But since with true contrition
My sins I wail and blame,
Lord, save me from perdition,
To fear and praise thy name.

Lord, thou art all my comfort,

My Soul's sure prop and shield;

My hopes in my discomfort

Still on thy word I build.

My soul base earth despising
More longs with God to be,
Than rosy Morning's rising

Tir'd watchmen watch to see.

Lay thy Hope's sure foundation

In God, O Israel,

O God, in whom salvation

And boundless mercy dwell.

The leprous spots that stain thee

He then will purify;

Sin's fetters, that enchain thee,

He gently will untie.

PSALM XIII.

By the same.

LORD, how long, how long wilt thou
Quite forget, and quite neglect me?
How long with a frowning brow

Wilt thou from thy sight reject me?

How long shall I seek a way

Forth this maze of thoughts perplexed Where my griev'd mind night and day Is with thinking tir'd and vexed! How long shall my stormful foe,

On my fall his greatness placing, Build upon my overthrow;

And be grac'd by my disgracing!

Hear, O Lord and God, my cries;
Mock my foe's unjust abusing;

And illuminate mine eyes,

Heavenly beams in them infusing;

Lest my woes, too great to bear,

And too infinite to number,

Rock me soon, 'twixt Hope and Fear,

Into Death's eternal slumber!

Lest my foes their boasting make,

"Spite of right on him we trample;"

And a pride in mischief take,

Hearten'd by my sad example!

As for me, I'll ride secure

At thy mercy's sacred anchor,

And undaunted will endure

Fiercest storms of wrong and rancour!

These black clouds will overflow;

Sunshine shall have his returning;

And my grief-dull'd heart, I know,
Into mirth shall change his mourning.

Therefore I'll rejoice, and sing

Hymns to God in sacred measure,

Who to happy pass will bring

My just hopes at his good pleasure.

PSALM XXIII.

By the same.

To St. Bernard's "Cum mundus militat," &c.

THE Lord my pastor is; he tends me heedfully;
He still supplies my wants with all things needfully.

In fields he pastures me, clad with amenity;
Through which a silver brook slideth with lenity.

Through bushy labyrinths roaming audaciously,
Ready to lose myself, my Shepherd graciously
For his name's glory's sake eftsoons reduced me
Unto his holy fold, whence Sin seduced me.

Yea, through Death's vallies, a fruitful obscurity,
If I should walk, I should walk in security,

If thou dost guard me; for in tribulation

Thy rod and sheep-hook are my consolation.

Before mine enemies, enviously vicious,

Thou hast prepar'd my board with meats delicious;
With sweetly-swelling balms my head thou drowned hast,
With sweetly-tasting wines my bowls thou crowned hast.

Thy love I need not doubt, and thy gratuity
Shall me accompany to perpetuity;

So in this house I shall, O bless'd condition!
Of Heaven's endless joys here taste fruition!a

From the same MSS. This is a curious specimen of the Dactylic

measure.

ON AMBITION.

O COULD the mighty but give bounds to pride,
And weigh back Fortune e'er she pull them down,
Contented with enough, with honours satisfied,

Not striving how to make so much their own,
As to leave nothing for the rest beside;

Who seem by their high-spreading overgrown, Whilst they themselves remain in all mens' sight, The odious mark of hatred and despite!

Then should not, O, so many tragedies

Burden our knowledge with their bloody end,
Nor their disgrac'd confounded families

From so high pride to so low shame descend;
But planted on that ground where safety lies,
Their branches should t' eternity extend!
But ever those that overlook so much,
Must oversee themselves, their state is such.a

SONG.

DISDAIN that so doth fill me,

Hath surely sworn to kill me,

Harl. MSS. 6910, f. 123.