• THE BENSON LIBRARY OF HYMNOLOGY Endowed by the Reverend Louis Fitzgerald Benson, d.d. LIBRARY OF THE THEOLOGICAL SEMINARY PRINCETON, NEW JERSEY ScB V33S I) 1 .-. \\\y I «'- ; " Digitized by the Internet Archive in 2012 with funding from Princeton Theological Seminary library http://archive.org/details/psaoOOsomm A V ^ TREATISE ON TSALMODY, ADDRESSED TO THE WORSHIPPERS OF GOD. CONTAINING THE WORK OF THE REV. WJI. SOl'IHERVILLE, A. .11. mWM A5fi)5§)2??2®SS , ® l i PRINCIPALLY FROM DR§. ANDERSON A1CD ?IMIASTERS. "But in vain do thcr worship me, teaching for doctrines the commandments of men.'' PITTSBURGH : PRINTED FOR THE PUBLISHER. 1S3T. TO THE WORSHIPPERS OF GOD. The present is a time of great division in the Church of God. It becomes us, as witnesses for Christ, to examine well the grounds of these di- visions. Let us lay aside all pre-conceived opi- nions, and decide according to reason. It is our duty to heal divisions, as far as possible, if we can do so consistently with our duty. Psalmody has been the cause of keeping separate many churches, at least, of increasing the breach — if ever they unite they must first unite on Psalmo- dy. We hope the following pages will be bene- ficial for this purpose. We believe it to be im- possible to unite on any except Scripture Psalms. We therefore hope, that those who read these pages, will be enabled to see that it is possible to unite in singing praise to God in his own words. We have given the whole of Somer- Tille's Treatise, and added a history of Psalmo- dy, principally taken from Drs. Anderson and IVTMasters. Seek the old paths and walk there- in with care. We hope God will prosper this work in your hands. Remember, you are judg- ing for or against the Lord — judge as for eter- nity. THE PUBLISHER, TO THE PRESBYTERIANS OF HORTON. DEAR BRETHREN, The following pages, which in all probability never would have been written, but for your sakes, are addressed to you, in testimony of an anxious desire to promote your spiritual interests, and the purity of worship in your public meetings. Composed, as you know they must have been, in brief intervals of time, spent in travelling and ministering to the spiritual wants of my fellow- men, and when the mind courted repose, little uniformity can be expected in the style in which they are presented. If I have succeeded in ex- pressing my ideas and stating my arguments per- spicuously, I am little solicitous about the judg- ment which may be formed of the structure of the sentences. The ingenuousness and promptitude, with which you submitted the feelings created by edu- cation, and strengthened by habit in favor of the sacred poetrv of an amiable man, and elegant 1* VI DEDICATION. writer, and consented to the introduction of the Songs of Zion, though in a less fascinating exte- rior, challenge my warmest admiration, and are joyfully received as an earnest that my labors among you, through the blessing of Christ, and the presence of his spirit, shall not prove to have been vain. Doctor M'Master's "Apology for the Book of Psalms," the only work written upon the question which I have attempted to discuss, that has come into my hands, as it appears to present arguments, in favor of an inspired Psalmody, perfectly con- clusive, I would rather have introduced and cir- culated but for the reasons following: It seemed easier to get a few pages upon the subject printed in the Province and put into your hands, and the hands of others, who may deem it worthy of their examination than to import from the States and sell the "Apology," — much of the "Apology" is written in reply to the Divines on the opposite side, whose writings are not much, if at all known in Nova-Scotia, — and the line of argument which presented itself to my mind, afforded an opportu- nity of remarking upon other important subjects upon w r hich very indefinite ideas are generally abroad. I have in general expressed myself with the ut- most decision; and I have only spoken as I felt i DEDICATION. Vli and still do feel. Perfectly satisfied thai the ground upon which I trode was firm, why should I speak as one that doubted! No indulgence, nothing but justice is craved of those who may choose to examine what 1 have written, and submitted to the public upon your account. The man who discovers his own error is more of a conqueror, than one who, with the advantage of truth upon his side, confutes his adversary ; and I shall most cordially thank him who shall point out the error into which I may have fallen, or the inconclusive- ness of the argument which I have employed, as the instrument by whom a victory is obtained over my own perverse reasonings, without inqui- ring very particularly whether he be moved by a spirit of contention, ready to give him credit for being actuated by good will. In accommodation to those who are disposed to think that no man who differs from them is wise or deserving of regard, except he be great, I have oc- casionally quoted from the very few works to which I have had access. They have not, how- ever, been adduced as authority, except in relation to one point not necessarily connected with the grand subject of inquiry, the decision of which be- longs to man; and I will not be answerable for the opinions of the writers, farther than they are expressed in the words which have been copied. Vlll DEDICATION. That this small publication may be the means, under the Head of the Church, of more fully con- vincing you of the propriety of the step you have taken since my entrance among you, and of ex- citing that spirit of calm and impartial inquiry which shall conduct to the discovery of truth and promotion of purity in the observance of divine institutions, is the fervent prayer of Your servant for Jesus' sake, W. S. lXTROBL XTIOA. That it is the duty of Christians to celebrate the praises of God in the use of Songs, is too evi- dent to him who is acquainted with the Holy Scriptures to require proof. The example of the Old Testament Church, to which we shall have occasion to refer more p irticularly afterwards, the example of our Saviour, with his Apostles, who, the last Supper having been finished, sung a hymn, (Matt. xxvi. 30,) the example of Paul and Silas when immured in the jail of Philippi, (Acts xvi. 25) and an Apostolic injunction, "la any merry I let him sing Psalms,"' (Jas. v. 13,) are proofs suf- ficient of the correctness of ecclesiastical practice in every age, and of our obligation to walk in u the footsteps of the flock," in this solemn exercise. There are many circumstances which must render the celebration of praise an exercise peculiarly in- teresting to every citizen of Zion: — to him who is not merely a partaker of the form, but a subject of the power of Godliness. One only I shall men- tion. We enjoy more intimate fellowship with the spiritual world, and approach nearer to th; X INTRODUCTION. abodes of perfect happiness and uninterrupted peace. Praise is not, like many other religious acts, peculiar to this world, but lifts us up into the rank of Angels standing before the throne, and of the Spirits of just men made perfect. The time shall come when we shall no more read and inves- tigate the Word of God , when we shall cease to wait upon, or to exercise the ministry of reconcilia- tion, when private and social prayer shall no long- er be offered up, when Baptism and the Lord's Supper shall have been superseded, but praise shall never case. Like charity, its immediate fountain, it "never failetb." No sooner is the Saint removed from the " earthly house of this ta- bernacle," than he is introduced into the choir above, who rest not day and night ascribing praises to a God of Holiness, and singing the Song of Mo- ses, the Servant of the Lord, and the Song of the Lamb. Whoever desires to engage in an exercise adapted to promote oblivion of the trials and temp- tations, the privations and opposition, to which he is exposed in this present evil world, and to assist him in taking faith's realizing view of the joys which are before the face, and the pleasures which are at the right hand of God, and abide forever, let him engage in singing the praises of God. But what are the songs which the saints ought to use ? It is very obvious that God is not praised tNTKODtTCTION- XI in tlic use of every song. There is a perverted BOB of the musical, as of all other powers of man, by which God is dishonored, not praised — by which he is offended, not pleased. If we ascribe to God in our song, that which he does not claim for himself, if we exhibit a false view of the per- fections of his character, of the doctrines of his word, or of the duty of man, instead of giving glo- ry to God and being exercised according to God- liness, we are bestowing honor upon the creature of our own imagination, and ministering to the interests of error and corruption. The spirit and the language of the song must harmonize with the object which is contemplated in singing it, other- wise the object is forfeited in that degree, to which the poet has deviated from the proposed design, if not entirely. If these remarks be ad- mitted, (and I am not aware of any exception to which they lie open,) it follows that we can duly praise an infinitely perfect God, only in the use of Songs which are infallibly correct, and if infalli- bly correct, such alone as have been given by the Spirit of the Highest. And when there are not songs supplied by the Holy Spirit, we must either be silent, or expose ourselves to the probable dis- pleasure of the Lord, while we offer perhaps the blind or the lame in sacrifice. Our present object is to strive to show that the Xll INTRODUCTION Church is furnished with a collection of Songs by the spirit of inspiration, which is designed for her use in every age, and in every situation, and is no less adapted to every age and situation in which the Church may be found, than designed for her use. It is unnecessary to say, that the collection to which I have reference, is that which forms a constituent part of the Old Testament, and is en- titled The Book of Psalms. The evidence which we purpose to bring for- ward in support of the proposition, that these Psalms were given of God, for the use of the Church to the end of the world, in whatever country or in whatever state, rests upon the fol- lowing four facts. I. The Psalms are given by inspiration. II. They were given to be sung by the mem- bers of the Church — the worshippers of God. III. No subsequent book or books have been written by inspiration for the same purpose. IV. The Book of Psalms is no less adapted to the present state of the Church, than to her state when they were originally written. i'lIL PSALMS OF DAVID. CHAPTER I. Are the Psalms given by inspiration. The first fact which we are to ascertain is, that the Book of Psalms was written by Holy Men of God, moved by the Holy Ghost. Concerning it, Gray, in his "Key to the Old Testament," thus writes: — "The Book of Psalms which in the Hebrew is entitled Sepher Tehil- lim, the Book of Hymns or Praises of the Lord, contains the productions of different writers. These productions are called, however, the Psalms of David, because a great part of them was composed by him, who for his peculiarly excellent Spirit was distinguished by the title of Psalmist. Some of them were penned before, and some after the time of David, but all of them by persons under the influence of the Holy Ghost, since all were judged worthy to be inserted into the Canon of Holy Writ. Ezra probably collec- ted them into one book, and placed them in the order they now preserve, after they had been pre- viously collected in part." 2 14 It is however a question of little comparative importance at what time, or by what person the Psalms were collected and arranged One thing is certain, that they had been collected and ar- ranged before the time of our Lord and his Apos- tles. They are designated a Book by our Lord himself. His words are, — "David himself saith in the Book of Psalms," showing that when he sojourned among men, the Songs of Zion had been collected into one volume. Paul, in one instance, quoting from a Psalm, mentions the place in the collection which it occupies. "God hath fulfilled the same unto us their children, in that he hath raised up Jesus again, as it is also written in the second Psalm. Thou art my Son, this day have I begotten thee." No other proof is wanting that the collection of Psalms or Hymns which the Jews had in the days of our Saviour, is the same that we possess. To the inspiration of this Book our Lord has given his testimony, and placed it, by his author- ity, upon the same footing with the other portions of the Old Testament. "These are the words which I spake unto you while I was yet with you, that all things might be fulfilled which were writ- ten in the law of Moses, and in the Prophets, and in the Psalms concerning me." Luke xxiv, 44. Here is a pointed reference to the classifi- cation of the Scriptures which the Jews made, and a place is assigned to the Psalms no less ele- vated than to Moses or the Prophets. Now since "all scripture is given by inspiration of God and is profitable," the Psalms demand our submis- sion, as the dictates of the Holy Ghost, in the 15 >ame peremptory tone with the law which was promulgated, without the intervention of man, from the top of Sinia: we must receive thern as equally profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction, to promote the per- fection of the man of God, with any oiher por- tion of Holy Writ. The full extent to which the Son of God re- cognises the claim of the Book of Psalms, ap- pears from the language which he employs, when speaking of a part. "What think ye of Christ? Whose Son is he? they say unto him the Son of David. He saith unto them, How then doth David in Spirit or by the Holy Ghost, call him Lord." It was neither arrogant nor blasphe- mous, therefore, in David to utter the following very definite language : "The Spirit of the Lord spale by me, and his word was in my tongue."' His Son and Lord has pronounced it just. Paul has followed the example of his Lord in the ascription of the Panlms, not to man, but to the Holy Ghost. When he quotes the ninety-fifth Psalm, he introduces the quotation by these very emphatic words,"As the Holy Ghost saith. ^ And Peter, before the day of Pentecost, standing up in the midst of the congregated disciples, says, "Men and Brethren, this scripture must needs have been fulfilled, which the Holy Ghost spake by the mouth of David;" and on the day of Pen- tecost, addressing the wondering multitude, calls David a Prophet in reference to the production of ihe sixteenth Psalm. To use the words of Gray, who has been already quoted, "The author- ity of those (Psalms) which we now possess, is 16 established likewise — by many intrinsic proofs of inspiration. Not only do they breathe through every 7 part a divine spirit of eloquence, but they contain numberless illustrious prophecies that were remarkably accomplished, and are frequent- ly appealed to by the evangelical writers." In addition to the preceding evidence that the Psalms sustain a character equal to that of any other part of the Old Testament Scripture and come to us recommended by the same high sanc- tion, let it be observed that Peter teaches us that the writings of the Apostles possess no greater authority, are distinguished by no more intrinsic excellence, make no larger demand upon our veneration, diligent perusal, and personal appli- cation than Moses, the Prophets, and the Psalms. Adverting to the writings of his "beloved broth- er Paul" he says, "In which are some things hard to be understood, which they that are unlearn- ed and unstable wrest, as they do also the other scriptures unto their own destruction." It is true he puts forward the writings of Paul as Scripture, but in the same rank with the other scriptures. So far, however, from teaching us to give to them a preference, his manner of intro- ducing them to notice, forms a sufficient answer to any, who might be disposed to neglect Moses or David, Isaiah or Ezeki 1 in the presence of the historians of Jesus, of the Apostle of the Gen- tiles, or of the beloved disciple. I have been the more particular in specifying and proving the inspiration of the Book of Psalms, — that the writers of the Psalms were ho- ly men of God, who spake and wrote as they 17 ■ moved by the Holy ( Jhosl ■. th ; < foci iblished and r< ceived, one of the most daring objections that have ever been made to ►fthe Psalms of Davi once and forever remove d out of the way of every man who respects the character of his God and his Re- deemer, — of the Spirit who renews and infuses every good disposition. It has been objected that those Psalms, in many parts, breathe out cruelty, and contain language which it hardly becomes the lips of a Christian to utter, — it has been insinuated that the spirit of many of them is inconsistent with the spirit of the gospel, which dictates love to our enemies. Now if the Psalms have been dictated by the Holy Ghost, — if by the Spirit of Christ who speaks not of himself, but speaks what he hears, the character of the author determines the char- acter of the Book. An unholy person may as- sume the character, and speak the words of puri- ty, a man of cruelty may write a book and tran- scribe in it the language of clemency and mer- cy; but a holy and a merciful man never can be supposed, without supposing a contradiction, to employ language impure and malicious, and cal- culated to excite or cherish impurity and revenge in the hearer or the reader. Whoever, therefore, thinks he discovers cruelty and revenge or any other antichristian principle set forth and encour- aged in the Book of Psalms, must either deny that it has been given by inspiration, or admit that he totally misunderstands its spirit, its lan- guage and its tendencv. If the objection be- 2* 18 fore us bo founded in truth, (he Book nuisl expunged from the Bible. Its pretensions arc spurious, and its presence is a stigma upon the character of Cod. But we 1;: ve already seen that its claims are supported by the same author- ity which sanctions the other scriptures, and that the denial of its inspiration involves the rejection of the Old Testament and the New. If God, the author, be holy, there is nothing unholy in the Book of Psalms, or calculated to encourage nnholiness; if God be merciful, there is nothing in it inconsistent with mercy, or calculated to encourage cruelty; if God be love, there is no- thing in it contrary to the spirit of love, or Cal- culated to encourage hatred or revenge: in one word, there cannot be any thing in the Book op- posed to any perfection of the Divine character, or failing to recommend conformity to God upon the part of man. Whoever, therefore, quarrels with the spirit or matter of the Psalms, sets him- self in opposition, not to man, but God, for he implicitly imputes to God, whatever he charges upon his word. Or again. The inspiration of the Psalms and of the New Testament being taken for granted, if the Psalms do not manifest the same spirit, inculcate the same doctrines, enjoin the same du- ties, prohibit the same sins which are set forth in the New Testament, it follows that the Holy Ghost is inconsistent with himself. But it would be no difficult matter, to shew that the spirit, the doctrines, the precepts, the prohibitions — in a word, the design and tendency of both are the same. And we know that the old Testament ■ emplified Will ;:: on nialur .>rn the pen of D tvicl, especi was guided by the ^i> : .ii of God, th of whose infl xible justice, of wJbos tioo of sin, of whoso determination to punish it, — to all which holy men of God hive been enabled — to which David was enabled to say Amen. — he may have mis., ken for the language of unfor ing cruelty; will any man venture to set declara- tions, the spirit and design of which may be mis- understood, in opposition to facts? Are malig- nity and revenge rashly to be imputed to the man, who found his enemy in a cave, — his enemy who had attempted his life, who was at that moment in pursuit of him, attended by three thousand men, that he might overtake and kill him, and would not put forth his hand against his pers though urged by his followers ? Will we attribute malignity and revenge to him who, coming into the camp of his adversary by night, and finding him and his men asl or injured him nor would permit another to do it though solici and could show the sword and cruise of v which he had carried away from his head, a ; mony at once of his own power to have taken re- venge, and of the simplicity and ingenuousness of his temper and conduct? Was the man ma- lignant and revengeful who. when an ungrateful rebel in die day of adversity cursed him and vili- fied his character, could say. profoundly resign- ed to the award of Heaven, u Let him alone, and 20 let him curse; for the Lord hath bidden him." And shall we join with the many who have con- spired to vilify the character and the words of the sweet Singer of Israel, even at the hazard of charg- ing the spirit of Christ with want of consistency? God forbid. Ruber let us submit every thought, every feeling, in the presence of infinite wisdom, and be prepared to pluck out the right eye or to cut off the right hand which offends us. But it has happened most felicitously, in rela- tion to the question before us, that the Psalms most obnoxious to the censures of a spurious, and an unsanctified sentimentality, have been ci- ted by an Apostle, as the languago of the Spirit. The sixty-ninth and bundred-and-ninth would seem, when approached by the opponents of the Old Testament Psalms, to excite more than com- mon heat. I shall produce a few verses from each. Ps. Ixix. 25, 27, 28. "Let their habita- tion be desolate; and let none dwell in their tents. Add iniquity unto their iniquity; and let them not come into thy righteousness. Let them be blotted out of the book of the living, and not be written with the righteous." — cix. 6, 7, 8, "Set thou a wicked man over him: and let Satan stand at his right hand. When he shall be judg- ed let him be condemned ; and let his prayer be- come sin. Let his days be few; and let another take his office." Admitted: the language is strong. All may not be able to reconcile it with other declarations and petitions. Are they who cannot, at liberty to conclude that it is really in- consistent with love to our enemies? Let us hear how Peter speaks of those Psalms. Acts i. 21 16, 20, -Men and Brethren, this scripture must needs have been fulfilled, which the Holy Ghost by thu mouth of David spike befon ling Judas who was guide to them that took Jusus. For it is written in the Book of Psalms, let his habitation be desolate, and let no man dwell therein: and his bishoprick let another take." Of the twentieth verse the former member is from the sixty-ninth, and the latter from the hundred- and-ninlh Psalm. Observe, (1) he views both as prophetic, (2) he pronounces both spoken by the Holy Ghost. Of course both must be in all points correct, worthy of a merciful God, and be- coming the lips of a servant of God, though no man were able to explain them. Once more, and I dismiss this branch of the inquiry. Is such language as this cruel? — "Cut them off in thy truth." — "I will bring again from the depth of the sea; that thy foot may be dip- ped in the blood of enemies, the tongue of thy dogs in the s me. — Let them be blotted out of the book of the living, and not be written with the righteous." Is it inconsistent with the spirit of the gospel? to use it with the character of the christian? Mark the consequences. Then the words of Paul moved by the Holy Ghost, not merely writing to the church, but to a bishop of the church, must share in the same condemna- tion. "Alexander the coppersmith did me much evil ; the Lord reward him according to his works." (2 Tim. iv. 14.) If the spirit manifested in such portions of the Psalms as those quoted be un- christian, by what spirit shall we say the Apostle was actuated? If the Ps ilms be inconsistent 22 with the Gospel, then Paul must be inconsistent with himself, for in the sixteenth verse we read, "At my first answer no man stood with me, but all forsook me: I pray God that it may not be laid to their charge." Let him who is straitened in the use of some portions of Zion's songs, ex- plain the consistency of the fourteenth and six- teenth verses of the fourth chapter of the second epistle to Timothy, and he shall find himself near an enlargement. Another consequence follows. The saints enter into the regions of love and peace, with all the cruelty and revenge of earth about them. " And when he had opened the fifth seal, I saw under the altar the souls of them that were slain for the word of God, and for the tes- timony which they held; and they cried with a loud voice, saying, How long, O Lord, holy and true, dost thou not judge and avenge our blood on them that dwell on the earth?" Finally, God must delight in carnage and be chargeable with encouraging cruelty in his people. The great God has a supper to which the fowls of heaven are invited, that they may "eat the flesh of kings, and the flesh of captains, and the flesh of mighty men, and the flesh of horses, and of them that sit on them, and the flesh of all, free and bond, both small and great." "I heard, says John, another voice from heaven saying, come out of her my people." This must be the voice of God himself, for who else claims the saints for his own? And what does the voice proclaim in ad- dition to a call to come forth from among the children of mystical Babylon? "Reward her .even as she has rewarded you, and double unto 23 her double according to her works; in the cup which she hath filled fill to her double. — Rejoice over her thou Heaven, and ye holy apoBt)ea and prophets; for God hath avenged you on her.' 1 Reader are you fully satisfied with the spirit and the language of Paul, of the spirits of just men made perfect, of Angels, and of the great God himself} Then why should you be offended with the Son of Jesse? 24 CHAPTER IF. Were the Psalms given to the Church that they might be sung to the Praise of him by ichom they were dictated? Having shown the full and unqualified recog- nition of the Book of Psalms by Christ and his Apostles, and the necessary inference from the reality of its inspiration, that every insinuation against the spirit, the language, or the tendency of the collection, is an insinuation dishonoring to the character of God, involving a charge of inconsistency against his word, and implicitly im- peaching those who have already entered into the places in their father's house prepared for them, with a want of the due measure of Chris- tian Charity, we proceed to the examination of the Second Fact bearing upon the important inquiry respecting the Psalmody of the Church of Christ, — that The Psalms were given to be sungby the Mem- bers of the Church — the Worshippers of God. The truth of this proposition appears from the titles given to them, and the manner in which they were used in the Jewish Church by divine appointment. The Hebrew language has long since ceased to be spoken by a separate people, and that minute acquaintance with its structure is, we presume, 26 bt enable ^19 to dls- srae from the quan- -yllables, as we can in the Greek and Latin and modern tongues. to reduce the Hebrew ion to certain rules; but it is generally considered thai ire utterly failed. Jose- ■ cally states that the Psa] .ritten in met'e. When making mention of them and other poetical portions of Holy Vv'iv. ks like a man to whom Ile- ore'v ion, the distinction between verse and prose, and the distinction between one spe- cies of verse and another were perfectly familiar. His translator either thought or affects to think that Josephus rather spake in accommodation to the ideas of Greeks and Romans, than from any precise acquaintance with the metrical rythm of Hebrew poetry : perhaps for no better reason than toe improbability of the author of the Jewish antiquities being in possession of a species of knowledge which is beyond the reach of the Phi- lologists of later and more exalted days. For .ery reason. De Wette, a German writer, ex- ises a doubt of the existence of a Hebrew metre, and adduces Michaelis as of the same opinion. "Were there," says he, "a Hebrew metre, I believe that the vestiges and proofs, if not the very laws of it might be discovered.^ Having given a narrative of the exodus from Egypt and the passage through the Red Sea, Jo- sephus adds.---0>lcses also composed a song unto God containing his praises in Hexameter 3 20 verse." B. 2. C. 10. B. 4. Again: wiib i ference to the song which Moses is said to have written and taught to the children of Israel im- mediately before bis decease, he says, — "After this he read to them a poetic song which commosed in Hexameter verse; and left it to them in the Holy Book: it contained a prediction of what was to come to pass afterwards. 15 ' B. 4. C. 8. S. 44. But, in particular respecting the Book of Psalms: — "And now David being freed from wars and dangers, and enjoying for the fu- ture a profound peace, composed Songs and Hymns to God of several sorts of metre: some of those which he made were trimeters, and souk; were pentameters: he also made instruments of music and taught the Levites to sing hymns to God, both on that called the Sabbath day and on other festivals." B. 7. C. 12. S. 3. Whatever may be the value attached to it, at all events the testimony of the Jewish historian is sufficiently perspicuous and pointed. The names, however, appropriated to the col- lection, clearly indicate its character and use. Tne title Psalms, which is a Greek word intro- duced into the English language through the La- tin medium, is derived from Psctllo, to sing, mid teaches us that the compositions distinguished by it were designed to be set to music. The Psalms of David are called also the "Songs of the Lord," and the "Songs of Zion." "So the number of them, which were brethren that were instructed in the Songs of the Lord, all that were cunning, was two bundled, four score and eight.? ( 1 Chron. xxv. 7.) "There they that carried us away captive required of us a song: and tlicy :ha t wasted us required of us mirth, saying, «it£ us one of the songs ofZion." (Ps. cxxxyii. 37) These titles given to the collection, appear to point to its (1 sign, — Its design according to the Spirit who dictated its different pieces. That these Psalms were sung by the Old Tes- tament Church, with divine approbation, in her solemn religious assemblies, hardly requires proof. It is evident that the Jews, who were carried away to Babylon, had been accustomed to sing them in their native land, from their pa- thetic exclamation, provoked by the demand, it may be of curiosity, it may be of insolence, to which reference has already been made. "How shall we sing the Lord's song in a strange land!" The days of mirth and festivity, which they spent sther at Jerusalem, when the assembled tribes feasted and sung together before the Lord, and tuned their harps to his praise, had passed away. Sorrow and sighing and tears had succeeded. They are in the midst of strangers, who had sack- ed their beloved city, defaced and plundered, and finally laid in ruins their boasted temple, slain their nobles, made their king a captive, put into their hands the cup of poverty, of affliction and of slavery. Their hearts are no longer open to receive pleasure from the joy inspiring song and the accompanying tones of the well tuned instru- ment. The full swell of the gladdening sounds would only have increased their bitterness of spirit, from its association with the repose and happiness of days now gone. Their harps so frequently in requisition, before the invader had 23 entered in among them, are sus[>ended upon the willows by the brink of the river of Babylon, and only utter the hollow sounds of melancholy moaning, ns their chords vibrate in the breeze. It would seem . history of the children of Israel, that the arrangements for singing the praises of Gocl were brought to a greater degree of perfection, by the instrumentality of David, who contributed so largely, by the Holy Spirit, to the songs of Zion, as to acquire the honora- ble appellation of the sweet Psalmist of Israel, and to give his name to the Book of Psalms. The number of those who were appointed by the King to the service of God in the celebration of praise, vocally and by instruments, including Asaph, Jeduihun, and Ileman, who presided, was two hundred and eighty-eight, whom he di- vided into twenty-four ordeis or classes, and who had their places assigned to them by lot. They used the songs which form part of the present collection. The book was not completed till long after the days of David. On the very so- lemn and joyful occasion of the removal of the ark from the house of Obed-edom, to the tent which David had erected for its reception, cer- tain of the Levites were appointed to prec the avk, and to thank and praise the Lord God of Israel: and the king put into the hand of A- saph, who was their chief, and of his brethren, a Psalm to be sung by them, which is contained in the sixteenth chapter of the first book of Chron- icles. The verses beginning with the eighth ending with the twenty-second constitute the first fifteen verses of the one hundred and fifth Psalm ; those beginning with the twenty-third and ending with the thirty-third constitute the ninety-sixth m; the thirty-fourth vcraeofthe chapter is the Bame with the first of the one hundred and sixth Psalm, and the thirty fifth and sixth form the eoncl /■, a few « opted. We know for what purpose this song was written'! we know that it constitutes part of a collection of songs, to which the head of the church has given h : s unqualified sanction. The conclusion is by no means diffi- cult. The purpose for which it was given deter- mines the design of the Spirit in the collection of songs with which it is numbered. In the ab- sence of all opposing testimony, it appears that the songs of Zion, forming the Book of Psalms, were given by the Spirit to be sung by the church, and were sung. But there is another Psalm written upon a par- ticular occasion concerning which we are inform- ed, and which we mention for a reason that shall appear presently. The Psalm which David spake unto the Lord, in the day when the Lord had delivered him out of the hand of all his enemies and out the hand of Saul, and which is found in the second book of Samuel, is the eighteenth of the sacred collection of Songs. in the second book of Chronicles (xxix. 25, *2o. 30.) which casts much light upon the divinely authorized practice of tliR people of Israel, in relation to the Psalmody which they used in the worship of God. During the reigns of the kings who preceded Hezekiah, 30 the Israelites had corrupted themselves exceed- ingly. Their kings encouraging them by their example, they worshipped the Gods of the na- tions. The temple was spoiled and shut up by Ahaz, while he multiplied altars to strange dei- ties. When Hezekiah ascended the throne of his ancestors, he set his heart upon the restora- tion of the purity of divine service. The Tem- ple is once more opened, and sanctified at his injunction, with all its sacred furniture. The rulers of the city, being called together, offer sacrifice for their own sins and the sins of the kingdom. The king "set the Levites in the house of the Lord with symbals, with psalteries and with harps, according to the command of David and of Gad the king's seer, and Nathan the pro- phet: for so was the commandment of the Lord by his prophets." And while the burnt offering was being consumed upon the altar, all the con- gregation worshipped, and singers sang, and the trumpeters sounded. "Moreover Hezekiah the king and the princes commanded the Levites to sing praises unto the Lord, with the words of David and of Asaph the seer. And they sang praises with gladness and they bowed their heads and worshipped." By these verses are taught the three following particulars: — (1) that it was part of the worship of God's house to sing praise, (2) that what David did in ordering the public service, andappointing proper persons, instruct- ed in the songs of the Lord, to sing praise, was by the command of the Lord, and not his own will or his own wisdom, and (3) that the words of David and Asaph or the words of inspired B] men were used. The manner, therefore, in which the words of David and of Asaph were used in the worship of God, every part of whose service is prescribed by himself, is a proof of the design of the spirit in moving them to write. The spirit moved them to write songs, and commanded the sing their words. Th i celebration of praise according to the or- der sanctioned by Him to whom praise is to be ascribed, which was necessarily suspended during the melancholy period of the Babylonish captivity, was afterwards restored in due form by Xehemiah. The chief of the Levites, with their brethren, are appointed to their proper place "to praise and to give thanks according to the command- ment of David the man of God. And at the dedication of the wall of Jerusalem, they sought the Levites out of all their places, to bring them to Jerusalem, to keep the dedication both with thanksgiving and with singing, with cymbals, psalteries and with harps.'* (Neh. xii. 24, 27.) There is a circumstance which is deserving of particular attention, as it appears to teach, that the Psalms, which, in a collective form, constitute a portion of divine revelation, were not only de- signed to supply the matter of the church's praise under the Jewish dispensation, but embrace all that God dictated for that purpose. Several Songs composed on particular occasions, and there is no reason to suppose not dictated by the Holy Spirit, have no place assigned to them in the Book of Psalms. Such are the Songs of Moses, composed when the I^rnoht^s had passed through the Red Sea, and immediately before 32 his removal from their head; David's pathetic la- mentations over Saul and Jonathan; the Song of Deborah and Barak after the defeat of Sisera; the Song of Hannah when she came to present her son Samuel before the Lord at Shiloh; the song of Hezekiah after his recovery from his sickness, with several others. Be it remembered that the collection of the Psalms into one Book must have been the work of inspiration no less than their composition, otherwise the Saviour ne- ver would have given them his sanction in their present form. Since of the Songs interspersed through the different parts of the Old Testament, some are inserted into the Book of Psalms and several are passed by, it naturally occurs to ask what the ground of distinction is, between them which have been omitted, and such as have been incorporated with the Songs of Zion. This ques- tion can only be solved by a determination of the particular purpose for which the collection of in- spired songs w 7 as made. If we suppose the col- lection made with the view of setting before the church the Psalms that should be used in the celebration of praise, it becomes easy to de- termine why some Psalms found already written in the Book of God are inserted and others are not inserted: a circumstance which we could not explain in a satisfactory manner upon any other supposition. The design for which certain Psalms have been collected into one volume was not to pre- serve, for the use of the church, all the songs composed by holy men of God moved by the Holy Ghost. In that case, there would have l>een no : ijm which haid ' ord. ighteenth ! ed and fifl cond Book of Chron' _;i was not to bring together the de- tached productions of one inspired penman. The Psalms are the productions of various wri- . from the days of Moses, to whom the nine- tieth Psalm is generally ascribed, till the time of Ezra, subsequent to the return from Babylon. The design was not to furnish one complete view of inspired songs. Then there would not have been the omissions to which I have before referred. There remains only one other supposition of which I am aware. — that the church might be furn . such a collection as contained the Psali d f3r regular and standing use, in her public and social services; and that the error might be prevented either of inadvertently introdu- cing igh inspired, not intended fogene- nd standing us: 1 , or of omitting : ^n- ed f« d to that end. The admission of a song in'o the scripture may infer its inspiration'; but its admission into the Book of Ts ilmsj proves at once its inspiration and a- daptation, according to the spirit, to the services of the sanctuary: the exclusion of one from the 3t it doe* not invalidate 31 its claim to inspiration, seems to show that its use as a song was private and temporary. But perhaps more than enough has been said to prove that the Book of Psalms was written, with the intention of being sung by the church to the praise of him by whom they were indited. Is it tben too much to infer that an inspired col- lection of Psalms or Hymns was necessary : that the wisdom of man was not adequate to the task of producing such songs, as might be sung with- out fear in the presence of a holy and a jealous God : — that the important work of writing for the church in her holy exercises of praise, could not be entrusted even to the new creature, so long as the law in the members is warring against the law in the mind, and leading into captivity to the law of sin and death: — and that therefore God has perfected, having expressly required his people to sing praise, that which was too great for weak men, too sacred that it should be exposed to the impress of an unclean hand? A heathen Poet, writing respecting the machi- nery and composition of dramatic works, lays down this very judicious rule : — "Nee Dens intersit, nisi dignus vindice nodus Incident."— " Let not a God be introduced, unless a crisis shall have arrived which is worthy of his interfe- rence." In other words: A God should never be brought forward, when there is not something to be performed which man is unable to acccorn- plish. The idea expressed by a man brought up. in ignorance of the lively oracles of God, addict- ed to the idolatries of Rome, and of a licentious 35 chat I christian to blush lor his pidity in supposing that God uimecess urily to di well hiM - d with, 61 ]i in the I have supplied the desideratum. The man whose correct judg- ment would prohibit the introduction of the J I upon the stage, when his interposition was not ry, would at once conclude, when sufficient evidence is produced of the pie- ce of God, that a cn^s bad approached when ice was wanted: that some work was to xecuted beyond the resources of human agen- cy Creative power belongs to God alone. Let us enquire under what circumstances it has been exerted. In six days God Created the Heavens and the Earth, commanded the light to shine, arranged the materials which compose the sublu- nary world, spake into ex ; -te.nce the herb yicld- ists of i da of every wing. In the production of man, male and female, his glorious works were completed. When these things were brought into existence, there had been no provision made for their pro- duction independently of an immediate exertion of divine power. 1' - - now, and ins been Othc d into m 'a nostrils the breath of life. The machinery of cre- ati< D Cn in ill its departments; and iple provision mad auc- 36 tion of every thing y o which Go 1 gave existence at the beginning, without an immechte mani- festation of power, lias God since the creation of man, at any time displayed his creative power by an immediate act? has he restored any lost herb, or multiplied by his efficacious word, any valuable species of fruit-tree, producing new stocks where none grew before or where seeds had not been shed? has he given to man any new spe- cies of inferior animal, in addition to those form- ed at first? Nothing of the kind. It was not — * it is not necessary. His power and his wisdom are amply displayed in the things existing, and in their perpetuation, each of its own species, from inter lal resources bestowed in creation, combined with the operation of external influences. As if he would teach us how alien from his consistent character, is an immediate exertion of power or display of wisdom in any case, in which through ordinary means the prevention is possible; he seems (to speak of our God after the manner of men) carefully to anticipate and to prevent the recurrence of the. necessity of immediate opera- tion. Witness his providence, when about to send a deluge of water upon the earth, to punish man for abounding wickedness. He directs No- ah to construct an ark for the salvation of his house, at the same time sufficiently capacious to contain the seed of every creature liable to des- truction by the flood, and leads of every beast and of every fowl at least one pair, in due season, in- to that one place of safety. And when the seed of all terrestrial things destructible by water had been collected into the ark, God, that every thing 37 ns if under his own seal might be perfectly safe, shut the architect in. with his house, with the in- ferior animal, beast and fowl. Observe again how the same rule — an imme- diate exertion of divine power when divine pow- er immediately exerted ; > n cess iry and only then — is observed by the Son of God, when he so- journed, in the form of a servant, among men. Two examples are sufficient of a rigid adherence to the rule. A father brought his son to him, who from a child had been under the power of a deaf and dumb spirit, that the Saviour might set him free. The spirit at the command of the Son of God "came out of him;" but left him lying along like one dead, so that some of the specta- tors thought he was dead. Did Jesus command him to rise ? No : created agency can do the rest. He put forth his hand and lifted him up. A case even more perspicuous is furnished in the history of Lazarus^ resurrection from the dead. The dead man had been in the grave now four days. a It was a cave and a stone lay upon it." There are three things to be done: — (1) the stone is to be taken away from the mouth of the cave, (2) Lazarus is to be reanimated, and (3) his bandages are to be loosed. The Lord might have spoken the word. The stone would have rolled aside, and the man, even now dead, would have come forth free. But the power of God may not be immediately exerted, when created power is equal to the work to be executed. .Man can roll away the stone. M-m can loose the grave clothes in which a corpse is wrapped. God alone can rean- imate the lifeless clav. Therefore the Saviour re- 4 33 serves that part, of the work alone for himself, if) which human intervention would be vain. " Take ye away the stone," says he to them that stand by, u Lazarus come forth" is the word of power which the dead hears. "Loose him and let him go," he again addresses the spectators, when divine pow- er immediately put forth is no longer wanted. Has God deviated from the same law of ope- ration, in giving a special revelation of himself to man ? Have holy men of God, who spake as they were moved by the Holy Spirit, put upon record any thing which we might have known without an inspired revelation ? Has God communicated what man might have discovered by patient and impartial investigation? God has furnished us with many signal predictions of future events, some of which have been remarkably fulfilled, of others we confidently await the accomplishment. Can man penetrate " the veil that conceals from our eyes the events of future years?'' Can he see what lies behind it, except God be pleased to draw it aside, and allow him a partial glance? God lias revenled the appointment of a Saviour. Could man have certainly discovered that such an appointment had been made? God has set forth the personal and official character of the Saviour, the principles of the New Covenant, and the method by which the designs of God in ma- king that Covenant should be carried into effect. Could man, who was unable to ascertain the ex- istence of a New Covenant, and the appointment of a Mediator, have made any approach to the detection of its provisions or of his qualifications unci work? God has supplied us with a histori- 80 cal narrative o( events occurring in successive generations, from the creation of the world till the carrying away to Babylon, — from the incar- nation of his Son till the imprisonment of Paul in Rome, events preparatory to the appearance of Christ, subservient to plishment of the plan of redemption, and illustrative oftheprinci- f his providential administration, the sta- bility of his purpose, and the irresistibility of his power. These events transpired before tlie lace of man. But would he have ever discovered their relation to the incarnation of Christ and the sal- vation of sinners, without a revelation from Hea- ven? As there can be but one answer given to the preceding questions, with others which might be formed upon all the parts of revelation, that answer is left with the reader. Moreover those events which are more intimately connected with the development of the purposes of God, and the principles of his administration in regard to man, and which God has caused to be written for our learning, are of a character so little imposing that they attracted very limited attention in passing, and were likely to sink into oblivion with the men who witnessed them: nay, but for the providence of God would have been entirely overlooked and forgotten. Has any pen but that of inspiration recorded the events which are primarily set forth in the word of God ? not one. Had God not put it upon record, the history of the formation of all things, of the deluge, of Abraham, the patriarchs, the Israelites, borne down upon the wheel of time, must have remained entirely concealed from the view of future ages, till it had performed its en- 40 tire revolution. In an age affording every facili- ty for the registry of passing occurrences, the al- lusions in profane writers to the appearance, the character, and the acts of Jesus of Nazareth are so few and imperfect that we are left to conjec- ture every thing without knowing any thing. Finally. The Son of God only interferes in behalf of man when every other refuge fails, P What the law could not do, in that it was weak through the flesh, God sending forth his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh, and for sin, con- demned sin in the flesh,'' One principle then seems beyond controversy, that God in no case interferes by immediate ope- ration, except when the agency of the creature is utterly insufficient; and of course that his im- mediate interposition proves the insufficiency of man. His dictation by his spirit of a collection of songs, to be used in his public service conse- quently proves that man, not inspired, was not at all qualified to supply this desideratum in the church. The argument may be stated thus: — t God never immediately appears when the agency of the creature is adequate. But God has given to his church by the immediate influence of his spirit the Book of Psalms to be used in the cele- bration of his praise. Therefore man, not imme- diately directed by the spiiit, was inadequate to the composition of such a Book for such a pur- pose. Psalms suited to the exigencies of the church of God, must be adapted to the diversified cir- cumstances of all ages and of all nations, — to the almost endlessly modified states of individuals. 41 They should be divested of every thing nationni, Occasional, and temporary. partaking of the cha- ncier of the whole word of God, which is equal- ly adapted to the spiritual wants of every nation, of every generation, and of every stage of the di- vine life. The church of God is one. Believers, to whatever nation they belong, in whatever age they hive lived or may live are members of one body, partakers of one spirit, servants of one Lord, the subjects of one faith, engaged in one warfare, and the heirs of one inheritance. The songs therefore which are adapted to one nation or one age, and which cannot be introduced into a strange 1 ind, or may become antiquated, are plain- ly not adapted to the church of God, which is of no nation, and yet of every nation, of no age, and yet of every age. Reason then teaches the ne- cessity of the inspiration of the Holy Ghost, in order to the composition of songs, in which all the requisites of a Psalmody for the church meet. No man, however enlarged in the sphere of his religious knowledge, however diversified his reli- gious experience, may hope to comprehend the different aspects which vice assumes, the different states of every believers soul, the various vicissi- tudes of the christian warfare, and the multiplied sources of the christian's strength, perseverance and joy. Let experience bear witness. There is no end to the alterations and improvements of uninspired songs, which a change of circum- stances renders imperative — There is still found something defective, something suspicious if not objectionable, something at one time appropriate now obsolete, which should he perfected, improv- 4* 42 ed or expunged. That short of a collection of songs by Him. whose works partake of the per- fection of his own character, who knows the end from the beginning, who knows what is in man by nature, what by grace, from whom no one of man's trials, fears, hopes, joys, triumphs, and pros- pects are hid, there is no end to the composition of psalms, hymns and spiritual songs; that ever and anon a new collection or a new arrangement of an old collection claims our attention, which promises to avoid the errors and to remedy the defects of its predecessors; that yet there is not found, after all that has been promised and done one work which shall shut the mouths of gainsay- ers, present no sufficient handle upon which an objector shall lay hold, may reasonably be ex- pected to maintain its place; that every collec- tion will be found to bear the stamp of that bane- ful offspring of carnality — Party, and having a tendency to perpetuate that blotch upon the fair face of Christendom, at once argue the work of wriiing hymns for the use of the church in her religious services too great for human wisdom, and the necessity of divine interposition to sup- ply what man has vainly hoped to furnish. The necessity of an inspired collection of Psalms, may be further argued from the peculiar- ly dangerous tendency of error, in the songs of the Church. Poetry and song have ever been the most successful formers of the public mind. They are much better suited to give particular tone to public sentiment, than all arguments. Like a well-formed and smiling countenance, which prepossesses us so suddenly, and so forei- 43 hi v in favor of the person, that we pity and for- give known vices, and are willing to believe that he possesses rare and decided virtues, of the ex- istence of which we have not, nor wait to obtain substantial evidence. Poetry and music lay im- mediate and close siege to our feelings, which, if they do not surrender at first assault, usually give an easy victory; and the understanding is taken by surprise without having been warned, or hav- ing time to prepare against the inundation, per- haps of error, perhaps of vice, which the assail- ants introduce in their train, It too often hap- pens through a prejudice in favor of the garb in which they are clothed, that truth is received without examination, error without question, vh> tue without approbation, and vice without an or> posing struggle. The fact appears to have been well understood in ancient and more modern times, that poetry, especially when set to music, is the most happy and expeditious road, by which to approach and gain the public mind, and direct its bent at pleasure; and without particular en- quiry into the cause of its power, has often been triumphantly improved. It was no wild and groundless notion, but an idea derived from an intimate acquaintance with human nature and accurate observation that led one to say, "Let me be exclusive balladmaker for a nation and I care not who are its legislators." And doubtless with that advantage he could easily defeat the wisest measures, excite opposition to the most salutary laws, and promote insurrection against the most upright rulers. With what solicitude should we therefore guard against the introduction of songs into the service il of the church, in which there may possibly bean error contrary to the doctrines of the Gospel of Christ. Every error which has found its way in- to the Hymns or Psalms used by the worshippers of God, has obtained a passport to the under- standing and the heart which no min's'.rv howev- er pure can destroy. The Gospel Minister who gives his countenance to a Psalm or song embra- cing error, puts into the hands of the enemy a tried weapon with which to fight against the gos- pel which he preaches. Let us therefore, with one heart resolve, and with one voice proclaim our determination, to have no other songs than those which sustain the character of the Songs of the Lord, in which, being the very word of God, we are sure there can be no error. CHAPTER III. Has a second collection of Songs for the use of the Church been given by inspiration? From what has been advanced in the prece- ding chapters, it appears that to the introduction of the Book of Psalms into the church, to be used in the celebration of praise, no objection can be brought forward from their matter, which does not amount to a denial of their inspiration; l liat their structure and the use to which they were applied, with divine approbation, in the Is- raelitish Church, prove that they were given for the special purpose of praise, and infer the ne- cessity of an inspired collection of Songs. A third fact now claims our attention. No subsequent Book or Books have been writ- ten by inspiration of the Holy Ghost of the same form and for the same use. Of all the facts from which we argue for the standing use, in the Church, of the Book of Psalms, this is certainly the most obvious, needs the least proof, needs only to be stated to be ad- mitted by all who are able to distinguish between the word of God and an exposition of that word; and yet it is probably the one to which many pro- fessors would be ready most ardently to put in their negative: and in the examination of which we shall be led necessarily into a more protract- ed discussion. 46 Only one collection of inspired songs was put into the hands of the Israelites, and they consti- tute an integral part of the Old Testament. The New Testament which we have the happiness to possess, is understood to he complete. Its parts are various; historical, doctrinal and argumenta- tive, practical or perceptive and prophetic; 1; but it. contains no collection of songs, no one portion written in a metrical form, or preseniing a sha- dow of internal evidence that the Holy Spirit, in dictating it, designed that it should constitute the matter of the church's praise. If Christ, or his Apostles by the Spirit, pronounced or wrote Psalms or Hymns or Spiritual Songs, God, in his providence has been less careful of them than of other inspired compositions. The ancient collection has come down entire; but one frag- ment of such poetical compositions has not been preserved to tell that they once had an existence. Granting that the Apostles wrote Psalms, Hymns and Spiritual Songs, it does not follow that they were dictated by the Spirit, and intended to con- stitute a rule of faith and practice, or any part of such rule. Even those whom God honored to be his penmen, may have written without the im- mediate direction of the Spirit the result of their own studies and investigations; and it is an evi- dence of that care with which God has watched over the purity of his own word, that no part of such writings has survived. A very natural pre- judice in favor of an inspired writer of a portion of revelation, might have seduced man into an undue attachment to every thing proceeding from his pen, counteracted perhaps the progress of 1? promoted thecaust of er- - :U at- lu ace of d mind, that jsful, as . th j principles of eternal the error, which is supported by the friend 1 , is i wed with less disgust d without inquiry: and that the heart to that man. whose clear, rid correct views upon one subject, have contributed to the siock of our knowledge gpedited our progress in the investigation and acquisition of truth, credit for equal perspi- cacity and correctness in every department of study. We begin bv attaching him 10 us. in the character of a useful ally, and are, if not main- taining a rigorous watch over the movements of our minds, insensibly Jed to sit down at his feet and put ourselves in the situation of scholars. The influence of a name associated with inspira- tion musr be inconceivably greater than that of eh her the personal friend, or the man of appro- val judgment. We can reason now very calm- ly upon the possibility < f Isjiah or Jeremiah hav- ttten upon subjects foreign to those of rev- elation, or only incidentally bearing upon them, and having produced nothing worthy of more attention than the pages of Newton or of Pol- lok; but did their uninspired writings exist, it is ie the case would be so far altered, that we should find the disjunction of what is and is not inspired, the union of profound submission to the words of the spirit by them, and an im- 48 partial examination of their own words, requiring an effort beyond the power of man. But God has not furnished an occasion for so severe atrial of nmn*s strength. He has considered, in con- descension, our frame, he has pitied our weak- ness, and put an absolute termination to any thing which the inspired writers may have com- mitted to paper, when not moved by the Holy Ghost, The Old Testament contains references to sundry books which are not now extant in a sep- arate form ; the Books of the wars of the Lord, — of Jasher,— of Nathan, — of Shemaiah the pro- phet,— of Jehu the son of Hanani. Solomon also wrote many songs, and a work, as it would seem, upon natural history. We read that "his songs were a thousand and five. And he spake of trees, from the cedar tree that is in Lebanon even unto the Hyssop that springeth out of the wall: he spake also of beasts, and of fowl, and of creeping things, and of fishes." We know then that such books existed, but the allusion to them in the sacred volume no more proves them to have been written by inspiration, than the allusion, in the Book of Esther, to "the Book of the Chron- icles of the kings of Media and Persia," proves that it was written by the Holy Ghost. And e- ven if we suppose a part of them to have been the work of inspiration, there are two circumstan- ces which show that it was not designed for stand- ing use in the church, — that it did not constitute a portion of the scriptures which were written for our learning.— (1) They are lost in the most absolute sense of the word, and (2) upon the part M of our Lord and his Aposfl- a there is no appeal of thin. The Old Testament is quoted as unquestionable authority, and there is not a smirk' insinuation that it is in any part defeetive. Nay it is pronounced complete — "able to make ato salvation, — profitable for doctrine, for reproof, tor correction, for instruction in right- eousness, that the man of God may be perfect, >ughhj furnished unto all good works.*' If we had the most conclusive evidence that the Evangelists and Apostles wrote a thousand and five songs, it still remains to be proved that they were written by inspiration; if we had the most conclusive evidence that they were written by inspiration, it still remains to be proved that they were adapted to permanent and general use among christians; if it were proved that they were adapted, they have no longer an existence, and the spirit of Christ alone, by an immediate communication, can supply their place. There is however no evidence that Christ or his Apostles commi tted any thing to writing which has been lost, wrote any songs for the use of the church additional to the Jewish collection or designed to supersede its use in the worship of God. Christ makes no reference to such poetical compositions. "The hymn which our Saviour sung with his dis- ciples at the conclusion of the last supper, is gene- rally supposed to have consisted of the Psalms that are contained between the one hundred and thirteenth and the one hundred and eighteenth inclusive. This was called by the Jews the great Hallel or Hymn, and was usually sung by them at the celebration of the Passover." (Gray's 5 50 Key, 219.) The Apostles no where allude io any other than the Old Testament collection of songs. "Is any merry?" says James, "let him sing psalms.'" It is to he hoped that before any expositor shall presume to say that James refers to other psalms than those of David, he will take the trouble of proving that, at that tim other Psalms existed. The exhortation is certainly both intelligible and appropriate, supposing those to whom he wrote knew of no other than the Psalms of David. Many a glad heart has open- ed the Book and sung them, and found its glad- ness promoted by the exercise. An appeal to the words of Paul in support either of the existence and use of hymns and spiritual songs distinct from the Psalms of David, or of the propriety of introducing them into the sanctuary would not be deserving of a reply, were it not calculated to make an impression up- on the mind which has never been exercised in the examination of the subject, and is warped by the prevailing practice of various worshipping so- cieties. "Teaching and admonishing one anoth- er in Psalms and Hymns and Spiritual songs, singing with grace in your hearts to the Lord." (Col. iii. 16.) "Speaking to yourselves in Psalms and Hymns and spiritual Songs, singing and ma- king melody in your heart to the Lord.'" (Eph. v. 19.) The terms employed to designate the matter of praise are in the original as in the translation, in both epistles, the same. Why may not all these terms apply to the Songs of Zion? The words of the Apostle by no means imply the existence, when he wrote in the churches of 51 Ej)hcsus and Collosse, of hymns and spiritual songs not comprehended in the Book of Psalms. To the whole collection the title "Psalms" is ap- propriated by Christ and his Apostles. The He- brew word Tchillinu by which also it is distin- guished, is more correctly translated "Hymns" And from the character of the book, every one must at once perceive with what propriety it may be entitled "Spiritual Songs." Brown, in his dictionary, under the word Psalm, thus writes, — "When Psalms, Hymns, and Spiritual Songs are mentioned together, Psalms may denote such as were sung on instruments; Hymns such as con- tain only matter of praise; and Spiritual Songs such as contain doctrines, history, and prophecy for men's instruction." The distinction is dedu- ced from the original names applied to different divine poems, and is sanctioned by the general voice of expositors. There is no reason, how- ever, constraining us to adopt the opinion that there are, in the inspired collection, pieces to which one or other of these denominations must be exclusively applied. The particular view of the character of one of the songs of the Lord, which we take, may lead us to apply to it one denomination in preference to another. If we would mark that particular feature of its charac- ter present to our mind, it may be necessary to make choice of one rather than another of the three designations used with reference to inspir- ed poetical compositions, but I apprehend there is no one part of the collection to which the title Psalms so exclusively belongs, that it may not be called Hymns or Spiritual Songs; no part to 52 which the title Hymns belongs so exclusively, that it may not be culled Psalms ox Spiritual Songs; no part to which the title Spiritual Songs be- longs so exclusively that it may not be called Psalms or Hymns. The Songs of Zion will be called by all these names mentioned by the Apos- tles, according to the light in which they are viewed. They are all Psalms, as having been oc- casionally sung accompanied by instrumental music. They are all Hymns, because composed in honor of the Supreme Being. They are all Spiritual Songs, because poetical and composed by the direction of the Spirit. According then as the mode in which they were occasionally sung, their matter, or their structure and divine origin, are taken into consideration, the poetical pieces, found collected in the Old Testament, will be called Psalms or Hymns or Spiritual Songs. There is nothing more common among men, there is nothing more common in scripture, than to call the same thing by different names, accord- ing to the view which is taken of its character and use. The Old and New Testaments are called also the Word of God, the Scriptures, the lively oracles of God. The ministers of Christ are also called Ambassadors, Bishops, Stewards, Elders, Pastors, Teachers, Shepherds. The wri- ter of the 119th Psalm calls the scriptures, to which he had access, the Law of the Lord, his testimonies, precepts, statutes, commandments, judgments, w 7 ord. Because we more frequently apply the term scripture to denote the revelation which God has made to man, who would from 58 that conclude that the word of God, and tho lively oracles of God are books distinct from the Scripture? Because we almost exclusively ap- ply the term Ministers to point out those who are set apart' to declare the counsel of God, and to administer the ordinances of God's House, who would conclude that Ambassadors of Christ, Bishops, Elders, Pastors, S$c, are orders of men distinct from the ministers of reconcilia- tion and from one another ? Because the Saviour has adopted the style of the Jew and used the term laxo to denote the Pentateuch, who would conclude that the testimonies of God, his pre- cepts, judgments, word, are works totally dis- tinct from the Books of Moses? There is just one class of men capable of drawing such a con- clusion: — those who can infer from the phraseol- ogy which Paul employs in the epistles to the Ephesians and Collossians, that Hymns and Spir- itual Songs must be different from the Psalms of David. If to the preceding reasoning, it should be ob- jected, that though different names are appropria- ted in scripture to the same object, we do not find an enumeration of those names, at the same time, and in the same connection, in order to exhibit it in different points of view, the answer is plain, the objection is not founded in fact. We do find in the word of God, a variety of terms em- ployed to point out the same thing in its various aspects, in the same manner that the Apostle ap- plies the terms Psalms, Hymns and Spiritual Songs to denote one collection of inspired odes under different views. When David says, (1 5* 54 Chron. xxix. 19.) "Give unto Solomon my son a perfect heart, to keep thy commandments, thy testimonies, and thy statutes" how shall we ex- plain the commandments of the Lord, that the matter of them and the form of them may ap- pear distinct from the matter and form of the testimonies and statutes? Is there a man who will take up the Pentateuch, the Books of Joshua, of Judges, and of Samuel, and show us what are the testimonies of God as they are distinguish- ed from the commandments? and the statutes as they are distinguished from both? Is there a man who can show that either with respect to their matter or their form, they are not identical ? — "Let a man so account of us," says Paul, (1 Cor. iv. 1) "as of the ministers of Christ and stewards of the mysteries of God." Were the Apostles divided into two classes? Was one class called ministers? the other stewards? or have we not here two views of the same charac- ter? "I exhort therefore, that, first of all, sup- plications, prayers, intercessions, and giving of thanks be made for all men." (I Tim. ii. 1.) Here there is obviously a multiplication of terms to exhibit different views of the same exercise. I should like to be informed how a man can pray without making supplication and intercession; how intercede without making prayer and sup- plication. Till I have been taught this curious lesson, I must be excused for thinking that Chris- tians may fulfil the Apostolic injunction, "and sing with grace, in Psalms and Hymns and Spir- itual Songs," who always use the Psalms of Da- vid. 55 Perhaps some may think that an easier expla- nation of the Apostle's phraseology is found in the titles prefixed to the greater part of the Psalms in the Greek translation of the Old Tes- tament, called the Septuagint, from which he quotes frequently, even when the reading differs from the received Hebrew text, and which would naturally he put into the hands of the primitive Christians speaking the Greek language. If so, I do not object. The reason why an immediate reference was not made to those titles is, that they are considered by many of doubtful author- ity, and to some of the psalms no titles are pre- fixed. It is true, however, that the titles given to the psalms answer to the terms employed by Paul to designate the poetical compositions which he requires the churches of Ephesus and Collosse to use in the celebration of praise. We find one entitled Psalmos, (Psalm) another Ode, (Song) and another Halleluiah. The last title is made up of two Hebrew words, w T hich signify "Praise ye the Lord," and identifies the poem to which it is prefixed with that of which the Greek terra Hymnos (Hymn) is the proper specific title. Of the titled Psalms the greater number have the first of the three titles mentioned; twenty-seven have the second; and eighteen the third. Grant- ing then that the appropriate Greek title of the eighteen Psalms of praise is Hymnoi (Hymns) Paul, by directing the churches to use Psalms and Hymns and Spiritual Songs, points out to them the Book of Psalms according to the titles prefixed to most of them in the version which was best known of course, to all who spake the Greek language. 56 From what has been said, it must appear pret- ty evident that, whilst the New Testament sup- plies us with no songs for the use of the church, Christ and his Apostles are silent as to any known to them, and used under their direction, not in- cluded in the Psalms of David. It is with extreme pain that I approach the sub- ject of the inspiration of modern poetical publi- cations written for the use of the church and in- troduced into her services. Is it possible that men, with the word of God in their hands, will contend for the inspiration of Newton or of Scott, of Doddrige or of Hart, of Watts or of Wesley? that they would put their writings, whether pro- saic or poetical, upon a level with the Holy Scrip- tures? They may have been talented, learned, studious, well read in the Scriptures, and de- cidedly pious, but they were not inspired. Their works may be distinguished for purity of doctrine, and elegance of style, they may be excellent auxiliaries to the study of the word of God, but they are not his word. Is there one who does not perceive that the moment he admits the in- spiration of their works, or the works of any one of them, he renounces all right to examine them, and to compare them with the Scriptures, to as- certain their correctness ? He is forthwith bound to receive every statement without question, with- out reply. — They become his standard of truth and duty. We do not consider ourselves at lib- erty to inquire whether any thing contained in the word of God be true — be pure. Whatever is found there is considered true and pure of course — Why ? Because it is the word of God, — the 5? woid of inspiration. Now all portion? of in- spired writing have equal authority. To ques- tion the correctness of any proposition of an in- spired Book, is to question the truth of God — All who use the Hymns of Newton, of Watts, or of Wesley, and contend for the propriety of their introduction into the House of God. do not hold them inspired; they take quite different ground, not more tenable, though less impious. They have, however, been instrumental in in- troducing that indistinctness of apprehension upon the subject of inspiration which so gener- ally prevails, and owe to a jealous God a fearful responsibility. Some of our religious poets, and those whose works are most extensively used in the churches, claim little if any thing less than inspiration for themselves. One (Dr. Watts) says in his preface to his Hymns and Spiritual Songs. — "There are also in the Book of Psalms, many deficiencies of light and glory, which our Lord Jesus Christ and his Apostles have supplied in the writings of the New Testament, and with this advantage, I have composed these spiritual songs which are now pre- sented to the world. Nor is the attempt vainglo- rious or presuming; for in respect to clear evan- gelical knowledge, the least in the kingdom of heaven is greater than all the Jewish prophets." Here there is plainly a confounding of that illu- mination which begins in the new birth, with in- spiration. If the latter part of the statement mean any thing in relation to the composition of spiritual songs, it means that himself, though the least in the kingdom of God, being greater than 58 all the Jewish prophets, and of course than Da- vid, is better qualified than he was, to compose songs for standing use in the church, and implies either that the Psalmist, though the spirit spake by him, might err, or himself was raised above the possibility of error. The Apostles only de- sired to have their writings on the same ground with the prophets, — teaching us that the church is built upon the foundation of the Apostles and prophets, — but his compositions must occupy a higher place than the phophets. Another (John Wesley) says in his preface, "It is large enough to contain all the important truths of our holy religion, whether speculative or practical: yea to illustrate them all and to prove them all both by scripture and reason. And this is done in regu- lar order." Again he adds, "May I be permitted to add a few words with respect to the poetry? Then I will speak to them who are judges there- of with all freedom and unreserve. To these I may say without offence : 1 . In these hymns there is no doggerel: no botches: nothing put into patch up the rhyme : no feeble expletives : 2. Here is nothing turgid or bombast, on the one hand, or low and creeping on the other: 3. There are no cant expressions: no words with- out meaning. — Those who impute this to us know not what they say. We talk common sense both in prose and verse, and use no words but in a fixed and determinate meaning. 4. Here are (allow me to say) both the purity , the strength, and the elegance of the English language." Again, speaking of some who had reprinted some of the hymns, "I desire they would not attempt id them, for th v reallj arc not able. — ■ if thcni is abl • to mend eithef the sense or - ." N ig more can be claimed tor There ia uei- tber en md there is no defect in the tun;!. The author of some of the hymns, and selector of the n noun- ced the hook perfect, admitting of no improve- ment : — mon jn rfi cttkan the Bible. Be patient, r. I have not made a statement without thought. If I have thought incorrectly, point out the error. This collection contains not only the important, u but all the important truths of our most holy religion whether speculative or practical." Where are the unimportant truths of our holy religion to be found. Doctrines not taught in scripture are not doctrines of our holy religion a1 all, but unholy traditions of vain man. The unimportant 1 ruths of our holy religion must be in the Bible. If the character which the compiler has given of his "hymns" be just, in possession of it we would have no cause to re- gret the loss of the scriptures. It would form an excellent and adequate substitute, while the minds of the weak would be freed from the diffi- cult exercise of separating between the impor- tant and the unimportant truths, and furnished with the proofs which reason supplies of the doc- trines of religion, and which are wanting to him who has nothing but the word of God. Let it pass: There is neither error nor defect nor re- dundancy in the hymns of John Wesley! The original and grand source of the error in holding modern poetical compositions to be in- 60 rfpired, is that to which we have already referred, and which is brought to view in the words quoted from the preface of Dr. Watts — the confounding of the very wide distinction between inspiration and regeneration, or its fruit, spiritual illumina- tion. Many hold and boldly affirm, many more, who would not perhaps adventure the direct as- sertion, employ language which implies, that eve- ry man who is born again is inspired, — that the writing of a regenerated man are the words of inspiration. It is probable that the latter may not be fully aware how firm a hold such an opin- ion may have taken of their minds, — that it is an opinion of theirs at all, till they are put upon the necessity of reasoning from it as a principle granted, in vindication of the writings of a belov- ed author, and the use to which they are applied. We shall now attempt to point out the distinguish- ing characteristics of inspiration. This it is to be hoped will help to remove in part the vague ideas which may exist, respecting the compara- tive claims of inspired songs and the writings of modern poets. — But as this is a subject of great importance, to be approached with caution, and not to be lightly passed over, we shall devote a separate chapter to the investigation of it. CHAPTER IV. What are the Characteristics of Inspiration? Have the Books of the Old and New Testa- ments been given by inspiration? This general question does not come before us in the present -'on. The answer is taken for granted according to the declaration of one of the pen- men. We do not write in reply to the Deist, but to those who admit that the title scripture belongs to the writings of Apostles and prophets, and thai *\ill scripture is given by inspiration of God." The inquiry upon which we have entered, leads to the examination of The Characteristics of that inspiration to which the scriptures, and. of course, the Book of Psalms Jat/s claim. For information on this point, we appeal to the sacred writings themselves. If they do not fur- nish either a direct statement of the discrimina- ting features of inspired writing, or principles from which a knowledge of its nature and pro- perties may be legitimately deduced, it is useless to attempt the investigation of the subject. Con- jecture would be presumptuous and vain, and knowledge beyond the limits of our research. We consider, however, that scripture has not left the subject of inspiration under any cloud of ob- 6 62 sc'urity. The following particulars are obviously presented to the view of him who reads with care the sacred volume. 1. The word of inspiration claims God for its author. Is it historical i the selection, the arrangement, and the comments are God's. Is it doctrinal ? the Ideas, the reasonings, and the conclusions are God's. Is it practical? the precepts, exhorta- tions, admonitions, warnings are God's. And in each department, the language is such as God was pleased to employ, to express what he would have revealed to man. Is it prophetical? the mat- ter and words are of necessity God's. In short the scripture claims God for its author in as high a sense as if man's instrumentality bad not been employed in its publication: — us if it had coine to us by the hands of an angel, sent forth to dis- tribute the volumes already written; — as if every part of it had been delivered in the same manner with the decalogue, graven upon tables of stone by the finger of God. after having been pronoun- ced without the intervention of human instru- mentality, in the ears of all the people. The Scripture and the word of God are used as convertible terms: where the one is used the other may be used. u If he called them Gods, unto whom the word of God came, and the scrijt- ture cannot be broken.'* (Jno. x. 35.) u Not as though the word of God hath taken none erfect. For they are not all Israel which are of Israel." (Rom. ix. 6.) The Apostle is here expressing his grief for the unbelief and approaching sepa- ration of his Jewish brethren. — by natural de- 03 scout, Israelites : and to prevent any miscpnoep- lion respecting |he promises of God made to Is- rael, and registered in the serptures.he states in the conclusion of ihe verse, and proves in the subsequent verses, that the appellation Israel, io1 properly belong to all who are of thels- raelitish nation, and that consequently the truth of the Scripture promise^ or of the Word of God, is not ejected by the taking away of the Kingdom of God from some who might inherit, according to natural descent the name Israel. When our Lord is called to answer for himself and his disciples, in neglecting the tradition of the elders, be replies, "Laying aside the Com- mandment of God, ye hold the tradition of men." And again, "making the Word of God of none effect, through your tradition." (Mark vii.8, 13.) What holy men of God spake, being moved by the Holy Ghost, is described as the Word of God. The Word of God. S;;muel showed to Saul. "The Word of the Lord came to Na- than." "The Word of God came unto John in the wilderness," and it was ihe u Word of God" which Peter and John being rilled with the Holy Ghost, spake with those of their own company whom they joined, after their deliverance out of the hands of the chief Priests. That God is. in the strictest sense of the word, the author of the Decalogue, will be readily ad- mitted. Now the Scripture generally is ascribed to God, not only in terms equally strong, but in the very same terms in which the ten command- ments are ascribed to him. 1 ne fact that the matter and words are his, is the same, whether the 04 writing be executed by God immediately, or whether men be employed to perform the pen- manship. Concerning the decalouge we read, "God spake all these words." (Exod. xx. 1.)— "And Moses turned, and went down from the mount, and the two tables of the testimony were in his hand: the tables were written on both their sides; on the one side and on the other were they written. And the tables were the work of God, and the writing was the writing of God, graven upon the tables." (Ex. xxxii. 15, 16.) Let us now hear what terms are used with re- ference to other portions of Scripture — "God, ichodit sundry times, and in divers manners, spake in time past unto the fathers by the Prophets." (Heb. i. 1.) Communications were made to the fathers at sundry times, and in divers manners, and by different persons, but it was always God who xpakc. The prophets were the instruments by whom he caused his words to be heard. "Blessed be the Lord God of Israel; for he has visited and redeemed his people, and hath raised up a horn of Salvation for us in the house of his servant David; as he spake by the mouth of his holv prophets, which have been since the world began." (Luke i. G8, 70.) "Whom the Hea- vens must receive until the times of restitution of all things, which God hath spoken by the mouth of all his holy prophets, since the world began." (Acts iii. 21.) "Men and brethren, this Scrip- ture must needs have been fuliilled, which the Holy Ghost, by the mouth of David spake. — Well spake the Holy Ghost by Isaiah the prophet unto our fathers," (Acts. i. Ic\ and xxvui. ifcl»L //../// (r&orfsaith, to-day it' ye will hear (Heb. iii. 7.) llnw common the ! • rd," by which the pro- their addi the people! gainst their own , u Hesaith.' 1 The prophets pos- sess no higher < org is by which God was pleased to address the people. Divine communications are clpthed in language divinely imparted. Mark the singular language of John the Baptist when the "Jews sent Priests and Le- - ; sk him, who art thou/ And he confess* ed and denied not; but confessed I am not the Christ. And they asked him what then? Art thou Elias? and he saith, I am not. Art thou that t ? and be answered, Xo. Then said they unto him, Who art thou? that we may give an ■ to them that s m us. What sayest thou of thyself? He - >Iam the voice of one cry- ing in the wilderness, .Make straight the way of the Lord.*' The Apostles of the Lord occupied the same place with the prophets. They were merely the instruments by whom God chose to communi- cate his will — to speak his word. The commis- sion which they received from the Son of God implies this. "Teaching them to observe all tilings, whatsoever I commanded youP They must not, in the fulfilment of the important trust committe^pto them, depart from Jerusalem till the spirit descend upon them from above, to teach them all things, and to bring all things to their remembrance, that thev had heard from the 6* bo Saviour while he was yet with them. Ttt&y are not permitted to trust to the accuracy of their own judgment, nor to the strength of their own memory. The Apostles considered themselves so moved and directed that the words which th*y spake were of God, who put his Spirit within them. "When" says Paul to ihe Thessalonians, "ye received the word of God which ye heard of us, ye received it not as the word of men, but as it is in truth, the icord of God, And to the Galatians: "I certify you, brethren, that the Gos- pel which was preached of me is not 'after num. For I neither received it of man, neither was I taught it, but by the revelation of Jesus Christ." Again to the Corinthians: — "Since ye seek a proof of Christ speaking in me." Let us now hear Peter. "The word of the Lord endureth for- ever. And this is the word which by the Gospel is preached unto you." "This second episile, I now write unto you ; — that ye may be mindful of. the words which were spoken before by the holy prophets, and of the commandment of us the Apostles of the Lord and Saviour." In the lat- ter verse he identifies himself and fellow Apos- tles with the holy prophets, in pomt of inspira- tion. Are the discip'es to be mindful of the words of the prophets? So are they to be mind- ful of the words of Apostles. Does the word uttered by a prophet proceed from God? So does the word of an Apostle. More might be added, were it nSessary, to shew that the inspiration of the Old and New Testaments implies that their contents are just what God was pleased to communicale to us for 67 our instruction, tint they aro exhibited in that order which God was pleased to adopt, and that they are expressed in the words which God chose to employ. But it will be said in reply, thai we also read, — U M( •" ■ ' rj :-• - pt 10 all the people according to the law. r — "The law wife given hy ."" — •' David calls Messiah Lord." True: but Moses spake hy the commandment of the Lord, and David was in the Spirit when he speaks of M.ssiah. That u Isaiah said. He hath blind- ed their eyes and hardened their heart.'' True: but it is also said that the Holy Ghost spake this same word by Isaiah the prophet unto their fa- thers. That the Apostles spake with tongues. True : but they spake as the Spirit gave them ut- terance. Holy men of God spake, being moved by the Holy Ghost. Consequently, the time when they spake, the words they uttered, and the ideas they communicated, were of the Spirit. All the parts of Scripture are ascribed to the inspired writers as intelligent instruments. The words of Moses, the words of David, the words of Jeremiah are expressions, no less freely used than the word of God and the word of the Spirit. It is not supposed that, because men spake or wrote nothing but the words of God, they were irrational and involuntary, in speaking and writing. We cannot tell how God puts any of the means or instruments whom he employs into motion, for the accomplishment of his purposes; one thing, however, we know, that he employs them all, ex- cept in very few instances, according to their proper nature. He has never spoken by manual 68 man speaks by a trumpet, inanimate and passive, Every part of his works, in earth and air, and sea, is subject to his control, and may be em- ployed to do his work. Still every thing acts according to the laws, to which, in its produc- tion and preservation, it has been subjected by the Creator. A guilty world is to be made desolate for tl*? sins of them that dwell therein. The Lord gives his commission to the clouds of heaven. They gather like armies mustering for the battle, and pour down their streams upon terrified thousands. The fountains of the deep burst forth, and unite their waters with those descending from above, 1o swell the deluge to the overwhelming of a de- generate and impious generation. The Kings who fought against the allies of Israel must ex- perience a defeat, too signal to be accomplished by the forces led on by Joshua ; and God sends, the hailstones down upon the retreating armies. He might have commanded them to execute his will, as balls discharged from the cannon's mouth, or stones projected from a sling, but this would have been contrary to the natural law of their movement. Hailstones naturally descend. They derive their impetus from the power of gravitation, .and no force additional to that gathered in their descent is required to destroy those on whom they fall. When Mary serpents are sent in among the Israelites, they bite the guilty tribes. There, needed no enchantment to allure them. " There came forth two she-bears from the wood and tare forty and two children, of them" th::t mocked Rlisha the prophet, and whom he had cursed 68 in the name of the Lord. Were they not looking for their prey? Must we not suppose them led by instinct, prompted by hunger to make speed, allured, perhaps, by the shouts of youthful impi- ety, b <1 sent than to punish the chil- dren for their criminal amusement, and the pa- fbr their neglect, in withholding an educa- tion in the fear of the Lord. It is natural for the rain and hail to fall, the serpent to bite, and the bear to rend; and when (rod makes them his in- struments, they act according to their distinguish- ing properties and powers. When he employs man to execute his work, he brings him forward, upon the same principle, in the exercise of all his varied qualifications. Understanding, will, pis- si ons, affections are exerted agreeably to natural laws, and the relations which they sustain as dif- ferent states of the same mind. Ahab, King of Israel, goes up to Ramoth-Gil- ead, a doomed man ; and in disguise. The King of Syria, with whom he fought, had commanded his soldiers to right with none but the King of Israel : and he is hidden. But God will draw him forth, and rind an instrument to accomplish his words. A certain man, — he knew not the King of Israel, less that God had intimated that he should die in the field of battle, or that he should fall by his hand, — drew a 'now at a venture. No su- pernatural vigor is imparted to his arm, no super- natural agency diverts the a: row from its direct course, but it was pointed to the King, perhaps to the only part of his person not protected by armour, enters between the joints of the harness, and makes way for the life's blood. In the whole transaction, that certain man acted by no com- pulsion, formed his resolution, executed his own will, shot at a venture: but either his purpo-e, his position, the direction of his arrow, with him altogether fortuitous, were precisely regulated by God of whom he was ignorant, or the prediction of him who knows the end from the beginning, was fulfilled by chance, and might never have been fulfilled. There is a very remarkable and conclusive example of the union of the efficient agency of God, with the freedom of the instru- ment by whom he acts, or of God's employing a human instrument, in the full, the free, and uncon- strained exercise of all his faculties, in the case of Cyrus. God chooses Cyrus, Prince of Persia, to perform all his pleasure, even to the restora- tion of Jerusalem and the temple. God foretells what shall be accomplished by Cyrus, long before he had an existence, or the captivity had com- menced from which he was to set Israel free. Here is a simple prediction. But God plainly informs us, that it is by his own agency it shall be accomplished, in the use of Cyrus' instrumental- ity. He will to the end contemplated, hold the right hand of his Shepherd, subdue nations before him, loose the loins of Kings, open the two-leaved gates, give him the treasures of darkness and the hidden riches of secret places. One tiling must be evident, that the strength and perseverance of Cyrus, the subjection of nations to him, the ter- ror of king's against whom he fights, the opening of the gates of Babylon to admit his army, the delivery into his hands of the accumulated trea- sures of the Assyrian capital, is the work of God. Till all these things were accomplished, Cyrus ^Yas ignorant of that God bv whom he was direct- ed and upheld. Lastly, in the accomplishment of the divine purpose, and in performing the work of God) all the parties, and Cynia In particular, Ovulated by principles congenial to their na- T'i:c ednc tion, habit: i nd cli it cter. Cyrus manifests, from his youth, a predil ction for a military life. To his personal gratification, with the consent of his grandfather the king of Persia, hardly obtained by the urgent application of the ambassadors from Media, he sets out with the command of the Persian forces, ordered to the assistance of the Medes, at war with the king of Babylon and his allies. After a series of victories in their progress, the united armies of Media and Persia, under Cyrus and his uncle Darius, sit down before the capital of Assyria. Despairing of being able to overturn or scale the walls of Ba- bylon, the hope of entering the city upon the bed of the Euphrates, which ran through it, buoys up the youthful warrior. He cuts a canal, by which the waters of the river may be diverted from their course, that the channel within the city may be left dry. The night when the works were so far completed that they might attempt an entrance, was the same in which Belshazzar made a feast to his thousand lords, his queens, and his concubines, and drank wine out of the hallowed vessels of the Lord's house. The sight of the finger's of a man's hand, writing the sentence of death to his power, upon the wall opposite to which he sat, fills his mind with dread and his loins are loosed. It is probable that the lords, whose province it was to see the gates upon the river closed when night set in, were too much occupied in the revels of the feast to attend upon their duty. At all events,' 72 tho gates, which might still have presented a dif- ficult obstacle to the entrance of the allied armies, were not shut, and Cyrus enters in to possess the treasures of darkness. In the historical narra- tive, we perceive nothing but the vigor, the ambi- tion, the heroism, and the skill of the youthful warrior, inspiring his followers with valor, perse- verance, and love of glory, on the one hand; on the other, the indolence and ease springing from a confidential reliance upon the fortifications of the city. In the prophecy, we see nothing but the agency of the Most High; and in the union of both, we are taught to contemplate the Sove- reign of the w 7 orld using human beings as his in- struments, in the exercise of all their powers, and agreeably to the principles upon which their cha- racter has been formed. Proceeding one step farther, the God of Hea- ven is seen employing rational and voluntary in- struments, according to the almost endless variety of personal character. The word of inspiration presents before us a most beautiful illustration of this part of Jehovah's agency. The variety of mental structure, of intellectual power, of modes of thinking, and of style, presented in the word of God, so far from militating, as has been fre- quently supposed, against the plenary and verbal inspiration of the scripture, is only the necessary result of a principle of divine operation from which every deviation is miraculous, and furnishes . a clear and ample elucidation of that principle. The concession, therefore, that the thoughts and style of the different portions of Holy Writ, are distinctive of different writers, of different degrees of mental strength, and various modifications of mental operation, detracts nothing from the asser- tion of God's being the author of the whole, in the proper sense of authorship. 2. The word of inspiration claims absolute freedom from error. God being the author of the Book, whatever is imputed to it, is imputed to him. Impute an er- ror to the word of God, and you impute it to him- self. But God cannot err, therefore whatever is written by inspiration must be free from error. Now inspiration is asserted of all scripture. This is the testimony which the scripture gives concerning itself, and if it be found a false wit- ness in one particular, the testimony must be re- jected in all. The Book which claims God for its author in every part, and is found to contain one false proposition, one unequivocal contradic- tion, must bear to have its claim denied. There is only one alternative to those to whom the scrip- ture is presented. Let them choose between Deism, or the full admission of the truth of every proposition which the word of God contains. We must, however, always distinguish between the word of God and the principles which may have been deduced from it, which are often what the word does not warrant and shocking indeed. 3. The word of inspiration is free from defect. Imperfection is as foreign from the character of God as error. " God's law is perfect," says the Psalmist. The scriptures are fully adequate to the end contemplated by them. They are " able to make wise unto salvation, — profitable for doc- trine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in 7 74 righteousness, that the man of God may be per- fect, thoroughly furnished unto all good works." The word is free from defect, or the Apostle is found a false witness. 4. The word of inspiration contains nothing superfluous. It is true there are portions of the word of God, the use of which, as of many tribes of living creatures, we are at present unable to discover. But is any man prepared to say that the purpose to which they are subservient, neither has been known, nor shall by the progress of events be de- veloped to the view of the church? There would be more presumption than prudence and piety in the assertion, that any thing in the word of God must be superfluous because we cannot discover its use. A spiritual view of the character of God, and the reverence which that view must inspire, will lead us to the conclusion that as God never exerts immediately his power, when means are adequate to the proposed end, so he never puts forth his power either in the use or independently of means, when there is no object to secure. A plain testimony should outweigh a whole volume of speculations, and constrain us to plead igno- rance in the presence of infinite wisdom. A plain testimony we have to the universal utility of the inspired record. "All Scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable P And again, "Whatsoever tilings were written afore- time, were written for our learning, that we through patience and comfort of the scriptures, might have hope." Rom. xv. 1. Paul saw no portion of revelation superfluous — no part of the ?:> Old Testament, in which the refinement of mo- dern times has discovered much neither condu- cive to edification. consistent with delicate feeling, nor exhibiting the mild spirit of Christ. "What- soever things were written aforetime," whatever judgment, profanity, folly, or affected spirituality may form of them, ;i were written for our learn- ing." He finds instruction in the minute record of the sins and sufferings of the Israelites in the wilderness. Some were idolaiors. tt The people sat down to eat and drink and rose up to play. Some committed fornication, and fell in one day, three and twenty thousand." Some of them tempted Christ, and u were destroyed of serpents." Some of them murmured, and were destroyed of the destroyer." What have we to do with all these things? The Apostle will inform us "All these things happened unto them for ensamples : and they are written for our admonition upon whom the ends of the world are come." (1 Cor. x. 6-11.) 5. The word of Inspiration is catthoritatwe. That a work should be written upon any given scientific subject, or a history without an error, a defect, or a redundant expression, is not beyond the range of possibilities: yet would not men, supposing it written, be under an obligation to receive or to read it. The knowledge of its con- tents might not be necessary to the regeneration of man's character, or the purification of his life; — it might never contemplate such a result. The word of God is given for that end: — is subordi- nate to the reformation, and to the happiness of man, not only in this world, but in the future 76 state. The design for which it was written gives it a claim ; and when its Author, who requires us to purify our hearts, to cleanse our hands, to be perfect, and its infallibility and perfection are considered in union with its design, it makes a demand upon our reception, which cannot be re- sisted without sin against God. To every man, to whom the word of God is presented, it pro- claims, "He that believeth shall be saved, lie that believeth not shall be condemned"' — is condemn- ed. Unfeigned faith, it must be evident to the unprejudiced and attentive reason, is something more than a mere historical belief of what is writ- ten, but it always implies a historical belief. No speculative unbeliever can be a faithful man, for the great object upon which faith terminates is brought to view by the word of God alone. The degree of saving faith will be measured by the extent to which the divine testimony is known and embraced ; and therefore faith will be ob- structed in its exercises and growth, by opposi- tion to that testimony, in any the least particular. "All scripture is profitable." Therefore the ad- vantage to be derived from it must fail, in so far as it is rejected. "O fools, and slow of heart to believe all that the prophets have spoken." (fcuke xxiv. 25.) They are not charged with a disbe- lief of all that the prophets had written, but with not believing it all; — not with total but partial disbelief. The consequences of their partial dis- belief were, a suspension of the sanguine hopes they had fondly cherished, that Christ would re- deem Israel, — "We trusted that it had been he which should have redeemed Israel" — and a with- 77 holding of credence from competent witnesses of the resurrection. — u But him they saiv not?'' Therefore the Saviour says, " Search the Scrip- tures; for in them ye think (are assured) ye have eternal life; and they are they which testify of me." Our assent is demanded to every part of Scrip- ture alike. The inspiration which is asserted of all, is asserted of the several parts which consti- tute the whole. Whatever authority is derived from inspiration, belongs to every thing which is inspired. The Saviour has given his sanction to Moses, the Prophets, and the Psalms ; and should man refuse his assent to any part of Moses' wri- tings, the Prophets, or the Psalms, he sets at nought the Saviour by whom the whole is sanctioned. What may appear little to man has the same high attestation with that which appears great. When God has not parcelled out his word, according to its supposed degrees of authority, importance and utility, for man to take a distinction of its parts, into more or less authoritative, important and useful, for granted is impious, taking it for granted, to attempt to make the division is vain. It is rebellion against the authority which the words of inspiration claim, to brin£ an inspired statement to the test of reason, before it will be admitted, and only to receive it because reason has pronounced a decision in its favor. We must receive it without question, without exnmination, because God has spoken it. The Deity will not permit his creatures to debate with him. He proclaims a fact, and it must be admitted without hesitation; he issues a command, and it must be 7* ?s obeyed; conceding the truth of the former and the justice of the latter, or the truth and authority of God are denied. If Revelation is to be subject to reason, it is unnecessary. If reason can de- cide upon the character of revealed f icts, doc- trines, precepts, they must be within the sphere of her investigations. But as revelation brings to view what man. in the exercise of reason, never could have discovered, reason cannot try the merit of the discoveries which have been made. These must be estimated according to the charac- ter of the author. In regard to revelation, rea- son's province is to ascertain the import of what is written; — her duty, if any of her supposed dis- coveries or deductions be found to clash with in- spired statements, to give them up as imaginary and false, that every thought may be brought in- to subjection to the testimony of God. Our final — our only appeal, for the determina- tion of all controversies on the doctrinal or prac- tical subjects of religion is to the Scriptures. They speak with authority. The reason, why many controversies in the church remain undeci- ded is, probably, that there has not been a simple appeal to scripture: that men have been unwil- ling to have Revelation sit alone upon the judg- ment seat. They would associate another or others with her. She knows not to falter in de- ciding upon any case coining within her province ; but obstacles are presented to the reception of her clear decisions, difficulties are raised, and her judgments are embarrassed by the delays, the op- position, and vacillation of those with whom she i« unrighteously compelled to sit in judgment. One appeals to revelation and tradition; anotl*er to revelation and the fathers; a third to scripture and reason: and a fonrili sets revelation behind the scenes and will only pennd ns to hear her sentence as it is repotted by the church. Her competency has also been brought into question, by folly urging bet to decide in cases which should never have come before her tribunal. The au- thority however of scripture is not affected by the perverse proceedings of men. Its voice is still heard, amidst the tumult of contending partisans, proclaiming," To the Law and to the Testimony/ 1 The Saviour and his Apostles teach us, by ex- amples, in what manner we should appeal to di- vine testimony. They bring forward the book and permit it to speak for itself. They never depart from the simple and obvious import of the words. They do not varnish them by explana- tions accommodated to the views designed to be exhibited. They take il for granted that they are intelligible, that they need only to be read to be understood by all who are not prepossessed, They do not dishonor God by acting as if they would say that he had given a revelation in which the words employed are not adapted to convey the ideas intended. The most profound submis- sion to its authority appears in every appeal to scripture, by Christ and his Apostles. "Have ye not read that which w: ; s spoken to you of God, saying. I am the God of Abraham, and the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob?" He does not begin by explaining what is meant by being the God of Abraham, and then proceed to reason from the explanation. He at once fixes upon the Ian- 80 guage employed — upon the use of the present tense, "/ am." According to the opinions of the Sadducees, to whom he replies, Abraham, and Isaac, and Jacob had ceased to exist, when the words cited by our Lord were uttered. But God cannot be the God of a nonentity. That Abra- ham lived to God, even when Moses was in Ho- reb, is therefore evident; and it implies the pre- servation and resurrection of the body an integral part of the man. The people felt the force of the argument at once, and the Sadducees are con- founded. (Matt. xxii. 23-33.) "Is it not writ- ten in your law, I said, ye are Gods?" Without waiting to show them why men, or what men are called Gods, he seizes upon the obvious fact, that those to whom the word of God came are so call- ed, and reminds them that the scripture cannot be broken. (Jno. x. 31-36.) Jesus might have furnished an exposition quite as authoritative as the text; but when he appeals to the text, he must simply hear what it says, and according to a very useful rule, too much overlooked by some divines, judge of what it means by what it says. The same example is set before us by Apostles. " Tell me, ye that desire to be under the law, do ye not hear the law? — Nevertheless, what saith the scripture ?" (Gal. iv. 21, 30.) "Unto which of the angels said he at any time, Thou art my Son ? — Unto the Son he saith, Thy throne, O God, is forever and ever." (Heb. i. 5, 8.) Thus does he quote, without adding any comment for the purpose of giving a supposed fixedness, and deter- mination to the language ; even in cases where many might be ready to suppose an explanation 61 necessary to show the pertinence of the quotation, and infidelity has charged him with inconclusive reasoning, its perversity and blindness preventing it from discovering the bearing of the argument. Hear James. "Do ye think that the scripture saith in vain, the spirit that dwelleth in us lusteth to envy ? But he giveth more grace: Wherefore he saith, Ciod resisted] the proud, but giveth grace unto the humble." (iv. 5, 6.) And Peter. "As he which hath called you is holy, so be ye holy in all manner of conversation; because it is writ- ten, Be ye holy, for I am holy.'' (1 Pet. i. 15, 1G.) Whenever Christ and his Apostles appeal to the scripture, they do it with the most implicit defer- ence and submission, and teach us to consider its decision final. CHAPTER V. Have Psalms and Hymns of modern date been given by inspiration? or does the superior light of the last days supersede the necessity of inspiration in their composition? From the preceding chapter, it appears that every inspired writing having God for its author, is free from error, defect or redundancy, and au- thoritative in the determination of all questions contemplated by it, and in demanding the un- qualified reception of its doctrines, and absolute submission to its rules, of those to whom it is given. The characteristics of inspiration, which have been enumerated, being admitted, and the scrip- ture points them out to us, there can be no long- er a difficulty in excluding the claims of any, the most distinguished theological writers, whether of prose or of verse, who have lived subsequent to the Apostles, to inspiration. In whatever es- timation the names of Calvin, of Beza, of Owen, of Newton, of Watts, and of Dwight, with a host of others, are held, with whatever pleasure their works are read, however profitable their writings may have proved in the elucidation and defence of truth, and in the edification of the church, they have no intrinsic excellence in them Their g - . . are honored, because associa- ted with sincere piety, and their works in a theo* logical point of view derive their value from be- ing founded on the word of God. We can only ive them upon comparison with the word of Cod. and a discovery of the identity of the doc- trines which they teach with the doctrines of scripture. The very examination and trial of their writings by the lively oracles of God, im- plies the conviction, that possibly there may be found in them, deviations from the inspired stand- ard. Is there one in the Christian church, who would take up the writings, or any part of the writings of Newton, for instance, of Watts, or of Wesley, and say "Here is a book in which there is not one error, or dubious expression, in which there is not wanting one statement necessary to render it perfect, and perfectly adapted to its end, in which there will not be found one super fluous proposition or illustration, one mere con- jecture, one sentence which could be spared, without marring the beauty, the arrangement, the perspicuity, the fulness; by which I am bound, the truth of which I dare not question, apart from all external evidence, which is the rule of my faith and practice, and to which I appeal freely and finally in all controversies of a religious na- ture; from which the individual, who dissents, is guilty of rejecting the truth and denying the au- thority of God? v I confidently hope there is not one. I am persuaded there is not one. — And if not then there is not one who does not deny the inspiration of Newton, of Watts, or of Wesley. 84 The third fact is, I consider, proved, that no Book or Books, subsequent to the Psalms of Da- vid have been given by inspiration of the Holy Ghost, to constitute the matter of the church's praise; and it has been proved that an inspired collection of Songs was necessary from the fact that one was given by inspiration. But if the existence of a collection of Psalms, Hymns, and Spiritual Songs given by inspiration, infer that it was necessary one should be given to the church, the conclusion which follows from the third fact is, that no second inspired collection was needed in the church, — is needed by us under this dis- pensation. A second collection of Songs, dic- tated by the Spirit, must be unnecessary for one of three reasons: Either believers are not requir- ed to praise God in a Song under the New Tes- tament dispensation, — or the superior advanta- ges of later times enable Christians, or Christian Ministers to write without the special aid of in- spiration, with an accuracy, a propriety, and a precision, which the Old Prophet required the aid of inspiration to exhibit — or the Psalms of David are not divested of their adaptation to the exigencies of a worshipping people by their age, and do not require to be superseded by any others. 1, Shall we suppose that believers are not re- quired to praise God in the use of Songs under the New Testament dispensation. Is this the reason that God has not supplied us with Psalms and Songs, specially designed for the members of Christ in the last days of the world? It has been shown in the introduction, from the exam- 85 pie of Christ and his Apostles, and from inspir- ed precept, that the church is still required to sing praise that it constitutes a permanent part of instituted worship. Perhaps •J. The superior light shed upon the church enables Christians, or Ministers of reconciliation to write, without the special aid of inspiration, with an accuracy, a propriety and a precision, which they required the immediate direction of the Holy Ghost to exhibit, who lived previous to the" incarnation of the Son of God. From the manner in which Dr. Watts has introduced the words of our Lord concerning John the Baptist, he would seem to have thought they implied as much. "Verily I say unto you, among them that are born of women there hath not risen a greater than John the Baptist; notwithstanding he that is least in the Kingdom of Heaven is greater than he. v (Math. xi. 11.) — There is evidently no reference here to a capability of writing upon divine subjects, or on any subject, with propriety and accuracy. The writings of every inspired penman lay claim to infallible accuracy — to uner- ring propriety. In these respects, therefore, one inspired writer cannot be greater than another, and, much less, an uninspired writer greater than one inspired. John, as a teacher of divine things, could not possibly be greater than the Prophet Isaiah, nor the greatest in the Kingdom of God greater than John. There is nothing more common, nor less liable to misconstruction, than the application of the term greater, when not an inherent, but a rela- tive, not a personal, but an official superiority is 8 intended. "Only in the throne will I be greater than thou,' 1 says Pharaoh to Joseph, when, it can scarcely be doubted, he considered his servant in point of intellectual strength and wisdom, his superior. "This man Mordecai waxed greater and greater" we read, when there is simply a reference to the office be filled and the extent of his reputation. "Whether is greater, he that sit- teth at meat or he that serveth?" It is readily answered, he that sitteth at meat, yet in regard to talent, education, intelligence, the servant may be vastly superior to his master. — Because, ac- cording to the terms of the covenant of redemp- tion, the Saviour was the servant of the Father, he says, "My Father is greater than I," though the names given to him, the attributes and works ascribed to him, prove him to be the Father's equal, — his fellow, as he is styled in Isaiah. John is introduced to notice, not in his person- al but his prophetic character, in connection with the special province assigned to him among them who had been or should be appointed to reveal Christ Jesus the Lord. See the parallel passage in Luke vii. 28, "'Among those that are born of women there is not a greater prophet than John the Baptist: but he that is (the) least (prophet) in the kingdom of God is greater than he." How is John more than a prophet ? In the nearer place he occupied to the Lord. He was not more holy, more faithful, more inspired, or more accurate in declaring the word of God. But whereas they were sent before to announce that a deliverer should rise out of Judah, and turn away ungodliness from Jacob, John occupies the 87 distinguished place of his Forerunner, to prepare the way for him, proclaim his immediate approach) and point him our. This is the reason our Lord assigns for describing him, as more than a pro- phet. "What went ye out for to see? A pro- phet? yea, I say unto you, and more than a pro- phet. For this is he, of whom it is written. Be- hold, I send my messenger before thy face, which shall prepare thy way before thee." How is the least prophet in the kingdom of Heaven greater than John? He occupies a still more honorable place than John did. He is a companion and a friend, and has discoveries made to him which were hidden from all the greatest that had gone before him, or were only obscurely unfolded to them. "And lie turned unto his disciples, and said privately. Blessed are the eyes which see the things that ye see; for I tell you, that many prophets and kings have desired to see those things that ye see, and have not seen them ; and to hear those things which ye hear, and have not heard them.'" Or is it urged that superiority is ascribed not merely to the least prophet, but to the least saint in the kingdom of God? Be it granted. — He has a relative superiority. His lot is ordered in a time of greater light and greater glory; — glory eclipsing all the splendor of a former dispensation. "If the ministration of condemnation be glorious, much more doth the ministration of righteous- ness exceed in glory. For even that which was made glorious had no glory in this respect by rea- son of the glory that excelleth " The shadows have fled away. — The veil has been taken from 88 the face of Moses. The mysteries, which were seen dimly through types and figures, are discov- ered before the New Testament Saint, in their proper character and substance. He has clearly set before him the mystery of Christ, in relation to the application to all nations of the benefits of redemption, "which in other ages was not made known unto the sons of men, as it is now re- vealed unto the holy Apostles and Prophets by the Spirit," and through them "to the saints." He is presented with a view in a historical form, of the accomplishment of that plan of salvation, which the prophets did not fully comprehend, who foretold the coming of Christ, by whom the plan was carried into effect, and the sufferings, by which he was perfected. "Of which salvation the prophets have inquired and searched dili- gently, who prophesied of the grace that should come unto you ; searching what, and what man- ner of time the spirit of Christ which was in them did signify, when it testified beforehand the suf- ferings of Christ, and the glory that should fol- low." He occupies a place, in which he has greater advantages for the investigation of pro- phecy than the prophets who uttered the predic- tions. In one word the canon of scripture completed, is put into his hands. Does it follow, because a man has greater light, more abundant means of information upon all religious subjects, I as advantages greater than Prophets, (inspiration out of the question,) that he is wiser? His responsibility is increased, and, alas! often his guilt. Night, twilight, and the light of a meridian Sun, are alike to him whose 89 eyes are closed. "This is the condemnation thai light is come into the world, and men loved dark- ness rather than light, because their i\ccd< were evil/' However abundant the means of knowl- edge, even with the understanding awake to their importance and the manner of using them, our knowledge, acquired in the use of means, is ne- cessarily gradual, and our progress cannot be greater than the energy and diligence with which they are employed. Men, whose knowledge is accumulated by the use of means, may be found in all stages from ignorance to perfection. The Hebrew Christians, to whom Paul writes, as we, belonged to the kingdom of God, and yet he ad- dressed them thus: — "When for the time ye ought to be teachers, ye have need that one teach you again which be the first principles of the oracles of God." (Heb. v. 12.) They were ignorant of the frst principles of the oracles of God, or but imperfectly acquainted with them. But the least among them was greater than John — than all the Jewish prophets. It will not how- ever be said, that a man who needs to be taught which be the first principles of the oracles of God, is as well qualified to write Psalms, and Hymns, and Spiritual Songs as David ; it will not be said that he is qualified at all. The superior- ity, therefore, of the children of God's kingdom must consist in something which does not neces- sarily infer greater wisdom, or a capability of standing among prophets, much less above them, in writing for the church. They enjoyed the advantages and privileges of the New Covenant, concerning whom Paul writes thus to Timothy, 8* 90 — "From a pure heart, and a good conscience, and faith unfeigned, some having swerved, have turned aside unto vain jangling; desiring to be teachers of others; understanding neither what they say, nor whereof they affirm.'" (1 Tim. i. 6, 7.) And are there not many still ignorant of the first principles of the oracles of God within the church? And are there not many who desire to be teachers who understand neither what they say nor whereof they affirm? Men may be allowed to possess a knowledge of facts, doctrines, precepts, promises, &c, of revelation and still not be qualified to write with an accuracy, ensuring the faithful communica- tion of what they know. Men who have obtain- ed a liberal education, it will be said are quali- fied. But a liberal education constitutes no part of that superiority which is predicated of those who belong to the Kingdom of God. All Chris- tians have not a liberal education, and many, who enjoy all its advantages do not belong to Christ. But the least in the Kingdom of God possesses the superiority of which our Lord makes mention. What is the practical evidence that men of ta- lents, education, piety never questioned, have produced of being able to come into competition with prophets in writing for the benefit of the church. The spirit of Truth is the spirit of con- sistency. The truth is always consistent with itself. The word of inspiration therefore never can contradict itself. No contradiction accord- ingly is to be found among inspired writers from Moses to John. They all "speak the same thing" How much contradiction among theological wri- 0! ters — among writers of Hymns? — tmong m.-n whose sacred songs are used aa die matter of praise! How much op] ■ profes* sors, and ministers | and so received) of Christ, while all profess to d rive their know- ledge from the same source, and that affording no ground of division, because it is one ! Upon every doctrine of revelation, upon the most prom- inent, there has been and is diversity of views. This is a bad argument of ability to write with as much propriety and accuracy as Prophets, — to supply an adequate substitute for the spiritual songs given by inspiration. With this fact be- fore his eyes, the man who would place an unin- spired individual, whatever may be his character or attainments, upon a level with an inspired one, not to say above him, as a writer, can hardly be considered of a sound mind. Among men of conflicting sentiments, in possession of the same facilities for acquiring information, upon religious subjects, how r shall we select the man whose ac- curacy is complete? We cannot. We must re- ceive the writings of all with cautious examina- tion; and when we find them intruding into a place which belongs not to them, however great their inherent value, we must give them the same treatment that the Priests did Uzziah, King of Judah,when he went into the temple of the Lord, to burn incense upon the altar of incense. But indeed if one individual be found wandering into the mazes of error, in the enjoyment of all the advantages common to Christ ians, we can no longer consider those advantages a security against error and deviation in any. 92 If the superior advantages of the Christian dispensation do not qualify men to write with in- fallible accuracy, — accuracy equal to that of in- spiration, we must still look for another reason why an inspired collection of songs, in addition to the one with which the church has been pre- sented, or designed to supersede its use, is not necessary. Perhaps 3. The Old Testament Psalms are sufficient for the church still, and adapted to her present state. This brings us forward to the examina- tion of the fourth and last fact upon which our argument rests, and the consideration of which shall form the subject of another chapter. CHAPTER VI. Are the Psalms of David adapted to the State of the Church under this Dispensation, as under the former? The reason why it was not necessary that a second collection of songs for the use of the church, should he given by inspiration, remains to be pointed out. It is found in the fourth fact from which we argue in favor of the exclu- sive use of the "Songs of Zioiv" in the celebra- tion of praise. The Book of Psalms is no less adapted to our situation and ti?nes, than it was to the situation of the Israelites, and the times of their national existence. This fact will be admitted by every one who is acquainted with the Books; — not by those who are acquainted merely with what has been said respecting it, or respecting a metrical translation of it, with which it has often been foolishly con- founded, but with the book itself: — not by those who know only a few verses, detached by preju- dice or impiety to produce an impression unfa- vorable to its introduction into, or its continu- ance in its proper place, but who know the whole book; — not by those who understand its language as it has often been interpreted by man, (and in- deed they, if consistent, should deny that it ever 94 became the lips of a worshipper of a God of love) but who receive it as it is interpreted by him, by whom it was dictated. "Numberless, 1 ' says Gray, "are the testimonies that might be produced in praise of these admirable compositions, which contain, indeed, a complete epitome of the his- tory, doctrines, and instructions of the Old Tes- tament, delivered with every variety of style that can encourage attention, and framed with an ele- gance of construction superior far to the finest models in which Pagan antiquity hath enclosed its mythology. These invaluable Hymns are daily repeated without weariness, though their beauties are often overlooked in familiar and habitual perusal. As Hymns immediately ad- dressed to the Deity, they reduce righteousness to practice, and while we acquire the sentiments, we perform the offices of piety.'* — "They pre- sent religion to us," says Bishop Home, "in its most engaging dress; communicating truths which philosophy could never investigate, in a style which poetry can never equal; while histo- ry is made the vehicle of prophecy, and creation lends all its charms to paint the glories of re- demption." And Watts himself, with a remark- able, but most happy contradiction, proclaims the book of Psalms "the most noble, most devotion- al, and divine collection of poesy;""' — that there "never was a piece of experimental divinity so nobly written, and so justly reverenced and ad- mired." Let us now enquire whether we have not good reason for appropriating these composi- tions so highly extolled, and so justly, to our own use, and whether there be any want of adapta- tion in them to our circumstance?, on account of which we must lay them aside, and introduce the less noble, but more suitable songs of modern date. SECTION I. There is no part of Scripture which brings the Saviour more fully to view than the Book of Psalms. The Psalms exhibit him, in his person, charac- ter, offices, and work. The assertion is not con- jectural: — it is not supported by any fanciful in- terpretation of the Psalms, not by fallible author- ity, but by an inspired application of inspired language. When the Apostle of the Gentiles would teach the Hebrew the superiority of ^hrist to all angels,— that he is "God over all, blessed forever, v the object of worship in heaven and on earth, he appeals almost exclusively to the Book of Psalms. Of seven quotations, in the first chapter of the epistle to the Hebrews, from the Old Testament, six are from the Psalms of David ; and some have supposed that the se- venth is from the same book. To show the ne- cessary subserviency, of the incarnation of Christ, to the work of redemption, he refers to the Book of Psalms, in three cases out of four. (Heb. i. and ii.) To prove the paramount claim of Mes- siah, as a Prophet and Legislator, in comparison with Moses himself, Paul adduces the Psalms. (Heb. iii. and iv: 1-13.) When he would show the divine origin, the dignity, the efficiency, the permanence of the Priesthood of Christ, its su- periority, in both sacrifice and intercession, to the 96 Anionic, he turns to the Psalms. (Heb. iv. and v.) When he brings forward the doctrine of his ascension to the right hand of the Father, and his investiture with universal authority, he shows that the same is taught in the Book of Psalms. (Rom. xv. 25-28. Heb. ii. 8, 9.) The mission of the Apostles and their successors, and the pro- mulgation of the gospel among all nations, the inspired writer discovers in the Psalms. "Thou hast ascended up on high, thou hast led captivity captive: thou hast received gifts for men : yea for the rebellious also, that the Lord God might dwell among them."' These words of David are thus applied by the Apostles. Ephn iv. 9-13. ("Now that he ascended, what is it but that he also descended first into the lower parts of the earth? He that descended is the same also that ascended up far above all heavens, that he might fill all things.) And he gave some, Apostles; and some, prophets; and some, evangelists; and some, pastors and teachers; for the perfecting of the saints, for the work of the ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ; till we all come, &c." Again we read, "Therefore will I give thanks unto thee, O Lord, among the heathen, and sing praises unto thy name. — O praise the Lord, all ye nations: praise him, all ye people." These words are thus applied in Rom. xv. 8, 9, 11. "Now I say that Jesus Christ was a minis- ter of the circumcision for the truth of God, to confirm the promises made unto the fathers: and that the Gentiles might glorify God for his mer- cy : as it is written, "For this cause, I will con- fess to thee among the Gentiles, and sing unto Dame. — And again, praise the Lord r.ll ye and laud him all ye people." The ag particulars of the melis anticipated in the Psalms. — It is a sm ill matter that many Bee nothing in them f David's or of Asaph's life ■n huly Apostles saw. and have discovered to us by the spirit, that the Lord our righteousness is a much more prominent ob- ject than the sons of Jcsso and Barachi ah. The following particulars are selected from those which arc taught in the Psalms of David. 1. The rejection of Christ by the Jewish Doc- tors. u The stone which the builders refused, is become the head of the corner. This is the Lord's doing; it is marvellous in our eyes." The application of these words is made by Jesus him- self, and twice by Peter. Compare Matt. xxi. Es iv. 11. " I Pet. ii. 7, 8, with Ps. cxviii. 22, 23, 2. The circumstances of his public entrance into Jerusalem are declared in the spirit of pro- phecy. u Out of the mouth of babes and suck- lings has thou ordained strength, because of thine enemies, that thou Brightest still the enemy and the avenger/ 7 The Saviour points out the appli- cation of these words. He enters Jerusalem, seated on an ass, attended by a multitude, some spreading their garments in the way, some strew- ing branches, all proclaiming, "Hosanna to the Son of David : blessed is he that cometh in the name of the Lord : Ilosanna in the highest:*' and he displays his authority as a Son over his own house bv turning them out of the temple that had 9 98 converted his Father's residence into a place of merchandize. "And when the chief Priests and Scribes saw the wonderful things that he did, and the children crying in the temple, and say- ing, Hosanna to the Son of David; they were sore displeased, and said unto him, Hearest thou what these say? And Jesus saith unto them, yea; have ye never read, Out of the mouth of babes and sucklings thou hast perfected praise?" The Priests and Scribes are silent. The enemy and the avenger is still. — Compare Ps. viii. 2. with Matt. xxi. 5-15. 3. In the Psalms the combination of all na- tions against the Saviour is revealed. "The Kings of the earth set themselves, and the rulers take counsel together, against the Lord and a- gainst his anointed, saying, Let us break their bands asunder, and cast away their cords from us." And we learn the views of the disciples respecting the passage from the following words; — -"For of a truth against thy holy child Jesus, whom thou hast anointed, both Herod and Pon- tius Pilate, with the Gentiles and the people of Israel, were gathered together, for to do whatsoe- ver thy hand, and thy counsel, determined be- fore to be done. Ps. ii. 23, compared with Acts iv. 26—28. 4. The partition of Christ's raiment when he is being crucified, with the particular mode by which his seamless coat was disposed of, is set before us in the Book of Psalms, "They part my garments among them, and cast lots upon my my vesture." How literally was this verified in the man of Nazareth! So literal was the accom- N plishment, that no man can doubt that Messiah 6peaks in the twenty-second Psalm by the mouth of David. As the words of the Son of David it was received by the Evangelist. "Then the sol- diers, when they had crucified Jesus, took his gar- ments, and made four parts, to every soldier a part; and also his coat: now the coat was with- out seam, woven from the top throughout. They said therefore among themsc Ives, let us not rend it, but cast lots for it whose it shall be: that the scripture might be fulfilled, which saith, they part- ed my raiment among them, and for my vesture they did cast lots/' John xix. 23, 24. 5. The Jews read and sung in the Psalms, tho Saviour's pathetic expression of his sense of de- sertion, in the hour when the powers of darkness were let loose, and his expression of confidential reliance when about to give up the ghost. "My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me." " In- to thine hand I commit my spirit.*' Ps. xxii. 1 and xxxi. 5, compared with Matt, xxvii. 46, and Luke xxiii. 46. If a full and perspicuous exhibition of the per- son and work, the trials and triumphs of the Cap- tain of salvation should recommend a collection of songs to the attention of Christians, — if it ar- gue their adaptation to the christian church, as the matter of her praise, that recommendation be- longs to the Book of Psalms in a pre-eminent de- gree. The preceding references may serve, in some measure to remove the impression, which would seem to have been made upon the minds of some, that an exhibition of the peculiarities of a typical dispensation, is the most prominent fea- 100 ture of the Songs of Zion. The peculiarities of those Songs are the peculiarities of the everlast- ing covenant, and of the divine life. The subject of the Psalms, as a display of him who is all our salvation and all our desire, has however, only been touched. Instead of proceed- ing from Psalm to Psalm, for the purpose of pointing out the Redeemer, brought forth directly or indirectly in almost all. (which would be te- dious, though not otherwise difficult,) we shall take the more expeditious, and perhaps more pro- fitable plan of laying down a general rule, by which it may, with great facility be discovered, when Christ is either the speaker, or the object contemplated in any given Psalm. This rule is one taught by the Apostles, Peter and Paul: — it is one which they united in employing in the in- terpretation of the language of the Psalms; — it is one which, by consequence, is sanctioned by the Spirit. It is the Spirit's rule for the legiti- mate exposition of his own words. Simplicity is its recommendation. The rule is this: — When an expression is used in one of the Psalms, which is not true of the wri- ter when the first person is used, nor of the appa- rent object, contemplated by the writer, when the second or third person is used, it may safely be taken for granted that Jesus Christ in the former case, is the speaker, in the latter that he is address- ed or spoken of. Consider how the Apostles apply this rule, with the utmost harmony. Turn to the sixteenth Psalm. "I will bless the Lord who hath given me counsel; my reins also instruct me in the 101 night seasons. I have set the Lord always before me: because he is at my right hand, I shall not be moved. Therefore my heart is glad and my glory rejoiceth: my flesh also shall rest in hope. For thou wilt not leave my soul in hell; neither wilt thou sutler thine holy one to see corruption. Thou wilt show me the path of life: in thy pre- sence is fulness of joy; at thy right hand there are pleasures for evermore.'" The words which have been read, Peter repeats in his address to the mixed multitude which had congregated toge- ther, attracted by the miraculous events of the day of Pentecost, and proceeds to reason upon them in the following strain, — "Men and bre- thren, let me freely speak to you of the patriarch David, that he is both dead and buried, and his sepulchre is with us unto this day. Therefore being a prophet, and knowing that God had sworn unto him with an oath, that of the fruit of his loins, according to the flesh, he w r ould raise up Christ to sit on his throne; he seeing this before, spake of the resurrection of Christ, that his soul was not left in hell, neither his flesh did see corruption.'" (Acts ii. 2UV31.) When we read the Psalm, we might be ready to suppose David the speaker de- claring his own resolution, and confidence and joy. ''I have set the Lord always before me, — He is at my right hand — therefore my heart is glad." This Peter evidently takes for granted. But presently we meet with a declaration, upon which he fixes the attention of his audience, which cannot be explained of David or any other hu- man person. "Thou wilt not leave my soul in hell; neither wilt thou suffer thine holy one to 9* 10*2 see corruption. " Here we are at a stand. Da- vid disappears. The Apostle puts his hearers in mind that David is dead and buried, that his se- pulchre was still before their eyes to testify that his soul had been left in hell, and that his flesh had seen corruption. David, therefore, he con- cludes is not speaking of himself. He is the or- gan of another, of whom every part of the song is true. Of Christ the words are true. He has been raised from the dead, without having seen corruption. The inference is, Christ speaks by David. Paul adopts the same rule of interpretation. He quotes a part of the eighth Psalm, (4,6,) "But one in a certain place testified, saving What is man, that thou art mindful of him? or the son of man that thou visitest him? Thou madest him a little lower than the angels; thou crownedst him with glory and honor, and didst set him over the works of thy hands. Thou hast put all things in subjection under his feet.''' As the cursory reader might be ready to suppose that the Psalm- ist designs merely to set forth the sovereignty and honor, conferred upon man by his Creator, in ap- pointing him Lord of this lower world, the Apos- tle is willing for a moment to admit it, that he may from the admission, take occasion to point out the fallacy of the supposition. He compares the concluding declaration with facts. " He hath put all things in subjection under his feet." If then all things are subjected, it follows plainly, the Creator "left nothing which is not put under him." But is this consistent with facts, — facts which are opes to the observation of all? Are 103 nil tilings, without exception, in this world, under man" y one is read] . ." A rery small proportion the fowls of the air, or of the fish of the sen, is subject to ontroh Many leuhted to in art : and then over winds, and waves, the thunder, the earthquake, and the rain, he has no power. Long as man is supposed to have reigned, bis power is still confined within very narrow limits. ;; But now we sec not yet ail things put under him." Of whom then does the penman speak in the eighth Psalm ? Of mere man pi linly he is not speaking, or the testimony is false which he hrings. Paul teaches us that it is of the ;i man" approved of God by signs and wonders wrought by him, while he sojourned on earth, — of the "son of man,'* who came to seek and to save that which was lost. Of him the words of the Psalm arc true, in the most absolute sense of them . " We see Jesus who was made a little lower than the angels, for the suf- fering of death crowned with glory and honor; that he by the grace of God should taste death for every man." — ITeb. ii. ('*—-. Such is the rule, and such is the authority by which it is recommended. Let it be tried upon those Psalms which the New Testament writers interpret of the Saviour. If it fail in one instance, it cannot be singly relied on. We shall bring forward but a few examples. Read the second Psalm. The question to be d d is. whe- ther David be intended by the King, who is said to be set upon the Holy Hill of Zion, and Solo- 104 mon the Son mentioned toward the conclusion of the Psalm; or whether Christ be both God's King and Son. If there be found language not true of David or Solomon, the Saviour is revealed to us. "Ask of me and I will give thee the hea- then for thine inheritance, and the uttermost parts of the earth for thy possession. Thou shalt break them with a rod of iron, thou shalt dash them in pieces like a potter's vessel.'" Was this realised in David? or in Solomon? No. Consequently we look for their fulfilment in Christ, the Father's Anointed. See the eighteenth Psalm. "The assembly of the wicked have enclosed me : they pierced my hands and my feet. They part my garments among them, and cast lots upon my ves- ture." David's hands and feet never were pierced. Lots never were cast upon his vesture. The Psalm is the words of Christ speaking by David. In the fortieth Psalm we read; — sacrifice and of- fering thou didst not desire ; — burnt offering, and sin offering hast thou not required. — Were no sacrifices according to the ceremonial law, requi- red of David? They were, and he presented them, in obedience to the divine injunction. But the fulfilment of the law, in its moral obligation, was required of Christ, and he magnified the law and made it honorable. Additional examples are not necessary. When the Book of Psalms is read in the light of Evangelists and Apostles, Christ will be found set forth in it very fully. If we look for a collec- tion of Hymns or Psalms, or Spiritual Songs bringing the Saviour more fully, than he is brought to view in the Songs of Zion, we shall look in 105 vain. To expect another exhibiting bin with unerring correctness would be even more vain if possible. So thought Bishop Horsely. His words as ci- ted by II. 1 foi ne, (Int. v. ■• ( tf those (Psalms) which allude to the life of David, there are none in which the Son of David is not the prin- cipal and imme id's complaints against his enemies an mptaints, first of the unbelieving Jews, then of the heathen persecutors and of faction in later ages. David's affliction s ingB. David's penitential supplications are M under the burden of the imputed guilt of man. David's songs of triumph and thanksgiving are Messiah's songs of triumph and thanksgiving, for his victory over sin, and death, and hell. In a word, there is not a page of this book of Psalms, in which the pious reader will not find his Saviour, if he reads with a view of finding him. — It should seem, (p. 113) the Spirit, of Jehovah would not be wanting to enable a mere man to make com- plaint of his own enemies, to describe his own sufferings just eis he felt them, and his own es- capes just as they happened. But the Spirit of Jehovah described, by David's utterance, what was known to that Spirit only, and that Spirit on- ly could describe. So that, if David be allowed to have any knowledge of the true subject of his own compositions, it w s nol but something put into his mind by Spi- rit of God; and the misapplication of the Psalms to the literal David has done more mischief, than the misapplication of any oiher parts of the Scrip- 106 ture, among those who profess the belief of the Christian Religion." SECTION II. In the Psalms more especially, there ia a most happy adaptation of the language to the state of Tin: cucrch. While the phraseology was truly appropriate in the lips of those who lived before the incarna- tion of the Son of God. it has lost none of its pro- priety in the lips of believers to whom that event is matter of history. This is a feature of the Psalms, though not exclusive, yet more prominent, which has too often been overlooked. It has very frequently been taken for granted, that the Songs, adapted to the Church in the period of youth, when her members trusted in a Saviour promised, to put away sin by the sacrifice of him- self, in predictions not verified by the event, m their worship, were regulated by the precepts of a ceremonial law soon to be abrogated, and sub- jected to local and temporary restrictions, must be inappropriate among those who look to a Sa viour who has already come, and "by one sacri- fice forever perfected them that are sanctified," to whom prediction has put on the garb of histo- ry, before v. hose eyes the shadows have passed away, and who worship God in everyplace with equal acceptance. But have they who think that this must be obvious from the very nature of th examined with care the mode of expression which the Spirit has employed in the Psalms ? Are we required in using them, to celebrate the personaj and official glories of a Saviour, as yet to come? 107 io sing predictions, already verified by their ac- complishment, in terms which Imply that their fulfilment is still an object of hope? to employ language which supposes that we are still under the yoke of a burdensome ritual ? and to speak as if we were under the same local restrictions, in tendering the public expressions of our homage, with the Jews? That the answer to all these questions must be given in the negative, shall, it is believed, appear from an attentive examination of the following particulars: 1 . The inejficacy of legal sacrifices is taught in the Psalms. They are not merely represented as about to pass away, but as having already passed away. In the exercise of that (kith which is the "substance of things hoped for, and the evidence of things not seen," the inspired writer anticipates the period to which his hopes are di- rected, and speaks of its liberty in the language of one who had seen the Kingdom of God come with power. God had spoken; and he exults in what God has promised} as if it were already real- ised ; so that in some instances, the power of faith being kept out of view, the reader might be ready to suppose the language of some of the Psalms more appropriate in the mouth of a Christian than of a Jew. Take the following examples : s Sa- crifice and offering thou didst not desire; mine ears hast thou opened; burnt offering, and sin of- fering hast thou not required." (xl. 6.) These are the words of Christ according to the testimony of Paul; but that he speaks in the name of his people as well as in his own, appears from the preceding verse. u Many, O Lcrd my God, are 108 thy wonderful works which thou hast done, and thy thoughts which are to la-waid:" Again, "I will not reprove thee for thy sacrifices or thy burnt offerings, to have been continually before me. 1 will I k€ do I H< ck out of thy house, no he- goats out of thy folds. For every beast of the st is mine, and the cattle upon a thousand hills. I know all the fowls of the mountains; and the wild beasts of the held are mine. If I were hungry, I would not tell thee: for the world is mine, and the fulness thereof. Will I eat the flesh of bulls, or drink the blood of goats? Offer unto God thanksgiving; and pay thy vows unto the most High: and call upon me in the day of trouble: I will deliver thee, and thou shalt glori- fy me." (1. ^-15.) And in the subsequent verses of the Psalm, when God calls the open contem- ner of his name to an account, he charges him, not with the neglect of ceremonial rites, but with a love of darkness, with theft, adultery, profanity, deceit, slander, and want of natural affection. Contrast the preceding p h the words of Malachi, (i. ?. 8.) u Ye offjr polluted bread upon mine altar; end ye say wherein have we polluted thee ? And if ye offer the blind for sacrifice, is it not evil ? and if ye offer the lame, and sick is it not evil ?— (hi. 8.) Will a man rob God? But ye say. wherein have we robbed thee? In tithes and offerings. Ye are cursed with a curse: for ye have robbed me, even this whole nation." If Christians were required, in using the Psalms, to employ such terms, plainly implying the contin- ued obligation of ceremonies, it would be at once conceded that they are inappropriate. Once 106 more. — "For thou desirest not sacrifice; else would I give it; thou delightest not in burnt of- fering." (li.lt>.) Wlnt? Was no sacrifice or offering, according to the law, required of David? Assuredly the ceremonial 1 rw was obligatory up- on him, and he observed it. But he knew that legal sacrifices only served for the purifying of the flesh, and tint a better sacrifice was wanted to expiate the guilt of the soul. Besides, directed by the Spirit, he adopts language which faith war- rants, and the subjects of it in the last ages may appiopriate. One other quotation and I have done. u I will praise the name of God with a song, and will magnify him witii thanksgiving. This also shall please the Lord better than an ox, or bul- lock, that hath horns and hoofs." (lxix. 30, 31.) It must be admitted, and it is admitted most willingly, that allusions to ceremonial acts of wor- ship, and also to the localities of the Israelitish residence, and of their city, and temple, abound in the book of Psalms. There are few however, with those passages present to their minds, which teach the inefficacy of sacrifice, who would say that the adoption of phraseology borrowed from ancient rites, is adapted to convey the idea of the permanent obligation of them upon those who use it. And if Jerusalem, and Zion, and Palestine are represented, as the permanent seat of worship and place of rest, it may appear in the sequel, that that is no objection to the present use of the Psalms which furnish such representations. The Apostle points out a distinction of sacrifi- ces into legal and spiritual. ""Above when he said, sacrifice and offer mg, and burnt offering, and 10 110 offering for sin, thou wouldest not, neither hadst pleasure therein." Thus far the Apostle, in the words of the fortieth Psalm. And he immediate- ly adds, " which are offered by the law:** Sacri- fices are still required but not legal sacrifices. The use of the language of the Psalms implies an obligation to offer sacrifices, but not legal sacrifi- ces. " Which are offered by the law." (Heb. x. 8.) The Psalms themselves furnish an explana- tion of sacrifices, and offerings, as obligatory up- on believers of every age, founded as you will at once perceive upon the distinction which the Apostle holds up to view. I shall put down a few verses without comment — "Offer the sacrifi- ces of righteousness and put your trust in the Lord. — Whoso q^pr^/i praise glorifieth me. — The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit , a broken and a contrite heart, O God, thou wilt not des- pise, — Then shalt thou be pleased with the sacri- fices of righteousness ) with burnt offering and with whole burnt offering : then shall they offer bullocks from thine altar. — I will freely sacrifice unto thee : I will praise thy name, O Lord, for it is good. — I will offer to thee the sacrifice of thanksgiving, and will call upon the name of the Lord. — Let my prayer be set forth before thee as incense; and the lifting up of my hands as the eve- ning sacrificed The use of terms borrowed from the ancient economy is authorized by the example of New Testament writers. They describe the character, the duties, the worship, and the privileges of Chris- tians in the language of the people of Israel . The consistency of the language of the Psalms with Ill the spirit and the institutions of the present time will appear from the subsequent parallelism, sug- (1 by a comparison of the terms emplo\ -d by the penman of the Psalms with those intro- duced in the New Testament: unless it should be said that tluro is something "Jewish and clou- dy 11 in the writings of Christ and his Apostles, which is removed by the more lucid modes of speech which som? of their more spiritual follow- ers may teach us to use. PSALMS. Ps. xKL 4. There is a river, the streams of which shall make glad the city of God, the holy place of the tabernaeles of the Most High — xlviii. 2. Beauti- ful for situation, the joy of the whole earth, is Mount Zion, on the sides of the north, the city of the great king. — li. IS- Do good in thy good pleasure unto Zion: build thou the walls of Jerusalem. — liii. 6. Oh that the salvation of Israel were come out of Zion! When God bringeth back the captivity oih'xs people, Jacob shall rejoice, and Israel shall be glad. Ps.xxvii.4. One thing have I desired of the Lord, that will I seek after; that I may dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of my life, to behold the NEW TESTAMENT. Heb. xii. 22. But ye are come unto Mount Zion, and unto the city of the ti- ring God, the heavenly Jerusalem, Rom. ix. 6,7, 8. They are not all Israel which are of Israel: nei- ther because they are the seed of Abraham, are they all children: but, in Isaac shall thy seed be called. That is, they which are the children of the flesh, these are not the children of God: but the children of the promise are counted for the seed. Gal.vi.16. Peace be on them, and upon the Israel of God, Jno. ii. ]9. Jesus an- swered and said unto them, destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up. 1 Cor. iii. 16. Know ye not that ye are 112 beauty of the Lord, and to enquire in his Temple. xlviii. 9. We have thought of thy loving kindness, O God, in the midst of thy Temple, lii. 8. But 1 am like a green olive tree in the house of God: the temple of God, and that the spirit of God dwelleth in you? 1 Tim. iii. 15. That thou mayest know how thou oughtest to be- have thyself in the house of God, which is the church of the living God. Ps.liv. 3. For strangers Eph.ii.19. Now there- are risen up against me, fore ye are no more stran- and oppressors seek after gers and foreigner s, but my soul. cxxxvii. 4. — fellow-citizens, with the How shall we 6ing the saints, and of the household Lord's song in a strange of God. Laud! Ps. cvi. 4, 5. Remem- ber me, O Lord, with the favor that thou bearest un- to thy people: O visit me with thy salvation: that I may see the good of thy chosen, that I may rejoice in the gladness of thy na- tion, that I may glory with thine inheritance, cxxxii. 9. Let thy priests be clo- thed with righteousness, cxlviii. 14. He also ex- alteth the horn of his peo- ple, the praise of all his saints even of the children of Israel, a people near un- to him, Ps. xlii. 4. When I re- member these things, I pour out my soul in me: for I had gone with the multitude, I went with them to the house of God, with l.Pet.ii. 9. Butyeare a chosen generation, a roy- al priesthood, an holy nation, a peculiar people; that ye should shew forth the prai- ses of him who hath called you. Col. i. 12. Giving thanks unto the father, which hath made us meet to be partakers of the in- heritance of the saints in light. Eph. i. 10. .That in the dispensation of the fulness of times, he might gather together in one, all thitigs in Christ, both which are in heaven, and which are m the vuice of joy and praise, with a multitude that kept holyday. cxxii. 3,4. Je- rusalem is build >d as a city that is compact together: whither the tribes _ the tribes of the Lord, unto the testimony of Israel, to give thanks unto the name oi the Lord. For there are set thrones qfjwdgmetU, the thrones of tin Da rid. on earth: even in him. Heb. 12. Ye are come unto the heavenly Jeru- salem, and to an innume- •mpany of angers. to the general asi and church of the first born, which are f in heaven, to God the judge of all, and to the spirits of just men made perfect, and to Jesus the Mediator of the New Co- venant. Luke i. 3*2. The Lord shall give unto him (Jesus) the throne of I it fa ther Dnr'ul. Ps. I. 5. Gather my faints together to me: those that have made a covenant with me by sa- crifice, lxvi. 15. I will offer unto thee burnt sa- crifices of failings, with the incense of runs; I will otfer bullocks with goats, cxviii. 27. Bind the sa- crifice with cord-, even unto the horns of the al- tar, xliii. 4. Then will I go unto the altar of God, unto God, my exceeding joy. Rom. sii. 1. I beseech you. brethren, by the mer- cies of God, that ye pre- sent your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God. 1 Pet. ii. 5. Ye also, as living stones are built up a spiritual fcoose, an holy priesthood. to offer up spiritual sacri- fires. acceptable to God If Jesus Ch rist . H e b . x i i i . 10. We have an altar, whereof they have no right to eat who serve the tabernacle. Ps. exxxvii. 1. c . By the rivers of Babylon, there we sat down, yea, we wept when we remember- ed Zion. O daughter of Babylon, who art to be de- stroyed; happy shall he te 10* Rev. xvii. 5. And up- on her forehead was a name written. Mystery, Babylon the great, the mo- ther of harlots and abom- inations of the earth. xviii.90. Rejeice over her 114 that rewardeth thee, as thou heaven, and ye holy thou hast served us. Apostles and Prophets; for God hath avenged you on her. Before a comparison of the mode of expres- sion used in the Psalms with that which is found in the New 7 Testament, every objection to the use Qf the Songs of Zion, on account of the frequent allusions which they contain to the nature and circumstances of the religious institutions of Is- rael, vanishes. It is not intended to make the impression that there is no allusion to the types in the Book of Psalms, which is not found intro- duced by Christ and his Apostles to describe spiritual things. But we find them using figu- rative language derived from all the leading and primary characters of the former economy; and in this they furnish an evidence of the correct- ness and consistency of Christians, putting the name of the type to express the thing typified. The allusions to the various musical instru- ments, used by the Israelites in the temple ser- vice occasionally found in the Psalms, may be explained upon the principle, to which the pre- ceding argument conducts us, in perfect consis- tency with the exclusion of them all from our places of worship. The reason that I have not taken particular notice of them, as of allusions to other typical institutions, is a desire to avoid the question respecting the mode of singing the praises of the Lord, which is not necessarily con- nected with the examination of the character of the Hymns which should be introduced into the sanctuary. 1 1.) Predictions in ihe Pa tlms, and, in particu- lar, those of which Christ is the subject, which adroit of a definite accomplishment before the consummation of all thmg* 9 arc presented in ft historical form. Had such events as are fore- told in the Psalms been exhibited as future, we could not have used the Songs which supply the predictions that have already had their accom- plishment, without pronouncing the language of expectation and hope, when we well knew that the object contemplated had become matter of fact. But the spirit has revealed them in such a form that then' can remain no doubt of a design- ed accommodation of the Psalms to every age, and an adaptation to permanent use in the church. Were there not unquestionable evidence of the contrary we might be ready to suppose many of the prophetic psalms written subsequent to the events they record, with, a special view to the service of the New Testament church, Predic- tions on the contrary that do not admit of a de- finite fulfilment before the second coming of Christ, and are being fulfilled progressively from age to age, appear in their natural future form. These predictions, like the promises of the new covenant, whatever partial accomplishment they may have had, or to whomsoever they may have been realised in particular, are still to be fulfilled, are still the foundation of the saints' hopes, and patient expectations. We shall illustrate the preceding remarks by a few examples out of many that might be brought forward. In the second psalm we read, "I have set my King up- on my holy hill of Zion."' The actual ascension 116 of Imnianuel to the right hand of the majesty on High, his formal investiture with mediatorial au- thority did not take place till after his resurrec- tion from the dead. Yet we do not read, "I icill set," but "I have set my King upon my holy hill." When an event is predicted which is pro- gressively perfected, mark the change of tense ; "I will declare the decree," "I shall give thee the heathen for thine inheritance." The exalta- tation of Christ is an event perfected and past, but the subjection of the Gentiles to the sceptre of Immanuel is progressive: — is past, passing, and to come to pass, till all things shall have been subdued. Then cometh the end. The twenty-first psalm affords another illustration. "The King shall joy in thy strength, O Lord; and in thy salvation how greatly shall he rejoice!" The son of man has entered into his glory, he has taken possession of the joy set before him: but is his a glory which is evanescent? his a joy which is enjoyed and passes away? No. He has entered into it and still continues in it, and must continue. Therefore the future time is used; — "he shall joy. — he shall rejoice." The Father's gift to him, however, of mediatorial glo- ry is definitely perfected, and accordingly we read, "Thou hast given him his heart's desire, and has not wifJiholden the request of his lips." Hear one other example. (Ps. 1 .) "Out of Zion, the perfection of beauty, God hath shifted" The Israelite could only use this fonn of speech in the exercise of that faith which is the sub- stance of things hoped for. He might have said, "Out of Zion, God shall shiner'' we could not. 117 Both can unite in the language of the text. The words following are, ;, < Kir God .shall come and shall not keep silence." The fourth and sixth verses teach ns thai these words refer to his se- cond coining, — his coining to judgment. — "That he may judge his people — God is judge himself." With what propriety is the future tense introdu- ced with the change of subject! The one verse speaks of his coining to offer himself in sacrifice; — it is past .; — the other of his second coming; — it shall he future till faith be swallowed up in victory. 3. In those Psalms, in which Christ himself is the speaker, it would seem that lie uniformly ap- pears before us in the last act of his life of hu- miliation and sorrow, just about to give up tlie Ghost; so that he is, as it were, evidently set forth, crucified among us. We may therefore expect to find the Saviour speaking of things as past, present, or future, according to their relation to the point of time when he takes notice of them. Contemplating the objects, concerning which he discourses by the Spirit in the Psalmist, from the cross, he will be found to represent them in that aspect which they bore to himself when about to expire. The following examples may serve to illustrate and confirm the position. "My God, my God. why hast thou forsaken me? — 1 am poured out like water, and all my bones are out of joint. — They look and stare upon me. They jxirt my garments among them, and cast lots up- on my vesture." (xxii. 1, 14, 17, 18.) "Into thine hand I commit my spirit/' (xxxi. 5. The words of the first and last verses, which have 118 been produced, were those which the Saviour literally uttered, when his sufferings hastened to their close. He speaks of preceding events as past. "The assembly of the wicked have en- closed me: they pierced my hands and my feet." (xxii. 16.) "1 have heard the slander of many: fear was on every side: while they took counsel together against me, they devised to take away my life." (xxxi. 13.) "I have preached right- eousness in the great congregation: lo, I have not refrained my lips, O Lord, thou knowest. I have not hid thy righteousness within my heart: I have declared thy faithfulness and thy salvation: I have not concealed thy loving-kindness and thy truth from the great congregation." (xL 9, 10.) The purposes, the desire, and the expectation of the expiring Jesus, except that in the eighteenth Psalm (37—43) he shouts victory, and antici- pates, in a manner truly natural, the laurels, when the last stroke is ready to fall to the destruction of Satan and his works, are all represented so that their objects appear to be future. "Thou wilt not leave my soul in hell; neither wilt thou suffer thine Holy One to see corruption. Thou wiUshewme the path of life." (xvL 10.) "I will declare thy name unto my brethren: in the midst of the congregation will I praise thee." (xxii. 22.) I will abide in thy tabernacle for ever: I will trust in the covert of thy wings. Thou wilt prolong the king's life; and his years as many generations. He shall abide before God for ever." (lxi. 4, 6, 7.) "Open to me the gates of righteousness; I will go in to them, and I will praise the Lord." (cxviii. 19.) 119 1. Those parts of the Mediator's privileges and trials id which his people have not only a legal interest, hut have actual fellowship with him, are sometimes exhibited as present enjoyed or suf- fered without respect to their relation to the time of his crucifixion. Whatever his people suffer for his sake, he reckons inflicted upon himself, a filling up of that which is behind of his surler- The afflictions of Christ may therefore be considered present, repeated again and again in the afflictions of his members. In like manner tlie special covenant favour bestowed upon the believer may be viewed as a continuation of the Father's promised favour to the Son. The use of the present time when the joys and sorrows of Christ, in which the saints participate in very deed, are introduced to notice, while it must be considered a modification or limitation of the se- cond and third particulars of this section, is no inconsiderable circumstance in Songs designed for the lips of Ins followers. "The Kings of the earth set themselves, and tire rulers take counsel together, against the Lord, and against his A- nointed. (ii. 2.) He deliver eth me from mine enemies; yea, thou liftest me up above those that rise up against me. (xviii. 48.) "The Lord is their strength and he, is the saving strength of his anointed." (xxviii. 9.) section in. The Psalms contain nothing but the language of Unwavering Faith. "The fearful and the unbelieving" are classed by the Spirit with the most vile and diose who 120 'rnave their part in the lake which burnetii with fire and brimstone." If such characters be hate- ful to a God of truth and holiness, the language of fear and unbelief must ever prove displeasing to him. There is no exercise of the heart, of the tongue, or of the hands, which the Christian is not definitely required to perform in faith. u With- out faith it is impossible to please God." The servant of Christ stands by faith, walks by faith, fights in faith, prays in faith: in one word lives by faith; as it is written, ' ; I am crucified with Christ; nevertheless I live: yet not I, but Christ liveth in me: and the life which I live in the flesh, I live by the faith of the Son of God. who loved me and gave himself for me." It must therefore, be evident that when we come into the presence of God, to celebrate his praise in a song, as faith, in exercise is requisite to the acceptable performance of the solemn du- ty, so the language must be consistent with the state of the mind, it must be that of precious faith, unmixed with distrust and apprehension. We can never praise God in the words which fear and doubting suggest, unless God may ac- cept as praise a declaration of distrust in his pro- mises and of want of reliance upon his well be- loved Son. This premised, we observe that There is no one feature by which the Book of Psalms is distinguished from every other collec- tion of songs which has been appended to it, or substituted in its place, more than this, that it does not contain one expression which faith does not warrant, and will not adopt, — not one incon- sistent with a cordial reliance upon the charac- 121 B of Jehovah revealed to us in It is not asserted that the sn'nts have not their seasons of fear, and doubt and perplex- ity. This ia taken for granted in some of the Psalms, and declared in others, but as fear and doubting are not characteristic of them as holy persons, on the contrary spring from the princi- ple of corruption, they are not taught to approach God as if fcar and faith were alike to him, though diametrically opposed to each other. In these Psalms we are called upon to contemplate the Christian worshipping before God in all the varied circumstances of life, and uniformly he is seen assured and stable; in particular, 1. "Rejoicing in hope." A vista is always o- pen to the eye of faith, over which no cloud hangs, through which the future is discovered with a degree of clearness that reconciles to present evils, in the anticipation of the happi- ness about to be enjoyed. A few texts out of a multitude may suffice for the verification of this and the following particulars. Ps. iv. 3, 8. "But know that the Lord hath set apart him that is godly for himself: the Lord will hear when I call upon him, — I will both lay me down in peace, and sleep: for thou, Lord, only makest me dwell •v." ix. 18. "For the needy shall not al- way be forgotten: the expectation of the poor shall not perish forever." xx. 5. "We will rejoice in thy salvation, and in the name of our God we will set up our banners/' xxiii. throughout. "The Lord is my shepherd ; I shall not want. — Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil; for thou art 11 122 with me : thy rod and thy staff, they comfort me. — Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life: — and I will dwell in the house of the Lord forever." xxvii. 3. "Though an host should encamp against me, my heart shall not foar: though war should rise against me, in this will I be confident. One thing have I de- sired of the Lord, that will I seek after; that I may dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of my life, to behold the beauty of the Lord, and to enquire in his temple. For in the time of trouble, he shall hide me in his pavilion: in the secret of his tabernacle shall he hide me; he shall set me upon a rock. And now shall mine head be lifted up above mine enemies round about me : therefore will I offer in his tabernacle sacri- fices of joy ; I will sing, yea, I will sing praises unto the Lord."" 2. Triumphing in the freedom which the Spir- it of life in Christ Jesus gives over sin and death. There is no Psalm in the use of which the pro- fessed worshipper is introduced into the gracious presence of God, either to proclaim, to the dis- honor of the object of worship, his carnality and unbelief dominant, or the prevalence of carnali- ty and unbelief in others, numbered among the children of God; but in many he is taught to speak the praises of him who gives strength to the weak, stability to the wavering, spirituality to the carnal, and makes the soldier of Jesus, to whatever straits he may have been reduced, more than a conqueror. Ps. iv: 1, 7. "Hear me when I call, O God of my righteousness ; thou hast enlarged me when I was in distress; have mercy 133 upon me, and hoar my prayer. Thou hast put gladness in my heart, mora than in the time that ir wine in " xJii i L "My tears have been my meat day and night, while they continually say unto me, Where is thy God? When I remember t!< 3, I pour out my soul in me: for I had gone with the mul- titude, I went with them to the house of God, with the voice of joy and praise, with a multitude that kept holy day. — Why art thou cast down. O my soul? and why art thou disquieted in me ? hope thou in God; — for 1 shall yet praise him for the help of his countenance/' In the preceding passage the language of despondency is not found. The time of despondency is past, and lias been succeeded by a season of confidence and hope. — God is praised for having dispelled the gloomy clouds, and shone forth upon his servant with the brightness of that light which is diffused by his gracious face. The seventy-third Psalm sup- plies us with a very beautiful example for illustra- tion. The inspired writer had been, as many have been, severely tried by the apparent contra- riety of the dispensations of God's providence toward the righteous and the wicked, to the prin- ciples of justice. He had nearly fallen into in- fidelity, and was ready to draw the conclusion that sanctification is vain, and purity unworthy of cultivation. He does not, however, suppose that the expression of his feelings while lie wavered uncertain whether he shall cast in his lot among the prosperous wickvid, or adhere to the company of the poor and oppressed citizens of Zion, would form an acceptable song of God. The unerring 124 Spirit has never moved a holy man to write the language of wavering, to be used in the service of God by himself or others. What else was the heart of Asaph, what his words during the preva- lence of his temptation, than a heart disposed to rebellion against the Highest, words expressive of condemnation of God's righteous government. But the exulting shout of victory, obtained thro' the spirit of grace, glorifies God, and the retro- spect of past ignorance and past danger, is cal- culated to promote humility, leads to clearer dis- coveries of the "sovereign mercy of the Lord," and calls forth every energy of the man to pro- claim the praises of him who brings good out of evil, and rescues from external and internal ene- mies. — And the seventy third Psalm is just the shout of triumph, embracing the most humilia- ting confession of human weakness, the most ar- dent expression of love to God, the most unhesi- tating proclamation of his goodness, apart from all the creature's claims; nay, contrary to the creature's just desert. How correctly the lan- guage of strong feeling is presented in the be- ginning of it? The abruptness with which tire writer introduces himself is true to nature, and at once satisfies the reader that here there is no affectation of one feeling, which the soul does not experience. "Truly God is good to Israel, even to such as are of a pure heart. But as for me, my feet were almost gone; my steps had well nigh slipped. For I was envious at the foolish, when I saw the prosperity of the wicked." — He looks upon envy as no little sin, — he assimilates it to the brink of an awful precipice over which Ti- to stumble is destruction beyond remedy. On the giddy brink he had stood, and while we Ire jination pict trembling with • I recollection < . _ r from which he was only saved. Hiving described the character and situation of some wicked from a view of which his envy had taken jts -.! ..'re- fore his people return bit] cup are wrung out to them. And they s doth God know? and is there knowledge in the most high? B retbeungi prosper in the world; they increase in rich Verily I have cleansed my heart in vain, and wash- ed my hands in innoeency. For all the day long have I been plagued and chastened even- morn- ing. — When I thought to know this, it was too painful for me, until I went into the sanctuary of God; then understood I their end." lxxvii : 6, 11. "I commune with mine own heart: and my spirit made diligent search. Will the Lord cast off forever? Doth his fail for evermore? Is his mercy clean gone for ever ? And will he be favorable no more ? Hath God forgotten to be gracious? Hath he in anger shut up his ten- der mercies ?" Is this not tt ge of un- belief and of distrust ? -Doth his promise fail for evermore?" Not in the lips of the inspired penman when writing; — not as constituting a part of the song. It is a painful and humiliating review of the unbelieving weakness of past days, over which faith has triumphed. For it is im- mediately added. -And I said 3 y infirmi- ty: but I will remember the years of the right hand of the Most High. — I will remember the 11- 120 works of the Lord ; surely I will remember thy wonders of old." One more example and I do not urge the induction farther. lxxxv. 5-S. "Wilt thou be angry with us for ever? Wilt thou draw out thy anger to all generations? Wilt thou not revive us again ; that thy people may rejoice in thee? Shew 7 us thy mercy, O Lord, and grant us thy salvation. I will hear what God the Lord will speak : for he will speak peace unto his people, and to his saints; but let them not turn again to folly. Surely his salvation is nigh them that fear him, that glory may dwell in our land/' 3. "Patient in tribulation." The evils of which we have been speaking, are moral either in their own nature, or in their operation. As they are contrary to the fruits of faith, we do not find them introduced, as present, with the worshipper, in any of the songs of Zion. The evils which we notice under the head of tribula- tion are natural, and their presence implies noth- ing contrary to the most lively workings of the principle of Faith. Where faith exists, "tribu- lation worketh patience, and patience experience, and experience hope/' And if the Book of Psalms embrace nothing but the effusions of faith, we may expect to find patience experience, and the assurance of hope that never makes a- shamed, exemplified in the midst of the sharpest outward -afflictions. When we read, our expec- tations are not disappointed. — The language which the Psalms hold when presenting the af- flicted state of God's people, is uniformly of the following character. Ps. xi. 1. "In the Lord 181 put I my trust: how say yc to my soul, flee as a bird to your mountain P xxv. 17-20. "The troubles of my heart arc enlarged: O bring thou me out of my distresses. Look upon mine af- fliction and my pain, and forgive all my sins. Consider mine enemies; for they arc many; and they hate me with cruel hatred. O keep my soul, and deliver me: let me not be ashamed; for I put my trust in thee." Observe (1) he traces all his afflctions to their proper source — his sin, and thus teaches us his resignation. "Where- fore doth a living man complain, a man for the punishment of his sins." — (2) His faith is im- plied in his importunate supplication for deliv- erance from the cause and the effect, — sin and sorrow, and is expressed in the argument by which he urges his petition. "For I put my trust in thee." xliv. 13-17. "Thou makest us a reproach to our neighbors, a scorn and a derision to them that are round about us. Thou makest us a byword among the heathen, a shaking of the head among the people. — All this is come upon us; yet we have not forgotten thee, neither have we dealt falsely in thy covenant." cxlii. 2-5. "I poured out my complaint before him; I shew- ed before him my trouble. — When my spirit was overwhelmed within me, then thou knewest my path. In the way wherein I walked have they privily laid a snare for me. I looked on my right hand, and beheld, but there was no man that would know me : refuge failed me ; no man cared for my soul. I cried unto thee, O Lord: I said, Thou art my refuge and my portion in the land of the living." 128 4. "Continuing instant in prayer." The rea- der of the Scripture does not need to be taught that the prayer of faith is imperatively required. The man of prayer has his instructions laid be- fore him, by Christ and his Apostles, very per- spicuously. "What things soever ye desire, when ye pray, believe that ye receive them, and ye shall have them." "If any of you lack wis- dom, let him ask of God, that giveth to all men liberally and upbraideth not, and it shall be given him, But let him ask in faith, nothing wavering. For he that wavereth is like a wave of the sea driven with the wind and tossed. For let not that man think that he shall receive any thing of the Lord. Here both sides of one great truth are exhibited : — that the prayer of faith is always answered, — that to the prayer of unbelief God has not given us any reason to expect an answer, The book of Psalms contains very many pray- ers, offered up on various occasions, but they are all the prayers of faith. The man whose heart closes with the language of the song which con- tains any given petition, offers up that petition in faith ; his prayer is founded upon a divine pro- mise, he prays according to the will of God, and he is in no danger of asking any thing amiss, to be consumed upon his lusts. Take the following specimen of prayers presented by them who use the songs of Zion. Ps. ix: 12, 14. "Have mer- cy upon me O God; consider my trouble which I suffer of them that hate me, thou that I If test me up from the gates of death : that I may shew forth all thy praise in the gates of the daughter of Zion : / will rejoice in thy salvation" The con- 139 eluding clause assures us that the suppliant con- fidently anticipates an answer, xiii. 3U43 *•< 'in- sider and hear me, O Lord my God: lighten mine eyes, lest I sleep the sleep of death; feet mine enemy say, I have prevailed against him; and those that trouble me rejoice when I am mo- ved. But I have trusted in thy mercy : my heart shall rejoice in thy salvation.'* xvii. 6. "I have called upon thee, for thou icilt hear me, O God." That this is a prayer of faith will be apprehend- ed at once, xviii. 3. "I will call uj)on the Lord, who is worthy to be praised; so shall I be saved from mine enemies."' xxviii. 1. "Lntothee will I cry 7 , Lord my Rock; be not silent to me; lest, if thou be silent to me, I become like them that go down into the pit." The supplication extends to the end of the fifth verse, and in the sixth we read, "Blessed be the Lord, because he hath heard the voice of my supplications." Is not this a form of words most appropriately addressed to that God, who promises, "Before they call, I will answer, and while they are yet speaking I will hear." The exhibition of the spirit of faith breathing in the Psalms might be extended, so as to include a reference to every part of the collection. More- over, in order to demonstrate their claim upon the assemblies of Mount Zion, it would be no unprofitable exercise to contrast them with the different compilations of uninspired Hymns or Songs presented to the Church and unrighteously substituted for the Psalms given by inspiration of the Holy Ghost. I presume in all, with which I am acquainted, there will be found language that 130 does not bespeak the exercise of faith in him who employs it. — The Songs of Zion do not number one among them adapted to the individual that has not yet been delivered from the slavery of sin, or that has not yet learned to mourn after a godly sort: — in one word to the unbeliever and impenitent. And I have yet to learn a song that would suit such, to sing which, and to call it praise, would not be as grossly insulting to the Deity, as the character of the impenitent and un- believer is hateful to unspotted purity. If a clear and full revelation of the Saviour, in his person, offices, and work,- if the absence of every thing purely national and temporary, if a phraseology accurately accommodated to the church, independently of every change through which she may pass, whether that change affect her external condition, or her internal organiza- tion; if an undeviating expression of that faith, without which it is impossible to please God, prove a collection of songs suitable to christian worshippers, a doubt cannot be entertained that the Psalms of David are recommended by their adaptation to the spiritual worship of that God, who is a spirit, and demands worship in Spirit and in truth. Hear the testimony of "The Editor of the Bi- ble with the notes of several of the venerable re- formers," as recorded by H. Home, (Int. iv. p. 95.) True: human testimony can never be ad- mitted as authority in the decision of the ques- tion, respecting the adaptation of the Psalms to our times: but surely the testimony of one un- inspired writer, in their favor, is quite as good as 131 the testimony of another against them, and for that reason I give place to his words. -The language in which Moses and David, and Solo- mon, Heman Asaph, and Jeduthim worshipped God, is applicable to Christian believers. They worship the same God through the same adora- ble Redeemer; they gfve thanks for similar mer- nd mourn under similar trials; they are looking for the same blessed hope of their call- in ir. even everlasting life and salvation, through the prevailing intercession of the Messiah.' 1 The united testimony of Gray and Bishop Home shall elose the examination of the last fact. (Gray's Key, p. "2*20 ) "The expressions and descriptions of the Psalms may seem to some persons to have been appropriate and peculiar to the Jewish circumstances; and David indeed, em- ploys figures and allusions applicable to the old dispensation. But as in recording temporal de- liverances and blessings vouchsafed to the Jews, we commemorate spiritual advantages thereby signified, we use the Psalms with the greatest propriety in our Church. 'We need' says an ele- gant Commentator, 'but substitute the Messiah for David, the Gospel for the Law, and the church of Christ for the church of Israel : we need but consider the ceremonies and sacrifices of the - the emblems of spiritual service, of which every part hath its correspondent figure; and we appropriate the Psalms to our own uses as the noblest treasure of inspired wisdom.' " Without multiplying testimonies, which the great and the good have given, to the unrivalled beauties of the songs of Zion, and their adapta- 132 t : .on to the state of believers even in this age, we shall hasten to a CONCLUSION. The subject, which has been discussed in the preceding pages, is not more important in itself than on account of its connections with a variety of high theological questions. The more care- fully it is investigated, the more will Christians be persuaded that the decision to which they may come deeply involves the interests of truth in general, and must give a tinge to almost their whole religious system. 1 am well aware that many do not at present fully apprehend its bear- ing upon the cause of revealed religion, and the aspect of the church of Christ in the world but seem to consider it an isolated object of thought. But the effect of an erroneous decision upon the part of the disciples of Jesus, will not fail to follow, though they do not know the cause, nor comprehend its operation. There is such an en- tire oneness in the doctrines of the gospel, that adherence to one error necessarily involves an inconsistency, to escape which, when perceived, must lead to a renunciation of the error, or, what not less frequently happens, the adoption of q- thers to protect one. There is such an intimate connection of all ordinances with those doctrines, that a reciprocal action between religious opinions and the observance of religions institutions is constant. A corruption of the doctrine of Christ must lead to a corruption of divine institutions, and a departure from the simplicity of divine prescript is necessarily followed by a laxity of principle, if not an unmasked renunciation ol'tlie form of sound words. Xot ■ few are of opinion, ili it ifa i ( Sects of the abandonment of an inspir- ed collection of Songs, and the substitution of expository compositions are already visible and demonstrable. I am not so minutely acquainted with the history of the introduction of uninspir- ed songs, in connection with the state of religion in those Churches where they are used, as to risk an opinion upon this point: but when we com- pare the present condition of Presbyterian and Congregational Churches, which stedfastly ad- here to the Psalms of David, with that of those in which they have been set aside, there does not appear a superiority in the latter sufficient to create a presumption in favor of the purifying and peaceful tendency of the introduction of modern, and, as some suppose, more evangelical PsJms. In the examination of the question, Whether it be consistent with the revealed will of God, whether it be required of us strictly to adhere to the Bible Psalms free from a consciousness of any motive, private, selfish, or unworthy of a minister of Jesus, I have not sought to enlist in nn favor the prejudices of those who are partial to their introduction or continuance, and have studiously avoided uncalled for remarks calcula- ted to wound the feelings of professors who have been accustomed to the use of uninspired Songs in the Church. The reason is, that of the litter there may be many who have never had their at- tention particularly directed to tlu subject of Psalmody, never have heard a doubt suggested 12 134 of the propriety of laying aside inspired Psalms, in favor of others which they had been accustom- ed to hear invariably represented as more suita- ble to the New Testament dispensation, and could not, with propriety, be addressed in com- mon with men, who, having every advantage and excitement to the inquiry, carelessly turn their eyes from viewing it, rudely spurn the subject when brought before them, or, in a pride of their own sufficiency, pour contempt upon every argu- ment which is directed against their own opinions and practices: and on the other hand there may be multitudes adhering to scriptural forms from no better principle than others cleave to those which are unwarranted and anti-scriptural. The form of godliness does not imply the power. Those, therefore, who act upon the principle, which it is the object of the preceding pages to defend, should beware lest their osvn practice stand in the wisdom of man and not in the pow- er of God: for if they adhere to scriptural doc- trines and institutions merely because they have been habituated to them from infancy, or have heard them set forth by ministers and parents, though not in the same degree, they are as truly the followers of men, as he is, who is in principle erroneous, and in practice, guided by another law than Christ's. The use of David's Psalms in the churches of Christ is no innovation. The deviation from them is the real innovation, has been introduced with culpable haste, and, it is to be feared, with- out a due examination of their high claims. Till the unbending integrity, the painful and per- 135 severing investigation of all questions which in- terested the lover.- of scriptural truth, the un- compromising adherence to sound doctrine, and the stern opposition to every error, to every er- rorist in the defence of his unholy principles, (called of late bigotry and iUibcralify.) which characterised the champions of the Reformation, had passed away, and been replaced by that spu- rious and misnamed Charity, which would pro- hibit the necessary distinction between truth and error to be marked, which would pronounce the man proud, self-righteous and illiberal who dares to say the principles which are opposed to his pro- fession are false and dangerous, in other words, say that he cannot belie\;e both sides of a contra- diction, would identify a professor and his opin- ions and proclaim the enemy of his opinion his personal foe, there was no attempt to displace the inspired Psalms, there was none to prove them unholy and unchristian. The Reformers never thought of looking for their Hymns but to the Psalter. It was Luther's "little book of all saints, in which every man, in whatever situation he may be placed, shall find Psalms and senti- ments, which shall apply to his case, and be the same to him, as if they were, for his own sake alone, so expressed, that he could not express them himself, nor find, nor even wish them bet- ter than they are." Nor is the use of the Psalms of David con- fined to a few inconsiderable and illiterate indi- viduals even now. Though the pretext, in some quarters, for their discontinuance has been the roughness and inelegance of the vetsion which 136 is in the hands of Presbyterians in particular, few will have the boldness to assert that those who have urged that pretext are more distinguished for a refined taste than the many from whom they have dissented : and certainly they have never at- tempted to supply us with a better. Perhaps the attempt would only expose their own folly, if they did not discover in time to save their blushes, the correctness of BoswelPs opinion, that <; it is in vain to look for a better." I re- joice that the cause, for which I am an humble advocate, is above the stigma, that it is the cause either of a party, or of the ignorant and super- stitious. It is the cause of Presbyterians, in eve- ry part of the British empire, with a very few exceptions, and these not likely to give a tone to public sentiment, or to exert a very extensive in- fluence in directing public practice. It is the cause of the Church of England. Upon the subject of the Psalms Episcopalians and Pres- byterians are, in principle, perfectly agreed. They differ merely in this, that they use different ver- sions. And it will be seen in the Appendix, that one of her greatest ornaments did not highly esteem the version used in the Church of En- gland. Romaine likewise whose praises are de- servedly beyond the limits of Episcopacy, tells us that he occasionally used the Scotch version, "when it appeared to him better expressed than the English, that he considered it nearer to the original than any other, and that, in it, is every thing great, and noble and divine, although not in J)r. Watts' way or style." Many saem to think the subject of the Psalms 13? to be used by the assemblies of Mount Zion, of little moment, that it is a matter of indifference whether, for instance, we use Rouse's version, or Watts* imitation, and therefore put the ques- tion aside as unprofitable and vain. One thing they shall find vain indeed; to attempt to evade the inquiry into the claims of Zion's Songs. It may be postponed, but it cannot be evaded. Ul- timately it must come forward, it will press itself, with resistless force into notice: and God is ne- ver without the means of directing universal at- tention to one point. The world has frequently been surprised to rind the minds of Christians, in the most widely divided countries, called almost simultaneously into exercise respecting subjects that had very partial notice before. It is unne- cessary to enumerate instances with which all are familiar. The divisions which have obtained, and at pre- sent exist in the Church, upon doctrinal and practical questions, are, it must be admitted, at variance with the spirit of Christianity, and had they not been predicted, and the cause to which they are to be ascribed, been pointed out, must have excited astonishment, since all are ready to appeal to one correct and consistent word. The contemplation of them is a source of anguish to every mind which unites piety and sensibility. A desire to see them terminated, and a union of all the disciples of Christ effected, upon princi- ples that promise stability to the pacification, will consequently put the friends of trutli and peace upon the investigation of the causes which con- spire to perpetuate discord among brethren. And 12* 138 surely if one practice be discovered, which is cal- culated to prevent the "unity of the spirit in the bonds of peace" they will not hesitate for a mo- ment witlrregard to the course they are to pursue. The practice which produces or promotes division cannot be scriptural. That is obvious. Such is the use of the supposed liberty of Christians to compose Hymns for themselves or others in the worship of God. The use of that supposed liber- ty will not merely prove the occasion but the cause of the perpetuity of division. So long as parties hold different opinions, it would be vain to expect that the Hymn-Books composed by conflicting partisans should not partake of the op- position of their authors, unless they should pur- posely employ equivocal language, or, as one has chosen to express the same thing, " expressions" which "may savour of an opinion different from the readers" but "are capable of an extensive sense, and may be used with a charitable latitude." So long then as different parties persevere in the use of their respective collections of songs, exhi- biting their peculiar and distinguishing opinions, and opposed one to another, unity is impossible, union can never be carried into effect. Conflict- ing Hymn-Books imply existing division, and must form a wall of partition which cannot be passed, which must be taken out of the way. But who shall yield to the other? It is not to be hoped that one shall yield to another. It is not desired. What course is more likely to present itself as practicable? Remove from the sanctu- ary every uninspired collection, call it Psalms, Hymns, what you will: and let all parties take 131) up that from which none can dissent — the Psalms of David. A desire of union and concord must bring the claims of the Book of Psalms before the church : and upon the altar of union and peace, it is most plain, every uninspired collection of songs, as to their use in the house of God, must be offered a sacrifice. But have we any reason to hope for that one- ness of opinion, which would peremptorily de- mand what many should think so expensive a sa- crifice? The desire of union may bring forward a new subject of discussion, perhaps of division to no purpose. Shall that desire be gratified? The ultimate union of Christians is quite as cer- tain as it is desirable. God has promised it, and it shall come to pass. He will carry forward his own work, and though hand be pledged in hand to keep them up, he will remove the barriers out of the way. He will constrain the people to hearken to the voice of him, who desires unity in the body of Christ, and to break down every wall of separation. There is an old prediction which has not yet been fulfilled ; and which speaks with power in relation to this matter. i; Thy watch- men shall lift up the voice; with the voice toge- ther shall they sing: for they shall see eye to eye, when the Lord bring again Zion.' 1 tt With the voice together shall they sing." Then they shall use the same song. There shall not exist Psalms, and Hymns, and Spiritual Songs, expressive of conflicting sentiments. "They shall see eye to eye." Then they shall be united in their views and speak the same thing. It is deserving of very particular notice that the unity which is pre- 140 dieted is pointed out as the cause why they shall sing together. "Together shall they sing, for they shall see eye to eye." But some will say, the Songs in the use of which they shall unite may not be the Psalms of David. Let them prove that they shall not. And in the mean time, till another book shall have been pro- duced, by an inspired, or uninspired hand, or by the collective wisdom of brighter days, in use of which all shall agree, let us meet together in the use of the only one, the infallible correctness of which all must admit, that at present exists ; lest, while we are stickling for a doubtful liberty, plea- sing ourselves with the external beauties, the graceful movement and enchanting voice of the uninspired poet, we be found the enemies of peace in the Church and haply fighting against God, "Arise, O God, plead thine own cause." ANCIENT HISTORY OF PSALMODY. The preceding pages have fully shewn tint Scripture Psalms are alone warranted by Scrip- ture, to be used in the churches. We subjoin these few remarks to shew what was the opinions of our orthodox fathers upon this important sub- ject. But as heresy was prevalent in the Church, even in the days of the Apostles, we cannot lay down their opinions as infallible. Scripture should be our onlv guide in all religious contro- versies, yet it may not be amiss to examine the opinions of orthodox divines, who had a better opportunity of knowing what was the apostolic practice than we have at this day. Judging from the infallible rule, viz. Scripture, we have as clear light as they, but as they had the advantage of time, we are willing to examine their practice. In doing this, we shall mention but a very few examples, but these will be of the best authority; and we will consider some of the grounds upon which the advocates of human compositions, build their arguments. Let us then see for whom their practice weighs. The advocates of unin- spired Psalmody, urge, as proof, the letter writ- 142 ten by Pliny to the Emperor Trajan, in which, among other things, it is stated, that the Chris- tians assembled on a certain day, "sung a hymn to Christ as God.*' Bat had they sung the 45th Psalm, they must literally have addressed Christ as God. Compare Psalm 45th, verses 1-9, with Heb. i. S and 9, and this will be evident. The only ground of quibble here, is on the term hymn, the usual version of carmen, which is the word used by Pliny. But every novice in the Latin language knows that carmen is a w r ord of general signification, applicable to any poetic, and even prosaic composition. Pliny further says, that the Christians sung or rehearsed (dicere) a poetic composition to Christ as God; hence some infer, that this could not mean Scripture songs. Such reasoning is mere cavilling. Had they sung the 45th, 47th, 68th, 89th, 102d 110th, 148th, and a number of other Psalms, they would have sung songs or hymns to Christ as to God. The Christians of that age were not ignorant of this. Ire/iceus, who was in- structed by a disciple of the Apostle John, in pro- ving the deitv of Jesus Christ, urged the testimo- ny of the 45th Psalm, (Milners Ch. His.) Be- sides the facts related by Pliny, he learnt, not from an examination of their Psalm Book, but from apostate Christians upon their examination at his bar. These knowing that the Christians were peisecutcd because they persisted in wor- shipping Christ as God, would be very likely to state at his bar, what would be most likely to please the persecutors and save themselves. They knew that the Christians understood these 143 Psalms as relating to Christ, therefore they would be likely to mention this circumstance. Pliny, of himself, knew en one col- lection of psalms and anotli r. 11 ■ was a heathen man. and all he knew he had learnt from the lips of others, i i.y see whence he lis express We will next consider the deductions of Bas- _ from Ttrtuilian. which are brought forward as arguments for human compositions; they are . that it was the practice, in certain compa- nies, for individuals to be called forth in the midst of them, to praise God in songs, either from the Scriptures, or of their own composi- tions. We must here notice, that Tertullian is not speaking of the ordinary united singing in the Church: but of a particular practice, in some places, attended to by individuals. Quisque prorocatur in medium. As Tertullian has not stated, so neither have we any ground to believe, that these meetings were for public worship, but merely the practice of individuals, in meetings for social entertainment. It therefore proves nothing. Their next proof is from Origcn. a contem- porary of Tertullian, who writes thus, in his ex- on to the people: u Tc strive by their 'Sidnis. In/ tin ir spiritual soni}*lo itself. Rouse's version lias been acknewle* to be : " Bible pr ir is rfij and in what be B&hle ? Is it siul Rous 3 w s not N ; !i<-rwere the translators of (he Bible. They m^aly ti Uted poetry from one I nguage urte another. What more did Rouse! They translated po kry into prose, but he translated poetry into poetry, so if there be any difference, it is in Rouse's vor. Has he added some few words, not in the original? So have the translators of the Bible, not only in the Psalms, hut in every book. How- ever, neither have added more than they could possibly help, whilst Waits has added as many as possible. There is a great difference between a translator trying te translate literally, and i who does nothing but paraphrase, and would not translate, even if capable. The former is Jv the latter is Watts. At least it is a sorry argu- ment against Scripture Psalmody to object to Rouse. All who use Rouse, are ready any mo- ment to £ive bun up. if a better can be given them. We would conclude these renr rks, in the language of a modern writer. "The name of Rouse has come to bear about the s°me relation to Psalmody, wlrch that of Calvin bears to the doctrines of grace. The name of the latter is odious to all those who would improve on the theology of the Bible, and the name of the former is odious to all who would improve on its Psal- mody. Poor Ror.se was so unfortunate as to be the instrument in the hand of Providence, to fur- nish a version of the Psalms, which the General 166 Assembly of the Church of Scotland judicially preferred to every other, "as more smooth and agreeable to the original text," and judicially ap- pointed to be sung in their churches; aversion which is now sung by that church, in Great Bri- tain and Ireland, by the churches in her connex- ion in North America, by the Seceders in Scot- land and Ireland — there a numerous body — and by various denominations in the United States, which, though comparatively small, are rapidly gaining in numbers, and will compare favorably with other denominations in point of orthodoxy and piety — a version which like the translation of our Bible, now in use in our tongue lias remained the same for ages, while other versions (if they deserve the name) have been undergoing constant changes, and never giving satisfaction. Because of his connexion with this version, his name is covered with reproach by thousands who would do well, if they should ever render a tithe of the service which he has done to the church of Christ ; but his name will be respected by the lovers of a Scriptural Psalmody, and the word of God." Reader, when you have psrused this little vo- lume, consider carefully and prayerfully, if Scrip- ture Psalms be not suitable to the present time, and whether God will accept of any others. When you sing them you know you are singing the word of God, which is always true, but when you sing human compositions, you have need to compare it with Scripture to learn whether it be true; and then you have but your own wisdom to decide. Every church must have a collection of Psalms, lf,7 why then not take the one God has given them? With you and your God I leave the result — cast off all prejudices, and in the presence of God dc- cid . And may the spirit of truth guide thee into all truth. >#^*y «v I I