it is used here. The Jews of old had few Writings among them, but the Memorials and History of God's wonderful works after the time of Mofes were preferved fome years by Tradition, which caufe the Fathers were very careful to deliver to them a full and faithful account of them, Pfalm lxxxviii. 4. And alfo did diligently inftruct them in the Writings

P 4

(n) Dr.Hammond preface to Paraph. on Pfal.xliv.

for

(0) Admirantes quare in iftis diebus tanquam deferuerit e

0.ecount præterica audierunt à 9:0 patribus. Aug.in loc.

tings of Mofes, how miraculously the Lord had brought them out of Egypt, kept them in the Wilderness, and deftroyed all the Old Inhabitants of Canaan before them, that they might inherit there: And in after ages when their pofterity fell into Calamity, they made an excellent ufe of what they had read and heard, for they apply themselves to God, and by commemorating what he had done for their Fathers, do inoft chearfully beg mercy for themselves (o): And the force of their Argument lies thus: We have frequently and fully been ir.formed of all thofe Miracles of Power and Mercy, which thou didft work for the deliverance of our Fore-fathers: And thou art the fame Lord, thy might is not leffened, nor thy Mercy abated, nor is there the least change in thee: And we are the fame people, the Children and Pofterity of thofe for whom thou haft done fuch wonders from the first Ages of the World in all the Generations fince; and fhall we and all thy glorious Acts perith together and be buried in one Oblivion? If thou hadit not delighted in this Nation, thou had ft not done fo infinitely for it's prefervation, and fince thou haft delivered it fo often, wilt thou not refcue it once more? To whom fhould the Children go for relief, but the God that delivered their Fore-fathers? Of whom should this Generation feek for fuccour, but of him concerning whom we have been told fuch illuftrious things? Thus the Jews argue, and fo may we Chriftians allo: For we have heard and becn told by our Fathers, what Noble Works God hath done for the deliverance of his Holy Catholick Church in all times: How he preferved it in it's firft Plantation, when the Learning of Greece, the Power of Kome, and the Malice of Judea did all

combine

Combine against it,he upheld it fo wonderfully,that Menaces and fury,Bonds and Banifhments, Racks and Tortures, fire and fword could not prevail to extirpate a few innocent and unrefifting People, but their numbers encreased, and their Religion grew more eminent, and more admired in the midst of all thefe Perfecutions (p): And why fhould we fear that God will defert us now? It were eafy (if needful). to run through all the Ecclefiaftical An-mur. Tertul, Apo!. nals, and obferve thofe many and

(p). Nec quicqnam tamen proficit, exquifitior quæque crudeli

tas veftra illecebra

eft fecta, plures effi cimur quoties metį

grievous Evils, which the craft and fubtilty of the Devil or men bave wrought against the Church, which have always been moft eminently defeated by the Providence of a gracious and merciful God, but every one hath heard and read many inftances of this kind, and it were well, if our Memory could furnish us juft now with fome Example of a deliverance from fuch like circumftances as we do now groan under, it would be a ftrong foundation for our Faith, and a mighty Encouragement to our Prayer for the like relief to be afforded us alfo': But if we be more affected with nearer Inftances, this very Church of ENGLAND affords us great variety, for we have all heard, and our Fathers have told us: How wonderfully the Papal yoke was broken off at firft, and how ftrangely all their endeavours for reducing the Roman deceits and Superftitions have been fruftrated ever fince; the Marian Perfecution, the Spanish Invafion,nor the Papal Bulls of Excommunication could not effect it, the many fecret Seditions, and open Rebellions, nor the accurfed Powder-plot could not bring it about, because our God difcovered and diffipated them all; we know they have divided us at home, and traduced us abroad, and fome of their Projectors co

Part. I. vertly animated the giddy Sectaries to overthrow our Laws and Government, and to deftroy the best of men as well as of Kings, yet God hath reftored us again, and bleffed be God neither Rome nor Geneva did ever yet prevail long together, neither Faction nor Superftition hath been able to fubvert the primitive and holy Doctrine and Difcipline of this Church. And really when we recollect all the paffages of Divine Providence in our Prefervation we must confefs, that This Nation hath been the Darling of Heaven, this Religion the peculiar care of the most high, it was established at firft by many wonders of his goodness, and it hath been preferved ever fince by Miracles of Mercy, fo that when any danger appears on the right hand or on the left, let us review our former deliverances, and encourage our felves in the Lord our God, who hath been our helper ever of Old. It is one very great end of thofe eminent Deliverances, which are beftowed upon us, that they may be as Presidents to engage us to feek for ReTjef, and animate us to hope for fuccour when ever we fhall fall into the like Dangers. And it is one of the best ufes we can make of the former Mercies of God, when we commemorate them fo feasonably, that they may at once be thankfully remembred to his Honour, and frethly urged to our Comfort. When the Memorial of them doth caufe us to praise God for them, and excite' us to bear up nobly under our Diftrefs, and to call chearfully on him for fuch deliverance, as our Fore-fathers have had from his endless Compaffions.