| |
Benedic, anima mea.
MY soule, giue laud vnto the Lord, | |
| My spirite shall do the same; | |
| And all the secrets of my heart, | |
| Praise ye his holy name. | |
| Giue thanks to God for all his gifts; | 5 |
| Shew not thyselfe vnkinde; | |
| And suffer not his benefits | |
| To slip out of thy minde: | |
| |
| That gaue thee pardon for thy faults, | |
| And thee restord againe, | 10 |
| For all thy weake and frail disease, | |
| And heald thee of thy paine: | |
| That did redeeme thy life from death, | |
| From which thou couldst not flee; | |
| His mercy and compassion both | 15 |
| He did extend to thee: | |
| |
| That fild with goodnesse thy desire, | |
| And did prolong thy youth, | |
| Like as the egle casteth her bill, | |
| Whereby her age reneweth. | 20 |
| The Lord with iustice doth repay | |
| All such as be opprest; | |
| So that their suffering and their wrongs | |
| Are turned to the best. | |
| |
| His wayes and his commandements | 25 |
| To Moyses he did show; | |
| His counsels and his valiant actes | |
| The Israelite did know. | |
| The Lord is kinde and mercifull, | |
| When sinners do him grieue; | 30 |
| The slowest to conceiue a wrath, | |
| And reddiest to forgiue. | |
| |
| He chides not vs continually, | |
| Though we be full of strife; | |
| Nor keepeth our faults in memory, | 35 |
| For all our sinefull life: | |
| Nor yet according to our sinnes | |
| The Lord doth vs regarde, | |
| Nor after our iniquities | |
| He doth vs not rewarde. | 40 |
| |
| But as the space is wondrous great | |
| ’Twixt earth and heauen aboue, | |
| So is his goodnesse much more large | |
| To them that do him loue. | |
| God doth remoue our sinnes from vs, | 45 |
| And our offences all, | |
| As farre as is the sunne rysing | |
| Full distant from his fall. | |
| |
| And looke, what pitty parents deare | |
| Vnto their children beare, | 50 |
| Like pitty beareth the Lord to such | |
| As worship him in feare. | |
| The Lord that made vs knoweth our shape, | |
| Our mould and fashion iust; | |
| How weake and frayle our nature is, | 55 |
| And how we be but dust; | |
| |
| And how the tyme of mortall men | |
| Is like the withering hay, | |
| Or like the flower right fayre in field, | |
| That fadeth full soone away: | 60 |
| Whose glosse and beauty stormy winds | |
| Do vtterly disgrace, | |
| And make that after their assaults | |
| Such blossomes haue no place. | |
| |
| But yet the goodnesse of the Lord | 65 |
| With his shall euer stand; | |
| Their children’s children do receiue | |
| His goodnesse at his hand: | |
| I meane, which keepe his couenant | |
| With all their whole desire, | 70 |
| And not forget to do the thing | |
| That he doth them require. | |
| |
| The heauens hye are made the seate | |
| And footestole of the Lord, | |
| And by his power imperiall | 75 |
| He gouerns all the world. | |
| Ye angels, which are great in power, | |
| Prayse ye and blesse the Lord, | |
| Which to obey and do his will | |
| Immediately accord. | 80 |
| |
| Ye noble hostes and ministers, | |
| Cease not to laud him still; | |
| Which ready are to execute | |
| His pleasure and his will. | |
| Yea, all his workes in euery place, | 85 |
| Prayse ye his holy name: | |
| My heart, my minde, and eke my soule, | |
| Prayse ye also the same. | |
| |
