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Him all revere, and all obey

His delegated reign,

The flocks that through the valley stray, The herds that graze the plain.

The furious tiger speeds his flight,
And trembles at his pow'r;

In fear of his superior might,.
The lions cease to roar.

Whatever horrid monsters tread,
The paths beneath the sea,
Their king at awful distance dread,
And sullenly obey.

O Lord, how far extends thy name !
Where'er the sun can roll,

That sun thy wonders shall proclaim,
Thy deeds from pole to pole.

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PSALM X.

THINE is the throne: beneath thy reign,
Immortal King! the tribes profane
Behold their dreams of conquest o'er,
And vanish to be seen no more.

What eyes, like thine, eternal Sire,
Through sin's obscurest depths enquire?
What judge, like thee, on Virtue's foes
The needful judgments can impose?

The meek observer of thy laws
To thee commits his injur'd cause,
In thee, each anxious fear resign'd,
The fatherless a Father find.

Thou, Lord, thy people's wish can'st read,
Ere from their lips the pray'r proceed;
'Tis thine their drooping hearts to rear,
Bow to their wants th' attentive ear;

The weeping orphan's cheek to dry,
The guiltless suff'rer's cause to try,
To rein each earth-born tyrant's will,
And bid the sons of pride be still.

MERRICK.

1

PSALM XI.*

THIS psalm seems to have been composed by David, either during his persecution by Saul, or in the time of Absalom's rebellion.-From the latter part of the first verse to the end of the third is contained the advice of David's timid friends. David's reply, in the fourth verse, is abrupt, but beautifully poetical.-GEDDES.

WHY do you prompt my soul to fly,
Like the poor bird when danger's nigh,
That leaves its parent nest?

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* RICHARD Cumberland, esq. whose writings are so well known, and so deservedly admired, published, some years ago, + A Poetical Version of certain Psalms of David." My reader will, I doubt not, be so well pleased with the two specimens here given, as to have recourse to the work itself.

+ I have rendered into English metre fifty of the Psalms of David, which are printed by Mr. Strange of Tunbridge Wells, and upon which I flatter myself I have not in vain bestowed my best attention.-Memoirs of Richard Cumberland, written by himself, vol. ii. p. 274.

God is my hope, and though my foes
Prepare their shafts, and bend their bows,
I bear a fearless breast.

Tho' truth and justice be o'erthrown,
And earth's foundations inly groan,
And all is dark despair;

Thou, Lord, descending from above,
Shalt cover me with wings of love,
And the sad wreck repair.

They, who with faith sincere and pure
Adversity's hard lot endure,

A glorious prize shall gain;

But the oppressors of mankind,
Outcast of God, no rest shall find,
No period to their pain.

The Lord, in his vindictive ire,

With storms and showers of sulphurous fire These monsters shall destroy;

Whilst virtue reaps eternal peace,

In mansions where all sorrows cease,

A heav'n of boundless joy.

CUMBERLAND,

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Was composed, I think, during the rebellion of There are great beauties in this psalm,

Absalom.

which disappear in a dry prosaic theological version. The transitions are as bold as those of Pindar, and more emphatical.-GEDDES

PSALM XIII.*

OFFENDED Majesty! how long
Wilt thou conceal thy face?
How long refuse my fainting soul
The succours of thy grace?

* NATHANIEL Cotton was a Physician at St. Alban's, where he acquired considerable reputation. Dr. Anderson, in the life prefixed to Cotton's Works, laments that Of the family, birth-place, and education of Nathaniel Cotton, there are no written memorials.' He died 1788.-Mr. SOUTHEY'S Specimens of the Later English Poets, vol. iii.

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