A supplement to The Morning-exercise at Cripple-Gate, or, Several more cases of conscience practically…

3. Psalms are sung for Praise and Thanksgiving. Then as the Psalmist speaks, Psal. 17.8. We awake our Glory, which Interpreters call the Tongue, an excellent instrument for praising God. Singing of Psalms is only the Echo of Praise, the rebound of a joyous heart in a laudatory Speech; Praise loudly and Musically proclaimed, that men may hear our Thanksgivings, and bear testimony to our gratulatory enlargements; as the passenger bears witness to the Music of a Grove; there the pleasant birds sit and sing.

3. Psalms are sung for Praise and Thanksgiving. Then as the Psalmist speaks, Psal. 17.8. We awake our Glory, which Interpreters call the Tongue, an excellent instrument for praising God. Singing of Psalms is only the Eccho of Praise, the rebound of a joyous heart in a laudatory Speech; Praise loudly and Musically proclaim'd, that men may hear our Thanksgivings, and bear testimony to our gratulatory enlargements; as the passenger bears witness to the Musick of a Grove; there the pleasant birds sit and sing.

Now do such consider the rare effects of this Duty, viz. of singing to the Lord: and they are,

1. Singing can sweeten a Prison. Thus Paul and Silas indulcorated their bondage by this service,¹ Acts 16.25. As prayer can shed a perfume, so singing can cast a delight on the most displicent dungeon; this truly Divine Service can turn a prison into a paradise; a place of restraint into the glorious liberty of the Sons of God. As Cyprian used to triumph; Our Conventions sing our Psalms.