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A48172 A Letter to a friend in the country concerning the use of instrumental musick in the worship of God in answer to Mr. Newte's sermon preach'd at Tiverton in Devon on the occasion of an organ being erected in that parish-church. Newte, John, 1655?-1716. Lawfulness and use of organs in the Christian Church. 1698 (1698) Wing L1650; ESTC R24003 96,894 98

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attend This terrible word Unanswerable is enough to scare a Junior Disputant But perhaps all this Remark may be no other than a harmless Mormo only to Amuse not to do any Execution Therefore I shall look a little more narrowly into it If saith he Musical Instruments as is granted had that power then how have they changed their Nature since A few things will discover this Interrogatory not to be so very formidable as our Author presumes it to be 1. These were Means appointed of God to stir up the Affections of the Jewish People under the Legal oeconomy and doubtless God concurred with his own Institutions and made them useful to that end But they are not a means now thus appointed of God to be used in Gospel-Churches Therefore we have no reason to expect that God should thus concur with Persons in the Use of them in these times of the New-Testament Administration 2. At the same rate a Man may argue for the use of Sacrifices and Incense still For is it not very easie to say if Sacrifices and Incense were of use then to stir up the Affections How have they changed their Nature since And must this be looked upon as an Unanswerable Remark If not Why should our Authors be thought to be so But I shall offer you a few things more to this purpose when I come to consider the great advantages which as our Author avers acrue to Persons by this sort of Church Musick Thus having considered the Authority he has produced from those of the Separation as he stiles them in the behalf of his admired Musick I will endeavour to be even with him by presenting you with the Judgment of two Church-men directly against it 1. I shall offer you the Opinion of Mr. Maxwel a Scotish Divine but yet not of the Geneva Cut but of the true Prelatical Stamp In a Discourse of his Entituled The Excellency of the Church of England above that of Geneva He delivers himself thus We agree with the Reformed Divines that Instrumental Musick is neither a help to nor a part of Divine or Ecclesiastick Worship This I am satisfied is a much fuller Passage against Instrumental Musick in Divine Worship than is his citation from the Assemblies Annotations for it 2. But what will you say if I produce a very Eminent and Learned Bishop declaring against this sort of Musick in Christian Assemblies That I suppose may be sufficient to counter-poize Mr. Baxter's Testimony Well then the Reverend the Learned Bishop Taylor Delivers himself expresly against this sort of Church Musick For saith he The Use of Psalmody or Singing of Psalms Duct dub Lib. 3. p. 329. be cause it can stir up the Affections and make Religion please more Faculties is very apt for the Edification of Churches The use of Instrumental Musick may also add some little advantages to Singing but they are more apt to change Religion into Air and Fancies and take off some of its Simplicity and are not so fitted for Edification Ad Disciplinas aliquod Artificiale Organum non est ad hibendum said Aristotle as he is quoted by Aquinas Artificial Instruments are not fit to be applied to the Use of Disciplines that is The Musick of Instruments does not make a Man wiser or instruct him in any thing this is true and therefore they are not of themselves very good Ministries of Religion And then a little below in the same page he tells us from Chrysostom That those Instruments were permitted the Jews ob eorum Imbecilitatem For their Weakness Thus I suppose I have fully requited him for his Citation of Mr. Baxter By this time I presume you may be satisfied that I have fairly represented his Arguments and as fairly Answered them But now the method of his Discourse leads us to consider the great Use and Advantages of this sort of Musick For these he pretends are many But I am inclined to believe that Instrumental Musick in the Worship of God is nothing so useful as he imagines The Advantages which he confidently avers may be reaped by it may be rather the Suggestions of a warm Fancy than the Results of a well informed Judgment But that I may the more exactly suit my Answers to his Allegations I shall carefully trace him as to the steps he takes in order to his Advance to that Position Viz. That the Use of Organs is of very great Advantage in the Worship of God in these times of the Gospel Ser. p. 20. The First advantage of Organs he thus expresseth The Organ will Regulate the Untuneable Voices of the Multitude and make the Singing in the Church more Orderly and Harmonious It cannot be supposed but there will be great Discord and Jarrings in a mixed company of Singers where few perhaps have had the Benefit of Art to Tune and help their Voices 1. How can the Organ Regulate untuneable Voices or make them Harmonious in the Church If they are Untuneable or not Tuneable I am certain they cannot be Harmonious any more than there can be Harmony in Singing without a Tune But I suppose that word was intended rather to make the Sentence Tuneable than True 2 But I believe his meaning to be that the Organ will Regulate the untuned Voices of the Multitude and render them the more Harmonious To this then I Answer That the Organ may sometimes drown the Voices of the Multitude by its lowder noise but I am not in the least satisfied that it will render Untuned Voices the more Harmonious For if the Voices are not Harmonious the Organ will not make them so If there are Jarrings and Discords in a mixed Company of Singers when the Organ does not found I cannot see how the Organ will help them by its Harmony to be more Orderly and Melodious For Persons who have not had somewhat of Art to help their Voices know not well how to sing in Consort with an Organ 3. But if Persons have untuned Voices I suppose there may be a much better Cure for this than an Organ If they are but taught to sing by some Artist their Voices will be more Harmonious than an Organ can make them to be And less than Five hundred Pound Sterling will be enough to procure an Artist or two to Instruct a Large Congregation in Vocal Musick and to bring them to some competent skill in Psalmody The Dutch and French Protestants in their Churches sing very Harmoniously and that because they are instructed in the Elements of Vocal Musick from their Child-hood For at the same time their Children are taught to Read they are taught to Sing So that it is not the Melodious sound of an Organ that prevents Discords and jarrings amongst them but their skill in Vocal Musick and this Persons may arrive to by some Instruction from an Artist much sooner than by●●n Organ The Musick of an Organ he saith will both grace the service Ser. p. 21. and please the Offerer How
he beggs your Diversion and assures you that the matter is even so and therefore you have Reason to believe him But I would ask this Gentleman could I come at him What! Was not the Church in a flourishing estate in the time of Constantine the Great And yet there were no Organs then to Exalt their Devotions Cannot the Church Flourish unless the sound of Organs be heard in every Worshipping Assembly Suppose the Church should have a Learned and Pious Clergy should have vast and numerous Assemblies consisting all of Pious Peaceable and Fruitful Members Suppose it should be smiled upon by a Religious and Zealous Magistracy and it should have nothing of Division or Animosity to infest it and should have all the Ordinances of Christ Administred in it according to the rule of the Gospel would not the Church be in a Flourishing estate altho ' the Ears of its Members were not regailed with an Organical Melody With submission to our Author 's great Learning and Judgment I humbly conceive it would 3. But the Mystery lies here some Persons are for setting up their Fancies in their Churches and the bringing in of their own Whims into Divine Worship and then presently they cry they are necessary to the Flourishing estate of the Church and that they Meliorate the Worship of God As if the Worship of God were not as Decent as Comely as Flourishing without them Methinks such Persons are just like a sort of Modish Ladies of our Times to whom altho' God has given pretty good Features and has put a considerable Comeliness upon them yet will they Paint and Dawb their Faces and beautifie themselves with their curious Washes and artificial Dyes and then they cry it is for the heightning of their Beauty for the giving an advance to their Comeliness But who does not see that this does not augment their Beauty but hide it And who would account a Painted Jezabel more Beautiful than a comely Rachel 4. If Organs do render the Church more Flourishing and Beautiful then an addition of Harps and Psalteries and Timbrels and Dances c. would yet give a greater advance to its Beauty and render it more Pompous and Flourishing Upon the same pretence these and many other such things might be introduced into the Worship of God All the Gay and Glittering Pomps and Rites of the Romish Church were brought in upon the same Foundation Ser. p. 15 16. Our Author proceeds and harps on a string he had touched before and tells us That God be thanked they do not stand singly in the defence of this Usage but that they have the concurrence of the best established Churches in the Christian World 1. Doubtless they must presently be the best Established Churches in the World who concur with him in the use of Organs 2. But I fear this Gentleman reckons without his Host That you may be convinced that our Author has but little reason for what he offers I shall give you a brief account of what Churches use Organs and what Churches Worship God without them The Churches which use them are the Popish Churches the Cathedral Churches in England and some very few Parish Churches Some of the Dutch Churches But this without the consent of their Ministers as was observed before Some few of the Lutheran Churches in Poland and Germany and the Greek Churches But then the Churches which Worship God without them are the greatest part of the Parish-Churches in England The Dissenting Congregations Universally the Scotch Churches the Hungarian Transylvanian Churches the Churches of Piedmont All the Reformed Churches in Germany the Helvetian and the French Protestant Churches Many of the Protestant Churches in Poland and many of those in the Belgick Provinces This account being given you I leave you to judge what reason our Author had to say that the best Reformed Churches in the Christian World concurred with them in the use of Organs If he can prove the Popish the Lutheran and the Greek Churches to be the best Reformed Churches in the Christian World he may do somewhat to perswade us to be of the same Opinion but till then we must beg his pardon if we dissent from him He has I find Ser. p. 16. one entire Paragraph to the Old Bedlam tune of Forty one Forty one in which there are some things false But this Gentleman is not of Age enough to remmember the Transactions of those Times and therefore we shall pass it by as thinking it not fit to take notice of the eructation of his Gall. But now we are arrived at his Fifth Argument Argum. 5 which he takes from the Concession of some of the Dissenters particularly from the Reverend Mr. Baxter and the Assembly of Divines 1. He begins with Mr. Baxter and alledges his Testimony for the Defence of the Lawfulness of Instrumental Musick in the Worship of God I must confess I have a very high esteem of Mr. Baxter and am perswaded that he has done very great service to the Church of God by the many excellent Discourses he has published both in Practical and Polemick Divinity But yet I suppose it would be a mistaken Commendation of him to say that he was without all Mistake As to his judgment respecting the use of Organs I cannot close with it I shall consider Mr. Baxter's Arguments as our Author has propounded them and endeavour a Reply to them His Arguments as propounded by Mr. Newte are these 1. God set up Instrumental Musick long after Moses 's Ceremonial Law by David and Solomon I Answer 1 Instrumental Musick was made use of in the Worship of God as I conceive long before the times of David or Solomon Our Author has said enough to confute this First Argument in producing the Instance of Miriams praising God with Timbrels 2. Trumpets were used in the Worship of God as enjoyned by Moses's Ceremonial Law as we read Numb 10.10 In the day of your gladness and in your solemn days and in the beginnings of your Months ye shall blow with your Trumpets over your Burnt-Offerings and over the Sacrifices of your Peace-offerings that they may be to you for a Memorial before your God The same thing was part of the Ceremonial Law in David's time Psal 81.3 4. it is there said Blow up the Trumpet in the New-Moon in the time appointed in our solemn feast day for this was a Statute for Israel and a Law of the God of Jacob So that Instrumental Musick was set up by Moses's Ceremonial Law Therefore I conceive Mr. Baxter mistakes when he says that God set up Instrumental Musick long after Moses 's Ceremonial Law If by setting up he intends the first Appointment of this sort of Musick in Divine Worship Instrumental Musick was set up by Moses's Ceremonial Law and farther ratified by the Ceremonial Law in the times of David and Solomon That it was set up by Moses's Ceremonial Law to me seems apparent from Psal 81.4 5. before