PREFACE TO THE " HYMNS." WHILE we sing the praises of our God in bis church, we are employed in that part of worship which of all others is the nearest a -kin to heaven; and it is pity that this, of all others, should be performed the worst upon earth. The gospel brings ns nearer to the heavenly state than all the former dispensations of God amongst men: And in these last days of the gospel we are brought almost within sight of the kingdom of our Lord ; yet we are very much unacquainted with the songs of the New Jerusalem, and unpractised in the work of praise. To see the dull indifference, the negligent, and tht thoughtless air that sits upon the faces of a whole assembly, while the psalm is on their lips, might tempt even a charitable observer to suspect the fervency of inward religion; and it is much to be feared, that the minds of most of the worshippers are absent or unconcerned. Perhaps the modes of preaching in the best churches, still want some degree of reformation ; nor are the methods of prayer so perfect, as to stand in need of no correction or im- provement: but of all our religions solemnities, psalmody is the most un- happily managed : That every action, which should elevate us to the most delightful and divine sensations, doth not only flat our devotion, but too often awaken our regret, and touches all the springs of uneasiness within us. I have been long convinced, that one great occasion of this evil arises from the matter and words to which we confine all our songs. Some of them are almost opposite to the spirit of the gospel ; many of them 'foreign to the state of the New Testament, and widely different from the present circum- stances of christians. Hence it comes to pass, that when spiritual affections are excited within us, and our souls are raised a little above this earth in the beginning of a psalm, we are checked on a sudden in our ascent toward hat-. ves, by some expressions that are most suited to the days of carnal ordi- nances, and fit only to be sung in the worldly sanctuary. When we are just entering into an evangelic frame, by some of the glories of the gospel pre- sented in the brightest figures of Judaism, yet the very next line perhaps which the clerk parcels out unto us, hash something in it so extremely Jewish and cloudy, that darkens our sight of God the Saviour. Thus, by keeping too close to David in the house of God, the veil of Moses is thrown over our hearts. While we are kindling into divine love by the meditations of the loving kindness cf God, and the multitude of his tender mercies, within a few verses some dreadful curse against men is proposed to our lips ; that God would add iniquity unto their iniquity, nor let them come into his righteous- ness, but blot them out of the book the living, Psal. lxix. 26, 27, 28. which is socoatrary to the new commandment of loving our enemies ; and even under the Old Testament is best accounted for, by referring it to the spirit of prophetic vengeance. Some sentences of the psalmist, that are ex- pressive of the temper of our own hearts, and the circumstances of our lives, may compose our spirits to seriousness, and allude us toa sweet retirement within ourselves; but we meet with a following line, which so peculiarly belongs but to one action or hour of the life of David or of Asaph, that breaks off our song in the midst; our consciences are affrighted, lest we should speak a falsehood unto God: Thus the powers ofour souls are shockgd on a sudden, and our spirits ruffled, before we have time to reflect that this may be sung only as a history of ancient saints ; and, perhaps, iu some in- stances, that Salvo is hardly sufficient neither: Besides, it almost always
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