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TILE WORKS or THE REV. ISAAC WATTS, D.D. IN NINE VOLUMES. VOL. IX. CONTAINING AN ESSAY ON PSALMODY; THE PSALMS OP DAVID ; HYMNS AND SPIRITUAL SONGS; DIVINE SONGS FOR CHILDREN; LYRIC POEMS; RELIACO) JUVENILES; AND REMNANTS OF TIME. LONDON: 'PRINTED TOR LONGMAN. HURST, REES, ORME AND BROWN, PATERNOSTER. ROW ; BAINES, ROBINSON AND SON, HARDCASTLE, AND HEATON, LEEDS; By Edward Baines, Leed., 1813.
CONTENTS OF VOLUME IX. PAGE. A SHORT Essay toward the Improvement of Psalmody ... 1 THE PSALMS OF DAVID Imitated in the Language of the New Testament, and applied to the Christ- HYMNS AND SPIRITUAL SONGS. DIVINE SONGS. Attempted in Easy Language, for the Use of Children . MORAL SONGS. A slight Specimen of Moral Songs ... HORS LYRIC/E. Poems addressed to the Author of Norm Lyricm .. ,Poems chiefly of the Lyric kind ... .. .. .. RELIQUI/E JUVENILES; Or, Miscellaneous Thoughts in Prose and Verse ... REMNANTS OF TIME, Employed in Prose and Verse ; or, Short Essays and Composures on various ... 207 ... 210 ... 228 251 314 Index, Src. to Psalms and Hymns .
A SHORT ESSAY TOWARD THE IMPROVEMENT OF PSALMODY: OR, AN ENQUIRY How the Psalms of David ought to be Translated into Christian Songs, and how lawful and necessary it is to compose other Hymns according to the clearer Revelations of the Gospel, for the Use of the Christian Church. VOL. IX. A
A SHORT ESSAY TOWARD THE IMPROVEME tT OF PSALMODY: OR, do Enquiry how the Psalms of David ought to be Translated into Christian Songs, and how lawful and necessazy it is to compose other Hymns according to the clearer Revelations of the Gospel, for the Use of the Christian Church. TO speak the glories of God in a religious song, or to breathe out the joys of our own spirits to God with the melody of our voice, is an exalted part of divine worship. But so many are the imperfections in the practice of this duty, that the greatest part of Christians find but little edification or comfort in it. There are some churches that utterly disallow singing ; and I am persuaded that the poor performance of it in the best socie- ties, with the mistaken rules to which it is confined, is one great reason of their entire neglect ; for we are left at a loss, say they, what is the matter and manner of this duty ; and therefore they utterly refuse : Whereas if this glorious piece of worship were but seen in its original beauty, and one that believes not this ordinance, or is unlearned in this part of christianity should come into such an assembly, " He would be convinced of all, he would be judged of all, he would fall down on his face, and report that God was in the midst of it of a truth ;" i Cor. xiv. 24, 25. In order to trace out the matter or subject of religious sing- ing, let us collect into one view the chief texts of the New Tes- tament where this worship is mentioned, and afterwards see what arguments may be deduced from thence, to prove, that it is proper to use spiritual songs of human composure, as well as the psalms of David, or the words of other songs recorded in scripture. The most considerable texts are these ; Matt. xxvi. 30. and Mark xiv. 26. relate, That our blessed Lord and his disciples sung an hymn. Acts xvi. 25. " Paul and Silas prayed and sung praises unto God." 1 Cor. xiv. 15. "I will sing with the Spirit, and I will sing with the understanding also." rer. 26. " Every one of you bath a psalm." Eph. v. 19, 20. " Speaking to yourselves in psalms and hymns, and spi- A 2
i ON THE IMPROVEMENT OF PSALMODY. ritual songs ; singing and making melody in your hearts to the Lord, giving thanks always for all things to God and the Father, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ. Col. iii. 16, 17. " Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly, in all wisdom teaching and admonishing one another in psalms and hymns, and spiritual songs ; singing with grace in your hearts to the Lord : And whatsoever ye do in word or in deed, do all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God and the Father by him. James v. 13. as Is any among you afflicted, let bins pray : Is any merry, let him sing psalms." Rev. v. 9. " And they. sung a new song, saying, 1'hou art worthy to take the book and to open the seals thereof, for thou west slain, and hast redeemed us to God by thy blood." Rev. xiv. 3. " And they sung as it were a new song before the throne." Rev. xv. 3. " And they sing the song of Moses the servant Of God, and the song of the Lamb, saying, great and marvellous are thy works, &c." To all these I might add Acts iv. 24. &c. where it is supposed the disciples met to- gether and sung; for they lift up their voice to God with one accord, and said, " Lord ! thou art our God, which hast made heaven and earth, and the sea, and all that in them is: Who by the mouth of thy servant David hast said, Why did the hea- then rage, and the people imagine a vain thing. The kings of the earth stood up, and the rulers were gathered together against the Lord, and against his Christ. For of a truth; against thy holy child Jesus whom thou hast anointed, both Herod and Pontius Pilate, with the gentiles and the people of Israel, were gathered together for to do whatsoever thy hand and thy counsel determined before to be done, &c." If we turn over the New Testament, and search all the songs that are there written, we shall find the matter or subject of them as various as the occasions upon which they were sung or spoken: Such are the song of the Virgin Mary; Lukei. 46, &c. The song of Zecharias ; ver. 67. The song of the angels ; Luke ii. 13. And of Simeon, ver. 29. Besides many others in the book of Revelation. The three chief words used to express the matter of singing, are .Largos, vpvoy ass nlm : Psalms, hymns, and songs, as the three verbs from which these are derived are generally used to express the act of singing, +La1Aw, Upv[w, L. Now if it were lawful after so many learned contentions about these words, I would give my sense of them thus : 1. I think no man bath better explained the original mean - ing of these words than Zanchy. A psalm, TaXpoó, is such a song as usually is sung with other instruments besides the tongue. Hymns, vpros, such as are made only to express the praises, and set out the excellencies of God. Songs, stags, such as contain not only praises, but exhortations, prophecies, thanksgivings; and these only sung with the voice.
AN ESSAY. b . 2. The scripture doth not always confine itself to the ori- ginal meaning of all these words ; for ,1- axpoç, a psalm, and the word ,j.&te, are used; 1 Cor. xiv. and in other places of the New Testament, where we can never suppose the primitive church in those days had instruments of music. And the word egt,, a song, is used several times in the book of Revelation, where harps are joined with voices in the emblematical prophecy. 3. The sense therefore of these words in the New Testa- ment seems to be thus distinguished. A psalm is a general name for any thing that is sung in divine worship, whatsoever be the particular theme or matter; and the verb is designed to express the melody itself rather than to distinguish the matter of the song, or manner whereby the melody or music is performed and therefore in Eph. v. 19. our translators have well rendered a +y SoyrEÇ %Ct4 axXOVTES, " singing and making melody; and it should be thus rendered ; James v. 13. "Is any merry, let him make melody." I confess in the New Testament the noun q.aaµos refers generally to the book of psalms, and without doubt there are many of the psalms of David and Asaph, and other songs among the books of the Old Testament which may be prudently chosen and sung by Chris- tians, and may be well accommodated to the lips and hearts of the church tinder the gospel. Yet this word is once used in ano- ther sense, as I shall show afterwards. An hymn, whether implied in the verb vjAYEN, or expressed in the noun vµa, doth always retain its original signification; and intend a song whose matter or design is praise : Nor is there any thing in the nature oc use of the word either in scripture or other authors, that determines it to signify an immediate inspira- tion, or human composure. A song, 'aa,,, denotes any theme or subject composed into a form fit for singing, and seems to intend somewhat suited to the gospel- state, rather than any Jewish psalms or songs in all the five verses in the New Testament where it is used. Eph. v..-19. and Col. iii. 16. It is joined with the word spiritual: and that seems to be used by the apostle in all his epistles, as a very distinguishing word between the law and the gospel, the Jewish and the Christian worship. The Jews had carnal ordinances, and carnal commandments, and their state and dispensation is often called flesh, but the church under the gospel is, " a spiritual house, blessed with spiritual blessings, endowed with spiritual gifts, to worship God in spirit and in truth, to offer spiritual sacrifices, and to sing spiritual songs. Col. iii. 16. confirms this sense " for the word of Christ must dwell richly in us in psalms and hymns, and spiritual songs." Now though the books of the Old Testament may in some sense be called " the word of Christ," because the same A3
6 ON THE IMPROVEMENT OP PSALMODY. Spirit which was afterwards given to Christ the Mediator did inspire them ; yet this seems to have a peculiar reference to the doctrine and discoveries of Christ under the gospel, which might be composed into spiritual songs for the greater ease of memory in learning, teaching and admonishing one another. Rev. y. 9. and xiv. 3. There is mention of a new song, and that is pure evangelical language, suited to the New Tes- tament, the new covenant, the new and living way of access to God, and to the new commandment of him who sits upon the throne, as and behold, he makes all things new." The words of this song are, " Worthy is the Lamb, for thou wast slain, and hast redeemed us to God by thy blood, &c. and none could learn it but those who follow the Lamb, who were redeemed from among men, &c." And it must he noted here, that this book of the Revelation describes the worship of the gospel -church on earth, as is agreed by all interpreters, though it borrows some of its emblems from the things of heaven, and some from the Jewish state. I might here remark also, that when a new song is mentioned in the Old Testament, it refers to the times of the Messiah, and iv prophetical of the kingdom of Christ, or at least it is a song indite(' upon a new occasion, public or personal, and the words of it are accommodated to some new tokens of divine mercy. Rev. xv. 3. " They sing the song of Moses the servant of God, and the song of the Lamb;" that is, a song for temporal and for spiritual deliverances; or, a song for all ancient or all later salvations of the church. As Moses was a redeemer from the house of bondage, and a teacher of divine worship with harps and ceremonies ; so the Lamb is a Redeemer from Baby- lon and spiritual slavery, and he is the great Prophet to teach his church the spiritual worship of the gospel. The church now tinder the salvations and instructions of the Lamb, sings with the voice to the glory of the vengeance and the grace of God, as Israel under the conduct of Moses sung with harps ; for we must observe, that these visions of the apostle John, often repre- sent divine things in a gospel church, in imitation of the ranks and orders of the Jewish camp and tribes, and by the rites and figures used in the time of Moses; and it would be as unreason- able to prove from this text, that we must sing the very words of the xvth of Exodus in a christian church, as to prove from this book of the Revelation that we must use harps and altars, cen- sers, fire and incense. But it is plain that the xvth of Exodus cannot be here intended, because the words of the song are mentioned just after, namely, " Great and marvellous are thy works, Lord God Almighty, just and true are thy ways, thou King of saints." Yet after all, if it could be proved, that the very song which Moses sung is here designed, still it must be
AN ESSAY. 7 contest that the song of the Lamb is also to be sung; and if the following words in this text are not to be esteemed the song of Moses, then neither are they to be esteemed the song of the Lamb; because there is not any express mention of the Lamb,. or his death, or resurrection, or redemption : nor is there any other song in scripture that bears that title ; and consequently it must signify a song composed to the praise. of God for our de- liverance by the Lamb, in imitation of the joy composed for deliverance by the hand of Moses : And thus at least we are to suit part of our psalmody to the gospel- state, as well as bor- row part from the Old Testament, which is the chief point I designed to prove. The next enquiry then proceeds thus : How must the psalms of David, and other songs borrowed from scripture, be trans- lated in order to be sung in christian worship ? Surely it will be granted, that to prepare them for psalmody under the gospel, requires another sort of management in the translation, than to prepare them merely for reading as the word of God in our language, and that upon these two accounts : First, If it he the duty of the churches to sing psalms, they must necessarily be turned into such a sort of verse and metre as will best fit them for the whole church to join in the worship : Now this will be very different from a translation of the original . language word for word ; for the lines must be confined to a cer- tain number of syllables, and the stanza or verse, to a certain number of lines, that so the tune being short the people may be acquainted with it, and be ready to sing without much difficulty; whereas if the words were merely translated out of the Hebrew as they are for reading, every psalm must be set through to music, and every syllable in it must have a particular musical note belonging to itself, as in anthems that are sung in cathe- drals: But this would be so exceeding difficult to practise, that it would utterly exclude the greatest part of every congregation from a capacity of obeying God's command to sing. Now in re- ducing a hebrew or a greek song to a form tolerably fit to be sung by an English congregation, here and there a word of the original must be omitted, now and then a word or two super- added, and frequently a sentence or an expression a little altered and changed into another that is something akin to it: And yet greater alterations must the psalm suffer, it we will have any thing to do with rhyme ; those that have laboured with utmost toil to keep very close to the hebrew, have found it impossible; and when they have attained it most, have made but very poor music for a christian church. For it will often happen, that one of the most affectionate, and most spiritual words in the prose, . will not submit to its due place in the metre, or does not end with a proper sound, and then it must be secluded, and another
ON THE IMPROVEMENT OF PSALMODY. of less proper sense be put in the room of it : Hereby some of the chief beauties and excellencies of David's poetry will be omitted and lost, which if not revived again, or recompensed by some lively or pathetic expression in the English; will necessarily debase the divine sung into dulness and contempt : And hereby also it becomes so far different from the inspired words in the original languages, that it is very hard for any man to say, that the version of Hopkins and Sternhold, the New - England or the Scotch psalms, are in a strict sense the word of God. Those persons therefore that will allow nothing to be sung but the words of inspiration or scripture ought to learn the Hebrew music, and sing in the Jewish language ; or at least I can find no congrega- tion with which they can heartily join according to their own principles, but the congregation of Choristers in cathedral churches, who are the only Levites " that sing praise unto the Lord with the words of David and Assph the seer ; 2 Citron. xxix. 30. Secondly, Another reason why the psalms ought not to be translated for singing just in the same manner as they are for reading, is this, that the design of these two duties is very dif- ferent : By reading we learn what God speaks to us in his word ; but when we sing, especially unto God, our chief design is, or should be, to speak our own hearts and our words to God. By reading we are instructed what have been the dealings of God with men in all ages, and how their hearts have been exercised in their wanderings from God, and temptations, or in their re- turns and breathings towards God again ; but songs are gene- rally expressions of our own experiences, or of his glories ; we acquaint him what sense we have of his greatness and goodness, and that chiefly in those instances which leave some relation to us : We breathe out our souls toward hire, and make our ad- dresses of praise and acknowledgment to him.. Though I will not assert it unlawful to sing to God the worlls of other men which we have no conoern in, and which are very contrary to our circumstances and the frame of our spirits ; yet it must be confest abundantly more proper, when we address God in a song, to use such words as we can for the most part assume as our own : I own that it is not always necessary our songs should be direct addresses to God ; some of them may be mere meditations of the history of divine providences, or the experiences of former saints ; but even then if those providences or experiences cannot be assu- med by us as parallel to our own, nor spoken in our own "names, yet still there ought to he senne turns of expression that may make it look at least like our own present meditation, and that may represent it as a history which we ourselves are at that time recollecting. I know not one instance in scripture, of any later saint singing any'part of a composure of former ages, that is not
AN ESSAY. 9 proper for his own- time, without some expressions that lend to accommodate or apply it, But there are a multitude of examples amongst all the scriptural songs, that introduce the affairs of pre- ceding ages in the method I have described. Ps. xliv. 1, &c. When'David is recounting the wonders of God in planting the children of Israel in the land of Canaan, he begins his song thus, " We have heard with our ears, O God, our fathers have told us what works thou didst in their days, in times of old, how thou didst drive out the heathen with thy hand, and plantest them, how thou didst afflict the people, and cast them out." Ps. lxxviii. 2, &c. 00 I will open my mouth in a parable, I will utter dark sayings of old which we have heard and known, and our fathers have told us ; we will not hide them from their children, shewing to the generation to come the praises of the Lord." So lie relates the converse and covenant of God with Abraham, Isaac, and Israel, as a narration of former próvidences and ex- periences ; Ps. cv. 8, 9, 10, &c. So in theVirgin Mary's song, and the song of, Zechariah, And Í know not any thing can be objected here, but that a prophet perhaps in some instances may assume the words of Christ or the saints in following ages ; but it should be observed that this is almost always in such respects wherein persons or circumstances present were typical of what is future, and so their cases become parallel. By these considerations we are easily led into the true me- thod of translating ancient songs into christian worship. Psalms that are purely doctrinal, or merely historical, are subjects for our meditation, and may be translated for our present use with no variation, if it were possible ; and in general, all those songs of scripture which the saints of following ages may assume for their own : Such are the ist, the viiith, the xixth, and many others. Some psalms may be applied to our use by'the alteration of a pronoun, putting they in the place of we, and changing some expressions which are not suited to our case into a narration or rehearsal of God's dealings with others ; There are other divine songs which cannot properly be accommodated to our use, and much less be assumed as our own without very great alterations, namely, Such as are filled with some very particular troubles or enemies of a person, some places of journeying or residence, some uncommon circumstances of a society, to which there is scarce any thing parallel in our day or case : Such are many of the songs of David, whose persecutions and deliverances were very extraordinary : Again, such as express the worship paid unto God by carnal ordinances and utensils of the tabernacle and temple. Now if these be converted into christian songs in our nation, I think the names of Ammon and Moab may be as pro- perly changed into the names of the chief enemies of the gospel
It1 ON THE IMPROVEMENT OP PSALMODY. so far as may be without public offence : Judah and Israel may be called England and Scotland, and the land of Canaan may be translated into Great Britain : The cloudy and typical ex- pressions of the legal dispensation should be turned into evange- lical language, according to the explications of the New Testa- ment : And when a christiau psalmist, among the characters of a saint; Ps. xv. 5. meets with the man that a puts not out his money to usury, he ought to exchange him for one that is no op- pressor or extortioner, since usury is not utterly forbidden to christians, as it was by the Jewish law'; and wheresoever he finds the person or offices of our Lord Jesus Christ in prophecy, they ought rather to be translated in a way of history, and those evangelical truths should be stript of their veil of darkness, and Brest in such expressions that Christ may appear in them to all that sing. When he comes to Ps. xi. 6. and reads these words, " Mine ears hast thou opened," he should learn from the apostle to say " A body hast thou prepared me ;" Heb. x: 5. Instead of " binding the sacrifice with cords to the horns of the altar ;" Ps. cxviii. 27. we should " offer up spiritual sacrifices, that is the prayer and praise of the heart and tongue, acceptable to God by Jesus Christ;" I Pet. ü.5. Where there are any dark expres- sions, and difficult to be understood in the Hebrew songs, they should be left out in our psalmody, or at least made very plain by a paraphrase. Where there are sentences, or whole psalms, that can very difficultly be accommodated to our times, they may be utterly omitted. Such is Ps. cl. part of the xxxviii, xlv, xlviii, lx, lxviii, lxxxi, cviii. and some others, as well as a great parr of the song of Solomon. Perhaps it will be objected here, that the book of Psalms would hereby be rendered very imperfect, and some weak per - sons might imagine this attempt to fall under the censure of Rev. xxii. 18, 19. that is, " of taking away from, or adding to the words of the hook of God." But it is not difficult to reply, that though the whole book of psalms was given to be read by us as God's word for our use and instruction, yet it will never follow from thence that the whole was written as a psalter for the chris- tian church to use in singing. For if this were the design of it, then every psalm, and every line of it might be at one time or another proper to be sung by ehrismians : But there are many hundred verses in that book which a christiau cannot properly assume in singing, without a considerable alteration of the words, or at least without putting a very different meaning upon them, from what David had when he wrote them; and therefore there is no necessity, of translating always entire Psalms, nor of pre- paring the whole book for English psahnotly. I might here add also Dr. Patrick's apology in his century of Psalms first pub- lished, that he took but the same liberty which is allowed to
AN ESSAY. 11 every parish-clerk, to choose what Psalm and what verses of it . he would propose to the people to sing. Give me leave here to mention several passa ges which were hardly made for christian lips to assume without some alteration : Ps. lxviii. 13, 14, 15, 18. " Though ye have lain among the pots, yet shall ye be as the wings of a dove covered with silver, and her feathers with yellow gold : When the Almighty scat- tered kings in it, it was white as snow in Salmon. The hill of God is as the hill of Bashan, &c. Why leap ye, ye hills, &c. verse 25. The singers went before, the players on instruments followed after, amongst them were the damsels playing with timbrels: Bless ye God in the congregation, even the Lord from the fountain of Israel There is little Benjamin with their ruler, the princes of Judah and their council, the princes of Zebulun, and the princes of Naphtali. Because of thy temple at Jerusalem kings shall bring presents unto thee. Rebuke the company of spearmen, the multitude of bulls, with the calves of the people, till every one subthit himself with pieces of silver." Ps. lxxi. 2, 3, &c. " Take a psalm, and bring hither the tim- brel, the pleasant harp with the psaltery, blow up the trumpet in the new moon, in the time appointed on our solemn feast -day, &c." Ps. lxxxiv. 3, 8. " The sparrow hath found an house, and the swallow a nest for herself, where she may lay her young, even thine altars, O Lord of hosts, &c. Blessed is the man whose strength is in thee, in whose heart are the ways of them; who passing through the valley of Bacha make it a well, the rain also filleth the pools." Ps. cviii. 2, 7, 8, 9. 00 Awake psaltery and harp, I myself will awake early. God bath spoken in his holiness ; I will rejoice, I will divide Shechem, and mete out the valley of Succoth ; Gilead is mine, Manasseth is mine, Ephraim also is the strength of mine head, Judah is my lawgiver, Moab is my wash -pot, over Edom will I cast out my shoe, over Phi - listia will I triumph who will bring me into the strong city, who will lead me into Edom." Ps. lxix. S. and cix. are so full of cursings, that they hardly become the tongue of a follower of the blessed Jesus, who dying prayed for his own enemies; " Father forgive them, for they know not what they do." Ps. cxxxiv. is suited to the temple or tabernacle worship ; the title is, A Song of Degrees, that is, as interpreters believe, to be sung as the kings of Israel went up by steps or degrees to the house of God : In the two first verses the king calls upon the Levites, " which by night stand in the house of the Lord, to lift up their hands in the sanctuary, and to bless the Lord ;" the 3d verse is an anti - phons or reply of the Levites to the king ; "The Lord that made heaven and earth bless thee out of Zion." It would be endless to give an account of all the paragraphs of ancient songs, which can scarce ever be accommodated to gospel- worship.
12 ON THE IMPROVEMENT OP PSALMODY. The patrons of another opinion, will say we Must sing the words of David, and apply them in our meditation to the things of the New Testament: But can . we believe this tobe the best method of worshipping God, to sing one thing and mean another ? besides that, the very literal "sense of many of these expressions is exceeding deep and difficult, and not one in twenty of a re- ligious assembly can possibly understand them at this distance from the Jewish days ; therefore to keep close to the language of David, we must break the commands of God by David, who requires that we " sing his praises with understanding ;" Ps. xlvii. 7. And I am persuaded, that St. Paul, if he lived in our age and nation, would no more advise its to sing unintelligible sentences in London, than himself would sing in an unknown tongue at Corinth ; 1 Cor. xiv. 15, 19. After all, if the literal sense were known, yet the application of many verses of David to our state and circumstances was never designed, and is utterly impossible; and even where it is possible, yet it is so exceeding difficult, that very few persons in an assembly are capable of it ; and when they attempt it, if their thoughts should be enquired one by-one, you would find very various, wretched, and contra- dictory meanings put upon the words of the Hebrew Psalmist, and all for want of an evangelical translation of him. It is very obvious and common to observe that persons of seriousness and judgment that consider what they sing, are often forced to break off in the midst, to omit whole lines and verses, even where the best of our present translations are used ; and thus the tune, and the sense, and their devotion is interrupted at once, because they dare not sing without understanding, and almost against their consciences. Whereas the more unthinking multitude go on singing in chearful ignorance wheresoever the clerk guides them, across the river Jordan, through the land of Gebel, Ammon and Amalek " He leads them- into the strong city, he brings hl them into dom; anon they follow him through the valley of Bacha, till they come up to Jerusalem ; they wait upon him in the court of burnt - offerings, and " bind their sacrifice with cords to the horns of the altar ;" they enter so far into the tem- ple, till they join their song in consort with the high - sounding cymbals, their thoughts are be-darkened with the smoke of in- cense, and covered with Jewish veils. Such expressions as these are the beauties and perfections of a Hebrew song, they paint every thing to the life : Such language was suited by infinite. wisdom to raise the affectiòns of the saints of that day : But I fear they do but sink our devotion, and hurt our worship. I esteem the. book of Psalms the most valuable part of the Old Testament upon many accounts : I advise the reading and meditation of it more frequently than any single book of scrip- ture ; and what 1 advise 1 practise. Nothing is more proper to furnish our souls with devout thoughts, and lead us into a world
AN ESSAY. 13 of spiritual experiences : The expressions of it that are not Jewish or peculiar, give us constant assistance in prayer and in praise : But if we would prepare David's psalms to be sung by 'christian lips, we should observe these two plain rules. First, They ought to be translated in such a manner as we have reason to believe David would have composed them if he had lived in our day : And therefore his poems are given as a pattern to be imitated in our composures, rather than as the pre- cise and invariable matter of our psalmody. It is one of the excel- lencies of scripture - songs, that they are exactly suited to the very purpose and design for which they were written, and that botti in the matter, and in the style, and in all their ornaments : This gives life and strength to the expression, it presents objects to the ears and to the eyes, and touches the heart in the most affecting manner. David's language is adapted to his own de- votion, and to the worship of the Jewish church; he mentions the very places of his journeys, or retirements of his sorrows, or his successes ; he names the nations that were enemies of the church, or that shall be its friends ; and though for the most part he leaves the single persons of his time nameless in the body of his psalm, yet he describes them there with great particularity, and often names them in the title. This givesus abundant ground to infer, that should the sweet - singer of Israel return from the dead into our age, he would not sing the words of his own psalms without considerable alteration ; and were he now to transcribe them, he would make them speak the present circhm- stances of the church, arid that in the language of the New Testament : He would see frequently occasion to insert the cross of Christ in his song, and often interline the confessions of his sins with the blood of the Lamb ; often would he describe the gloies and the triumphs of our blessed Lord in long and flowing vei se, even as St. Paul, when he mentions the name and honours of Christ, can hardly part his lips from them again : His ex- pressions would run ever bright and clear; such as here and there we find in a single verse of his own composures, when he is transported beyond himself, and carried far away from Jewish shadows by the spirit of prophecy and the gospel. We have the more abundant reason to believe this, if we observe, that all along the sacred history as the revelations of God and his grace were made plainer, so the songs of the saints expressed that grace and those revelations according to the measure of their clearness and.increase. Let us begin at the song of Moses, Fix. xv. and proceed to David and Solomon, to the song of the Vir- gin Mary, of Zecharias, Simeon, and the Angels, the Hosanna of the young children, the praises paid to God by the disciples in the Acts, the doxològies of Paul, and the songs of the christian church in the book of the Revelation : Every beam of new light that broke into the world gave occasion of fresh joy to the saints,
14 ON TVE IMPROVEMENT OF PSALMODY. and they were taught to ;sing of salvation in all the degrees of its advancing glory. Secondly, In the translation of Jewish songs for gospel -wor- ship, if scripture affords us any example, we should be ready to follow it, and the management thereof should be a pattern for us. Now though the disciples and primitive christians had so many and so vast occasions for praise, yet t know but two pieces of songs they borrowed from the book of Psalms. One is mention- ed in Luke xix. 38. where the disciples assume a part of a verse from the cxviiith psalm, but sing it with alterations and additions to the words of David. The other is the beginning of the second Psalm, sung by Peter and John and their company ; Acts iv. 23, 24, &c. You find there an addition of praise in the beginning, " Lord, thou art God which hast made heaven and earth, and the sea, and all that in them is." Then there is a narration of what David spoke, " Who by the mouth of thy servant David, hast said, &c. Next follow the two first verses of that psalm, but not in the very words of the psalmist : Afterwards an explication of the hea- then, and the people, namely, the Gentiles and Israel : The kings and the rulers, namely, Herod and Pontius Pilate, and the holy child Jesus, is God's anointed. Then there is an enlargement of the matter of fact, by a consideration of the hand of God in it, and the song concludes with the, breathing of their desires towards God for mercies most precisely suited to their (lay and duty ; and you fiad when they had sung, they went to prayer in the assembly, and then they preached the word of God by the Holy Ghost, and with amazing success. O may I live to see psalmody performed in these evangelic beauties of holi. Hess ! May these ears of mine be entertained with such devo.. tien in publie, such prayer, such praise ? May these eyes behold such returning glory in the churches ! Then my soul shall be all admiration, my tongue shall humbly attempt to mingle in the worship, and assist the harmony and the joy. After we have found the true method of translating Jewish songs for the use of the christian church, let us enquire also how lawful and necessary itis to compose spiritual songs of a mere evan- gelic frame for the use of divine worship under the gospel. The first argument I shall borrow from all the foregoing dis- course concerning the translation of the Psalms of David : For by that time they are fitted for christian Psalmody, and have all the particularities of circumstance that related to David's person, and times altered and suited to our present case ; and the lan- guage of Judaism is changed into the style of the gospel ; the form and composure of the Psalm can hardly be called inspired or divine : only the materials or the sense contained therein may in a large sense be called the word of God; as it is borrowed from that word. Why then way it not be esteemed as lawful to take
AN ESSAY. l some divine sense and materials agreeable to the word of God, and suited to the present .ease and experience of christians, and compose them into a spiritual song ? especially when we cannot find one ready penned in the bible, whose subject is near a -kin to our present condition, or whose form is adapted to our present purpose. The second argument shall be drawn from the several ends and designs of singing, which can never be sufficiently attained by confining ourselves to David's psalms, or the,words of any songs in scripture. The first and chief intent of this part of worship, is to express unto God what sense and apprehensions we have of his essential glories ; and what notice we take of his works of wisdom and power, vengeance and mercy ; it is to vent the inward devotion of our spirits in words of melody, to speak our own experience of divine things, especially our religious _joy ; it would be tiresome to recount the endless instances out of the book of psalms and other divine songs, where this is made the chief business of them. In the texte of the New Testament where singing is required, the same designs are proposed ; when the Ephesians are filled with the Spirit, theenlightener and coin- forter, they are charged to indulge those divine sensations, and let them break out into a spiritual song ; Eph. v. 19. When any is merry or chearful, the apostle James bids him express it by sing- ing. Giving thanks unto God, is the command of St. Paul to the saints while he enjoins psalmody on them ; and speaking the wonders of his power, justice and grace, is the practice of the church constantly in the visions of St. John. To teach and ad- monish one another, is mentioned by St. Paul as another design of singing ; the improvement of our meditations, and the kindling, divine affections within ourselves, is one of the purposes also of religious melody ; if Eph. y. 19. he rightly translated. Now, how is it possible all these ends should be attained by a chrisr tian, if he confines his meditations, his joys, and his praises, to the Hebrew book of Psalms ? Have , we nothing more of the nature of God revealed to us than David had ? Is not the mystery of the ever - blessed Trinity brought out of dark- ness into open light ? Where can you find a Psalm that speaks the miracles of wisdom and power as they are discovered in a crucified Christ ? And how do we rob God the Son of the glory of his dying love, if we speak of it only in the gloomy language of " smoke and sacrifices, bullocks and goats, and the fat of lambs ?" Is not the ascent of Christ into heaven, and his triumph over principalities and powers of darkness, a nobler entertainment for our tuneful meditations, than the removing of the ark up to the city of David, to the hill of God, which is high as the hill of Bastian ? Is not our heart often warmed with holy delight in the contemplation of the Son of God our dear Redeemer, whose love
16 ON THE IMPROVEMENT OP PSALMODY. was stronger than death ? Are not our souls possessed with a vaeiety of divine affections, when we behold him who is our chief beloved hanging on the cursed tree, with the load of all our sins upon him, and giving up his soul to the sword of divine justice in the stead of rebels and enemies ? And must these affections be confined only to our own bosoms, or never break forth but in Jewish language, and words which were not made to express the devotion of the gospel ? . The heaven and the hell that we are acquainted with by the discovery of God our Saviour, give us a more distinct knowledge of the future and eternal state, than all the former revelations of God to men : Life and immortality is brought to light by the gospel ; we are taught to look far into the invisible world, and take a prospect of the last awful scene of things : We see the graves opening, and the dead arising at the voice of the archangel, and the sounding of the trump of God : We behold the Judge on his tribunal, and we hear the dreadful and the delightful sentences of decision that shall pass on all the sons and daughters of Adam ; we are assured, that the saints shall " arise to meet the Lord in the air, and so shall we be for ever with the Lord :" The apostle bids us, " Exhort or comfort one another with these words ;" 1 'I'hess. iv. 17, 18. Now when the same apostle requires that " the word of Christ must dwell richly in us in all wisdom, teaching and admonishing one another in psalms and spiritual songs ;" can we think he restrains us only to the Psalms of David, which speak very little of all these glories or terrors, and that in very obscure terms and dark hints of prophecy ? Or shall it be supposed, that we must ad- monish one another of the old Jewish affairs and ceremonies in verse, and make melody with those weak and beggarly elements, and the yoke of bondage, and yet never dare to speak of the wonders of new discovery except in the plain and simple language of prose ? Perhaps it will be replied here, that there are some scriptu- ral hymns in the book of Revelation that describe the affairs of the New Testament, the death and kingdom of our Lord Jesus, and these are lawful to be sung in a christian church ; I am glad that our friends of a different opinion will submit to sing any thing that belongs to the gospel ;' I rejoice that the bible hath any such pieces of christian psalmody in it, lest every thing that is evange- lical should be utterly excluded from this worship, by those who will sing nothing but what is inspired ; but how seldom are these gospel-songs used among our churches ? How little respect is paid to them in comparison of the Jewish psalms ? How little mention would ever be made of them, if it were not" to defend the patrons of Jewish psalmody from the gross absurdity of an entire return to judaism in this part of worship ? But give me leave also to add, that these christian hymns are but very short,
AN ESSAY. 17 and very few ; nor do they contain a hundredth part of those glorious revelations that are made to us by Christ Jesus and his apostles ; nor can we suppose God excludes all other parts of the gospel from verse and singing. Most express words of scripture furnish me with a third ar- gument ; Eph. v. 19, 20. and Col. iii. 16, 17 which are the two chief commands of the New Testament for singing ; both bid us " make melody, and give thanks to God the Father, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ." This is one of the glories of gos- pel-worship, that all must be offered to the Father in his naine. So very particular is our Lord Jesus in this command, that his last sermon to his disciples mentions it four times ; John xiv. 13, 14. and xvi. 23, 24. Now why should we make conscience of praying in the name of Christ always, and offer up our praises in his name when we speak in prose? And yet when we give thanks in verse, we almost bind ourselves to take no more notice of the name of Christ than David or Moses did. Why should every part of divine worship under the gospel be expressed in language suited to that gospel, namely, praying, preaching, baptism and the Lord's supper; and yet when we perform that part of worship which brings us nearest to the heavenly state, we must run back again to the law to borrow materials for this-ser- vice : And when we are employed in the work of angels, we talk the language of the infant-church, and speak in types and shadows ? while we bind ourselves, to the words of David, " when he inclines his ear to a parable, and opens his dark say - ing upon th W e harp Psal. xlix. 4. e have given too great countenance to those who still continue the use of the harp while they open the dark saying. The fourth argument may be thus drawn up. There is almost an infinite number of different occasions for praise and thanksgivings, as well as for prayer, in the life of a christian ; and there is not a set of Psalms already prepared that can an- swer all the varieties of the providence and the grace of God,. Now if God will be praised for all his mercies, and singing be one method of praise, we have some reason to believe that God doth not utterly confine us even to the forms of his own compos- ing. This is thought a very sufficient reason to resist the _impo- sition of any book of prayers ; and I grant -that no number of prayers of human composure can express every new difficulty or future want of a christian ; scarce can we suppose a divine volume should do it, except it be equal to many folios. How- ever I can see nothing in the inspired book of praises that should persuade me that the Spirit of God designed it as an universal Psalm-book ; nor that he intended these to include or provide for all the occasions of thanksgiving that ever should befall Jews or Christians in a single or social capacity. We find in the history of scripture, that new favours received from God were con_ VoL. ix. I3
18 ON THE IMPROVEMENT OP PSALMODY. tinually the subject of new songs, and the very minute circum- stances of the present providence are described in the verse. The destruction of Pharaoh in the Red-sea; the victory of Barak over Sisera; the various deliverances, escapes and successes of the son of Jesse are described in the songs of Moses, Deborah and David. The Jews in a land of captivity sat by the rivers of Babylon, and remembered Sion ; they could find none of the ancient songs of Sion fit to express their present sorrow and devo- t ion, though some of them are mournful enough ; then was that ad- mirable and artful ode written, the cxxxviith Psalm, which even in the judgment of the greatest human critics, is not inferior to the finest heathen poems. It is a more dull and obscure, and unaffecting method of worship to preach or pray, or praise always in generals : It Both not reach the heart, nor touch the passions ; God did not think any of his own inspired hymns clear and full and special enough to express the praise that was his due for new blessings of grace and providence; and there- fore he put a new song into the mouths of Mary, Zecharias and Simeon ; and it is but according to his own requirement, that the British islands should make their present mercies under the gos- pel the subject of fresh praises ; Is. xlii. 9, 10. " Behold the former things are come to pass, and new things do I declare; before they spring forth I tell you of them ; sing unto the Lord a new song, and his praise from the end of the earth ; ye that go down to the sea, and all that is therein ; the isles and the in. habitants thereof." As for the new songs in the Revelation, the occasions of some of them are very particular, and relate to the fall of Anti - Christ ; it can never be imagined that these are a complete collection of psalms to suit all the cases of a christian church ; they are 'rather given to us as small originals, by imita- tion whereof the churches should be furnished with matter for psalmody, by those who are capable of composing spiritual songs according to the various or special occasion of saints or churches. Now shall we suppose the duty of singing to be so constantly provided for-when there was any fresh occasion under the Old Testament, and just in the very beginning of the New, and yet that there is no manner of provision made ever since by ordinary or extraordinary gifts for the expression of our particular joys and thanksgivings ? This would be to sink the gospel, which is a dispensation of the Spirit, of liberty, of joy, and of glory, beneath the level of Judaism when the saints were kept in hard bondage, and had not half so much occasion for praise. The fifth argument maybe borrowed from the extraordinary gift of the Spirit to compose or sing spiritual songs in the primi -. live church, expressed in 1 Cor. xiv. 15, 26. The several parts of divine worship, praying, preaching and singing, were per- formed by immediate inspirations of the holy Spirit in that day, fur these two reasons. 1. That there might be a discovery of
AN ESSAY. 19 divine power in them, and the seal of a miracle set to the several parts of christian worship, to convince the world, and to confirm the church. 2. Because there was not time to acquire a capacity of preaching, praying, and composing spiritual songs by diligence and study, together with the ordinary assistance of grace and blessing of providence, which would have taken up many years before the gospel could have been universally preached. But even in those times of inspiration, as Timothy himself " was not to neglect the gift that was in him, given by imposition of hands, so he was charged to give attendance to reading, to ex- hortation, to doctrine, to meditate upon these things, to give himself wholly to them, that his profiting might appear unto all ;" 1 Tim. iv. 14, 15. And it is granted by all, that the ministers of the gospel in our day are to acquire and improve the gifts of knowledge, prayer and preaching, by reading, meditation, and frequent exercise, together with earnest requests to God for the ordinary assistance of his Spirit, and a blessing on their studies. Why then should it be esteemed sinful, to acquire a capacity of composing a spiritual song? Or why is it unlawful to put this gift in exercise, for the use of singing in the christian church, since it is one of those three standing parts of worship which were at first practised and confirmed by inspiration and miracle? Some may object here, that the words ..«aaa and 4aatcag, which ,the apostle useth in this chapter, intend the psalms of David, and not any new song : But if we consult the whole frame and design of that chapter, it appears that their worship was all performed by extraordinary gifts : Now it was no very extraordinary thing to bring forth one of David's psalms ; nor would it have been proper to have hindered the inspired worship with such an interposition of the ordinary service of an ancient Jewish song ; it is very credible therefore that the word Psalm in this place signifies a new spiritual song, and it is so used fre- quently in the writings of the primitive fathers, as appears in the citations, page 289. To close this rank of arguments, I might mention the di- vine delight that many pious souls have found in the use of spiritual songs, suited to their own circumstances, and to the revelations of the New Testament. If the spiritual joy and consolation that particular persons have tasted in the general duty of singing, be esteemed a tolerable argument to encourage the duty and confirm the institution, I am well assured that the argument would grow strong apace, and seal this ordinance beyond contradiction, if we would but stand fast in the liberty of the gospel, and not tie our consciences up to mere forms of the Old Testament. The faith, the hope, the love, and the hea- venly pleasure that many christians have professed while they have been singing evangelical hymns, would probably be mul- tiplied and diffused amongst the churches, if they would but a 2
30 ON THE IMPROVEMENT OF PSALMODY. breathe out their devotion in the songs of the Lamb as well as i n the songof Moses. Thus far have we proceeded in a way of argument drawn from scripture and the reason of things. Many objections have been prevented, or sufficient hints given for the removal of them. Those that remain and seem to have any considerable strength, shall be proposed with an attempt to answer them; for I would not have christians venture upon the practice of any thing in di- vine worship without due knowledge and conviction. Object. 1. The directions given for psalmody in some parts of the Old 'testament, lead us to the use of those songs which are inspired ; Dent. xxxi. 16, 19, &c. " And the Lord said unto Moses, write ye this song for you, and teach it the children of Israel, put it in their mouths, that this song may be a witness for me against the children of Israel; for when I shall have brought them into the land which I aware unto their fathers, which floweth with milk and honey, &c, then they will turn unto other gods." And in I's. lxxxi. 1, 2, 3, 4. where we are re- quired to worship God by singing, we are not commanded to make a new Psalm, but to take one that is already made, for the words run thus, " Sing aloud unto God our strength, make a joyful noise to the God of Jacob ; take a Psalm, and bring hither the tumbrel, the pleasant harp with the psaltery, blow up the trumpet in the new moon, in the time appointed, on our solemn feast -day, for this was a statute for Israel, and a law of the God of Jacob." Ans. 1. I have cited these texts at large wherein the objec- tion lies, that an answer might appear plain in the texts to every reader. How peculiarly do these commands refer to the Iraelites ? The very words of the precept confine it to the Jews, to the men that dwelt in Canaan, to the worship that is paid with tim- brels and trumpets, to the days of the new moon, and solemn Jewish festivals ? and if we will insist upon these scriptures as precise rules of our present duty and worship, the men that use musical instruments in a christian church, will take the same liberty of returning to Jewish ordinances, and use the same text to defend them. Ans. 2. Bot if we should grant ourselves under the gospel still obliged by these commauds, yet they do, not bind us up en- tirely to inspired forms of singing, since the same sort of ex- pression is used concerning prayer ; Ios. xiv. 2. "'take with you words, and say unto the Lord, take, away all iniquity, and receive us graciously, &c." Now who is there that esteems him- self confined to use no other prayer but scriptural forms ? In other places, where these duties are enjoined, we are bid to pray, or to praise, or to sing ; and why should we not be as much at liberty to suit the words and the sense to our present cir-
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