affects the soul so much be a man merry or sorry If he be merry it will provoke him to more mirth raise rouze his spirits more than they were before Therefore singing is very proper when we are joyed would praise the Lord with gladness of heart If a man be sad musick will set it on and make him more Melancholique than he was before so some understand Prov. 25. 20. As he that taketh away a garment in cold weather and as vinegar upon nitre so is he that singeth songs to an heavy heart I conceive the meaning to be this If when a man is in heaviness one should come to him in a lightsome gamesome manner as if Job's friends had brought minstrells and Musick with them he would vex and distemper and increase his grief the more Certainly Musick as it may be ordered will provoke mourning hence the custome grew of solemnizing Funeralls with Musick So when the Rulers daughter was dead there were Minstrells among others and if any say That was to allay and not to increase their grief I desire them to look Jer. 9. 17 18. and there they may see that there were cunning women who profest an art of mournfull Ditties and were hired on purpose to enhance affections of that kinde in others So 2 Chron. 35. 25. The singing-men and women spoke of Josiah in their lamentations For certain a dolefull sad Ditty sadly sung will never make any laugh unless it be an errant fool So a fit Psalm a penitentiall Psalm you may call it if you please sung to a sad tune is as apt to melt and move our hearts upon a day of humiliation as any exercise we can use and an apt expression also of such affections as should be in us upon such an occasion Some have sung for sorrow as David penn'd and sang many Psalmes when his heart was as full of grief and anguish as it could hold and so he eas'd and breath'd his heart by pouring it out before the Lord in a dolefull Song lamenting his sad condition And why may not we as well lament our own and others sad conditions in singing of David's Psalmes some of which you know are sad complaints of his miseries and sufferings mixt with earnest prayers for deliverance Sure David was not very merry when he sang many of his Psalmes whence I gather we may sing even when we are sorry and so lament and bemoan our selves before the Lord Besides if our hearts be very sad indeed singing may revive them since all utterance is an ease to any grief So some conceive that Christ chose to sing a Psalm after supper thereby to chear up his own heart and his Disciples also Musick certainly will allay passions 1 Sam. 16. v. 14. An evil spirit from the Lord troubled Saul ver. 20. And when David plaid on his harp the evil spirit departed from him Not that there is any efficacy in Musick to drive away devils but because in a naturall way it disposed and settled Saul for ease by raising up his heart and spirit out of his melancholy dumps tempering his rage and moderating his griefs and discontents by which the Devil took advantage to drive him into frenzy fits and furies If by spirit in that place we understand as some onely that which is called Motus animorum as a spirit of fear a spirit of jealousie c. then questionless the Musick had a naturall efficacy to recover Saul out of his melancholy moods 2 King 3. 15. The Prophet Elisha finding some distemper in his spirit occasioned by the presence of an idolatrous King and the present distress of Gods people called for a musician to chear and compose his spirits that he might be the better fitted for prophesie Some have conceived and said that the spirit of prophesie never came upon a sad soul How true that is I leave others to judge Nor shall I contend if any say there was somewhat extraordinary and supernaturall in those cases However this I think may be gathered from them That musick hath a vertue in it to compose and quiet and refresh and chear the spirit of a man when he is overgone with melancholy So Gods people in times of distress and danger when they feel themselves too much dejected and sadded may chear themselves up by singing a Psalm together As for our singing on fasting dayes which some are offended at we say as before 't is not so much to make our selves merry as to move and melt our hearts 'T is no absurdity nor impossibility neither for Christians to sing with tears in their eyes When a day of thanksgiving comes we sing to another tune in way of rejoicing exalting and triumphing in God our Saviour On Sabbath and Lecture dayes we sing partly to express our joy in God for giving us such opportunities and seasons of spirituall edification by the use of his Ordinances and partly to compose our spirits and so fit them for hearing the Word preached And this I conceive to be the reason why commonly we sing a Psalm before Sermon SERMON V. Ephes. 5. 19. Speaking to your selves in Psalmes and Hymnes and spirituall Songs Singing c. ONe end among others of our singing of Psalmes is as I shewed formerly a joyfull praising of God or expressing of our joy in the Lord as Gods servants were wont to do when God in his Providence gave them occasion and matter of rejoycing by deliverances victories or any other mercies I shall now adde to what hath been said That it becomes Gods people when they come before him in publick to serve the Lord with joy and an holy rejoycing and for this end they must sing Psalmes there being no exercise more proper to express our joy in the Lord God calls his people to rejoyce evermore 1 Thessalon 5. 16. and Phil. 4. 4. to rejoyce alway but more especially when they come before him in the use of his Ordinances Psal. 105. 3. Glory ye in his holy Name let the heart of them rejoyce that seek the Lord Deut. 12. 12. Ye shall rejoyce before the Lord c. Deut. 14. 26. Thou shalt eat before the Lord thy God and thou shalt rejoyce Deut. 16. 10 11. Thou shalt keep the feast of weeks i. e. Pentecost with a tribute of a sree-will offering of thine hands and thou shalt rejoyce before the Lord thy God c. And Deut. 28. 47. there is a threatning of judgement for this that they served not the Lord with joyfulness and gladness of heart c. Not a filthy on fleshly rejoycing according to the â—…ourse of this world but an holy and heaâ—…enly such as when the very heart and soul is ravisht with a sense of Gods goodness And this as it doth very much help us in the duties we have to do so it is expresly required Psal. 100. 2. Serve the Lord with gladness come before his preseâ—…ce with singing Psa. 92. which is as the Title shews a Psalm for the
neither those nor any other And whereas occasionall composures aâ—…e so much cried up by many I ask them what poor soules shall do that cannot compose Psalmes neither have any to do it for them Certainly it is a duty as hath been proved that lies upon all Gods people and to whom shall many of them go for a Psalme if not to David They that pen psalmes better or at least fitter as they think do it for their particular respective Congregations In the mean time what shall others do unless the same men will undertake to furnish all the Churches of God in the Land and the world too with a better Psalm book than that of David If it be said that some Officer or member in every Congregation may do as much upon occasion I answer perhaps not nay without all peradventure the gift will not be found at all or in any tolerable measure amongst many Christians and then when they meet and would be merry in the Lord poor soules they shall have never a Psalm to sing as James requires James 5. 13. Nor shall we upon this account have very much singing in private families of which there are thousands in England that will not yield one who can endite or compose a Psalm fit for the occasions of Gods people Therefore if these mâ—…n will not give us another Psalm-book in stead of David's we shall have little singing in Congregations and less in private families But I shall argue this no further onely I add that 't is not enough for them to say that David's Psalmes must give place to their new Songs especially since the former can plead prescription for so many ages but they must prove it and that strongly too that we must not sing David's Psalmes For the accommodation of David's Psalmes to the present particular occasions of Gods people I shall speak more hereafter all I shall say for present is this That if we cannot accommodate them or any passages in them the fault is our own There are many I fear who cannot accommodate many passages in David's Psalmes as when he professes his zeal for God love to God his Word and Ordinances and wayes of Worship his integrity humility heavenly-mindedness c. But that 's because they have not such a heart as was in David and it may be their consciences cannot well broâ—…k such a word of admonition and conviction as they meet withall in many places and passages of David's Psalmes But if we sing David's Psalmes let us sing them in David's tunes and not in such Meetre as men have devised Sol. This reasoning will prove as well that we shall not read David's Psalmes for may not a man as well say Why should we read them in any Language but that wherein they were written and so farewell singing and reading Psalmes too and if you say but as much of all the other parts of Scripture farewell all preaching of gifted men for they will have never a Text nor Bible left them But if we think our selve bound to read the Psalmes in our own Tongue why may we not as well sing them in our own Tunes If you say there is a necessity of reading I grant it and say There is a necessity of singing them also there being as expresse precepts in Scripture for the one as for the other When any man shall give us as a good reason against reading in our own Tongue we will give over singing Psalmes in our own Tunes till then we believe there is the like necessity of the one and the other or else we are come to a good passe indeed that we must neither sing nor say My answer then is in a word this That there being a necessity of singing as well as of reading we may do the one in our own Tunes as well as the other in our own Tongue There is yet one objection more against singing of David's Psalmes which was not thought on at the preaching of these Sermons and it is this Obj. As the Scripture commands us to pray but prescribes us no set forms of Prayer which we are bound to use and no other so when it commands us to sing Psalmes it doth not tie us to any forme but leaves us to our liberty For if we are not tied to a form in praying why should we be tied up to any form in singing I dare not say as some do that all formes of Prayer are forbidden by the second Commandment nor yet that they wholly stint and quench the Spirit But to let that pass I answer Sol. 1. The Apostle hath prescribed us what to sing viz. Psalmes and Hymnes and spiritual Songs which are the express Titles of David's Psalmes as was shewed before 2. There is a difference in this that the Lord did not prescribe unto his people set formes of Prayer as he prescrib'd set formes of Psalmes 2 Chron. 29. 30 They were to sing in the words of David and Asaph but we read not that they were to pray in any such set form God gave them a Psalm book but not a Prayer-book as was said before 3. When the Psalmes of David and Asaph were ordinarily sung in the Temple dare any man say that the Spirit either in the Levites or others was stinted or quenched and why should it be stinted now more than it was then Since we have the same formes which God himself appointed why may we not expect the same enlargement of heart as the people of God had then 4. We must sing in a forme or not at all as I shewed formerly though we may very well pray without it Since therefore we must have a form why should we not prefer such as God hath appointed before any other SERMON II. Ephes. 5. 19. Speaking to your selves in Psalmes and Hymnes and spirituall Songs Singing c. THE Apostle calls upon the people of God to edifie themselves in singing of Psalmes This we have proved to be the duty of Christians and answered some Objections made against it Obj. But how can Christians do this in a mixt Congregation will some say where there is a multitude that joyn in the duty who yet God knowes are no way able to do it in such a manner as may be either pleasing to God or profitabie to their own soules They cannot sing in their heart nor to the Lord And hence some complain they are much scandalized to hear profane and ungodly men in their singing of Psalmes profeâ—…s their Repentance the integriâ—…y and uprightness of their hearts when God knows there is no such thing in them Therefore say they What do such men in singing but sound out so many lies yea and blaspheme the holy Name and Truths of God in doing of that duty and this so troubles and distracts them that they cannot finde in their hearts to joyn in the duty with such profane people This is I conceive the main thing that troubles the most and therefore though there is but
Sabbath the Prophet gives this as a reason of that joyfull solemnity ver. 4. For thou Lord hast made me glad through thy work I will triumph in the works of thy hands The great work and business of the Sabbath is to magnifie God in regard of his great works viz. Creation and Providence but especially the great work of reconciling the world and Redeeming sinners from death and hell by Jesus Christ This great Work was compleated on the day of Christs resurrection which was the beginning of his exaltation and then it becomes us to rejoyce in the Kingdome Power and coming of our Lord Jesus Christ singing to the Lord because he hath done marvellous things and saying This is the day which the Lord hath made let us rejoyce and be glad in it I say 't is suteable and seasonable â—…o rejoyce and be merry on the Lords day and therefore to sing and so express our joy in the Lord who hath made us to rejoyce in his salvation God loves not to see us lumpish and melancholy but chearfull and joyfull in his service Let us therefore sing and say The Lord reigneth One gives this as one end and use of our singing of Psalmes viz. That the Spirit dwelling in us may be as it were excited and stirred up to put forth his power more effectually and plentifully and grounds it upon my Text which saith he imports two things First that singing is an effect of the Spirit And secondly That the Spirit is stirred up in us by singing That which he saith to my thinking hath much reason in it For why may not singing excite and stirr up the spirit and the graces of it in Christians as well as the performance of other duties They that have grace therefore do duty that by exercising their graces they may improve them Now let such as have any grace of God in them consider how in doing this duty as it ought to be done the graces of God specially faith and hope may be set on work whilst we seriously meditate on the promises and other passages of David's Psalmes Once more a Psalm is good sometimes to comfort our hearts when we are under affliction as I hinted before how Paul and Silas sang when they were under extream sufferings and Luther would encourage himself and others when he heard any bad news of any attempts against the Gospell and such as profest it saying Let us sing the 46th Psalm and let them do their worst Indeed that 's a Psalm will chear a mans spirits if he can sing it with understanding and grace in his heart So did the Primitive Christians comfort themselves in prison by singing of Psalmes Lastly singing of Psalmes is an excellent way to praise God and speak good of his Name Many Psalmes you know are full of Gods praises and set forth the wondrous works that he hath done so as he may have the glory of them To praise God and bless his Name is the highest and most excellent service we can do on earth it comes nearest to the exercise of the Saints in heaven who are alwayes praising God in the admiration of his infinite and incomprehensible Glory Now singing of Psalmes is an excellent way of praising God One saith that in singing there is a more copious and ample profession of piety Not as if God who is a Spirit were delighted with any sensible thing as Musick or melodious tunes But yet God is as I may say more delighted when we are more ample and patheticall in pouring out our soules to him in praise 2 Sam. 6. David it is said danced before the Lord with all his might and then Michol scorned and flouted him as some do us now adayes for our singing of Psalmes which yet is but a praising the Lord with all our might And indeed to speak as the thing is the glory of God is held forth more illustriously in singing of Psalmes as one observes because the praises of God are celebrated with greater attention and affection than if they were barely recited with a lower voice Wherefore the Levites upon all occasions sung the praises of the Lord and so did all Gods people also No Prince as he saith or great Commander but thinks himself more honoured if the great things they have done be commemorated and set forth in a Song 1 Sam. 18. 6 7. So the women went out to meet Saul with singing and with Instruments of Musick Now our great Champion and Captain Generall hath conquered sin and Satan and all our spiritual enemies we give him not the glory due unto his name unless we celebrate the victory with Songs of deliverance That none of old sung but such as had an extraordinary spirit is false as I shewed formerly Exod. 15. All the children of Israel had not such a spirit though Moses and Miriam had In Hezekiah's time the Levites sung praises to the Lord with the words of David and Asaph the Seer and so no question they did in Jehoshaphat's time also As for the gift of Psalmes in the Primitive Churches it went with the gift of tongues and both are long since ceased so as we may argue as well that we must not say because we have not the gift of Tongues as that we must not sing because we have not the gift of Psalmes Besides we finde no mention in Scripture of any Church-Officer for compiling of Psalmes as for the Ministry of the Word and prayer Nor hath God inspired any with a gift of Psalmistry to sute the occasions of the Churches from Sabbath to Sabbath We finde neither Ordinance appointing nor Providence granting it nor any reason to silence David's Psalmes that others may be attended We know who indited them and we know too which I wish may be duely considered that some of them are proper to Gospell times If any question it let them read the 98th Psalm and see whether it be not more proper for Gods people now than in the times of the old Testament Quaest. But how may we sing David's Psalmes so as to attain those ends Sol. First We must have grace in our hearts or a gracious frame of spirit such as David had Singing praise to God is an exercise becoming Saints who alone can do it so as to please God and profit themselves in it as was shewed before 2. Secondly Sing none but spirituall Songs such as David's Psalmes are and others composed by holy men of God who spake as they were inspired by the Holy Ghost These are altogether spirituall for the Authour for the Matter and for the End and Use of them Quest May we not sing any other Song composed by a common gift so long as it is spirituall for the Matter Ans. It may be of ill consequence many wayes to shut out David's Psalmes and take in our own as First We may mistake even in the Matter whereas we are sure there is no such mistake in David's Psalmes Secondly Some
perhaps may not like so well of other Composures whereas none but an Athiest will finde fault with the Psalmes that were penned by the Spirit of God that I say not what was said formerly No mans Composures can be answerable to those of Gods Spirit I rather think that such Psalmes if any have them should be fitter for their own private use than for the Churches of God though for my part I do not incourage any to the private use of them with a neglect of David's Psalmes but rather disswade them from it For other Songs alwayes supposed that there be no vanity nor filthiness nor scurrility nor reflectings upon other mens good name which all Christians must be farre from they may be for honest delight and recreation for ought I know even as a man may play a lesson on a Lute or other Instrument to refresh his Spirits Thirdly Christians had need to watch their hearts exceedingly more than ordinarily when they are singing a Psalm It requires a good measure of the Word and Spirit to pray in the Spirit but more to sing in the Spirit because as one saith our senses being delighted with the Melody are apt to steal away our hearts from spiritual fervency For certainly we are exceeding apt to be taken with the melody and in the interim neglect our hearts so as our spirits shall not work and be doing when our tongues are a singing To remedy this le ts sing with understanding and attention of minde in order to which it were a great happiness and help to devotion if we knew the minde and meaning of the holy Ghost in all that we sing Object What if a man understand not the meaning of what he sings Sol. He cannot then sing in every respect as he should do But yet I shall offer this to your consideration not peremptorily asserting it to the prejudice of any that may be otherwise minded We all grant reading of the Scriptures and hearing them read to be an holy exercise and that which God hath enjoyned us Yet when we read the Scriptures I suppose we many times meet with that which we do not so well understand shall we not therefore read them at all Or may we not for all this read them with profit whilest we understand many things which we read and by reading them again and again come to more understanding of the minde of God in them And why may we not sing Psalmes for instruction and admonition that we may understand them If thou medâ—…tate seriously God may enlighten thee in the very singing We reade and hear to get more understanding though sometimes we read and hear what for the present we understand not and so for ought I know we may sing also Some I am confident have found by experience that in singing of Psalmes they have come to more understanding of some passages than ever they had before But what Psalm is there that any understanding Christian knows not the main scope and sense of it though he understand not every particular passage and expression in it Certainly he that hath a gracious heart cannot be ignorant of the main drift and and scope of any of David's Psalmes As we must sing with understanding so must we sing with affection also acting and exercising the grace of God that is in us according as the matter that is sung gives us occasion Sometimes we are to act faith and hope in God sometimes holy desires after God sometimes holy rejoycing in God and sometimes holy fear and trembling before God 'T is not enough that we have grace but we must act it As for instance when we sing that passsage Psalm 119. 5. O that my waye were dâ—…ed to keep thy sâ—…atutes The â—…esires of our soules should be such as David's were to obey God in every thing to the utmost when we sing O how I love thy Law c. Our soules should be even ravisht with holy affections towards the Word and if we finde not such ardent motions in our spirits there 's a word of admonition to minde us what we should be Psal. 73. 1. Yet God is good to Israel c. In singing this we learn to act faith as the Psalmist did and stir up our selves to lay hold on God especially when we have any temptation to distrust As in prayer and praise we act faith and other graces express and shew forth good desires and other holy affections so let us in singing of Psalmes For questionless in this duty we have occasions enough of so doing whilest such heavenly matter is suggested to us for sweet meditation and solacing our selves in God and his Word Quaest. Some may ask Whether it be not good when we are at our work to sing a Psalm and so to exercise our hearts in meditation on heavenly things Ans. Though I had rather men should sing a Psalm than do worse yet I dare not commend such a practice nor advise to it for this reason viz. To sing a Psalm as it ought to be done is work enough so as a man need to do nothing else and if it be said That this will help us to meditate on something that is good I answer That if meditation on some good matter were all the end of singing this were somewhat but there is more in the matter and to say truth singing a Psalm is such a duty as will require the whole man there being no good exercise wherein our hearts are more apt to miscarry than in this Again thou must observe and watch in this duty as in prayer what answers God gives in to thee and how thy spirit closes with the heavenly matter that is sung so as thou art raised comforted cheared confirmed or humbled As there is a return of prayers so of praises too and in every Duty and Ordinance there is marrow and fatness if our soules are well disposed to relish and receive it In one word This is an excellent service and therefore the more difficult so as thou hast need to keep thy heart with a bridle as David resolved to keep his mouth Psal. 39. 1. or otherwise thou wilt hardly rule it when thou art in this duty In order to singing with understanding and good affection I advise all you that can to look on when you sing Our practice is you know for one to read a line and then all to sing it which some quarrell at and I for my part wish we had no need so to do for questionless it were farre better if all had books and could read or else had learnt the Psalmes by heart But if singing be a duty and we cannot do it without this help I know no reason we have to reject it They that cannot read themselves may and ought to hear others read Nor is this reading the Psalm an unwarrantable invention of men brought into the Worship of God as some have said but onely a necessary help to it as Pulpits are