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How can any one fing aright unto the Lord with grace in his heart, unless he understands, whether the pfalm relates to praife or thanksgiving, to afking mercies of God, or praifing him for them, what grace was to be exercised in finging, faith or hope, or love, and what blessing was to be expected from it? These things fhould be well known, that finging may be a reasonable service, and the means of grace. And to render it fuch I have collected portions fuitable to most cases of a chriftian's experience, and have also prefixed the fubject of each. I have alfo directed the believer with what frame of mind to fing, and what benefit to look for from the word of promife in finging. I wish the attempt may help to make the ordinance better observed, and then I am fure it will be more bleffed.

There is another thing relating to the pfalms, I cannot call it an abufe: For it is a total neglect of them. They are quite rejected in many congregations, as if there were no fuch hymns given by infpiration of God, and as if they were not left for the use of the church and to be fung in the congregation. Human compofitions are preferred to divine. Man's poetry is exalted above the poetry of the holy Ghoft.. Is this right? The hymns, E 4 which

which he revealed for the use of the church, that we might have words fuitable to the praises of Immanuel, are quite fet afide: By which means the word of man has got a preference in the church above the word of God, yea so far as to exclude it entirely from public worship. It is not difficult to account for this strange practice. Our people had loft fight of the meaning of the pfalms. They did not fee their relation to Jefus Chrift. This happened when vital religion began to decay among us, more than a century ago. It was a gradual decay, and went on, till at last there was a general complaint against Sternhold and Hopkins. Their tranflation was treated, as, poor flat stuff. The wits ridiculed it. The prophane blafphemed it. Good men did not defend it. Then it fell into fuch contempt, that people were ready to receive any thing in its room, which looked rational and was poetical. In this fituation the hymnmakers find the church, and they are fuffered to thrust out the pfalms to make way for their own compofitions: of which they have supplied us with a vast variety, collection upon collection, and in use too, new hymns ftarting up daily-appendix added to appendix-fung in many congregations, yea admired by very high pro

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feffors to fuch a degree, that the pfalm's are become quite obfolete, and the finging of them is now almost as defpicable among the modern religious, as it was fome time ago among the prophane.

I know this is a fore place, and I would touch it gently, as gently as I can with any hope of doing good. The value of poems above pfalms is become fo great, and the finging of mens words, fo as quite to caft out the word of God, is become fo univerfal (except in the church of England) that one scarce dare fpeak upon the fubject: Neither would I, having already met with contempt enough for preferring God's hymns to man's hymns; if a high regard for God's moft bleffed word did not require me to bear my teftimony, and if I did not verily believe, that many real chriftians have taken up this practice without thinking of the evil of it, and when they come to confider the matter carefully, they will rather thank me, than cenfure me for freedom of speech.

Let me observe then, that I blame nobody for finging human compofitions. I do not think it finful or unlawful, fo'the matter be fcriptural. My complaint is against preferring mens poems to the good word of God, and preferring them to it in the church. I have no quarrel with Dr. E 5 Watts,

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Watts, or any living or dead verfifier. I would not wifh all their poems burnt. My concern is to fee chriftian congregations fhut out divinely inspired pfalms, and take in Dr. Watts's flights of fancy; as if the words of a poet were better than the words of a prophet, or as if the wit of a man was to be preferred to the wifdom of God. When the church is met together in one place the Lord God has made a provifion for their fongs of praise -a large collection, and great varietyand why should not these be used in the church according to God's express appointment? I fpeak not of private people, or of private finging; but of the church in its public fervice. Why should the provifion which God has made be fo far defpifed, as to become quite out of use? Why fhould Dr. Watts, or any hymnmaker not only take the precedence of the holy Ghoft, but also thruft him entirely out of the church? Infomuch that the rhymes of a man are now magnified above the word of God, even to the annihilating of it in many congregations. If this be right, men and brethren, judge ye. Examine with candor the evidence, which has determined my judgment, fo far as it is conclusive may it determine yours.

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Firft, the pfalms are the word of God, with which no work of man's genius can be compared. His attributes are manifeft in every page, and prove the author to be divine. His infinite wifdom fhines throughout his goodness appears to be matchlefs his truth in every tittle infallible-his power almighty to bless the hearing, reading, and finging of his word. None that trufted in it was ever afhamed: For his faithfulness to it can never fail... The word of the Lord has been tried, and in very great difficulties, yea in feeming impoffibilities, but it was always made good. In every trial he "magnified his word above all his name," he made it the means of bringing glory to his name and nature, and every perfection in deity has. been exalted by the faithfulness of God to his word. In this view of the pfalms, what is there to be put in competition. with them? What man is like their author? What poetry is to be compared with the pfalms of God? Who can make the finging of any human verfes an ordinance, or give a bleffing to them, fuch as is promised and is given to the finging of pfalms? For what reafon then are they fet afide in the church? Why are the words of man's genius preferred to the words of infpiration? Singing of pfalms

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