Odes In Imitation of the Seaven Penitential Psalmes ::

O let o Lord thyne eares enclyned bee
To heare the prayers that I make to thee:
And my hartes grief that breaketh forth in cryes
O let it haue the power to pearce the skyes.

Turne not from me thy fauourable face,
VVhat day or howre I am in heauy case:
But when I call to thee in my destresse
O heare me Lord and send me soone redresse.

My dayes and yeares alas with litle gaine
Lyke vnto smoke how are they past in vaine:
My forces Lord how are they partch'd and dry,
Deuotions lack yeilds moisture no supply.

The blasted grasse my image now can shew,
My withered hart confirmes that it is so:
And I forgotten haue vnto my grief,
To eat the bread of my soules best relief.

And my too much regard of earthly care
Before my self for grace I could prepare,
Made reason to abandon reason quyte,
And to affection fast it self vnyte.

But now o Lord, since that I do begin
To see my self, and know the shame of sin,
From earthly traine I wil retyre my mynde,
Thee wil I seeke, my sauing helth to fynde.

In desert lyke as liues the Pelicane,
Or as the crow that doth day-light refraine
Or chirping sparow sitting all alone.
I shrowd, I watche, retyr'd, I make my mone.

But whyle O Lord I do endure this lyf
Expecting peace by fleeing wordly stryf
Old freindes I fynde become new noysome foes
O loue me Lord, for losse of loue of those.

My penance not restraind through scorne of theirs,
My food I take with ashes & with teares:
Thee more I feare, least thow on me should'st frowne,
That can'st mee raise, and raising cast me downe.

My dayes declyne as doth a shadow passe,
And I as hay that whylome was as grasse:
But thow from age to age shalt euer bee,
Then euermore o Lord forget not mee.

Voutsafe o Lord in puissance to aryse,
To raise thy Sion that depressed lies:

Now is the tyme, the tyme doth now expyre,
It mercy wantes, and mercy doth desyre.

This glorious woork was first begun by thee,
Thy seruants earst were glad the stones to see:
And they wil grieue with hartes-afflicted care,
If so the ruynes thow do'st not repare.

But when o Lord thy woorks shal shew thy fame
The faithlesse people then shal feare thy name:
And eartly kinges shal bend their glory downe,
At thy celestial glorie and renowne.

Because thy Churche thy Syon thow did'st buyld,
VVhere thow would'st euer haue thy honor hild:
And haest not vnregarded hard the plaint,
Of faithful folk, thrall'd in vntruths restraint.

And that no tyme remembrance may impare,
Of thy maintayned woork, and mercy rare,
Let people now, for people to ensew,
Thy prayse record, thy praises to renew,

For from high heauen to this low earthly place,
From blis to bale our Lord enclynes his face:
The groanes to hear, the greiued to releasse,
To free from thrall, to make affliction ceasse.

The more may Sion now sound foorth his fame,
Ierusalem his praises may proclame:
VVhere in his Churche his people do accord,
And whereas kings are subiects to their Lord.

VVho may o Lord thy datelesse dayes relate,
That of all ages ouerpasse the date:
It's thow to vs haest put apointed space,
O stop not me ere half I run my, race.

The world and welkin first by thee were made,
Thow heauens sphere, thow earths foundation laid,
Thow shalt endure, they shal consumed bee,
Thow madest tyme, tyme hath no force on thee.

Thease elements by alteration strange,
Shal changed bee, and so remaine in change:
But thow o Lord that woorkes all at thy wil,
VVa'st earst the same, the same remayning stil.

Vousafe o Lord there ofspring to preserue,
That thee in feare and faith and loue do serue:
And in thy wayes directed to remaine,
A lasting lyf in lasting blisse to gaine.

Vnto the Father, Sonne and holy Ghoste,
All praise and glory be ascrybed moste,
As herefore before the world begun
And as it now, and euer shal be donne.

AMEN.

University of Virginia Library

In imitation of the fyft penitential Psal.

Beginning. Domine exaudi orationem meam. Psal. 101.