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When they do most accafe us, may fee then Us to amendment hear them, thee decline; That we may open our ears, Lord! lock thine.

XXVII.

That Learning, thine ambassador,
From thine allegiance we never tempt;
That beauty, Paradife's flow'r,

For phyfic made, from poifon be exempt;
That wit, born apt high good to do,
By dwelling lazily

On Nature's nothing, be not nothing too;
That our affections kill us not, nor die.

Hear us, weak echoes, O thou ear and cry!

XXVIII

Son of God! hear us; and fince thou, By taking our blood, ow'ft it us again, Gain to thyself and us allow,

And let not both us and thyself be flain.
O Lamb of God! which took'st our fin,
Which could not flick to thee,

O let it not return to us again!
But patient and phyfician being free,
As fin is nothing, let it no where be.

UPON THE TRANSLATION OF THE PSALMS,

By Sir Philip Sidrey and the Countess of Pembroke.
ETERNAL God! (for whom whoever dare
Seck new expreffions do the circle fquare,
And thrust into trait corners of poor wit
Thee, who art cornerlefs and infinite)

I would but blefs thy name, not name thee now;
(And thy gifts are as infinite as thou :)
Fix we our praises therefore on this one,
That as thy bleffed Spirit fell upon
Thefe Pfalms first author in a cloven tongue,
(For 't was a double power by which he fung,
The highest matter in the nobleft form)
So thou haft cleft that fpirit, to perform
That work again, and thed it here upon
Two, by their bloods and by thy Spirit one;
A brother and a fifter, made by thee
The organ, where thou art the harmony;
Two that make one John Baptift's holy voice;
And who that pfilm, Now let the ifles rejoice,"
Have both tranflated, and apply'd it too;
Both told us what, and taught as how to do.
They fhew us iflanders our joy, our:king;
They tell us why, and teach us how to fing.
Make all this all, three choirs, heav'n, earth, and
fpheres;

The first, hea'n, hath a fong, but no man hears;
The fpheres have mufic, but they have no tongue,
Their harmony is rather danc'd than fung;
But our third choir, to which the first gives ear,
(For angels learn by what the church does hear)
This choir hath all. The organiil is he

Who hath tun'd God and man, the organ we:
The fangs are these which Heav'n's high holy Mufe
Whilper'd to David, David to the Jews,
And David's fuccefors in holy zeal

In forms of joy and art do re-reveal

28

To us fo fweetly and fincerely too,
would do,
That I must not rejoice as
"When I behold that these Pfalms are become
So well attir'd abroad, so ill at home;
So well in chambers, in thy church fo ill,
As I can scarce call that Reform'd until
This be reform'd. Would a whole ftate prefent
A leffer gift than fome one man hath sent?
And fhall our church unto our spouse and King
More hoarfe, more harsh, than any other, fing?
For that we pray, we praise thy name for this,
Which by this Mofes and this Miriam is
Already done; and, as those Pfalms we call
(Though fome have other authors) David's all;
So though fome have, fome may fome Pfalms
translate,

We thy Sidnean Pfalms shall celebrate;

And till we come th' extemporal fong to fing,
(Learned the first hour that we see the King,
Who hath translated those translators) may
Thefe, their fweet learned labours, all the way
Be as our tuning, that when hence we part,
We may fall in with them, and sing our part.

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Seal then this bill of my divorce to all
On whom thofe fainter beams of love did fall;
Marry thofe loves which in youth scatter'd be
On face, wit, hopes, (falle miftreffes) to thee.
Churches are best for prayer that have leaft light:
To fee God only I go out of fight;
And to 'fcape ftormy days I choofe
An everlafting night.

ON THE SACRAMENT,

He was the Word that spake it,
He took the bread and brake it;
And what that Word did make it,
I do believe and take it.

THE LAMENTATION OF JEREMY,

For the most part according to Tremellius.

CHAP. I.

1. How fits this city, late moft populous, Thus folitary, and like a widow thus? Ampleft of nations, queen of provinces She was, who now thus tributary is.

2. Still in the night the weeps, and her tears fall
Down by her cheeks along, and none of all
Her lovers comfort her. Perfidiously
Her friends have dealt, and now are enemy.

3. Unto great bondage and afflictions
Juda is captive led: thofe nations
With whom the dwells no place of rest afford;
In ftraits she meets her perfecutor's fword.

4. Empty are the gates of Sion, and her ways
Mourn, because none come to her folemn days.
Her priests do groan, her maids are comfortless,
And fhe's unto herself a bitterness.

5. Her foes are grown her head, and live at peace,
Because when her tranfgreffions did increase
The Lord truck her with fadnefs. Th' enemy
Doth drive her children to captivity.

6. From Sion's daughter is all beauty gone. Like harts, which feek for pafture and find none, [go. Her princes are; and now before the foe, Which ftill purfues them, without ftrength they

7. Now in their days of tears, Jerufalem
(Her men flain by the foe, none fuccouring them)
Remembers what of old the esteem'd moft,
Whilft her foes laugh at her for which the 'ath loft.

8. Jerufalem hath finn'd, therefore is the
Remov'd, as women in 1acleanness be:
Who honour'd, fcorn her; for her foulnefs they
Have feen: herself doth groan, and turn away.

9. Her fouinefs in her fkirts was feen, yet fhe
Remember'd not her end; miraculously
Therefore the fell, none comforting. Behold,
grows
O Lord! my affliction, for the foc

bold.

10. Upon all things, where her delight hath been, The foe hath ftretch'd his hand; for the hath feen Heathen, whors thea commandst should not do lo Into her holy fanctuary go.

Forgot his footflool in the day of wrath!

11. And all her people groan and feek for bread; | To earth the beauty' of Ifrael, and hath
And they have given, only to be fed,
All precious things, wherein their pleasure lay.
How cheap I'm grown, O Lord! behold, and weigh.

12. All this concerns not you, who pass by me;
O! fee, and mark if any forrow be
Like to my forrow, which Jehovah hath
Done to me in the day of his fierce wrath.

13. That fire, which by himself is governed,
He hath caft from heav'n on my bones, and fpread
A net before my feet, and me o'erthrown,
And made me languish all the day alone.

14. His hands hath of my fins framed a yoke,
Which wreath'd, and caft upon my neck, hath broke
My ftrength. The Lord unto thofe enemies
Hath given me, from whom I cannot rise.

15. He under foot hath trodden in my fight
My ftrong men; he did company excite
To break my young men; he the wine-prefs hath
Trod upon Juda's daughter in his wrath."

16. For these things do I weep; mine eye, mine eye
Cafts water out; for he which should be nigh
To comfort me is now departed far;
The foe prevails, forlorn my children are.

2. The Lord unfparingly hath fwallowed
All Jacob's dwellings and demolished
To ground the ftrength of Juda, and profan'd
The princes of the kingdom and the land.

3. In heat of wrath the horn of Ifrael he
Hath clean cut off; and, left the enemy
Be hinder'd, his right hand he doth retire,
But is t'wards Jacob all devouring fire.

4. Like to an enemy he bent his bow,
His right hand was in pofture of a foe;
To kill what Sion's daughter did defire,
'Gainst whom his wrath he poured forth like fire.

5. For like an enemy Jehovah is,
Devouring Ifrael and his palaces;
Destroying holds, giving additions
To Juda's daughters lamentations.

6. Like to a garden hedge he hath caft down
The place where was his congregation,
And Sion's feafts and Sabbaths are forgot;
Her king, her priest, his wrath regarded not.

7. The Lord for fakes his altar, and detefis
His fanctuary; and in the foes hands refts

17. There's none, though Sion do stretch out her His palace, and the walls, in which their cries

hand,

To comfort her: it is the Lord's command

That Jacob's fees girt him: Jerufalem

Is as an unclean woman amongst them.

18. But yet the Lord is just and righteous ftill;
I have rebell'd against his holy will;
O hear, all people! and my forrow see,
My maids, my young men, in captivity.

19. I called for my lovers then, but they
Deceiv'd me, and my priests and elders lay
Dead in the city; for they fought for meat, [get.
Which should refresh their fouls, and none could

20. Because I am in straits, Jehovah! fee
My heart o'erturn'd, my bowels muddy be;
Because I have rebell'd fo much, as faft
The fword, without as death within doth waste.

Of all which here I mourn, none comforts me;
Myes have heard my grief, and glad they be
That thou hast done it; but thy promis'd day
Will come, when, as I fuffer, fo fhall they.

22. Let all their wickedness appear to thee;
Do unto them as thou haft done to me
For all my fins. The fighs which I have had
Are very many, and my heart is fad.

CHAP. II.

1. How over Sion's daughter hath God hang

Are heard, as in the true folemnities.

8. The Lord hath caft a line, so to confound And level Sion's walls unto the ground:

He draws not back his hand, which doth o'er

turn

The wall and rampart, which together mourn.

9. The gates are funk unto the ground, and he
Hath broke the bar; their kings and princes be
Amongst the heathen without law, nor there
Unto the prophets doth the Lord appear.

10. There Sion's elders on the ground are plac'd,
And filence keep; duft on their heads they caft;
In fackcloth hath they girt themselves, and low
The virgins towards ground their heads do throw.

11. My bowels are grown muddy, and mine eyes
Are faint with weeping; and my liver lies
Pour'd out upon the ground, for mifery
That fucking children in the streets do die.

12. When they had cry'd unto their mothers, Where

Shall we have bread and drink? they fainted
there;

And in the street, like wounded perfons, lay,
Till 'twixt their mothers breafts they went away.

13. Daughter Jerufalem, oh! what may be

A witness or comparison for thee?
Sion, to ease thee, what fhall I name like thee?

His wrath's thick cloud! and from heaven hathung | Thy breach is like the fea; what help can be?

YOL. IV.

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19. Arife, cry in the night, pour out thy fins,
Thy heart, like water, when the watch begins;
Lift up thy hands to God, left children die,
Which, faint for hunger, in the streets do lie.

20. Behold, O Lord! confider unto whom
Thou hast done this; what, fhall the women come
To eat their children of a fpan? thall thy
Prophet and priest be flain in fanctuary?

21. On gronnd in streets the young and old do lie;
My virgins and young men by fword do die;
Then in the day of thy wrath thou haft flain,
Nothing did thee from killing them contain.

22. As to a folemn feaft, all whom I fear'd
Thou call'st about me; when thy wrath appear'd,
None did remain or 'fcape; for those which I
Brought up did perifh by mine enemy.

CHAP. III.

I. I AM the man which have aficion feen,
Under the rod of God's wrath having been.
2. He hath led me to darkness, not to light,
3. And against me all day his hand doth fight.

4. He hath broke my bones, worn out my flesh and fkin;

5. Built up against me; and hath girt me in With hemlock, and with labour; 6. And fet me In dark, as they who dead for ever be.

7. He bath hedg'd me,left l'fcape, and added more To my feel fetters, heavier than before.

8. When I cry out, he out fhuts my prayer; 9. And hath [path. Stopp'd with hewn ftone my way, and turn'd my

10. And like a lion bid in fecrecy, Or bear, which lies in wait, he was to me.

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