FROM THE LIBRARY OF 
 
 REV. LOUIS FITZGERALD BENSON, D. D. 
 
 BEQUEATHED BY HIM TO 
 
 THE LIBRARY OF 
 
 PRINCETON THEOLOGICAL SEMINARY 
 
 
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 the , JAN 27 1937 
 
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 . EXCLUSIVE CLAIMS 
 
 Daoii's yfinim 
 
 By WILLIAM SOMMEEVILLE, A. M. 
 
 REFORMED PRBSBYTBRIAN MINISTER, COR5WALLIS, H. B. 
 
 SAINT JOHN, N. B. 
 
 PRINTED BT EABKES «fc COMPANY, 
 PRWCB WILLIAM STRBBT. 
 
 1855. 
 
r KEF ACE. 
 
 The following pages are merely a reprint, with a partial 
 change of arrangement, and the addition of a few Notes, of a 
 pamphlet published in the year 1834. The original publication 
 had special reference to the practice of the Presbyterians of 
 King's County, in the Province of Nova Scotia, among whom 
 the author came to reside the previous year, and who formerly 
 used Watts' Imitation of the Psalms of David, in conjunction 
 with the Paraphrases appended to the Songs of Zion also, under 
 the auspices of the Established Kirk of Scotland. The writer 
 considers it one of the happiest circumstances of his life, that he 
 was honoured by the Head of the Church to be instrumental 
 in leading Presbyterians, within the sphere of his labours, to 
 exclude the Songs of Watts and introduce those of the Sweet 
 Singer of Israel, and that the fruit of his labour shall abide ; 
 whatever change may pass upon his position or his prospects. 
 
 The title of the original work, — "The Psalms of David, 
 designed for standing use in the Church,"— -did not express all 
 that was intended by it; being quite consistent with the use of 
 uninspired Songs together with the Psalms. The object of the 
 writer was, and is, to shew that the Psalms of David are not 
 only to be used in the celebration of the praises of God in the 
 Church, but that they are to be used to the exclusion of all 
 other songs ; even such as are found in the Divine "Word. Tc 
 
IV PREFACE. 
 
 many this position may appear so utterly extravagant that it 
 
 does not deserve to be seriously entertained. There are men 
 ■who seem to claim for themselves an intuitive perception of 
 What is accurate in priuciple and correct in practice, whilst 
 others recognise, before they form a decided judgment, the 
 necessity of instituting a careful, or even a laborious investiga- 
 tion : and those, of course, cannot condescend to take any step 
 which implies a doubt, I do not say of the infallibility of their 
 own judgment, but of the justness of their own opinion. 
 
 An attempt to procure the introduction, into the Presbyterian 
 Church of Nova Scotia, of a Hymn Book, published under the 
 sanction of the united Presbyterian Church of Scotland, led to 
 the consideration of the propriety of bringing again into public- 
 notice the claims of Zion's Songs. There are ministers in that 
 body, of clear heads and sound hearts, by whom the proposed 
 innovation will be firmly opposed, not merely as an innovation, 
 (of which no man ought to be afraid), but as an invasion of the 
 purity of a Divine ordinance. Still, in a state of society where 
 the general practice of the Church has remained long unques- 
 tioned, many grow up very little, if at all, acquainted with the 
 principles by which the practice is sustained; and such arc 
 scarcely prepared to meet a challenge of its Scriptural charac- 
 ter. Novelty always has charms, especially captivating to the 
 young, and in the absence of accurate and adequate knowledge 
 of its origination, the prejudice in favour of a custom easily 
 yields to the gratification of the desire after what is new. The 
 adversary elaborates his schemes in seasons of quiet security, 
 and promulgates them, but not till the public mind has been lea- 
 vened, and those who have fought a good fight have left their 
 places to others, strangers at once to their trials and success. 
 Joshua, and the Elders who outlived Joshua, must have entered 
 into their rest, before the meretricious adornments of an idol 
 
PREFACE, V 
 
 god can be successful!}* presented before the eyes of the people 
 of Israel. We have reason to fear, from the absence of all 
 public agitation of the subject of Psalmody, that there may be 
 found among younger ministers, older ones who feel them- 
 selves already compromised, and that amongst the youth of the 
 Church generally, some disposed to entertain favourably the 
 proposal to introduce, at least as a companion of David's Psalms, 
 :i Hymn Book, which, if introduced at all, shall eventually be 
 found claiming and taking possession of the whole house. 
 
 Tiie writer does not apprehend a serious charge of unwar- 
 rantable interference in the matters of other churches, in con- 
 sequence of putting forth his reasons, at this crisis, for adhering 
 to the exclusive use of David's Psalms in the Church. It is a 
 bubjeot of deep regret, that the severance of Christian from 
 Christian, arising out of a divided judgment upon a few points, 
 more or less important, should interfere with their co-operation 
 Upon common ground. The Author recognises the duty and the 
 privilege of such co-operation without the feeblest desire to cross 
 a dividing line. Every individual, who loves the Truth for the 
 sake of Him who is Tnu\ and loves Zion for the sake of Zion's 
 Ivi:ig, will be found helping, by every Scriptural means, any 
 other in the maintenance of a faithful testimony for a single 
 article of revealed doctrine. His supreme respect for the Word 
 of God must tread down the strongest sectarian predelictions. 
 And he has a right to expect the support of the other in stri- 
 ving (ov the faith of the Gospel. The subject of Psalmody, or 
 the question, in particular, of the songs that may with pro- 
 priety be sung in the social worship of God, is common: for 
 there is no class of evangelical Christians, which does not recog- 
 nise th e song as a part of religious service ; the song, whether 
 Ming by the assembled worshippers, by the choir, who make 
 us . r cn;ct the spirituality of the service in the captivating charms 
 
VI PREFACE. 
 
 of the music, or by the substitutionary hireling of a proud 
 formalism. 
 
 The great body of Presbyterians in Xova Scotia, — indeed over 
 all Christendom, — who use David's Psalms, use, in connection 
 with them. Paraphrases of select portions of Scripture, -or 
 Hymns composed on distinct Scriptural topics. Now, as the 
 tirun conviction is submitted, with all deference, not to the dog- 
 matism but to the reasonings, of those of the contrary parr, Chat 
 the special claims of the Songs of Zion must either be abandoned. 
 or their exclusive claims maintained, the hope is entertained, 
 that so soon as men of intelligence and piety find themselves 
 shut up to the investigation of the topie, they shall be led to 
 see the necessity of abandoning, or removing out of the war, a 
 beautiful monument it may be, upon the wall, because it i> 
 found to interfere with the range of shot from guns, leveled for 
 the defence of the city. Stranger things have happened, than 
 that an attempt to supersede, or elbow out, the Songs of Zion, 
 should eventually procure for them a more unrestricted liberty 
 of the house of worship. That Hymn Books, having no claim 
 to inspiration, attempting a forcible or a fawning entrance 
 among Presbyterians, in being ejected, may carry Paraphrases 
 with them, is a " consummation devoutly to be wished." 
 
 The introduction and general use of Watts' compositions never 
 secured that general and interested attention to the momentous 
 ehange involved, which might have been expected. What 
 Watts never intended, when he inscribed, "The Psalms of David 
 Imitated," upon his title pago, his admirers and advocates have 
 done; and by a most unwarrantable ruse, or equally unjust i- 
 Sable inattention and ignorance, they claim for Waits a wel- 
 come, simply as a more elegant versifier of an inspired collection 
 •4* songs. 
 
 In justification of the present appearance, it may not be out 
 
PREFACE. VI 1 
 
 of place here, to introduce a point which will be noticed in 
 the body of the work, and pressed in the conclusion of it. Many 
 of those who are the warmest advocates of an uninspired Psal- 
 mody, are also the forward advocates of union among Profes- 
 sors. It may be presumed, they wish to find men perfectly 
 joined together in the same mind and in the same judgment, 
 and to hear them speak the same things. Xothing could be 
 more desirable. But in the advocacy of uninspired Hymns, are 
 ;hey not aware that, instead of removing obstacles out oi the 
 -a- ay, they are introducing and supporting a formidable obstacle 
 to the accomplishment of the object they profess to have so mtieh 
 at heart ? They pursue a course which renders what they 
 Labour to accomplish impossible. They shut the door of their 
 Temple in the face of men, whom they have intreated to enter 
 in ; and who, on their part, make no requisition upon those who 
 visit them, to comply with that against which their judgment tes- 
 liries. A call to union is a solemn mockery, on the part of men 
 who are sacrificing the unity of the Church to the enjoyment 
 of what, viewing it most favourably, is a very doubtful privilege. 
 The whole argument of the following work may be expressed 
 in very few words, thus — God has given to the Church, by 
 inspiration, a collection of Songs of Praise. He has given but 
 one. "We plead the cause of those who say they are satisfied 
 with it, against those who say, " It is antiquated, it is unsuitable, 
 it is too limited, we are not satisfied ;" against those who object 
 to it, on account of the garb in which it is exhibited; who 
 choose to worship the golden calf, till Christ put off the purple 
 robe and Crown of Thorns. 
 
 CORSWALLIS, N. S., 
 
 May 1855. 
 
INTRODUCTORY. 
 
 That it is the duty of Christians to celebrate the 
 praises of God in the use of Songs, is too evident 
 to him who is acquainted with the Holy Scriptures 
 to require proof. The example of the old Testa- 
 ment Church, to which we shall have occasion to 
 refer more particularly afterwards, the example of 
 our Saviour, with his Apostles, who, the last Sup- 
 per having been finished, sung a Hymn (1), the 
 example of Paul and Silas when immured in the 
 gaol of Philippi (2), and an Apostolic injunction. 
 •'Is any merry? let him sing Psalms" (3), arc- 
 proofs sufficient of the correctness of ecclesiastical 
 practice in every age, and of our obligation to walk- 
 in "the footsteps of the flock," in this solemn exer- 
 cise. There are many circumstances which must 
 render the celebration of praise an exercise pecu- 
 liarly interesting 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 
 mention. We enjoy more intimate fellowship with 
 the spiritual world, and approach nearer to the 
 
 (n Matt. xxvi. 30. (2) Acts xvi. 25. (3) James v. 13 
 
1 INTRODUCTORY. 
 
 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 tim e shall 
 come when we shall no more read and investigate 
 the Word of God, when we shall cease to wait upon, 
 or to exercise the ministry of reconciliation, when 
 private and social prayer shall no longer be offered 
 up, when Baptism and the Lord's Supper shall have 
 been superseded, but praise shall never cease. Like 
 Charity, its immediate fountain, it " never feileth." 
 Xo sooner is the Saint removed from the " earthly 
 ■house of this tabernacle," 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 Moses, 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 temptations, the privations and opposi- 
 tion, to which he is exposed in this present evil 
 world, and to assist him in taking faith's realising 
 view of the joys which are before the face, and the 
 pleasures which are at the right hand of God, and 
 which abide forever, let him engage in singing 
 the praises of God. 
 
 Hut what are the Songs which the Saints ought 
 to use \ It is very obvious that God is not praised 
 in the use of every song. There is a perverted use 
 of the musical, as of all the other powers of man, 
 by which God is dishonoured, not praised, — by 
 
INTRODUCTORY. 1 1 
 
 which lie 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 <jf the per- 
 fections of his character, of the doctrines of his 
 word, or of the duty of man, instead of giving glory 
 to God and being exercised according to Godliness, 
 we are bestowing honour upon the creature of our 
 <>\vn imagination, and ministering to the interests 
 of error and corruption. The spirit and the lan- 
 guage of the Song must harmonize with the object 
 which is contemplated in singing it, otherwise the 
 object is forfeited, if not entirely, at least in that 
 degree, to which the poet has deviated from the 
 proposed design. If these remarks be admitted 
 (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 infallibly cor- 
 rect, 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 displea- 
 sure of the Lord, while we offer perhaps the blind 
 or the lame in sacrifice. 
 
 Our present object is to strive to show that the 
 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 
 
1 2 INTRODUCTORY. 
 
 I have reference, is that which forms a constituent 
 part of the Old Testament, and is entitled The 
 Book of Psalms. 
 
 Our appeal, for a decision of the important ques- 
 tion, respecting the matter of the Praises of God in 
 the Churches, is to the Scriptures, and to the Scrip- 
 tures alone. The question is neither what has been, 
 nor what is, but what ought to be, the practice of 
 the Church. Little importance can be attached to 
 the practice of the ancient Church, even if it could 
 be definitely ascertained ; since the New Tes- 
 tament furnishes so many melancholy evidences, 
 that, when the Apostles were yet alive, some of the 
 churches had become corrupt both in doctrine and 
 order; and the mystery of iniquity, which was des- 
 tined to enslave the world and leave but an afflicted 
 and poor remnant free, was already at work. Few 
 have access to the means of minute information 
 upon the subject of ancient and medieval customs • 
 and the statements of general historians are, upon 
 many points, hastily made, and to be received with 
 much caution. Mosheim, for instance, informs 
 ils (1) that in the fourth century, "Among the public 
 Hymns the Psalms of David were now received ;" 
 when the fact seems to be that Psalmody, as a part 
 of the public service, was then first introduced into 
 the western churches. The statement of Calvin is 
 this (2) : " Yet, that it (singing) was not universal, 
 is proved by Augustine, who relates that in fhe 
 time of Ambrose, the Church at Milan first adopted 
 
 (1) Inst. iv. chap. 4, §4. (2) First B. in. chap. 20, §32. 
 
IXTRODUCTOKY. 1 8 
 
 the practice of singing, when during tlie persecu- 
 tion of the orthodox faith by Justina, the mother 
 of Valentinian, the people Were unusually assiduous 
 in their vigils ; and that the other western^churches 
 followed. For he had just before mentioned that 
 this custom had been derived from the East/' 
 
 It is true, that the argument about to be presented 
 m this small production opposes, either wholly or 
 partially, the very general practice of the Churches. 
 Perhaps the only Churches wdiich, as such, use the 
 Psalms of David exclusively, in public worship,, 
 tire the Associate and the Associate Reformed in 
 the United States, original Seceders in Britain, and 
 the Reformed Presbyterians in both the Eastern 
 and Western Continents ; and what are they among' 
 the multitudes who absolutely exclude those Psalms 
 or use them with additions from various sources. 
 If moral and Scriptural questions were to be decided, 
 by suffrage, the voice of the few who contend for' 
 the exclusive use of David's Psalms would not be 
 heard amidst the loud acclamation of the over- 
 whelming majority in favour of something else, or 
 anything else, in the form of a devotional compo- 
 sition adapted to music. The argument derived 
 from practice would just have been as good, as in 
 the case before us, against the Apostles, against 
 the Waldenses, against the Reformers. But Chris- 
 tians cannot bow before the idols of the nations, 
 because they are outnumbered by Pagans; and 
 Protestants do not hold themselves bound to recog- 
 nise the claims of the "man of sin," because his 
 
14: IXTRODrCTORV. 
 
 adherents are more numerous than themselves. 
 The voice of the multitude shall establish the right 
 of Diana of the Ephesians to divine honours, and 
 eomplet^y vindicate Pilate, in delivering Jesus to 
 be crucified. As if to demonstrate the worthless- 
 ness of majorities, in the determination of a question 
 of right, there never was a case, in which public 
 opinion was better understood, or more unequivo- 
 cally expressed, than when Herod and Pontius 
 Pilate, with the Gentiles and people of Israel, con- 
 curred in dooming to an ignominious death, the 
 man " who did no sin," all whose words were those 
 of truth, and whose acts, in all his course, were in 
 exact conformity to a perfect law. It argues a 
 singular mental obtuseness, or moral obliquity, 
 when professors of religion discover a disposition 
 t<» tilt those who are opposed to them, by throwing 
 majorities into the scale of evidence. They forger 
 the Scripture doctrine that "the carnal mind is 
 enmity against God, and not subject to his law," 
 that consequently "great men are not always wise," 
 who attach special importance to talents, learning, 
 or age and experience, independent of the moral 
 qualification that has its origin in the renovated 
 nature, in the settlement of the claims of the Lord 
 Jesus, in his own house. As talented, as learned, 
 as eloquent, as influential men as the world has ever 
 seen, have been arrayed on the side of undisguised 
 infidelity. The most destructive errors, and the 
 most unscriptural institutes, can claim as supporters. 
 
INTRODUCTORY. 1 5 
 
 as originators, many who are enrolled with the 
 great of the world, — of the Church. 
 
 Piety, genuine, unaffected piety, does not give to 
 its possessor a right to take possession of the throne 
 of judgment. There are none f whose attainments 
 in knowledge are so elevated, that they do not 
 admit of additions, tending to the communication 
 of an increased impulse to intellectual exercise, to 
 the removal of confused and incoherent conceptions. 
 or to the rectification of the judgment, before under 
 the influence of error. Sometimes also, the utmost 
 indifference to precision of thought upon the most 
 momentous subjects; an obstinate indolence, that 
 shrinks from painful though necessary inquiry ; and 
 the most remorseless antipathy to moral opponents. 
 may be discovered under the mask of a very spe- 
 cious devotionalism. It was a saying of an aged 
 and devoted preacher of the Gospel, and a close 
 observer of men and things, that "The Devil always 
 chooses sharp tools, because he can neither make 
 a tool nor sharp it." 
 
 The comparative claims of different versions of 
 the Psalms of David, is a subject entirely indepen- 
 dent of that which is proposed for discussion. The 
 simple question is, ought the Psalms of David to bt 
 exclusively used hy the Church in the celebration of 
 tke praises of God ?(1) An inquiry into the merits 
 of different versions, with a view to the adoption 
 of one, supposes the determination of the former 
 question in the affirmative. 
 
 (1) Note A. 
 
14 INTRODUCTORY. 
 
 The evidence which we purpose to bring forward 
 'iti 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 what- 
 ever age, rests upon the following four facts : 
 
 I. The Ps&lrns were given by inspiration. 
 
 II. They were given to be sung by the members 
 of the Church — the worshippers of God. 
 
 III. Xo 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. 
 
CHAPTER I. 
 
 Characteristics of Inspiration. 
 
 Before taking into consideration the inspiration 
 pf the Book of Psalms in particular, it may be pro- 
 fitable to premise an exposition of the characteristics 
 of an inspired communication. That the Scriptures 
 of the Old and New Testaments are given by inspi- 
 ration of the Holy Ghost, is assumed, according to 
 the declaration of one of the Penmen. We write 
 for the information of those, who admit that the 
 title Scripture belongs to the writings of Prophets 
 and Apostles ; and that " all Scripture is given by 
 inspiration of God." 
 
 For information upon this point, we appeal to 
 the sacred writings themselves. If they do not fur- 
 nish either a direct statement of the discriminating 
 features of inspired writing, or principles, from 
 which a knowledge of its nature and properties may 
 be legitimately deduced, it is useless to attempt 
 the investigation of the subject. Conjecture 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 obscurity. The following pa**- 
 
18 CHAKACTERISTICS 
 
 ticulars are obviously presented to the view of him 
 who reads with care the sacred volume. 
 
 1. The word of inspiration claims God for its 
 rnthor. 
 
 Is it historical ? 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, exhortations, admoni- 
 tions, warnings, are God's. And in each depart- 
 ment, the language is such as God was pleased to 
 employ, to express what he would have revealed to 
 man. Is it prophetical? the matter 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 had not been employed in its pub- 
 lication ; as if it had come to us by the hands of an 
 angel, sent forth to distribute the volumes already 
 written ; as if every part of it had been delivered 
 in the same manner with the decalogue, graven 
 : i pon tables of stone by the finger of God, after 
 having been pronounced without the intervention 
 of human instrumentality, in the ears of all the 
 people. 
 
 The Scripture and the Word of God are used as 
 C( avertible terms : where the one is used the other 
 1 1 Lay 1 >e used. " If he called them Gods, unto whom 
 the word of God came, and the scripture cannot be 
 broken."(l) "Not as though the word of God hath 
 taken none effect. For they are not all Israel which 
 are of Israel." (2) The Apostle is here expressing 
 
 (1) John x.35. (2) Rom. is. 6. 
 
OF INSPIRATION. 19 
 
 his grief for the unbelief and approaching separa- 
 tion of his Jewish brethren, by natural descent, 
 Israelites : and to prevent any misconception res- 
 pecting the promises of God made to Israel, and 
 registered in the Scriptures, he states, in the con- 
 clusion of the verse, and proves in the subsequent 
 verses, that the appellation Israel, does not properly 
 belong to all who are of the Israeli tish nation, and 
 that consequently the truth of the Scrijyturejyromise, 
 or 'of the Word of God, is not affected 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, he 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." (1) 
 
 What holy men of God spake, being moved by 
 the Holy Ghost, is described as the Word of God. 
 The Word of God, Samuel shewed to Saul. " The 
 Word of the Lord came to Nathan." " The Word 
 of God came unto John in the Wilderness," and it 
 was the "Word of God" which Peter and John, 
 being filled 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 admit- 
 ted. Now the Scripture generally is ascribed to 
 
 (1) Mark Tii. 3— 13. 
 
20 CHARACTERISTICS 
 
 God, not only in terms equally strong, but in the 
 
 very same terms in which the ten commandments 
 
 are ascribed to him. The fact that the matter and 
 
 t 
 
 words are his, is the same, whether the writing be 
 executed by God immediately, or whether men be 
 employed to perform the penmanship. Concerning 
 the decalogue we read, " God spake all these words." 
 " 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." (1) 
 
 Let us now hear what terms are used with refer- 
 ence to other portions of Scripture. "God, who at 
 sundry times, and in divers manners, spake in time 
 past unto the fathers by the Prophets." (2) Com- 
 munications were made to the fathers at sundry 
 times, and in divers manners, and by different per- 
 sons, but it was always God who spake. The pro- 
 phets were the instruments by whom he caused his 
 words to be heard. " Blessed be the Lord God of 
 Israel ; for he hath visited and redeemed his peo- 
 ple, and hath raised up a horn of Salvation for us 
 in the house of his servant David ; as lie spake by 
 the mouth of his holy prophets, which have been 
 since the world began." (3) " Whom the Heavens 
 must receive until the times of restitution of all 
 things, Avhich God hath spoken by the mouth of all 
 
 (1) Ex. xx. 1 j xxxii. 15, 10. (2) Ucb. i. \. (3) Luke i. 68, 70. 
 
OF INSPIRATION. LM 
 
 his lioly prophets since the world began. " (1 ) a Men 
 and brethren, this Scripture must needs have been 
 fulfilled, which the Holy Ghost, by the mouth of 
 David spake — ~\Y ell sjxike the Holy Ghost by Isaiah 
 the prophet unto our fathers." (2) "As the Hohj 
 GluM saith, to day if ye will hear his voice." (8) 
 How common the words, " Thus saith the Lord." 
 by which the prophets introduce their addresses to 
 the people ! How striking the reproof which is 
 directed against pretenders to inspiration who tide 
 their own tongues and say " He saith." The pro- 
 phets possess no higher character than organs by 
 which God was pleased to address the people. 
 Divine communications are clothed in language 
 divinely imparted. Mark the singular language of 
 John the Baptist, when the u Jews sent Priests and 
 Levires to ask him, who art thou? And he con- 
 fessed and denied not ; but confessed, I am not the 
 Christ. And they asked him wdiat then i Art thou 
 Elias I and he saith, I am not. Art thou that 
 prophet! and he answered, No. Then said they 
 unto him, Who art thou? that we may give an 
 answer to them that sent us. What sayest thou of 
 thyself! He said, I am the voice of one crying in 
 the wilderness, Make straight the way of the 
 Lord." (4) 
 
 The Apostles of the Lord occupied the same place 
 with the prophets. They were merely the instru- 
 ments by whom (rod chose to communicate his will 
 . — to speak his word. The commission which they 
 
 (l)Act»H.«l. (2) Acts i. 16; xxviii.25. (3) Ileb. iii. 7. (4) John i. 10-2 B. 
 
W CHARACTERISTICS 
 
 received from the Son of God implies this. "Teach- 
 ing them to observe all things, whatsoever I com- 
 mandecl you? They must not, in the fulfilment of 
 the important trust committed to 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 they had heard 
 from the Saviour while he was yet with them. They 
 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 they 
 spake were of God, who put his Spirit within them. 
 "When," says Paul to the 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 word of God? And to the Galatians : 
 " I certify you, brethren, that the Gospel which was 
 preached of me is not after man. For I neither 
 received it of man, neither was I taught it, but by 
 the revelation of Jesus Christ? Again to the Corin- 
 thians : " Since ye seek a proof of Christ speaking 
 in me? Let us now hear Peter. " The word of 
 the Lord endureth forever. And this is the word, 
 which by the Gospel is preached unto you." "Tin's 
 second epistle, 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 
 latter verse he identifies himself and fellow Apostles 
 with the holy prophets, in point of inspiration. Are 
 
OF INSPIRATION. 23 
 
 the disciples to be mindful of the words of the pro- 
 phets? So are they to be mindful 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, w r ere it necessary, to shew 
 that the inspiration of the Old and New Testaments 
 implies, that their contents are just what God was 
 pleased to communicate to us for our instruction, 
 that they are exhibited in that order which God 
 was pleased to adopt, and that they are express* 
 in the words which God chose to employ. 
 
 But it will be said in reply, that w r e also read, — 
 "Moses spake every precept to all the people 
 according to the law." "The law was given by 
 Moses." "David calls Messiah Lord." True; but 
 Moses spake by the commandment of the Lord, and 
 David was in the Spirit when he speaks of Messiah. 
 That "Isaiah said, He hath blinded 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 lathers. That the Aposilt t 
 spake with tongues. True ; but they spake as the 
 Spirit gave tJiem utterance. Holy men of God spah , 
 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 
 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 
 ( rod and the word of the Spirit. It is not supposed 
 
24 CHARACTERISTICS 
 
 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 
 pats 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, except in very few instances, 
 according to their proper nature. He has never 
 spoken by man, as man speaks by a trumpet, inani- 
 mate and passive. Every part of his works, in 
 earth and air and sea, is subject to his control, and 
 may be employed 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 the 
 sins of them that dwell therein. The Lord gives 
 his commission to the clouds of heaven. They 
 Leather 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, to 
 swell the deluge to the overwhelming of a degene- 
 rate and impious generation. The Kings who fought 
 .tirainst the allies of Israel must experience a defeat, 
 too signal to be accomplished by the forces led on 
 by Joshua; and God sends the hailstones down 
 upon the retreating armies. lie might have com- 
 manded them to execute his will, as balls discharged 
 from the cannon's mouth, or stones projected from 
 a slings hut this would have been contrary to the 
 
OF INSPIRATION. 25 
 
 natural law of their movement. Hailstones natu- 
 rally 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 fiery serpents are- 
 sent in among the Israelites, they bite the guilty 
 tribes. There was needed no enchantment to allure 
 them. " There came forth two she-bears from the 
 wood and tare forty and two children of them" that 
 mocked Elisha the prophet, and whom he had 
 cursed 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 speech 
 allured, perhaps, by the shouts of youthful impiety, 
 because God sent them to punish the children for 
 their criminal amusement, and the parents for their 
 neglect, in withholding an education 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 
 God makes them his instruments, they act accord- 
 ing to their distinguishing properties and powers. 
 When he employs man to execute his work, lie 
 brings him forward, upon the same principle, in 
 the exercise of all his varied qualifications. Under- 
 standing, will, passions, affections, are exerted 
 agreeably to natural laws, and the relations which 
 they sustain, as different states of the same mind. 
 
 Ahab, King of Israel, goes up to Ramoth-Gilead, 
 a doomed man; and in disguise. The King of 
 Syria, with whom he fought, had commanded hia 
 soldiers to fight with none but the King of Israel ; 
 
26 CHARACTERISTICS 
 
 and he is hidden. But God will draw him forth, 
 and find 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 bow at a venture. No supernatural 
 vigour is imparted to his arm, no supernatural 
 agency diverts the arrow 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 compulsion, formed his 
 resolution, executed his own will, shot at a venture : 
 but either his purpose, his position, the direction of 
 }iis arrow, with him altogether fortuitous, were pre- 
 cisely 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 remark- 
 able and conclusive example of the union of the 
 efficient agency of God, with the freedom of the 
 instrument 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 
 Gyrus. God chooses Cyrus, Prince of Persia, to 
 perform all his pleasure, even to the restoration of 
 Jerusalem and the temple. God foretells what shall 
 be accomplished by Cyrus, long before he had an 
 existence, or the captivity had commenced from 
 which he was to set Israel free. Here is a simple 
 
OF INSPIRATION. 27 
 
 prediction. But God plainly informs us, that it is 
 by his own agency it shall be accomplished, in the 
 use of Cyrus's instrumentality. He will to the end 
 contemplated, hold the right hand of his Shepherd, 
 subdue nations before him, loose the loins of Kings, 
 ( >pen the two-leaved gates, give him the treasures 
 of darkness and the hidden riches of secret places. 
 One thing must be evident, that the strength and 
 perseverance of Cyrus, the subjection of nations to 
 him, the terror of kings against whom he fights,, the 
 opening of the gates of Babylon to admit his army, 
 the delivery into his hands of the accumulated 
 treasures of the Assyrian capital, is the work of 
 God. Till all these things were accomplished, 
 Cyrus was ignorant of that God by whom he was 
 directed and upheld. Lastly, in the accomplish- 
 ment of the divine purpose, and in performing the 
 work of God, all the parties, and Cyrus in particu- 
 lar, are regulated by principles congenial to their 
 nature, education, habits, and character. Cyrus 
 manifests, from his youth, a predilection for a mili- 
 tary life. To his personal gratification, with the 
 c< msent of his grandfather the king of Persia, hardly 
 obtained by the urgent application of the ambassa- 
 dors from Media, he sets out with the command of 
 the Persian forces, ordered to the assistance of the 
 Medea, 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 liis uncle Darius, sit down before the capital of 
 Assyria. Despairing of being able to overturn or 
 
23 CHARACTERISTICS 
 
 scale the walls of Babylon, 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 Bel- 
 shazzar 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 fingers 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 occu- 
 pied in the revels of the feast to attend upon their 
 duty. At all events, the gates, which might still 
 have presented a difficult obstacle to the entrance 
 of the allied armies, were not shut, and Cyrus enters 
 in to possess the treasures of darkness. In the his- 
 torical narrative, we perceive nothing but the 
 vigour, the ambition, the heroism, and the skill of 
 the youthful warrior, inspiring his followers witli 
 valour, perseverance, and love of glory, on the one 
 hand ; on the other, the indolence and ease, spring- 
 ing from a confidential reliance upon the fortifica- 
 tions 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 Sovereign 
 
OF INSPIRATION. £t 
 
 of the world using human beings as his instruments, 
 in the exercise of all their powers, and agreeably 
 to the principles upon which their character has 
 been formed. 
 
 Proceeding one step farther, the God of Heaven 
 is seen employing rational and voluntary instru- 
 ments, according to the almost endless variety of 
 personal character. The word of inspiration pre- 
 sents before us a most beautiful illustration of this 
 part of Jehovah's agency. The variety of mental 
 structure, of intellectual power, of modes of think- 
 ing, and of style, presented in the word of God/ 
 so far from militating, as has been frequently sup- 
 posed, against the plenary and verbal inspiration of 
 the Scripture, is only the necessary result of a prin- 
 ciple of divine operation from which every devia- 
 tion is miraculous, and furnishes a clear and ample 
 elucidation of that principle. The concession, 
 therefore, that the thoughts and style of the differ- 
 ent portions of Holy Writ, are distinctive of differ- 
 ent writers, of different degrees of mental strength, 
 and various modifications of mental operation, 
 detracts nothing from the assertion of God's being 
 the author of the whole, in the proper sense of 
 authorship. (1) 
 
 2. The word of inspiration claims absolute//-- 
 doynfrom error. 
 
 God being the author of the Book, whatever is 
 imputed to it, is imputed to him. Impute an error 
 to the word of God, and you impute it to himself. 
 
 (1) Note B. 
 
30 CHARACTERISTICS 
 
 But God cannot err, therefore whatever is written 
 by inspiration must be free from error. Now inspi- 
 ration is asserted of all scripture. This is the testi- 
 mony which the scripture gives concerning itself, 
 .and if it be found a false witness in one particular, 
 the testimony must be rejected in all. The Book 
 which claims God for its author in every part, and 
 is found to contain one false proposition, one une- 
 quivocal contradiction, must bear to have its claim 
 denied. There is only one alternative to those to. 
 whom the scripture is presented. Let them choose 
 between Deism, or the full admission of the truth 
 of every proposition, which the word of God con- 
 tains. 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. (1) 
 
 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 con- 
 templated by them; every part, to the end con- 
 templated by it. They are " able to make wise 
 unto salvation, — profitable for doctrine, for reproof, 
 for correction, for instruction in righteousness, 
 that the man of God may be perfect, thoroughly 
 furnished unto all good works" The Word is 
 free from defect, or the Apostle is found a false 
 witness. 
 
 (I) NoteC. 
 
OF INSPIRATION. 31 
 
 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 crea- 
 tures, we are at present unable .to discover. But 
 is any man prepared to say that the purpose to 
 which they are subservient, neither hasbeen known, 
 nor shall by the progress of events be developed to 
 • the view of the church ? There would be more pre- 
 sumption than prudence and piety in the assertion, 
 that anything in the word of God must be super- 
 fluous because we cannot discover its use. A spi- 
 ritual view of the character of God, and the rever- 
 ence which that view must inspire, will lead us to 
 the conclusion that as God never exerts immedi- 
 ately 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 be secured. A plain testimony 
 should outweigh a whole volume of speculations, 
 and constrain us to plead ignorance in the presence 
 of infinite wisdom. A plain testimony we have to 
 the universal utility of the inspired record. "All 
 Scrijrture is given by inspiration of God, and is 
 profitable" And again, " Whatsoever things were 
 written aforetime, were written for our learning, 
 that we through patience and comfort of the Scrip- 
 tures, might have hope. (1) Paul saw no portion 
 of revelation superfluous — no part of the Old Tes- 
 tament, in which the refinement of modern times 
 
 (l)Rom. sv. 4. 
 
3 2 CH AR ACTEKISTICS 
 
 lias discovered much neither conducive to edifica- 
 tion, consistent with delicate feeling, nor exhibiting 
 the mild spirit of Christ. " Whatsoever things 
 were written aforetime," whatever judgment pro- 
 fanity, folly, or affected spirituality may form of 
 them, " were w T ritten for our learning." He finds 
 instruction in the minute record of the sins and 
 sufferings of the Israelites in the wilderness. Some 
 were idolaters. "The people sat down to eat and* 
 drink and rose up to play. Some committed for- 
 nication, and fell in one day, three and twenty 
 thousand." Some of them tempted Christ, and 
 " were destroyed of serpents." Some of them mur- 
 mured, and u were destroyed of the destroyer." 
 What have we to do with all these things ? The 
 Apostle will inform us w All these things happened 
 unto them for ensamples ; and they are written for 
 our admonition upon w T hom the ends of the world 
 are come." (1) 
 
 5. The word of inspiration is autJwritative. 
 
 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, sup- 
 posing it written, be under an obligation to receive 
 or to read it. The knowledge of its contents might 
 not be necessary to the regeneration of man's cha- 
 racter, or the purification of liis life; — it might 
 never contemplate such a result. The word of God 
 is given for that end : — is subordinate to the refor- 
 
 (1) ICor. x.G-11. 
 
 
OF INSPIRATION. 81 
 
 mation, and to the happiness of man, not only in 
 this world, hut in the future state. The design for 
 which it was written gives it a claim ; and whe? 
 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 it- 
 design, it makes a demand upon our reception, 
 w T hich cannot be resisted without sin against God. 
 To every man, to whom the word of God is pre- 
 sented, it proclaims, " He that believeth shall be 
 saved, he that believeth not shall be condemned* 
 — is condemned. Unfeigned faith, it must be evi- 
 dent to the unprejudiced and attentive reason, is 
 something more than a mere historical belief i : 
 what is written, but it always implies a historical 
 belief. No speculative unbeliever can be a faith- 
 ful man, for the great object upon which faith ter- 
 minates 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 knpwri 
 and embraced ; and therefore faith will be obstruct* < 
 in its exercises and growth, by opposition to that 
 testimony in any the least particular. " All Scrip- 
 ture is profitable." Therefore the advantage to 1 t 
 derived from it must fail, in so far as it is rejecr 
 " O fools, and slow of heart to believe all that tin 
 prophets have spoken." (1) They are not charged 
 with a disbelief of all that the prophets had written, 
 but with not believing it all: — not with total Im- 
 partial disbelief. The consequences of their part i a 
 
 (1) Luke xxiv. 25. 
 
34 CHARACTERISTICS 
 
 disbelief were, a suspension of the sanguine hopes 
 the y had fondly cherished, that Christ would redeem 
 Israel, — " We timsted that it had been he which 
 should have redeemed Israel" — and a withholding 
 of credence from competent witnesses of the resur- 
 rection. — " But him they saw not" Therefore the 
 Saviour says, " Search the Scriptures ; 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 the 
 Scripture 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 everything 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' writings, 
 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 attes- 
 tation with that which appears great. When God 
 has not parcelled out his word, according to its sup- 
 posed 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 bring an inspired 
 statement to the test of reason, before it will be 
 admitted, and only to receive it because reason has 
 
OF INSPIRATION. 35 
 
 pronounced a decision in its favour. We must 
 receive it without question, without examination, 
 because God has spoken it. The Deity will not 
 permit his creatures to debate with him. He pro- 
 claims a fact, and it must be admitted without hesi- 
 tation ; he issues a command, and it must be obey- 
 ed ; conceding the truth of the former and the jus- 
 tice of the latter, or the truth and authority of God 
 are denied. If revelation is to be subject to rea- 
 son, it is unnecessary. If reason can decide upon 
 the character of revealed facts, doctrines, precepts, 
 they must be within the sphere of her investiga- 
 tions. But as revelation brings to view, what man, 
 in the exercise of reason, never could have discover- 
 ed, reason cannot try the merit of the discoveries 
 which have been made. These must be estimated 
 according to the character of the author. In regard 
 to revelation, reason's province is to ascertain the 
 import of what is written ; her duty, if any of her 
 supposed discoveries or deductions be found to 
 clash with inspired statements, to give them up as 
 imaginary and false, that every thought may be 
 brought into subjection to the testimony of God. 
 
 Our final, our only appeal, for the determination 
 of all controversies on the doctrinal or practical sub- 
 jects of religion is to the Scriptures. They speak 
 with authority. The reason why many controver- 
 sies in the church remain undecided is, probably, 
 that there has not been a simple appeal to Scrip- 
 ture : that men have been unwilling to.have Reve- 
 lation sit alone upon the judgment seat. They 
 
36 CHARACTERISTICS 
 
 would associate another, or others, with her. She 
 knows not to falter in deciding upon any case 
 coming within her province ; but obstacles are pre- 
 sented to the reception of her clear decisions, diffi- 
 culties are raised, and her judgments are embar- 
 rassed by the delays, the opposition, and the vacil- 
 lation, of those w T ith whom she is unrighteously 
 compelled to sit in judgment. One appeals to 
 revelation and tradition ; another to revelation and 
 the fathers ; a third to Scripture and reason ; and 
 a fourth sets revelation behind the scenes, and will 
 only permit us to hear her sentence as it is reported 
 by the church. Her competency has also been 
 brought into question by folly urging her to decide 
 in cases which should never have come before her 
 tribunal. The authority, however, of Scripture is 
 not affected by the perverse proceedings of men. 
 Its voice is still heard, amidst the tumult of con- 
 tending partisans, proclaiming, "To the Law and 
 to the Testimony." 
 
 The Saviour and his Apostles teach us, by exam- 
 ples, in w T hat manner we should appeal to Divine 
 testimony. They bring forward the book, and per- 
 mit it to speak for itself. They never depart from 
 the simple and obvious import of the w r ords. They 
 do not varnish them by explanations accommodated 
 to the views designed to be exhibited. They take 
 H for granted that they are intelligible ; that they 
 n$ed only to be read to be understood by all who 
 are not prepossessed. They do not dishonour God, 
 :»y acting as if they would say that he had given a 
 
OF INSPIRATION. -;i 
 
 revelation in which the words employed are not 
 adapted to convey the ideas intended. The most 
 profound submission to its authority appears in 
 every appeal to Scripture, by Christ and his Apos- 
 tles. " Have ye not read that which was spoken 
 to you of God, saying, I am the God of Abraham. 
 and the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob l n 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 language employed — upon the use of th« present 
 tense, "I 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 Abraham 
 lived to God, even when Moses was in Horeb, is 
 therefore evident ; and it implies the preservation 
 and resurrection of the body an integral part ot the 
 man. The people felt the force of the argument at 
 once, and the Sadducees are confounded. (1) " h 
 it not written in your law, I said, ye are Gods :" 
 Without waiting to shew 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 
 «> called, and reminds them that the Scripture can- 
 not be broken. (2) Jesus might have famished an 
 exposition qnite 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, 
 
 (1) Matth. xxii. 23—33. (2) John x. 31— M 
 
3$ CHARACTERISTICS OF INSPIRATION. 
 
 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 ?" (1) " Unto 
 which of the angels said he at any time, Thou art 
 my Son ? — Unto the Son he saith, Thy throne, O 
 God, is for ever and ever." (2) Thus, does he quote, 
 without adding any comment for the purpose of 
 giving a supposed fixedness and determination to 
 the language; even in cases where many might be 
 ready to suppose an explanation necessary to show 
 the pertinence of the quotation, and infidelity has 
 charged him with inconclusive reasoning, its per- 
 versity and blindness preventing it from discover- 
 ing the bearing of the argument. Hear James. 
 " Do you think that the Scripture saith in vain, the 
 spirit that dwelieth in us lusteth to envy ? But lie 
 giveth more grace: Wherefore he saith, God resist- 
 ed! the proud, but giveth grace unto the humble.%3) 
 And Peter. " As he which hath called you is holy, 
 so be ye holy in all manner of conversation ; because 
 it is written, Be ye holy, for I am holy."(4) When- 
 ever Christ or his Apostles appeal to the Scripture, 
 they do it with the most implicit deference and 
 submission, and teach us to consider its decision 
 final. (5) 
 
 (1) Gal. iv. 21, SO (2) Heb. i. 5, 8. (3) Jas. iv. 5, 6. 
 
 (4)1 Pet. i. 10,10. (5) Note D. 
 
CHAPTER II. 
 Are the Psalms given ly 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 Tes- 
 tament," thus writes: " The Book of Psalms, which 
 in the Hebrew is entitled Sepher Tehittim, the 
 Book of Hymns or Praises of the Lord, contain? the 
 productions of different writers. These productions 
 are called, however, the Psalms of David, because 
 a great part of them were composed by him, who 
 for his peculiarly excellent Spirit was distinguished 
 by the title of Psalmist. Some of them w r ere 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 Jloly Writ. Ezra probably col- 
 lected them into one book, and placed them in the 
 order they now preserve, after they had been pre- 
 viously collected in part." 
 
 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 
 
40 INSPIRATION 
 
 certain, they liacl been collected and arranged 
 before the time of our Lord and his Apostles. They 
 are designated a Booh 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#lso written in the second Psalm, " Thou art 
 my Son, this day have I begotten thee/' Ko other 
 proof is wanted that the collection of Psalms or 
 Hymns which the Jews had in the days of our Sa- 
 viour, is the same that we possess. 
 
 To the inspiration of this Book our Lord has given 
 his testimony ; and placed it, by his authority, 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 written in the law of 
 Moses, and in the Prophets, and in the Psalms, 
 concerning me." (1) Here is a pointed reference 
 to the classification of the Scriptures which the Jew- 
 made, and a place is assigned to the Psalms, no less 
 elevated 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 same 
 peremptory tone with the Law, which was pr< 
 
 (1) Luke xxiv. 44. 
 
OF THE PSALMS. 41 
 
 gated, without the intervention of man, from the 
 top of Sinai ; we must receive them as equally pro- 
 fitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for 
 instruction, to promote the perfection of the man of 
 God, with any other portion of Holy Writ. 
 
 The full extent to which the Son of God recog- 
 nises the claim of the Book of Psalms, appearsfrom 
 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 V 9 It was neither 
 arrogant nor blasphemous, therefore, in David to 
 utter the following very definite language : i; The 
 Spirit of the Lord spake by me, and his word was 
 in my tongue." (1) His Son and Lord has pro- 
 nounced it just. Paul has followed the example of 
 his Lord in the ascription of the Psalms, not to man. 
 but to the Holy Ghost. When he quotes the ninety- 
 fifth Psalm, he introduces the quotation by these 
 very emphatic words, u As the Holy Ghost saith/' 
 And Peter, before the day of Pentecost, ^tandino 
 up in the midst of the congregated disciples, savs. 
 %% Men and brethren, this Scripture must needs have 
 been fulfilled, which the Holy Ghost sj» txke by the 
 mouth of David ;" and on the day of Pente 
 addressing the wondering multitude, calls David a 
 Prophet in reference to the production of the six- 
 teenth Psalm. To use the words of Gray, who has 
 been already quoted, " The authority of 
 
 (!) Mat Mi D Srtm. xxiii. 2. 
 
42 INSPIRATION 
 
 (Psalms) which we now possess, is established like- 
 wise, by many intrinsic proofs of inspiration. Not 
 only do they breathe through every part a divine 
 spirit of eloquence, but they contain numberless 
 illustrious prophecies that were remarkably accom- 
 plished, and are frequently appealed to by the evan- 
 gelical 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 sanction, let 
 it be observed, that Peter teaches us that the 
 writings of the Apostles possess no greater autho- 
 rity, are distinguished by no more intrinsic excel- 
 lence, make no larger demand upon our veneration, 
 diligent perusal, and personal application, than 
 Moses, the Prophets, and the Psalms. Adverting 
 to the writings of his " beloved brother Paul" he. 
 says, " In which are some things hard to be under- 
 stood, which they that are unlearned and unstable 
 wrest, as they do also the other Scrvptures, 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 introducing them to notice, forms a sufficient 
 answer to any, who might be disposed to neglect 
 Moses or David, Isaiah or Ezekiel, 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 
 
OF THE PSALMS. 43 
 
 proving the inspiration of the Book of Psalms, — 
 that the writers of the Psalms were holy men of 
 God, who spake and wrote as they were moved by 
 the Holy Ghost, — because this fact once established 
 and received, one of the most daring objections that 
 have ever been made to the use of the Psalms of 
 David, is at once and forever removed out of the 
 way of every man who respects the character of his 
 God and his Eedeemer, — 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 incon- 
 sistent with the spirit of the gospel, which dictates 
 love to our enemies. (1) 
 
 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 charac- 
 ter of the author determines the character of the 
 Book. An unholy person may assume the charac- 
 ter, and speak the words of purity ; a man of cruelty 
 may write a book and transcribe in it the language 
 of clemency and mercy ; but a holy and a merciful 
 man never can be supposed, without supposing a 
 contradiction, to employ language impure and ma- 
 licious, and calculated \p 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 
 
 (1) Note E. 
 
44 INSPIRATION 
 
 encouraged 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 tendency. If the objection before 
 us be founded in truth, the Book must be expunged 
 from the Bible. Its pretensions are spurious, and 
 its presence is a stigma upon the character of God. 
 But we have already seen that its claims are sup- 
 ported by the same authority which sanctions Jhe 
 other Scriptures, and that the denial of its inspira- 
 tion 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 unholiness ; if God be merciful, there 
 is nothing in it inconsistent with mercy, or calcu- 
 lated to encourage cruelty; if God be love, there is 
 nothing in it contrary to the spirit of love, or calcu- 
 lated to encourage hatred or revenge ; in one word, 
 there cannot be anything in the Book opposed 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 himself 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 faken for granted, if the 
 Psalms do not manifest the same spirit, inculcate 
 the same doctrines, enjoin the same moral duties, 
 prohibit the same sins, which are set forth in the 
 New Testament, it follows that the Holy Ghost is. 
 
OF THE PSALMS. 45 
 
 inconsistent with himself. But it would be no dif- 
 ficult matter to show 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 saints — we know that David 
 possessed and exemplified that very character which 
 the Gospel of Christ recommends. Will any man 
 venture, upon mature consideration, to set declara- 
 tions from the pen of David, especially remember- 
 ing that it was guided by the Spirit of God, the 
 expression of wdiose inflexible justice, of whose 
 detestation of sin, of whose determination to punish 
 it, — to all which holy men of God have been enabled 
 — to which David was enabled to say Amen, — he 
 may have mistaken for the language of unforgiving 
 cruelty ; — will any man venture to set declarations, 
 the spirit and design of which may be misunder- 
 stood, in opposition to facts ? Are malignity and 
 revenge rashly to be imputed to the man, who found 
 his enemy in a cave, — his enemy who had attempt- 
 ed 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 person, though urged by his 
 followers? Will we attribute malignity and re- 
 venge to him who, coming into the camp of h\> 
 adversary by night, and finding him and his men 
 asleep, neither injured him no? would permit ano- 
 ther to do it, though solicited, and could show fehc 
 sword and cruise of water which he had carried 
 away from his head, a testimony at once of his own 
 
46 INSPIRATION. 
 
 power to have taken revenge, and of the simplicity 
 and ingenuousness of his temper and conduct? Was 
 the man malignant and revengeful, who, when an 
 ungrateful rebel in the day of adversity cursed him 
 and vilified his character, could say, profoundly 
 resigned to the award of Heaven, "Let him alone, 
 and 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. Rather 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 relation 
 to the question before us, that the Psalms most 
 obnoxious to the censures of a spurious, and an 
 unsanctified sentimentality, have been cited by an 
 Apostle as the language of the Spirit. The sixty- 
 ninth and hundred-and-ninth would seem, when 
 approached by the opponents of the Old Testament 
 Psalms, to excite more than common heat. I shall 
 produce a few verses from each. " Let their habi- 
 tation 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." (1) " Set thou a wicked 
 man over him ; and let Satan stand at his rght hand. 
 
 (1) Psalm lxix. 25, 27, 2S. 
 
OF THE PSALMS. 47 
 
 Wh§n he shall be judged, let him be condemned : 
 and let his prayer become sin. Let his days be few ; 
 and let another take his office." (1) Admitted : the 
 language is strong. All may not be able to recon- 
 cile it with other declarations and petitions. Are 
 they who cannot, at liberty to conclude that it is 
 really inconsistent with love to our enemies ? Let 
 us hear how Peter speaks of those Psalms. " Men 
 and brethren, this Scripture must needs have been 
 fulfilled, which the Holy Ghost by the mouth of 
 David spake before concerning Judas, who was 
 guide to them that took Jesus. 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." (2) Of the twentieth verse the 
 former member is from the sixty -ninth, and the lat- 
 ter from the hundred-and-ninth Psalm. Observe, 
 (first) he views both as prophetic ; (second) he pro- 
 nounces both spoken by the Holy Ghost. Of course 
 both must be in all points correct, worthy of a mer- 
 ciful God, and becoming 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 dipped 
 in the blood of enemies, the tongue of thy dogs in 
 the same." " 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 
 
 (1) Psalm cix. 6— S. (2) Acts i. 16, 20. 
 
48 INSPIRATION 
 
 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 condemnation. " Alexander the coppersmith 
 did me much evil : the Lord reward him according 
 to his works." (1) If the spirit manifested in such 
 portions of the Psalms as those quoted be unchris- 
 tian, by what spirit shall we say the Apostle was 
 actuated? If the Psalms be inconsistent with the 
 Gospel, then Paul must be inconsistent with him- 
 self, 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, explain the consis- 
 tency of the fourteenth and sixteenth 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 testimony 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 
 
 (1) 2 Tim. iv. 14. 
 
OF THE PSALMS. 49 
 
 has a supper, to which the fowls of heaven are in- 
 vited, that they may u 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." u 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 addition to a call to come forth 
 from among the children of mystical Babylon? 
 * ; Reward her even as she has rewarded you, and 
 double unto 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 apostles 
 and prophets ; for God hath avenged you on her."(l ) 
 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 ? 
 
 (1) Rev. vi. 10; xriii. 4—6; xix. 17, 18. 
 
CHAPTER IE. 
 
 Were the Psalms given to the Church that tliey 
 might be sung to the praise of Him by whom they 
 were dictated? 
 
 Having shewn the full and unqualified recognition 
 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 dishonouring to the character of God, 
 involving a charge of inconsistency against his 
 word, and implicitly impeaching those who have 
 already entered into the places in their father's 
 house prepared for them, with a want of the due 
 measure of Christian 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 sung by 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. 
 
52 INSPIRED PSALMS 
 
 The Hebrew language has long since ceased to 
 he spoken by a separate people, and that minute 
 acquaintance with its structure is, we presume, 
 irrecoverably lost, which might enable us to dis- 
 tinguish between prose and verse from the quantity 
 and arrangement of the syllables, as we can in the 
 Greek and Latin and modern tongues. Several 
 have attempted to reduce the Hebrew versification 
 to certain rules ; but it is generally considered that 
 they have utterly failed. Josephus, however, une- 
 quivocally states that the Psalms were written in 
 metre. When making mention of them and other 
 poetical portions of Holy Writ, he speaks like a 
 man to w T hom Hebrew versification, the distinc- 
 tion between verse and prose, and the distinction 
 between one species of verse and another, were per- 
 fectly familiar. His translator either thought or 
 affects to think that Josephus rather spake in accom- 
 modation to the ideas of Greeks and Romans, than 
 from any precise acquaintance with the metrical 
 rythm of Hebrew poetry : perhaps for no better rea- 
 son than the improbability of the author of the 
 Jewish antiquities being in possession of a species 
 of knowledge which is beyond the reach of the 
 Philologists of later and more exalted days. For 
 this very reason, DeWette, a German writer, ex- 
 presses a doubt of the existence of a Hebrew metre, 
 and adduces Michselis as of the same opinion. 
 kk 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 narra- 
 
THE MATTER OF PRAISE. 53 
 
 tive of the exodus from Egypt and the passage 
 through the JRed Sea, Josephus adds, " Moses also 
 composed a song unto God containing his praises 
 in hexameter verse." (1) Again ; with reference 
 to the song which Moses is said to have written and 
 taught to the children of Israel immediately before 
 his decease, he says, "After this he read to them a 
 poetic song, which w r as composed in hexameter 
 verse ; and left it to them in the Holy Book ; it 
 contained a prediction of what was to come to pass 
 afterwards." (2) But, in particular respecting the 
 Book of Psalms, " And now David being freed from 
 w r ars and dangers, and enjoying for the future a 
 profound peace, composed songs and hymns to God 
 of several sorts of metre : some of those which he 
 made were trimeters, and some 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." (3) 
 Whatever may be the value attached to it, at all 
 events the testimony of the Jewish historian is suf- 
 ficiently perspicuous and pointed. 
 
 The names, however, appropriated to the collec- 
 tion clearly indicate its character and use. The 
 title Psalms, which is a Greek word introduced 
 into the English language through the Latin 
 medium, is derived from Psallo, to sing, and 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 
 
 (*) B. II. c. IG. s. 4. (2) B. IV. c. 3. s. 44. (:)) B. VII. c. 12. s. 3. 
 
54 INSPIRED PSALMS 
 
 " Songs of Zion." " So the number of them which 
 which were brethren that were instructed in the 
 Songs of the Lord, all that were cunning, was two 
 hundred four score and eight." (1) " There they 
 that carried us away captive required of us a song : 
 and they that wasted us required of us mirth, say- 
 ing, sing us one of the songs of Zion." (2) These 
 titles given to the collection, appear to point to its 
 design, — its design according to the Spirit who dic- 
 tated its different pieces. 
 
 That these Psalms were sung by the Old Testa- 
 ment 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 pathetic exclamation, 
 provoked by the demand, it may have been of 
 curiosity, it may have been 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 w^hich they spent together at 
 Jerusalem, w T hen the assembled tribes feasted and 
 sung 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 sacked 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 
 
 (1) 1 Chron. xxv. 7. (2) Ps. cxxxvii. 3. 
 
THE MATTER OF PKAISE. 55 
 
 are no longer open to receive pleasure from the joy- 
 inspiring song and the accompanying tones of the 
 well-tuned instrument. The full swell of the glad- 
 dening sounds would only have increased their bit- 
 terness of spirit, from its association with the repose 
 and happiness of days now gone. Their harps, so 
 frequently in requisition^ before the invader had 
 entered in among them, are suspended upon the 
 willows by the brink of the river of Babylon, and 
 only utter the hollow sounds of melancholy moan- 
 ing, as their chords vibrate in the breeze. 
 
 It would seem from the history of the children of 
 Israel, that the arrangements for singing the praises 
 of God, were brought to a greater degree of perfec- 
 tion, by the instrumentality of David, who contri- 
 buted so largely, by the Holy Spirit, to the Songs 
 of Zion, as to acquire the honorable appellation of 
 the sweet Psalmist of Israel, and to give his name 
 to the Book of Psalms. The number of those who 
 were appointed of the King to the service of God 
 in the celebration of praise, vocally and by instru* 
 ments, including Asaph, Jeduthun, and Heman, 
 who presided, were two hundred and eighty-eight, 
 whom he divided into twenty-four orders or classes, 
 and who had their places assigned to them by lot. 
 They used the songs which formpart of the present 
 collection. The book was not completed till long 
 after the days of David. On the very solemn 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, certain of the Levites were 
 
56 INSPIRED PSALMS 
 
 appointed to precede the ark, and to thank and 
 praise the Lord God of Israel ; and the King put 
 into the hand of Asaph, 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 Chronicles. The verses, beginning with 
 the eighth and ending with the twenty-second, con- 
 stitute 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 Psalm ; the thirty-fourth verse of 
 the chapter is the same with the first of the one 
 hundred and sixth Psalm, and the thirty-fifth and 
 sixth form the concluding two verses of the same, 
 a few verbal variations excepted. 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 his unqualified 
 sanction. The conclusion is by no means difficult. 
 The purpose for which it was given determines the 
 design of the Spirit in the collection of songs with 
 which it is numbered. In the absence 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 informed, 
 and which we mention for a reason that shall appear 
 presently . The Psalm whicli David spake unto the 
 Lord, in the day when the Lord had delivered him 
 out of the hand of all his enemies, and out of the 
 
THE MATTER OF PRAISE. 57 
 
 hand of Saul, and which is found in the second 
 book of Samuel (1), is the eighteenth of the sacred 
 collection of songs. 
 
 There is a passage in the second book of Chroni- 
 cles which casts much light upon the divinely 
 authorised practice of the people of Israel, in rela- 
 tion to the Psalmody which they used in the wor- 
 ship of God. During the reigns of the kings who 
 preceded Hezekiah, the Israelites had corrupted 
 themselves exceedingly. Their kings encouraging 
 them by their example, they worshipped the gods 
 of the nations. The temple was spoiled and shut 
 up by Ahaz, while he multiplied altars to strange 
 deities. When Hezekiah ascended the throne of 
 his ancestors, he set his heart upon the restoration 
 of the purity of divine service. The temple is once 
 more opened and sanctified at his injunction, with 
 all its sacred furniture. The rulers of the city, be- 
 ing 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 cymbals, 
 with psalteries, and with harps, according to com- 
 mand of David and of Gad the king's seer, and 
 Nathan the prophet : for so was the commandment 
 of the Lord by his prophets." (2) And while the 
 burnt offering was being consumed upon the altar, 
 all the congregation worshipped, and singers sang, 
 and the trumpeters sounded. " Moreover Heze- 
 kiah the king and the princes commanded the 
 Levites to sing praises unto the Lord, with the 
 
 (1 ) xxii. (2) 2 Chron. xxix, 25-80. 
 
58 INSPIRED PSALMS 
 
 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: — First, 
 That it was part of the worship of God's house to 
 sing praise ; second, That what David did in order- 
 ing the public service, angl appointing proper per- 
 sons, instructed in the songs of the Lord, to sing 
 praise, was by the command of the Lord, and not 
 after his own will or his own wisdom ; and third, 
 That the words of David and Asaph or the words 
 of inspired men were used. The manner, there- 
 fore, 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 com- 
 manded the people to sing their words. 
 
 The celebration of praise according to the order 
 sanctioned by Him to whom praise is to be ascribed, 
 which was necessarily suspended during the melan- 
 choly period of the Babylonish captivity, was 
 afterwards restored in due form by Nehemiah. 
 The chief of the Levites, with their brethren, are 
 appointed to their proper place " to praise and to 
 give thanks, according to the commandment 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 witli thanksgiving and 
 
THE MATTER OF PRAISE. OV 
 
 with singing, with cymbals, psalteries and with 
 harps." (1) • 
 
 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 designed 
 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 have no place assigned 
 to them in the Book of Psalms. Such are the Songs 
 of Moses, composed w T hen the Israelites had passed 
 through the Red Sea, and immediately before his 
 removal from their head ; David's pathetic lamen- 
 tation 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 collec- 
 tion of the Psalms into one book must have been 
 the work of inspiration no less than their composi- 
 tion, otherwise the Saviour never 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 distinc- 
 tion is, between those which have been omitted, and 
 such as have been incorporated with the Songs of 
 
 (1) Neh. xii.24— 27. 
 
60 INSPIRED PSALMS 
 
 Zion. This question can only be solved by a deter- 
 mination of the particular purpose for which the 
 collection of inspired songs was made. If we sup- 
 pose the collection made with the view of setting 
 before the church, the Psalms that should be used 
 in the celebration of praise, it becomes easy to 
 determine why some Psalms found already written 
 in the Book of God are inserted and others are not 
 inserted : a circumstance which we could not ex- 
 plain in a satisfactory manner, upon any other 
 supposition. 
 
 The design for which certain Psalms have been 
 collected into one volume was not to preserve, 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 been no necessity for 
 inserting any Psalm which had already found a 
 place in the inspired record. The introduction of 
 such must be considered a very unprofitable repe- 
 tition. But, as we have already observed, the 
 eighteenth Psalm is to be found in the second book 
 of Samuel, the ninety-sixth, part of the hundred 
 and fifth and a few verses of the hundred and sixth, 
 are to be found in the second book of Chronicles. 
 
 The design was not to hring together the detached 
 productions of one inspired penman. The Psalms 
 are the productions of various writers, from the 
 days of Moses, to whom the ninetieth Psalm is 
 generally ascribed, till the time of Ezra, subse- 
 quent to the return from Babylon. 
 
 The design was not to furnish one complete view 
 
THE MATTER OF PRAISE. 61 
 
 of inspired songs. Then there would not have 
 been any of the omissions to which I have before 
 referred. 
 
 There remains only one other supposition of 
 which I am aware — that the church might be fur- 
 nished with such a collection as contained the 
 Psalms designed for regular and standing use, in 
 her public and social services ; and that the error 
 might be prevented, either of inadvertently intro- 
 ducing some, though inspired, not intended for 
 general and permanent use, or of omitting some 
 designed for social worship, and adapted to that 
 end. The admission of a song into the Scripture 
 may, or may not, infer its inspiration ; but its ad- 
 mission into the Book of Psalms proves at once its 
 inspiration and- adaptation, according to the mind 
 of the spirit, to the services of the sanctuary : the 
 exclusion of one from the general collection, whilst 
 it does not invalidate its claim to inspiration, 
 seems to show that its use as a song was private 
 and temporary. (1) 
 
 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, 
 then, too much, to infer that an inspired collection 
 of psalms or hymns was necessary ? that the wis- 
 dom of man was not adequate to the task of pro- 
 ducing such songs as might be sung without fear 
 in the presence of a holy and a jealous God? that 
 
 (1) Note F. 
 
62 INSPIRED PSALMS 
 
 the important work of writing for the church in 
 her holy exercises of praise could not be intrusted 
 even to the new creature, so ]ong 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 un- 
 clean hand ? 
 
 A heathen poet, writing respecting the machi- 
 nery and composition of dramatic works, lays down 
 this very judicious rule : — 
 
 " Nee Deus inter sit, nisi dignus vindice nodus 
 Ineiderit" 
 
 " Let not a God be introduced, unless a crisis 
 shall have arrived which is worthy of his interfer- 
 ence." In other words : A God should never be 
 brought forward, when there is not something to 
 be performed which man is unable to accomplish. 
 The idea, expressed by a man brought up in 
 ignorance of the lively oracles of God, addicted to 
 the idolatries of Rome, and of a licentious charac- 
 ter, might cause many a professed Christian to 
 blush, for his irreverent stupidity, in supposing that 
 God has stepped forward, in any instance, unneces- 
 sarily to dictate what might very well have been 
 dispensed with, or when man in the exercise of his 
 own wisdom could have supplied the desideratum. 
 The man, whose correct judgment would prohibit 
 the introduction of the Deity upon the stage, when 
 
THE MATTER OF PRAISE. 63 
 
 his interposition was not absolutely necessary, 
 would at once conclude, when sufficient evidence 
 is produced of the presence of God, that a crisis 
 had approached when his presence was wanted ; 
 that some work was to be executed beyond the 
 resources of human agency. 
 
 Creative power belongs to God alone. Let us 
 inquire 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 sublunary world, 
 spake into existence the herb yielding seed and the 
 fruit tree bearing fruit, beasts of every name, fish 
 of every species, and birds 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 production, independently of an 
 immediate exertion of divine power. It is other- 
 wise now, and has been otherwise since God 
 breathed into man's nostrils the breath of life. 
 The machinery of creation has been put in motion 
 in all its departments ; and according to general 
 laws, there is ample provision made for the perpe- 
 tuity by reproduction of every thing to which 
 God gave existenc * at the beginning, without an 
 immediate manif station of power. Has 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 effica- 
 cious word, any valuable species of fruit tree, pro- 
 
64: INSPIRED PSALMS 
 
 ducing new stocks where none grew before, or 
 where seeds had not been shed? has he given to 
 man any new species of inferior animal, in addi- 
 tion to those formed 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 internal resources bestowed in crea- 
 tion, combined with the operation of external 
 influences. As if he would teach us how alien 
 from his consistent character is an immediate exer- 
 tion 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 pre- 
 vent the recurrence of the necessity of immediate 
 operation. Witness his providence, when about to 
 send a deluge of water upon the earth, to punish 
 man for abounding wickedness. He directs Noah 
 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 destruction by 
 the flood, and brings of every beast and of every 
 fowl at least one pair, in due season, into that one 
 place of safety. And when the seed of all terres- 
 trial things destructible by water had been collected 
 into the ark, God, that every thing as if under his 
 own seal might be perfectly safe, shut the architect 
 in, with his house, with the inferior animal, beast 
 and fowl. 
 
 Observe again how the same rule — an immediate 
 
THE MATTER OF PRAISE. 
 
 exertion of divine power when divine power imme- 
 diately exerted is necessary, and only then — is 
 observed by the Son of God, when he sojourned, 
 in the form of a servant, among men. Two 
 examples are sufficient of the 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 spectators 
 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 cast 
 even more perspicuous is furnished in the history 
 of Lazarus's resurrection from the dead. The dead 
 man had been in the grave now four clays. ' " It 
 was a cave, and a stone lay upon it." There art- 
 three things to be done — First, The stone is to be 
 taken away from the mouth of the cave; second, 
 Lazarus is to be reanimated ; and third, His banda- 
 ges 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 furti 
 free. But the power of God may not be immediately 
 exerted^ when created power is equal to the work h 
 be executed. Man can roll away the stone. Man 
 can loose the grave clothes in which a corpse i>- 
 wrapped. God alone can reanimate the lifeless elav . 
 Therefore, the Saviour reserves that part of the work 
 alone for himself in which human intervention 
 
 E 
 
66 INSPIRED PSALMS 
 
 would be vain. " Take ye away the stone," says 
 he to them that stand by ; " 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 power immediately 
 put forth is no longer wanted. 
 
 Has God deviated from the same law of opera- 
 tion, 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 would 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 I" Can he see 
 what lies behind it, except God be pleased to draw 
 it aside, and allow him a partial glance ? God has 
 revealed the appointment of a Saviour. Could 
 man have certainly discovered that such an ap- 
 pointment 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 making that cove- 
 nant should be carried into effect. Could man, 
 who was unable to ascertain the existence of a New 
 Covenant and the appointment of a Mediator, have 
 made any approach to the detection of its provi- 
 
THE MATTER OF PRAISE. 67 
 
 sions or of his qualifications and work ? God has 
 supplied us with a historical narrative of events 
 occurring in successive generations, from the crea- 
 tion of the world till the carrying away to Baby- 
 lon — from the incarnation of his Son till the 
 imprisonment of Paul in Rome, events preparatory 
 to the appearance of Christ, subservient to the 
 accomplishment of the plan of redemption, and 
 illustrative of the principles of his providential ad- 
 ministration, the stability of his purpose, and the ir- 
 resistibility of his power. These events transpired 
 before the face of man. But would he have ever dis- 
 covered their relation to the incarnation of Christ and 
 the salvation of sinners, without a revelation from 
 Heaven ? 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, these 
 events which are more intimately connected, with 
 the developement 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 
 
68 IMSPIKED PSALMS 
 
 all things — of the deluge, of Abraham, the patri- 
 archs, the Israelites, borne clown upon the wheel 
 of time — must have remained entirely concealed 
 from the view of future ages, till it had performed 
 its entire revolution. In an age affording every 
 facility for the registry of passing occurrences, the 
 allusions in profane writers to the appearance, the 
 character, and the acts of Jesus of Nazareth, are 
 so few T and imperfect, that we are left to conjecture 
 every thing without knowing any thing. 
 
 Finally: The Son of God only interferes in be- 
 half of man when every other refuge fails. " 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, condemned sin 
 in the flesh." 
 
 One principle then seems beyond controversy — 
 that God in no case interferes by immediate opera- 
 tion, except when the agency of the creature is 
 utterly insufficient ; and, of course, that his imme- 
 diate interposition proves the insufficiency of man. 
 His dictation by his spirit of a collection of songs 
 to be used in his public service, consequently 
 proves that man, not inspired, was not at all quali- 
 iied to supply this desideratum in the church. 
 The argument may be stated thus : God never im- 
 mediately 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 celebration of his praise. 
 Therefore, man, not immediately directed by the 
 
THE MATTER OF PRAISE. by 
 
 spirit, was inadequate to the composition of such a 
 book for such a purpose. 
 
 Psalms suited to the exigencies of the church of 
 God must be adapted to the diversified circum- 
 stances of all ages and of all nations — to the almost 
 endlessly modified states of individuals. They 
 should be divested of every thing national, occa- 
 sional and temporary, partaking of the character 
 of the whole word of God, which is equally 
 adapted to the spiritual wants of every nation, of 
 every generation, and of every stage of the divine 
 life. The church of God is one. Believers, to 
 whatever nation they belong, in whatever age they 
 have lived or may live, are members of one bodj^, 
 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 land, or 
 may become antiquated, are plainly 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. (1) 
 Reason, then, teaches the necessity of the inspira- 
 tion 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 
 the sphere of his religious knowledge, however 
 diversified his religious experience, may hope to 
 comprehend the different aspects which vice as- 
 >nmes, the different states of every believer's soul, 
 
 [1 ) Note G. 
 
70 INSPIRED PSALMS 
 
 the various vicissitudes 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 circumstances renders imperative. There 
 is still found something defective, something suspi- 
 cious if not objectionable, something at one time 
 appropriate now obsolete, which should be per- 
 fected, improved or expunged. That short of a 
 collection of songs by Him, whose works partake 
 of the perfection 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 
 prospects are hid, there is no end to the composi- 
 tion of psalms, hymns and spiritual songs ; that 
 ever and anon a new collection or a new arrange- 
 ment 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 gainsayers, 
 which shall present no sufficient handle upon which 
 an objector shall lay hold, and which may reasonably 
 be expected to maintain its place ; that every collec- 
 tion will be found to bear the stamp of that baneful 
 offspring of carnality — Party, and having a ten- 
 dency to perpetuate that blotch upon the fair 
 face of Christendom, at once argue the work of 
 writing hymns for the use of the church in her 
 
THE MATTER OF PRAISE. 71 
 
 religious services too great for human wisdom, 
 and the necessity of divine interposition to supply 
 what man has vainly hoped to furnish. (1) 
 
 The necessity of an inspired collection of psalms 
 may be farther argued from the peculiarly dan- 
 gerous 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 forcibly in favor of the person, 
 that we pity and forgive known vices, and are 
 willing to believe that he possesses rare and de- 
 cided virtues, of the existence of which we have 
 not, nor wait to obtain substantial evidence, 
 poetry and music lay immediate 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 having had time to prepare 
 against the inundation, perhaps of error, perhaps 
 of vice, which the assailants introduce in their 
 train. It too often happens, through a prejudice 
 in favor of the garb in which they are clothed, 
 that truth is received without examination, error 
 without question, virtue without approbation, and 
 vice without an opposing struggle. The fact 
 appears to have been well understood in ancient 
 and modern times, that poetry, especially when t 
 
 ■l) Note H. 
 
ffi INSPIRED PSALMS THE MATTER OF rEAISE. 
 
 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 parti- 
 cular inquiry 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 na- 
 ture and accurate observation that led one to 
 say, " Let me be exclusive ballad-maker 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 
 of the church, in which there may possibly be an 
 error contrary to the doctrines of the gospel of 
 Christ. Every error which has found its way into 
 the hymns or psalms used by the worshippers of 
 God, has obtained a passport to the understanding 
 and the heart, which no ministry, however pure, 
 can destroy. The gospel minister who gives his 
 countenance to a psalm or song embracing error, 
 puts into the hands of the enemy a tried weapon 
 with which to light against the gospel 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 cha- 
 racter of the songs of the Lord, in which, being the 
 very word of God, we are sure there can be no error. 
 
CHAPTER IV. 
 
 lias a second collection of Song's for the use of 
 the Church been given by Inspiration ? 
 
 Fsoif what has been advanced in the preceding 
 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 ; that their structure 
 and the use to which they were applied, with 
 divine approbation, in the Israelitish Church, prove 
 that they were given for the special purpose of 
 praise, and infer the necessity of an inspired collec- 
 tion of Songs. A third fact now claims our at- 
 tention. 
 
 No subsequent book or books have been written 
 by inspiration of the Holy Ghost, of the same form 
 and for the same use. 
 
 ( H all the facte 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, need's only to be stated to be admitted by 
 all who are able to distinguish between the word 
 <1 and an exposition of that word : and yet 
 
74 
 
 NO SECOND COLLECTION 
 
 it is probably the one to which many professors 
 would be ready most ardently to put in their nega- 
 tive ; and in the examination of which, we shall 
 be led necessarily into a more protracted discus- 
 sion. 
 
 Only one collection of inspired songs was put 
 into the hands of the Israelites, and they constitute 
 an integral part of the Old Testament. The New 
 Testament, which we have the happiness to possess, 
 is understood to be complete. Its parts are 
 various — historical, doctrinal and argumentative, 
 practical, or perceptive and prophetical ; but it 
 contains no collection of songs, no one portion 
 written in a metrical form, or presenting a shadow 
 of internal evidence that the Holy Spirit, in dic- 
 tating 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 provi- 
 dence, has been less careful of them than of other 
 inspired compositions. The ancient collection has 
 come down entire; but one fragment of such 
 poetical compositions has not been preserved to 
 tell that they once had an existence. Granting 
 that the Apostles wrote Psalms, Hymns and Spiri- 
 tual Songs, it does not follow that they were dic- 
 tated by the Spirit, and intended to constitute 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 immediate direction 
 of the Spirit the result of their own studies and 
 
OF INSPIRED SONGS. 75 
 
 investigations ; and it is an evidence 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 prejudice 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 sound knowledge, and pro- 
 moted the cause of error. It is well known to 
 every one who is an attentive observer of the in- 
 fluence of association upon the determination of 
 the human mind, that error is never so insinuating 
 and successful as when combined with the prin- 
 ciples of eternal truth ; that the error, which is 
 supported by the friend whom we love, is viewed 
 with less disgust, or received without inquiry ; and 
 that the heart is predisposed to give to that man. 
 whose clear, consistent and correct views upon one 
 subject, have contributed to the stock of our know- 
 ledge, and expedited our progress in the investiga- 
 tion and acquisition of truth, credit for equal 
 perspicacity and correctness in every department 
 of study. We begin by attaching him to hs, in 
 the character of a useful ally, and are, if not main- 
 taining a rigorous watch over the movements of 
 our minds, insensibly led to sit down at his feet, 
 and put ourselves in the situation of scholars. The 
 influence of a name associated with inspiration 
 must be inconceivably greater than that of either 
 the personal friend, or the man of approved judg- 
 ment. We can reason now very calmly upon the 
 
76 NO SECOND COLLECTION 
 
 possibility of Isaiali or Jeremiah having written 
 upon subjects foreign to those of revelation, or only 
 incidentally bearing upon them, and having pro- 
 duced nothing worthy of more attention than the 
 pages of Newton or of Pollok ; but did their unin- 
 spired writings exist, it is probable the case would 
 be so far altered, that we should find the disjunc- 
 tion of what is and is not inspired, the union of 
 profound submission to the words of the spirit by 
 them, and an impartial examination of their own 
 words, requiring an effort beyond the power of 
 man. But God has not furnished an occasion for 
 so severe a trial of man's strength. He has con- 
 sidered, in condescension, our frame ; he has pitied 
 our weakness, and put an absolute termination to 
 anything which the inspired writers may have 
 published, when not moved by the Holy Ghost. 
 
 The Old Testament contains references to sundry 
 books which are not now extant in a separate 
 form — the Books of the wars of the Lord, of 
 Jasher, of Nathan, of Shemaiah the prophet, 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 
 
OF INSPIRED SOXGS. 77 
 
 by inspiration, than the allusion, in the Book of 
 Esther, to " the Book of the Chronicles of the Kings 
 of Media and Persia," proves that it was written 
 by the Holy Ghost. And even if we suppose a 
 part of them to have been the work of inspiration, 
 there are two circumstances which show that it 
 was not designed for standing use in the church — 
 that it did not constitute a portion of the Scriptures 
 which w T ere written for our learning : — First, They 
 are lost in the most absolute sense of the word ; 
 and Second, upon the part of our Lord and his 
 Apostles there is no appeal to one of them. The 
 Old Testament is quoted as unquestionable autho- 
 rity, and there is not a single insinuation that it is 
 in any part defective. Nay, it is pronounced com- 
 plete — "able to make wise unto salvation; pro- 
 fitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for 
 instruction in righteousness, that the man of* God 
 may he perfect, thoroughly furnished unto all good 
 works." 
 
 If we had the most conclusive evidence that the 
 Evangelists and Apostles wrote a thousand and 
 live 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 in- 
 spiration, it still remains to be proved that they 
 were adapted to general and permanent use among 
 Christians ; if it were proved that they were adapt- 
 ed, they have no longer an existence, and the spirit 
 of Christ alone, by an immediate communication, 
 can supply their place. 
 
78 NO SECOND COLLECTION 
 
 There is, however, no evidence that Christ or his 
 Apostles committed anything to writing which has 
 been lost — wrote any songs for the use of the 
 church additional to the Jewish collection, or de- 
 signed to supersede its use in the worship of God. 
 Christ makes no reference to such poetical compo- 
 sitions. "The hymn which our Saviour sung with 
 his disciples at the conclusion of the last supper, is 
 generally supposed to have consisted of the Psalms 
 that are contained between the one hundred and 
 thirteenth and the one hundred and eighteenth in- 
 clusive. This was called by the Jews the great 
 Hallel or Hymn, and was usually sung by them 
 at the celebration of the Passover." (1) The 
 Apostles no where allude to any other than the 
 Old Testament collection of songs. " Is any merry ?" 
 says James, "Let him sing psalms." It is to be 
 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 time, other psalms existed. The exhortation 
 is certainly both intelligible and appropriate, sup- 
 posing those to whom he wrote knew of no other 
 than the Psalms of David. Many a glad heart 
 has opened the book and sung them, and found its 
 gladness 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 
 
 (1) Gray's Key, 219. 
 
OF INSPIKED SONGS. 79 
 
 would not be deserving of a reply, were it not cal- 
 culated to make an impression upon the mind 
 which has never been exercised in the examina- 
 tion of the subject, and is waited by the prevail- 
 ing practice of various worshipping societies, in 
 connection with current phraseology. Those who 
 use uninspired songs must defend them. The songs 
 of Zion are usually called Psalms / uninspired 
 songs, Hymns. To the inconsiderate, (and among 
 these may be reckoned some of the learned,) this 
 supplies abundant evidence that the Ephesians and 
 Colossians used uninspired poetry, in connection 
 with the Psalms of David. Even a D. D. can 
 ask, " Can it be doubted that the Christians of 
 Ephesus used hymns and spiritual songs?" But 
 let us look at the Apostle's words : " Teaching and 
 admonishing one another in psalms and hymns and 
 spiritual songs, singing with grace in your hearts 
 to the Lord." (1) " Speaking to yourselves in 
 psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and 
 making melody in your heart to the Lord." (2) 
 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 I The words of 
 the Apostle by no means imply the existence, 
 when he wrote, in the churches of Ephesus and 
 Colosse, of hymns and spiritual songs not compre- 
 hended in the Book of Psalms. To the whole col- 
 lection the title " Psalms " is appropriated by 
 
 (1) Col. in. 16. (2) Eph. v. 19. 
 
NO SECOND COLLECTION 
 
 Christ and his Apostles. The Hebrew word. 
 Tehillim, by which also it is distinguished, is more 
 correctly translated "Hymns" And from the 
 character of the book, every one must at once per- 
 ceive with what propriety it may be entitled 
 • ; Spiritual Songs." Brown, in his dictionary, un- 
 der the word psalm, thus writes : " When Psalms. 
 Hymns, and Spiritual Songs are mentioned together, 
 psalms may denote such as were sung on instru- 
 ments ; hymns, such as contain only matter of 
 praise; and spiritual songs, such as contain doc- 
 trines, history, and prophecy for men's instruction." 
 The distinction is deduced from the original names 
 applied to different divine poems, and is sanctioned 
 by the general voice of expositors. There is no 
 reason, however, constraining us to adopt the 
 opinion that there are, in the inspired collection, 
 pieces to which one or other of these denomina- 
 tions 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 character 
 present to our mind, it may be necessary to make 
 choice of one rather than another of the three 
 designations used with reference to inspired poeti- 
 cal 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 
 hynrns or sjnritual songs; no part to which the 
 title hymns belongs so exclusively that it may not 
 
OF INSPIRED SONGS. SI 
 
 be called psalms or spiritual songs ; no part to 
 which the title spiritual songs belongs so exclu- 
 sively that it may not be called psalms or hymns. 
 The songs of Zion will be called by all these names 
 mentioned by the Apostle, according to the light 
 in which they are viewed. They are all Psalms, 
 as having been occasionally 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 com- 
 posed 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 anions; men, 
 there is nothing more common in Scripture, thai: 
 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 ate • 
 the Word of God, the Scriptures, and the lively 
 oracles of God. The ministers of Christ are a!>« 
 -called Ambassadors, Bishops, Stewards, Elders, Pfite- 
 tors, Teachers, Shepherds. The writer of the 119th 
 Psalm calls the Scriptures, to which he had access, 
 the Law of the Lord, his testimonies, precepts, 
 statutes, commandments, judgments, word. 1 lo- 
 calise we more frequently apply the term ScripfMir* 
 to denote the revelation which God has made to 
 man, who would from that conclude that the word 
 
82 NO SECOND COLLECTION 
 
 of God, and the lively oracles of God, are books 
 distinct from the Scripture ? Because we almost 
 exclusively apply 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, &c, are orders of 
 men distinct from the ministers of reconciliation 
 and from one another? Because the Saviour has 
 adopted the style of the Jew, and used the term 
 law to denote the Pentateuch, who would conclude 
 that the testimonies of God, his precepts, judgments, 
 ward, are works totally distinct from the Books of 
 Moses? There is just one class of men capable of 
 drawing such a conclusion — those who can infer 
 from the phraseology which Paul employs in the 
 epistles to the Ephesians and Colossians, that Hymns 
 and Spiritual Songs must be different from the 
 Psalms of David. 
 
 If to the preceding reasoning it should be ob- 
 jected that, though different names are appropri- 
 ated 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 ex- 
 hibit 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 
 employed to point out the same thing in its various 
 aspects, in the same manner that the Apostle 
 applies the terms Psalms, Hymns and Spiritual 
 Songs, to denote one collection of inspired odes 
 
OF INSPIRED SONGS. 83 
 
 under different views. When David says (1): 
 " Give unto Solomon my son a perfect heart, to 
 keep thy commandments, thy testimonies, and thy 
 statutes" how shall we explain the commandments 
 of the Lord, that the matter of them and the form 
 of them, may appear 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 
 distinguished from the commandments? and the 
 statutes as they are distinguished from both ? Is 
 there a man w T ho can show that either with respect 
 to their matter or their form, they are not identi- 
 cal ? " Let a man so account of us," says Paul, (2) 
 i4 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 t 
 the other stewards ? or have we not here two views 
 of the same character ? " I exhort, therefore, that, 
 first of all, supplications, prayers, intercessions, 
 and giving of thanks be made for all men." (3) 
 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 may pray 
 without making supplication and intercession : how 
 intercede, without making prayer and supplication. 
 Till I have been ta ight this curious lesson, I must 
 be excused for thinking thai Christians may fulfil 
 the apostolic injunction, •;;:: ling with grace, 
 
 (1) 1 Chron. xxix, 19. (I) 1 ft 1 Tim. ii. 1. 
 
84 NO SECOND COLLECTION 
 
 in psalms and hymns, and spiritual songs," who 
 always use the Psalms of David. 
 
 Perhaps some may think that an easier explana^ 
 tion 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 Testament, called 
 the Septuagint, from which he quotes frequently, 
 even when the reading differs from the received 
 Hebrew text, and which would naturally be put 
 into the hands of the primitive Christians, speak- 
 ing 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 authority, and to some of the 
 psalms no titles are prefixed. 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 Colosse, 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 tw r o Hebrew w r ords, which 
 signify " Praise ye the Lord," and identifies the 
 poem to w T hich it is prefixed with that of which 
 the Greek term Ilymnos (Hymn) is the proper 
 specific title. Of the titled psalms the greater 
 number have the first of the three titles men- 
 tioned, twenty-seven have the second, and eighteen 
 the third. Granting, then, that the appropriate 
 Greek title of the eighteen psalms of praise is 
 Ily/rvnoi (Hymns), Paul, by directing the churches 
 
OF INSPIRED SOXGS. 85 
 
 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. (1) 
 
 From what has been said, it must appear pretty 
 evident that, whilst the New Testament supplies 
 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 included 
 in the Psalms of David. 
 
 (1) Note K. 
 
CHAPTEE Y. 
 
 Modern Hymns and Songs. 
 
 It is with extreme embarrassment that I approach 
 the consideration of the claims of modern poetical 
 compositions, written for the use of the church and 
 introduced into her sendees. In impugning their 
 inspiration, we are contending against an adversary 
 who has a substantive existence, and yet his exist- 
 ence is denied. The whole difficulty involved in 
 the discussion, is traceable to a confusion of idea? 
 that attaches to those who write, as well as to those 
 who use hymns or songs written, for the public or 
 social services of the professed followers of Christ, 
 without professing to claim for such compositions 
 a place among inspired writings. 
 
 Some of our religious Poets, and those whose 
 works are most extensively used, claim little, if 
 anything less, than inspiration for themselves. 
 The expressions occasionally used would, as we 
 shall have occasion to notice, warrant the conclu- 
 sion that they considered themselves entitled to 
 stand upon a more elevated position than some of 
 the inspired writers. As this may be judged too 
 severe a charge to bring against our admired Poets, 
 
MODEKN HYMNS. 
 
 let an appeal to their own language decide the 
 question of their just claims, or unwarrantable 
 assumption. 
 
 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 sup- 
 plied in the writings of the New Testament, and 
 with this advantage I have composed these spiritual 
 songs which are now presented to the w r orld. Nor 
 is the attempt vainglorious or presuming; for in 
 respect of clear evangelical knowledge, the least 
 in the kingdom of heaven is greater than all the 
 Jewish prophets." Here there is plainly a con- 
 founding of that illumination which begins in the 
 new birth with inspiration. If the latter part of 
 the statement mean anything in relation to the 
 composition of spiritual songs, it means that him- 
 self, though the least in the kingdom of God, being 
 greater than all the Jewish prophets, and, of course, 
 than David, is better qualified than he was to com- 
 pose songs for standing use in the church, and im- 
 plies either that the Psalmist, though the spirit 
 spake by him, might err, or himself was raised 
 above the possibility of error. The Apostles only 
 laired 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 
 liigher place than the prophets. 
 
 The superiority which the gentle Watts assumes 
 
MODERN HYMNS. M 
 
 in the presence of the sweet Psalmist is thus 
 animadverted on by Reid, in his " Observations 
 and Remarks on Dr. Watts' Preface to his Book of 
 Psalms and Hymns r — " It may be proper to 
 notice the insulting manner in which the Doctor 
 treats David, in his imitation of the 119th Psalm, 
 and in the note which he sets before it. He says: 
 *I have collected and disposed the most useful 
 verses of this psalm under eighteen different heads. 
 and formed a divine song upon each of them. But 
 the verses are much transposed to attain some de- 
 gree of connection.' This psalm, as it stands in 
 the original Hebrew, is one of the most artful 
 and elegant, and perhaps one of the most labored, 
 compositions that ever appeared in any language. 
 It is divided into twenty-two parts, and each part 
 contains ei^ht stanzas or verses, which begin with 
 the same letter of the Hebrew alphabet. It was 
 probably composed when the Psalmist was far 
 advanced in years, and matured in divine know- 
 ledge and wisdom, for it contains lessons of practi- 
 cal religion which have not only never been 
 equalled by the pen of man, but are, in fact, the 
 sum and substance of all true religion, as it exists 
 in the heart and experience of the aged Christian. 
 The man who has spent a long life in the study of 
 the Scriptures and the practice of Christianity, will 
 here find, day by day, new lessons of spiritual wis- 
 dom to regulate his heart and affections. Men 
 possessed of the most exalted talents — men the 
 most highly endowed with every Christian virtue — 
 
90 MODERN HYMNS. 
 
 have not been ashamed to read, and study and 
 meditate upon this psalm to the end of their lives, 
 and confess that they always found something in it 
 new and delightful. But Doctor W. treats it as a 
 piece of crude composition, deficient in connection 
 and precision, and as if some of it were useless or 
 unintelligible to the Christian church, and, there- 
 fore, not fit to be sung in the praises of God. In 
 order 'to attain some degree of connection,' he has 
 mangled, and torn, and dislocated, almost every 
 joint of this divine composition. We talk of a 
 language being murdered, when the writer or 
 speaker uses the words of it in a manner which is 
 highly improper. But Doctor W. has committed 
 murder in a much more criminal sense, for he has 
 torn this psalm limb from limb, and put it together 
 in such a bungling manner that not only its beauty 
 and elegance, but the very sense of it, is in a great 
 measure lost. He has the vanity and presumption 
 to say, that l he has collected and disposed the 
 most useful verses of it under eighteen different 
 heads, and formed a divine song upon each of 
 them.' Some of the verses he considered as use- 
 less, and threw them aside ; and the rest he altered 
 and arranged according to his own fancy, and this 
 he calls 'forming a divine song upon each of 
 them: " (1) 
 
 Wesley says, in his preface to the Hymns for 
 Methodists: " It is large enough to contain all the 
 important truths of our holy religion, whether 
 
 (1) Pp. 21—22. 
 
MODERN HYMNS. 91 
 
 speculative or practical : yea, to illustrate them all 
 and to prove them all, both by Scripture and 
 reason. And this is done in regular 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 thereof with all freedom and 
 unreserve. To these I may say without offence : 
 First, In those hymns there is no doggerel, no 
 botches — nothing put in to patch up the rhyme — 
 no feeble expletives ; second, Here is nothing tur- 
 gid or bombast on the one hand, or low and creep- 
 ing on the other ; third, There are no cant expres- 
 sions — no words without 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 ; fourth, 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 to mend them, for they are 
 really not able. None of them is able to mend 
 either the sense or the verse." Nothing more can 
 be claimed for the writings of the Holy Ghost. 
 There is neither error nor defect in the matter, and 
 there is no defect in the form. The author of some 
 of the hymns, and the selector of the rest, has pro- 
 nounced the book perfect, admitting of no im- 
 provement — more perfect than the Bible. Be 
 patient, reader. I have not made a statement 
 without thought. If I have thought incorrectly. 
 
92 MODEEX HYMNS. 
 
 point out the error. This collection contains only 
 the important, but " all the important truths of our 
 most holy religion, whether speculative or practi- 
 cal." Where are the unimportant truths of our 
 holy religion to be found? Doctrines not taught 
 in Scripture are not doctrines of our holy religion 
 at all, but unholy traditions of vain man. The 
 unimportant truths 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 regret the loss of the 
 Scriptures. It would form an excellent and ade- 
 quate substitute, while the minds of the weak 
 would be freed from the difficult exercise of sepa- 
 rating between the important and the unimportant 
 truths, and furnished with the proofs which reason 
 supplies of the doctrines 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 redundancy in the hymns of John Wesley ! 
 
 The original and grand source of the error in 
 holding modern poetical compositions to be in- 
 spired, 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 illumination. 
 To set aside the claims of modern poets to inspira- 
 tion, it is only necessary to bring them to the test 
 of the principles enumerated in the first Chapter. 
 From that Chapter, it appears that every inspired 
 
MODERX HYMNS. 93 
 
 writing having God for its author, is free from 
 emer, defect or redundancy, and authoritative in 
 the determination of all questions contemplated by 
 '4, and in demanding the unqualified 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 longer 
 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 estima- 
 tion 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 names, 
 as divines, are honored, because associated with 
 sincere piety; and their works, in a theological 
 point of view, derive their value from being 
 founded on the word of God. We can only re- 
 ceive them upon comparison with the word of 
 God, and a discovery of the identity of the doc- 
 trines which they teach with the doctrines of Scrip- 
 ture. The very examination and trial of their 
 writings by the lively oracles of God, implies the 
 conviction that possibly there may be found in 
 them deviations from the inspired standard. Is 
 
94 MODEEN HYMNS. 
 
 there one who does not perceive that the moment 
 he admits the inspiration of their works, or the 
 works of any one of them, lie renounces all right 
 to examine them, and to compare them with the 
 Scriptures, to ascertain their correctness ? He is 
 forthwith bound to receive every statement with- 
 out question, without reply. They become , a 
 standard of truth and duty. "We do not consider 
 ourselves at liberty to inquire whether anything 
 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 word of inspiration. Now all portions 
 of inspired writing have equal authority. To ques- 
 tion the correctness of any proposition of an in- 
 spired book, is to question the truth of God. 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 per- 
 fect, and perfectly adapted to its end; in which 
 there will not be found one superfluous proposition 
 or illustration, one mere conjecture, 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 
 
MODERN HYMNS. 95 
 
 a religious nature ; from which the individual 
 who dissents is guilty of rejecting the truth and 
 denying the authority of God?" 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. Although the use of the poetical 
 writings of Newton, of Watts, or of Wesley, and 
 the vindication of the propriety of introducing 
 them into the house of God as the matter of praise, 
 does not imply the assertion of their inspiration, 
 yet it has led to a prevailing indistinctness of appre- 
 hension upon the subject of inspiration in general, 
 and involves those who use, and vindicate the use of 
 uninspired compositions, in a fearful responsibility. 
 
 The third fact is, I consider, proved, that no 
 book or books, subsequent to the Psalms of David, 
 have been given by inspiration of the Holy Ghost, 
 to constitute the matter of the churches 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 dispensation. 
 
 A second collection of songs, dictated by the 
 Spirit, must be unnecessary for one of three rea- 
 sons : — Either believers are not required to praise 
 
96 MODERN HYMNS. 
 
 God in a song under the New Testament dispensa- 
 tion, or the superior advantages of later times 
 enable Christians, or Christian ministers, to write, 
 without the special aid of inspiration, with an 
 accuracy, a propriety and a precision, which the 
 Old Prophet required the aid of inspiration to ex- 
 hibit ; 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 super- 
 seded by any others. 
 
 1st. Shall we suppose that believers are not re- 
 quired to praise God in the use of songs under the 
 Xew Testament dispensation ? Is this the reason 
 that God has not supplied us with psalms and 
 gongs, specially designed for the members of Christ 
 in the last days of the world ? It has been shown 
 in the introduction, from the example of Christ and 
 his Apostles, and from inspired precept, that the 
 church is still required to sing praise — that it con- 
 stitutes a permanent part of instituted worship. 
 Perhaps 
 
 2d. 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 incar- 
 nation of the Son of God. From the manner in 
 which Dr. "Watts has introduced the words of bur 
 Lord concerning John the Baptist, he would seem 
 to have thought they implied as much. u Verily 
 
MODERN HYMNS. 97 
 
 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." (1) 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 accu- 
 racy — to unerring 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, or less liable to 
 misconstruction, than the application of the term 
 greater ', when not an inherent, but a relative, not a 
 personal, but an official, superiority is intended. 
 ; ' Only in the throne will I be greater than thou," 
 says Pharaoh to Joseph, when, it can scarcely be 
 doubted, he considered his servant, in point of in- 
 tellectual strength and wisdom, his superior. 
 " This man, Mordecai, waxed greater and greater" 
 we read, when there is simply a reference to the 
 office he filled and the extent of his reputation. 
 41 Whether is greater, he that sitteth 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 
 
 (1) Math. xi. 11. 
 
98 MODERN HYMNS. 
 
 his master. Because, according to the terms of 
 the covenant of redemption, 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 fellovj, as he is 
 styled in Zechariah. 
 
 John is introduced to notice, not in his personal, 
 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 (1) : " Among those that are born of women, 
 there is not a greater prophet than John the Bap- 
 tist : but he that is (the) least (prophet) in the king- 
 dom 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 ungodli- 
 ness from Jacob, John occupies the distinguished 
 place of his Forerunner, to prepare the way for 
 him, proclaim his immediate approach, and point 
 him out. This is the reason our Lord assigns for 
 describing him, as more than a prophet. " What 
 went ye out for to see ? A prophet : yea, I say 
 unto you, and more than a prophet. For this is he 
 of whom it is written, Behold, 1 send my messenger 
 
 (1) Luke Yii. 28. 
 
MODERN HYMNS. 9? 
 
 before thy face, which shall prepare thy way be- 
 fore thee." How is the least prophet in the king- 
 dom 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 he turned unto his dis- 
 ciples, 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." (1) 
 
 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 glory, much more 
 doth the ministration of righteousness , exceed in 
 glory. For even that which was made glorious had 
 no glory in this respect, by reason of the glory that 
 excelleth." (2) The shadows have fled away. The 
 mysteries, which were seen dimly through types 
 and figures, are discovered before the New Testa- 
 ment 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 
 
 (t) Luke x. 24, (2) 2 Cor. iii. 9, 10. 
 
100 MODEKN HYMNS. 
 
 of the benefits of redemption, " which in other 
 ages was not made known unto the sons of men, 
 as it is now revealed 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 salva- 
 tion, 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 diligently, 
 who prophesied of the grace that should come unto 
 you: searching what, and what manner of time 
 the spirit of Christ which was in them did signify, 
 when it testified beforehand the sufferings of 
 Christ, and the glory that should follow." He 
 occupies a place in which he has greater advan- 
 tages for the investigation of prophecy, than the 
 prophets who uttered the predictions. 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 reli- 
 gious subjects, has advantages greater than pro- 
 phets, (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 eyes are 
 closed. " This is the condemnation, that light is 
 come into the world, and men loved darkness 
 rather than light, because their deeds were evil." 
 
MODERN HYMNS. 101 
 
 However abundant the means of knowledge, even 
 with the understanding awake to their importance 
 and the manner of using them, our knowledge ac- 
 quired in the use of means is necessarily 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 igno- 
 rance to perfection. The Hebrew Christians, to 
 whom Paul writes, as we, belonged to the kingdom 
 of God, and yet he addressed them thus : " "When 
 for the time ye ought to be teachers, ye have need 
 that one teach you again which be the first 'princi- 
 ples of the oracles of God." (1) They were igno- 
 rant of the first 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, however, 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 quali- 
 fied at all. The superiority, therefore, of the chil- 
 dren of God's kingdom must consist in something 
 which does not necessarily 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 : " From a pure heart, and a good con- 
 en Heb. v. 12. 
 
102 MODERN HYMNS. 
 
 science, 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) And are 
 there not many still ignorant of the first principles 
 of the oracles of God within the church ? And are 
 there not 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 revela- 
 tion, and still not be qualified to write with an 
 accuracy ensuring the faithful communication of 
 what they know. Men who have obtained a libe- 
 ral education, it will be said, are qualified. But a 
 liberal education constitutes no part of that supe- 
 riority which is predicated of those w T ho belong to 
 the Kingdom of God. All Christians 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 
 talents, education, piety never questioned, have 
 produced of being able to come into competition 
 Avith 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 it- 
 self. The word of inspiration, therefore, never can 
 contradict itself. No contradiction accordingly is 
 to be found among inspired writers from Moses to 
 
 (1) 1 Tim. i. fi, 7. 
 
MODERN HYMNS. 103 
 
 John. They all "speak the same thing" How 
 much contradiction among theological writers — 
 among icriters of hymns — among men whose 
 sacred songs are used as the matter of praise ! How 
 much opposition among professors, and ministers 
 (so called and so received) of Christ, while all pro- 
 fess to derive their knowledge from the same 
 source, and that affording no ground of division, 
 because it is one ! Upon every doctrine of revela- 
 tion, upon the most prominent, there has been and 
 is diversity of views. This is a bad argument of 
 ability to write with as much propriety and accu- 
 racy as Prophets — to supply an adequate substitute 
 for the spiritual songs given by inspiration. With 
 this fact before his eyes, the man who would place 
 an uninspired 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 
 Maine facilities for acquiring information upon reli- 
 gious subjects, how shall we select the man whose 
 accuracy is complete ? We cannot. We must 
 receive 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 treat- 
 ment 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, it 
 one individual be found wandering into the mazefl 
 
104 MODERN HYMNS. 
 
 of error, in the enjoyment of all the advantages 
 common to Christians, we can no longer consider 
 those advantages a security against error and devi- 
 ation in any. (1) 
 
 If the superior advantages of the Christian dis- 
 pensation do not qualify men to write with in- 
 fallible accuracy — accuracy equal to that of inspi- 
 ration — we must still look for another reason w T hy 
 an inspired collection of Songs, in addition to the 
 one with which the church has been presented, or 
 designed to supersede its use, is not necessary. 
 Perhaps 
 
 3d. The Old Testament Psalms are sufficient for 
 the church still, and adapted to her present state. 
 This brings us forward to the examination of the 
 fourth and last fact upon which our argument 
 rests, and the consideration of which shall form the 
 subject of another chapter. 
 
 (1) Note L. 
 
CHAPTER VI. 
 
 Are the Psalms of David adapted to the State of 
 the Church wider 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 be given by inspiration, remains to be 
 pointed out. It is found in the fourth fact, from 
 which we argue in favor of the exclusive use of 
 the " Songs of Zion" in the celebration of praise. 
 
 The Booh of Psalms is no less adapted to our 
 situation and times than it was to the situation of 
 Israelites, and the times of their national existence. 
 
 This fact will be admitted by every one who is 
 acquainted with the Book — not by those who are 
 acquainted merely with what has been said re- 
 specting it, or respecting a metrical translation of 
 it, with which it has been foolishly confounded, (1) 
 but with the hook itself '; not by those who know 
 only a few verses, detached by prejudice or im- 
 piety to produce an impression unfavorable to its 
 introduction into, or its continuance in its proper 
 place, but who know the whole book ; not by those 
 
 (1) Note M. 
 
106 PERPETUAL ADAPTATION 
 
 who understand its language as it lias often been 
 interpreted by man, (and, indeed, they, if consistent, 
 should deny that it ever became the lips of a wor- 
 shipper of a God of love,) but w T ho receive it as it 
 is interpreted by him by whom it was dictated. 
 "Numberless," says Gray, "are the testimonies 
 that might be produced in praise of these admirable 
 compositions, which contain, indeed, a complete 
 epitome of the history, doctrines, and instructions 
 of the Old Testament, delivered with every variety 
 of style that can encourage attention, and framed 
 with an elegance of construction superior far to the 
 finest models in which Pagan antiquity hath in- 
 closed its mythology. These invaluable hymns 
 are daily repeated without weariness, though their 
 beauties are often overlooked in familiar and habi- 
 tual perusal. As hymns immediately addressed to 
 the Deity, they reduce righteousness to practice, 
 and while we acquire the sentiments, we perform 
 the offices of piety." " They present 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 history is made the vehicle 
 of prophecy, and creation lends all its charms to 
 paint the glories of redemption." And Watts him- 
 self, with a remarkable, but most happy contradic- 
 tion, proclaims the Book of Psalms "the most 
 noble, most devotional, and divine collection of 
 poesy :" that there " never was a piece of experi- 
 mental divinity so nobly written, and so justly 
 
of david's psalms. 107 
 
 reverenced and admired." Let us now inquire 
 whether we have not good reasons for appropriat- 
 ing these compositions, so highly extolled, and so 
 justly, to our own use, and whether there be any 
 want of adaptation in them to our circumstances, 
 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 Booh of 
 Psalms. 
 
 The Psalms exhibit him, in his person, character, 
 offices, and work. The assertion is not conjectural : 
 it is not supported by any fanciful interpretation 
 of the Psalms, not by fallible authority, but by an 
 inspired application of inspired language. When 
 the Apostle of the Gentiles would teach the He- 
 brews the superiority of Christ to all angels — that 
 he is ft God over all, blessed for ever," 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 sup- 
 posed that the seventh is from the same book. To 
 show the necessary subserviency of the incarnation 
 of Christ to the work of redemption, he refers to 
 the Book of Psalms, in three cases out of four. (1) 
 To prove the paramount claim of Messiah, as a 
 
 (1) Heb. i., ii. 
 
108 PERPETUAL ADAPTATION 
 
 prophet and legislator, in comparison with Moses 
 himself, Paul adduces the Psalms. (1) When he 
 would show the divine origin, the dignity, the 
 efficiency, the permanence of the priesthood of 
 Christ, its superiority, in both sacrifice and inter- 
 cession, to the Aaronic, he turns to the Psalms. (2) 
 When he brings forward the doctrine of his ascen- 
 sion to the right hand of the Father, and his inves- 
 titure with universal authority, he shows that the 
 same is taught in the Book of Psalms. (3) The 
 mission of the Apostles and their successors, and 
 the promulgation 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. (" 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 tilings.) 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." (4) Again we read : "There- 
 fore will I give thanks unto thee, O Lord, among 
 the heathen, and sing praises unto thy name. O 
 
 (1) Heb. Hi. iv. 1—13. (3) Rom. xv. 25—28 ; Heb. ii. 8, 9. 
 
 (2) Heb. iv., v. (4) Eph. iv. 9—13. 
 
of david's psalms. 109 
 
 praise the Lord, all ye nations : praise him, all ye 
 people." These words are thus applied : " Now I 
 say that Jesus Christ was a minister of the circum- 
 cision for the truth of God, to confirm the promises 
 made unto the fathers : and that the Gentiles might 
 glorify God for his mercy:" as it is written, 
 " For this cause, I will confess to thee among the 
 Gentiles, and sing unto thy name. And again, 
 praise the Lord all ye Gentiles, and laud him all ye 
 people." (1) 
 
 The history of the leading particulars of the life 
 of Immanuel is anticipated in the Psalms. It is a 
 small matter that many see nothing in them except 
 the history of David's or of Asaph's life and expe- 
 rience, w T hen holy Apostles saw, and have dis- 
 covered to us by the Spirit, that the Lord our 
 righteousness is a much more prominent object 
 than the sons of Jesse and Berachiah. 
 
 The following particulars are selected from those 
 which are taught in the Psalms of David : 
 
 1st. The rejection of Christ by the Jewish doc- 
 tors. "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 applica- 
 tion of these words is made by Jesus himself, and 
 twice by Peter. Compare Matt. xxi. 42 : Acts iv. 
 11 : 1 Pet. ii. 7—8, with Ps. cxviii. 22—23. 
 
 2d. The circumstances of his public entrance 
 into Jerusalem are declared in the spirit of pro- 
 phecy. " Out of the mouths of babes and suck- 
 
 (l)Rom. xv. 8,9, 11. 
 
110 PERPETUAL ADAPTATION 
 
 lings hast thou ordained strength, because of thine 
 enemies, that thou mightest still the enemy and 
 the avenger." 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 strewing branches, 
 all proclaiming, "Hosanna to the Son of David: 
 blessed is he that cometh in the name of the Lord : 
 Hosanna in the highest:" and he displays his 
 authority as a Son over his own house by turning 
 them out of the temple that had converted his 
 Father's residence into a place of merchandise. 
 u And when the chief priests and scribes saw the 
 wonderful things that he did, and the children 
 crying in the temple, and saying, Hosanna to the 
 Son of David; they were sore displeased, and said 
 unto him, Hearest thou what they 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 avenger is stilled. Com- 
 pare Ps. viii. 2, with Matt. xxi. 5 — 16. 
 
 3d. In the Psalms the combination of all nations 
 against the Saviour is revealed. "The kings of 
 the earth set themselves, and the rulers take coun- 
 sel together, against the Lord and against his 
 anointed, saying, Let us break their bands asunder 
 and cast away their cords from us." And we learn 
 the view r s of the disciples respecting the passage 
 from the following words: " For of a truth against 
 thy holy child Jesus, whom thou hast anointed, 
 
of david's psalms. Ill 
 
 both Herod and Pontius Pilate, with the Gentiles 
 and the people of Israel, were gathered together, 
 for to do whatsoever thy hand and thy counsel de- 
 termined before to be done. Ps. ii. 2 — 3, compared 
 with Acts iv. 26—28. 
 
 4th. 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 be- 
 fore us in the Book of Psahns. " They part my 
 garments among them, and cast lots upon my ves- 
 ture." How literally was this verified in the man 
 of Is azareth ! So literal was the accomplishment, 
 that no man can doubt that Messiah speaks 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 soldiers, when they 
 had crucified Jesus, took his garments and made 
 four parts, to every soldier a part ; and also his 
 coat : now the coat was without seam, woven from 
 the top throughout. They said, therefore, among 
 themselves, let us not rend it but cast lots for it, 
 whose it shall be : that the Scripture might be 
 fulfilled, which saith, they parted my raiment 
 among them, and for my vesture they did cast 
 lots."U) 
 
 5th. The Jews read and sung in the Psalms the 
 Saviours pathetic expression of his sense of deser- 
 tion, 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, 
 
 (1) Jno. xix. 23, 34. 
 
112 PERPETUAL ADAPTATION 
 
 my God, why hast thou forsaken me ? Into 
 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 person 
 and work, the trials and triumphs of the Captain 
 of salvation, should recommend a collection of 
 songs to the attention of Christians — if it argue 
 their adaptation to the Christian church, as the 
 matter of her praise, that recommendation belongs 
 to the Book of Psalms in a preeminent degree. 
 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 feature of the 
 Songs of Zion. The peculiarities of those Songs 
 are the peculiarities of the everlasting 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 point- 
 ing out the Kedeemer, brought forth directly or 
 indirectly in almost all, (which would be tedious, 
 though not otherwise difficult,) we shall take the 
 more expeditious, and perhaps more profitable 
 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 
 
118 
 
 Apostles, Peter and Paul: it is one which they 
 united in employing in the interpretation of the 
 language of the Psalms : it is one which, by con- 
 sequence, is sanctioned by the Spirit. It is the 
 Spirit's rule for the legitimate 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 writer 
 when the first person is used, nor of the apparent 
 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, i> 
 the speaker ; in the latter, that he is addressed or 
 spoken of. 
 
 Consider how the Apostles apply this rule, with 
 the utmost harmony. Turn to the sixteenth Psalm. 
 ;i I will bless the Lord who hath given me counsel : 
 my reins also instruct me in the night seasons. I 
 have set the Lord always before me ; because Le 
 is at my right hand, I shall not be moved. There- 
 fore, 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 suffer 
 thine holy one to see corruption. Thou wilt show 
 me the path of life : in thy presence is fulness ot 
 joy : at thy right hand there are pleasures for eve r 
 more." The words which have been read, Peter 
 repeats in his address to the mixed multitude which 
 had congregated together, attracted by the mi . 
 culous events of the day of Pentecost, and proceed 
 to reason upon them in the following strain : " Men 
 
114 PERPETUAL ADAPTATION 
 
 and brethren, 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. There- 
 fore 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 would 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 corrup- 
 tion." (1) When we read the Psalm, we might be 
 ready to suppose David the speaker, declaring his 
 own resolution, and confidence and joy. " _/ have 
 set the Lord always before me, — He is at my right 
 hand — therefore my heart is glad." This Peter evi- 
 dently takes for granted. But presently we meet 
 with a declaration, upon which he fixes the atten- 
 tion of his audience, which cannot be explained 
 of David or any other human person. " Thou wilt 
 not leave my soul in hell ; neither wilt thou suffer 
 thine holy one to see corruption." Here we are at 
 a stand. David disappears. The Apostle puts his 
 hearers in mind that David is dead and buried, that 
 his sepulchre 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 organ 
 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. 
 
 (1) Acta ii. 29—31. 
 
115 
 
 Paul adopts the same rule of interpretation. He 
 quotes a part of the eighth Psalm : "But one in a 
 certain place testified, saying, 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 honour, 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 Psalmist designs merely to set 
 forth the sovereignty and honour, conferred upon 
 man by his Creator, in appointing him Lord of this 
 lower world, the Apostle 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. 
 4i 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 open to the observation of all ? Are 
 all things, without exception, in this world, under 
 man's feet ? Do all obey him ? Every one is ready 
 to answer, " Far from it." A very small proportion 
 of the beasts of the field, or of the fowls of the air, 
 or of the fish of the sea, is subject to his control. 
 Many of them are objects calculated to inspire, and 
 inspiring terror into his heart : 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, his power is still confined within 
 
116 PERPETUAL ADAPTATION 
 
 very narrow limits. " But now we see not yet all 
 things put under him ? Of whom then does the 
 penman speak in the eighth Psalm ? Of mere man 
 plainly he is not speaking, or the testimony is false 
 which he brings. Paul teaches us that it is of the 
 "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 are true, in the most absolute sense of them. 
 * ; We see Jesus, who was made a little lower than 
 the angels, for the suffering of death, crowned with 
 glory and honour ; that he by the grace of God 
 should taste death for every man." (1) 
 
 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 in- 
 terpret 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 determined is, whether David be in- 
 tended by the King, who is said to be set upon the 
 Holy Hill of Zion, and Solomon 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 heathen for thine inheritance, and the 
 uttermost parts of the earth for thy possession. 
 Thou shalt break them with a rod of iron, thou 
 
 (1) Heb. ii. €— 8. 
 
of david's psalms. 117 
 
 shalt dash them in pieces like a potter's vessel/' 
 Was this realized in David ? or in Solomon ? No. 
 Consequently we look for their fulfilment in Christ, 
 the Father's Anointed. — See the eighteenth Psalm. 
 u The assembly of the wicked have inclosed 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 offering 
 thou didst not desire ; burnt offering and sin offer- 
 ing hast thou not required." Were no sacrifices, 
 according to the ceremonial law, required 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 honourable. 
 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 collection 
 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 vain. To 
 expect another exhibiting him with unerring cor- 
 rectness would be even more vain, if possible. 
 
 So thought Bishop Horsely. His words, as cited 
 by II. Home, (1) are, " Of those (Psalms) which 
 allude to the life of David, there are none in which 
 
 (1) Int. vol. 4, p. 97, 113. 
 
118 PERPETUAL ADAPTATION 
 
 the Son of David is not the principal and immedi- 
 ate subject. David's complaints against his enemies 
 are Messiah's complaints, first of the unbelieving 
 Jews, then of the Heathen persecutors and of the 
 apostate faction in later ages. David's afflictions 
 are Messiah's sufferings. David's penitential sup- 
 plications are Messiah's, 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, 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 suf- 
 ferings just as he felt them, and his own escape* 
 just as they happened. But the Spirit of Jehovah 
 described, by David's utterance, what was known 
 to that Spirit only, and that Spirit only could 
 describe. So that, if David be allowed to have 
 any knowledge of the true subject of his own com- 
 positions, it was nothing in his own life, but some- 
 thing put into his mind by the Holy Spirit of God : 
 and the misapplication of the Psalms to the literal 
 David has done more mischief, than the misappli- 
 cation of any other parts of the Scripture, among 
 those who profess the belief of the Christian 
 Religion." 
 
of david's psalms. 119 
 
 section ii. 
 
 In the Psalms more especially, there is a most happy adaptation 
 of the language to the state of the church. 
 
 While the phraseology was truly appropriate in 
 the lips of those who lived before the incarnation 
 of the Son of God, it has lost none of its propriety 
 in the lips of believers to whom that event is mat- 
 ter of history. This is a feature of the Psalms, 
 though not exclusive, yet more prominent, which 
 has too often been overlooked. It has very fre- 
 quently 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 himself, in predictions 
 not verified by the event, in their worship, were 
 regulated by the precepts of a ceremonial law, soon 
 to be abrogated, and subjected to local and tem- 
 porary restrictions, must be inappropriate among 
 those who look to a Saviour who has already come, 
 and " by one sacrifice forever perfected them that 
 are sanctified," to whom prediction has put on the 
 garb of history, before whose eyes the shadows have 
 passed away, and who worship God in every place 
 with equal acceptance. But have they who think 
 that this must be obvious from the very nature of 
 things, examined with care the mode of expression 
 which the Spirit has employed in the Psalms ? Are 
 we required, in using them, to celebrate the per- 
 sonal and official glories of a Saviour, us yet to 
 come? to sing predictions, already verified by their 
 accomplishment, in terms which imply that their 
 
120 PERPETUAL ADAPTATION 
 
 fulfilment is still an object of hope ? to employ lan- 
 guage 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 ten- 
 dering 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 follow- 
 ing particulars. 
 
 1. The inefficacy 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 faith which is the 
 " substance of things hoped for, and the evidence of 
 tilings not seen," the inspired writer anticipates the 
 period to which his hopes are directed, 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 had promised, 
 aft if it were already realised ; 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 
 motith of a Christian than of a Jew. Take the fol- 
 lowing examples. "Sacrifice and offering thou 
 didst not desire; mine ears hast thou opened: burnt 
 offering and sin offering hast thou not required."(l) 
 Those are the words of Christ, according to the tes- 
 timony of Paul ; but that he speaks in the name of 
 hfe people, as well as in his own, appears from the 
 
 (1) Ps. xl. & 
 
of david's psalms. 121 
 
 preceding verse. " Many, O Lord my God, are 
 thy wonderful works which thou hast done, and thy 
 thoughts which are to w-ward." Again, " I will 
 not reprove thee for thy sacrifices or thy burnt 
 offerings, to have been continually before me. 1 
 will take no bullock out of thy house, nor he-goats 
 out of thy folds. For every beast of the forest is 
 mine, and the cattle upon a thousand hills. I know 
 all the fowls of the mountains ; and the wild beasts 
 of the field are mine. If I were hunorv, 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 glorify me. ? '(l) And in the subsequent 
 verses of the Psalm, when God calls the open con- 
 temner 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. Con- 
 trast the preceding passage with the words of Ma- 
 lachi, (2 ) — " Ye offer polluted bread upon mine 
 altar: and ye say, wherein have we polluted thee I 
 And if ye offer the blind for sacrifice, is it not evil ( 
 and if ye offer the lame and sick, is it not evil I 
 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." (3 ) If Christians were required, 
 
 (1) Ps. 1. 6-15. (f) Mai. I. 7, 8. (8) Mai. iii. S. 
 
122 
 
 PERPETUAL ADAPTATION 
 
 in using the Psalms, to employ such terms, plainly 
 implying the continued obligation of ceremonies, it 
 would be at once conceded that they are inappro- 
 priate. Once more : " For thou desirest not sacri- 
 lice ; else would I give it : thou delightest not in 
 burnt offering." (1) What! Was no sacrifice or 
 offering, according to the law, required of David ? 
 Assuredly the ceremonial law was obligatory upon 
 him, and he observed it. But he knew that legal 
 sacrifices only served for the purifying of the flesh, 
 and that a better sacrifice was wanted to expiate 
 the guilt of the soul. Besides, directed by the 
 Spirit, he adopts language which faith warrants, 
 and the subjects of it in the last age may appropri- 
 ate. One other quotation and I have done. " I 
 will praise the name of God with a song, and will 
 magnify him with thanksgiving. This also shall 
 please the Lord better than an ox, or bullock, that 
 hath horns and hoofs." (2) 
 
 It must be admitted, and it is admitted most wil- 
 lingly, that allusions to ceremonial acts of worship, 
 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 adop- 
 tion of phraseology borrowed from ancient rites, is 
 adapted to convey the idea of the permanent obli- 
 gation of them upon those who use it. And if 
 Jerusalem, and Zion,and Palestine, are represented, 
 
 (1) Pa. 11.16. (2)Ps.lxix.30,81. 
 
of david's psalms. 123 
 
 as the permanent seat of worship and place of rest, 
 it may appear in the sequel, that that is no objec- 
 tion to the present use of the Psalms, which furnish 
 such representations. 
 
 The Apostle points out a distinction of sacrifices 
 into legal and spiritual. " Above when he said, 
 sacrifice and offering, and burnt offering, and offer- 
 ing for sin, thou wouldest not, neither hadst plea- 
 sure therein." Thus far the Apostle, in the words 
 of the fortieth Psalm. And he immediately adds, 
 " which are offered by the lavs" Sacrifices are still 
 required, but not legal sacrifices. The use of the 
 language of the Psalms implies an obligation to 
 offer sacrifices, but not legal sacrifices. " Which 
 are offered by the law." (1) The Psalms themselves 
 furnish an explanation of sacrifices, and offerings, 
 as obligatory upon 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 
 sacrifices of righteousness, and put your trust in the 
 Lord. — Whoso offereth praise glorifieth me. — The 
 sacrifices of God are a broken spirit, a broken and 
 a contrite heart, O God, thou wilt not despise. — 
 Then shalt thou be pleased with the sacrifices 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 
 
 (1) Heb. x. 8. 
 
124 PERPETUAL ADAPTATION 
 
 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 evening sacrifice. ?? 
 
 The use of terms borrowed from the ancient 
 economy, is authorised by the example of New Tes- 
 tament writers. They describe the character, the 
 duties, the worship, and the privileges of Christians 
 in the language of the people of Israel. The con- 
 sistency of the language of the Psalms with the 
 spirit and the institutions of the present time, will 
 appear from the subsequent parallelism, suggested 
 by a comparison of the terms employed by the pen- 
 men of the Psalms wdth those introduced in the 
 New Testament : unless it should be said that there 
 is something " Jewish and cloudy" in the writings 
 of Christ and his Apostles, which is removed by 
 the more lucid modes of speech which some of their 
 more spiritual followers may teach us to use ; — 
 
 PSALMS. NEW TESTAMENT. 
 
 Ps. xlvi. 4. There is a river, Heb. xii. 22. But ye are come 
 
 the 6treams of which shall unto mount Zion, and unto the 
 
 make glad the city of God, the city of the living God, the hea- 
 
 holy place of the tabernacles of veuly Jerusa lem. Rom. ix. 6, 
 
 the^Mostlligh. xlviii. 2. Beau- 7, 8.' They are not all Israel 
 
 tiful for situation, the joy of which are of Israel: neither, 
 
 the whole earth, is Mount Zion, because they are the seed of 
 
 on the sides of the north, the Abraham, are they all chil- 
 
 eiiy of the great king. li. 18. dren : but, in Isaac shall thy 
 
 Do good in thy good pleasure seed be called. That is, they 
 
 unto Zion : build thou the walls which are the children of the 
 
 of ' Jerusalem, liii. 6. Oh that flesh, these are not the children 
 
 the salvation of Israel were of God: but the children of the 
 
 •ome out of Zion! When God promise are counted for the 
 
 Uringeth back the captivity of seed. Gal. vi. 16. Peace be 
 
 his people, Jacob shall rejoice, on them, and upon the Israel 
 
 and Israel shall be glad. of God. 
 
OF DAVIDS PSALMS. 
 
 125 
 
 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 
 day^ of my life, to behold the 
 beauty of the Lord, and to en- 
 quire in his Temple, xlviii. 9. 
 We have thought of thy loving 
 kindness, God, in the midst 
 of thy Temple, lii. 8. But I am 
 like a green olive tree in the 
 home of God. 
 
 Ps. liv. 3. For strangers are 
 risen up against me, and op- 
 pressors seek after my soul. 
 exxxvii. 4. How shall we sing 
 {he Lord's song in a strange 
 land! 
 
 Ps. cvi. 4, 5. Remember me, 
 O Lord, with the favour that 
 thou bearest unto thy people : 
 
 visit me with thy salvation : 
 that I may see the good of thy 
 chosen, that I may rejoice in 
 the gladness of thy nation, that 
 
 1 may glory with thine inheri- 
 tance, exxxii. 9. Let thy priests 
 be clothed with righteousness, 
 cxlviii. 14. He also exalteth the 
 horn of his people, the praise of 
 all his saints ; even of the chil- 
 dren of Israel, a people near 
 unto him. 
 
 Ps. xlii. 4. "When I remember 
 these things, I pour out my soul 
 iu me : for I had gone with 
 the multitude, I went with 
 them to the house of God, with 
 the voice of joy and praise, 
 with a multitude that kept 
 holyday. exxii. 3, 4. Jerusalem 
 is builded as a city that is com- 
 pact together : whither the 
 tribes go up, the tribes of the 
 Lord, unto the testimony of Is- 
 rael, to give thanks uuto the 
 
 Jno. ii. 19. Jesus answered 
 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 the 
 temple of God, and that the 
 spirit of God dwelleth in you? 
 1 Tim. iii. 15. That thou may- 
 est know how thou oughtest to 
 behave thyself in the house of 
 God, which is the church of 
 the living God. 
 
 Eph. ii. 19. Kow, therefore, 
 ye are no more strangers and 
 foreigners but fellow-citizens, 
 with the saints, and of the 
 household of God. 
 
 1. Peter ii. 9. But ye are 
 a chosen generation, a royal 
 priesthood, an holy nation, a 
 peculiar people ; that ye should 
 shew forth the praises of him 
 who hath called you. Col. i. 
 12. Giving thanks unto the 
 father, which hath made us 
 meet to be partakers of the 
 inheritance of the saints in 
 light. 
 
 Eph i. 10. That in the dispen- 
 sation of the fulness of times, he 
 might gather together in one, all 
 things in Christ, both which are 
 in heaven, and which are on 
 earth ; even in him. Heb. 12. 
 Ye are come unto the heavenly 
 Jerusalem, and to an innumera- 
 ble company of angels, to the 
 general assembly and church of 
 the first born, which are writ- 
 ten in heaven, to God the judge 
 of all, and to the spirits of just 
 
126 
 
 PERPETUAL ADAPTATION 
 
 name of the Lord. For there 
 are set thrones of judgment, the 
 thrones of the house of David. 
 
 Pa. 1. 5. Gather my saints 
 together unto me ; those that 
 have made a covenant with 
 me by sacrifice, lxvi. 15. I will 
 offer unto thee burnt sacrifice 
 of fatlings, with the incense of 
 rams ; I will offer bullocks 
 with goats, cxviii. 27. Bind 
 the sacrifice with cords, even 
 unto the horns of the altar. 
 xliii. 4. Then will I go to the 
 altar of God, unto God my 
 exceeding joy. 
 
 Ps. cxxxvii. 1, 8. By the 
 
 rivers of Babylon, there we sat 
 down, yea, we wept when we 
 remembered Zion. O daugh- 
 ter of Babylon, who art to be 
 destroyed; happy shall he be 
 that rewardeth thee, as thou 
 Last served us. 
 
 men made perfect, and to Jesus 
 the Mediator of the New Cove- 
 nant. Lu. i. 32. The Lord God 
 shall give unto him (Jesus) the 
 throne of his father David.* 
 
 Rom. xii. 1. I beseech you, 
 brethren, by the mercies of 
 God, that ye present your bo- 
 dies a living sacrifice, holy, ac- 
 ceptable unto God. 1 Pet. ii. 
 5. Ye also, as living stones, are 
 built up a spiritual house, an 
 holy priesthood, to offer up spi- 
 ritual sacrifices, acceptable to 
 God by Jesus Christ. Heb. xiii. 
 10. We have an altar, whereof 
 they have no right to eat who 
 serve the tabernacle. 
 
 Rev. xvii. 5. And upon her 
 forehead was a name written. 
 Mystery, Babylon the great, the 
 mother of harlots, and abomi- 
 nations of the earth, xviii. 20. 
 Rejoice over her, thou heaven, 
 and ye holy Ap03tles and Pro- 
 phets; for God hath avenged 
 you on her. 
 
 Before a comparison of the mode of expression 
 used in the Psalms with that which is found in the 
 New Testament, every objection to the use of the 
 Bongs of Zion, on account of the frequent allusions 
 which they contain to the nature and circumstances 
 of the religious institutions of Israel, 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 introduced by Christ and his 
 Apostles to describe spiritual things. But we find 
 them using figurative language derived from all the 
 leading and primary characters of the former 
 
OF DAVID'S PSALMS. 127 
 
 economy ; and in this tliey furnish an evidence of 
 the correctness and consistency of Christians, put- 
 ting the name of the type to express the thing 
 typified. 
 
 The allusions to the various musical instruments, 
 used by the Israelites in the temple service, occa- 
 sionally found in the Psalms, may be explained 
 upon the principle to which the preceding argu- 
 ment conducts us, in perfect consistency 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 connected with the examination of the 
 character of the Hymns which should be introduced 
 into the sanctuary. (1) 
 
 2. Predictions in the Psalms, and, in particular, 
 those of which Christ is the subject, which admit 
 of a definite accomplishment before the consumma- 
 tion of all things, are presented in a historical form. 
 Had such events as are foretold in the Psalms been 
 exhibited as future, we could not have used the 
 Songs which supply the predictions that have 
 already had their accomplishment, without pro- 
 nouncing 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 there can remain 
 no doubt of a designed accommodation of the Psalms 
 
 (1) Note R. 
 
128 PERPETUAL ADAPTATION 
 
 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 sup- 
 pose many of the prophetic Psalms written subse- 
 quent to the events they record, with a special 
 view to the service of the New Testament church. 
 Predictions, on the contrary, that do not admit of 
 a definite 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 pre- 
 ceding remarks by a few examples out of many 
 that might be brought forward. In the second 
 Psalm we read, " I have set my King upon my 
 holy hill of Zion." The actual ascension of Im- 
 manuel to the right hand of the majesty on High, 
 his formal investiture with mediatorial authority, 
 did not take place till after his resurrection from 
 the dead. Yet we do not read, " I will set," but, 
 -' I have set my King upon my holy hill." When 
 an event is predicted which is progressively per- 
 fected, mark the change of tense : " I will declare 
 the decree." " I shall give thee the heathen for 
 thine inheritance." The exaltation of Christ is an 
 event perfected, and past, but the subjection of the 
 Gentiles to the sceptre of Immannuel is progressive ; 
 
of dayid's psalms. 120 
 
 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 hi 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 I 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, how- 
 ever, of mediatorial glory is definitely perfected, 
 and accordingly we read, " Thou hast given him his 
 heart's desire, and hast not withholden the request 
 of his lips." Plear one other example. (1) i; Out 
 of Zion, the perfection of beauty, God hath shinoK 
 The Israelite could only use this form of speech in 
 the exercise of that faith which is the substance of 
 things hoped for. He might have said, " out ot 
 Zion, God shall shine: 7 We could not. Both can 
 unite in the language of the text. The words fol- 
 lowing are, " Our God shall come, and shall not 
 keep silence." The fourth and sixth verses teach 
 us that these words refer to his second coming — his 
 coming to judgment. "That he may judge his 
 people — God is judge himself." With what pro- 
 priety is the future tense introduced with the 
 change of subject! The one verse speaks of his 
 coming to offer himself in sacrifice ; it is past : — < 
 
 (1) Ps.I. 
 
130 PERPETUAL ADAPTATION 
 
 the other of his second coming; it shall be future, 
 till faith be swallowed up in victory. 
 
 3. In those Psalms, in which Christ himself is 
 the speaker, it would seem that he uniformly ap- 
 pears before us, in the last act of his life of humili- 
 ation and sorrow, just about to give up the Ghost ; 
 so that he is, as it were evidently set forth, cruci- 
 fied 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 fol- 
 lowing examples may serve to illustrate and confirm 
 the position. "My God, my God, why hast thou 
 forsaken me ? — I am poured out like water, and all 
 my bones are out of joint. — They look and stare 
 upon me. — They part my garments among them, 
 and cast lots upon my vesture." (1) " Into thine 
 hand I commit my spirit." (2) The words of the 
 first and last verses, which have 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 Jia/oe enclosed me : they pierced my hands 
 and my feet." (3) " I have heard the slander of 
 many : fear was on every side : while they took 
 couasel together against me, they devised to take 
 
 (1) Pa. xxii. 1, 14, 17, 18. (2) Ps. xxxi. 5. (3) Ps. xxii. 16. 
 
131 
 
 away iny life." (1) " I have preached righteousness 
 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." (2) The purposes, the desire, and 
 the expectation of the expiring Jesus, except that 
 in the eighteenth Psalm (3) he shouts victory, and 
 anticipates, in a manner truly natural, the laurels, 
 when the last stroke is ready to fall to the destruc- 
 tion of Satan and his works, are all represented so 
 that their objects appear to be future. " Thou wilt 
 not leave my soul in IiqII ; neither wilt thou suffer 
 thine Holy One to see corruption. Thou unit shew 
 me the path of life." (4) " I will declare thy name 
 unto my brethren : in the midst of the congregation 
 will I praise thee." (5) "I will abide in thy taber- 
 nacle 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." (6) " Open to me the gates of right- 
 eousness ; I will go into them, and I icill praise the 
 Lord." (7) 
 
 4. Those parts of the Mediator's privileges and 
 trials in which his people have not only a legal in- 
 terest, but have actual fellowship with him, are 
 sometimes exhibited as present enjoyed or suffered, 
 without respect to their relation to the time of 
 
 (1) Ps. xxxi. 13. (5) Pa. xxii. 22. 
 
 (2) Ps. xl. 9, 10. (6) Ps. xli. 4, 6, 7. 
 
 (3) Ps. xviii. 37— 43. (7) Ps. cxviii. 19. 
 
 (4) Pa. xvi. 10. 
 
132 PERPETUAL ADAPTATION 
 
 his crucifixion. Whatever his people suffer for his 
 sake, he reckons inflicted upon himself — a filling up 
 of that which is behind of his sufferings. The 
 afflictions of Christ may therefore be considered 
 present, repeated again and again in the afflictions 
 of his members. In like manner, the special cove- 
 nant 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 second and third particulars of 
 this section, is no inconsiderable circumstance in 
 Songs designed for the lips of his followers. " The 
 Kings of the earth set themselves, and the rulers 
 take counsel together, against the Lord and against 
 his Anointed." (1) " He delivereth me from mine 
 enemies; yea, thou liftest me up above those 
 that rise up against me." (2) " The Lord is their 
 strength, and he is the saving strength of his 
 anointed." (3) 
 
 SECTION III. 
 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 those who " have 
 their part in the lake which burnetii with fire and 
 brimstone." If such characters be hateful to a God 
 of truth and holiness, the language of fear and un- 
 belief must ever prove displeasing to him. There 
 
 (1) Ps. ii. 2. (2) Ps. xviii. 48. (3) Ps. xxviii. 3. 
 
133 
 
 is no exercise of the heart, of the tongue, or of the 
 hands, which the Christian is not definitely required 
 to perform in faith. " Without 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 accep- 
 table performance of the solemn duty, so the 
 lano-ua^e 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 accept as praise a decla- 
 ration of distrust in his promises ; and of want of re- 
 liance upon his well beloved Son. 
 
 This premised, we observe that there is one 
 feature by which the Book of Psalms, is distin- 
 guished from every other collection 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 inconsistent with a 
 cordial reliance upon the character and promises 
 of Jehovah revealed to us in Christ. It is not as- 
 serted that the saints have not their seasons of fear, 
 
134 PERPETUAL ADAPTATION 
 
 and doubt, and perplexity. This is taken for 
 granted in some of the Psalms, and declared in 
 others, but as fear and doubting are not charac- 
 teristic of them as holy persons, on the contrary, 
 spring from the principle of corruption, they are 
 not taught to approach God as if fear 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 uni- 
 formly he is seen assured and stable : in particular, 
 1. " Eejoicing in hope." A vista is always open 
 to the eye of faith, over which no cloud hangs, 
 through which the future is discovered with a de- 
 gree of clearness that reconciles to present evils, in 
 the anticipation of the happiness about to be en- 
 joyed. A few texts out of a multitude may suffice 
 for the verification of this and the following parti- 
 culars. (1) "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 in safety." (2) " For the needy 
 shall not always be forgotten : the expectation of 
 the poor shall not perish for ever." (3) " We will 
 rejoice in thy salvation, and in the name of our 
 God we will set up our banners." (4) " 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 with me : thy rod 
 
 (1) Ps. iv. 3, 8. (2) Ps. ix. 18. (3) Ps. xx. 5. (4) Ps. xxiw. 
 
135 
 
 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 for ever." 
 (1) "Though an host should encamp against me, my 
 heart shall not fear : though war should rise against 
 me, in this will I be confident 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 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 sacrifices of joy ; I will 
 sing, yea, I will sing praises unto the Lord." 
 
 2. Triumphing in the freedom which the Spirit 
 of life, in Christ Jesus, gives over sin and death. 
 There is no Psalm in the use of which the professed 
 worshipper is introduced into the gracious presence 
 of God, either to proclaim, to the dishonour of the 
 object of worship, his carnality and unbelief domi- 
 nant, or the prevalence of carnality 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. " Hear 
 me when I call, O God of my righteousness ; tho: 
 
 £1) Ps. xxvii. 3—6. 
 
136 PEEPETrAL ADAPTATION 
 
 hast enlarged me when I was in distress; have 
 mercy upon me, and hear my prayer. Thou hast 
 put gladness in my heart, more than in the time 
 that their corn and their wine increased." (1) " My 
 tears have been my meat day and night, while they 
 continually say unto me, Where is thy God ? When 
 I remember 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 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 I shall 
 yet praise him for the help of his countenance. "(2) 
 In the preceding passage the language of despon- 
 dency is not found. The time of despondency is 
 past, and has been succeeded by a season of confi- 
 dence and hope. God is praised for having dis- 
 pelled 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 supplies us with a very beautiful example 
 for illustration. The inspired writer had been, as 
 many have been, severely tried by the apparent 
 contrariety of the dispensations of God's providence 
 toward the righteous and the wicked, to the prin- 
 ciples of justice. He had nearly fallen into infi- 
 delity, and was ready to draw the conclusion that 
 sanctification is vain, and purity unworthy of cul- 
 tivation. He does not, however, suppose that ti\^ 
 expression of his feelings while he wavered uncer- 
 
 (l)Ps. iv.l.T. (2) Ps. xlii, 4. 
 
of dayid's psalms. 137 
 
 tain whether he shall cast in his lot among the 
 prosperous wicked, or adhere to the company of 
 the poor and oppressed citizens of Zion, would form 
 an acceptable song of God. The unerring 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 ot 
 Asaph — what his words, during the prevalence ot 
 his temptation, than a heart disposed to rebellion 
 against the Highest — words expressive of condem- 
 nation of God's righteous government? But the 
 exulting shout of victory, obtained through the 
 Spirit of Grace, glorifies God, and the retrospect of 
 past ignorance and past danger, is calculated to 
 promote humility, leads to clearer discoveries of 
 the " sovereign mercy of the Lord," and calls forth 
 every energy of the man to proclaim the praises of 
 Him, who brings good out of evil, and rescues from 
 external and internal enemies. And the seventy 
 third Psalm is just the shout of triumph, embracing 
 the most humiliating confession of human weak- 
 ness, the most ardent expression of love to God, 
 the most unhesitating proclamation of his goodness, 
 apart from all the creature's claims ; nay, contrary 
 to the creature's just desert. How correctly the 
 language of strong feeling is presented in the begin- 
 ning of it ? The abruptness with which the writer 
 introduces himself is true to nature, and at once 
 satisfies the reader that here there is no affectation 
 of one f eeling, which the soul does not experience. 
 "Truly God is good to Israel, even to such as are 
 
138 PERPETUAL ADAPTATION 
 
 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 pros- 
 perity of the wicked." He looks upon envy as no 
 little sin, he assimilates it to the brink of an awful 
 precipice over which to stumble is destruction 
 beyond remedy. On the giddy brink he had stood, 
 and while we read, imagination pictures him yet 
 trembling, with the vivid recollection of the danger 
 from which he was only saved. Having described 
 the character and situation of some wicked from a 
 view of which his envy had taken its rise, he adds, 
 " Therefore his people return hither ; and waters of 
 a full cup are wrung out to them. And they say, 
 how doth God know ? and is there knowledge in 
 the Most High? Behold, these are the ungodly, 
 who prosper in the world; they increase in riches. 
 Verily, I have cleansed my heart in vain, and washed 
 my hands in innocency. For all the day long have 
 I been plagued, and chastened every morning. 
 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." " I commune with mine 
 own heart : and my spirit made diligent search. 
 Will the Lord cast off for ever ? Doth his promise 
 feil for evermore? Is his mercy clean gone for ever? 
 And will he be favourable no more? Hath God 
 forgotten to be gracious ? Hath he in anger shut 
 up his tender mercies ?" Is this not the language 
 of unbelief and of distrust? "Doth his promise 
 fail for ever more ?" Not in the lips of the inspired 
 
of david's psalms. 139 
 
 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 immediately 
 added, "And I said, this is my infirmity: but I 
 will remember the years of the right hand of the 
 Most High. I will rememb er the works of the Lord : 
 surely I will remember thy wonders of old." (1) 
 One more example, and I do not urge the induction 
 farther. "Wilt thou be angry with us for ever ? 
 Wilt thou draw out thy anger to all generations I 
 Wilt thou not revive us again; that thy people 
 may rejoice in thee? Shew 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."(2) 
 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 tribulation are natural, and their 
 presence implies nothing contrary to the most lively 
 workings, of the principle of Faith. Where faith 
 exists, " tribulation worketh patience, and patience 
 experience, and experience hope." And if the 
 Book of Psalms embrace nothing but the effusions 
 
 (1) P3. lxxvii. 6—11. (2) Ps. lxxxv. 5-3. 
 
140 PERPETUAL ADAPTATION 
 
 of faith, we may expect to find patience, experi- 
 ence, and the assurance of hope that never makes 
 ashamed, exemplified in the midst of the sharpest 
 outward afflictions. When we read, our expecta- 
 tions are not disappointed. The language which 
 the Psalms hold when presenting the afflicted state 
 of God's people, is uniformly of the following cha- 
 racter. " In the Lord put I my trust : how say ye 
 to my soul, flee as a bird to your mountain ?" " The 
 troubles of my heart are enlarged : O bring thou 
 me out of my distresses. Look upon mine affliction 
 and my pain, and forgive all my sins. Consider 
 mine enemies, for they are 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 
 iheeP (1) Observe (first), he traces all his afflictions 
 to their proper source — his sin, and thus teaches us 
 his resignation. " Wherefore doth a living man 
 complain, a man for the punishment of his sins." 
 (Second) His faith is implied in his importunate 
 supplication for deliverance from the cause and the 
 effect — sin and sorrow, and is expressed in the argu- 
 ment by which he urges his petition. "For I put 
 my trust in thee." " 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." " I poured out my complaint before 
 
 (1) Ps. xi. 1 ; xxv. 17—20. 
 
of david's psalms. 141 
 
 hira : I showed before liim mv trouble. When my 
 spirit was overwhelmed within me, then thou huv> 
 tst 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" (1) 
 
 4. " Continuing instant in prayer." The reader 
 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 before him by 
 Christ and his Apostles, very perspicuously. " What 
 things soever ye desire, when ye pray, believe that 
 ye receive them, and ye shall have them." " If 
 any of you lack wisdom, 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 prayers, 
 offered up on various occasions, but they are all 
 the prayers of faith. The man, whose heart closes 
 
 (1) Ps. xliv. 13—17 ; cxlii. 2—5. 
 
14:2 PERPETUAL ADAPTATION 
 
 with the language of the song which contains any 
 given petition, offers up that petition in faith ; his 
 prayer is founded upon a Divine promise, 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. 
 "Have mercy upon me, God; consider my 
 trouble which I suffer of them that hate me, thou 
 that liftest me up from the gates of death : that I 
 may shew forth all thy praise in the gates of the 
 daughters of Zion ; I will rejoice in thy salvation "(1) 
 The concluding clause assures us that the suppliant 
 confidently anticipates an answer. u Consider and 
 hear me, O Lord my God ; lighten mine eyes, lest 
 I sleep the sleep of death ; lest mine enemy say, I 
 have prevailed against him ; and those that trouble 
 me rejoice when I am moved. But / heme trusted 
 in thy mercy ; my heart shall rejoice in thy salva- 
 tion" (2) "I have called upon thee, for thou wilt 
 hear me, O God." (3) That this is a prayer of faith, 
 will be apprehended at once. " I will call upon 
 the Lord, who is worthy to be praised; so shall I 
 he saved from mine enemies" " Unto thee will I 
 cry, Lord my Eock ; be not silent to me ; lest, 
 if thou be silent to me, I become like them that go 
 down into the pit." (4) The supplication extends 
 to the end of the fifth verse, and in the sixth verse 
 we read, " Blessed be the Lord, because he hath 
 
 (1) Ps. ix. 12, 14. (3)Ps.xvii. 6. 
 
 C2) Ps. xiii. 3—0. (4) Pa, xviii. 3 ; xxviii. 1. 
 
of dayid's psalms. 143 
 
 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. Moreover, 
 in order to demonstrate their claim upon the assem- 
 blies of Mount Zion, it would be no unprofitable 
 exercise to contrast them with the different com- 
 pilations 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 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 insult- 
 ing to the Deity, as the character of the impenitent 
 and unbeliever is hateful to unspotted purity. (1) 
 
 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 
 
 (1) Note P. 
 
14± PERPETUAL ADAPTATION 
 
 church, independently of every change through 
 which she may pass, whether that change affect 
 her external condition, or her internal organization ; 
 if an undeviating expression of that faith, without 
 which it is impossible to please God, prove a col- 
 lection 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 Bible 
 with the Notes of Several of the Venerable Ee- 
 formers," as recorded by H. Home. True : human 
 testimony can never be admitted as authority in 
 the decision of the question, respecting tile adapta- 
 tion of the Psalms to our times; but surely the tes- 
 timony of one uninspired writer, in their favour, is 
 quite as good as the testimony of another, against 
 them, and for that reason I give a place to his words. 
 " The language in which Moses, and David, and 
 Solomon, Heman, Asaph, and Jecluthun, worship- 
 ped God, is applicable to Christian believers. They 
 worship the same God through the same adorable 
 Redeemer ; they give thanks for similar mercies, 
 and mourn under similar trials ; they are looking 
 for the same blessed hope of their calling, even 
 everlasting life and salvation, through the prevail- 
 ing intercession of the Messiah." (1) 
 
 The united testimony of Gray and Bishop Home 
 sliall close the examination of the last fact. " The 
 
 (1) Int. iv. p. 05. 
 
145 
 
 expressions and descriptions of the Psalms may 
 seem to some persons to have been appropriate and 
 peculiar to tlie Jewish circumstances ; and David 
 indeed, employs figures and allusions applicable to 
 the old dispensation. But as, in recording temporal 
 deliverances and blessings vouchsafed to the Jews, 
 we commemorate spiritual advantages thereby sig- 
 nified, we use the Psalms with the greatest pro- 
 priety in our Church. c We need,' says an elegant 
 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 law, as the emblems 
 of spiritual service, of which every part hath ite 
 correspondent figure ; and we appropriate thf* 
 Psalms to our own uses, as the noblest treasure of 
 inspired wisdom. 5 " (1) 
 
 Without multiplying testimonies, which the great 
 and the good have given, to the unrivalled beauties 
 of the Songs of Zion, and their adaptation to tin 
 state of believers even in this age, we shall 
 hasten to a conclusion. 
 
 (1) Gray's Key, 220. 
 
CONCLUSION. 
 
 Tee subject which has been discussed in the pre- 
 ceding pages, is not more important in itself, than 
 on account of its connection with a variety of high 
 theological questions. The more carefully 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. 
 I am well aware that many do not, at present fully 
 apprehend its bearing 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 entire 
 oneness in the doctrines of the Gospel, that adhe- 
 rence to one error necessarily involves an inconsis- 
 tency, to escape which, when perceived, must lead 
 to a renunciation of the error, or, what not less fre- 
 quently happens, the adoption of others 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 
 
CONCLUSION. 147 
 
 of religious institutions is constant. A corruption 
 of the doctrine of Christ must lead to a corruption 
 of divine institutions, and a departure from the sim- 
 plicity of a divine prescript is necessarily followed 
 by a laxity of principle, if not an unmasked renun- 
 ciation of the form of sound words. (1) Not a few 
 are of opinion, that the effects of the abandonment 
 of an inspired collection of Songs, and the substi- 
 tution of expository compositions, are already visible 
 and demonstrable. I am not so minutely acquainted 
 with the history of the introduction of uninspired 
 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 compare the 
 present condition of Presbyterian and Congrega- 
 tional Churches, which steadfastly adhere to the 
 Psalms of David, with that of those in which they 
 have been set aside, there does not appear a supe- 
 riority in the latter sufficient to create a presumption, 
 in favour of the purifying and peaceful tendency of 
 the introduction of modern, and, as some suppose, 
 more evangelical Psalms. 
 
 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 my favour the preju- 
 dices of those who are partial to their introduction or 
 
 (1) See an expanded illustration of this in the " Philosophy of Sectarianism,"*" 
 by Blaikie. Boston, 1S54. 
 
148 CONCLUSION. 
 
 continuance, and have studiously avoided uncalled 
 for remarks, calculated 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 latter there may be many who have 
 never had their attention particularly directed to 
 the subject of Psalmody, — never have heard a doubt 
 suggested of the propriety of laying aside inspired 
 Psalms, in favour of others which they had been 
 accustomed to hear invariably represented as more 
 suitable to the New Testament dispensation, and 
 could not, with propriety, be addressed in common 
 with men, who, having every advantage and excite- 
 ment 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 argument 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 prin- 
 ciple than others cleave to those which are unwar- 
 ranted 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 
 own practice stand in the wisdom of man and not 
 in the power of God ; for if they adhere to scrip- 
 tural doctrines 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 
 
CONCLUSION. 149 
 
 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, 
 which is the real innovation, has been introduced witl i 
 culpable haste, and, it is to be feared, without a due 
 examination of their high claims. Till the unbend- 
 ing integrity, the painful and persevering investi- 
 gation of all questions which interested the lovers 
 of scriptural truth, the uncompromising adherence 
 to sound doctrine, and the stern opposition to every 
 error, to every errorist in the defence of his unholy 
 principles, (called of late higoti^y and illiberalltij. \ 
 which characterised the champions of the Refor- 
 mation, had passed away, and been replaced by 
 that spurious and misnamed Charity, which would 
 prohibit 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 
 profession are false and dangerous — in other words, 
 .say that he cannot believe both sides of a contra- 
 diction ; would identify a professor and his opinions, 
 and proclaim the enemy of his opinion his personal 
 fee ; there was no attempt to displace the inspired 
 Psalms — there was none to prove them unholy and 
 unchristian. The Reformers never thought of look- 
 ing 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 
 
150 CONCLUSION. 
 
 find Psalms and sentiments, 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 better than they are." 
 
 Nor is the use of the Psalms of David confined 
 to a few inconsiderable and illiterate individuals, 
 even now. I rejoice 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 superstitious. It is the cause of Presbyterians, 
 in every 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 influ- 
 ence in directing public practice. It is the cause 
 of the Church of England. Upon the subject of 
 the Psalms, Episcopalians and Presbyterians are, 
 in principle, perfectly agreed. They differ merely 
 i m this, that they use different versions. 
 
 Many seem to think the subject of the Psalms, 
 to be used by the assemblies of Mount Zion, of lit- 
 tle moment ; that it is a matter of indifference 
 whether, for instance, we use Rouse's version, or 
 Watt's imitation, and therefore put the question 
 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. Ultimately it 
 must come forward, it will press itself, with resist- 
 less force, into notice : and God is never without 
 the means of directing universal attention to one 
 
CONCLUSION. 151 
 
 point. Tlie world has frequently been surprised to 
 find 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 unnecessary to enumerate 
 instances with which all are familiar. 
 
 The divisions which have obtained, and at present 
 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 everv mind which 
 unites piety and sensibility. A desire to see them 
 terminated, and a union of all the disciples of Christ 
 effected, upon principles that promise stability to 
 the pacification, will consequently put the friends 
 of truth and peace upon the investigation of the 
 causes which conspire to perpetuate discord among 
 brethren. And surely if one practice be discovered, 
 whieh is calculated to prevent the " unity of the 
 spirit in the bonds of peace,-' they will not hesitate 
 far a moment with regard 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 liberty 
 will not merely prove the occasion but the cause 
 
152 CONCLUSION. 
 
 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 par- 
 tisans, should not partake of the opposition of their 
 authors, unless they should purposely employ equi- 
 vocal 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 dif- 
 ferent parties persevere in the use of their respec- 
 tive collections of songs exhibiting their peculiar 
 and distinguishing opinions, and opposed one to 
 another, unity is impossible — union can never be 
 carried into effect. Conflicting 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 
 sanctuary every uninspired collection, call it Psalms, 
 Hymns, what you will ; and let all parties take 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 
 -acrifice. 
 But have we any reason to hope for that oneness 
 
CONCLUSION. 153 
 
 of opinion, which would j>eremptorily demand what 
 many should think so expensive a sacrifice? 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 certain 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 predic- 
 tion which has not yet been fulfilled ; and which 
 speaks with power in relation to this matter. " Thy 
 watchmen shall lift up the voice ; with the voice 
 together shall they sing; for they shall see eye to 
 eye, when the Lord bring again Zion.'* " 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 con- 
 flicting 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 predicted 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 
 
15± CONCLUSION. 
 
 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 the 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, pleas- 
 ing ourselves with the external beauties, the grace- 
 ful movement, and enchanting voice of the unin- 
 spired poet, we be found the enemies of peace in 
 the Church, and haply fighting against God. 
 
 "Arise, God, plead thine own cause." 
 
APPENDIX. 
 
 Note A. — Page 15. 
 
 Whether the Psalms, in a Translation, can he con- 
 sidered Inspired Psalms. 
 
 "The preference of a human to a divine Book of Psalms, has 
 forced the advocates of that preference, to assume a position, 
 that deprives the Church of God at large of his Word, as the 
 ground of faith, except those of her members who may be 
 learned in the original tongues, in which the Scriptures were 
 first written. For, if as faithful a version of the Bible, as can 
 be obtained, has no claim to be called the Word of God. as 
 some suppose, then the faith of the great majority of saints, in 
 every age, has been built on a sandy foundation, the word of 
 man. — McMasters "Apology" Ballston-Spa, 1818, pp. 118, 119. 
 
 "There neither is nor can be any such thing as the inspired 
 forms of the Psalms in our language, unless an immediate reve- 
 lation were made in that language : it is not possible to retain 
 the words and phrases of the original in an} T translation; as a 
 prophet is to speak in the language which is suggested to him, 
 his words are justly called the words of the Holy Ghost; but 
 whenever a translation of that subject is made into any other 
 language, the words of the language into which it is translated, 
 are no more the words of the Holy Ghost, than Greek is 
 English." — Black's "Examination" quoted by Anderson, pp. 82, 8o. 
 
 M My objection to the principle, that we are exclusively 
 restricted to the use of the Psalms, is this: that if they cannot 
 with propriet}' be used by us in their original form, they can- 
 not have been intended to be used by us in our Psalmody ; but 
 my opponent sa}*s — If they are not fit for our use, we can make 
 them fit for it; which does not at all meet the objection. I 
 allow that we can distil them, and separate the spirit from the 
 grosser materials with which it is combined in them ; but when 
 that is done, they are only human compositions, in which a 
 portion of the divine original has been retained." — "Eastern 
 Chronicle" Pictou, N. &, Jan. 10, 1854, "Hymns of human com- 
 position in the worship of God" signed " T" 
 
156 APPENDIX. 
 
 Perhaps none of the readers of the Eastern Chronicle doubt 
 to whom the article from which we have quoted, or another 
 upon the same subject, Sept. 27, 1853, is to be ascribed ; but as 
 the writer has chosen to occupy a position secluded from public 
 view, and to reduce his name to a cypher, it would be indelicate 
 to draw him forth from his retirement, and expose the blushes 
 of diffidence to the rude gaze of unfeeling onlookers. There is 
 cause to blush. To whatever respect the individual, who has 
 adopted the signature "T," may be entitled in propria persona, 
 " T" is entitled to no more respect than the article so subscribed. 
 It is scarcely worth while to criticise ver} 7 exactly an article 
 written for a local newspaper, yet there is something rather 
 calculated to excite surprise, in finding the man, who " could 
 pick out a list of unaccountable mistakes, with very little trou- 
 ble, from every one of new and improved translations often or 
 a dozen books of the Old Testament, by Hebrew scholars of the 
 highest standing," writing the condemnation of Rouse's dog- 
 gerel, (Sept. 23, 1853) in a communication, in the first three 
 paragraphs of which, there is not one correct English sentence. 
 
 That the only use of language is to communicate thought or 
 feeling, is a mere truism, in its application to a revelation from 
 God, as liberally as in the matter of the interchange of ideas 
 between man and man. But there is no stereotyped combina- 
 tion of sounds necessary to express a particular idea, or train 
 of ideas. To impart the same state of mind, different persons 
 are found using forms of speech as numerous as are the indivi- 
 duals giving utterance to the thought. To use the language 
 of the Christian Observer, upon a kindred subject, as quoted by 
 Dr. Carson: "Take a familiar example;; a parent says sepa- 
 rately to four children, ' Call your brother Richard.' One 
 simply repeats the message as the words of his parent, 'Richard. 
 ray father desires me to call you.' A second makes the message 
 his own, ' Richard, my father wants you.' A third repeats it 
 as an injunction, * Richard, you must go to my father.' The 
 fourth, 'Brother Richard, pray run directly to our dear father, 
 for he wants to speak to you." Are not all these exactly the 
 lather's message \ and is it to contravene this proposition to 
 say, that each was delivered in a manner characteristic of the 
 respective speakers?" 
 
 The same individual does not always express the same 
 thought by the same combination of words, or even by the same 
 words. rW the sake of greater elegance, perspicuity, effect, or 
 simply variety, different forms of speech are used by a speaker, 
 or writer, when he has not the least design of adding to what 
 he has said, or of introducing a modification of the idea to be 
 expressed. And if in the same language, the same communica- 
 tion is made by different speakers, or the same speaker, in dif- 
 ferent words, why should a difficulty be raised, as if the infer- 
 
APPENDIX. 157 
 
 ination to be imparted is not given, and we are not indebted to 
 the original source, because an entirely different tongue is 
 employed to embody the original conception. A Physician 
 prescribes to different patients, speaking as many different lan- 
 guages, but labouring under the same disease. He speaks to 
 each in his own language ; but who will say the prescriptions 
 are not identical, because they are enunciated in different 
 tongues? Absurdity itself would hardly venture so broad a 
 statement as that they are not precisely the same. The case is 
 only slightly modified, if we suppose the physician acquainted 
 with one language, and under the necessity of communicating 
 with all his patients, except one, by means of an interpreter or 
 interpreters. If he express himself ambiguously or defectively, 
 the interpreters may misunderstand him, and give instructions 
 to the patients different from what he int-ended ; or they may 
 commit the same error from an imperfect acquaintance with 
 the language of the Physician or the patients. But assuming 
 that the Physician has expressed his prescription accurately 
 and lucidly, and that the interpreters perfectly understand both 
 the language of the Physician and that of his patients, and 
 honestly communicate to each, in his own tongue, the mind of 
 the Physician, no person would hesitate to ascribe to him the 
 direction given to the sick, although he understands not the 
 words in which it is expressed, more than if all who are under 
 bis care spake a language common to him and them, and 
 received instructions immediately from his own lips. The inter- 
 preter is not transmuted into the Doctor, nor is he, in any sense, 
 the author of the given prescription. 
 
 Life and Death depend, in many cases, upon the recognition 
 of the identity of that which is expressed in different languages. 
 An individual is arraigned for murder. The witness in attend- 
 ance, to testify to the guilt of the prisoner, speaks a language 
 which is not understood by the Court or the Jury. His evi- 
 dence must be received through an interpreter. The peculiar 
 idioms of the language in which the interrogations are put may 
 be lost in making them intelligible to the witness; and, on the 
 other hand, the peculiar forms of expression used by the wit- 
 ness, in giving his answers in his own tongue, may not appear 
 in the language in which they are presented to the Court; yet 
 the testimony may, and may be accordingly regarded as complete 
 and decisive. The panel objects that the testimony of the wit- 
 ness is not before the Court; but he is condemned, and handed 
 over to the ministers of justice for execution, although the wit- 
 ness may not have understood a word uttered in the course of 
 the proceedings, except what was spoken by the interpreter ; 
 and neither the Bench, the Bar, the Jury, or the Prisoner, may 
 have understood one word, as it fell from the lips of the witness. 
 
 The same remarks may be made with respect to the official 
 
158 APPENDIX. 
 
 correspondence, which passes between different Courts, at 
 which different languages are spoken. 
 
 " Who hath made man's mouth? Have not I the Lord?" God 
 speaks all languages. They are all his. He made the commu- 
 nications of his will to the Old Testament Church, in the ver- 
 nacular tongue of the people — in Hebrew. Taking the verbal 
 inspiration of the Scriptures for granted, the influence of the 
 Holy Spirit upon the Prophets secures the accurate and adequate 
 expression of the mind of God. Because the revelation which 
 God has made appears in another tongue, it is not less his. 
 Suppose the translation correct (and there is no difficulty 
 arising out of ambiguity in the original) the idiomatic forms of 
 the Hebrew may disappear, and certain peculiarities of expres- 
 sion, which might have been deemed beauties, by one to whom 
 the Hebrew was vernacular, but which do not at all correspond 
 with the phraseology of another language, may evaporate in a 
 translation ; yet we have no more reason to sustain us, in deny- 
 ing that we have in the translation, the prophecies of Jeremiah, 
 for instance, or the Psalms of David, or the word of the Lord 
 by Jeremiah or David, than the Judge has to sustain him in 
 asserting that the testimony of the witness is not before the 
 Court, because that testimony was presented through an inter- 
 preter ; or the ministers of the British Sovereign, in denying 
 that, because a letter from the Emperor of China, transmitted 
 in the Chinese tongue, appears only in an English version, the 
 Emperor's missive is not before them. 
 
 Mr. " T." the correspondent of the Eastern Chronicle, (Sept. 
 27th, 1853)says: "The trope or figure of speech, called parono- 
 7nasia, or a play upon words, which is akin to punning, consisting 
 in the bringing together of words, that resemble each other in 
 sound, but differ in meaning, and is now placed in the very 
 lowest grade of wit, is pretty freely used in the Psalms, as in 
 all the other poetical and sententious parts of the Hebrew Scrip- 
 tures. Again, the double meanings, which belong to the same 
 category, and consists in the repetition of the same word, but 
 in a different sense, is also not unfrequent. It is a kind of puz- 
 zle; and calculated first to perplex, and then to tickle the rea- 
 der, when he solves the difficulty. Both figures are allied to 
 joking ; but what would we think of joking, or indeed any kind 
 of pleasantry, in a Psalm or Hymn?" 
 
 Now, I am not prepared, and am not disposed to deny the 
 use of the figure Paronomasia in the Psalms ; nor to argue with 
 Mr. "T." in vindication of the Holy Spirit from descending to 
 the " lowest grade of wit," and tickling the Hebrews by his 
 eondescending^'oto, that he might arrest their attention and 
 promote their edification ; or from associating with "Lawyers' 
 clerks and diaper's apprentices," (some of whom, by the way, 
 are persons whom Mr. "T." need not blush to own as associates) 
 
APPENDIX. 
 
 159 
 
 in practising the art of the pimster. Nor will I assert th at "the 
 very first words of the first Psalrn, Ashrei, Asher, Aish," were 
 not " selected on account of their resemblance in sound to one 
 another." But I may be permitted to doubt. I do not know 
 the pronunciation of the Hebrew words. Neither does Mr. "T." 
 His marvellous discoveries of puns, and puzzles, and jokes, 
 assume an exact knowledge of the pronunciation, when the 
 Hebrew was a living language. Should Mr. "T." be raised up 
 from the dead two thousand years hence, and find the English 
 a dead language, and find a solitary collection of pieces in prose 
 and verse, saved from the wreck of English literature, he would 
 have no right to smile at the ignorance of the "T."s of the 
 thirty-ninth century, if he found them sadly puzzled to discover 
 that Scotch snuff would rhyme with grog enough, and disposed 
 to stare at our "T.," if he should inform them that, in the 
 worse than Rouse's doggerel, 
 
 11 Should Wood intrude in drunken guise, 
 And rudely goodly men surprise," 
 
 the very first three words of the first line, the second and third 
 of the second line, and the closing words of the two lines, were 
 ''selected on account of their resemblance in sound to one 
 another." AVithout any impeachment of their- understanding 
 and attainments, they might think they had discovered an 
 example of the repetition of the same word, but in a different 
 sense, — a kind of puzzle, calculated first to pe^)lex, and then to 
 tickle the reader — allied to joking, in "bandage wound about 
 the wound of the disabled soldier," till our eastern "T.," more 
 wise in the department of English philology, taught them that 
 the same combination of letters, occurring the second time, did 
 not constitute the same word at all. 
 
 But allowing all the deformities of Hebrew composition, 
 which have been brought to light by Mr. "T." to be real, not 
 imaginary*, we may congratulate the Church, that the Hebrew 
 is no longer a living language — that worshippers can be no 
 longer bound up to the use of the original, and that in a correct 
 translation, we have still the Word of God, a lamp to our feet, 
 and a light to our path, free, of necessity, from all the low puns, 
 perplexing puzzles, and tickling jokes, so offensive to refined 
 modern taste, and to Mr. "T." 
 
 If we have not the Psalms of David, because those Songs are 
 presented to us through the medium of a translation, which 
 .-inks the distinctive peculiarities of Hebrew composition, neither 
 have we any other portion or a revelation from God. As " they 
 <*annot with propriety be used by us in their original form," if 
 this circumstance prove that "they cannot have been intended 
 to be used by us in our psalmody," that we cannot with more 
 propriety us. any other section of the divine word in its origi- 
 nal form, proves, by parity of reason, that it cannot have been 
 
160 APPENDIX. 
 
 intended to be used by us, for the same purpose for which the 
 Israelite or the Jew used it. If the inevitable results of trans- 
 lation, prove that what was intended to be sung in the original 
 ought not to be sung in translation, the same or similar results 
 must prove that what was intended to be read in the original, 
 ougi' ; not to be read in translation. Others might reason thus : 
 the peculiarities of one language must, of course, disappear in 
 any translation of what was originally written in that language. 
 But poetry is not a peculiarity of any language, nor is song a 
 peculiarity of any people. Whatever, therefore, was given to 
 be sung was intended to be sung by all for whom it is given. 
 Whatsoever was written aforetime was written for our learning, 
 upon whom the ends of the earth are come. 
 
 The views of the inspired writers coincide with the results 
 of the preceding exposition. The New Testament is written in 
 Greek, aid our Lord delivered his discourses in the vernacular 
 tongue of Judea. Have the Evangelists transmitted to us his 
 words? They profess to have done so. Still we have nothing 
 but a translation. It may be said we have an inspired transla- 
 tion. True. But it is a translation nevertheless. As Jesus had 
 the Spirit given to him without measure, and he spake by the 
 Spirit, his words are inspired words. These are not before us 
 in the Greek of the Evangelists, except as they are represented 
 by the terms of a language he did not use. The verbal inspira- 
 tion of the Gcsjfels cannot invalidate this statement. It insures 
 simply the correctness of the translation ; and we thus learn 
 that we must recognise a faithful translation of the Word of 
 God, as possessing all the authority of the inspired word. In 
 confirmation of this conclusion : " The words of the translations 
 which we have in the New Testament of passages of the old, 
 are called the words of the Prophets, or what is equivalent, the 
 sayings of the Holy Spirit (John xii. 38.) That the saying or 
 word of Isaias the prophet, might be fulfilled, which he said, Who 
 hath believed our report $ and to whom is the arm of the Lord 
 •revealed? (Acts xv. 15, 16.) And to this agree the words of the 
 prophets, as it is written, after this 1 will return, &c. (Heb. iii. 7.) 
 Wherefore, as the Holy Ghost saith, to-day if ye will hear his 
 voice. The Apostle afterwards calls our attention to the words 
 to-day, which is one word in the original, as the very word or 
 expression of the Holy Ghost, (v. 13.) Another instance is 
 remarkable, in the twelfth chapter of the same book : Now he 
 hath promised, saying, yet once more 1 shake not the earth only, 
 but also heaven. And this word once more signifeth the removing 
 of those things which are shaken, as of things that are made. 
 Thus the translated passages of the Old Testament, in the New, 
 are called the words of the prophets, and of the Holy Spirit 
 who spake by them: and this warrants us to call the translated 
 Psalms, the words of David, and of the Holy Spirit, who spake 
 by him." — Anderson's Vindicice Cantus Dominici, pp. 85. 86. 
 
APPENDIX. 161 
 
 Finally, the inspired writers of the New Testament quote, 
 literally, at times, from the Septuagint, an uninspired transla- 
 tion of the Old Testament. For example, in the third chapter 
 of Hebrews, referred to above, Paul quotes more than four 
 verses from the translation of the ninety-fourth Psalm by 
 the Seventy (ninety-fifth in the Hebrew and English), and 
 unequivocally represents that translation as the saying of th^ 
 Holy Ghost. 
 
 Note* B.— Page 29. 
 
 It is a source of no small gratification to find that the views 
 of inspiration, which I ventured to publish in Nova Scotia in 
 1834, were exhibited the same year in Britain under the impri- 
 matur of such a man as Robert Haldane, Esq., in his excellent 
 work on " The Evidence and Authority of Divine Revelation." 
 A short statement from that work is here transcribed. "Our 
 knowledge of the inspiration of the Bible, like every other 
 doctrine it contains, must be collected from itself. The words 
 of Scripture, indeed, as used by the writers, were their own 
 words. But this does convey the idea that the Bible is partly 
 the word of God, and partly the word of Man. It is not the 
 effect of any such co-operation, as supposes that one part was 
 produced by God, and the other part by man, to make out a 
 whole. Because the words were written by tne Prophets and 
 Apostles, this does not prevent them from being the word of 
 God. The following remarks of President Edwards, when he 
 is combating the deeply erroneous sentiment of the Armenian- 
 respecting a co-operation between God and man in the work of 
 grace, will explain this matter : — *In efficacious grace we are 
 not merely passive, nor yet does God do some, and we do th< 
 rest. But God does all, and we do all. God produces all, and 
 we act all. For that is what he produces, viz., our own acts. 
 God is the only proper author and foundation : we only are the 
 proper actors. We are, in different respects, wholly passive, 
 and wholly active. In the Scriptures the same things are repre- 
 sented as from God and from us. God is said to convert, and 
 men are said to convert and to turn. God makes a new heart, 
 and we are commanded to make us a new heart. God circum- 
 cises the heart, and we are commanded to circumcise our own 
 hearts; not merely because we must use the means in order to 
 the effect, but the effect itself is our act and our duty. These 
 things are agreeable to that text — God worketh in you to will 
 and to do.' 
 
 "The difference of style which we find among these writer- 
 does not at all conclude against their having the words they 
 were to write imparted to them. The style that God was pleased 
 to employ was used, and the instruments were such as thatstyl" 
 was natural to, flowing, like the words, with their full consent, 
 
162 APPENDIX. 
 
 and according to the particular tone of their minds, while they 
 yielded to the impression as voluntary and intelligent agents. 
 The Holy Spirit could dictate to them his own words, in" such 
 :i way that they would also be their words, uttered with 
 the understanding. He could speak the same thought by 
 the mouth of a thousand persons, each in his own style. If 
 variety of expression in relating the same things in the Gospel, 
 would not affect the trutli of the narrative, on the supposition 
 1 hat the writers were uninspired men, why is it presumed that 
 it would affect it on the supposition of their being inspired?" — 
 Vol. I, pp. 158. 163-4-5. 
 
 Note C— Page SO. 
 
 Freedom of the Divine Word from Error. 
 
 As the Word of God, the Scriptures claim a careful investi- 
 gation, and the connexion between the knowledge of them 
 and wisdom unto salvation, invests the study with the deepest 
 personal interest. Contentment with a superficial acquaintance 
 with the Bible is at once impious and foolish. As a subject of 
 stud}', the Scriptures are inexhaustible. Besides, there is an 
 inexpressible satisfaction in the pursuit of Scriptural knowledge, 
 arising out of the circumstance that there is no danger of being 
 involved in erro% What is learned from the Bible is something, 
 of the truth of which we are assured. 
 
 The productions of the most learned and accurate uninspired 
 writer may often be found to contain statements, involving 
 principles that he would not acknowledge, because he never 
 intended to teach the doctrines, that may be legitimately de- 
 duced from the premises which he supplied. A reconsideration 
 sometimes leads to a modification of the statement which had 
 been made, for the purpose of avoiding the necessary inference. 
 Sometimes a clear view of inferences, which cannot be sustained, 
 is the means of bringing conviction of the error of the position 
 which justified them, and leading to its abandonment. But 
 (rod, who directed the mental operations and the utterance of 
 Prophets and Apostles, has not only the most perfect apprehen- 
 sion of the import of every proposition, enunciated under his 
 direction, but of all the inferences which may be legitimately 
 drawn from that proposition, however remote the connection 
 between the premises and the conclusion. Every thing implied 
 in an inspired statement is as much of God, as true, as authori- 
 tative, as the statement which implies it ; and those, to whom 
 the word is sent, arc responsible for the neglect of the investi- 
 gation of such implied communications. The Lord charges the 
 Sadduceea with ignorance of the Scriptures, and consequent 
 error, not because they denied an explicit statement of the doc- 
 trine of the resurrection of the dead, found in the Old Testa- 
 
APPENDIX. 163 
 
 ment (for there is no such statement) ; but because they did not 
 recognise a necessary deduction from the words of God, addressed 
 to Moses from the burning bush. Paul represents David as 
 describing the blessedness of the man to whom God imputeth 
 righteousness without works, although the word righteousness 
 does not occur in the passage to which he refers for confirma- 
 tion, and the idea of " righteousness without works" is only 
 exhibited by inference from the Psalmist's statement. 
 
 The circumstance just mentioned supplies a curious evidence 
 of the divine origin of the Scriptures. It would be very singu- 
 lar if, in a work written by various individuals, of diversified 
 talent, of different ages, and speaking of multifarious topics, 
 involving a reference to all departments of nature, there should 
 not occur a single expression, involving views of subjects that 
 came properly under the cognisance of the philosopher. Now, 
 we have reason to believe that most of the inspired writers 
 were strangers to science, perhaps we may say that the Israelites 
 were unacquainted with the secrets of nature that modern sci- 
 ence has brought to light. But if the inspired writers have 
 used an expression, which implies a contradiction to an ascer- 
 tained fact in literature or science, then they cannot have writ- 
 ten under the superintendence of Him to whom all things are 
 known. This matter is lucidly stated by Dr. Carson, in his 
 peculiarly nervous terms. "But observes Mr. Wilson, 'The 
 Bible was not given us to make us poets, or orators, or histo- 
 rians, or natural philosophers.' Very true, very true, but very 
 silly. We must overlook the bad poetr}-, and bad oratory, of 
 the Bible, if we find any of this description in it; and we have 
 no reason to expect a complete history of human affairs, nor a 
 system of natural philosophy. But, verily, if the Scriptures 
 contain one rule of poetry or oratory, that rule must be a legi- 
 timate one, or the Bible is a forgery. And if it tells one his- 
 torical untruth, it must forfeit its pretensions in every thing, 
 seeing its pretensions extend to every thing in the book. The 
 inspired writers may have been ignorant of natural philosophy, 
 as the most ignorant of British peasants, without affecting their 
 inspiration. But, verily, if they have delivered one philosophi- 
 cal dogma, it must either be true, or the Scriptures as a whole 
 are false. ' All Scripture is given by inspiration of God.' This 
 pledges God equally for every thing in the Bible." — " Theories 
 of Inspiration,'" Edln., pp. 27, 28. 
 
 As the truth of the Newtonian system was confirmed by 
 inferring astronomical facts, not previously known, which sub- 
 sequent observation verified, so the truth of Revelation obtain- 
 additional and independent confirmation, from involving truths 
 which it was not intended directly to teach, but which enlarged 
 and accurate kuowledge of the works of God fully establishes. 
 The Scriptures inferred the possibility of pulverising gold, 
 
164 APPENDIX. 
 
 before modern chemistry was equal to the process. Whether 
 Solomon understood the circulation of the blood or not, his 
 language, in the last chapter of the Book of Ecclesiastes, obvi- 
 ously implies the fact. And when Paul tells the Corinthians 
 that they are " one bread and one body," he teaches, whether 
 he was acquainted with the fact or not, that the food which we 
 eat is converted into the substance of our material bodies. 
 Grant the inspiration of the Scriptures, and we may rest assured 
 that any doctrine in science, however remotely implied, shall 
 be found as true, as any doctrine involved in the system of 
 grace : and Christians, without anxiety, may abide the develope- 
 ments of science, when supposed facts militate against unequi- 
 vocal scriptural conclusions. 
 
 Geology has placed the Divine "Word once more in the fur- 
 nace. My total ignorance of Geology, and of geological theories, 
 forbids me to attempt to reason upon the subject of the Accord- 
 ance of Revelation and Geology, yet I may be excused for sup- 
 posing it possible, that as God created man in a state that, in 
 the judgment of those who know man only as passing from 
 infancy to maturity, might seem to infer an age of thirty years, 
 so he may have formed the world in a state that would indicate 
 an existence of as many milleniums ; and that those who attempt 
 to expound the structure of the human body from having 
 examined the scratch of a pin upon its surface, may find them- 
 selves mistaken in their deductions. Still, when I reflect upon 
 the character of a Miller and a King, who have extensively and 
 enthusiastically explored the geological field, my desire to 
 maintain the absolute integrity of the Divine word, does not 
 forbid the admission of the possibility, that I may yet be an 
 enthusiastic, although my age, (if there were no more serious 
 obstacle,) forbids the expectation that I can ever be a learned 
 geologist. 
 
 Note D.— Page 38. 
 
 Authority of the Word of God. 
 
 The statements contained in the text are fully sustained by 
 the following quotations. The first is from a most masterly 
 production, and is intended to show that in the Bible we see 
 God, hear God, feel the presence of God, and of none else. 
 11 The Bible is in m:<ny respects a singular volume. Its mode of 
 announcing doctrines and delivering precepts is altogether 
 peculiar. Its promises and threatenings, too, are delivered with 
 ft brevity, and announced with a majesty, essentially its own. 
 Incidents and events, whether calamitous, tragical, infamous, 
 heroic, fortunate, or even ludicrous, are recorded without a 
 single remark. Not a sentence is allowed to escape, enabling 
 us to infer the individual opinions, sentiments, or emotions, of 
 
APPENDIX. 165 
 
 the several writers at the time the narration was composed. 
 While these singular writers are exciting in their readers every 
 varied passion, emotion, or feeling, of which the human heart 
 is susceptible, they seem elevated themselves above the regions 
 of sympathy. — Arnotfs "Theocracy of the Bible" Edin., p. 135. 
 
 The following is from a volume, full of curious, interesting, 
 and instructive matter: — "The Apostles were careful to exhibit 
 in their own practice, the same unqualified submission to all the 
 commandments of Christ, which they enjoined upon others. 
 Xeither Moses nor the Apostles thought of changing the insti- 
 tutions of the God of Heaven, or adding one invention of their 
 own, any more than Sir Isaac Xewton thought of changing the 
 order and revolutions of the Solar System ; or the chemist or 
 mineralogist thinks of changing the properties of matter, or 
 arranging anew the strata of which the earth is composed. None 
 bowed witli profounder deference than they did to the oracles 
 of God. They adored Divine Wisdom no less wherein she was 
 silent, than wherein she spoke. When no voice came from the 
 throne of the Eternal, silence reigned among them. They com- 
 menced their inspired career with the lowly maxim of, 'Speak, 
 Lord, for thy servant heareth,' and prefaced every communica- 
 tion to their fellow men with, ' Thus saith the Lord." Go, Chris- 
 tian, and learn from the deference often paid to superior intel- 
 ligence among men, the profound veneration with which thou 
 oughtest to receive the wisdom of God." — McLeod's " View of 
 Inspiration" Glasgow, pp. 561-2-5. 
 
 "The New Testament, continually proceeding upon and 
 referring to the Old, could not be well understood without it. 
 Some things are far more fully revealed in the Old Testament, 
 ai the creation, aucl the variety of great and precious promises 
 which God has given us. Since the Old Testament is a rule as 
 well as the New, we are hound to imitate an approved example 
 of the observation of any ordinance of God's worship, which is 
 not ceremonial, though it be found in the Old Testament only. 
 And therefore, unless the singing of the Book of Psalms could 
 be shewn to be a ceremonial institution, we are bound to imi- 
 tate the example of it recorded in the Old Testament. — Ander- 
 VindieicBt &c, pp. 81-2. 
 
 Note E. — Page 43. 
 
 Language used faj the opponents of David' sPsai 
 
 Let any one who loves the house of God, and desires con- 
 formity to the Divine standard, in the administration of divine 
 ordinances, having a predilection for the uninspired Hymns, 
 read with care the representations, which the advocates of an 
 uninspired Psalmody have made of the Psalms of David, and it 
 
166 APPENDIX. 
 
 Yv'ill be strange if doubts do not arise respecting the propriety 
 of a practice, the advocacy of which demands such reproachful 
 exhibitions of the words of inspiration. The preface to Doctor 
 Watts' Hymns and Spiritual Songs comprehends, with relation 
 both to the spirit and the letter of the Psalms of David, language 
 utterly at variance with the recognition of their inspiration. 
 He thus writes: — "I have long been convinced that one great 
 occasion of this evil (the flattening of devotion, awakening of 
 regret, and touching all the springs of uneasiness within us,) 
 arises from the matter and the icords to which we confine all 
 our songs. Some of them are almost opposite to the spirit of the 
 Gospel ; many of them foreign to the state of the New Testa- 
 ment, and widely different from the present circumstances of 
 Christians." " We are checked on a sudden in our ascent towards 
 Heaven, by some expressions that are more suited to the da}'s of 
 carnal ordinances; the line which the clerk parcels out to us, 
 hath something in it so extremely Jewish and cloudy, that it 
 darkens our view of God the Saviour ; some dreadful curse 
 against men is proposed to our lips, which is so contrary to the 
 new commandment of loving our enemies." In the Psalms there 
 are M many deficiencies of light and glory." 
 
 The language of "T." (Sept. 27, 1853,) is conceived in the 
 same spirit. "' Generally speaking, the Psalms of David breathe 
 the most fervent spirit of devotion, and that in highly appro- 
 priate language. But that can only be said of the inspired 
 original, and said of it with some explanations. Could we even 
 use the original, it may well be doubted whether the composi- 
 tion is adapted to our taste, or calculated to animate our feelings 
 of devotion." 
 
 Such is a specimen of the language used by the opponents of 
 an inspired Psalmody, when speaking of the Songs of Zion. 
 Very differeut is the estimate of that collection by the Saviour, 
 and the inspired writers of the New Testament, as shall appear 
 by perusing the first section of the last Chapter of this work. 
 Yery different the estimate of some of the excellent of the earth, 
 fr'om the earliest records of the Christian dispensation. Chry- 
 sostem, quoted by McMaster, says: — "The grace of the Holy 
 Ghost hath so ordered it, that the Psalms of David should be 
 recited and sung night and day. In the Church's vigils — in the 
 morning — at funeral solemnities — the first, the midst, and the 
 last, is David. In private houses, where virgins spin — in the 
 monasteries — in the deserts, where men converse with God — the 
 first, the midst, and the last, is David. In the night when men 
 sleep, he wakes them up to sing; and collecting the servants of 
 God into angelic troops, turns earth into heaven, and of men 
 makes angels, chanting David's Psalms." 
 
 Surely the judgment of Rev. W. Romaine is entitled to beset 
 against that of Watts. His words are; — "I want a name for 
 
APPENDIX. ±*U 
 
 that man who should pretend that he could make better Hymns 
 than the Holy Ghost. His collection is large enough ; it wants 
 no addition. It is as perfect as its Author, and not capable of 
 any improvement. Why, in such a case, would any man in the 
 world take it into his head to sit down and write Hymns for 
 the use of the Church ? It is just the same as if he were to write 
 a new Bible, not only better than the old. but so much better, 
 that the old may be thrown aside. "What a blasphemous 
 attempt! And yet our hymnmongers, inadvertently I hope, 
 have come very near to this blasphemy ; for they shut out tbe 
 Psalms, to introduce their own verses into the Church, sing 
 them with great delight, and, as they fancy, with great profit ; 
 although the whole practice be in direct opposition to the com- 
 mand of God, and, therefore, cannot possibly be accompanied 
 with the divine blessing." 
 
 "The Psalms of David were penned for the use of the Church 
 of God in its public worship, not only in that age, but in other 
 ages; as being fitted to express the religion of all saints, in all 
 ages, as well as the religion of the Psalmist." — Edwards. 
 
 11 To say that the imprecations in the Psalms are offensive to 
 Christian ears, is talking with a boldness I dare not imitate. 
 Morality is the same now that ever it was; and I cannot think 
 that the Holy Spirit has made that language divine in the Old 
 Testament, which is uncharitable in the Xew. We have ' no 
 new commandment,' but what was delivered to us from the 
 beginning." — Bradbury. 
 
 Notwithstanding the ominous manner in which they have 
 been ushered in, Watts' Imitation and Hymns, or other poetical 
 compositions manufactured chiefly out of the materials which 
 they supplied, have been very extensively adopted by the 
 Churches. There is reason to believe that multitudes who use 
 them, would strongly dissent from the " many unguarded sen- 
 tences concerning David and the Book of Psalms," which Dr. W. 
 and others have written; yet it cannot be gainsayed that the 
 introduction of the Songs, without a protest against the defama- 
 tory language by which their preparation and introduction have 
 been vindicated, is a virtual homologation of the worst sentence 
 that has been written against David and the Songs of Zior. 
 Though speaking with much diffidence, it is very evident that 
 McMaster ascribes the introduction and spread of Unitarianism 
 to the introduction and general use of Watts' compositions. "It 
 has been said that ' the city of God presented no street of purer 
 gold than the New England Church.' It is now a desolation. 
 It is a fact, not admitting of doubt, that where his composition- 
 were first, and have been longest, used in the Psalmody of the 
 Church, Socinianism has made the most extensive progress. 
 Error has its power as well as truth; and like it, presses to 
 
16S APPENDIX. 
 
 consistency. Dr. W. rejected the Bible doctrine of the Trinity : 
 he cannot be supposed, intentionally, to contradict his settled 
 principles, in any of his poetic compositions ; his Imitations and 
 Hyrnns, with all their perfections and imperfections, were 
 adopted in the Psalmody of many churches, to the exclusion o£ 
 scripture songs; and among those churches the Socinian heresies 
 have extensively spread." — "Apology" pp. 121-2. 
 
 There is another doctrine, usually bound up in some form 
 with Socinianism and its kindred heresies, which- has followed 
 in the wake of Dr. W. — Universalism. It is not necessary to 
 mark the relation, which the progress of Universalism bears to 
 the use of uninspired Songs. From the reasons assigned for the 
 exclusion of some of David's Psalms, it is easy to shew that Uni- 
 versalism might be expected to follow. If it be not consistent 
 with the spirit of Christ, to pray for the destruction of ungodly 
 men, under any supposition, it must be inconsistent with the 
 character of God, to which pure religion constitutes an assimila- 
 tion, to grant the petition ; and what God may not grant to the 
 prayers of his people, he cannot in justice execute. Thus, by 
 a very simple process, we arrive at the conclusion, that the 
 ultimate destruction of any member of the human family is at 
 variance with the divine character. 
 
 Among evangelical expositors of the Word, there is manifested, 
 both in the pulpit and by the press, an unwarrantable squeam- 
 ishness, when they approach the portions that are presented to 
 us in the form of prayers against the enemies of God, and of his 
 people as such. They have strengthened the hands of the ene- 
 mies of scriptural views of the divine attributes, and of the 
 integrity of the divine word, by shrinking from the recognition 
 of those prayers, and by discussing the subject, as if they had a 
 lurking apprehension of their indefensibility upon Christian 
 principles. They usually treat them as predictions, not as 
 prayers. Even if we allow that the Hebrew might be trans- 
 lated as predictions, it must not be forgotten that when the 
 Apostles quote such passages as contain the supposed predic- 
 tions, they present them still in the imprecatory form. 
 
 Were the propriety of substituting the prediction for the 
 prayer admitted, the difficulty is only removed a single step. 
 What would be thought of the servant of Christ, who hesitates 
 to acquiesce in the purpose which his Master has expressed, or 
 to say Amen to the sentence lie has pronounced? And what is 
 the expression of acquiescence in the prediction which God has 
 uttered, but a prayer for its accomplishment? The petition of 
 the Lord's prayer, "Thy will be done on earth as it is done in 
 Heaven," implies all that is expressed in all the imprecations 
 contained in the Book of Psalms. Are men to boast of a mercy 
 more comprehensive than God's? If we are made partakers of 
 
APPENDIY. 169 
 
 the divine nature, and assimilated to God, our mercy can no 
 more involve a want of due respect for justice than can God's 
 mercy; and we shall repudiate the mercy that does not har- 
 monise with truth, and the peace that shrinks from the embrace 
 of righteousness. A most unequivocal inconsistency is often 
 found entering into the prayers of men — of distinguished men — 
 who, knowing that we look for what we ask, and pray for 
 nothing but what we may hope to obtain, preach or defend the 
 eternal misery of some men, and follow up their sermon or 
 argument by asking God to save all men: knowing that the 
 time shall come when the watchmen of Zion shall see with one 
 eye, preach the duty of speaking the same things, and, instead 
 of praying for Christians of all denominations, pray for all 
 denominations of Christians, the answer to which would involve 
 the perpetuity of disagreement and division. In a word, they 
 ask for what they know they cannot obtain — for what they do 
 not wish to obtain. As God had determined that Moses should 
 not enter the promised land, he peremptorily forbids him to 
 express a desire upon the subject. This absurd display of 
 charity reminds us of the demand made upon Christians of an 
 impossibility — of more than everlasting love ever does — of the 
 forgiveness of those who neither profess nor manifest repentance 
 for the injury they have done : of the prohibition of anger when 
 God is angry, and the complacent recognition of a christian 
 spirit in those who would stab their neighbor under the fifth 
 rib, provided it be done with a placid countenance, and an "Art 
 thou in health, my brother?" 
 
 In this the meekness and lowliness of Christ are illustrated, 
 and he is set forth for an example to the " man, who for con- 
 science towards God, endures grief, suffering wrongfully," that 
 M when he was reviled, he reviled not again ; when he suffered, 
 he threatened not, but committed himself to him that judgeth 
 righteously." But an untaught and unsanctified devotionalism 
 — an alien from the place of holiness — would not only forbid 
 the Christian to avenge himself, but to commit his cause to God, 
 and ask the interposition of him to whom vengeance belongs. 
 The spirit of David is better than the spirit of Watts. The 
 spirit that moved the Psalmist was the spirit of Christ, but 
 Watts' preface was written under the influence of a very differ- 
 ent spirit ; and those who talk of the "cursing Psalms," talk 
 impiously, understanding neither what they say, nor whereof 
 they affirm. 
 
 The Church has been a loser by the exclusion of these same 
 M cursing Psalms" from the sanctuary of praise. When the Lord 
 teaches us to pray for forgiveness, as we forgive, the very form 
 of the prayer is adapted to turn our thoughts in upon ourselves, 
 and to lead us to ask, " Are we praying for forgiveness or con- 
 demnation ?" For if we do not unreservedly forgive our repent- 
 
170 APPENDIX. 
 
 ant brother, we are praying, in the words which our Lord 
 teaches us to use, for condemnation. And when, in our approach 
 to the altar of God, we record his abhorrence of sin, and pray 
 for his interposition against the counsels and operations of 
 ungodly men, we are impressed more deeply with the exceeding 
 sinfulness of sin, God's determination to punish it, and learn to 
 tremble at the possibility of occupying the position, or culti- 
 vating the fellowship of those against whom the whole church 
 lifts up her voice — against whom we cry to God. Exclude the 
 41 cursing Psalms," and error, profanity, and impiety, shall 
 acquire a daring boldness, that even ungodly men will dread to 
 exhibit, when the thunders of Sinai are echoing through the 
 aisles of our churches, pressing the present necessity to escape 
 for their lives, and seek safety in the Hiding place that God has 
 provided. 
 
 Where are impiety and infidelity most rampant? Where are 
 youth most fearlessly profane ? Search and look. I hesitate 
 not to suggest the answer. " Where David is excluded from 
 the sanctuary, and the still small voice is dissociated from the 
 fire, the earthquake, and the strong wind which rends the 
 mountains." 
 
 Note F.— Page 61. 
 
 Claims of Songs, not incorporated with the Booh 
 of Psalms. 
 
 Besides independent compositions, proceeding from the pen 
 of inspired writers, such as the natural history of Solomon, all 
 which have perished, there are historical remains, of a poetical 
 character, some composed by inspired writers, others by indi- 
 viduals of recognised piety, but not numbered with the writers 
 of the oracles of God. With respect to such of these composi- 
 tions as are not incorporated with the Book of Psalms, there 
 are two questions that may arise — Are they inspired ? Are they 
 adapted for general use, or do they proceed upon circumstances 
 of a local and an evanescent character? It does not follow 
 from their insertion in Scripture, that they are inspired. An 
 author is not responsible for every sentence he transcribes, 
 except its transcription has its origin in his approbation of it. 
 To use the words of Haldane in reply to a silly objection to 
 verbal inspiration — "Is it not sufficiently plain, that, while 
 God dictated to the sacred penman the words of those referred 
 to (Job's friends and the Devil,) he dictated them to be inserted, 
 not as his words but as their words?" The insertion of a saying 
 or of a song, by an inspired writer, gives us assurance that we 
 have a faithful record of that saying, or copy of that song. We 
 must ascertain, by its consistency with the word of inspiration, 
 
APPENDIX. 171 
 
 whether it can be admitted as correct, and by other circum- 
 stances whether it can be recognised as inspired. Who would 
 say that David wrote his pathetic lamentation on the death of 
 Saul and Jonathan, which he calls " The Bow," under the influ- 
 enced the spirit of inspiration ? or that by the same spirit he 
 composed the dirge which was pronounced over Abner's graved 
 I should not undertake to defend the inspiration of the SoDg of 
 Deborah and Barak, neither that of Hannah, more than the 
 inspiration of the best of the Olney Hymns, or of Erskine's 
 Gospel Sonnets ; though approving not only every sentiment, 
 but every expression. Good men may present us with an 
 exposition of the Divine word in poetry as well as in prose. 
 Good men may have composed songs, and sung them, who had 
 just as little idea of introducing their songs into the services of 
 the Church, as those who have sung the songs of Burns, orTan- 
 nahill. The following remarks appear to me very judicious : — 
 "Uninspired songs were doubtless used by the Hebrews on 
 special " (perhaps ordinary) " occasions ; but would they have 
 thought of bringing them into the temple of God, or into theii 
 synagogues, when engaged in His solemn worship, after receiv- 
 ing from God the command to praise him in the words of David 
 and Asaph the seer ? But admitting that such Hymns were 
 used by these persons in the formal worship of God, it remains 
 to be proved that in doing so they pretended to assert a divine 
 warrant for what they did. They perhaps entertained views 
 somewhat loose in regard to Christians regulating their worship 
 by the will and word of Christ. We know that there is not 
 that regard paid to this matter by many professing Protestants, 
 which one would reasonably expect." — "Friends of Inspire. 
 Psalmody Defended" by Cooper, Pha., 1850, p. 12. 
 
 Granting the inspiration of the Song, which Moses and the 
 children of Israel sung, when they had escaped from the hand; 
 of Pharaoh ; and of the Song which Moses taught the children 
 of Israel before his death, we have no evidence that the former 
 was ever sung afterwards, except as the sentiments are, or ac 
 in some instances, the language is incorporated with the Book 
 of Psalms: and it is evident that the latter was designed for 
 the use of Israel, as a nation that might be, and actually has 
 been, deprived of the distinguishing privileges that belong to 
 the Covenant Society which God recognises as his people — an 
 indestructible society. 
 
 Note G.— Page 69. 
 
 The Principle involved in Watts' Imitation. 
 
 The title-page of Watts' Psalms is calculated to leave the 
 impression, that the reader has the Psalms of David before him. 
 
172 APPENDIX. 
 
 The admirers of Dr. Watts are fond of representing his work as 
 a revision, " a rich and beautiful version of the Psalms." There 
 is a want of honesty in the manner in which the Book of Psalm3 
 has been treated, to which we would not submit in any depart- 
 ment of science. It might be rash to make the statement, but 
 there is room to suspect that the ease with which the churches 
 submitted to the course pursued by Dr. Watts, has emboldened 
 others to treat the most valuable religious publications of our 
 most esteemed authors in a similar manner. The American 
 Tract Society has perpetrated a virtual fraud upon the public, 
 and an act of flagrant injustice to the authors, by sowing broad- 
 cast the works of various devoted servants of Christ, divested 
 of the distinctive character that entitles them to bear the names 
 of the writers upon the title-page. jSTor is it a sufficient excul- 
 pation to insert a brief note, in very small type, on a page usu- 
 ally devoted to a notice of entry in " the Clerk's Office of the 
 District Court," (at which the reader hardly thinks worth his 
 while to look) which does not prepare the purchaser for the 
 serious alterations that are made. We are furnished with 
 " Glass's Abridgment of Hall's Contemplations," with the fol- 
 lowing notice printed in the shade: "In this edition a few pas- 
 sages implying denominational peculiarities, have been omitted." 
 In "Baxter's Call," "a few lines touching points on which 
 Evangelical Christians differ are omitted." When such works 
 are filed down so as to be equally accommodated to the standard 
 of six different denominations, there is little left that might not 
 be as well ascribed to a dozen, as to the writers of the original. 
 We are not disposed now to discuss the question, whether the 
 works so modified are not better adapted to general utility, but 
 to deny the right of any man, or society of men, to send them 
 forth, after being subjected to mutilation, recommended by the 
 names of men, strangers to the taste which demands the mutila- 
 tion. We would see Hall, and Edwards, and Flavel, as they 
 were, not as the A. T. S. think they should have been. 
 
 That Dr. W. has led the way in the literary injustice, hear 
 the words of Dr. George Jenkin, of the O. S. Presbyterian 
 Assembly, of course no prejudiced judge. "Dr. W. has attempted, 
 professedly, to improve upon the sentiment, the very matter, 
 and the order, by various omissions and additions, to fit the 
 Psalms for christian worship. This is unfair. If Pope had 
 taken the same license with the Poems of Homer, all the ama- 
 teurs of Greek poetry in the world would have cried, Shame on 
 the presumptious intruder. But it is a pious and zealous Chris- 
 tian divine who has taken this liberty with the Songs of Zion, 
 and almost the whole church acquiesce in it. What would we 
 think of a French poet, who, proposing to enrich French litera- 
 ture with a versification of the masterpiece of the English muse, 
 should mangle and transpose the torn limbs of Paradise Lost, 
 
APPENDIX. 173 
 
 until Milton himself might meet his first-born on the highway, 
 and not recognise it ? And must this literary butchery be 
 tolerated, because, forsooth, the victim is the inspired Psalmist? 
 Why should the heaven-taught bard be misrepresented thus? 
 Let us rather have the songs of inspiration as God inspired 
 them, and as nearly as is possible, and consistent with the laws 
 of English versification. God's order of thought is doubtless 
 best for his church. If any one thinks he can write better 
 spiritual songs than the sweet singer of Israel, let him do it : 
 but let him not di ess the savoury meat which God has prepared, 
 until all its substance and savour are gone, and then present it 
 to us as an imitation of David's Psalms." 
 
 The professed object of Dr. W. is to "fit the Psalms for Chris- 
 tian worship," If we allow that the changes he has introduced, 
 render the Psalms more suitable to the Kew Testament dispen- 
 sation, he has entirely forgotten the universal spread of Chris- 
 tianity. He has given a very circumscribed locality to the 
 Christian worship for which he would make provision ; and 
 Christian would be set against Christian in the use of Ms songs. 
 One verse from Psalm 20th " for a day of prayer in time of war," 
 runs thus : — 
 
 may the niem'ry of thy name 
 
 Inspire our armies for the fight ! 
 Our foes shall fall and die with shame, 
 
 Or quit the field with shameful flight. 
 
 Another from the 60th Psalm, for "a day of humiliation for 
 disappointment in war :" — 
 
 Go with our armies to the fight, 
 
 Like a confederate God : 
 In vain confederate pow'rs unite 
 
 Against thy lifted rod. 
 
 Now imagine Christian nations at war, as has often been unhap- 
 pily the case. American and Briton, French and Russian, lift 
 up their voices and present their song to the Eternal, involving 
 a palpable contradiction in their requests. To this Dr. McAllister 
 adverts in the following terms: — "The Psalms, such of them, at 
 least, as he thought worthy of imitation, must be made to speak 
 a language which, according to the reformer of David, the Holy 
 Ghost did not make them speak. Still, however, reformed as 
 David was, he was unfit for the sanctuaries of America. The 
 imitation and hymns of Dr. W. were adapted to the British 
 monarchy ; America had become both independent and repub- 
 lican. The reformer must be reformed. These compositions 
 which superceded the hymns of inspiration, must be adapted to 
 the Christian worship in the United States." 
 
 In the Psalms, Israel is introduced as the covenant people of 
 God; their privileges, trials, deliverances, and triumphs, are 
 those of the Church in every age, in every place. Dr. W. hay 
 exhibited Britain as the promised land, (Ps. 07); the people as 
 
174: APPENDIX. 
 
 the peculiar inheritance of God, (Pss. 60, 147); her wars are 
 confounded with those waged according to the express command 
 of God (Ps. 18, common metre) ; and her king is identified with 
 him whom God has set upon his holy hill of Zion (Pss. 18, 1o.) 
 A more gross, more ignorant, and more impious perversion 
 could not easily be introduced than what is involved in the sub- 
 stitution of the name, the people, the sovereign, the wars, the 
 victories, of any land, for those of Israel in the Book of Psalms. 
 
 Note H. — Page 71. 
 
 Comparison of Liturgies of Prayer and, Praise. 
 
 An argument is urged against our limitation to one form, 
 though that is an inspired form, of praise, derived from the sup- 
 posed necessity of a form of prayer, upon the same principle on 
 which a liturgy of praise is vindicated. The late judicious 
 Dr. Samuel Miller, of Princeton, has stated this argument, as 
 strongly perhaps as it could be stated, and in his usual lucid 
 terms. But it is not a little extraordinary in one, whose very 
 valuable works show that he was accustomed to examine every 
 subject which h& discussed, very coolly and impartially, to find 
 him employ language implying an imputation of such a lack ot 
 discrimination, on the part of the advocates of the exclusive Use 
 of an inspired Psalmody, as to deprive them of any title to have 
 their reasons canvassed, or to cut off all hope that the} 7 may be 
 found able to weigh an argument on the contrary part. Indeed, 
 lie speaks, as if he considered the subject too transparent to 
 warrant an argument at all. His words are: — "Who can for- 
 bear to marvel, then, when the light, the freedom, and the 
 spirituality of prayer, have received such manifest and rich 
 improvement under the New Testament dispensation, that there 
 should be any who, in regard to forms of praise, should insist 
 that we are bound still to adhere to the Psalmody of the old 
 economy? What would be thought of any one who, in preach- 
 ing and in prayer, should contend that we are not warranted 
 to advance beyond the restricted limits of the ceremonial 
 economy? Why is it not equally wonderful that any, claiming 
 to be eminently evangelical, should occupy this ground, with 
 regard to praise." — Public Prayer, p. 38. 
 
 Similar is the style of Dr. Neill, in his exposition of the Epis- 
 tle to the Ephesiaus. "That Hymns or Spiritual Songs, bot- 
 tomed on the word of God, whether a versified exposition of a 
 particular passage, or a condensed exhibition of gospel truth, 
 taken from various passages, and clothed in decent and serious 
 language, may be sung in divine worship, whether public or 
 private, appears to me perfectly obvious and incontestible. Yet 
 it isa curious fact, that many Christian congregations, and some, 
 too, in our own connection, have conscientious scruples on this 
 
APPENDIX. 175 
 
 subject." To Dr. Neill, an able reply has been furnished by 
 Rev. Joseph T. Cooper, Ass. Presbyn. Pha., entitled, <k The 
 Friends of an Inspired Psalmody defended," — a reply deserving 
 a careful perusal by both the friends and enemies of the cause 
 he advocates. 
 
 "T"says, "It would be absurd to hold the lawfulness of 
 extempore prayer and deny the other." (I suppose he means 
 the use of uninspired hymns in worship.) 
 
 One circumstance seems to be entirely overlooked in this 
 reasoning, if reasoning it can be called, that extemporaneous 
 prayer is not to be paralleled with all hymns of human composi- 
 tion, but such as shall be prepared at the time of announcement, 
 and verse by verse as the composure is being sung. A form of 
 praise is absolutely necessary. There can be no social praise 
 without a form, and a form previously known. Even the indi- 
 vidual who would praise God in a song must use one previously 
 prepared either by another or by himself. The attempt at an 
 extemporaneous effusion, or such as might be compared with 
 extemporaneous prayer, would very likely astonish, or disgust, 
 the most fervent admirers of Rouse's worst lines. The case in 
 respect to prayer is different, in which one^is the organ of 
 man}% and the mental or expressed assent or those who join, 
 follows the utterance of the several petitions, or of the prayer 
 as a whole. This is fully established by an incidental expression 
 used by the Apostle when speaking to a different point of Chris- 
 tian practice — "How shall he that occupieth the place of the 
 unlearned, say Amen, at thy giving of thanks ?" But as the 
 reply to this reasoning, against an inspired and of course a fixed 
 form of praise, is well expressed by McMaster and Martin, I 
 prefer placing their words before the reader. " Had we a large 
 and diversified collection of prayers in the sacred volume, bear- 
 ing this inscription, The Book of Prayers, and no express 
 authority for using others, few, it is presumed, would ever 
 attempt extemporaneous prayer. When our Lord, at the request 
 of his disciples, taught them to pray, he merely set them a pat- 
 tern, saying, ' after this manner pray ye.' But there is not the 
 least intimation in the whole compass of divine revelation, that 
 the Book of Psalms was given as a model, after which we should 
 shape Psalms for ourselves. Let it also be recollected that the 
 Psalms, though composed by different individuals, on different 
 occasions, and at different times, were, by the authority of God, 
 collected together into one book ; the case however is different 
 in relation to the Scripture prayers; excepting such as are alto 
 Psalms, they lie scattered throughout the sacred volume, being 
 recorded in the order of time in which they were delivered." 
 Martin's Pref., pp. 9, 10 : — "Prayer and praise are distinct ordi- 
 nances. We can have social prayer without a prescribed form, 
 but not social singing of praise. Again, God has not seen meet 
 
176 APPENDIX. 
 
 to appoint, at any time, for the stated use of his church, a book 
 of prayers ; but he has given an inspired book of Psalms, Hymns, 
 and Spiritual Songs. And, lastly, observe, that the Lord has 
 promised his Spirit, as the spirit of supplications, to help the 
 infirmities of his sanctified ones, who neither know how to 
 pray, nor for what to pray, as they ought; but on the page of 
 inspiration there is no promise of aid from the Spirit, in the 
 composition of a Book of Hymns, for the public service of his 
 Church. This seems to intimate, that to such a work he proposed 
 not to call any of her sons. — McMaster's Apology, pp. 149, 150. 
 
 Note K. — Page 85. 
 
 Hymns and Spiritual Songs. 
 
 In addition to the remarks contained in the text, in support 
 of the position, that the Hymns and Spiritual Songs spoken of 
 by the Apostle, are not other odes than are comprehended in 
 the Book of Psalms, we observe, (first), that if they are not, the 
 direction of James, "Is any merry? let him sing Psalms," limits 
 the Christians, tajwhom he writes, in a manner not sanctioned 
 by the Apostle of the Gentiles. (Second.) We find the term 
 spiritual uniformly used in Scripture to denote that which pro- 
 ceeds immediately from the Spirit of Christ, and we thus learn 
 that the Spiritual Song is the fruit of inspiration. Let the reader, 
 who desires satisfaction upon this point, examine carefully 
 those passages, in which mention is made of spiritual men, 
 spiritual gifts, spiritual meat, spiritual drink, a spiritual rock, 
 a spiritual law, a spiritual body, and a spiritual house. (Third.) 
 These Psalms, Hymns, and Spiritual Songs, in common, consti- 
 tute "the word of Christ." That the Colossians may teach and 
 admonish one another in Psalms, and Hymns, and Spiritual 
 Songs, the word of Christ must dwell in them richly in all wis- 
 <lom and knowledge ; and the Ephesians must be filled with 
 the Spirit, as opposed to wine, if they would speak to them- 
 selves in Psalms, Hymns, and spiritual Songs. 
 
 I am aware that the punctuation, in both of the passages 
 referred to above, has been judged faulty ; and it is supposed 
 that the use of Psalms, Hymns, and Spiritual Songs, should be 
 exhibited in connection with singing only. So thought I for- 
 merly. Except when the Psalms contain a direct address to 
 <jrod, we ask, to whom do Christians speak, in singing praise ? 
 and unless we view the service as a mere form, the answer must 
 be, The worshippers are speaking, whether the Psalm be didac- 
 tic or hortatory, to one another; while music is adapted to fix 
 the attention, and deepen the impression which the language is 
 intended to produce. In no other form, can Christians in their 
 assemblies, exhort or teach one another, unless many worship- 
 
APPENDIX. 177 
 
 pers are absolved from the obligation, or the house of God is 
 turned into such a Babel, as to destroy all hope of edification 
 from the exercise. In this form, the weakest can edify his fel- 
 low, and perform a duty otherwise impossible. If Psalmody 
 were generally understood and appreciated, and used in its 
 proper spirit, we should have the word of Christ addressed to 
 Christians by one another, instead of the wild, and incoherent, 
 and senseless addresses, which are often uttered under the name 
 of exhortation. (Fourth.) That a prophet is one who speaks 
 under the immediate direction of God, will hardly be questioned. 
 The idea to be attached to the word is well illustrated in the 
 address of God to Moses (Ex. vii. 1): "See, I have made thee a 
 god to Pharaoh; and Aaron thy brother shall be th j prophet." 
 Aaron should receive instructions immediately from Moses, and 
 speak accordingly to the King of Egypt. A prophet, therefore, 
 or a prophet of the Lord, is one who speaks as he receives 
 instructions from God. Prophesying is accordingly the utter- 
 ance of words taught by the Holy Spirit, whether these revela- 
 tions have respect to things past, preseut, or future. The cele- 
 bration of praise is denominated prophesying. The right of 
 women, who are forbidden to assume the character of public 
 teachers, to prophesy, is fully recognised by Paul (1 Cor. xi. 5). 
 That prophesying has reference, in this instance, to praise, will 
 be manifest, by comparing the words of the Apostle with the 
 statement that the sons of Asaph prophesied with harps, with 
 psalteries, and with cymbals (1 Chron. xxv. 1, 2) ; and those 
 passages where a company of prophets is represented as exer- 
 cising their office. The conclusion to which these premises Lead 
 is this, that in the celebration of praise, we use the words of 
 inspiration. Praise is not otherwise Prophesying. 
 
 The judgment that Hymns and Spiritual Songs are nothing 
 different from the Book of Psalms — are not uninspired compo- 
 sitions — is sustained by the most distinguished names. True, 
 the most eminent are not authority ; but when one man exhibits 
 his opinion, instead of argument, we may oppose name to name. 
 ADd the advocates of an uninspired Psalmody can produce no 
 names superior, few, if any equal, to the names of Calvin, Bez-i, 
 >wen, Manton, Poole, Vincent, Calamy, Ridgely, Gill, and many 
 others, who all proclaim that the Psalms of David are intended 
 by the terms which the Apostle uses. 
 
 The advocates of the exclusive use of David's Psalms never 
 thought of excluding Hymns and Spiritual Songs from the ser- 
 vices of the Church. 
 
 I suppose to the language of Paul "T." refers, when (Sept. :;, 
 1853) he says that "the first Christians did this, (he probablv 
 means, sang uninspired hymns,) with the approbation of the 
 Apostles." 
 
 While I am writing these Notes, the person, who is supposed 
 
178 APPENDIX. 
 
 to have subscribed himself " T." has departed this life. But 
 "T." represents a class: any one, who thinks he can wear it 
 may take up the mantle, and smite the waters. If they are 
 divided, we shall hold ourselves bound to recognise the 
 succession. 
 
 Note L. — Page 104. 
 
 Imperfections of Human Compositions. 
 
 There are many repetitions in the Divine Word, but not one 
 of them is vain. If the same thing is once and again introduced, 
 whether by the same or several inspired writers, it is presented 
 under a different aspect, or in a different connexion: and the 
 result is, to give the diligent student a more exact and compre- 
 hensive view of the whole subject brought before his mind. The 
 matter, which, at one time, is treated in a didactic form, is 
 exhibited again, in the historical portions of the Scripture, as 
 embodied in the life of faith, and we recognise " the epistles of 
 Christ, known and read of all men," in the living pages of the 
 believer's conversation. Again, the same things are brought 
 forward in a form, adapted to the devotional exercises of the 
 saints, and appear in their transforming influence upon the soul, 
 giving forth their utterance in the language of praise. Thus 
 God has made a revelation of the system of grace, the pro- 
 visions and results of the Covenant of Redemption, in a three 
 fold form — didactic, historical, and devotional ; and what the 
 Holy Ghost directly teaches, in language suited to the glorious 
 theme, he leads every saint to express, by showing forth the 
 lesson written upon his heart, and to exhibit in a conversation 
 becoming the gospel. The Psalms are a revelation of the will 
 and way of God, made in the man, and poured from the lips in 
 the language of inspiration. Every saint, in the use of Zion's 
 songs, becomes (to reverb to a thought introduced in the last 
 note) a prophet of God, exercising his proper functions. We 
 never find God directly addressing man in the Book of Psalms, 
 but every saint speaking to God and gratefully acknowledging 
 what God has done, or what he humbly desires God to do for 
 him ; or speaking to his fellow, and shewing what God has 
 done for'him, and what God requires all his people to think, to 
 say, to execute. 
 
 'if it be a fanciful idea, that the Psalms are a perfect copy of 
 the revealed will of God, in a special form, it is one that has 
 occurred to the most enlightened of the followers of the Lamb. 
 Of the Book, which Luther called his " little Bible," others hold 
 similar language. " I believe that a man can find nothing more 
 glorious than these Psalms; for they embrace the whole life of 
 man, the affections of his mind, and the emotions of his soul. 
 If he discovers that he grows in holiness, or desires to praise and 
 
APPENDIX. 179 
 
 glorify God, he can select a Psalm suited to every occasion, and 
 thus will find that they are written for him." — Athanasius. 
 " Here is a perfect theology, or system of divine knowledge. 
 There are treasures of all things brought into and laid up in the 
 Book of Psalms, as in a great and common store-house or maga- 
 zine." — Basil. "It was but a just encomium of it (the Book of 
 Psalms,) that came from the pen of one of the early fathers, 
 that it is a complete system of divinity, for the use and edifica- 
 tion of the common people of the Christian Church." — Horsely. 
 "The Psalms are an epitome of the Bible.'' — Bp. Home. "There 
 is nothing in true religion, doctrinal, experimental, and prac- 
 tical, but will present itself to our attention, whilst we medi- 
 tate upon the Psalms. The Christian's use of them in the closet, 
 and the minister's in the pulpit, will generally increase, with 
 the growing experience of the power of true religion in their 
 own hearts." — Scott. " A moment's thought will shew, that the 
 Book of Psalms is 'the Bible in miniature;' precisely what an 
 evangelical psalm-book f should be, that is, a compressed exhibi- 
 tion of Jehovah's character, grace, and providence; of man's 
 state, experience, and prospects." — McMaster. 
 
 The question may be asked, how Christians came to form a 
 judgment of the Book of Psalms so unfavourable, how to acqui- 
 esce in the libel of Watts against them, and to set them aside to 
 make way for his poetical effusions? McMaster explains the 
 circumstance thus: — "The days of Puritanical zeal had passed 
 away. The licentious and unprincipled reigns of the second 
 Charles and James, had given a shock to the morals and to the 
 piety of the nation, under the influence of which they languished, 
 and were ready to expire. The principles of infidelity had 
 extended to every department of the social body. At such a 
 time, it is not strange, that an indulgent ear should be given to 
 unhallowed suggestions, against any portion of the word of God ; 
 and especially, when recommended by the imposing pretensions 
 of superior liberality." 
 
 The writer of an article in the Free Church Magazine, on the 
 " Paraphrases," explains, upon a similar principle, the alteration 
 of forty-five, and the addition of twenty-two, which together 
 constitute the collection of Paraphrases used by the Established 
 Church of Scotland, and by others. Of the alterations made 
 upon the older Paraphrases, and appearing in the existing col- 
 lection, the writer sa} T s : — " Our impression is, that their altera- 
 tion was one of the indices, which the times abounded in, of a 
 determination to bur} r evangelical broth " Of the added Para- 
 phrases: — "Somewhere among these twenty-two, and the five 
 Hymns, will be found, almost exclusively, the portions of 
 Paraphrases, against which the greatest exception has been 
 taken by serious persons." Now for the state of things, in the 
 Church, when the Paraphrases, as they now staid, were sane- 
 
180 APPENDIX. 
 
 tioned : — "The readers of this magazine need not be reminded 
 of the rapidity of the declension which followed the deposition 
 of the seceding ministers in 1740. The faithful remnant in the 
 Church were dispirited and enfeebled; their protestations were 
 unheeded ; their numbers diminished ; forced settlements, 
 unfaithful discipline, false doctrine, and all that betokens the 
 withdrawment of the Spirit of God, multiplied and grew; until, 
 at the time we speak of, Moderatism had reached the highest 
 pinnacle of power, and the rights and liberties of Christ's Church 
 and people were contemptuously trodden under foot." 
 
 The "Hymn-Book of the United Presbyterian Church" has 
 been preceded by no equivocal evidence, that the spirit of the 
 Erskines, and, in part, their principles, have passed away: and 
 if future developements do not discover that the way was pre- 
 pared for the " Hymn Book," as it had been prepared for Watts' 
 Imitation and the Paraphrases, there must be some error in the 
 reasoning of this production. 
 
 Are the Hvmns and Spiritual Songs, > that, coming in like a 
 flood, have swept away David's Psalms, except on a few elevated 
 headlands, which rise above the inundation, distinguished by 
 an elegance, a spirituality, a comprehensiveness, in a word, a 
 perfection that ought to reconcile us to the substitution ? We 
 invite the reader to consult, not the bigotted advocates of the 
 Old Psalms, not the vulgar advocates of Rouse's doggerel, but 
 the liberal and enlightened introducers and supporters of unin- 
 spired compositions, to the exclusion of the Psalms of David. 
 Are they satisfied ? The numerous changes, substitutions, omis- 
 sions, additions, that follow each other in rapid succession, 
 furnish a sufficient answer. Blaikie's " Philosophy of Sectarian- 
 ism" furnishes the three following quotations : — 
 
 A "Layman" in the New York Independent, Feb. 23, 1854. 
 says — "We have some two thousand pieces, which are called 
 Psalms, or Hymns. Perhaps two hundred of them may pass 
 for odes or lyrics, suitable for singing, Fifty more might pos- 
 sibly be selected by an expert." 
 
 The Boston CongregationalisU Feb. 15, 1853, has the follow- 
 ing: — "Professor B. B. Edwards believed that two or three 
 hundred Psalms or Hymns would include all which, are of 
 sterling valae for the sanctuary. Unquestionably he was right, 
 The popular demand for new and more numerous Hymns, it 
 cannot be denied, arises in part from the wide dissatisfaction, 
 with a large number of those with which our hymn-books are 
 rilled. Let us have fewer and choicer. Let them be truly 
 sacred lyrics, and not feeble prose, measured and amputated to 
 the proper length, and afterwards still further mangled, at the 
 mercy of men who wonder that David" (or rather the Holy 
 Ghost, who spake by him) "had not sufficient native sense to 
 have composed his Psalms in proper metres, ready at once 
 
APPENDIX. 181 
 
 to be cantered through 'De Fleury, or paced through State 
 Street' " 
 
 Tlie Glasgow Examiner for Sept. 18, 1852, thus remarks upon 
 the "Hymn Book of the U. P. Church. The collection contains 
 a great many beautiful effusions of sanctified genius, and not a 
 tew rery trashy productions. ~We feel very sensitive on the score 
 of Hymn Books ; and while we admit that hymns may be occa- 
 sionally used, we decidedly protest against the superceding the 
 productions of the sweet singer of Israel. The U. P. Church has 
 taken an important step in making a hymn book under the sanc- 
 tion of its highest court, and other bodies would do well to pause 
 before following this example." 
 
 A defect that must attach to all Hymn Books, and to which 
 we have alluded in the text, is here exhibited in the words of 
 Cooper. They embody sectarianism, and are calculated to per- 
 petuate disunion. "From the necessities of the case, the hymns 
 of all churches must bear, to a greater or less degree, a denomi- 
 national impress. Hence we have Methodist hymns, Baptist 
 hymns, Presbyterian renins, and even Universalist hymns, and 
 we may reasonably expect that these various hymns will exhibit 
 the peculiarities of the Churches, by which they have been 
 respectively adopted. Lest it might be thought that we are 
 biassed by prejudice on this subject, we shall quote the words 
 of the editors of the ' Biblical Repertory, or Princeton Review, 1 
 who no doubt make use of an uninspired Psalmody. On page 
 505 of vol. 18, m'dj be found the following remarks: — 'The 
 Psalmody of the Christian assembly has generally partaken 
 largely of those characteristics of thought and expression, which 
 arise from the circumstances of the people. In a divided state 
 of the Church, when the different denominations are zealous 
 for their respective forms of doctrine and worship, the lyric 
 poetry becomes strongly argumentative and polemical ; 
 addresses men rather than God ; and is employed to defend 
 and inculcate theology, and to confirm the attachment of the 
 people to their peculiar articles of faith. Hence each sect has 
 its Psalmody. Both policy and conscience are deemed to require 
 the hymns to coincide in sentiment throughout with the creed 
 of the sect. And these doctrines are not only stated in poetical 
 language, or language professedly poetical, and dwelt upon in 
 a strain of devout meditation, but are frequently inculcated in 
 a sort of metrical argument, and appeal to persons not supposed 
 to believe them.' " 
 
 Xote M. — Page 105. 
 
 Merits of House's Version. 
 
 The opponents of an inspired Psalmody, or advocates of an 
 uninspired Psalmody, frequently complicate the investigation, 
 
182 APPENDIX. 
 
 by mixing up the question of different versions with that of the 
 claims of David's Psalms. Apparently with a design of exciting 
 the prejudice of the reader or hearer, the language that is used 
 is adapted to leave the impression, that a correct or bearable 
 version of the Book of Psalms we cannot have, and that the one 
 in common use is such, as cannot but produce an utter disgust 
 with the substance because of the form. Dr. Neill sa3 r s that 
 "the miserable doggerel of Rouse is sung, or attempted to be 
 sung, to the no small annoyance of all correct taste for the 
 harmony of numbers, or the charms of music." The judgment 
 of " T." is that " Roos's version of the Psalms was never one of 
 the best, and is now out of date. There are some good passages 
 in our metrical version of the Psalms of David, but the greater 
 part of them borders on the doggerel, and many passages are 
 doggerel in the extreme." 
 
 Dr. Neill evidently felt that he was addressing a very facile 
 audience, and did not expect to have either his ideas or terms 
 exactly canvassed ; while " T." proceeds like one who is deter- 
 mined, by a bold statement, to deter any one from calling it in 
 question. Both agree, and agree with many others besides, in 
 applying to Rouse's or Roos's version, wholly or partially, that 
 every way harsh word doggerel. It may not be clearly under- 
 stood by all their readers, but is likely to make the deeper 
 impression by being hard sounding, though conveying no definite 
 idea. In treating of a polemical subject, I once used the word 
 duplicity. One of my hearers, giving to a friend an account of 
 the discourse, mentioned the term, and confessed he did not 
 understand it, but he felt assured that the severest cut of all 
 lay in that same word duplicity. 
 
 Still, Rouse has so many friends, among the pious, the learned, 
 and even among poets and musicians, that we run no risk of 
 being hooted out of good company, for professing a strong par- 
 tiality for his doggerel : and the man had better conceal his real 
 name, who ventures to say, " Roos's version never was one of 
 the best." Poetry, real, heart-stirring poetry, has so little to do 
 either with Rhythm or Rhyme, that, since whatever poetry 
 there is in David, there is in Rouse, Neill and " T." would be 
 classed by Dr. Blair (no mean judge of composition, prosaic or 
 poetical), with those " frivolous writers, always disposed to 
 squabble concerning the minutiae of criticism, which deserve 
 not any particular discussion." When we are furnished with 
 a better version than that of Rouse (which is barely among the 
 things possible), we are prepared to accept it. In the mean 
 time, we shall show what others have thought of Roos: others 
 who are entitled to express an opinion upon such a subject ; 
 men who "had taste for good poetry and good music," and in 
 whose presence, "T." and -company would not display au excess 
 of modesty by their silence. 
 
APPENDIX. 183 
 
 Owen, Manton, Poole, and twenty-three others. " The transla- 
 tion which is now put in thy hand, cometh nearest to the origi- 
 nal of any that we have seen, and runneth with such a fluent 
 sweetness, that we thought fit to recommend it for thy Christian 
 acceptance ; some of us having used it already, with great com- 
 fort and satisfaction." 
 
 Boswell, " Some allowance must no doubt be made for early 
 prepossessions. But at a mature period of life, after looking at 
 various metrical versions of the Psalms, I am well satisfied that 
 the version used in Scotland, is, upon the whole, the best, and 
 that it is in vain to think of having a better. It has in general a 
 simplicity, and unction of sacred poesy ; and in many parts its 
 transfusion is admirable." 
 
 Romaine. " You may find fault with the manner of eking 
 out a verse for the sake of the rhyme, but what of that ? Here 
 is every thing great and noble, although not in Dr. Watts' way 
 or style. It is not like his fine sound and florid verse ; as good 
 old Mr. Hall used to call it, Watts' jingle. I do not match those 
 Psalms with what is now admired in poetry ; although the time 
 was when no less a man than the Rev. T. Bradbury, in his sober 
 judgment, thought so meanly of Watts' hymns, as commonly to 
 call them Waits' whyrnns." 
 
 Dr. George Burns, late of St. John, N. B. "The translation 
 was made by a very distinguished Hebrew scholar, Francis 
 Rouse, Esq., M. P., one of Cromwell's counsellors of state, and 
 preferred, on account of his acquaintance with the Greek and 
 Latin languages, to the Provostship of Eton School. His trans- 
 lation underwent various corrections, by a committee of the 
 General Assembly. In many instances, the versification is far 
 from being smooth, or agreeable to the ear. The fact is, a 
 literal was more an object of attention, than an elegant 
 translation, and we have the satisfaction to know, that we 
 utter praise in the very words of inspiration. It is the best 
 and most exact we have to put into the hands of the 
 common people." 
 
 McCheyne. " The metrical version of the Psalms should be 
 read or sung through, at least once in the year. It is truly an 
 admirable translation from the Hebrew, and is frequently more 
 correct than the prose version." 
 
 Sir Walter Scott. " The expression of the old metrical trans- 
 lation, though homely, is plain, forcible, and intelligible, and 
 very often possesses a rude sort of majesty, which perhaps 
 would be ill exchanged for mere elegance. I have an old 
 fashioned taste in sacred as well as profane poetry: I cannot 
 help preferring evenSternhold and Hopkins to Tate and Brady, 
 and our own metrical version of the^Psalms to both. I hope, 
 therefore, they will be touched with a lenient hand." 
 
184 APPENDIX. 
 
 jN t ote K— Page 12V. 
 Mode of Singing. 
 
 When we approach the altar of God, attention is due to the 
 form, as well as the matter, of every ordinance. To this rule 
 the celebration of praise does not constitute an exception. 
 
 We have no evidence of the formal institution of instrumental 
 music, before the time of David. It would seem to have been 
 ordered, preparatory to the service of the Temple to be erected 
 in the reign of his successor (as God gave to David the pattern 
 of the structure and its furniture), and with the service of the 
 Temple to have passed away. It never was recognised as a 
 part of the synagogue service, after the order of which Christian 
 churches were regulated. Our Lord, with his disciples, cele- 
 brated praise in a song, and the primitive Christians sung praise 
 by his authority. Yet in all the minute instructions furnished 
 by Paul, on the subject of the public service, there is not one 
 word that implies the use, or authority to use, instruments 
 under this dispensation. It is not improbable that, as circum- 
 cision was observed after the day of Pentecost, in conformity 
 with one of the most excusable prejudices — that founded on a 
 previous divine institution, — so instrumental music may have 
 found a plea upon the same principle : but Romaine informs us 
 that "in the time of Justin Martyr, instrumental music was 
 abolished ; and he highly commends singing with the voice, 
 because Psalms, with organs and cvmbals, are fitter to please 
 children than to instruct the church." In Hall's " Gospel Wor- 
 ship," the following occurs: "The use of musical instruments 
 in the worship of God, is but a modern innovation. Their 
 warmest advocates cannot pretend to find them (revived) in the 
 Christian church, before the year 660. And Thomas Aquinas, 
 who lived about the year 1250, says, 'the church does not use 
 musical instruments to praise God, lest she should seem to 
 iudaise.' Upon which place Cardinal Cajitan gives us this 
 natural comment : * It is to be observed, the Church did not 
 use instruments in T. Aquinas' time : whence, even to this day, 
 the Church of Rome does not use them in the Pope's presence.' 
 And we have as severe a censure passed upon such instruments, 
 when they are employed in this part of the divine service, in 
 the homilies of the Church of England, as ever was passed upon 
 them, perhaps, by any writer whatever. A fact which took 
 place at the Reformation, is recorded and improved in these 
 words: 'A woman said to her neighbor, Alas, gossip, what 
 shall we do at Church, since all the saints are taken away; 
 since all the goodly sights we were wont to have are gone ; 
 since we cannot hear the like piping, singing, chanting, and 
 pitying upon the organs, that we could before? But, dearly 
 beloved, we ought greatljPto rejoice and give thanks to God 
 
APPENDIX. 185 
 
 that our churches are delivered out of all those things, which 
 displeased God so sore, and filthily defiled his holy place, and 
 his house of prayer.'" In Jenning's "Jewish Antiquities," we 
 read : " It (instrumental music) is retained in the Lutheran 
 Church, contrary to the opinion of Luther, who, as Eckard 
 confesses, reckoned organs among the ensigns of Baal. Organs 
 are still used in some of the Dutch churches, but against the 
 minds of their pastors; for in the National Synod, at Middle- 
 burg, Anno 1581, and in that of Holland and Zealand, Anno 1594, 
 it was resolved that they should endeavour to obtain of the 
 magistrates, the laying aside of organs, and the singing with 
 them in churches. I only add, that the voice of harpers and 
 musicians, and of pipers and trumpeters, is mentioned among 
 the glories of mystical Babylon, 'that mother of harlots, and 
 abominations of the earth, whom the Lord will destroy with the 
 sword of his mouth, and with the brightness of his coming.' " 
 
 Closely allied to the organ, either as antecedent or consequent, 
 is the choir, of which the Rev. J. A. James says: "An organ 
 renders the congregation independent of that most sensitive, 
 and, in many cases, most troublesome and unmanageable of all 
 classes of functionaries — a choir. Singing seats, as they are 
 called, are more commonly the scenes of discord than any other 
 part of the chapel ; and indeed it is revolting to every pious 
 feeling, to see sometimes what characters, and to hear what 
 music, are found in these high places of the sanctuary." In 
 equally strong terms, Dr. McMasler expresses himself: "One 
 very general practice cannot be reprobated in terms too strong, 
 that of an entire congregation, say of one thousand or fifteen 
 hundred persons, resigning the whole of this part of worship 
 (singing) to a dozen or two, usually of the most trifling charac- 
 ters: for the choir demands no qualification, but a well-tuned 
 voice. And this farce is countenanced by ministers of religion ; 
 this outrage on devotion, and insult against the God of Heaven, 
 is called religious worship." 
 
 From choir siuging other evils necessarily spring: some of 
 which are set forth in an article signed "Many Brethren," in 
 the Christian Observer, Pha., from which the following sen- 
 tences are copied. "It cannot be denied, that within a few 
 years, the secularising of this part of the public services of the 
 sanctuary, has made rapid advances, especially in this and 
 other large cities and towns; and the evil lias become so great, 
 that not a few of the middle-aged and senior members of the 
 churches doubt whether there is any worship in it. That opera 
 music is played and sung in a number of evangelical churches, is 
 notorious. During the past winter, large congregations assembled 
 every Sabbath evening (chiefly young persons), for several 
 weeks, at one of our fashionably located metropolitan churches, 
 where the great attraction was the fine opera music, executed 
 
186 APPENDIX. 
 
 by the organist and choir, in the most artistic style, in sacred 
 words. Recently, at a Sabbath evening service, in one of our 
 largest orthodox churches, a distinguished clergyman from a 
 distance preached. He opened the service by reading a very 
 solemn and appropriate hymn ; but the choir, consisting of three 
 professional singers, proceeded to perform an anthem, in fancy 
 style, much to the surprise of the congregation. In the villages 
 of New England, the evil prevails — the same in kind, differing 
 in degree. There, during the summer, the writer attended, for 
 some weeks, two evangelical Congregational churches, where, 
 in the music, every thing was sacrificed to effect. The airs 
 were well adapted to drive away all serious thoughts." 
 
 Do such evils exist ? Can they grow to such magnitude, except 
 where human compositions have displaced inspired songs? 
 
 The voice of nature, the voice of God, directs to congrega- 
 tional singing, where the object contemplated is congregational 
 worship. Whatever effects we must ascribe to music and song, 
 they are enhanced by the union of hearts, leading to union of 
 voices. Indeed, the union of voices strengthens the union of 
 hearts, and throws the uniting and binding cord over those 
 who are indifferent, and draws them within its circle of magic 
 influence. "Sacred music," says the St. Louis Presbyterian, 
 "is not like prayer, in which, to avoid confusion, one must 
 speak audibly, and all others silently unite; for its effect is 
 heightened by the union of many voices. One individual may 
 so sing as to produce strong emotions in the hearers ; but he 
 must be an uncommon singer. A few persons, as in a choir, 
 may produce a powerful impression on an audience; but they 
 must have sweeter voices, must select tunes of extraordinary 
 melody, and must sing much better than most of our choirs. 
 But let five hundred voices join in singing the same piece. The 
 different parts may not be scientifically balanced ; there may 
 be some jarring ; and they may not sing soft and loud according 
 to the books ; but the effect will be far greater upon any wor- 
 shipping congregation. Most evidently God has made it the 
 duty, as well as the privilege, of the people to join in this part 
 of the service, and, in proportion as they fail to do so, sacred 
 music is perverted, and ceases to be part of God's worship." 
 
 Such is also the judgment of the Westminster divines. " It 
 is the duty of Christians," says the directory for public worship, 
 "to praise God publicly, by singing of Psalms together in the 
 congregation, and also privately in the family. In singing of 
 Psalms, the voice to be tunably and gravely ordered; but the 
 chief care must be to sing with the understanding, and with 
 grace in the heart, making melody to the Lord." Such was the 
 judgment of Jonathan Edwards. " As it is the command of God 
 that all should sing, so all should make conscience of learning 
 to sing, as it is a thing that cannot be decently performed at all 
 
APPENDIX. 187 
 
 -without learning. Those, therefore, (where there is no natural 
 inability) who neglect to learn to sing, live in sin, as they neg- 
 lect what is necessary in order to their attending one of the 
 ordinances of God's worship." In the reign of Queen Elizabeth, 
 according to Neal, a paper was laid before the Convocation, 
 requesting "that the Psalms may be sung distinctly by the 
 whole congregation ; and that organs may belaid aside." The 
 Right Honorable Sir Peter King, according to Hall (Gospel 
 Worship), says, "As for the manner of the primitive singing, it 
 was in good tune and concert, all the people bearing a part in 
 it." And Buck, on the word Psalmody, states that "sometimes 
 the whole assembly joined together, which was the most ancient 
 and general practice." 
 
 Thus it appears that the advocates of congregational singing 
 are only pleading for the revival of an ancient and primitive 
 practice, against the innovation of the organ and the choir. 
 
 With reference to the practice of music and song, the world, 
 in its own department, is in advance of the Church in hers, as 
 in all other cases. The saying of our Lord is true here in the 
 amplest degree : " The children of this world are wiser, in their 
 generation, than the children of light." The children of mirth, 
 in their festive hours; the company of sailors, devoted to their 
 pleasures, after having escaped from the dangers of the sea ; and 
 others essentially of the world, would only provoke ridicule, 
 was each one, when it is proposed to unite in the animating 
 pleasure of song, to pull out his book, that the necessary exer- 
 cise of reading may subserve his union in the exercise of singing. 
 Still more absurd would the repetition of the song, lineby'line, 
 and the consequent interruption to the music, appear to the 
 most careless observer. In such a case, there is no need of argu- 
 ment, to convince every one that both pleasure and effect are 
 sacrificed to indolence: that pleasure would cede her place to 
 a painful sense of drudgery is what may be felt No: the soldier, 
 who celebrates his triumphs ; the sailor, who commemorates 
 the dangers and escapes of the sea; the lover, who sets forth 
 the charms of the idol of his affections, must have his song by 
 heart ; and the joy, the animation, the impulsive power of song, 
 are sought in the united notes of those, who are able to appre- 
 ciate the subject, and understand the words in which it is 
 expressed ; who can give their whole powers to musical effort, 
 because no exertion is requisite to call up the lines. If Dr. 
 Watts had said that devotion is fat, and all the springs of unea- 
 siness are touched within us, not because of "the matter and 
 the words, to which we confine all our songs," but because we 
 are ignorant of both the matter and the words we are singing, or 
 are about to sing, there would be as good ground to sustain, as 
 there is now to impugn, his sentiments upon the subject of 
 Psalmody. 
 
188 APPENDIX. 
 
 Go, Christian, go to the pleasure party, to the theatre, to the 
 tavern, aud learn how to honour the songs of Zion, and their 
 author, in the use of them, by observing how the votaries of 
 sensual enjoyment honour the songs of Burns, of Byron, and of 
 Moore, and their authors. Go then to the men of the ages that 
 are past, who felt that they were not their own, but a "pur- 
 chased possession," bound to glorify God in their bodies and 
 spirits. Step into an assembly of Christians of the fourth cen- 
 tury, where " the women, the children, and the humblest 
 mechanics, could repeat all the Psalms of David, and were thus 
 at all times prepared to praise God, in any circumstances, in a 
 form of his own inditing." (Apost. Con.) Put yourself under 
 the conduct of Jerome, and he shall lead you to see Bethlehem 
 and its environs. " Here you cannot walk out into the fields, 
 but you will hear one, while he holds the plough, singing Halle- 
 lujahs; another, while he reaps, entertaining himself with 
 Psalms; another, while he prunes the vines, singing some of 
 the words of David. We have no other songs or ballads in this 
 province." Ask Theodoret, Bishop of Cyprus, of the following 
 century, for information on this subject, and he will tell you, 
 that " they that minded no other book of the Scriptures, yet 
 had this (Book of Psalms) so by heart, that both in their houses, 
 and in the streets, and in the highways, they are wont to 
 recreate themselves by singing of those holy songs." Strada, 
 the Jesuit, is represented by Witsius as saying, " That transla- 
 tion of Hymns," by Marot and Beza, "though abandoned and 
 condemned by the Catholics, was zealously and pertinaciously 
 retained by the heretics; and the custom of singing Psalms in 
 the French language, according to the fashion of the Genevese, 
 in companies, in places of public resort, and in shops, became, 
 thenceforth, a peculiar characteristic of the heretics." A glori- 
 ous characteristic truly ! and one which they could not have 
 displayed, if the eye must be fixed upon the book, if line after 
 line must be parcelled out by one who reads for the accommo- 
 dation of others, if they had not had the Psalms by heart. 
 
 It is of no small importance that the tune should be precisely 
 adapted to the song. The selection of a tune cannot be left, 
 without a demonstrable impropriety, to the discretion of a 
 chorister, or precentor, however skilful. Again, we must pay 
 a visit to the theatre, or the youthful frolic, for instruction. 
 The same tune may be, yet seldom is, used in connection with 
 different songs, except the song with which it was first used 
 has become almost obsolete; but the same song is always 9iing 
 in the same tune. The adaptation of the tune to the song is thus 
 secured. When the song is announced, already we know the 
 tune, and on the other hand, the utterance of the notes of a 
 particular tune usually is sufficient to suggest the song. They 
 are almost indissolubly associated. The union of different voices 
 
APPENDIX. 189 
 
 is thus facilitated, and upon the mind, susceptible of the emotion, 
 the song never fails to leave the impression intended. But to 
 carry into the Church the lesson, which the children of the 
 world, teach, the time must have come, when the Songs of Zion 
 shall fill the hearts of believers, as fully as " Scots wha hae, <tc." 
 the breast of the patriotic Scotchman, or "Home, Sweet Home," 
 the man who seeks and enjoys his most refined and elevated 
 temporal gratification, in the domestic circle. Moreover, as the 
 character of some of the Psalms changes, as the song proceeds, 
 from sorrow to joy, from deep depression to animation, such 
 would require the application of the skill of the composer, to 
 prepare a tune, whose successive parts should undergo transitions 
 corresponding to the changes in the characteristics of the suc- 
 cessive verses. These reforms accomplished, the house of wor- 
 ship shall, without forfeiting its true distinction, neutralise the 
 temptations of the theatre ; and songs of praise shall at once 
 stir the affections and elevate them to their proper object. The 
 occupation of the believer shall no more seem to the mere 
 onlooker (whatever judgment he may form of its real nature), 
 a heartless and joyless service. Family exercises will then 
 demand the song to complete the feast of faith and love. There 
 would be no more a mere form of words, but something to 
 quicken dead hearts, and rouse slumbering ones, in such lines as — 
 
 Whom have I, in the heavens high, 
 
 But thee, Lord, alone : 
 And in the earth whom I desire, 
 
 Besides thee there is none. 
 
 As thousands forget the Scotticisms of Chalmers, in the fervour 
 of an eloquence that rose above nationality ; much more would 
 the sometimes rough verses of Rouse be unobserved, while the 
 soul is brought under the influence of the very spirit of the 
 true poet, whom God taught and not man. 
 
 Nora P.— Page 143. 
 
 For an exhibition of the errors and absurdities to be found in 
 our most popular Hymns, the reader may consult an interesting 
 work by J. Smith, M. A., of Glasgow, Scotland, entitled "Public 
 Worship, or Praise, Prayer, and Preaching." He is one of the 
 many who seem afraid to acknowledge, that the difficulty of exhi- 
 biting an unexceptionable Hymn Book, for the use of the 
 Church, amounts to an impossibility, in the hands of an unin- 
 spired writer, as the acknowledgment would virtually recog- 
 nise the obligation to exclude every uninspired song from the 
 sanctuary.