PREFACE.; 129 sense plain and obvious. If the verse appears so gentle and flowing as to in- cur the censure of feebleness,. I may, bonestly affirm, that sometimes it cost me labour to make it so : some of the beauties of poesy are neglected, and some wilfully defaced.; I have thrown out the lines that were too sonorous, and have given an allay to the verse, lest a more exalted turn of thought or language should darken or disturb the devotion of the weakest souls. But hence it comes to pass, that I have been forced to lay aside many hymns after they were finished, and utterly excluded them from this volume, because of the bolder figures of speech that crouded themselves into the verse, and a more uneonfined variety of number, which 1 could not easily restrain. These, with many other divine and moral composures, 'are now printed in a second edition of the poems, intitled, Hone Lyricáe ; for as in that book I have endeavoured to. please and profit the politer part of mankind, without Offending the plainer sort of christians, so in this it has been my labour to pro - mote the pious entertainments of souls truly serious, even of the'meanest ca- pacity, and at the same time if possible, not to give disgust to persons of richer sense, and nicer education ; and I hope, in the present volume. this end will appear to be pursued with much greater happiness than in the first im- pression of it, though the world assures me the former has not much reason to complain. The whole is divided into three books. In the first, I have borrowed the sense and much of the form of the song from some particular portions of.scripture, and have paraphrased most of the doxologies in the New Testament, that contain any thing in them pecu- liarly evangelical ; and many parts of the Old Testament also, that have a reference to the times of the Messiah. In these I expect to be often censured for a too religious observance of the words of scripture, whereby the verse is weakened and debased, according to the judgment of' the critics : but asmy whole design was to aid the devotion of christians, so more especially in this part : And I am satisfied I shall hereby attain two ends, namely, assist the worship of all serious minds, to whom the expressions of scripture are ever ' dear and delightful, and gratify the taste and inclination of those who think nothing must be sung unto God but the translations of his .own word. Yet you will always find in this paraphrase dark expressions enlightened, and the Levitical ceremonies and Hebrew forms of speech changed into the worship of the gospel, and explained in the language of our time and nation; and what wouldnot bear such an alteration, is omitted and laid aside. After this man- ner should I rejoice to see a good part of the book of Psalms fitted for the use of our churches, and David converted into a christian : but because I cannot persuade others to attempt this glorious work, I have suffered myself to be persuaded to begin it, and have, through divine goodness, already proceeded half way through. The second part consists of hymns, whose form is of mere human coma posure ; but I hope the sense and materials will always appear divine. I might have brought some text or other, and applied it to the margin of every verse, if this method had been.as useful as it was easy. if there be any poems in the book that are capable of giving delight to persons of a more refined taste and polite education, perhaps they may be found in this part ; but except they lay aside the humour of criticism and enter into a devout frame, every ode here already despairs of pleasing. I confess myself to have been too often tempted away from the more spiritual designs I proposed, by some gay and flowery expressions that gratified the fancy ; the bright images too often prevailed above the fire of divine affection ; and the light exceeded the heat: yet, I hope, in many 'of them the reader will find, that devotion dictated the song, and the head and hand were nothing but interpreters and secretaries to the heart: nor is the magnificence or boldness of the figures ,comparable to flat divine licence which is sound in the eighteenth apd sixty- Vol.. IX. I
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