Cotton Mather demonstrates his tremendous respect for the Word of God in the block quotation on page 93. We had discussed the idea of not limiting God by our feelings and responses in class yesterday, and Mather wrote about the practical outworkings of that belief in today's assignment. Mather's high view of the Word led him to the conclusion that believers should not even paraphrase Scripture in order to sing it. Instead, he preferred to use God's words exactly as He wrote them. His thoughts on the subject are lengthy, but worth repeating here. His view echoes Calvin's desire to maintain simplicity and modesty in church music.
He says, "If the verses are not always so elegant as some desire or expect, let them consider that God's altar needs not our polishings; we have respected rather a plain translation, than to smooth our verses with the sweetness of any paraphrase. We have attended conscience rather than elegance, fidelity rather than ingenuity; so that we may sing in Zion the Lord's songs of praise, according unto his own will, until he bid us enter into our Master's joy, to sing eternal hallelujahs."
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