trumpeters of your own graces, what are those attainments, and those exercises, of grace, which the Spirit of your Redeemer has not described with infallible accuracy in the Book of God?-yea, even in the Book of Psalms? Till you find some, not there described, we beg you to excuse a few of your fellow pil grims in the journey of life, if they suspect your boasted acquisitions, to be the illusions of the twilight of a partially instructed mind. We cannot highly admire that humility, which induced the author of the Imitation of the Psalms, to set himself before all the prophets of the Israelitish Church,* as to qualifications, for furnishing us with a system evangelical psalms. To remedy such bloatings of self

*Nor is the attempt (of making a new psalm book) vain-glorious, or presuming; for, in respect of clear evangelic knowledge, The least in the kingdom of heaven is greater than all the Jewish prophets."-Watts' Pref. p. 6.

There is a sense in which the New Testament ministry is su perior to that of the Old Testament-That which to the one was matter of promise, is to the other matter of fact. But was Dr. W. as well qualified to make a book of Psalms, as were David and other prophets? The Dr. has intimated that he was better qualified, and his friends agree with him; for they take bis, and reject and vilify, that of the others. We must, nevertheless, demur; because we know, that to supply a system of Psalms, David-and others were inspired. We do not be lieve this of Dr. W. It requires the madness of this enthusiasm to go only a little farther, and we shall have the whole Old Testament rejected, in order to substitute the superior illusions of some modern illuminati.

complacency, a more intimate acquaintance with the spirit which breathes in the scripture song, may, with confidence, be recommended.

As an argument for human composures in our psalmody, we find it further urged, “That Old Testament songs are defective, and that the New Testament forms are few." If the poetic compositions of the New Testament be ve ry limited, instead of taking the fact as an argument to justify the practice contended for, I would rather understand it as an admonition to us, to confine ourselves to those portions of the Book of God, that, from their structure, evidently appear intended, for the purpose of Psalmody. If he who has the residue of the Spirit, enlarged not the number of our sacred hymns, when finishing the canon of revelation, and settling, finally, the constitution of his Church, we should proceed to the task with cautious steps. We should have his command. Let us, then, turn to the holy volume, and, before we fill his sanctuary with our own effusions, let the stores of inspiration be exhausted.

But, again, it is contended, that "The im

imitation, and the hymns of modern date, are

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better calculated to arouse, to warm, and ele vate the affections, than are the productions of inspiration." So, I know, it has been said, and no doubt thought; but it is only hypoth esis, or something worse; and by what evi, dence is the hypothesis supported? Affections may be awakened, and the passions. thrown into tumult, where no piety exists. About religion there may be much elevation of heart, and yet no genuine devotion. Inatten. tion to this fact has proved as auspicious to the progress of a raging enthusiasm, as it has been unpropitious to the cause of the religion of the Bible. That the lighter principles of our constitution may be more readily excited, and animal feeling more easily cast into com-.. motion, by the flippant verbiage of man, than by the more deep and solemn delineations of the Holy Ghost, is not hard of belief. So Augustine informs us, that "the Donatists inflamed their minds with human compositions, and reproached the orthodox for singing, with sobriety, the divine songs of the prophets."The character of that warmth which is produced by the words of man, rather than from the appointed use of these of God, is a just ob

ject of suspicion, and its consequences of dread. Behold all ye that kindle a fire, that compass yourselves about with sparks; walk in the light of your fire, and in the sparks that ye have kindled. This shall ye have of mine hand; ye shall lie down in sorrow.* †

• Isa. 50: 11.

If an elevated devotion consist in an exercise of heart, corresponding to the glories of the divine character, as these are displayed in the face of Jesus, and to our relationto him, as saved sinners, it may very reasonably be questioned, whether the productions of human ingenuity be better adapted to it, than the words of God. Conjecturejis no more admissible in true religion, than in genuine science; and, when admitted, is no less pernicious in the former, than it is injurious to the latter.

Much has been ascribed to the influence of picus hymns, of human composition in the religious movements of our days.But before any valid conclusion can be drawn from this, in their favor, two points must previously be settled: the first is, the character of these movements. Should what is most prom inent in these excitements be of doubtful character, or, perhaps, condemnable at the bar of inspired truth, little commendation would be due to that influence by which they are effected. The next point to be ascertained, is, supposing the character of these movements sustained, as really gracious, was this character derived from the use of those hymns? Or did it proceed from the use of other means divinely appointed to effect a work of grace! Until the friends of modern hymn books shall have satisfactorily settled these inquiries, which are certainly fair ones, others will hold themselves excused in not giving that credit to the hypothesis, for it is no more than hypothesis, Which its advocates claim.

It is most notorious that those excitements called revivals of religion, which make the greatest noise, are effected where the most pernicious errors are habitually taught. That these, and modern hymns, have a great share in the production of those noisy but short lived agitations, need not be doubted. Israel's worship of the golden calf, was marked by a greater excite. ment, than the usual, and approved worship of Jehovah. A visit to those favored districts of revival, a few months after a magazine description, or eclesiastical report, has been given

It is again contended, that " The poetic compositions in general use, particularly those of Dr. Watts, are more elegant in diction, and, in sentiment, more evangelical, than is any literal version of the Bible Psalms; and therefore demand a preference." Into the literary merits

of the multitudes converted, would cast a shade of doubt, generally, on those fine narratives. And the man who considers, that the embracing of truth, turning to God through a crucified and exalted Savior, and living a life of practical godliness, are the best proofs of real conversion, wishes, sincerely, that things were published as they really are, and that our country furnished one journal, which would venture to tell all the truth.

The idea that the songs of inspiration are inadequate to the elevation of modern devotion, demands another remark.— When we lock to the christian heroes of the reformation, when we review the intellectual pre-eminence of those champions for truth, who flourished in the 16th and 17th centuries, when we consider the ardor of their piety, and the fervor of their enlight ened zeal; the firmness of their character, and the magnitude of their achievements; and compare with these the frivolity, the indifference to truth, though less rage for innovation, that characterized the ecclesiastics of the eighteenth century, the comparison is as humbling to the character of the latter, as it is honorable to the former. Yet among these highly favored men of God, whose devotion was of the loftiest kind, and whose deeds of valor, in the cause of God and man, are immortal; whose experience in the life of godliness was deep and substantial, while their dangers were great and their sufferings extreme; among the thousands of those martyrs, divinely ennobled as they were, not one was found to imagine, that the inspired psalms were of a character too flat for his piety, unsuitable to a gospel day, or unfit for the various conditions of the christian life. Such imaginations were unknown in those days, when God was seen among men, dispensing, in measures unusually large, the gifts of his Spirit. Complaints of the obscurity of the inspired page were left to exercise the blinded votaries of the Romish Church, and, to regret their flatness, was a suitable employment for the raving devotees of John of Leyden. Robert Barclay, Isaac Watts, John Wesley, and their devotees, engaged in the same unholy work. Can the blessing