IT is not my intention to spend time in transcribing those several Elogies, which Holy men in their writings have given the Book of Psalmes; For to do that here, were but to make a tedious repetition of the same thing, and usurping anothers Province, but meanly to pursue that, which is no less powerfully, than frequently incul­cated by the Divine Oratory of the Church. I think there is none but will acknowledge that it is a part of Scripture, which is, and shall for ever be esteemed worthy the care, and study both of the greatest Scho­lars, and sublimest Wits of all ages; and where, as the weakest understandings may finde enough for their satisfaction, the severest and most curious Criticks, may have scope and opportunity to exercise, and im­prove their richest Talent. For what can be more plea­sant than to inquire, who were the Composers, to ex­plain the many obscure Titles, and frequent allusions to several customs by us utterly unknown, and to let the World understand, what it is yet ignorant of, where­in consisted the true nature of the Hebrew Poesy? But these, as above my Capacity, I shall purposely omit, [Page] and make it my business only to give some little ac­count of the design, and conduct of the following Work.

But before I can proceed to that, I must here, by way of Apology for my undertaking it, freely confess that such an argument as this, would have appear'd much better in the hands of one, who had made Divi­nity his chiefest study: and can only say for myself, that as I did it to please some particular friends, and for my own diversion (next to that great design of the glory of God, and service of his Church:) so having now at length finisht it, and by them, and several others urg'd to make it more publick, I thought my self bound, by some such Preface as this, to provide for this issue of my brain, with the same diligence and care that other Parents are wont for their legitimate Children. Not that I have so good an Opinion of these labours, as fondly to believe they deserve it, but because their na­tural deformities require the greater Portion to put them off. For I am too conscious of their many de­fects, and my own inabilities for so great an affaire, as in good earnest to attempt their defence: or, if I would have no way left to make it, but that, which to all ingenuous spirits is very disagreeable, by throw­ing the blame on others better able, and who have had, it may be, much fairer opportunities than my felf of performing so worthy an enterprise. Had any such excellent person so employ'd his vacant hours, it might have prevented the publishing these rude Essays of mine; whereas now all that I can expect from them is, that after a severe censure, they may happily be so fortunate, as to give occasion to anothers better thoughts: And I [Page] heartily wish some One of Our many Reverend, and Learned Divines, who have a true understanding and gust for Poesy, would hereby be provok't to undertake so noble a subject. For as there is not any condition of men so fitted for the sublime notions of Poesy as they; there is no study whatsoever, which either is so truly worthy of, or comes neerer their Profession. Theology and Poesy have in all ages of the World gone hand in hand, nor is there really such a disparity between their Natures, as is generally, though without any reason, imagined. For if one has been lookt on as containing the Will and Pleasure, the other no less has been reckoned the Stile, and Language of Heaven. Musick and Numbers, the chiefest of the Liberal Arts, serve but as Hand-maids to this Great and All-command­ing Mistriss. 'Tis I know not what kind of Divine Science, purely singular, and only like it self, which even in the Opinion of all, has more of Divinity in it than words can express, and therefore was continually al­lowed a Stall in the Temple, and received into the Devotions of the most Religious, and Civilized, as well as Barbarous Nations. If we look into the Jewish Administration, we shall finde that the People of Israel were no sooner delivered from the Aegyptian chains, and that the same Sea, which parted it self to make them way, returned upon their Enemies, but immediately Moses, their great Law-giver, continues the remembrance both of the Miracle, and their deliverance in a most excellent and Poetical song: which I verily believe is not only the most antient piece of Poetry now extant, but written as soon, if not be­fore any other part of the Pentateuch. Nay God him­self, [Page] we afterwards finde, gave him particular charge, and inspiration, a little before his death, to compose a­nother Hymn, with strict command to teach it the Peo­ple who thereby having it continually in their mouths, (such he knew was the charm of verse,) might both be encouraged in their duty, and become witnesses against themselves, when at any time they turned to Idolatry. If the Book of Job shall be esteemed by any of an ancienter date (which I should very hardly be per­suaded to assent to, as imagined to be done, though by the same hand, yet during his retirement with his Father-in-law, before he was sent on his great Embassy to Pharao) from the beginning of the third chapter, to the middle of the last, it is one continued Poem: in which there are such lofty and exalted Metaphors, lively Similitudes, pompous Descriptions, strength of Elocution, and prodigious flights of Wit and Fancy, that you cannot meet any thing to compare with it in the choicest collections of all the Old Poets. You there may see Divinity flourishing upon a root of Poesy; and that again loaded with the generous productions of Divinity: both so inseparably united each to other, that like stock and cyon they make but one plant, and leave it hard to be judged whether the Author were the greater Divine, or Poet. The Latines very properly comprehended both these sublime Functions under the single Title of their Vates, accounting it no less unfit than unreasonable, that two offices so straitly united of those of the Priest and Poet should be known by distinct, and different Names. I shall not here inquire into the Reasons they had for so doing, only this I am assured, how many and strong so ever they were, they cannot [Page] compare with Ours of the true Religion. The inspira­tions of both proceed from the same Father of Spirits, and are Celestial flames, that darted from above, are never well but when they are thither rising up again: Only Poesy like that Sacred fire, which God sent down of Old to consume the Sacrifices, returns with a little more smoke. They both came down from Heaven, and thither are alwaies taking their flight; but Divinity never seems to make such hast, as on the wings of good Poesy. I must confess at this day, but by what ill Fate I know not, they are looked upon without the least relation to each other, and grown themselves so much strangers, that like sister-streams once parted from the Spring, they run different courses, and are so far from meeting again, that they very seldom come in sight of each other. For though the Precepts of the School serve excellently, if rightly applyed, to adorn and enrich his Fancy, who hath a natural Genius to Poesy, yet we dayly see them ineffectual to create it. And he who findes not in himself those hidden Mines of Invention, and most happy and unaffected Facility, which only make the Poet, should never be persuaded by me to attempt the ravishing her by force, whom by fair means he cannot allure to be his Mistriss. For to what but this may we attribute those many lame, and imperfect draughts of Poems, both Originals, and Translations, which are to be seen in almost every language? where, if they have been the Authors own, they are his bare thoughts and lifeless Prose (for I speak now especially of Modern Poesy) made worse by the uneasy shackles of confining Metre: and if ver­sions so exactly laboured ad verbum, that what by [Page] the unlucky transposing of words, what by leaving out some little particles, wherein the grace of the sentence did consist, they lose all their former beauty, and from excellent Prose, though the language continue the same, degenerate into very indifferent, and untuneable Rhyme. This has been a failing so general, that I need not seek far to illustrate it by examples. But none in my opinion have been so guilty of it, as those, who have had for their argument some excel­lent piece of Scripture, or pious matter, which with the embellishments of Art, and the true Poets easiness, and invention would, upon the most durable foundations, have made the fairest superstructures in the World. But how miserably have the greatest part been overseen, whilst all their pains have been bestow'd to compose a few ill-contriv'd Cadences, putting themselves to an unimaginable torture to make those conceptions intolerable by the straitness of verse, which else might have done well enough in looser Prose. These are the men to whom we are in a great measure beholden for the low esteem. Poesy now has amongst us, though at the same time they have not only rendred that ridicu­lous, but humbled Divinity, which supplyes the Poet with his noblest, and most lofty subjects. And I am very apt to believe, that a man of an Har­monious soul (such as all true Poets are) though he be but indifferently skil'd in the controversies of the School-men, and the nicer points of Divinity, (by which possibly the Peace of the Church has been more disturbed, than ever it was advantag'd) shall make much better work in his way of [Page] an Argument taken from the Holy-Bible, than the sublimest and most Scholastical Wit, who is unac­quainted with the laws of Poesy. But how few are there of these severe Scholars, and only learned men (as they would be thought) in an age, who have any rellish, or the least esteem for Poesy, but rather judging it by the abuse, look on it as a fruitless, and most unprofitable study, unworthy the thoughts of such as are advanc't in years; and the greatest incentive to loosness, and debau­chery in youth? Others there are of a quite dif­ferent humor, who though possibly they may have for it the highest, and most reverend esteem, yet think Holy-Writ is barren of all good subjects, and the only thing that is incapable of its gay and splendid embroyderies. I shall make it my business therefore, in shaping an answer to both these, at once to defend Poesy in the general from those calumnies, which are no less maliciously, than falsly charged upon it, and then give a short assay to the restoring Divine Poesy to its ancient dignity and lustre.

If therefore we consider Poesy in her first institu­tion, e're she became a common Prostitute to lust, flattery, ignorance, and ambition, we shall find her alone acknowledged as the Soveraign Princess of the civiliz'd World, and behold her from her Throne giving Laws, not only to their Religion and Policy, but also to their manners. Her Court was esteemed the proper, and only school of Virtue, to which the greatest Princes form'd theirs, and under her custody alone was kept seal'd that Fountain, whence all [Page] the profitable instructions of life were to be drawn. Phylosophy it self was a thing of no use, and desti­tute of arms, till she supply'd them, nor durst it appear in the World without the easy chain of Verse, in token of submission to her, for its pass-port. And when afterward the Porch and Academy by main force brake it off, the strictest Precepts of the most rigid Sect, as to the regulating of Manners, came infinitely short of those examples, which she exhibi­ted on her Theaters. The same may be said of al­most all other Arts, that from her they receiv'd their birth and vigor. Neither was this Divine Mistriss less courteously receiv'd into the Camp, where her soft Numbers were with pleasure heard amids the confused noise of Arms. Hence mighty Generals had the best Instruction both for their Conduct, and Valour, and were encouraged by the Records of Antiquity, which some Poet had faith­fully preserv'd, to do themselves famous Acts, wor­thy the like praise of Posterity. This was that, which in all their Victories they especially sought, and in perpetual acknowledgement, that they thence receiv'd their greatest honour, in their most solemn Triumphs, when Crowns of Gold were only in state carried before them, they chose themselves to wear the Poets Meede, Laurel, Chaplets.

Such was Poesy of old, with a command as ab­solute, and unconfin'd as her Dominions, and al­wayes found either serving at the Altars, or of Counsel Royal to the greatest Princes. But it was not long that she continu'd in this great dignity and repute; For in punishment for her early defection from the [Page] service of the True God, where she first attended, to that of Devils, of a Princess she became a slave, and sensibly, though by degrees lost all her Title to Sove­raignty, and absolute jurisdiction, for in the Temples of the Heathen Deities, though by a kind of Spiritual Authority, she kept in awe whole Nations, which from her mouth receiv'd all their Oracles, yet even there, by her own Priests was she her self abus'd, and knew no Inspirations, but what either they did in­vent, or were suggested to her by the great Deceiver. Here it was, that by frequent use, she learnt all man­ner of Prophaness, and by often ascribing that to false gods, which was the alone glory of the True, from low, and mean thoughts of him, she brake forth into open rebellion, pursuing Heaven with her blas­phemies, and sending all her impieties up thither, whence at first she obtained all her Power; like a River, whose passage is obstructed, that runs back upon its own spring, carrying mud and slime along with it, and overflows, and defiles those Altars, which in its clear and un-interrupted course before it did but wash. Having thus humbled her, it was some a­ges e're the grand Tyrant offered her any other violence, and even fearless of a revolt, permitted her the free use of that command she had gain'd o're the minds of men, and still continue to be, according to her own nature, the Patroness of all true and Heroical virtue. But in process of time from his and the Priests, she was made the peoples Idol, and no longer remaining so much as a suppos'd Virgin, became perfectly obse­quious to the wills and humors of such as had the confidence to debauch her (though a perpetual curse [Page] of Poverty constantly followed the committers of so great a Rape) to please them she began to affect new, and immodest dresses, which to all the world else ren­dred her still more deform'd, and in a while guilty of all that obscenity, which she had before condemned upon the stage.

And in this state of slavery is she look't on by the most part of men, who only judging of her by the pre­sent, and what hurt she may do, by what she has already done (like Artillery by surprise come into the Enemies hand) forget how serviceable she has notwithstanding formerly been to the civiliz'd, and may yet be to the Christian World. Instead of censuring and condemn­ing her, it were good I think, to take her by force, and restore her to the Church of God, where she has been too long a stranger. Poems of Morality, which have been of late no less auspiciously, than worthily begun (such Epi (que) and Lyri (que) Poems I chiefly mean, though the Drammati (que) also may be of excellent use, so it be kept within its due bounds, as with all the liberty of Invention, riches of Fancy and the true Poets Art, have been contriv'd to express the real Portraict of Virtue in all its various appearances, and to de­scribe Vice in its lively, though otherwayes most hate­ful colours, these I say) make the first step to her con­version: and it may in my poor opinion be promoted amongst us, by translating anew the best of the ancient and some few modern Poets, who have made it their business to cloath excellent Morality, and various learning in a chast stile, and by gracefully rendring them in our own language: so that the sense may nei­ther seem tortur'd, and put on the rack by too strait a [Page] version, nor be out of knowledge in one too loose and flowing. But this great task can never be perfected, since we are to expect no new Revelations, till Poesy comes again to be settled upon her first great Basis, The Divine inspiration, reveal'd in the holy Scrip­tures.

And this brings my discourse to them, who con­fidently, though without any reason, assert that the sacred Word has not subjects agreeable enough for this kind of writing. But because Mr. Cowley in that part of his Preface before his Poems, which con­cerns his incomparable Davideci has taken the pains fully to remove that ill report, which was brought on this happy Land, if I may so call it, either igno­rantly or maliciously, I shall give my self the less trou­ble, and refer my Reader to the place it self, where he may have all that satisfaction that either Reason or Reli­gion can expect. Nor can those authorities he brings be excepted against, seeing he hath so strongly con­firmed them by the Poem it self, where though the Argument be wholy Divine, there is to be found, as much as could be expected for the first sitting, what ever is requisite to make an Heroick Poem beautiful: sound judgement, happy invention, graceful disposi­tion, unaffected facility, strict observance of decen­cies, and all set off with that majesty and sweetness of verse, that it is to be lamented he had not an oppor­tunity before his death, to finish it according to his own Model, and the provision he had laid up to that purpose. And truly all his Divine Poems, have I know not what greatness of spirit, which you shall seldom meet with elsewhere, and in which generally [Page] he has as much out-done himself, as in the rest equal'd the most happy of our modern Poets. So that if Religious, and Pious compositions, as has been often observed, please not, the fault can be no longer un­justly thrown upon the Materials, but must return upon the Composers want of skill to manage them to the best advantage. The Holy Bible doubtless is an excel­lent Soil, and of such kindly nature, that if it were cultivated either as it ought, or only as the barren sand of Antiquity, and all the tedious fables of the Heathenish superstition too often have been, it would produce the greatest, and most rich increase. For besides, that like them it has never yet been throughly broken up, the most unfruitful part of it, at least that which may seem so, abounds with inexhaustible Mines, which would plentifully reward any that should labour in them. And it were beside unreason­able to think that Palestine alone, which was so fruitful of all things else, should be barren only of Laurels.

The blame our language is a fondness every whit as extravagant, especially considering the great supply, which hath been of late years, and is daily brought to it by unexpected discoveries of Nature, and im­provement of the Arts, which do not only furnish the Poet with incredible variety of new and unusual con­ceits to exercise his Fancy, but with an immense com­pany of words also to enrich his expression But to such Objectors I shall only say, that if the English Dialect, not only as it is spoken at this day, but as it was in use the last age, were seriously and impartially examined, it will appear not only as copious and [Page] significant for Prose, but as comprehensive of the sub­limest notions of Verse as any modern Language in Europe, and to equal, if not in some qualities ex­ceed, those of old Rome and Athens. But for Numbers it is so naturally suited that excepting the Rhyme, which in so great a choice of words as we have is very easie to be found, even in ordinary speak­ing, or writing, they can hardly and not without some pain (if it were curiously inquired into) be avoided. But my zeal for Poesy has carried me, I am afraid, too far, and made me almost forget what I promised in the beginning, to give a short account of the following work.

It is now therefore some years since I had my first and great desire to turn the Book of Psalms into English verse, and in order thereto did, very lit­tle different from what at present it is, the CIV. Psalm. But I know not how, on a suddain, all my heat was laid, and the greatness of the labour, together with my own insufficiency, deterr'd me at that time from proceeding any further. Here­upon for about three years the design slept with me, till reading over with a little more than ordinary intention the CXIV. Psalm of Mr. Cowleys, I was again warm'd, and in imitation of him I was resolved once more to try how well or ill I could write after so excellent a Copy. Not because I was by that time grown more confident of my strength (which I must confess I found all along very unequal to so weighty an affair) but because I hoped thereby to encrease it, and fix my mind otherwise fleeting and uncertain upon something that might [Page] be of advantage, if not to the Publick, yet at least to my Freinds, and my own private Meditations. Considering also the infinite variety with which this part of Holy Scripture was replenish't, I judged the tediousness of the passage would thence, and by the many resting places I should meet with by the way, be very much abated. And that my Fancy might be as little confin'd as my time, I ever us'd to take that Psalm to paraphrase, which best suited with my present temper, and so letting out the chain a little longer, and never trying how far it reach't, I scarce remembred that I was bound. And this is some reason, though not the whole, of that different manner, which is to be seen in my Version. For even the Psalms them­selves are not all of a kind, that being no more necessary than that all precious stones should be Rubies, or Diamonds. If you look in one place you shall see some, taking rise from their lofty sub­jects, sore above the clouds, like Birds of Para­dise, as it were, all wing, and as if design'd for nothing lower than the Heavens: If in another, some of an humbler sort, in their strains lowly, and trailing on the ground, so far from attempting such a bold flight, that they dare hardly look so high: some are all gaudy, and embroydred, others again in a sad, and mournful dress, according as the condition of the Church or Author was at the time they were composed. This so great difference therefore being in the Original, no wonder if it yet appear more plainly in my rude and imperfect Copy. Besides I have been forc'd to make use, though as [Page] sparingly as I could, of several terms, and man­ners of speaking not to be found in our late ex­act Writers, nor so well fitted for the numerosity of verse as might be wisht, which yet by reason of our Translation of the Holy Bible, and by frequent use seem not altogether so rough as else they would: rather chusing to confine my self to expressions and phrases generally known, and allowed of in the Church, than appear guilty of any innovation. This may particularly be observ'd in the CXIX. Psalm, where I have kept exactly (as they fell in our Text without synonimous names) the Words, Statutes, Wayes, Testaments, Precepts, &c. Nor was it more ease to my self, than I hope it will be a pleasure to some few, who prefer such a translation before any other, where is taken a greater liberty. But I must confess ingenuously, I did it meerly to save the labour of a larger Paraphrase, which in a Psalm of that length, and plainness, would have been both tedious, and unnecessary. In other places I have done what lay in my power to make the Psalmists speak as intelligible and proper English as I could (though I have not altogether neglected it even in that) not introducing any obsolete, or fantastical words, or omitting those little particles of speech, the grace of any language, which make Poesy of all other kinds of writing the most distastful, and obscure. And indeed the manner of speaking amongst the Jews, by reason of their insensible connections, and frequent change and shifting of persons, discerna­ble enough by our own versions, is so difficult and harsh to our ears, even in the prose, that it very [Page] ill needs the straitness of Numbers to make it more dark, and uniuneable. To avoid this fault possi­bly I have been more prolix than I ought, though I cannot but say I was forewarned of it by a very judicious friend Mr. Thomas Sprat. Yet if it be an er­ror I have chosen rather to offend with Sieur Godeau, a forreigner, in the fulness of my Paraphrase, than with any of our own Countrymen in too strait a confinement. The only Person who seems to have kept a mean between these two extreams, is G. Bucha­nan, by that bare name better known, than all my art is able to express him. It would be too long to reckon up the many worthy men in this nation, (without mentioning King James of blessed memory, who amids the great affairs of his Crown thought it not unbecoming his Royal cares to divert himself with these Meditations of the princely Prophet and Poet) who have within this last age bestow'd their labours on this Book, among whom the most known are the Right Reverend Bishop of Chichester, now living, and Mr. George Sandys. There is also in private hands a Manuscript of somewhat an anci­enter date, which for the Persons sake, though out of its due time and place I shall joyn with them, and that is of the truly Honorable and Learned Gen­tleman Sir Philip Sidney. It was a long time, from my first hearing of it e're I could get a sight of the Papers, neither should I at last have ob­tained the favour, had I not us'd the mediation (amongst several others, to whom I am obliged,) of one to whom all good Learning of what kind so­ever it be, must remain perpetually indebted; and in [Page] this all will agree with me when they know I mean the Learned Dr. John Wilkins Dean of Rippon. This Pa­raphrase as I remember Dr. Donne calls by the name of Sir Philips and the Countess of Pembroks translation, and not without good reason, as far as I could judge by that cursory view I had of it, during the short time it remained in my hands; There appearing that difference as I conceived in the composition, which is wont to be in the aires of Brother, and Sister, not so unlike, as to have no resemblance, nor yet so perfectly resembling, as to have nothing but the sex to distinguish them. I mention not here a thousand others who have done excellently particular Psalms, as my Lord Bacon, Sir Hen. Wotton, Bishop Hall, Mr. Herbert, &c. and in­stead of many more, that absolutely compleat Gentlewo­man, whose leave I very hardly obtained to honour this volume of mine with two or three versions, long since done by her, the truly vertuous Mrs. Mary Beale, amongst whose least accomplishments it is, that she has made Painting and Poesy which in the Fan­cies of others had only before a kind of likeness, in her own to be really the same. The Reader I hope will pardon this publick acknowledgement which I make to so deserving a person, when I shall tell him that while as a Friend and one of the Family, I had the conveni­ence of a private and most delightful retirement in the company of her worthy Husband and her self I both began and perfected this Paraphrase.

But without all these in naming the two first above, (the Bishop of Chichester and Mr. Sandys) I have said enough to call my self into question for daring to offer any thing at this part of Scripture, after them. [Page] I must therefore clear my self, and here do it, of all ambition to vie with, or envy to detract from the true value of their labours, which must be judged meriting all Praise: and I am sure neither of these can be longer objected against me, than till any one shall be pleased to take the pains to compare all three together, and then it will immediately appear, how great the difference is between us, both as to the stile, manner of composi­tion and disposing of the Numbers. The Bishops is close, exactly answering the Text, and for that kind of mea­sure, which himself has truly observ'd to be the least graceful of any, very smooth, and roundly expressed; though that Essay of his on the CXXX. Psalm in Heroick verse, paraphrased for an Anthem, make it to be wish't, he had us'd a like freedom in the rest. Mr. Sandys on the otherside, though he has confin'd himself to almost as near a rendring of the words, has us'd greater variety of measures, and such as have by experience been found to be very agreeable to Musick the life and spirit of Poesy. In mine will yet appear a greater liberty, both as to the expression and the different sort of stanzas which I have us'd; but with what success I must refer to my Reader, of whose favour I shall have greater need to excuse my faults, than justice, and severity to examine them. I know all that has ever yet been assay'd may be infinitely out­done, and I should be so far from grieving at it, though now a little concern'd, that I heartily wish this way of mine may give the first occasion to some excellent Per­son to undertake another version, and publish the Book of Psalms with greater beauties than ever it has appeared in, since it left Jerusalem. In the mean time [Page] I could be content, I must confess, that this tryal of mine might be kindly received, that so I might there­by be encouraged to prosecute another design (in this way) which at present lies before me, The History of the first great week of the World, wherein new disco­veries of that, and nature, make the subject more large and comprehensive for verse than ever it has been; and in the performance of which I promise my self great assistance, by the unwearied and most successful labours of The Royal Society; which seems to be rais'd in this last age, not only for the improvement of Natural Philosophy in the general, but amids the invention of new, for the restauration of decay'd Arts, and amongst them all of none more than this of serious, profitable, and sober Poesy.

As for the manner, which I have endeavoured to observe, it has been to give, as near as I could, the true sense and meaning of the Psalm, and in as easy and obvious terms as was possible, suiting them to the Capacity of the meanest: which I found my self the better able to do, by having the difficulties resolv'd to my hands, by the labours of that truly Pious, and Learned Divine Dr. Hen. Hammond (though I made use also as occasion required of other Commentators.) If I have in any place not perfectly agreed with him, as in several left them, since it is not in matters of Faith, I beg that the same liberty may be given to me, which is indulg'd to all who write this way. I have bound my self all along to observe one certain measure in a Psalm, and after I had fixt the first stanza, made the rest like it, endeavouring so to dispose my Numbers, that neither the length of the staff [Page] should cause a too close and often repetition of the same Rhyme, nor the shortness of the measure confine the Fancy and hinder the freedom of expression: generally closing it with a verse of more than ordinary length, as being not only most proper for that place, as a band to the staff, and sense; but more tuneable, and graceful. For this reason also have I taken notice of the Versus intercalares, as I may call them, where they fell and made no scruple, on occasion given in the text, though it may be the words were not the very same, to make them more evident in my Version. For the Historical Psalms I chose the Heroick (or five foot couplets) as most suitable, using it very sparingly elsewhere. The XVIII. L. LXVIII. and CIV. I have done after Mr. Cow­leys Pindarick way, endeavouring by the kind of verse, which is various and uncertain, to imitate the many and suddain changes, which are in those Psalms. The XXI. and LXXII. I have with very little straining of the Text brought down to our times, and without offence to any, I hope, in the first parallel'd his Majesties sufferings with those of David; in the other the Happiness and Glory of his Kingdom with that of Solomon, heartily wishing that the sincerity of my Prayers may make amends for the defects of my Numbers.