PREFACE. 33 I am content to yield to Mr. Milbourne the preferenceof his poesy in several parts of his psalms, and to Mr. Tate and Dr. Brady in some of theird; but in those very places their turns' of thought and language are too much raised abóve a vulgar audience, and fit only for persons of an higher education. I have not refused, in some few psalms, to borrow a single line or two from these three authors; yet I have taken the most freedom of that sort with Dr. Patrick, for his style best agrees with my design, though his verse be generally of a lower strain. In some of the more elevated psalms I have given a little indulgence to my genius; and if it should appear that I have aimed at the sublime, yet I- have generally kept within the reach of an unlearned reader. I never thought the net of sublimewriting consisted in flying out of sight; nor am I of the mind of the Italian, who said, Obscuritybegets greatness. I have always avoided the language of the poets where it did not suit the language of the gospel. In many of these composures I have just permitted my verse to rise above a flat and indolent style -; yet 1 hope it is every where supported above the just con- tempt of the critics : Though I am sensible that I have often subdued it below their esteem; because I would neither indulge any bold metaphors, nor admit of hard words, nor tempt an ignorant worshipper to sing without his understanding. Though I have attempted to imitate the sacred beauties ofmy author, in some of the sprightly psalms, such as Psal. xlv. xlvi. xlix. lxv: lxxii. xc. xci. civ. exiv. cxv. ' cxxxix. &c. yet if my youthful readers complain, that they expected to find here more elegant and beautiful descriptions with which the sacred original abounds, let them consider that some of those pieces of descriptive poesy are the flowery elegancies peculiar to eastern nations and antique ages, and are much too large also to be brought into such short Christian sonnets as are used in our present worship; almost all those psalms I have contracted and fitted to morespiritual devotion, as Psal. xviii. lxviii. lxxiii. lxxviii. cv. cvi. cix, &c. Of the Metre and Rhyme. I have formed my verse in the three most usual metres to which our psalm tunes are fitted, namely, the common metre, the metre of the old twenty-fifth psalm, which I call short metre, and that of the old hundredth psalm, which I call long metre. Besides these, I have done some few psalms in stanzas of six, eight, or twelve lines, to the best of the old tunes. Many of them I have also cast into two or three metres, not by leaving out or adding two syllables in a line, whereby others have cramped or stretched their verse to the destruction of all poesy; but I have made an entire new song, and oftentimes, in the different metres, I have indulged those different senses, in which commentators have explainedthe inspired author And if in one metre I have given the loose to a paraphrase, I have con- fined myself to my text in the other, If I am charged by the critics for repeating the same rhymes too often, let them consider that the words which continually recur in divine poesy, admit ex- ceeding few rhymes to them fit for sacred use; these are God, world, flesh, soul, life, death, faith, hope, heaven, earth, &c. which I think will make sufficient apology ; especially since I have coupled all my lines by rhymes, much more than either Mr. Tate or Dr. Patrick have done, which is certainly most musical and agreeable to the ear, where rhyme is used at all. I mast confess I have never yet seen any version, or paraphrase of the psalms in their own Jewish sense, so perfect as to discourage all further attempts. But whoever undertakes the noble work, let him bring with him a soul devoted to piety, an exalted genius, and withal a studious application. For David's harp abhors a profane finger, and disdains to answer to an unskilful or a careless touch. A meaner pen may imitate at a distance, but a complete translation, or a just para- phrase, demands a rich treasury of diction and exalted fancy, a quick Mate of devout passion, together with judgment strict and severe to retrench every luxuri- ant line, and to maintain a religious sovereignty over the whole work. Thus the psalmist of Israel might arise in Great Britain in all his Hebrew glory, and enter- tain the more knowing and polite Christians of our age. But still t am bold to c2
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