prayed for, and to be expected as the gift of God, from whom every good gift comes; and it may be expected, because promised, The Fifth petition is, And forgive us our debts, as we forgive our debtors; by debt are meant sins, as appears. from Luke xi. 4. where the same petition is. Forgive us our sins; this we are to pray for daily, since we are daily sinning, in thought, word, and deed. The reason or argument made use of to enforce this petition is, as we forgive our debtors; or, as Luke has it, for we also forgive every one that is indebted to us; pecuniary debts are to be forgiven when the debtor is unable to pay and criminal debts or sins, and injuries committed by one christian against another, are to be forgiven, as Christ has forgiven them, this is an argument taken from God's own grace, in the hearts of his people, and as an evi dence of it. Nor is it to be expected, that God should forgive us our sins without our forgiving the sins of others; nor can we put up such a petition without forgiving others. The sixth petition is, Lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil, which some make to be a sixth and seventh; but they seem to be two parts and branches of the same. 1. Lead us not into temptation. There are various sorts of temptation, 1. Some are of God, as, by enjoining things hard, difficult, and trying; so God tempted Abraham, Gen. xxii 1-12. and sometimes by laying afflictions upon his people, 1 Pet. i. 6, 7. but not by soliciting any to sin, James i. 13. 2. Others aie more immediately from Satan himself; hence he is called the tempter, Matt. iv. 3. 1 Thess. iii. 5. 3. There are other temptations, which are from the world; some from the beter things in it, as from riches, &c. Some temptations arise fom what may be called the evil things of the world; as poverty. And afflictions of various sorts. 4. There are temptations from the flesh, from indwelling sin, from the corruption of nature, which of all are the worst and most powerful; Ivery man is tempted when he is drawn away of his own lust, and enticed, James i. 14. Now in this petition, Lead us not into temptation, we pray to be kept from every occasion of sinning,

and inclination to it, that he would not suffer us neither to enter into, nor to fall by a temptation; but that we may be able to be victorious over all. II. The other branch of the petition is, but deliver us from evil; either from the evil of afflictions, Luke xvi. 25. or from the evil of sin, from committing it; this was the prayer of Jabez, 1 Chron. iv. 10. or from evil men, 2 Thess. iii. 2 and especially from the evil one, Satan, and from his temptations.

III. This prayer is concluded with a doxology, or ascription of glory to God; For thine is the kingdom, and the pow er, and the glory, for ever; and these may be considered as so many reasons, pleas, and arguments for obtaining the things requested, and to encourage faith therein.

OF SINGING PSALMS, AS A PART OF
PUBLIC WORSHIP.

BUT I shall treat of it as an ordinance of divine and public service; and endeavour.

I. To shew what singing is: it may be considered either in a proper or in an improper sense. When used improperly, it is ascribed to inanimate creatures; the heavens and earth, the pastures clothed with flocks, and the vallies covered with corn, are said to sing and shout for joy. Singing, taken in a strict and proper sense, and as a natural act, is an act of the tongue or voice. It is not any clamour of the tongue, or sound of the voice, that can be called singing; otherwise, why should the tuneful voice and warbling notes of birds be called singing Cant. ii. 12. any more than the roaring of the lion, the bellowng of the ox, the bleating of the sheep, the neighing of the hors, the braying of the ass, or the barking of the dog; the clamurous noisy shouts of conquerors, and the querulous notes shrieks, and cries of the conquered, are very different from the voice of singing: when Moses and Joshua came down from the mount, says Joshua, There is a noise of war in the camp, and he (Mcses) said, It is not the voice of them that shout for

mastery; neither is it the voice of them that cry for being overcome; but the noise of them that sing do I hear; that sung and danced about the calf. Singing musically with the voice, as a religious action, is distinct from prayer, 1 Cor. xvi. 15. from giving thanks, Matt. xxvi. 2630. and from merely praising God; for all praising is not singing. It is different from inward spiritual joy. Is any merry? Euthumie tis, is any of a good mind, or in a good frame of soul: let him sing psalms: but then the frame and the duty are different things. Though there is such a thing as mental prayer, there is no such thing as mental singing, or singing in the heart, without the voice. Speaking or preaching without the tongue, are not greater contradictions, than singing without a

voice.

The

II. To prove, that singing the praises of God has always been a branch of natural or revealed religion, in all ages and periods of time, and ever will be. 1. It was a part of the worship of God with the heathens. A modern learned writer observes, that" though religions the most different havé ob. tained in various nations and ages, yet in this they all agree, that they should be solemnized in hymns and songs. whole science of music was employed by the ancient Greeks in the worship of their gods, as Plutarch attests. Remarkable is the saying of Arrianus the Stoic philosopher ; " If, says ̈ he, we are intelligent creatures, what else should we do, both in public and private, than to sing an hymn to the deity? If I was a nightingale, I would act as a nightingale, and if a swan, as a swan ; but since I am a rational creature, I ought to praise God, and I exhort you to to the self same song:this is my work whilst I live, to sing an hymn to God, both by myself, or before one, or many." 2. It was practised by the people of God before the giving of the law by Moses; the lxxxviiith and lxxxixth psalms are thought by some to be the oldest pieces of writing in the world; being lost before the birth of Moses, composed by Heman and Ethan, two sons of Ze rah, the son of Judah; the one in the mourning elegy de

plores the miserable state of Israel in Egypt; the other joy. fully sings prophetically their deliverance out of it. Moses and the children of Israel, sung a song at the Red sea, which is still on record, and it seems will be sung again when the antichristian powers are destroyed by the christian conquerers, Exod. xv. 1. Rev. xv. 2, 3. this being before the law of Moses, when first sung, it was not done by virtue of that law. 3. It was not a part of divine service peculiar to Israel under the law; David called upon and exhorted the nations of the earth, to sing the praises of God; Make a joyful noise unto God, all ye lands, or all the earth; let the people, even all the people, praise thee; let the nations be glad and sing for joy; sing unto the Lord all the earth! &c. Psalm lxvi. 1, 2. 4. When the ceremonial law was in its greatest glory, and legal sacrifices in highest esteem, singing of psalms and spiritual songs was preferred unto them, as more acceptable to God, Psalm lxix. 30, 31. 5. When the cerimonial law, with all its rites, was abolished, this duty of singing the praises of God remained in full force, Eph. ii. 14, 15, &c. 6. That the churches of Christ under the gospel dispensation were to sing, have sung, and ought to sing the praises of God vocally, ap. pears, from the prophecies of the Old Testament concerning it, Isai. lii. 7-9. from express precepts and directions given to gospel churches concerning it, Eph. v. 19. Col. iii. 16. and from New Testament instances and examples, Matt. xxvi. 30. 1 Cor xiv. 26. This practice obtained in the earliest times. of christianity, and has continued to the present time.

III. What that is which is to be sung, or the subject matter of singing; and the directions are to these three, psalms hymns, and spiritual songs, Eph. v. 19. Col. iii. 16.' But inasmuch as the word of God and Christ in general furnishes out matter for singing his praises, I deny not, but that such hymns and spiritual songs composed by good men, uninspired, may be made use of; provided care is taken that they are agreeable to the sacred writings, and to the analogy of faith, and are expressed as much as may be in scripture language;

of such sort were those Tertullian speaks of, used in his time, as were either out of the holy scripture, or de proprie ingenio, of a mans own composure.

IV. The manner in which psalms &c. are to be sung, may be next considered. 1. Socially, and with united voices; so Moses and the children of Israel sung at the Red sea; thus the churches are directed in Eph. v. 19. Col. iii. 16. 2. With the heart along with the mouth, heartily as well as vocally, which is making melody in the heart, Eph. v. 19. 3. With grace in the heart, Col. iii. 16. 4. With the Spirit, 1 Cor. xiv. 15. 5. With the understanding also, with the understanding of what is sung, and in such language as may be understood by others. 6. We should have in view the glory of God; for we are to sing unto the Lord, not to ourselves; to gain applause from others, by the fineness of our voice, and by observing an exact conformity to the tune. What remains ¡ now is only,

V. To answer to some of the principal objections made to this duty; these are chiefly made against the matter and manner of singing, and the persons, at least some of them, who join in this service. 1. The matter and manner of singing, particularly David's psalms; to which are objected, 1. That they were not written originally in metre; and therefore are not to be sung in such manner; nor to be translated into metre for such a purpose. The contary to this is universally allowed by the Jews, and appears from the different accentuation of them from that of other books, and is asserted by such who are best skilled in the Hebrew language, both an. cients and moderns. Jerom, who, of all the fathers best un derstood the Hebrew tongue, takes the psalms to be of the Lyric kind, and therefore compares David to Pindar, Horace, and others; and for the metre of them appeals to Philo, Jo sephus, Origen, Eusebius, and others. 2. It is doubted whe ther the Book of Psalms is suited to the gospel dispensation, and proper to be sung in gospel churches. Nothing more suitable to it, since it abounds with prophecies concerning the