REASONABLENESS

OF SETTING FORTH

THE MOST WORTHY PRAISE

OF

ALMIGHTY GOD,

ACCORDING TO THE USAGE OF THE

PRIMITIVE CHURCH;

WITH

HISTORICAL VIEWS

OF THE

NATURE, ORIGIN, AND PROGRESS

OF

METRE PSALMODY,

TO

THE RIGHT REVEREND THE BISHOP,

AND

THE REVEREND THE CLERGY,

OF THE

PROTESTANT EPISCOPAL CHURCH

IN THE

UNITED STATES OF AMERICA,

THIS WORK

IS MOST RESPECTFULLY INSCRIBED

BY

THE AUTHOR.

PREFACE.

FROM numerous and credible testimonies

it appears that the usage of chanting the psalms and hymns of public worship obtained in the times of the apostles, and continued to be common to all Christian nations, until about two hundred and sixty years since, when it was, in several parts of Europe, more or less interrupted by the struggles of the reformation. It does not appear from any of the histories or tracts relative to the Church of England, that there was any difference between the psalmodic usage of the Cathedral, Collegiate, and Parochial Churches, until the year 1549, when some of the parish-churches began to discontinue the practice of chanting the psalms and hymns, and others to reject the use of music altogether in public worship. But notwith standing a temporary interruption, occasioned by adversaries to primitive truth and order, prosaic psalmody was re-established after the lapse of a few years, and continues to be esti: mated as one of our mother-church's brightest ornaments.

In every Liturgy, ancient and modern, we

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