God Worshipped in the Early Ages.

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assurance that our race, for many ages in the early time, as a whole, worshipped the true God of revelation, in the way of his appointment, and held the fundamental doctrines of sin and redemption. Men were not all cast off from the beginning, except a particular family, and left to grope their way to as much of truth as they could find, but, on the contrary, were all alike put on the footing of the same revelation. The primitive dispensation of divine mercy was one addressed to all mankind. That first way of God's dealing with men, when the king, priest, and prophet were one, in which Melchizedec was conspicuous, if he was not also the last to observe it in its purity, was limited to no specially favoured nation, but addressed itself equally to all. How long it was retained by the different nations correctly, we cannot say; but certainly in its proper features, in some quarters, until the days of Abraham. And even the corruption which fell upon it during the succeeding two or three centuries, was not greater than that which befell the Christian church in the dark ages of European history. And if, as we feel assured there was, even in the depths of papal degeneracy, still enough of truth remaining to save the soul which apprehended it in faith, is it extravagant to believe that God had his true people among those who worshipped him according to the matter and the manner of the old economy, while the old economy was in force, although they were not of the seed of Shem, nor of the family of Terah?

God had never, at any period, left the world without a valid dispensation of his mercy. The old Noachic covenant was not suffered to become void before the Abrahamic was instituted. While the former still retained the life-giving power, the latter was formed to prepare for the evil days which were coming in the sequel of the error already working. As Christ did not delay his coming until Jerusalem and the temple were destroyed, and the Jewish system utterly abolished, so the Abrahamic dispensation is opened while the preceding is still in force. God has never allowed any dispensation to become so corrupt as to completely submerge all saving truth, before setting on foot an efficient means of reforming it. Corrupt as the Jewish church was at the coming of the Lord, it still contained the means of salvation. There were still Elizabeths, and Annas, and Simeons to welcome him when he came. And low as the idolatry to which the medieval church descended, it still carried its sacred message to the hearts of some. And all were not lost who clung to its forms after the first step had been taken in reformation. So in the primitive period, we feel constrained to believe that God may have had his people

among every branch of mankind; and that, even when much corruption had contaminated the truth, there may still have been some who saw in the forms of worship their spiritual meaning, and received its message in their hearts.

By what date corruption had progressed so far as entirely to leave out or defeat all such truth, it is perhaps impossible to determine ancient heathenism certainly reached that degree-but in the pre-Mosaic time, we may be free to believe that multitudes were saved for God out of every land and nation, in accordance with the old Noachic covenant; that God had then his people among the sons of Japhet and of Ham, as well as of Shem-on the highlands of Iran and of Assyria, as well as in Mesopotamia and the land of Canaan. And it is pleasant to believe that the early message of salvation may have been carried, in many a heart and on many a tongue, long and far, among emigrating tribes on their protracted migrations. Corruption, in some countries earlier and in some later, but in every historical case to greater or less degree, built up her complication of falsehoods, but all upon the basis of the same original creed. Heathenism is man's development of God's revelation, and is related to the ancient dispensations as Romanism to the Christian.

Τ

ART. V.-Scripture Songs of the Scottish Church.

IT may not be uninteresting, in view of the discussions

again revived in quarters more or less intimately con nected with the Scottish Church, as to the use in public worship of paraphrases and hymns, to review briefly the decisions of that Church upon the subject. It is well known that the stedfast policy of Rome, before the Reformation, was to retain more and more exclusively the service of the sanctuary in the hands of its officials; but that when the rights of the Christian people were restored in the reformed church, they at once resumed their place as true worshippers. In no part of the service was this more noticeable, as indeed no other part offered such opportunity of expressing it, than in the service of praise. Hence the great care bestowed upon psalmody ever since the Reformation, not on mere ecclesiastical grounds, but as affording the best means for enabling those who are all kings and priests unto God to unite audibly in their offering of praise and

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thanksgiving. It was a necessary consequence that the Reformers, who took as their motto "Verbum solum," should turn to Scripture for their songs of praise, and reopen the Hebrew Psalter to the people, by metrical translations of it into the languages of the various churches. Nor was it at all inconsistent with this, but the reverse, that they should sanction, as with scarce an exception they did, the translating of "the other scriptural songs," when time served, and the fit men were found. It was not during the first struggle of the reformed church that such quiet work as hymnwriting could ordinarily be done, though none did better service in this field than Luther himself. Very soon, however, the matter forced itself upon the attention of the churches, not only as important in itself, but as greatly helpful also to the cause of the Reformation. In France, for example, Clement Marot having translated fifty of the Psalms of David into metre, Beza translated the remaining hundred, "and all the Scripture songs," the famous Gaudimal set them to music. "This holy ordinance," says Quick in the introduction to his Synodicon, "charmed the ears, hearts, and affections of the court and city, town and country. They were sung in the Louvre as well as in the Pres des Clerks, by the ladies, princes, yea, and by Henry II. himself. This one ordinance contributed mightily to the downfall of papacy, and the propagation of the gospel. It took so much with the genius of the nation, that all ranks and degrees of men practised it in the temples and in their families."* In Scotland, however, the same progress was not at first made. Yet, though the Psalter at first contained only David's Psalms, by 1575 one doxology appeared as an instalment of the full set that followed in 1595. The Psalter published in 1635 by the "heirs of Andrew Hart," contains several of the Scripture songs, the ten commandments, with some "conclusions" to be sung at the end of psalms; and in this form no doubt they were largely used. It is not, however, till 1647 that we find the matter taken up by the church; but to judge from the manner in which the Assembly of that year proceeded, it would seem that the propriety of using such paraphrases was not questioned. The commissioners to the Westminster Assembly brought with them on their return Rous's paraphrase of the psalms, and some other scriptural songs. The Act of that year" for revising the Paraphrase of the Psalms brought from England, with a recommendation for translating the other scriptural songs in Meeter," after apportioning the Psalms, forty to Mr John

* Introduction, p. 5, sec. 1.

Adamson, forty to Mr Thomas Crauford, forty to Mr John Row, and the last thirty to Mr John Nevey, to be yet revised, compared with the originals, and other versions, and adapted to the common tunes, then proceeds: "And the Assembly doth further recommend that Mr Zachary Boyd be at the paines to translate the other scriptural songs in meeter, and to report his travels also to the commission of Assembly, that after their examination thereof, they may send the same to Presbyteries to be considered, untill the next General Assembly." It is quite obvious that the Assembly which thus proceeded almost primo motu in regard to these songs, requesting their translation, had no difficulty in placing them on the same footing in the public worship as the Psalms of David. And in the same spirit, the commission of this Assembly, which met at Edinburgh 25th February 1648, referred Mr David Leitch's "papers of Poecie" to Mr John Adamson, that he might give his opinion thereof to the commission;* and at its meeting on the 5th April, ordered the following letter to be written to his presbytery:t-"To their Revd. Brethren of Pres. of Ellon, 5th April 1648. These are to shew you that our brother Mr David Leitch, being employed in paraphraising the songs of the Old and New Testament, has been in this town some time, and for as much as he yet is appointed to continue in that employment, our earnest desire is that you endeavour yourselves jointly, for his farther encouragement in that work, providing that it be no hindrance to him in his present charge. So recommending you and your labours to the blessing of God, we rest your loving brethren." And when the next Assembly sent to presbyteries the Paraphrase of the Psalms, as amended by the persons above named, it handed over to the same Mr Adamson, with Mr J. Crawfurd, Zachary Boyd's labours on the Scriptural songs, to prepare a report upon them for the commission of public affairs, that after their examination they also might be reported to the next Assembly. In 1649, the Assembly referred the revised Paraphrase of the Psalms to their Commission, with power further to revise, and then publish it for public use; and we find that Commission in January 1650,§"understanding the paines Mr Jo. Adamson, Mr Z. Boyd, and Mr R. Lourie have been at in the translation of the Psalms and other Scriptural songs in metre, &c., returning them, therefore, their heartie thanks for these their labours." And again, in February, desiring Mr Robert Lowrie, as they under

* Baillie's Letters and Journal, ed. 1842, iii. 555. Acts of Assembly, 1648.

↑ Ibid. 554 § Baillie's Letters and Journal, iii. 554.

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stand he has taken some pains in putting the Scripture songs in metre, to present his labours therein to the commission at their next meeting.

And here the matter ended for that time, with perhaps little loss to the church. That no progress was made again for full fifty years, will be thought strange by none who remember the state of the country and the church during that period. There are, at any rate, no acts of Assembly printed between that time and 1690. This short passage in the history of the question is, however, very interesting, as exhibiting the cordiality with which the Assembly not only acquiesced in proposals made to it, but moved of its own accord to obtain, from such poets as they had, a translation in metre "of the other Scriptural songs."

Though interesting in itself, it would be aside from our present purpose to look into the labours of the men named in these several acts and proceedings of the Assembly and Commission. The fact, however, that the church appointed them to the work, charged others to help them, and called for efforts in that direction, which had not been laid before it, is very conclusive evidence as to what it judged upon the general principle. Formally introduced at first by the famous commissioners to the Assembly at Westminster in 1647, from that time till 1650, so long, i. e., as the Assembly held its sittings quietly in Edinburgh, we find it year after year repeating its endeavour to obtain a translation of what it called "the other Scriptural songs;" thus, both by its designation and treatment of them, significantly marking the position it assigned them on a level with the Psalms of David.

During the long interval that followed after the Restoration, though the church could do nothing in this direction, private individuals were at work; with the view, as appears from their prefaces to volumes published at that time, of helping on this cause when the church should regain its freedom, and be able to resume its labours therein. Of the volumes that appeared before the end of the seventeenth century, one alone calls for special notice, as it was afterwards taken up by the church. It appeared in 1695-96, and is attributed by Stewart of Pardovan, no doubt correctly (ed. 1709, p. 117), to Patrick Simson, minister of Renfrew. The family of which he came was a notable one in the church, and he himself a distinguished member of it. He was born 1628, and ordained minister of Renfrew in 1653, where he died 1715. "Besides being remarkable for piety, he was possessed of good natural parts, had a deep insight into the Scriptures, was well acquainted with the government of the church, and had a peculiar talent for exercising it.