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Commit thy workes unto the lord, and thy thoughts
shall be
directed.*1
finding these verses in a Booke
to be fit I have heare placed them
Infuse in me thy all affecting grace;
2
Thou* deepest searcher of each secret
thought,
So shall my work\e/s to good effectes be brought,
While I pe\r/use my ugly sinnes a space,
Which (I co\n/fesse) in me hath tane deepe place,
Whose staining filth so spotted hath my soule,
As nought will wash but teares of inward dole,
O Lord. Which do\e/st put into our minds good desires: give us grace to bring the same to good effect; through Jesus Christ our Lord, Amen.3
1. This is likely to be a paraphrase of
Proverbs 3:6 or
16:3
.
2. This poem is stanza 19 in
G. Ellis's 'The lamentation of the lost sheepe' (1605)
. Ellis
has added a fifth line but has copied it almost completely from
Nicholas Breton's The Passion of a
discontented minde (1601)
, stanza 4.
3. This opening prayer is drawn from the Book of
Common
Prayer, the collect for Holy Communion for Easter Day.