A paraphrase upon the canticles and some select hymns of the New and Old Testament, with other occasional compositions in English verse. By Samuel Woodford |
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 | A paraphrase upon the canticles |  |
Deo Opt. Max. S.
Qui huc usque auxiliatus est & in futurum mihi Providebit.
This Altar to Thy Name, Great God, I raise,
The Pious Labour of my too late Praise:
With Stones from Thine own sacred Quarry brought,
Tho by my Artless Hand but rudely wrought.
Artless and rude, tho its Traces be,
Methinks I by it clearly see,
My Past Supports, and Future care,
And what of both 'is my present share,
The Guidance of the Love Divine,
Making me call his Pleasure mine.
O let it in Thy Presence stand,
Inviolable from any Hand.
And when on it thou deignst to look,
Write down the Votary in Thy Book.
Who at its Foot, has his Dependance set,
And in th' Inscription thus proclaimes Thee Great;
To God, who hitherto has helpt; my only Trust,
And for the Future will provide, for He is Just.
Ad Psalmos, 1667.
107
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The following Compositions and Translations are therefore here Printed by the Authors consent and allowance (suitable enough to the general Title of RIMES, and he hopes not unbecoming his Habit, tho done the most of them long before his Admission into Holy Orders) because they have (as to such of them at least, which he could much rather have wished lost and forgotten) by some too curious Collector of such Trifles against his will and knowledg, been already from very false Copies very falsly Published, and he is not wholly out of danger for the rest, as neither was he till now for a good number of those above, whose Copies he doubts are in many Hands.
| A paraphrase upon the canticles | |