John xv.

The prayer.

O ALMIGHTY and everlasting God, our heavenly Father, we thy disobedient and rebellious children, now by thy just judgment sore afflicted, and in great danger to be oppressed, by thine and our sworn and most deadly enemies the Turks, Infidels, and Miscreants, do make humble suit to the throne of thy grace, for thy mercy, and aid against the same our mortal enemies for though we do profess the name of thy only Son Christ our Saviour, yet through our manifold sins and wickedness we have most justly deserved so much of thy wrath and indignation, that we can not but say, O Lord correct us in thy mercy and not in thy fury. Better it is for us to fall into thy hands, than into the hands of men, and especially into the hands of Turks and Infidels thy professed enemies, who now invade thine inheritance. Against thee, O Lord, have we sinned, and transgressed thy commandments: against Turks, Infidels, and other enemies of the Gospel of thy dear Son Jesus Christ, have we not offended, but only in this, that we acknowledge thee, the eternal Father, and thy only Son our Redeemer, with the Holy Ghost, the comforter, to be the only true Almighty and everliving God. For if we would deny and blaspheme thy most holy name, forsake the Gospel of thy dear Son, embrace false religion, commit horrible Idolatries, and give ourselves to all impure, wicked, and abominable life, as they do; the devil, the world, the Turk, and all other thine enemies would be at peace with us, according to the saying of thy Son Christ : If you were of the world, the world would love his own. But therefore hate they us, because we love thee: therefore persecute they us, because we acknowledge thee, God the Father, and Jesus Christ thy Son, whom thou hast sent. The Turk goeth about to set up, to extol, and to magnify that wicked monster aud damned soul Mahumet above thy dearly beloved Son Jesus Christ, whom we in heart believe, and with mouth confess, to be our only Saviour and Redeemer. Wherefore awake, O Lord our God and heavenly Father, look upon us thy children, and all such Christians as now be besieged and afflicted, with thy fatherly and merciful countenance and overthrow and destroy thine and our enemies, sanctify thy blessed name emonges us, which they blaspheme, establish

thy kingdom, which they labour to overthrow: suffer not thine enemies to prevail against those, that now call upon thy name, and put their trust in thee, lest the Heathen and Infidels say: Where is now their God? But in thy great mercy save, defend, and deliver all thy afflicted Christians in this and all other invasions of these Infidels, that we and they that delight to be named Christians may continually laud, praise, and magnify thy holy name, with thy only Son Jesus Christ, and the Holy Ghost, to whom be all laud, praise, glory, and empire for ever and ever. AMEN.

Psalms which may be sung or said before the beginning, or after the ending of public prayer.

ii. iii. vii. x. xi. xiv. xxii. xxvii. xlvi. lii. lvi. lxx. lxxiiii. lxxxiii. lxxxx. lxxxxiiii. cxxi, cxxiii. cxxx. cxl.

IX.

A SHORT FORM OF THANKSGIVING TO GOD for the delivery of the Isle of Malta from the invasion and long siege thereof by the great army of the Turks both by sea and land, and for sundry other victories lately obtained' by the christians against the said Turks, to be used in the common prayer within the province of Canterbury, on Sundays, Wednesdays, and Fridays, for the space of six weeks next ensuing the receipt hereof.

Set forth by the most Reverend father in God, Matthew by God's providence Archbishop of Canterbury, Primate of all England and Metropolitan.

Psalm 50.

Call upon me in the day of trouble; so will I deliver thee, and thou shalt glorify me.

After the end of the Collect in the Litany which beginneth with these words: We humbly beseech thee, O Father. &c. shall follow this Psalm to be said of the minister, with the answer of the people.

We praise thee, O Lord, with our whole hearts, and we will speak of thy marvellous works.

We will be glad and rejoice in thee, we will sing praises unto thy name, O most high.

For that our enemies are turned back, are fallen and perished at thy presence.

For that thou hast rebuked the heathen, and destroyed the wicked, and brought their destruction to an end.

Thou hast been a refuge for the poor, a refuge in due time, even in affliction.

Thou hast delivered us from our strong enemy, and from them that hated us, for they were too strong for us.

We have sinned with our fathers, we have committed iniquity, and done wickedly.

Nevertheless the Lord hath saved us for his name's sake, that he might make his power to be known.

O our deliverer from our enemies, even thou hast set us

[1 No doubt, in Hungary (see p. 527), which Solyman the magnificent had himself invaded with another army.]

up from them that rose against us: thou hast delivered us from the cruel man.

Great deliverance hast thou given us, and shewed us great mercy in the day of our calamity.

Though we said in our haste, we were cast out of thy sight, yet thou heardest the voice of our prayer, when we cried unto thee.

Thou rememberedst us in our base estate, and rescuedst us from our oppressors.

O God, the proud were risen against us, and the assemblies of violent men sought our souls, and did not set thee before

their eyes.

They said in their hearts, Let us destroy them altogether, there is no help for them in God.

If the Lord had not been on our side, may we now say: if the Lord had not been on our side, when Infidels rose up against us;

They had swallowed us up quick, when their wrath was kindled against us.

But praised be the Lord, which hath not given us as a prey unto their teeth, nor suffered our enemies to triumph

over us.

Let us therefore confess before the Lord his loving kindness, and his wonderful works before the sons of men.

Let us exalt him in the congregation of the people, and Psal. 72.2 praise him in the assembly of the Elders.

Blessed be the Lord God of Israel, which only doth wondrous things,

and blessed be the name of his majesty for ever. Amen. Amen.

[After this Psalm shall be said by the minister openly, and with an high voice, the Collect following.

The Collect.

O HEAVENLY and most merciful Father, the defender of those that put their trust in thee, the sure fortress of all them that flee to thee for succour: who of thy most just judgments for our disobedience against thy holy word, and for our sinful and wicked living, nothing answering to our holy profession, which hath been an occasion that thy holy name hath been

[The margin is somewhat damaged, so that the other references have disappeared.]

blasphemed emonges the heathen, hast of late most sharply corrected and scourged our christian brethren thy servants with terrible wars and dreadful invasions of most deadly and cruel enemies, Turks and Infidels: But now of thy fatherly pity and merciful goodness, without any desert of ours, even for thine own name's sake, hast, by thy assistance given to divers Christian princes and potentates, at length, when all our hope was almost past, dispersed and put to confusion those Infidels, being thine and our mortal enemies, and graciously delivered thy afflicted and distressed Christians in the Isle of Malta and sundry other places in Christendom, to the glory and praise of thy name, and to the exceeding comfort of all sorrowful Christian hearts: We render unto thee most humble and hearty thanks for these thy great mercies shewed to them that were thus afflicted and in danger; we laud and praise thee, most humbly beseeching thee to grant unto all those that profess thy holy name, that we may shew ourselves in our living thankful to thee for these and all other thy benefits: Endue us (O Lord) and all other Christian people with thy heavenly grace, that we may truly know thee, and obediently walk in thy holy commandments, lest we again provoke thy just wrath against us: Continue thy great mercies towards us, and as in this, so in all other invasions of Turks and Infidels, save and defend thy holy Church, that all posterities ensuing may continually confess thy holy name, praising and magnifying thee with thy only Son Jesus Christ, and the Holy Ghost, to whom be all laud, praise, glory and empire, for ever and ever. Amen.

(Emprynted at London by WylIyam Seres, dwellinge at the west end of Paules, at the sygne of

the Hedgehogge.

¶ Cum priuilegio ad imprimendum solum.

Anno. 1565.