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fraud; there being nothing in this life to check that man to whom lite itself, as it is circumstanced, is an insupportable load.

In a word, public worship is the great instrument of securing a sense of God's providence, and of a world to come; and a sense of God's providence and a world to come is the great basis of all socical and private duties. Seed

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ON THE USEFULNESS OF CHURCH MUSIC.

THE use of [vocal and instrumental harmony] in divine worship I shall recommend and justify from this consideration; that they do, when wisely employed and managed, contribute extremely to awaken the attention, and enliven the devotion of all serious and sincere Christians; and their usefulness to this end will appear on a double account, as they remove the ordinary hinderances of devotion, and as they supply us further with special helps and advantages towards quickening and improving it.

By the melodious harmony of the church, the ordinary hinderances of devotion are removed, particularly these three; that engagement of thought which we often bring with us into the church from what we last conversed with those accidental distractions that may happen to us during the course of divine service: and that weariness and flatness of mind which some weak tempers may labour under, by reason even of the length of it.

When we come into the sanctuary immediately from any worldly affair, as our very condition of

life does, alas! force many of us to do, we come usually with divided and alienated minds. The business, the pleasure, or the amusement we left, sticks fast to us; and perhaps engrosses that heart for a time, which should then be taken up altogether in spiritual addresses. But as soon as the sound of the sacred hymns strikes us, all that busy swarm of thoughts presently disperses: by a grateful violence we are forced into the duty that is going forward, and, as indevout and backward as we were before, find ourselves on the sudden seized with a sacred warmth, ready to cry out with holy David, 'My heart is fixed, O God, my heart is fixed, I will sing and give praise.' Our misapplication of mind, at such times, is often so great, and we só deeply immersed in it, that there needs some very strong and powerfnl charm to rouse us from it; and perhaps nothing is of greater force to this purpose, than the solemn and awakening airs of church music.

For the same reason, those accidental distractions, that may happen to us, are also best cured by it. The strongest minds, and best practised in holy duties, may sometimes be surprised into a forgetfulness of what they are about, by some violent outward impressions; and every slight occásion will serve to call off the thoughts of no less willing though much weaker worshippers. Those that come to see, and to be seen here, will often gain their point, will draw and detain for a while the eyes of the curious and unwary. A passage in the sacred story read, an expression used in the ⚫common forms of devotion, shall raise a foreign reflection perhaps in musing and speculative minds,

and lead them on from thought to thought, and point to point, till they are bewildered in their own imaginations. These, and an hundred other avocations will arise and prevail: but when the instruments of praise begin to sound, our scattered thoughts presently take the alarm, return to their post, and to their duty, preparing and arming themselves against their spiritual assailants.

Lastly, even the length of the service itself becomes an hinderance sometimes to the devotion, which it was meant to feed and raise; for, alas! we quickly tire in the performance of holy duties; and as eager and unwearied as we are in attending upon secular business and trifling concerns, yet in divine offices, I fear, the expostulation of our Saviour is applicable to most of us, 'What! can ye not watch with me one hour? This infirmity is relieved, this hinderance prevented or removed by the sweet harmony that accompanies several parts of the service, and returning upon us at fit interyals, keeps our attention up to the duties, when we begin to flag, and makes us insensible of the length of it. Happily therefore, and wisely, is it so ordered, that the morning devotions of the church, which are much the longest, should share also a greater proportion of the harmony which is useful to enliven them.

But its use stops not here, at a bare removal of the ordinary impediments to devotion; it supplies us also with special helps and advantages towards furthering and improving it. For it adds dignity and solemnity to public worship; it sweetly influences and raises our passions, while we assist at it; and makes us do our duty with the greatest

pleasure and cheerfulness: all which are very proper and powerful means towards creating in us that holy attention and erection of mind, the most reasonable part of this our reasonable service.

Such is our nature, that even the best things, and most worthy of our esteem, do not always employ and detain our thoughts, in proportion to their real value, unless they be set off and greatened by some outward circumstances, which are fitted to raise admiration and surprise in the breasts of those who hear or behold them. And this good effect is wrought in us by the power of sacred music. To it we, in good measure, owe the dignity and solemnity of our public worship; which else, I fear, in its natural simplicity and plainness, would not so strongly strike, or so deeply affect the minds, as it ought to do, of the sluggish and inattentive, that is, of the far greatest part of mankind. But when voice and instruments are skilfully adapted to it, it appears to us in a majestic air and shape; and gives us very awful and reverent impressions; which, while they are upon us, it is impossible for us not to be fixed and composed to the utmost. We are then in the same state of mind that the devout patriarch was, when he awoke from his holy dream, and ready with him to say to ourselves: Surely the Lord is in this place, and I knew it not. How dreadful is this place. This is none other but the house of God, and this is the gate of heaven.'

Further, the availableness of harmony to promote a pious disposition of mind will appear from the great influence it naturally has on the passions, which, when well directed, are the wings and

sails of the mind, that speed its passage to perfection, and are of particular and remarkable use in the offices of devotion: for devotion consists in an ascent of the mind towards God, attended with holy breathings of soul, and a divine exercise of all the passions and powers of the mind. These passions the melody of sounds serves only to guide, and elevate towards their proper object: these it first calls forth and encourages, and then gradually raises and inflames. This it does to all of them, as the matter of the hymns sung gives an occasion for the employment of them; but the power of it is chiefly seen in advancing that most heavenly passion of love, which reigns always in pious breasts, and is the surest and most inseparable mark of true devotion; which recommends what we do in virtue of it to God, and makes it relishing to ourselves; and without which all our spiritual offerings, our prayers and our praises, are both insipid and unacceptable. At this our religion begins, and at this it ends; it is the sweetest companion and improvement of it here upon earth, and the very earnest and foretaste of heaven: of the pleasures of which nothing further is revealed to us, than that they consist in the practice of holy music and holy love, the joint enjoyment of which, we are told, is to be the happy lot of all pious souls to endless ages.

Now it naturally follows from hence, which was the last advantage from whence I proposed to recommend church music, that it makes our duty a pleasure, and enables us, by that means, to perform it with the utmost vigour and cheerfulness. It is certain, that the more pleasing an action is to us,

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