Master, after he was ascended to heaven, from whence he came. Paul and Silas did the same, even in a prison at midnight; and Paul was careful to perpetuate this noble part of divine worship, by enjoining it upon the churches to whom he writes, and through them to all others. We learn by the testimony of a heathen of considerable credibility, I mean Pliny, that the same practice was continued by the followers of Christ in his days, that is, about the year of our Lord 100; nor was there ever a time, that I know of, from that to this, in which it was generally abandoned. Part of the subjects, indeed, dwelt upon then in singing, have been thrown out with sovereign contempt by some pretendedly very wise since those days. The Christians in the time of Pliny, he says expressly, "sung hymns to Christ as though he were, or under the idea of his being GOD."* Eusebius, a Christian bishop, who lived in the time of the emperor Constantine, and about the year of our Lord 300, tells us of "certain psalms and odes, wrote by the faithful brethren in the first age, which celebrate the divinity of the Christ the Word of God."+ Some persons think they see better than that now, and therefore abhor such hymns as contain that eternal truth, or any other truths founded thereupon. They are objects of pity. May the eternal Spirit open their eyes to see the glories of Jesus, and grant even unto them also salva * Plinii Epist. lib. 10. epist. 97. † Euseb. Hist. Eccles. lib. 5. c. 28. tion by his blood. Whatever they may say or do, we will sing hymns to Christ as our God; nor need we fear being wrong in so doing, while the ransomed above sing the same eternally. I do not mean to suggest that the following hymns are the only ones in which this truth and its concomitants are to be found. There are doubtless thousands more in the world that breathe a kindred spirit with them, and it is my sincere wish that there may be millions more of the same kind. Plenty of good witnesses will not diminish the goodness or justice of a cause. Many, in composing such hymns, have done worthily in Israel; and their memories are blessed. The praise, particularly of Dr. Watts, is deservedly great in the churches. He shines as a sun among the stars; and as long as a just taste either for poetry or evangelic truth remains in the world, he is likely to retain the preference; and it is matter of astonishment to me that such wretched performances as Sternhold and Hopkins, the Scotch version and others, of the psalms, should ever be sung where Watts' is known, as there admits of no comparison betwixt his and theirs. With respect both to his psalms and hymns, I profess myself to be among the number of his admirers, and cannot think the works of this kind of any individual whatever equal to his; the consequence of which is, my constant use of both the psalms and hymns: but, at the same time, I cannot help thinking some persons too strongly prejudiced to them, who, to show their attach |