what then can we do but call upon God, that he will arise, help, and deliver us for his mercies sake.

There is therefore a variety of seasons besides those of public calamity, when we may have reason in our various circumstances, to come more particularly to God with this supplication; and were we well aware of the importance of our warfare, of the subtilty and power of temptation, and that we have a party within us always ready to receive and support it; did we know the vengeance we do indeed already deserve, and should God enter into judgment with us, we should be quickly convinced that not a day or hour passes over us, in which we may not well call upon God to pardon and defend us. Suffer me then to lay this matter a little more largely before you, inasmuch as an affecting sense of your danger, and utter want of divine protection, is what must give you the true spirit of this general supplication, and enable you to bear a becoming and profitable part in it. The end of our being is to honour and serve God, and our business in this life, is to become qualified for such service, i. e. to acquire such a temper and disposition of mind here, as will fit us to find our eternal happiness in honouring and serving God hereafter. This temper and disposition is in one word love, or such a bearing of the whole soul towards God, such a constant conviction of the understanding, such a bias in the will, such a vehemence in the affections, as will make us like and admire God, long after him, and find incomparable delight in serving, pleasing, and enjoying him. Without this temper, we are unfit for God and unhappy. Now such is our natural

corrupt estate, that we have nothing like this disposi tion of mind within us, no knowledge of God, no desire after him, nor pleasure in him. On the contrary, we are entirely engaged in the things which the world presents to us, we eagerly desire, and are very busy and warm to obtain them. All within us is blind and obstinate self-will, self love, pride, vanity, envy, and lust; all without a horrid scene of wickedness; and when we do but make one step towards enlarging ourselves, under the power of Christ and the guidance of his Spirit, from this tyranny of sin, instantly all is alarm about us, and the world, the flesh, and the devil are in arms to contest with us the matter of our deliverance. Nor when the deformity of outward vices hath been discovered, and we renounce and abhor them, will it be a less difficult task to reform the soul, and to bring every affection and desire to a total submission to the law of love. We may stop whilst our work remains unfinished: nay when we are upon the point of attaining, and have tasted and drank deep of the heavenly gift, being made pertakers of the Holy Ghost, we may after all fall away, and suffer the deserved wrath of God in eternal misery. From this very important representation of the work we have to perform, together with the difficulties both from within and without we have to contend with, and the infinite importance it is to us we should be successful, it may be easy to discover how great reason we have to engage the divine assistance, to guard us from so many evils that threaten us, and how earnestly we must needs call upon God to interpose his almighty power with great might to

succour us. The amount of the whole is, that when we are oppressed with the load of temporal or spiritual misery, when we dread the punishment of our sins, or shrink at the difficulties and dangers which beset us in our Christian course, we cannot but flee unto God for deliverance. Now, under any such a sense of misery, or dread of danger, the litany helps us to a most passionate and affecting address to Almighty God. It begins with an invocation above any thing proper, not only to set our vileness before us, but to kindle our hopes and quicken our faith, whilst at the same time it enables us to plead with God, in such terms as are incontestably most apt to engage him to 'O Father of Heaven we are thy creatures, thou hast made and dost preserve us; have mercy upon us in this our misery. O God the Son, who hast redeemed us and purchased us by thy own blood, have mercy upon us labouring under the miserable effects of our sins. O God the Holy Ghost proceeding from the Father and the Son, thou sanctifier, have mercy upon us miserably holden under the power sin. O holy, blessed and glorious Trinity, three Persons, Father, Redeemer, Sanctifier, each apart and altogether one God, have mercy upon us miserable sinners.'

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Having now called upon God, in a manner incomparably fit to induce him to have compassion on us, we begin to open in many particulars the misery we labour under. Seeing we fear God's anger for the sins of our forefathers and ourselves, we beseech our kind Redeemer that he will turn away from us, the punishments we have deserved, that he will not give

us over to follow our own heart's lust, but that he will deliver us from all evil-from sin and temptation thereto, the craft and assaults of the devil, and from their fatal consequences, the wrath of our judge and everlasting damnation. But especially [we pray to be delivered] from all inward sins of the heart, viz. spiritual blindness, pride, vain glory, hypocrisy, envy, hatred, malice, all uncharitableness, and from all outward sins in the life, such as fornication, and all other damning deadly sins, and all the deceit and wickedness of the world, the flesh, and the devil. Thou who hast subdued all these, Christ Jesus deliver us from them! Deliver us also from God's judgment, most justly due to us; from temporal visitations such as 'lightning or tempest, plague, pestilence or famine, or battle, or murder, or unprepared and sudden death;' also from 'sedition,' or any such like grievous calamity. Above all [deliver us] from 'hardness of heart,' as insensibility to our sins or our punishment, and such a wicked life as may lead to a contempt of thy word and commandments.' From all these various and most terrifying evils, dearest Jesus we importune thee to deliver us. By all thou hast done and suffered for our salvation, deliver us; by thy incarnation, life, and precious death, by thy resurrection and ascension, and by the coming of the Holy Ghost.' According to thy truth and mercy, deliver us from the hand of God's wrath 'in all time of tribulation,' deliver us from ourselves in all time of wealth and prosperity.' 'In the hour of death and in the most awful day of judgment, good Lord deliver us.'

I shall not stay to recommend the vehement earnestness of this appeal, to the great circumstances of the history of Christ, nor to mention with how much consolation the afflicted soul must recount the various triumphant sufferings of our Lord, and ground upon them a lively confidence of its own deliverance. Let it suffice to observe, that the dread of evil cannot be expressed or prayed against, in a more affecting manner than we have now heard it.

Thus we have done all we can to remove our fears and our dangers, by putting ourselves under the best protection, even that of Christ Jesus, who is able to save us to the uttermost. We may now therefore recommend others to the same powerful protection; and this we are taught to do in the following intercessions, beseeching Christ to hear us for the universal church, and especially for the church among us; and herein for the King, that he may be holy, pious, and prosperous, and for the Royal Family; the Clergy, that they may be devout and exemplary: the nobility, that they may be religious and prudent; the magistrates, that they may be just and upright; the whole people, that they may be happy and safe. Nor are we suffered to stop here, but our prayers are offered up for all sorts of men; for their unity and peace, for a universal spirit of love, fear and obedience towards God, increase of grace, humble hearing of the word, and bringing forth the fruits of the Spirit in us all, even in all mankind. [We pray also] for the conversion of those that be in error, the confirming the strong, and aiding and comforting the weak; for all people in any kind or degree of misery; for all conditions of