PSALM VI.

August 13, 1653.

10

LORD, in thy anger do not reprehend me,

Nor in thy hot displeasure me correct;

Pity me, Lord, for I am much deject,
And very weak and faint; heal and amend me :
For all my bones, that even with anguish ache,

Are troubled; yea, my soul is troubled sore ;

And thou, O Lord, how long ? Turn, Lord; restore My soul; oh, save me, for thy goodness' sake! For in death no remembrance is of thee;

Who in the grave can celebrate thy praise?

Wearied I am with sighing out my days; Nightly my couch I make a kind of sea ; My bed I water with my tears ; mine eye

Through grief consumes, is waxen old and dark

I' the midst of all mine enemies that mark.
Depart, all ye that work iniquity,
Depart from me; for the voice of my weeping

The Lord hath heard ; the Lord hath heard my prayer;

My supplication with acceptance fair
The Lord will own, and have me in his keeping.
Mine enemies shall all be blank, and dashed

With much confusion ; then, grown red with shame,

They shall return in haste the way they came, And in a moment shall be quite abashed.

20

PSALM VII.

August 14, 1653.
Upon the words of Chush the Benjamite against him.

LORD, my God, to thee I fly;
Save me, and secure me under

10

Thy protection while I cry;
Lest, as a lion (and no wonder),
He haste to tear my soul asunder,
Tearing and no rescue nigh.
Lord, my God, if I have thought
Or done this; if wickedness
Be in my hands; if I have wrought
Ill to him that meant me peace ;
Our to him have rendered less,
And not freed my foe for naught :
Let the enemy pursue my soul,
And overtake it; let him tread
My life down to the earth, and roll
In the dust my glory dead,
In the dust, and there outspread
Lodge it with dishonour foul.
Rise, Jehovah, in thine ire;
Rouse thyself amidst the rage
Of my foes that urge like fire;
And wake for me, their fury assuage;
Judgment here thou didst engage
And command, which I desire.

20

So the assemblies of each nation
Will surround thee, seeking right:
Thence to thy glorious habitation
Return on high, and in their sight.
Jehovah judgeth most upright
All people from the world's foundation.

30

Judge me, Lord; be judge in this
According to my righteousness,
And the innocence which is
Upon me : cause at length to ceasc

Of evil men the wickedness,
And their power that do amiss.

But the just establish fast,
Since thou art the just God that tries
Hearts and reins. On God is cast
My defence, and in him lies ;
In him who, both just and wise,
Saves the upright of heart at last.

40

God is a just judge and severe,
And God is every day offended ;
If the unjust will not forbear,
His sword he whets; his bow hath bended
Already, and for him intended
The tools of death that waits him near.

50

(His arrows purposely made he
For them that persecute.) Behold,
He travails big with vanity;
Trouble he hath conceived of old
As in a womb, and from that mould
Hath at length brought forth a lie.

He digg'd a pit, and delved it deep,
And fell into the pit he made :
His mischief, that due course doth keep,
Turns on his head: and his ill trade
Of violence will undelayed
Fall on his crown with ruin steep.
Then will I Jehovah's praise
According to his justice raise,
And sing the Name and Deity
Of Jehovah the Most High.

60

PSALM VIII.

August 14, 1653.

O JEHOVAH our Lord, how wondrous great

And glorious is thy name through all the earth, So as above the heavens thy praise to set !

Out of the tender mouths of latest bearth, Out of the mouths of babes and sucklings thou

Hast founded strength, because of all thy foes, To stint the enemy, and slack the avenger's brow,

That bends his rage thy providence to oppose.

When I behold thy heavens, thy fingers' art,

The moon and stars, which thou so bright hast set In the pure firmament, then saith my heart,

Oh, what is man that thou rememberest yet And think'st upon him, or of man begot

That him thou visit'st, and of him art found ? Scarce to be less than gods thou mad'st his lot;

With honour and with state thou hast him crowned.

20

O'er the works of thy hand thou mad'st him lord ;

Thou hast put all under his lordly feet,
All flocks and herds, by thy commanding word,

All beasts that in the field or forest meet,
Fowl of the heavens, and fish that through the wet

Sea-paths in shoals do slide, and know no dearth.
O Jehovah our Lord, how wondrous great

And glorious is thy name through all the earth!

SCRAPS FROM THE PROSE WRITINGS.

FROM “OF REFORMATION TOUCHING CHURCH DISCI.

PLINE IN ENGLAND," 1641.

[DANTE, Inferno, xix. 115.)

AH, Constantine, of how much ill was cause,
Not thy conversion, but those rich domains
That the first wealthy Pope received of thee !

[PETRARCH, Sonnet 107.) FOUNDED in chaste and humble poverty, 'Gainst them that raised thee dost thou lift thy horn, Impudent whore? Where hast thou placed thy hope ? In thy adulterers, or thy ill-got wealth? Another Constantine comes not in haste.

[Ariosto, Orl. Fur. xxxiv. Stanz. 80.]
THEN passed he to a flowery mountain green,
Which once smelt sweet, now stinks as odiously:
This was that gift (if you the truth will have)
That Constantine to good Sylvestro gave.

FROM THE APOLOGY FOR SMECTYMNUUS, 1642.

[HORACE, Sat. i. 1, 24.]

LAUGHING to teach the truth
What hinders ? as some teachers give to boys
Junkets and knacks, that they may learn apace.