congregation has occasion to go in company together to a place of
specifically enjoined or forbidden. These things are very new and uncommon, and of an open and public nature. To suddenly introduce, set up, and practise them in many parts of the country, without so much as proposing them for public consideration first, or giving an opportunity for the people of God to weigh the matter, or to consider any reasons that might be offered to support it, is like putting new wine into old wineskins, with no other design than to burst them directly. Nothing else can be expected to be the consequence of this, than uproar and confusion, great offence, and unhappy mischievous disputes, even among the children of God themselves. It's not that what is good in itself, and new, ought to be forborne until there is nobody who dislikes it. But it ought to be forborne until the visible church of God is so prepared for it, at least, that the probability is that it will not do more hurt than good, nor hinder the work of God more than promote it. This is most evident from Christ's rule, and the apostles' practice. If it is brought in when the country is so unprepared, that the shock and surprise on people's minds, and the contention and prejudice against religion that it is likely to occasion, will do more to hinder religion than the practice of it is likely to do to promote it. The fruit is then picked before it is ripe. And indeed, such a hasty endeavor to introduce such an innovation, supposing it to be good in itself, is the likeliest way to retard the effectual introduction of it. It will hinder its being extensively introduced, much more than it will promote it, and so it will defeat its own end.
2. But as to the thing itself, if a considerable part of a congregation has occasion to go in company together to a place of public worship, and they should join together in singing praises to God as they go, I confess that after long consideration, and endeavoring to view the thing in every way, with the utmost diligence and impartiality that I am capable of, I cannot find any valid objection against it. As to the common objection from Mat 6.5, "And when you pray, you shall not be like the hypocrites: for they love to pray standing in the synagogues, and on the street corners, that they may be seen by men." So it is strongly against a solitary person
singing in the streets or in the meeting-house by himself, as offering personal worship to God. But as it is brought against a considerable company, thus publicly worshipping God, it appears to me to have no weight at all. To be sure, it is of no more force against a company of worshippers thus praising God in the streets, than against their praising Him in the synagogue or meeting-house. For the streets and the synagogues are both put together in these words of our Saviour, as equivalent in the case he referred to. It is evident that Christ speaks of personal and not public worship. If singing in the streets is ostentatious, then it must be because it is a public place, and it cannot be done there without being very open; but it is no more public than the synagogue or meeting-house when full of people. Some worship is private in nature, such as what is proper to particular people, families, or private societies; it respects their particular concerns. But what I now speak of, is performed under no other notion than being a part of God's public worship, without relation to any private or separate society, or any chosen or picked number. It is such that every visible Christian has an equal liberty to join in, if it is convenient for him, and if he is so disposed — just as it is in the worship that is performed in the meeting-house.
When people are going to a public house of worship to serve God there with the assembly of His people, they have no other design than to publicly honor God. That is the business they go from home upon. Even in walking the streets on this errand, they appear in a public act of respect to God. And therefore, if they go in company with public praise, it is not being public when they ought to be in private. It is one part of the beauty of public worship, that it ought to be very public. The more public it is, the more open the honor it puts upon God. And it is especially beautiful in that part of public worship which is public praise. For the very notion of publicly praising God, is to declare abroad His glory, to publish His praise, to make it known and proclaim it aloud, which is made evident by innumerable expressions of Scripture. It is fitting that God's honor should not be concealed, but made known in the great congregation, and proclaimed before the sun, and on the housetops, and before kings
and all nations, and that His praises should be heard to the utmost ends of the earth.
I suppose that none will condemn singing God's praises, merely because it is performed in the open air, and not in a closed place. And if it may be performed by a company in the open air, then doubtless they may do it when moving, as well as standing still. So the children of Israel praised God, when they went to mount Zion with the ark of God; and so the multitude praised Christ when they entered with him into Jerusalem a little before his passion. So the children of Israel were in the habit of going up to Jerusalem from year to year; when they went in companies from all parts of the land, three times a year; when they often manifested the eagerness of their minds by travelling all night; and manifested their joy and gladness by singing praises with great decency and beauty as they went towards God's holy mountain. This is evident by Isa 30.29: "You shall have a song, as in the night when a holy festival is kept; and gladness of heart, as when one goes with a flute, to come into the mountain of the Lord, to the Mighty One of Israel." And Psa 42.4, "When I remember these things, I pour out my soul within me. For I used to go with the multitude; I went with them to the house of God, with the voice of joy and praise, with a multitude who kept a holy day." Psa 100.4, "Enter into His gates with thanksgiving and into His courts with praise." When God's people are going to His house, the occasion is so joyful to a Christian in a lively frame, that the language of their heart is, Come, let us go up to the house of the Lord. And He is glad when it is so said to him, that the duty of singing praises seems to be peculiarly beautiful on such an occasion. So that if the state of the country is ripe for it, there should be frequent occasion for a considerable part of the congregation to go together to the places of public worship; and there was in other respects, a proportionate appearance of fervency of devotion. It appears to me that it would be ravishingly beautiful if such things were practised all over the land. It would have a great tendency to enliven, animate, and rejoice the souls of God's saints, and to greatly propagate vital