N01895:47
The accomplished singer. Instructions how the piety of singing with a true devotion, may…
The accomplished singer. Instructions how the piety of singing with a true devotion, may be obtained and expressed; the glorious God after an uncommon manner glorified in it, and his people edified. : Intended for the assistance of all that would sing Psalms with grace in their hearts; but more particularly to accompany the laudable endeavours of those who are learning to sing by rule, and seeking to preserve a regular singing in the assemblies of the faithful. : [Two lines of quotation]
Boston: printed by B. Green for S. Gerrish, 1721
Title page typeset from the transcription.
Modern spelling is a reading aid: the words are the author’s, only the spelling is modernized. Original shows the page as printed, with the transcription marks.
WHAT point of our spiritual, or even our Temporal Prosperity, is there, that in the Language of our Spiritual Songs we may not Petition for; and with a Faith so exercised therein, that we shall have the grant of our Petition?
WHATEVER Temptations we are assaulted withal, the Harp of David being with our Spiritual Songs well played upon, the Tempter will ere long depart; Serpents will burst and break upon the Singing of such Verses as these.
WHATEVER Temptations we are assaulted withal, the Harp of David being with our Spiritual Songs well play'd upon, the Tempter will ere long depart; Serpents will burst and break upon the Singing of such Verses as these.
WE may have Adversaries, of whose Influences to hurt us, we may have some Terror upon us. By our Spiritual Songs we fly away to a Munition of Rocks. There was a Time, when the Israel of GOD had like to have been overwhelmed with Adversaries; but when the Singers began to Sing, the Providence of GOD with strange Dispensations defeated them. Only, when Imprecations upon Enemies occur in our Psalms, let us never dart any of them against any of our Neighbours; be they never so malevolent, never so injurious When we Sing, Upon mine Enemies my Eyes their Wish shall see. Let it be remembered, Their Wish is not ⟨p. 10⟩in the Original. Thy Word of supply, O charitable Christian will rather be, What comes: For thou will Wish for them nothing but Good. The Imprecations may indeed be hurled against Public Enemies, and those without whose Confusion the People of GOD cannot be in safety. But rather, Let the Singer make his Interior Adversaries, the Objects of all these Imprecations. And as in the Primitive Times, the Devils in Energumens discovered a singular Horror, at the Singing of that Verse, May GOD arise; His Enemies, may they be scattered; and such as are Haters of Him, fly from before His Face: Thus, O Singer, Let Satan be the Enemy against whom thou wilt sing the Songs of the Lord. And let thy Original sin, be the Enemy in like manner stabbed by those Javelins of the Divine Armoury, and let thy Lusts be those Foes, against which thou wilt with thy Songs as with slings cast forth what shall mortify them? One of the Arnobius's has very particularly informed us, how the Primitive Christians did with such an Application of the Psalms, carry on, The Wars of the Lord.