uited to the Temple or
Tabernacle-Worship; the Title is, _A Song of Degrees_, that is, as
Interpreters believe, to be sung as the Kings of _Israel_ went up by
Steps or Degrees to the House of God; In the _two first Verses_ the
King calls upon the Levites, _which by Night stand in the House of the
Lord, to lift up their Hands in the Sanctuary, and to bless the Lord_;
the _3d Verse_ is an Antiphona or Reply of the Levites to the King;
_the Lord that made Heaven and Earth bless thee out of_ Zion. 'Twould
be endless to give an Account of all the Paragraphs of ancient Songs,
which can scarce ever be accommodated to Gospel-Worship.

The Patrons of another Opinion will say we must sing the Words of
_David_, and apply them in our Meditation to the things of the New
Testament: But can we believe this to be the best Method of worshiping
God, to sing one thing and mean another? besides that the very literal
Sense of many of many of these Expressions is exceeding deep and
difficult, and not one in twenty of a religious Assembly can possibly
understand them at this Distance from the Jewish Days; therefore to
keep close to the Language of _David_, we must break the Commands
of God by _David_, who requires that we _sing his Praises with
Understanding_, Psal. 47.7. And I am {251} perswaded, that St. _Paul_
if he lived in our Age and Nation, would no more advise us to sing
unintelligible Sentences in _London_, than himself would sing in an
unknown Tongue at _Corinth_, 1 Cor. 14. 15, 19. After all, if the
literal Sense were known, yet the Application of many Verses of _David_
to our State and Circumstances was never design'd, and is utterly
impossible; and even where it is possible, yet 'tis so exceeding
difficult that very few Persons in an Assembly are capable of it; and
when they attempt it, if their Thoughts should be enquir'd one by one,
you would find very various, wretched, and contradictory Meanings
put upon the Words of the Hebrew Psalmist, and all for want of an
Evangelical Translation of him. 'Tis very obvious and common to observe
that Persons of Seriousness and Judgment that consider what they sing,
are often forced to break off in the midst, to omit whole Lines and
Verses, even where the best of our present Translations at used; and
thus the Tune, and the Sense, and their Devotion is interrupted at
once, because they dare not sing without understanding, and almost
against their Consciences. Whereas the more unthinking Multi