THE PREFACE.

Ir is natural for all men, when they are straitened with fears or actual infelicities, to run for succour to what their fancy, or the next opportunity, presents, as an instrument of their ease and remedy. But that which distinguishes men in these cases, is the choice of their sanctuary; for to rely upon the reeds of Egypt, or to snatch at the bulrushes of Nilus, may well become a drowning man, whose reason is so wholly invaded and surprised by fear, as to be useless to him in that confusion: but he whose condition (although it be sad) is still under the mastery of reason, and hath time to deliberate, unless he places his hopes upon something that is likely to cure his misery, or at least to ease it, by making his affliction less, or his patience more, does deserve that misery he groans under. Stripes and remediless miseries are the lot of fools; but afflictions, that happen to wise men or good men, represent indeed the sadnesses of mortality; but they become monuments and advantages of their piety and wisdom.

In this most unnatural war, commenced against the greatest solemnities of Christianity, and all that is called God, I have been put to it to run somewhither to sanctuary; but whither, was so great a question, that had not religion been my guide, I

had not known where to have found rest or safety: when the king and the laws, who, by God and man respectively, are appointed the protectors of innocence and truth, had themselves the greatest need of a protector. And when, in the beginning of these troubles, I hastened to his Majesty, the case of the king and his good subjects, was something like that of Isaac, ready to be sacrificed; the wood was prepared, the fire kindled, the knife was lift up, and the hand was striking; that, if we had not been something like Abraham too, and " against hope had believed in hope," we had been as much without comfort, as we were, in outward appearance, without remedy.

It was my custom long since to secure myself against the violences of discontents abroad, as Gerson did against temptations,-in "angulis et libellis," "in my books and my retirements;" but now I was deprived of both them, and driven to a public view and participation of those dangers and miseries, which threatened the kingdom, and disturbed the evenness of my former life. I was, therefore, constrained to amass together all those arguments of hope and comfort, by which men in the like condition were supported; and amongst all the great examples of trouble and confidence, I reckoned king David one of the biggest, and of greatest consideration. For, considering that he was a king vexed with a civil war, his case had somuch of our's in it, that it was likely the devotions he used, might fit our turn, and his comforts sustain us.

And indeed, when I came to look upon the Psalter with a nearer observation, and an eye diligent to espy my advantages and remedies there deposited, I found very many prayers against the enemies of the king and church, and the miseries of war. I found so many admirable promises,-so rare variety of expressions of the mercies of God,so many consolatory hymns,-the commemoration of so many deliverances from dangers, and deaths, and enemies,—so many miracles of mercy and salvation,—that I began to be so confident as to believe there could come no affliction great enough to spend so great a stock of comfort, as was laid up in the treasure of the Psalter: the saying of St. Paul was here verified, "If sin" and misery "did abound, then did grace superabound:" and as we believe of the passion of Christ, it was so great as to be able to satisfy for a thousand worlds; so it is of the comforts of David's Psalms, they are more than sufficient to repair all the breaches of mankind. But for the particular occasion of creating confidences in us, that God will defend his church and his anointed, and all that trust in him, against all their enemies (which was our case, and contained in it all our needs for the present), I found so abundant supply, that of one hundred and fifty psalms, some whereof are historical, many eucharistical, many prophetical, and the rest prayers for several occasions; thirtyfour of them are expressly made against God's and our enemies, eleven expressly for the church, four for the king; that is, a third part of the Psalms relate particularly to the present occasion, beside

many clauses of respersion in the other, which, if collected in one, would, of themselves, be great arguments of hope to prevail in so good a cause.

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This, which experience taught me now, I was promised before by a frequent testimony of the doctors of the church, who give the Psalter such a character, as is due to the best and most useful book in the whole world: viz. the most profitable of books, the treasury of holy instructions; "consummationem totius paginæ Theologicæ," the perfection of the whole Scripture;" so the ordinary gloss calls it :-" arma juvenum, parva Biblia, tribulatorum solatia," "the young man's armoury, the little Bible, the comfort of the distressed;" so others : to be said by all men, upon all occasions, is the counsel of the most devout amongst them. But concerning the Psalter there are good words enough, and real observation of advantages in the several prefaces before the commentaries upon the Psalms, set forth by the fathers and writers of the first and middle ages. I leave the particular enumeration of them to the learned divines of our church, to whom it is more proper: the sum of them is this, which Tertullian alone hath expressed in his Apology against the Gentiles, "Omnes bibliothecas et omnia monumenta unius prophetæ scrinium vincit, in quo videtur thesaurus collocatus esse totius Judaici sacramenti, et inde etiam nostri :" "This book alone of the prophet David hath in it some excellencies beyond all the monuments of learning in any library whatsoever, and is the storehouse both of the Jewish and Christian religion."