Here he diverteth to another matter, which is a direction
how to behave ourselves either in an afflicted or in a prosperous condition, we
being apt to fail or miscarry in both.
Is any among you afflicted? let
him pray. - Some Latin copies read the whole verse in one sentence, strangely
perverting the sense thus: Is any sorry among you? let him pray and sing with
an equal mind; but the Greek readeth as we do, 'is any among you,' &c. He
meaneth you that are in the church, that are the flock of Christ. Christianity
giveth us no lease of temporal happiness, no exemption from the cross, rather
the contrary; 'miserable' is one of the church's names: Isa. liv. 6, 10, 'O
thou afflicted.'
Is any merry? Euthumei tis; 'is any of a good mind?' -
The effect is put for the state, gladness for prosperity, which is wont to make
the heart glad and merry; the word is translated 'of good cheer,' Acts xxvii.
22, ' I exhort you to be of good cheer; ' it is euthumein.
Let him sing
psalms. - In the original there is but one word, psalletoo, let him sing; but
because the apostle is pressing them to religious use of every condition, and
because this is the usual acception of the word psalletoo in the church, it is
well rendered 'let him sing psalms.' Certainly, when the apostle biddeth them
sing, he doth not mean songs, but psalms; not songs to gratify the flesh, but
psalms to refresh the spirit. Merry men are wont to 'chant to the sound of the
viol,' Amos vi. Nature needeth not to be pressed to that; therefore
questionless he is to be understood of the duty of singing.
There are
many practical notes and inferences deducible from this verse.
Obs. 1.
Our temporal condition is various and diverse; now afflicted, and then merry.
It is the folly of our thoughts that we cannot be happy, but we think our nest
is among the stars: 'Man's best estate is altogether vanity,' Ps. xxxix. 5. Our
prosperity is like glass, brittle when shining. The complaint of the church may
be the motto of all the children of God: Ps. cii. 10, 'Thou hast lifted me up,
and cast me down.' The church's name, as I said, is 'afflicted and tossed with
the tempest,' Isa. liv. 11.
Obs. 2. This is the perfection of
Christianity to carry an equal pious mind in unequal conditions. Paul had
learned to walk up-hill and down-hill with the same spirit and pace: 'I know
both how to be abased, and how to abound,' Phil. iv. 12. The prophet saith of
Ephraim that he was 'as a cake not turned.' Hosea vii. 5, baked of one side,
but dough of the other. Most men are fit but for one condition. Some cannot
carry a full cup without spilling. Others cannot bear a full load without
breaking. Sudden alterations perplex both body and mind. It is the mighty power
of grace to keep the soul in an equal temper.
Obs. 3. Several
conditions require several duties. The Christian conversation is like a wheel,
every spoke taketh its turn. God hath planted in a man affections for every
condition, grace for every affection, and a duty for the exercise of every
grace, and a season for every duty. The children of the Lord are 'like trees
planted by the rivers of water, that bring forth their fruit in due season,'
Ps. i. 3. There is no time wherein God doth not invite us to himself. It is
wisdom to perform what is most seasonable. There is a time to encourage trust:
Ps. lvi. 3, 'At what time I am afraid, I will trust in thee;' and there is a
time to deject security. In misery the duty is prayer, in prosperity, giving of
thanks. Sometimes, I confess, these duties may be inverted. We may bless God
for giving as well as taking, and in prosperity there may be great need of
prayer; but the apostle speaketh of what is ordinary; at least he would show us
that there is no condition so good but there is need of duty; there is none so
bad as to be past duty. In all estates we must be doing. No providence exempts
you from duty, and cassates the bonds of obedience. It is our folly to betray
our duties by our wishes. If it were thus and thus with us, we could serve God
readily and cheerfully. Thou fool! there is no condition but grace can improve
it to some religious use, for the advantage of some duty or other. It is thy
laziness; and the blame of thine own neglects must not be charged upon
providence.
Obs. 4. That it is of excellent advantage in religion to
make use of the present affection; of sadness, to put us upon prayer; of mirth,
to put us upon thanksgiving: Anima nunquam melius agit, quam ex impetu insignia
alicujus affectus - the soul never worketh more sweetly than when it worketh in
the force of some eminent affection. With what advantage may we strike when the
iron is hot! When the affections are stirred up on a carnal occasion, convert
them to a religious use: Jer. xxii. 10, 'Weep not for the dead, but weep for
him that goeth away.' &c.; that is, when sorrow is stirred up by your
private lose, turn it out into a public channel. So Luke xxiii. 28. So Christ
would have them to spiritualise their tears, 'Weep not for me, O daughters of
Jerusalem, but for yourselves and children.' Christ would not have them to
bewail his death in a carnal manner, but to bemoan their own sins and their
approaching ruin. So for joy and mirth: Eph. v. 4, 'Not jesting, but rather
giving of thanks.' Mentioning his sweet experiences should be a Christian's
mirth and jesting. Oh! that we could learn this wisdom, to take the advantage
of a carnal motion, not to fulfil it, but to employ it for the uses of the
sanctuary. When the affections are once raised, give them a right object,
otherwise they are apt to degenerate and to offend in their measure, though
their first occasion was lawful.
Obs. 5. Prayer is the best remedy for
sorrows. Griefs are eased by groans and utterance. Such evaporation disburdened
and cooleth the heart. It is some ease to pour out our complaints into a
friend's bosom. Prayer is but the exercise of our graces, and graces exercised
will yield comfort. We have great cause in afflictions to use the help of
prayer. (1.) That we may ask patience. If God lay on a great burden, cry for a
strong back. (2.) That we ask constancy, that you may not 'put forth your hands
to iniquity,' Ps. cxxv. 3. (3.) That we may ask hope, and trust and wait upon
God for his fatherly love and care. (4.) That we may ask a gracious
improvement. The benefit of the rod is a fruit of the divine grace, as well as
the benefit of the word. (5.) That we may ask deliverance, with a submission to
God's will: Ps. xxxiv. 7, 'I sought the Lord, and he heard me, and delivered me
from all my fears.' So Ps. cvii., it is four times repeated, 'Then they cried
unto the Lord, and he saved them out of all their distresses,' ver. 6, 13, 19,
28.
Obs. 6. Thanksgiving, or singing to God's praise, is the proper
duty in the time of mercies or comforts. It is God's bargain and our promise,
that if he would 'deliver us,' we would 'glorify him,' Ps. 1. 15. The spouse's
eyes are 'dove's eyes,' Cant. iv. Doves peck and look upward. For every grain
of mercy there is some return of praise. Look to it then. Mercies work one way
or another; they either become the fuel of our lusts or our praises; either
they make us thankful or wanton. Your condition is either a help or a hindrance
in religion. Awaken yourselves to this service: every new mercy calleth for a
new song. It is sad to hold a great farm by the divine bounty, and pay no rent.
You should, as it is in the psalm for the Sabbath, 'show forth his
loving-kindness every morning, and his faithfulness every night,' Ps. xcii. 2.
Our morning hopes are founded in God's mercy, and our evening returns of praise
should take notice of his truth or faithfulness. We would have mercy in the
morning, but usually we forget praise at night.
Obs. 7. That singing of
psalms is a duty of the gospel. Having so fair a leave from the text, it will
be good to vindicate this holy ordinance and institution. Most practise it out
of custom, and in a formal, perfunctory manner, and therefore are apt to lay it
aside now it is questioned. Usually the devil taketh that advantage to draw men
of a probable faith to atheism; and when they do not know the reasons of a duty
they are the sooner won to the neglect of it. This comfortable ordinance and
spiritual recreation hath been several ways impugned.
First, Some
question the whole duty, as if it were legal worship, because we have no formal
and solemn institution of it in the New Testament; but vainly, and without
reason. For, (1.) Moral duties, enjoined in the Old Testament, need no other
institution in the New. That it is a part of moral worship is discernible by
the light of nature; the heathens sang hymns to their gods. As also because in
the Old Testament it is always sorted with other duties that are of a perpetual
and immutable obligation; as Ps. xcv. 1, 2, &c., where there is a perfect
enumeration of all parts of public worship, the word and prayer &c., and
singing is joined with them, as of equal necessity. Yes, it is notable that all
those psalms which prophesy of the worship of the Gentiles under the gospel do
mention singing: see Ps. cviii. 2 and Ps. c. &c. (2.) We have the example
of Christ and his apostles: 'They sang a hymn,' Mat xxvi. 30. The same is
recorded of Paul and Silas, Acts xvi. 25. (3.) We have exhortations in the New
Testament, as Col. iii. 16, and Eph. v. 19, and the present scripture which we
are now upon. (4.) The consent of the churches. Pliny, in his letter to Trajan,
mentioneth the Christians' hymnos antelucanos, their morning songs to Christ
and God, as a usual practice in their solemn worship. Justin Martyr saith,
quaest 117, ad Orthodoxos, Humnous kai proseuchas tooi Theooi anapempomen,
&c. - we send up prayers and psalms to God, &c.;
Secondly,
Others question whether we may sing scripture psalms, the psalms of David,
which to me seemeth to look like the cavil of a profane spirit. But to clear
this also. I confess we do not forbid other songs; if grave and pious, after
good advice they may be received into the Church. Tertullian, in his Apology,
showeth that in the primitive times they used this liberty, either to sing
scripture psalms or such as were of a private composure. But that which I am to
prove, that scriptural psalms may be sung, and I shall, or ek perissou, with
advantage over and above, prove that they are fittest to be sung.
1.
That they may be sung may be proved by reason; the word limiteth not, and
therefore we have no reason to make any restraint. They are part of the word of
God, full of matter that tendeth to instruction, comfort, and the praise of
God, which are the ends of singing; and therefore, unless we will bring a
disparagement upon the scriptures, we cannot deny them a part in our spiritual
mirth. Besides, thus it hath been practised by Christ himself, by the apostles,
the servants of the Lord in all ages; and there is no reason why, in these
dregs of time, we should obtrude novel restraints upon the people of God. That
Christ himself sang scripture psalms may be probably collected out of Mat xxvi.
30, humnèsantes, 'when they had sung a hymn,' &c.; which hymn, that
it was one or more of David's psalms, may be proved by these reasons to those
that do not wrangle rather than scruple. (1.) By the custom of the Jews; they
were wont to end the paschal supper with solemn psalms or hymns; they sang six
psalms in the night of the passover, when the lamb was eaten; the psalms were
cxiii. to cxix., which were called by the Jews the Great Hallelujah, as Lucas
Brugensis, Scaliger, Buxtorf, and others skilled in their customs do inform us;
and it is more than probable that Christ followed their custom herein, because
in all other things he observed their usual passover rites. (2.) From the word
itself, they sang a hymn. Now what shall we understand by this but such a hymn
as was usual in that age? If any should report the manner of our assemblies,
and should say after such exercises they sang a psalm, without any other
description, what can rationally be understood but the psalms in use amongst
us? Now the psalms or hymns then in use were the psalms of David. (3.) The
evangelists specify no new hymn made for this purpose, who are wont to mention
matters of far less moment and concernment. Grotius, indeed, is singular, and
thinketh that the 17th of John was this hymn; but that is a solemn prayer, not
in metre or measured words, hath not the style of other hymns and songs; and
those words were spoken by Jesus alone, the disciples could not so properly
join in them: 'These words spake Jesus, and lift up his eyes,' &c, John
xvii. 1.
That hymn which Paul and Silas sang, Acts xvi. 25, was
probably also a scriptural hymn; such were used in that age. Certainly it must
be such a hymn as both were acquainted with, or else how could they sing it
together? If the practice of the apostles may be interpreted by their
instructions, the case will be clear. In Col. iii. 16, and Eph. v. 19, Paul
biddeth us 'speak to one another, psalmois kai humnais kai ooidais
pneumatikais, in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs.' Now these words (which
are the known division of David's psalms), and expressly answering to the
Hebrew words Shurim, Tehillim, and Mizmorim, by which his psalms are
distinguished and entituled), being so precisely used by the apostle in both
places, do plainly point us to the Book of Psalms.
2. Scripture psalms
not only may be sung, but are fittest to be used in the church, as being
indited by an infallible and unerring Spirit, and are of a more diffusive and
unlimited concernment than the private dictates of any particular person or
spirit in the church. It is impossible any should be of such a large heart as
the penmen of the word, to whom God vouchsafed such a public, high, and
infallible conduct; and therefore their excellent composures and addresses to
God being recorded and consigned to the use of the church for ever, it seemeth
a wonderful arrogance and presumption in any to pretend to make better, or that
their private and rash effusions will be more edifying. Certainly if we consult
with our own experience, we have little cause to grow weary of David's psalms,
those that pretend to the gift of psalmony, venting such wild, raw, and
indigested stuff, belching out revenge and passion, and mingling their private
quarrels and interests with the public worship of God. But suppose men of known
holiness and ability should be called to this task, and the matter propounded
to be sung be good and holy, yet certainly then men are like to suffer loss in
their reverence and affection, it being impossible that they should have such
absolute assurance and high esteem of persons ordinarily gifted as of those
infallibly assisted. Therefore, upon the whole matter, I should pronounce, that
so much as an infallible gift doth excel a common gift, so much do scriptural
psalms excel those that are of a private composure.
Thirdly, There are
divers other lesser scruples which I shall handle briefly. Some will have no
singing with the voice at all, because the apostle saith, 'singing within your
hearts.' Ay! but the apostle saith there too, 'speaking to yourselves.' The
inward part must not exclude the outward; the lively voice doth not only give
vent to affections, but increaseth them. David speaketh often of praising God
with his tongue, and 'with his glory.' Ps. cviii. 1, by which he meaneth his
tongue; as Ps. xvi. 9, 'My heart is glad, and my glory rejoiceth;' it is
rendered, 'my tongue rejoiceth.' Acts ii. 16. Besides all this, the benefit we
may convey to others by loud singing; one bird sets all the flock a-chirping.
Austin, speaketh how much he was moved with the melody and singing of the
church at Milan, Quantum flevimus in hymnis et canticis suavisonantis
ecclesiae, &c.;
Others will have the psalmist only to sing, and the
congregation say amen, which seemeth to be the fashion in the church of
Corinth, 1 Cor. xiv. 14,15. But mark, that singing spoken of there was the
fruit of an extraordinary gift, by which they were able to dictate a psalm in
any tongue, which gift being for confirmation, could not be discerned if all
should join. I confess this practice was, after the expiration of the age of
miracles, kept up in the church, as appeareth by that passage of Tertullian
cited before, and among us in our cathedrals, where often one alone chanted,
the rest being silent. But yet I should judge that the most simple performance
of this duty is as it is now practised, the whole congregation joining; this is
most suitable to the precedents of scripture, where the duty is spoken of
without any relation to that extraordinary gift; as Exod. xv. 1, 'Then sang
Moses and all Israel this song unto God;' so it is said, 2 Chron. v. 13, they
joined together, &c.; so Christ and his apostles sang a hymn, and Paul and
Silas joined, &c.;
Others scruple the psalms because they are done
in metre and rhyme; a vain cavil. Many learned men, as Gomarus and others,
prove, that the psalms of David were penned in measure, and with musical
accents. Certainly, as we read them in our translation, a common ear may
discern that they are of a different style and cadency from other scriptures.
So Josephus saith the Song of Moses was penned in Hebrew hexameter verse. Now
there is no reason but that verse may be done into verse, or such metre with
which nations are most accustomed. If the scruple continueth, such may sing the
reading psalms, as hath been used in cathedrals: and as Austin reporteth of
Athanasius, that he was pronuncianti quam canenti vicinior - that his singing
was rather a more deliberate and extended pronunciation.
Some scruple
singing as a set and usual ordinance, urging this scripture which we are now
upon: 'Is any merry? let him sing psalms;' in which clause the apostle showeth
the chiefest season, not the only time of performance; as in the other duty,
prayer, it is to be practised at other times besides in affliction, though then
it be most needful. So also for singing; it is not only useful when we are
merry, that we may turn the course of our affections into a religious channel,
but sometimes to beget spiritual mirth, and to divert our sadness. Paul and
Silas sang in prison; and the disciples sang a hymn after the supper of the
Lord, though our Lord was presently to suffer, and they were troubled at it, as
appeareth John xiv. 1; in that sad hour they sang.
Some scruple singing
of scriptural psalms as set by others, because the matter doth not suit with
their case, but belongeth to other men and other times. I answer - It is a
folly to think that whatever we sing must expressly suit with our case; you may
as well say that whatever we read should so suit. We are to meditate upon the
psalm which is sung, that we may receive comfort and hope from it, as from
other scriptures, Rom. xv. 4. I confess there must be always application. Some
psalms have direful imprecations. We are not so to sort them to our case as to
wish the like judgments on our private adversaries, but to think of the
horrible judgments of God on unbelievers, &c. Other psalms contain sad
narratives of the sufferings of the church or of Christ, which, though we sing
them, cannot be conceived as remonstances of our particular case and state to
God, but we are to use them as an occasion to awaken meditations on the
afflicted state of the church, or the agonies which Christ endured for our
sakes. But this scruple is of the less weight, because the psalms do most
commonly contain matter of such general and comprehensive concernment, that
they readily offer matter to us to present our own case to God.
Some
scruple singing with company of whose gracious estate they can have no
assurance, rather shrewd presumptions to the contrary. I confess 'praise is
comely for the upright,' Ps. xxxiii. 1; but yet it is obligatory to all
mankind. Wicked men are bound; and you have no reason to discontinue your own
acts of obedience because they are in some sort mindful of theirs. You may as
well refuse to hear with them or pray with them; singing being a part of such
kind of worship as is not peculiar to a church as a church. Yea, upon this
ground the saints may refuse to 'bless God,' because all the creatures join in
consort with them, and 'all his works praise him,' Ps. cxlv. 10.
Lastly, some scruple the present translation of the Book of Psalms, the
metre being so low and flat, and coming so far short of David's original. I
confess this is a defect that needeth public redress and reformation. But it is
good to make use of present means, though weak, when we have no better; as the
martyrs did of the first translations of the Bible, which in many places were
faulty and defective. At least, it is far more safe to sing the psalms as now
translated than to join in the raw, passionate, and revengeful eructations of
our modern psalmists. Besides, for those that conscientiously and modestly
scruple this, the Lord hath provided some help by the more excellent
translations of Sands, Rous, Barton, and others. Thus I have showed how many
ways the devil seeketh to divert men from this comfortable ordinance. I confess
a psalmodical history would be of great use and profit, and might be easily
collected by them that are versed in antiquity; but our leisure and present
intendment will not now permit it.
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