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THREE HUNDRED AND FIFTY

PORTIONS OF THE BOOK

OF

PSALMS,

SELECTED FROM VARIOUS VERSIONS:

WITH A

COLLECTION OF SIX HUNDRED

HYMNS,

ADAPTED FOR PUBLIC WORSHIP.

SECOND THOUSAND.

LONDON:

SEELEY AND SONS, 169 FLEET STREET.

R. WATTS, PRINTER, CROWN COURT, TEMPLE BAR.
MDCCC XXIX.

Price Half-a-crown, in sheep or cloth.

BV

370

.P72

1839

NOTICES.

CHIEF OBJECTS KEPT IN VIEW, IN FORMING THIS COLLECTION.

1. By means of all the principal Versions of the PSALMS which have appeared to the present time, to give nearly the whole of that Sacred Book, in Portions of proper length for Public Worship, and adapted, in its evangelical sense, to the use of the Christian Church; with such titles to each Portion, and such Introductory Remarks-from Bishop Horne, where not otherwise specified—as might lead to the intelligent use of the Psalter.

2. By selecting those HYMNS, almost exclusively, which are adapted to Public Worship, to furnish a great variety of such compositions as might be used with propriety by mixed Congregations; and as should, at the same time, provide for all occasions of a public naturesuch as Sermons for Schools and other Charities, and Days of National Humiliation and Thanksgiving; with an ample supply on topics to which the attention of the Christian Church begins to be more generally and devoutly drawn -the Influence of the Holy Spirit, and the Propagation of the Gospel. It should be added, that, by the liberal permission of Mrs. Heber, this Collection is enriched by many of the com

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positions of the late Bishop Heber; and that Mr. Montgomery, also, has allowed of the free use of his published Hymns, and has had the further kindness to supply a few Originals.

EVANGELICAL APPLICATION AND USE OF THE PSALMS.

The Commentary of the late Bp. Horne on the Book of Psalms greatly strengthened and extended the conviction, that the Evangelical Use of the Psalter was, in a considerable measure, withheld from the Church of England in its Psalmody.

That Commentary proceeds on the following principle, laid down by the Bishop in his remarks on the Seventy-eighth Psalm-

The History of Old Israel somewhat resembles the letter of the Gospel Parables; and contains, shadowed out under it, the History of a correspondent state of things in the New Israel, or Church Christian: and, although the Psalm, like a large and capacious palace, be laid out into a multitude of different apartments; yet, perhaps, we may find, that the Scriptures of the New Testament will furnish us with a Key, which will gain us admission into every one of them, and put us in possession of the treasures of Divine Wisdom therein deposited.

Other Denominations of Christians had, in a great degree, long enjoyed, in Dr. Watts's Version, the true savour and spirit of the Psalter; which entirely pervade, with a much closer adherence to the Original, the recent Version of the late Rev. William Goode: by the permission of the family of his deceased friend, the Editor has made ample use of the last-mentioned Version.

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The Psalms are placed in their Numerical Order, but an Alphabetical List of the First Lines is prefixed. The Hymns are printed in Alphabetical Order, and an Index of Texts on which they are chiefly founded is subjoined the Editor has never been able to satisfy himself with any classification of Hymns; but conceives that the Alphabetical Order is attended with the advantage of ready reference, while the Index of Subjects with which the Collection closes will furnish an easy direction to every principal topic.

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