'Part of the Publick Service of the Church': Robert Nelson's 'Life of Dr. George Bull'

By happy coincidence, following on from yesterday's post for Charles Inglis Day, our next reading from Robert Nelson's The Life of Dr. George Bull (1713) addresses the place of metrical psalms both in Bull's personal piety and in divine service:

Before I quit this Head of his Private Devotions, I must beg leave to observe, that Singing the Praises of God, made a Part of his Spiritual Exercises in his Retirement, which he chose to Celebrate in the Words of the Royal Psalmist, as Translated into Metre for that Purpose. A Duty recommended by St. Paul in several of his Epistles; and yet how few can be prevailed upon to join in Psalmody, when it is made a Part of the Publick Service of the Church?

It is evident that Nelson sees nothing at all unusual about Bull's personal piety including the singing of metrical psalms. That metrical psalms had a place in the devotions of an Arminian and High Church divine was clearly unremarkable. What is more, as can be seen in the above extract, Nelson - a Nonjuror until 1710 - also explicitly affirmed the place of metrical psalms in divine service. The practice was not, in other words, in any way identified as of Puritan or Presbyterian heritage: it was, rather, integral to the divine service of the Church of England, "a Part of the Publick Service of the Church".

Following quite a few 18th century commentators, Nelson disapprovingly states that congregations often left the singing of metrical psalms to the clerk and groups of singers. He goes on to describe why metrical psalms should be sung congregationally:

It is very fit, indeed, that this Part of the Publick Service should have all the Advantage imaginable of agreeable Harmony, consisting both in Voices and Musical Instruments, because we ought to offer to God that which is most Excellent in its kind. 

Note how the practice is here again described and affirmed by Nelson as "Part of the Publick Service". He then goes on to provide a rather Reformed reminder that it is the melody of the heart, rather than of the music, that is central to praising God in the psalms:

But however, it must be remembered, that these are only to be used as Helps to raise our Souls to a higher pitch of Devotion, and are of no Value in the sight of God, any farther than they express the Gratitude of our Hearts; for if we permit ourselves to dwell too much upon the Skill of the Performance, and suffer our Minds, by the Pleasure of the Ear, to be carried away from a serious Attention to the Matter, the Religious Worship of it will begin to sink, and though there maybe Melody in the Composition, yet by this means there will be none in the Heart, which God chiefly regards. 

This provides a description of what should be the spiritual effect of the singing of metrical psalms in the congregation - "to raise our souls to a higher pitch of Devotion" by means, as Nelson has earlier stated, of "the words of the Royal Psalmist".

What is most striking about Nelson's account is how it conveys the conventional and routine nature of this practice for 18th century Episcopalian piety, both in divine service and private devotion. Nelson's touching description of Bull's private use of metrical psalms testifies to how the singing of metrical psalms aided their memorization and demonstrates their role in enriching and sustaining private devotion. Perhaps above all, Bull the High Church divine and Nelson the Nonjuror exemplify how the singing of metrical psalms was an expression of what William Gibson has termed the "unity and accord" of the 18th century Church of England - a practice rooting the public and private piety of the Church of England in the Psalter.

(The concluding picture is of the Tate and Brady - 'New Version' - metrical psalms in my 1863 copy of the Book of Common Prayer for the United Church of England and Ireland, indicating the practice of singing metrical psalms continuing will into the 19th century.)