Latta quotes exclusive psalmodists calling gospel hymns a 'dangerous innovation'

Context

Latta is discussing historical church councils and the question of what psalmody was used in the early church. He pauses to characterize the position of his opponents - the “zealots for purity and orthodoxy” who oppose evangelical hymns. This passage captures the language exclusive psalmody advocates used to frame the introduction of gospel hymns.

Extract

We may obferve too, that thefe prefbyters paid an equal regard to every part of Scripture, whereas the zealots for purity and orthodoxy, in our day are for rejecting from their Pfalms and Hymns every part of the facred canon, but the Pfalms of David; and reprefent every attempt to introduce the gofpel, into this part of our worship, as a dangerous innovation, and a corruption of the worship of God.

Significance

This passage documents the precise language used in the 1790s psalmody controversy. Exclusive psalmody advocates characterized Watts’s hymns as:

1. A “dangerous innovation”
2. A “corruption of the worship of God”

Latta ironically calls them “zealots for purity and orthodoxy” while arguing they actually reject most of Scripture by confining worship to David’s Psalms alone.

This language of “innovation” and “corruption” mirrors Rankin’s rhetoric in his 1793 pamphlet and helps establish the theological framework through which exclusive psalmodists viewed the controversy. The accusation of “innovation” was particularly loaded in Reformed circles, where faithfulness to tradition was valued and novelty was suspect.