Singing of Psalms a Gospel-ordinance, or, A TreatiseSinging of Psalmes a Gospel-ordinance, or, A Treatise

Object. 2. The Psalms here committed to the spiritual Singers ⟨p. 18⟩to be sung, are the words of Christ, which are to dwell richly in us, Col. 3.16. But the Psalms dedicated to the sons of Corah, were the words of David and Asaph. And so the Holy Ghost calleth them. Not but that the words spoken by the mouth of David and Asaph, where the words of Christ, but that the words which are to be the spiritual songs of the Saints, wherein they are to teach one another, and to sing unto God, they are words spoken to the heart, by the voice of the Spirit of Christ. Besides, the word of Christ, is properly the Gospel, by way of eminency, in way of opposition to the Law, given by Moses.

Object. 2. The Psalmes here committed to the spirituall Singers ⟨p. 18⟩to be sung, are the words of Christ, which are to dwell richly in us, Col. 3.16. But the Psalmes dedicated to the sonnes of Corah, were the words of David and Asaph. And so the Holy Ghost calleth them. Not but that the words spoken by the mouth of David and Asaph, where the words of Christ, but that the words which are to be the spirituall songs of the Saints, wherein they are to teach one another, and to sing unto God, they are words spoken to the heart, by the voyce of the Spirit of Christ. Besides, the word of Christ, is properly the Gospel, by way of eminency, in way of opposition to the Law, given by Moses.

Answ. 1. The words of David and Asaph, as they were the words of Christ in the mouth of David and Asaph: so they were the words of Christ also in the mouths of the sons of Corah, or any other Singers in the Temple. If any of them did not sing them with the Spirit of Christ as well as David and Asaph spake, and penned them by the Spirit of Christ, it was a sinful defect in them, but not in the word it self▪ nor in the godly Singers of the Temple, (such as Heman, and Jeduthun, and others) who were spiritual, and holy men, and sang them with melody in their hearts, as well as in their voices. And it will be alike sinful defect in the New Testament, in such as sing the Psalms of David, to sing them without some measure of the Spirit of David. For the Apostle expressly requireth, that we should sing with grace in our hearts. But if the words of David and Asaph, be the words of Christ, and be sung of the Church, with grace in the heart, we demand whether this act of the Church be not an act of Faith, and of the obedience of Faith to the word of Christ, in that Text of the Apostle?