2. In grassy fields, he downe dooth make me lye: he gently-leads mee,
quiet-Waters by.
3. He dooth return my soul: for his name-sake in paths of justice
leads-me-quietly.
4. Yea, though I walk in dale of deadly-shade ile fear none yll, for
with me thou wilt be thy rod, thy staff eke, they shall comfort mee.
But few of these psalm-books of Ainsworth are now in existence; but few
indeed came to New England. Elder Brewster owned one, as is shown by
the inventory of the books in his library. Not every member of the
congregation, not every family possessed one; many were too poor, many
"lacked skill to read," and in some communities only one psalm-book was
owned in the entire church. Hence arose the odious custom of "deaconing" or
"lining" the psalm, by which each line was read separately by the deacon or
elder and then sung by the congregation. There is no doubt, however,
that this Ainsworth's Version was used in many of the early New England
meetings. Reverend Thomas Symmes, in his "Joco-Serious Dialogue," printed
in 1723, wrote: "Furthermore the Church of Plymouth made use of Ainsworths
Version of the Psalms until the year 1692. For altho' our New England
version of the Psalms was compiled by sundry hands and completed by
President Dunster about the year 1640; yet that church did not use it, it
seems, 'till two and fifty years after but stuck to Ainsworth; and until
about 1682 their excellent custom was to sing without reading the lines."
John Cotton's account of the Salem church written in 1760, says, "On June
19, 1692, the pastor propounded to the church that seeing many of the
psalms in Mr. Ainsworth's translation which had hitherto been sung in the
congregation had such difficult tunes that none in the church could set,
they would consider of some expedient that they might sing all the psalms.
After some time of consideration on August 7 following, the church voted
that when the tunes were difficult in the translation then used, they
would make use of the New England psalm-book, long before received in
the churches of the Massachusetts colony, not one brother opposing the
conclusion. But finding it inconvenient to use two psalm-books, they at
length, in June 1696 agreed wholly to lay aside Ainsworth and with general
consent introduced the other which is used to this day, 1760. And here it
will be proper to observe that it was their practice until the beginning of
October, 1681 to sing the psalms without reading the lines; but then, at
the motion of a brother who otherwise could not join in the ordinance [I
suppose because he could not read] they altered the custom, and reading
was introduced, the elder performing that service after the pastor had
first expounded the psalm, which were usually sung in course."
On the blank leaf of the copy of Ainsworth now lying before me are written
these words, "This was used in Salem half-a-century from the first
settlement." In a record of the Salem church is this entry of a church
meeting: "4 of 5th month, 1667. The pastor having formerly propounded
and given reason for the use of the Bay Psalm Book in regard to the
_difficulty of the tunes_ and that we could not sing them so well
as formerly and _that there was a singularity in our using Ainsworths
tunes_: but especially because we had not the liberty of singing all the
scripture Psalms according to Col. iii. 16. He did not again propound the
same, and after several brethren had spoken, there was at last a unanimous
consent with respect to the last reason mentioned, that the Bay Psalm Book
should be used together with Ainsworth to supply the defects of it."
It is significant enough of the "low state of the musik in the meetings"
when we find that the simple tunes written in Ainsworth's Version were too
difficult for the colonists to sing. To such a condition had church-music
been reduced by "lining the psalm" and by the lack of musical instruments
to guide and control the singers. It was not much better in old England;
for we find in the preface of Rous' Psalms (which were published in
1643 and authorized to be used in the English Church) references to the
"difficulty of Ainsworth's tunes."
Hood says, "There is almost a certainty that no other version than
Ainsworth was ever used in the colonies until the New England Version was
published. But if any one was used in one or two of the churches it was
Sternhold and Hopkins." I cannot feel convinced of this, but believe that
both Ravenscroft's and Sternhold and Hopkins' Versions were used at first
in many of the Bay settlements. Salem church had a peculiar connection in
its origin with the church of Plymouth, which would account, doubtless,
for its protracted use of the version so loved by the Pilgrims; but the
Puritans of the Bay, coming directly from England, must have brought with
them the version which they had used in England, that of Sternhold and
Hopkins; and they would hardly have wished, nor would it have been possible
for them to acquire speedily in the new land the Ainsworth's Version used
by the Pilgrims from Holland.
The second edition of Ainsworth's Version was printed in 1617, a third
in 1618; the fourth, in London in 1639, was a folio; and the sixth, in
Amsterdam in 1644, was an octavo. A little 24mo copy is in the Essex
Institute in Salem, and an octavo is in the Prince Library, now in the
custody of the Public Library of the City of Boston. The latter copy has
a note in it written by the Rev. Thomas Prince: "Plymouth, May 1, 1732. I
have seen an edition of this version of 1618; and this version was sung
in Plymouth Colony and I suppose in the rest of New England 'till the New
England Version was printed."
There is a copy of the first edition of Ainsworth in the Bodleian Library
and one in the library of Trinity College, Dublin. The American Antiquarian
Society and the Lenox Library are the only public libraries in America that
possess copies, so far as I know. The one in the library of the American
Antiquarian Society was presented to it in 1815 by the Rev. William Bentley
of Salem, Massachusetts, to whom also belonged the copy of the Bay Psalm
Book now in the library at Worcester. He was a divine and a bibliophile and
an antiquary, but there also ran in his veins blood of warmer flow. During
the war of 1812, when the report came, in meeting-time, that the frigate
"Constitution" was being chased into Marblehead harbor, the loyal parson
Bentley locked up his church, and tucked up his gown, and sallied forth
with his whole flock of parishioners to march to Marblehead with the
soldiers, ready to "fight unto death" if necessary. Being short and fat,
and the mercury standing at eighty-five degrees, the doctor's physical
strength gave out, and he had to be hoisted up astride a cannon to ride to
the scene of conflict,--martial in spirit though weak in the legs.
But this association with the old book is comparatively of our own day; and
the most pleasing fancy which the "psalm-book of Ainsworth" brings to my
mind, the most sacred and reverenced thought, is of a far more remote, a
more peaceful and quiet scene; though men of warlike blood and fighting
stock were there present and took part therein. It is with that Sabbath Day
before the Landing at Plymouth which was spent by the Pilgrims, as Mather
says, "in the devout and pious exercises of a sacred rest." And though
Matthew Arnold thought that the Mayflower voyagers would have been
intolerable company for Shakespeare and Virgil, yet in that quiet day of
devout prayer and praise they show a calm religious peace and trust that
is, perhaps, the highest spiritual type of "sweetness and light." And from
this quaint old book their lips found words and music to express in song
their pure and holy faith.