A34693:262
Singing of Psalms a Gospel-ordinance, or, A TreatiseSinging of Psalmes a Gospel-ordinance, or, A Treatise
Singing of Psalms a Gospel-ordinance, or, A Treatise wherein are handled these particulars 1. Touching the duty itself, 2. Touching the matter to be sung, 3. Touching the singers, 4. Touching the manner of singing / by John Cotton ...Singing of Psalmes a Gospel-ordinance, or, A Treatise wherein are handled these particulars 1. Touching the duty itselfe, 2. Touching the matter to be sung, 3. Touching the singers, 4. Touching the manner of singing / by John Cotton ...
London: printed for J.R., 1650
Modern spelling is a reading aid: the words are the author’s, only the spelling is modernized. Original shows the page as printed, with the transcription marks.
2. Neither is it true, that the practise of singing Scripture-Psalms followed a great while after the Apostles times, as if the faithful had only made use of their own personal gifts in compiling Psalms for the first three hundred years. For it is evident that in the next Century after the Apostles times, the Church did (as Tertullian testifieth, Apologet, Chap. 39.) Deo canere, either de Scripturis Sanctis, or de proprio ingenio, that is, either out of the holy Scriptures, or out of their own gift. Yea and Pliny himself, (which is all the Testimony you allege of the Churches practise for three hundred years) he doth not express what Psalms they sang, whether out of the holy Scriptures, or out of their own gift, or that any one alone did sing, but that they did Carmen Christo quasi Deo dicere suo invicem, Plin. Epist. lib. 10. Epist. 97. Which Tertullian and others express, they did Caetus antelucanos habere ad canendum Deo & Christo, Apologet. cap. 2. They met before day to sing Praises to God and Christ, and to confederate Discipline.
2. Neither is it true, that the practise of singing Scripture-Psalmes followed a great while after the Apostles times, as if the faithfull had onely made use of their own personall gifts in compiling Psalmes for the first three hundred yeares. For it is evident that in the next Century after the Apostles times, the Church did (as Tertullian testifieth, Apologet, Chap. 39.) Deo canere, either de Scripturis Sanctis, or de proprio ingenio, that is, either out of the holy Scriptures, or out of their own gift. Yea and Pliny himselfe, (which is all the Testimony you alledge of the Churches practise for three hundred yeares) he doth not expresse what Psalmes they sang, whether out of the holy Scriptures, or out of their own gift, or that any one alone did sing, but that they did Carmen Christo quasi Deo dicere suo invicem, Plin. Epist. lib. 10. Epist. 97. Which Tertullian and others expresse, they did Caetus antelucanos habere ad canendum Deo & Christo, Apologet. cap. 2. They met before day to sing Praises to God and Christ, and to confederate Discipline.
3. Though they had made use of their personal gifts, more then they did in the times of the Primitive Persecutions, during the first three hundred years, yet that would not argue they neglected the use of Davids Psalms; much less would it encourage us