^ Qu. 'taking .13 well as giving' ? - Va).
JaS. V. 13.] UPON THE EriSTLE OF JAMES. 441
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.
Ohs. 5. Prayer is the best remedy for sorrows. Griefs are eased by groans and utterance. Such evaporation disburdeneth 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 rei)eated, ' Then they cried unto the Lord, and he saved them out of all their distresses,^ ver. 6, 13, 19, 28.
Ohs. 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 spouses eyes are ' dove's eyes,' Cant. iv. Doves peck and look upward. For every grain of mercy tliere is some return of praise. Look to it then. Mercies work one way or another ; they either be- come the fuel of our lusts or our praises ; either they make us thank- ful 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.
Ohs. 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 ordin- ance 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 ques- tioned. Usually the devil taketh that advantage to draw men of a pro- bable 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
^ ' Qui majores terras possident, minores census solvunt.' — Par'mtnsis de Ingratis. ^ 'Non exploratis rationibus traditionum, probabilem tantum fidem portant.' — Cypr.
442 AN ExrosiTioN, -vviTii NOTES, [Jas. V. 13.
the Old Testament it is always sorted with other duties that are of a perpetual and immutable oblit!:atiou ; as Ps. xcv. 1, 2, &c., where there is a })erfect enumeration of all parts of public worship, the word and prayer, &c., and singing is joined with them, as of equal necessity. Yea, it is notable that all those psalms which prophesy of the worship of the Gentiles under the gosi)el 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 feilas, Acts xvi. 25. (3.) We have exhortations in the New Testament, as Col. iii. IG, 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 antclucanos, their morning songs to Christ and God, as a usual practice in their solemn worship. Justin Martyr saith, qutest. 117, ad Ortliodoxos, ''T/jLvov'! Kol '7Tpoaev)(a<; rS) 0€m dpa7rifM7rofj,€v, &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 l)salms or such as w^ere of a private composure.^ But that which I am to prove, that scriptural psalms may be sung, and I shall, e/c Treptaaov, with advantage over and above, prove that they are fittest to be sung.