CII.
A prayer for the soule distrest,
When, with affliction's weght opprest,
To God it poureth furth (apart)
The inward angwisch of the hart.
1
My prayer heare, O Lord.
Lett my complaint haue place.
2
From me in day of my distresse,
O do not hyde thy face.
Giue eare when I do call;
To answer mak no stay;
3
For, (as ane hearth my bones brunt vp,)
As smoak my dayes decay.
4
Sore smitten is my hart,
Yea withred as the grasse;
That to refresch my lyff with food,
I (carelesse) overpasse.
5
By reason of my groans,
Whose noise no respett gives,
Fast to my skin, (wt dolor dryed,)
My bones full closse do cleave.
6
Most lyk a pelican,
In places waist I prove;
Or, as ane owle, whose dreirie moanes
The deserts wild do move.
7
I lyk a sparow watch,
No myrth which doth admitt,
But, playning on the houses' top,
Doth solitarie sitt.
8
By foes reproaching tongs,
I all the day ame torne;
Who gainst me have let louse ther rage,
My overthrow have sworn.
9
As bread I ashes eate;
My drink I mixed with tears;
10
Becaus in furie thow dost frowne,
And all enflamd appears.
Thy hand on high me raisd;
Thy hand me low hath layd.
11
Most lyk a shade my dayes decline;
Lyk grasse cutt doun I fade.
12
Bot thow, O Lord, the same
Continew shalt for ay;
To generations all, (ay fresch,)
Shal thy remembrance stay.
13
Thow surelie shalt arise,
And pitie Sion's case;
For now the time, the sett tym's come,
To her to turne thy face.
14
Thy servants in her stones,
(Thogh scattired) tak delight;
Her trampled dust and ruins find
Compassion in ther sight.
15
So heathens shal thy name,
Earth's kings thy glorie fear.
16
When God shall Sion build, hee shall
In glorie bright appear.
17
The destitut's desire
With him shal fynd respect;
Their prayer hee will not despise,
Nor them in neid neglect;
18
For after ages this
Shall kept be in record,
And they that shall created be
Shall blesse and laude the Lord.
19
For hee hath looked doun
From his high sanctuarie;
The Lord from heaven vpon the earth
Hath cast his gracious eye;
20
Of such as be in bonds,
The heavie groans to heare;
And to sett free those that to death,
(As destinate,) ar neare;
21
In Sion thus to show
Jehovah's holie name;
And in Jerusalem aloud,
His prayses to proclame.
22
Evin then, when congregate
Togither, shal be seen
The people, when to serve the Lord
The kingdomes shall conveen.
23
(My dayes abridgt,) my strength
Hee weakned in the way.
24
In midst of my swift dayes I say'd:
Lord tak me not away.
Beyond all tymes draune out,
Thy years from chainge ar free.
25
Earth's grounds of old thow laydst; the heavens,
Thy workmanship they bee.
26
They perish shall, but thow
Continew shalt for ay.
Yea, as a garment all of them
Shall, (worne with age,) decay.
Evin thow shalt work this chainge,
As on a vesture weake;
27
They chaing'd, but thow shalt still be hee
Whose yeares no change partake.
28
Thy servants' children shall
Continew; and their seed
Established before thy face
For ever shal reside.
