University of Virginia Library



The .xij. Psalme.

O Lorde do thou saue and kepe nowe, for frendshyppe theris none:
The true and faythfull of promyse are from emonge men gone.
Wyth his neyghbour eche man speaketh wordes disceytfull and vayne:
Wyth smoth lyppes, but with double hertes they speake to them certayne:
The Lorde shall cut of al suche lyppes as speake fayre, but falsly:
And the tonge that speaketh greate thinges her selfe to magnifye.
All suche (I say) as do saye thus, let oure tonges be walkinge:
Our lyppes are on oure syde, and who is our Lorde or our Kynge?
The Lorde shall saye, now wyll I ryse, for the destruccyon:
Of the oppressed, and the nedies lamentacyon.
And them I will restore to healthe, they shal not be oppreste:
I wyl geue them a breathynge tyme, & eke a quyete reste.
The Lordes sayinges are pure sayinges, as syluer well tryed:
That in an earthē coffen hath ben seuen tymes wyll fyned.
O Lorde do thou saue and kepe them, kepe backe the flatterar:


Oute of thys generacyon kepe hym backe for euer.
For when mē of most wicked lyfe do reigne and rule the route:
Then do the vngodly wander on eche syde rounde aboute.