Let the objector please to recollect, that, though a Bishop may, with equal validity, perform all the parts of his episcopal duty, without his canonicals; yet he performs them with more respectability, in the eyes of a congregation, when clothed in the robes peculiar to his office.* In like manner, though the psalmodic parts of public worship may, without any musical accompaniments, be performed with equal piety and devotion by those who are already pious and devout; yet, to the generality of people, those decora tions are powerful auxiliaries, as well as incentives to piety and devotion; because they are helps to the setting forth of God's "most worthy praise" in the clearest, plainest, most af fecting, and majestic manner."+

Let the objector also recollect, that, as there never was a time without Bishops over the church, so there never was a time without the usage of chanting the psalms and hymns in its public offices.‡

Passing by the testimonies which might be collected in favour of chanting, during the ages of popery, we find the rubrical words sung or said placed before the psalms and hymns of

*The vestments of the Jewish High Priests were by God himself appointed for "glory and beauty." Exod. xxviii. 2.

Preface to the Book of Common Prayer.

66

Quod universa ecclesia, me conciliis institutum, sed semper retentum est, auctoritate apostolicâ traditum rectissimé creditur." St. Aug. lib. iv. de Bap. c. 6.

morning and evening prayer, and also before similar parts of the other offices of religion, not only in all the revised editions of the English Prayer Book, of which that of 1801 is the last; but also in the proposed American Prayer Book of 1785, and in the adopted one of 1790.

Now, if the compilers of the Books of Common Prayer had not been confident, that there was no novelty in chanting the above-mentioned parts of public worship, it is very improbable that, in the rubrics, they would have ordered them to be sung or said.

These portions of psalmody are uniformly sung in all the English cathedrals, which are the churches of the Bishops; though they are generally said in the parochial churches, the seats of the presbyters.

On the subject of a partial compliance with the cathedral usage of chanting, Dr. Biss thus writes: "It is the duty of parish churches, as much as possible, to conform to the customs of the cathedral churches, which are the mother churches to all the parish churches within the diocess, and should give the rule to them; which conformity may easily be effected, where the parish churches resemble the cathedrals in having choirs and organs.”*

The obvious inference from this assertion is,

* Dr. Biss's Beauty of Holiness. Note, p. 95.

that it is as much the duty of American parish churches, which have choirs and organs, to conform to the musical usages of the English cathedrals, from whose Bishops theirs have derived their consecration; as it is the duty of English parish churches, which have choirs and organs, to conform to the usage of those cathedrals from whose Bishops their clergy have derived their ordination.

So far indeed is chanting from being an inno vation, that the want of it rather merits that appellation. In the manner of a chant, the song of Moses was celebrated by the whole host of Israel. This manner of singing the praises of Jehovah was established by David, as "an ordinance for ever, throughout the successive generations" of the Jewish Church. Our blessed Lord honoured with his presence, and joined in the psalmody of his mother church; and after his ascension, his apostles were" continually in the temple praising God," in the forms of his own inditing. Derived from Jesus and his apostles, chanting became the usage of the first Christians, and along with Christianity was disseminated all over the world. Divinely protected during a lapse of many centuries, it passed through the tumults of the reformation, and hath been safely transmitted to us by our venerable mother, the Church of England.

* Exod. xv. 1, &c.

About the year 370, St. Basil, a Bishop of the times of primitive Christianity, and author of one of the liturgies of the Greek Church, thus expressed his sentiments concerning chanting.

"Whereas the Holy Spirit saw that mankind is unto virtue hardly drawn, and that righteousness is the less accounted of, by reason of the proneness of our affections to that which delighteth; it pleased the wisdom of the same Spirit to borrow from melody that pleasure, which, mingled with heavenly mysteries, causeth the smoothness and softness of that which toucheth the ear, to convey, as it were by stealth, the treasure of good things into man's mind. To this purpose were those harmonious tunes of psalms devised for us, that they who are either in years but young, or touching perfection of virtue, not 'as yet grown to ripeness, might, when they think they sing, learn. O the wise conceit of that heavenly teacher, who, by his skill, hath found out a way, that doing those things wherein we delight, we may also learn that whereby we profit."*

The second part of the objection is;

"We can do well enough without chanting." This is an assertion without a proof, and I beg leave to lay it in the balance with what Mr.

* Hooker's Translation, p. 200, Eccles. Polity..

Hooker has advanced to the contrary. The words of that illustrious author are: " and shall this (viz. the sum total of the puritan's objections to chanting) enforce us to banish a thing which all Christians in the world have received; a thing which so many ages have held; a thing which the most approved councils and laws have so oftentimes ratified; a thing which was never found to have any inconvenience in it; a thing which always heretofore the best men and wisest governors of God's people did think they could never commend enough; a thing which, as Basil was persuaded, did both strengthen the meditation of those holy words which were uttered in that sort, and serve also to make attentive, and to raise up the hearts of men; a thing whereunto God's people of old did resort, with hope and thirst, that thereby especially their souls might be edified; a thing which filleth the mind with comfort and heavenly delight, stirreth up warm desires and affections correspondent unto that which the words contain, allayeth all kind of base and earthly cogitations, banisheth and driveth away those evil secret suggestions which our invisible enemy is always apt to minister, watereth the heart to the end it may fructify, maketh the virtuous in trouble full of magnanimity and courage, serveth as a most approved remedy against all doleful and heavy accidents which befal man in this present life; to conclude, so fitly accord