To Thee I cry: Lord, hear my cries!
O come with speed unto my aid.
Let my sad pray'rs before Thee rise,
Like incense on the altar laid;
Or as when I, with hands display'd,
Present my ev'ning sacrifice.

Before my mouth a guardian set,
My lips with bars of silence close.
O let me not Thy laws forget,
And wickedly combine with those
Who Thee and all that's good oppose,
Nor of their deadly dainties Eat.

But let the just wound and reprove;
Such stripes and checks, an argument
Of their sincere and prudent love;
Like odours of a fragrant scent,
Pour'd on my head, no breaches rent:
My pray'rs shall for their safety move.

'Mongst rocks their chiefs in ambush lie,
Yet have my suff'rings understood.
Our sever'd bones are scatter'd by
The mouths of graves, like clefts of wood.
Lord, save from those that hunt for blood:
On Thee with faith I cast mine eye.

O from their machinations free,
That would my guiltless soul betray;
From those who in my wrongs agree,
And for my life their engines lay.
May they by their own craft decay,
But let me Thy salvation see.