Contents -BIBLIOGRAPHIC RECORD

Edward Farr, ed. Select Poetry of the Reign of Queen Elizabeth. 1845.

A Heauenly Prayer in Contempt of the World and the Vanities Thereof

LXXXV. Anonymous

O HEAUENLY God, that gouernes euery thing,

Whose power in heauen and in the earth we know;

Thou God, from whom the giftes of grace doe spring,

Attend my suites, who am opprest with woe:

O pitty, God, sweet God, some pitty take,

And clense my soule for Jesus Christ his sake.

I waile the life that I haue led before;

The daies ill-spent, that come into my minde,

Incense my soule with horrour very sore,

And threaten death vnless I fauour finde:

O pitty, God, sweet God, some pitty take,

And clense my soule for Jesus Christ his sake.

My graceless oathes now fade before mine eyes,

My youth, ill-spent, and worne by women’s guile,

My hidden sinnes, my wofull soule’s surprise,

My want of grace once had; and in the while

Cry mercy, Lord, that thou wouldst pitty take,

And clense my soule for Jesus Christ his sake.

O wayward world, that flatterest earthly man

With heauenly ioyes, and bringst him down to hell,

I loath this life: doe thou whatso thou can,

My longing is with God my Lord to dwell,

Who will repent, surely some pitty take,

To clense my soule for Jesus Christ his sake.