Wherfore dost thou forbeare in the defence of The plenteous housses sackt, the owners end | My durance doth perswade of fredom such diswith shame [eye sight doth appaire: paire, [should rejoyce the same That by the teares that bayne my brest, myne Their sparkelid goods; their nedy heyres, that From welth dyspoyled bare; from whence they Yet did I never cease thine ayde for to desyre, came they went, [them sent: With humble hart and stretehed hands, for to Clad in the clothes of pouertè, as nature fyrst appease thy yre. Naked, as from the wombe we came, if we depart, [to vex the hart? What toyle to seeke that we must leue? what bote What lyef leade testey men, they that consume their dayes [sum alwaies, In inwarde freets, untemperd bates, as stryef with Then gan I prayce all those, in suche a world of stryffe, [in lyffe; Ar take the profite of the goods, that may be had For sure the liberall hand that hath no hart to spare [vertu rare: This fading welthe, bnt powres it forthe, it is a That maks welthe slave to nede, and gold becom his thrall, [his chest with all; Clings not his gutts with niggeshe fare to heape But feeds the lusts of kynde with costly meats and wyne, [that pyne: And slacks the hunger and the thurst of nedy folke No gluttons feast I meane in wast of spence to stryve, [thus to reuiue But temprat mealles the dullest spryts, with joye No care may perce where myrth hath tempred such a brest; [may digest. The bitter gaull, seasond with swete such wysdome PSALMS. WHER recheles youthe in a unquiet brest, And justice wrought by pryncelye equitie, DOMINE DEUS SALUTIS. PSALM LXXXVIII. OH Lorde uppon whose will dependeth my wel- So perce thyne eares, that in thy sight som fa- The faithfull frends ar fled and bannyshed from my sight: Nor suche set forth thy faith as dwell in the Nor blasted may thy name be by the mouth of glorye of thy myght: And in the morning eke when that the slepe is Why dost thou not appere, oh Lord, that sholdest Of one, from youth afflicted still, that never did The dread, loo! of thyne yre had trod me under feet, [deth seme full sweet. The scourgis of thyne angrye hand hath made Like to the roring waves the sunken shippe surrounde, [succour found; Great heaps of care did swallow me, and I no For they whom no myschaunce could from my love devyde, [face to hyde. Ar forced, for my greater greif, from me their PROEM. THE Soudden stormes that heave me to and froo, To succher trueth and falshed to assaile, And never could attayne some pleasaunt gaile: As roune from porte to porte to seke availe: PSALM LXXIII. QUAM BONUS ISRAEL, DEUS. THOUGHE, Lord, to Israell thy graces plenteous be, [frendshipp light. I meane to such, with pure intent as fix their And such as I have held full dere have sett my trust in The; Yet whiles the faith did faynt that shold have been my guyde, [began to slyde: Lyke them that walk in slipper pathes my feet Whiles I did grudge at those that glorey in their golde, [they wolde. Whose lothsom pryde rejoyseth welth in quiet as To se by course of yeres what nature doth appere, [heire to heire; The palayces of princely fourme succede from From all such travailes free as longe to Adams sede; [nor by dread. Neither withdrawne from wicked works by daunger Whereof thire skornfull pryde, and gloried with their eyes; [clad in vyce: As garments clothe the naked man, thus are they Thus, as they wishe, succeds the mischief that they meane, Whose glutten chekes slouth feads so fatt, as scant their eyes be sene. [fayne Unto whose crewel power most men for dred ar To bend and bow with loftye looks, whiles they vawnt in their rayne; [frame. And in their bloody hands whose creweltye that The wailfull works that skourge the poore, without regard of blame, To tempt the living God they think it no offence, And perce the symple with their tungs that can make no defence. [to waver, Such proofes bifore the just, to cause the harts Be sett, lyke cupps myngled with gall, of bitter tast and saver: [foode, Then saye thy foes in skorne, that tast no other But sucke the fleshe of thy elect and bath them in their bloode, [this? Shold we beleve the Lorde doth know and suffer Foled be he with fables vayne, that so abused is. In terrour of the just, thus raignes iniquitye, Armed with power, laden with gold, and dred for crueltye, [faythe mayntayne Then vayne the warr might seme, that I by Against the fleshe, whose false affects my pure hart wold distayne. [doon, For I am scourged still that no offence have By wrathes children, and from my byrth my chastening begoon. [thy band, When I behelde their pryde, and slackness of I gan bewaile the wofull state wherin thy chosen stand; And as I sought wherof thy sufferaunce, Lord, shold groo, I found no witt could perce so far, thy holy domes to knoo; [trust, And that no mysteryes nor dought could be disTill I com to the holly place, the mansion of the just; [prepare, Where I shall se what end thy justice shall For such as buyld on worldly welth, and dye their colours faire, [buylding vayne, Oh! how their ground is false, and all their And they shall fall, their power shall faile that did their pryde mayntayne, [pleasaunt tourne, As charged harts with care, that dreme some Afteer their sleape fynd their abuse, and to their plaint retourne: [geaunce shall So shall their glorye faade, thy sword of venUnto their dronken eyes in blood disclose their errours all. [yshorne, And when their golden fleece is from the backe The spotts that under neth were hidd, thy chosen shepe shall skorne: And till that happye daye, my hert shall swell in care, My.eyes yeld teares, my yeres consume, bitwene hope and dispayre. [ments darke, Loo, how my sprits ar dull, and as thy judgNo mortall hedd may skale so highe, but wunder at thy warke. Alas! how oft my foes have framed my decaye, But when I stode in drede to drenche, thy hands still did me stay. [synne, And in eache voyage that I tooke to conquer Thou wert my guyd, and gave me grace to comfort me therin; [did cleue, And when my withered skyn unto my bones And flesh did wast, thy grace did then my simple spirits releue. [trust: In, other succour then, O Lord, why should I But only thyn, whom I have found in thy behight so just: [refuse, And suche for drede or gayne as shall thy name Shall perishe with their golden godds that did their harts seduce; [and joye, Where I, that in thy worde have set my trust The high reward that longs thereto shall quietlye enjoye: [grace, And my unworthye lypps, inspired with thy Shall thus forespeke thy secret works, in sight of Adams race. EXAUDI, DEUS, ORATIONEM MEUM. PSALM LV. GIVE eare to my suit, Lord, fromward hide not thy face, Beholde, sinking in grief, lamenting, how I praye: My fooes they bray so lowde, and eke threpe on so fast, Buckeled to do me scathe, so is their malice bent. Care perceth my entrayles, and traveyleth my spryte; The greslye feare of death envyroneth my brest. A tremblynge cold of dred cleue overwhelmeth my hert: O, thinke I, hadd I wings like to the symple dove, This peryll might I flye, and seke some place [cares. of rest In wylder woods, where I might dwell far from these What speady way of wing my playnts shold ther lay on, [me; To skape the stormye blast that threatned is to Rayne those unbrydled tungs, breake that con jured league, For I decyphred have amydd our towne the stryfe; Gile and wrong do kepe the walles, they ward both day and night: [ket stede, And myscheif joynd with care doth kepe the marWhilst wickidness with craft in heaps swarme Whilst I invoke the Lord, whose power shall me defend: see. cent eare. [discend My prayer shall not cease, from that the sunne Till he his aulture wynn, and hyde them in the [contryte, With words of hott effect, that moveth from hert Such humble sute, O Lord, doth perce my pay[of those It was the Lord that brake the bloody compackts That preloked on with yre, to slaughter me and myne. The euerlasting God, whose kingdom hath no end, Whome by no tale to dred he could diuert from synne. [hand, The conscyence unquyet he strykes with hevy And pruves their force in fayth, whome he sware to defend. Butter fals not so soft as doth his pacyence longe, And over passeth fine oyle running not halfe so smothe: [provoks, But when his suffraunce fynds that brydled wrath He thremeth wrath, he whets more sharppe than any tool can fyle. [wicked sort, Friour, whose harme and tounge presents the Of those false wolves with cooles which doo their ravin hyde; [Lord, That sweare to me by heaven, the fotestole of the Who though force had hurt my fame they did not touch my life. Such patching care I lothe, as feeds the welth with lies: But in the thother psalme of David find I ease, Iacta curam tuam super Dominum et ipse to enutriet. |