_Object_. 1. The Directions given for Psalmody in some Parts of the Old Testament, lead us to the Use of those Songs which are inspired, _Deut_. 31. 16, 19, &c. _And the Lord said unto_ Moses, _write ye this Song for you, and teach it the Children of_ Israel, _put it in their Mouths, that this Song may be a Witness for me against the Children of_ Israel; _for when I shall have brought them into the Land which I sware unto their Fathers, which floweth with Milk and Hony, &c. Then they will turn unto other Gods_. And in _Psal_. 81. 1, 2, 3, 4. Where we are required to worship God by Singing, we are not commanded to make a new Psalm, but to make one that is already made, for the words run {267} thus, _Sing aloud unto God our Strength, make a joyful Noise to the God of_ Jacob; _Take a Psalm and bring hither the Tymbrel, the pleasant Harp with the Psaltery, blow up the Trumpet in the New Moon, in the Time appointed, on our solemn Feast-Day, for this was a Statute for Israel, and a Law of the God of_ Jacob. _Ans_. 1. I have cited these Texts at large wherein the Objection lies, that an Answer might appear plain in the Text to every Reader. How peculiarly do these Commands refer to the _Israelites_? The very Words of the Precept confine it to the _Jews_, to the Men that dwelt in _Canaan_, to the Worship that is paid with Tymbrels and Trumpets, to the Days of the New Moon, and solemn Jewish Festivals; and if we will insist upon there Scriptures as precise Rules of our present Duty and Worship, the Men that use Musical Instruments in a _Christian_ Church will take the same Liberty of returning to _Jewish_ ordinances, and use then same Text to defend them. _Ans_. 2 But if we should grant our selves under the Gospel still obliged by these Commands, yet they do not bind us up intirely to inspired Forms of Singing, since the same sort of Expression is used concerning Prayer; Hos. 14. 2. _Take with you Words, and say unto the Lord, take away all Iniquity, and receive us graciously_, &c. Now who is there that esteems himself confin'd to use no other Prayer but scriptural Forms? In other Places, where these Duties are injoin'd, we are bid to pray, or to praise, or to sing; and why should we not be as much at Liberty to suit the Words and the Sense to our present Circumstances in Singing as well as Praying, or in praising with Verse as well as praising in Pros?