Mouth of a Sinner", but it becometh well the Fuft to be thankful". up from our For so we The Way then being thus prepared, and having qualified ourfelves with holy David to fay, My Heart is ready, my Heart is ready, I will fing and give Praife, we rife Knees, and stand upon our Feet. read, that when the Priests and Levites praised the Lord, all Ifrael flood. And we begin this good Work with that Summary of all our Praises, to which we fhall often return in the Course of them, and in which we fhall conclude them: Glory be ascribed to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Ghoft: as it was in the Beginning of Time by Angels, when the Morning Stars fang together, and all the Sons of God fhouted for Joy; as it hath been ever fince, by religious Perfons in fucceeding Ages, according to the Degree of their Light; as it is now, by all the Saints in Earth and Heaven, and ever shall be, not only throughout the present Scene of Things, by new Christians rifing up in the Place of those who die or fall away, (whatever Men or Devils may do to prevent it) but after the final Confummation, when all are u Ecclus xv. 9. y 2 Chron. vii. 6. * Pf. xxxiii. 1. N 4 * Pf. cviii. 1. united united into one general Affembly: whofe triumphant Acclamations to our Creator, our Redeemer, our Sanctifier, thall refound World without End, Duration without Period, in that bleffed State, which fhall last to Eternity. And now having propofed the unspeakably great Subject, that we are to celebrate, we invite each other to enter upon it more particularly the Minifter faying, Praife ye the Lord; which is the literal Tranflation of Alleluiah, fo often repeated in the Old Teftament, in the New, in the Liturgies of the Universal Church; and the People anfwering, with joyful Approbation, The Lord's Name be praised. Some indeed of our Diffenting Brethren have thought, and so have some Papifts a, that dividing this, and other Parts of the Service, as we do, between the Prieft and the Congregation; and allowing the latter to make Refponfes; (which means Anfwers) is permitting, not only Laymen, but even Women, against an exprefs Prohibition of Scripture, to encroach on the minifterial Office, makes a difagreeable confufed Noife, and hinders many from understanding what is faid. But furely the Office of the Minifter is fufficiently diftinguifhed, as he prefides a See Bingham, 1. xiv. c. . §. 13. and leads, throughout the Service. And why fhould not the People be fuffered to follow him; and bear fome Part with their Voices in praying, as well as the main Part in finging? Not to fay, that the principal Article, in which they do bear, a Part, is the Pfalms for the Day, which were defigned to be fung, where it could be done conveniently, as I wish it could every where. No Scripture forbids the Congregation to bear a Part: that which forbids Women to speak in the Church, means only to forbid their giving Inftruction, or entering into Questions or Difputations there. And St. Paul commands us to Speak to one another in Pfalms and Hymns and fpiritual Songs. Accordingly the primitive Chriftians are known to have used this alternate Manner in their public Prayers and Praises. And though, when the Pfalms and Hymns are spoken thus, and not fung, there is nothing harmonious in the Sound, yet St. John defcribes the Worship of the Bleffed above by the Voice of many Waters and of a great Thunder; which is no unfit Comparifon for the united Anfwers of a large Congrégation. As to the other Part of the Objection, this Method in Reality creates no Confusion or DifEph. v. 19. 1 Cor. xiv. 35. с Rev. xiv. 2. ficulty ficulty at all. A very little Practice will render it easy to any one that can read: even they who cannot read, may join in it, by attending to thofe near them, or to the Clerk: it makes a grateful Variety, keeps Attention awake, and enlivens Devotion. In this Manner then we glorify God: beginning always with the 95th Pfalm, as the whole Chriftian Church did in early Ages, and as the Nature of the Pfalm recommends to us: it being a distinct Invitation to the feveral Duties of Praife, Prayer and Hearing, with an awful Warning of the Danger of neglecting God, drawn from his Judgements on the difobedient Jews, unto whom thefe Things happened for Enfamples, and they are written for our Admonition . When we call him, in this Pfalm, the Strength of our Salvation; we mean, that by his Power alone we can be faved from prefent and future Evils. When we call him a great King above all Gods; we mean, above all that have ever had that Name ascribed to them: the Princes of the Nations, the falfe Deities of the Heathen, Satan the God of this World', and the holy Angels in Heaven. When we say, that in his Hands are all the Corners of the • 1 Cor. x. II. f 2 Cor. iv. 4. Earth, Earth, and the Strength of the Hills is his alfo; we mean, that his Prefence and his Influence extend to the remotest and most inacceffible Places; and there is none, where he cannot deliver or punish. When we call ourselves the People of his Pafture, and the Sheep of his Hand; we own our Maker to be likewife our Preferver, Supporter, and Director; who feeds our Souls by his Word and his Grace, as well as our Bodies with daily Bread, and guides us mercifully through this World to a better. Today if ye will bear his Voice, harden not your Hearts, is an affecting and alarming Exhortation, that if we design ever to become his Servants in Earneft, we should hearken immediately to his continual Calls; else through a Habit of Difobedience, our Minds may grow callous, and past Feeling. The Words, When your Fathers tempted me, which are put into the Mouth of God himself, the Jews, (for whom first this Pfalm was compofed) were to understand literally, of their Fathers according to the Flesh. But we are to take them of those. who have gone before us in the Profeffion of Religion: and whom we are not to resemble in tempting and proving God, that is, doubting, Eph. iv, 19. and |