This hymn of Purcell’s sets words by Dr William Fuller, Lord Bishop of Lincoln, and was the opening work of Henry Playford’s 1688 Harmonia Sacra. It is unclear how or when the piece would have been performed, as it does not fitany liturgical function.However, the hymn is untainted Purcell in style and quality. Purcell laid out the five-bar ground bass at the start of the work and shifts it only slightly and effectively for emphasis in the middle of thesong.