22 ON THE IMPROVEMENT OF PSALMODY. .dhswer 2. Divine wisdom accommodates its inspirations, its gifts, its revelations, and its writings, to the particular cases and seasons in which he finds a saint or a church. Now though we cannot pretend to make a better prayer than that of Ezra or Daniel, or our pret for the day and design for which they were prepared ; yet a song, a sermon, or a prayer that expresses my Wants, my duties or my mercies, though it be composed by a human gift, is much better for me than to tie myself to:any inspired words in any part of worship which do not reach my case, and consequently can never be proper to assist the exercise of my grapes or raise my devotion. Answer 3. I believe that phrases and sentences used by in- spired writers, are very proper to express our thoughts in prayer, preaching or praise.; and God bas frequently given witness in the hearts of christians how much he approves the language Of scrip= Lure ; but it is always with a proviso that those phrases be clear and expressive of our present sense, and proper to our present purpose: Yet we are not to dress up our prayers, sermons or songs, in the language of Judaism when we design to express the doctrines of the gospel : This would but darken <dlvine counsel by words without knowledge ; it would amuse and confound the more ignorant worshippers, it would disgust the more considerate, and give neither the one nor the other light or comfort :. And I think it may be as proper in our churches to read a sermon of Moses or Isaiah, instead of preaching the gospel, as to sing a psalm of David, whose expressions chiefly refer to David the shepherd, the king, the fugitive, the captain, the musician and the Jew. In short the prayers, sermons and songs in scripture, are rather patterns by which we shouldframe our worship and adjust it to our present case, than forms of worship to which we should precisely and unchangeably confine ourselves. And as sermons which are conformable to the holy scripture in a large sense may be called " the word of'Güd and the word of Christ," and are usually and justly so called if they are agree- able to the scripture and drawn' from thence ; so hymns of human composure according to the spirit and doctrines of the gospel may be as well termed the word of Christ; 'which is the proper matter for christian psalmody. Col. iii. 16. Whereas in the strictest and mostlimited sense of the word nothing deserves that title but the Hebrew and Greek originals. Object. 4: In the New Testament there are promises of divine assistance to ministers and private christians in preaching the gospel and in prayer ; but we have no promise of the Spirit of God to help us to compose psalms or hymns for our private use or for the tise of the churches ; and how can we practise in the worship of God what we have rib- promise of the holy Spirit to encourage and assist us in ?
RkJQdWJsaXNoZXIy OTcyMjk=