These are the houres


This is the day, and these are the houres, wherein that should have been acted; In this Day, and in these houres, We praise thee, O God, we knowledge thee, to bee the Lord; All our Earth doth worship thee; The holy Church throughout all this Land, doth knowledge thee, with commemorations of that great mercy, now in these houres.

Now, in these houres, it is thus commemorated in the Kings House, where the Head and Members praise thee; Thus, in that place, where it should have been perpetrated, where the Reverend judges of the Land doe now praise thee; Thus in the Universities, where the tender youth of this Land, is brought up to praise thee, is a detestation of their Doctrines, that plotted this;

Thus it is commemorated in many severall Societies, in many severall Parishes, and thus, here, in the shadow of this Mother Church, in this great Congregation of thy Children, all, of all sorts, from the Lieutenant of thy Lieutenant, to the meanest sonne of thy sonne, in this Assembly, come with hearts, and lippes, full of thanksgiving, this Day.

Accept O Lord, this sacrifice, to which thy Spirit giveth fire: This of Praise, for thy great Mercies already afforded to this Auditory assembled here, that till they turne to ashes in the Grave, they may remember, that thou tookest them, as fire-brands out of the fire, this Day.

— John Donne, November 5, 1622