| William Stanley Braithwaite, ed. The Book of Elizabethan Verse. 1907. | | | | Praise and Prayer | | By Sir William Davenant (1606–1668) |
| | | PRAISE is devotion fit for mighty minds, | |
| The diff’ring world’s agreeing sacrifice; | |
| Where Heaven divided faiths united finds: | |
| But Prayer in various discord upward flies. | |
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| For Prayer the ocean is where diversely | 5 |
| Men steer their course, each to a several coast; | |
| Where all our interests so discordant be | |
| That half beg winds by which the rest are lost. | |
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| By Penitence when we ourselves forsake, | |
| ’Tis but in wise design on piteous Heaven; | 10 |
| In Praise we nobly give what God may take, | |
| And are, without a beggar’s blush, forgiven. | | | | |
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