which curse must needs
be on them who seek by dishonorable actions to please the Vulgar, and
confirm by ignoble acts, their dependance upon the People.

Nor can their malitious intentions be ever either excusable or
prosperous, who thought to expose me to the highest reproach &
contempt of my People, forgetting that duty of modest concealment
which they owed to the Father of their Country, in case they had
discovered any real uncomliness, which, I thank God they did not; who
can, and I believe hath made Me more respected in the hearts of many
(as he did _David_) to whom they thought, by publishing my private
Letters, to have rendred me as a vile Person, not fit to be trusted or
considered, under any Notion of Majesty.

_But thou, O Lord, whose wise and all disposing Providence ordereth
the greatest contingences of humane affairs, make me to see the
constancie of thy mercies to me, in the greatest advantages thou
seemest to give the malice of my Enemies against me._

_As thou didst blast the council of_ Achitophel _turning it to_ Davids
_good and his own ruine: so canst thou defeat their Designe, who
intended by publishing my private Letters, nothing else but to render
me more odious and contemptible to my People._

_I must first appeal to thy Omniscience, who canst witnesse my
integritie, how unjust and false those scandalous misconstructions
are, which my Enemies endevour by those papers of mine to represent
unto the world._

_Make the evil they imagined, and displeasure they intended thereby
against me, so to return on their own heads, that they may be ashamed,
and covered with their own confusion as with a cloak._

_Thou seest how mine Enemies use all means to cloud mine Honour, to
pervert my purposes, and to slander the footsteps of thine Annointed._

_But give me an heart content to be dishonoured for thy sake, and thy
Churches good._

_Fix in me a purpose to honour thee, and then I know thou wilt honour
me, either by restoring to me the enjoyment of that Power and Majesty,
which thou hast suffered some men to seek to deprive me of; or by
bestowing on me that Crown of Christian patience, which knows how to
serve thee in honour or dishonour, in good report or evil._

_Thou, O Lord, art the fountain of goodness and honour; thou art
cloathed with excellent Majesty; make me to partake of thy excellency
for wisdom, justice and mercy, and I shall not want that degree of
Honour and Majestie which becomes the