3 City of God, most glorious things

Of thee abroad are spoke;

4 I mention Egypt, where proud kings Did our forefathers yoke.

I mention Babel to my friends,

Philistia full of scorn,

And Tyre with Ethiop's utmost ends,

Lo this man there was born:

5 But twice that praise shall in our ear Be said of Sion last,

This and this man was born in her,

High God shall fix her fast.

6 The Lord shall write it in a scroll That ne'er shall be out-worn, When he the nations doth inroll,

That this man there was born.

7 Both they who sing, and they who dance,
With sacred songs are there,

In thee fresh brooks, and soft streams glance,
And all my fountains clear.

PSALM LXXXVIII.

1 LORD God, that dost me save and keep, All day to thee I cry ;

And all night long before thee weep,

Before thee prostrate lie.

2 Into thy presence let my pray'r

With sighs devout ascend,

And to my cries that ceaseless are,
Thine ear with favour bend.

10

15

20

25

5

3 For cloy'd with woes and trouble store
Surcharg'd my soul doth lie,
My life at death's uncheerful door
Unto the grave draws nigh.

4 Reckon❜d I am with them that pass
Down to the dismal pit,

I am a man, but weak alas,

And for that name unfit.

5 From life discharg'd and parted quite Among the dead to sleep,

And like the slain in bloody fight

Whom thou rememberest no more,

Dost never more regard,

Them from thy hand deliver'd o'er
Death's hideous house hath barr'd.

6 Thou in the lowest pit profound
Hast set me all forlorn,

Where thickest darkness hovers round,

In horrid deeps to mourn.

7 Thy wrath, from which no shelter saves, Full sore doth press on me;

a Thou break'st upon me all thy waves, a And all thy waves break me.

8 Thou dost my friends from me estrange, And mak'st me odious,

Me to them odious, for they change,

And I here pent up thus.

3

* Heb. A man without manly strength. The Heb. bears both.

9. trouble store] So edition Fenton, read sore. T. War Tonson, Tickell, and ton.

1673.

9 Through sorrow, and affliction great,

Mine eye grows dim and dead,

Lord, all the day I thee intreat,

My hands to thee I spread.

10 Wilt thou do wonders on the dead,

Shall the deceas'd arise

And praise thee from their loathsome bed

With pale and hollow eyes?

11 Shall they thy loving kindness tell

On whom the grave hath hold,
Or they who in perdition dwell,

Thy faithfulness unfold?

12 In darkness can thy mighty hand

Or wondrous acts be known,

Thy justice in the gloomy land

Of dark oblivion?

13 But I to thee, O Lord, do cry,

Ere yet my life be spent,

And up to thee my pray'r doth hie,

Each morn, and thee prevent.

14 Why wilt thou, Lord, my soul forsake, And hide thy face from me?

15 That am already bruis'd, and shake With terror sent from thee?

Bruis'd, and afflicted, and so low

As ready to expire,

While I thy terrors undergo

Astonish'd with thine ire.

16 Thy fierce wrath over me doth flow, Thy threat'nings cut me through:

Heb. Præ Concussione.

40

45

50

55

60

65

17 All day they round about me go, Like waves they me pursue.

18 Lover and friend thou hast remov'd,
And sever'd from me far:

They fly me now whom I have lov'd,
And as in darkness are.

A Paraphrase on PSALM CXIV.*

70

This and the following Psalm were done by the Author at fifteen years old.

WHEN the blest seed of Terah's faithful son

After long toil their liberty had won,

5

And pass'd from Pharian fields to Canaan land,
Led by the strength of the Almighty's hand,
Jehovah's wonders were in Israel shewn,
His praise and glory was in Israel known.
That saw the troubled sea, and shivering fled,
And sought to hide his froth-becurled head
Low in the earth; Jordan's clear streams recoil,
As a faint host that hath receiv'd the foil.
The high, huge-bellied mountains skip like rams
Amongst their ewes, the little hills like lambs.
Why fled the ocean? And why skipp'd the mountains?
Why turned Jordan tow'rd his crystal fountains?

*This and the following Psalm are Milton's earliest performances. The first he afterwards translated into Greek. In the last are some very poetical expressions, The golden-tressed sun, God's thunder-clasping hand, the moon's spangled sisters bright, above the reach of mortal eye, &c.

10

I will here throw together some of the most striking stanzas in Milton's Psalms. T. Warlon.

13. Why fled the ocean? And why skipp'd the mountains ?] The original is weakened. The question should have been asked by an address, or an appeal, to the sea and mountains. T. Warton.

Shake, Earth, and at the presence be aghast
Of Him that ever was, and ay shall last,
That glassy floods from rugged rocks can crush,
And make soft rills from fiery flint-stones gush.

PSALM CXXXVI.

LET us with a gladsome mind
Praise the Lord, for he is kind,
For his mercies ay indure,
Ever faithful, ever sure.

Let us blaze his name abroad,

For of Gods he is the God;

For his &c.

O let us his praises tell,

15

5

Who doth the wrathful tyrants quell.

10

For his &c.

Who with his miracles doth make

Amazed heav'n and earth to shake.

For his &c.

Who by his wisdom did create

The painted heav'ns so full of state.
For his &c.

Who did the solid earth ordain

To rise above the wat❜ry plain.
For his &c.

15

20

22.watry plain.] Pope, Windsor For. 146.

And pikes the tyrants of the wat ry
plains.

See note on Comus 429. T.
Warton.