N01895:66
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.
The CHRIST in thy PSALMS, may be called The Key of David, which lets thee into inestimable Treasures, and indeed shows the Things, which the Angels desire to look into. Yea, In feeding on this Manna, thou dost Eat the Food of Angels!
§ 9. TO give a finishing stroke, unto the Directions, How to Sing the songs of the Lord, in the Land of a Stranger? Here shall be transcribed a Paragraph of an Introduction, to a well-known Edition of the Psalter in Blank Verse, with Illustrations upon it.
THERE is a wonderful Thing to be observed concerning our PSALMS, which has hitherto been too much over looked, by all the Uninspired Interpreters; But it is a Thing, which our SAVIOUR, and His Apostles, who have quoted the PSALMS near Fifty times, have led us into the Apprehension of. This is, That they are full of Prophecies; and our Psalter is indeed the most Prophetical Book in the World. IT is more particularly, but not without holy Astonishments! — to be observed, That the Design of the Prophetic Spirit in the Psalms all along, has been to describe the Sufferings of the Jewish Nation, and of the Christian Surrogate, under the Tyranny of Antichrist; and foretell the Characters and Confusions of that Wicked one, and of his Followers; and Predict the Recovery of the Jewish Nation from their ⟨p. 20⟩long Dispersions; and a long Felicity for them, and the Converted Gentiles associated with them, under the succeeding Reign of the MESSIAH; and the Happy State of the New Earth, in which, under the Influences of the New Heaven, there shall Dwell Righteousness, and the Tabernacle of GOD, shall be with Men, and He shall dwell with them, and they shall be His People, and GOD Himself shall be with them, and be their GOD. IT may be the Word which we render, To the Chief Musician, but which may be rendered (and was of old so,) For the End, may be to intimate, that the Psalms are calculated eminently with an Eye to the Things that are to be done, at that which the Bible calls, The time of the End. Indeed, Jerome long ago found Antichrist in the Psalms: And Austin affirmed, That the Psalms ought all to be understood of CHRIST and His Church, and many of them refer to After Ages. But we now Improve in our Discoveries. ACCORDINGLY, The Devout Singer like the Beloved Disciple, shall be carried away in the Spirit into the Wilderness, and be shown the Judgment of the Great Whore, that sitteth upon many Waters. He shall also in these Visions of GOD, See the Holy City, New Jerusalem, coming down from GOD out of Heaven, prepared as a Bride for her Husband. Very depraved must be that Soul, that has not, a Relish for such Contemplations, more than for any Earthly Entertainments; and that will not heartily say, They're more desirable than Gold, yea, than much solid Gold; than Honey also sweeter much, or dropping Honey-Comb.