REV. T. D. FOSBROKE, M.A. F.A.S. &c. &c. &ei Published for the benefit of the Choir. ROSS: PRINTED BY W. FARROR, AND BOLD BY T. B. WATKINS, HEREFORD, MR. JEW, Choir-service Vindicated. II. CHRON. CHAP. XXXV; VER. XV: "And the singers the sons of Asaph were in their places, according to the commandment of David." IT was an opinion of all the ancient nations, that however invidious might be the ostentation of individuals for display and self-exaltation, no magnificence could possibly be too great for places of worship; and all the wealthy of a state were expected to be either founders of new temples, or benefactors to the old. Such was the general impression, for at no period of time has the Almighty suffered himself to be without witness. Indeed the necessities of our nature, all within us, and all without us, must inevitably generate Religion; for Atheism however pretended, never actually existed,' or could exist. It never could imply more than confession of ignorance, as to the entity and acts of Deity. However rude the exhibition of religion must have been and evidently was so among savages, such rudeness was only the result of barbaristo; tbergfeeling that dictated divine worship, being unalterably sublime in its own nature. It was the first feeling, which had a tendency to elevate man above sense; and of course, was the instigating cause of the regulation of society upon abstract rules of order. He who could never have been made religious, could never have been civilized. “I have said, that it was a sublime impulse, Man then roused himself to the praise of his Crea. tor. He resolved to adore the Lord, who gave to the whole world, and to him also, life and wellbeing. What were these blessings to the pre-excellence of the omnipotent." What were the natural luxuries of sense without intellectual luxury, but the unsatisfactory and incomplete indulgences of person only, of unrefined and gross passion, of lust without love, of gluttony without conviviality, of pleasure, unseasoned with mind, of folly unconstrained by reason. What was he! what hat were all creatures in comparison with the immeasurable greatness of the Almighty. Man in his human imperfection assimilated God to the blazing orb of day, upon which he could not steadily gaze; and however unphilosophical and absurd was his idolatry, it was still a witness, that God gave of himself. It was a visible and magnificent symbol. Sturm. |