The breach repaired in God's worship, or, Singing of psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs,…

Now if to sing God's Praise we•• not the Duty of all Men, it would follow, God hath given them one Faculty in that Member for no use: But of use it is, and Men will use it too; they will sing, and, say I, they may, nay more, they ought; but not to the Dishonour of God, not filthy, or vain and foolish Songs, but such as may be to the Glory and Honour of his Name, who made all Creatures and Things for his own Praise. And since Mankind are naturally thus inclined to Singing, and that this natural Gift and Faculty might be improved (as all others) to the Honour of God, who (as Austine, in his Preface to the Psalms, observes) has left in his Word, what they should sing, and how to perform that Moral Duty: Spiritus Sanctus videns obluctantem ad virtutis viam humani generis animam, ad delect ati• nes hujus vitae inclinari, delect abilibus mod• lis Cantilenae vim suae Doctrinae permiscuit, ut dum servitate carmine mulcetur auditu• divini sermonis pariter utilitate miseratur. The Holy Ghost seeing the Soul of Mankind struggling in the way of Godliness, and being inclined to the Delights of this Life, he mixed the Power of his Doctrine with sweet Singing, that whilst the Soul was melted with the sweetness of the Verse, the hearing of the Divine Word might be ingrafted with profit. Austin in his Preface to the Psalms.

Now if to sing God's Praise we•• not the Duty of all Men, it would follow, God hath given them one Faculty in that Member for no use: But of use it is, and Men will use it too; they will sing, and, say I, they may, nay more, they ought; but not to the Dishonour of God, not filthy, or vain and foolish Songs, but such as may be to the Glory and Honour of his Name, who made all Creatures and Things for his own Praise. And since Mankind are naturally thus inclined to Singing, and that this natural Gift and Faculty might be improved (as all others) to the Honour of God, who (as Austine, in his Preface to the Psalms, observes) has left in his Word, what they should sing, and how to perform that Moral Duty: Spiritus Sanctus videns obluctantem ad virtutis viam humani generis animam, ad delect ati• nes hujus vitae inclinari, delect abilibus mod• lis Cantilenae vim suae Doctrinae permiscuit, ut dum servitate carmine mulcetur auditu divini sermonis pariter utilitate miseratur. The Holy Ghost seeing the Soul of Mankind strugling in the way of Godliness, and being inclined to the Delights of this Life, he mixed the Power of his Doctrine with sweet Singing, that whilst the Soul was melted with the sweetness of the Verse, the hearing of the Divine Word might be ingrafted with profit. Austin in his Preface to the Psalms.