Lancelot Andrewes · 60 of 61

On Human Frailness

Have mercy on me, Lord, for I am weak; remember, Lord, how short my time is; remember that I am but flesh, a wind that passeth away, and cometh not again. My days are as grass, as a flower of the field; for the wind goeth over me, and I am gone, and my place shall knave me no more. I am dust and ashes, earth and grass, flesh and breath, corruption and the worm, a stranger upon the earth, dwelling in a house of clay, few and evil my days, to‑day, and not to‑morrow, in the morning, yet not until night, in a body of sin, in a world of corruption, of few days, and full of trouble, coming up, and cut down like a flower, and as a shadow, having no stay. Remember this, O Lord, and suffer, remit; what profit is there in my blood, when I go down to the pit? By the multitude of Thy mercies, by the riches and excessive redundance of Thy pity; by all that is dear to Thee, all that we should plead, and before and beyond all things, by Thyself, by Thyself; O Lord, and by Thy Christ. Lord, have mercy upon me, the chief of sinners. O my Lord, let Thy mercy rejoice against Thy judgment in my sin. O Lord, hear, O Lord, forgive, O Lord, hearken, O Lord, hearken and do, do and defer not for Thine own sake, defer not; O Lord my God.