we make of thy name, O thou most Highest, and will be ever setting forth thy praise and thy glory, thy might, and thy mercy from one generation to another. Only, O Lord, forsake us not in this time of our age, but give courage and constancy to our Sovereign to persevere in perils: prudence and wisdom to her Council, wisely to foresee and discover the subtile sleights and dangers of all enemies: faithfulness and fortitude to the Nobles of the land, duty and obedience to us all that are under her. Forgive also, we most humbly pray thee, through thy fatherly kindness in Jesus Christ, the multitude of our sins and transgressions against thy divine Majesty, and thy commandments, and according to the multitude of thy mercies do away all our offences, that the light and candle of thy servant Elizabeth our gracious Queen and Governor, which is our life in the light of thy countenance, and the breath of our nostrils, be not put out, but may still shine and burn bright, illumined by the beams of thy heavenly grace. Protect her (O Lord), we still beseech thee, in safety, save her in majesty, keep her in peace, guide her in counsel, and defend her in danger: bless her, Lord, in all temporal and celestial blessings in Christ, that she may still bless thee. Detect and reveal still the foundations and buildings of all treasons and conspiracies both at home and abroad; and herein (O Lord) either convert the wicked hearts and secret conceits from their wicked imaginations, or confound their devices, and make them as the untimely fruit, that they never see the Sun. Hear, Lord, and save us, O King of heaven, when we call upon thee; and so shall we all, both Prince and people, dwell still under the shadow of thy wings, protected by thy power, and preserved by thy provi dence, and ordered by thy governance, to thy everlasting praise, and our unspeakable comfort in Jesus Christ, to whom with thee, O Father and God of all consolation, and the Holy Spirit of sanctification, be all honour and glory both now and for ever. Amen. Another. Most gracious God, which by thy word appointedst man to rule thy other creatures, but in wisdom hast lifted up Kings and Princes to command and rule men in their several places: We the people of thy choice, and the subjects of this and, heartily acknowledge thy especial providence in anointng over us so gracious a Princess, so careful of thy glory, so eligious in thy fear, so tender of our good, and yet so naligned and shot at by the enemies of thy Gospel, both foreign professed rebels, and homeborn unloyal and discontented runagates, as, were not thy mercy her shield of defence, and thy power the sword of her revenge, long since they had brought her life to the grave, and laid our honour in the dust: Of late especially having prepared and applied very near the sacred body of her royal Majesty a most deadly poison, the purpose strangely thou didst reveal, and the practice mightily thou didst defeat: For which exceeding kindness, most loving Father, we on our knees and from our hearts do give thee thanks, and desire the assistance of thy grace for the amendment of our lives, and the repentance of our sins, which are more deadly than any poison to infect us, and more strong than any foe to overthrow us, and the only motives of thy wrath against us, which if thou canst not but execute upon us, our crying sins so calling for thy vengeance, yet, gracious Lord, enter not so far in just revenge as to quench the light of our land, our most Sovereign Queen, lest the enemies of thy Gospel, her prosperity, and our welfare, take occasion thereby to triumph and say, that thou hast forsaken us; but rather, we humbly beseech thee, prosper her days and prolong her life, and renew her years to the advancement of thy glory, the amazement of the foe, and the establishing of our peace by Jesus Christ thy only Son, and our only Saviour. To whom, &c. Another. ETERNAL God, which createdst all men after thy likeness, but hast advanced Kings more like thyself in places of government, and to that end hast both anointed them with thy Holy oil above others, and also laid a curse upon them which touch thine anointed: We render unto thee, in all dutiful service, most hearty thanks for thy continual protection of our sacred Prince, Queen Elizabeth, whom as thou hast many times heretofore preserved from dangerous attempts plotted against her by malignant wretches, either frustrating their counsels, or preventing their executions, or revealing their intentions; so of late most strangely thou hast kept her from a danger not only intended, but practised; from a poison not only confected, but applied very near her; wherein as thou didst manifest thy power in quelling the Asp and the Basilisk, qualifying the deadly force of that dreadful compound, so didst thou shew thy mercy unto us of this land, who, if the Shepherd of Israel had been stroken, might be either confusedly scattered, or cruelly massacred. Good Lord, strike a sense of this thy powerful mercy into our hearts, from thence to fetch a sorrowful sighing for our sins, an earnest desire of amendment, and most entire unfeigned thanks to thee our gracious Preserver: But those priests of Baal, the hellish Chaplains of Antichrist, accursed runagates from their God and Prince, the bellows and fuel of these flagrant conspiracies, confound them in thy wrath, since thy Grace will not convert them, and that which thy power cannot work on them in defeating their enterprizes, let thy fury perform in revenge upon their persons; the rather, O Lord, because that most blasphemously they abuse thy holy Word for the furtherance of their devilish complots: But let our gracious Queen still reign and rule in despite of Rome, and Rheims', and Spain and Hell; preserve her government over us, unite our hearts to her, continue both her and our thankfulness to thyself, which blessest us daily with so many benefits. Hear us, O Lord, for Jesus Christ his sake. [1 A Seminary had been sometime established in this city. See p. 656, note 5.] Certain Prayers fit for the time. Set forth by authority. Imprinted at London by ROBERT BARKER, Printer to the Anno Dom. 1600. Certain Prayers fit for the time. ALMIGHTY God and most merciful Father, who of thy infinite goodness towards all Countries and Nations, for the avoiding of confusion, hast appointed Kings and Princes as thine Angels and Lieutenants, and the Seals of thy similitude, full of wisdom and beauty, to rule and govern in thy Name the people on the earth committed to their charge: commanding all their Subjects to honour, and in no sort to resist them, but to obey them in thy fear, even for conscience sake; and likewise to offer unto thee for them all Supplications, Prayers, Intercessions, and Thanksgiving, as being the Lights, the preservation, and the means under thy Divine Majesty of the Peace, the Health, Prosperity and Glory of all their Subjects and Kingdoms: We thy humble servants, bowing down the knees of our hearts, and prostrating ourselves before thy glorious Throne, do render unto thee all Praise, Power, Honour and Thanksgiving for thy most gracious favour and merciful deliverance of our most dread Sovereign Lady (thy Vicegerent in her Dominions) QUEEN ELIZABETH, as ever heretofore, so at this time, from the traitorous attempts and desperate designments of sundry most unkind and disloyal wicked persons; who, forgetting their duty both towards thee (O Lord) and towards thine Anointed, have in the height of their Pride, after a popular sort, with divers false pretences, and many slanderous calumniations, sought in open Rebellion not only the destruction and extinguishing of thy Servant, our Comfort, our Health, and our Glory; but the utter ruin also and tragical overthrow of this our native Country, her Majesty's (through thy manifold mercies) so worthy, so happy, and so renowned a Kingdom. This thy most mighty and Fatherly protection (O Lord God [LITURG. QU. ELIZ.] 44 XLIV. of hosts) we entirely beseech thee, with penitent hearts for our former offences, to continue over us from age to age, by defending still the sacred person of our Sovereign Lady, from all such dangerous designments; her Kingdoms and Countries from all treacherous practices; and us her Subjects from the deceitful baits and crafty allurements of all popular and ambitious dissembling Absalons: that so our hearts being still replenished with the joy of thy Salvation, we may daily present in all thankfulness before thy Fatherly goodness the freewill offerings and sacrifices of our lips, always praising and magnifying thy blessed Name, through Jesus Christ our Lord to whom with thee and the Holy Ghost, three persons and one God, be all honour and glory from this time forth for evermore. O ETERNAL and gracious GOD, Father of peace, and Protector of government; who with a special eye of providence watchest over the heads of Princes, upon whose safety the lives of many thousands do depend: We thy humble Servants do bow down the knees of our hearts, and pour forth our souls in thankfulness before thee, for thy so gracious and merciful deliverance of our dread Sovereign thy Handmaid from the traitorous intents and desperate Conspiracies of disloyal Subjects, who have risen up against thine Anointed, and like unnatural Children have rebelled against the Mother of their own lives, that took them up from their cradles, and cherished them in her own bosom, and laded them with honours and preferments; to the great dishonour of thy Name, to the slander of thy Gospel, to the danger of confusion to their own native Country. But thou, O Lord of Hosts, our deliverer, didst overthrow them in their own imaginations, and by thy judgments hast declared them enemies to thine own Majesty; Thou didst put thy obedience into the hearts of thy faithful people, and, without shedding of their innocent blood, didst miraculously beat down the swords of all that rose up against thine ordinance. For which thy unspeakable goodness towards us, vouchsafe, we beseech thee, to receive the freewill offerings of our hearts, and calves of our lips in praises to thy glorious Name; Who, notwithstanding our manifold sins and transgressions, hast not yet forgotten to be gracious, but heapest mercy upon mercy, and |