The xcvi Psalm saith: "Sing to the Lord a new song; sing
to the Lord, all the earth." The service of God in the old
dispensation, under the law of Moses, was hard and wearisome.
Many and divers sacrifices had men to offer, of all that they
possessed, both in house and in field, which the people, being
idle and covetous, did grudgingly or for some temporal
advantage; as the prophet Malachi saith, chap. i., "who is
there even among you that would shut the doors for naught?
neither do ye kindle fires on my altars for naught." But where
there is such an idle and grudging heart there can be no
singing, or at least no singing of any good. Cheerful and
merry must we be in heart and mind, when we would sing.
Therefore hath God suffered such idle and grudging service to
perish, as he saith further: "I have no pleasure in you, saith
the Lord of Hosts, neither will I accept an offering at your
hand: for from the rising of the sun even to the going down of
the same, my name shall be great among the Gentiles; and in
every place incense shall be offered in my name and a pure
offering; for my name shall be great among the heathen, saith
the Lord of Hosts.
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