Odes In Imitation of the Seaven Penitential Psalmes ::

Voutsafe admit thy gratious eares,
VVith myld regard for to attend,
The prayers that a playning hart,
VVith sorowing sighes to thee doth send:
And let thereto o louing Lord
Thy iustice and thy truthe accord.

In rigour of thy righteous doome
O do not skan thy seruants cause,
For there is none on earth alyue
Through faultlesse lyf free'd from thy lawes:
Then how may I in sinful plight
Seeme iust in thy all-seeing sight?

The freind of sin, the foe of soules,
Down to the earth my soule hath brought,
VVhich to the heauen should aspyre,
Since from the heauen it was wrought:
O raise it vp againe to blis
From earth and all that earthly is.

Amids the darck mis-led am I,
Where lack of light sinnes view denies,
I liue a lyf more lyke to death,
VVhyle dead from grace my body lies:
And whereas care through secret smart
Sends anguysh to afflict my hart.

But I o Lord recall to mynde
VVhat thow hast donne in tyme before,
And how thy iustice hath bene great,
But how thy mercy hath bene more:
Thus hope of help stil comfort giues,
VVhile mercy stil with iustice liues.

My stretched hands to thee display
The ensignes of my yeilding hart,
My soule as earth that water wants
Of vertues frute can beare no parte:
I faint, send soone relief of raine,
Least els vnfruteful I remaine.

Thy face of pittie not of wrath
Turne not o louing Lord from mee,
And let not Lord my owne misdeedes
Haue lasting force to anger thee:
For so might I compare my case
To theirs that furthest fal from grace.

But since my hope is firme in thee
Let me betymes thy mercy haue,
The way of helth make knowne to mee,
My feete from erring paths to saue:
Only to thee my soule retyres,
Only thy mercy it desyres.

O free mee from my sinful foes,
To thee I fly to be secure,
Teach me the lesson of thy wil,
And let me put it wel in vre,
Thow art my God and God of all
That for thy ayd and comfort call.

Thow wilt voutsafe to mee o Lord
Thy holy spryt to bee my goyd,
My faith and hope in thee is sutch,
And sutch it euer shal abyde:
Reuyue thow wilt mee for thy name,
Goodnes in thee requyres the same.

So that at last by thee o God
My soule from bale to blis bee brought,
And that in mercy thow subuert
All those my soules destruction sought:
And force of foes destroy'd may bee,
And I made safe for seruing thee.

All glory bee to thee o God,
The Father of eternal might:
And to the Sonne, and holy Ghoste,
Three in an vndeuyded plight:
As now it is, and was of yore,
And shal endure for euermore.

Amen.

University of Virginia Library

In imitatiō of the seauenth penitētial Psal.

Beginning. Domine exaudi orationem meam. Psalm. 142.