" They were reprinted from Playford's "Book
of Psalms" and the notes of the staff were replaced with letters and dots,
and the bars marking the measures were omitted. To the Puritans, this great
number of new tunes appeared fairly monstrous, and formed the signal for
bitter objections and fierce quarrels.
In 1647 a tract had appeared on church-singing which had attracted much
attention. It was written by Rev John Cotton to attempt to influence the
adoption and universal use of "The Bay Psalm-Book." This tract thoroughly
considered the duty of singing, the matter sung, the singers, and the
manner of singing, and, like all the literature of the time, was full of
Biblical allusion and quotation. It had been said that "man should sing
onely and not the women. Because it is not permitted to a woman to speake
in the Church, how then shall they sing? Much lesse is it permitted to them
to prophecy in the church and singing of Psalms is a kind of Prophecying."
Cotton fully answered and contradicted these false reasoners, who would
have had to face a revolution had they attempted to keep the Puritan women
from singing in meeting. The tract abounds in quaint expressions, such as,
"they have scoffed at Puritan Ministers as calling the people to sing one
of _Hopkins-Jiggs_ and so _hop_ into the pulpit." Though he wrote
this tract to encourage good singing in meeting, his endorsement of "lining
the Psalm" gave support to the very element that soon ruined the singing.
Pages:
184
185
186
187
188
189
190
191
192
193
194
195
196
197
198
199
200
201
202
203
204
205
206
207
208