CONTENTS.

OBJECTION I.

Page.

Chanting is an innovation, and no novelties ought to be admitted

into public worship. We can do well enough without chanting 1

OBJECTION IL

Chanting is a Popish custom, and therefore it ought not to be

admitted into our churches

13

OBJECTION III.

The rubrics are more favourable to metre psalmody, than they

are to chanting

OBJECTION IV.

We have a sufficient quantity of praise in our churches, without

chanting

OBJECTION V.、

Chanting takes up too much time

OBJECTION VI.

So great is the difference between metre psalmody and chanting,

that my ears can never be reconciled to it

~ OBJECTION VII.

As I have neither voice nor ear for music, if chanting be admitted

into our churches, I shall be deprived of the benefit which I

derive from responsive reading

21

35

41

44

50

OBJECTION VIII.

I am too okl, and it is too much trouble to learn to chant

OBJECTION IX.

Page.

Let chanting be omitted during our life time, (say some aged per-

sons,) and when we are gone hence, let our posterity accept

or reject it, as they please

58

61

It is inexpedient to use chanting, as there is no internal evidence

in the prosaic subjects themselves, that they ought to be sung 101

OBJECTION XIV.

The English language is not sufficiently harmonious, to admit of

being sung in prose;
and therefore, as poetry renders it more

flowing and vocal, verse is better adapted to musical purposes 132

OBJECTION XV.

Chanting cannot be introduced into a church, without the aid of a

choir, and choirs generally monopolize the singing

OBJECTION XVI,

It is sufficient to chant one hymn at Morning, and another at

Evening Prayer

OBJECTION XVII.

No prayers ought to be sung; and therefore, as chanting embraces

precatory subjects, it is improper to be admitted into the

church

141

176

181

OBJECTION XVIII.

If the whole Book of Psalms, and other books and parts of books

of the Hebrew Scriptures are in poetry, there is no impro-

priety nor unlawfulness in turning them into English, or any

other vernacular poetry, "that they may be sung to the tunes

used in churches"

Page.

190

The authorities on which metre psalmody stands, exhibited in a

retrogade view

SECTION IV.

The rivalship between metre psalmody and cathedral musie

As the Author's situation is at a distance from the press, he craves
́the reader's indulgence for such errors as may have escaped notice,
and begs that they may be considered as errores quos incuria typo-
graphica facile fudit, aut humana parum cavit natura.

THE

REASONABLENESS, &e.

CHANTING

OBJECTION I.

HANTING is an innovation; and no novelties ought to be admitted into public worship. We can do well enough without chanting.

REPLY.*

It is true that chanting is a novelty to every one who hath not heard it before: but was not a Bishop once as great a novelty in this country? Were not the episcopal acts of confirmation, of ordination, and of consecrating churches, also novelties to those persons who had never beheld such scenes? On the account of their being novelties in this country, were they therefore improper, and unnecessary to be introduced into our ecclesiastical economy? Could we have done well enough without them?

* Let it be remembered, that, in these replies, no reference is made to the diurnal psalms, because the rubrics are silent as to the manner of using them.

A