"O how much more glorious will those former deliverances appear,
when we shall know them not only to have saved us from greatest
miseries past, but to have reserved us for greatest happiness to
come? Hitherto Thou hast but freed us, and that not fully, from
the unjust and tyrannous claim of Thy foes, now unite us entirely
and appropriate us to Thyself, tie us everlastingly in willing
homage to the prerogative of Thy eternal throne.
"And now we know, O Thou, our most certain hope and defence, that
Thine enemies have been consulting all the sorceries of the great
whore, and have joined their plots with that sad, intelligencing
tyrant that mischiefs the world with his mines of Ophir, and lies
thirsting to revenge his naval ruins that have larded our seas:
but let them all take counsel together, and let it come to nought;
let them decree, and do Thou cancel it; let them gather
themselves, and be scattered; let them embattle themselves, and be
broken; let them embattle, and be broken, for Thou art with us.
"Then amidst the hymns and hallelujahs of saints, some one may
perhaps be heard offering at high strains in new and lofty
measures, to sing and celebrate Thy Divine mercies and marvellous
judgments in this land throughout all ages; whereby this great and
warlike nation, instructed and inured to the fervent and continual
practice of truth and righteousness, and casting far from her the
rags of her old vices, may press on hard to that high and happy
emulation to be found the soberest, wisest, and most Christian
people at that day, when Thou, the Eternal and shortly-expected
King, shalt open the clouds to judge the several kingdoms of the
world, and distributing national honours and rewards to religious
and just commonwealths, shall put an end to all earthly tyrannies,
proclaiming Thy universal and mild monarchy through heaven and
earth; where they undoubtedly, that by their labours, counsels,
and prayers, have been earnest for the common good of religion,
and their country, shall receive above the inferior orders of the
blessed, the regal addition of principalities, legions, and
thrones into their glorious titles, and in supereminence of
beatific vision, progressing the dateless and irrevoluble circle
of eternity, shall clasp inseparable hands with joy and bliss, in
over-measure for ever.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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