Should've tried a German composer first...

So I was poking around emusic, looking for a really depressing, religious piece of music to use for part of the backstory I'm writing (you know, the way that you do) and I've run into some roadblocks. See, I need something that would be played in an Anglican church (knock off all the Italians, the French and the Austrians), around 1750 (cross out the Romantics) and really impressively I-deserve-to-go-to-hell depressing.

And lo, I found one:

From Ich hatte viel Bekummernis, by JS Bach:



Bäche von gesalznen Zähren,
Fluten rauschen stets einher.
Sturm und Wellen mich versehren,
Und dies trübsalsvolle Meer
Will mir Geist und Leben schwächen,
Mast und Anker wollen brechen,
Hier versink ich in den Grund,
Dort seh ins der Hölle Schlund.

Translation:


Streams of salty tears are welling,
Floods are rushing ever forth.
Storm and waters overwhelm me,
And this sorrow-laden sea
Would my life and spirit weaken,
Mast and anchor are near broken,
Here I sink into the depths,
There peer in the jaws of hell.


The problem: It's Protestant, but it's part of a cantata, so it's not something that a small-town church choir would just be singing, I don't think. And I can't make a case for Norrington knowing German. Latin, French, Spanish and I'm told that if you know Latin well enough, you can make yourself understood in Italian, but German as the language of the intellectuals didn't start up until the 19th century.

Ah well. It's amusing me to do so, so I search on. There must be something by Handel I'm overlooking. :)