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PSALM LXXXVIII.

Ord God, thou doft me fave and keep,
All day to thee I cry;

And all night long before thee weep,

Before thee proftrate lie.

2 Into thy prefence let my pray'r
With fighs devout afcend;

And to my cries, that ceafelefs are,
Thine ear with favour bend.

3 For cloy'd with woes, and trouble fore,
Surcharg'd, my Soul doth lie;

My life at death's unchearful door
Unto the grave draws nigh.

4 Reckon❜d I am with them that pass
Down to the dismal pit;

I am a * man, but weak, alas!

And for that name unfit.

*Heb. A man without manly firength.

5 From life difcharg'd and parted quite,

Among the dead to fleep,

And like the flain in bloody fight,

That in the Grave lie deep:

Whom thou remembereft no more,
Doft never more regard

Them from thy hand deliver'd o'er
Death's hideous houfe hath barr'd.
6 Thou in the lowest Pit profound
Haft fet me all forlorn,
Where thickeft darknefs hovers round,
In horrid deeps to mourn.

7 Thy wrath, from which no fhelter faves,
Full fore doth press on me:

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* Thou break'ft upon me all thy waves, *And all thy waves break me.

*The Hebrew bears both.

8 Thou doft my friends from me estrange,

And mak'ft me odious;

Me to them odious, for they change,
And I here pent up thus.

9 Through forrow, and affliction great,
Mine Eye grows dim and dead;
Lord, all the day I thee intreat,
My hands to thee I spread.

10 Wilt thou do wonders on the dead,
Shall the deceas'd arise,

And praise thee from their loathfome bed,
With pale and hollow eyes?

11 Shall they thy loving-kindness tell,
On whom the Grave hath bold;
Or they, who in perdition dwell,
Thy faithfulness unfold?

12 In darkness can thy mighty hand
Or wondrous acts be known,

Thy juftice in the gloomy land

Of dark oblivion?

13 But I to thee, O Lord, do cry, Ere yet my life be spent ;

And up to thee my prayer doth hie

Each morn, and thee prevent.

14 Why wilt thou, Lord, my Soul forfake, And hide thy face from me,

15 That am already bruis'd, and † shake With terror fent from thee?

Bruis'd, and afflicted, and fo low,

As ready to expire,

While I thy terrors undergo,

Aftonifh'd with thine ire.

+ Heb. Pra concuffione.

16 Thy fierce wrath over me doth flow,

Thy threatnings cut me through:

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17 All day they round about me go, Like waves they me pursue.

18 Lover and friend thou haft remov'd, And fever'd from me far;

They fly me now whom I have lov'd, And as in darkness are.

A Paraphrafe on Pfalm 114.

This and the following Pfalm were done by the Author at the Age of Fifteen.

W

Hen the bleft Seed of Terah's faithful Son,
After long toil, their liberty had won,
And paft from Pharian Fields to Canaan Land,
Led by the ftrength of the Almighty's hand.
Jehovah's wonders were in Ifrael shown,
His praise and glory was in Ifrael known.
That faw the troubled Sea, and fhivering fled,
And fought to hide his froth-becurled head
Low in the earth; Jordan's clear ftreams recoil,
As a faint Hoft that hath receiv'd the foil:
The high, huge-bellied Mountains skip like Rams
Amongst their Ews, the little Hills like Lambs.
Why fled the Ocean? And why skipt the Mountains?
Why turned Jordan toward his Chrystal Fountains?
Shake, earth, and at the presence be agaft
Of Him that ever was, and ay fhall laft;
That glaffy flouds from rugged rocks can crush,
And make foft rills from fiery flint-ftones gufh.

PSALM

PSALM CXXXVI.

ET us with a gladfom mind Praise the Lord, for he is kind: For his mercies ay endure,

Ever faithful, ever sure.

Let us blaze his Name abroad,
For of gods he is the God:
For his, &c.

O let us his praises tell,

Who doth the wrathful tyrants quell:

For his, &c.

Who with his miracles doth make
Amazed Heav'n and Earth to shake:
For his, &c.

Who by his wisdom did create
The painted Heav'ns fo full of state:
For his, &c.

Who did the folid Earth ordain
To rise above the watry plain:
For his, &c.

Who by his all-commanding might,
Did fill the new-made world with light
For his, &c.

And caus'd the golden-treffed Sun,
All the day long his course to run:
For his, &c.

The

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