WESTMINSTER ASSEMBLY & INSTRUMENTAL MUSIC IN PUBLIC WORSHIP, DIRECTORY FOR THE PUBLIC WORSHIP OF GOD ow.ly/ErGOt. FREE SWRB MP3: Instrumental Music in Public Worship in the Old Testament (and the Second Commandment In Covenanter, Puritan and Reformed Worship) by Greg Price (Free MP3 and Video) sermonaudio/sermoninfo.asp?SID=49011531. FREE SWRB MP3: Instrumental Music in Public Worship in the New Testament (and the Second Commandment In Covenanter, Puritan and Reformed Worship) by Greg Price (Free MP3 and Video) sermonaudio/sermoninfo.asp?SID=4160105550 Instrumental Music in Public Worship: The Views of John Calvin, History Surrounding the Westminster Assembly, The Heresy of Instrumental Music in Public Worship swrb/newslett/actualNLs/instcalv.htm ________________ Instrumental Music in Public Worship: The Views of John Calvin swrb/newslett/actualNLs/instcalv.htm To sing the praises of God upon the harp and psaltery, says Calvin, unquestionably formed a part of the training of the law and of the service of God under that dispensation of shadows and figures, but they are not now to be used in public thanksgiving.1 He says again: With respect to the tabret, harp, and psaltery, we have formerly observed, and will find it necessary afterwards to repeat the same remark, that the Levites, under the law, were justified in making use of instrumental music in the worship of God; it having been his will to train his people, while they were yet tender and like children, by such rudiments until the coming of Christ. But now, when the clear light of the gospel has dissipated the shadows of the law and taught us that God is to be served in a simpler form, it would be to act a foolish and mistaken part to imitate that which the prophet enjoined only upon those of his own time.2 He further observes: We are to remember that the worship of God was never understood to consist in such outward services, which were only necessary to help forward a people as yet weak and rude in knowledge in the spiritual worship of God. A difference is to be observed in this respect between his people under the Old and under the New Testament; for now that Christ has appeared, and the church has reached full age, it were only to bury the light of the gospel should we introduce the shadows of a departed dispensation. >From this it appears that the Papists, as I shall have occasion to show elsewhere, in employing instrumental music cannot be said so much to imitate the practice of Gods ancient people as to ape it in a senseless and absurd manner, exhibiting a silly delight in that worship of the Old Testament which was figurative and terminated with the gospel.3 ENDNOTES: 1. On Ps. lxxi. 22. 2. On Ps. lxxxi. 3. 3. On Ps. xcii. 1. FROM: INSTRUMENTAL MUSIC IN THE PUBLIC WORSHIP OF THE CHURCH By John L. Girardeau (Still Waters Revival Books, [1888] 2000), pp. 63, 64, swrb/newslett/actualNLs/instcalv.htm and sermonaudio/go/148354 and on the Puritan Hard Drive at PuritanDownloads/swrb-puritan-hard-drive.html. _________ FREE AUDIO BOOK: INSTRUMENTAL MUSIC IN THE WORSHIP OF THE CHURCH by John Lafayette Girardeau (1825-1898) sermonaudio/go/148354 FREE ONLINE BOOK: INSTRUMENTAL MUSIC IN THE WORSHIP OF THE CHURCH by John Lafayette Girardeau (1825-1898) covenanter.org/Girardeau/Instrumental/instrumentalmusic.htm _________ Dr. Girardeau has defended the old usage of our church with a moral courage, loyalty to truth, clearness of reasoning and wealth of learning which should make every true Presbyterian proud of him, whether he adopts his conclusions or not. The framework of his argument is this: it begins with that vital truth which no Presbyterian can discard without a square desertion of our principles. The man who contests this first premise had better set out at once for Rome: God is to be worshipped only in the ways appointed in His Word. Every act of public cultus not positively enjoined by Him is thereby forbidden. Christ and His apostles ordained the musical worship of the New Dispensation without any sort of musical instrument, enjoining only the singing of psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs. Hence such instruments are excluded from Christian worship. Such has been the creed of all churches, and in all ages, except for the Popish communion after it had reached the nadir of its corruption at the end of the thirteenth century, and of its prelatic imitators. - R.L. Dabneys Review of Girardeaus Instrumental Music in Public Worship (1889) Excerpted from The Presbyterian Quarterly (July, 1889, no. 9). puritandownloads/dabneys-review-of-girardeaus-instrumental-music-in-public-worship-1889-by-robert-lewis-dabney/ _________ Instrumental Music in Public Worship: History Surrounding the Westminster Assembly sermonaudio/go/148354 Before the Westminster Assembly of Divines undertook the office of preparing a Directory of Worship, the Parliament had authoritatively adopted measures looking to the removal of organs, along with other remains of Popery, from the churches of England. On the 20th of May, 1644, the commissioners from Scotland wrote to the General Assembly of their church and made the following statement among others: We cannot but admire the good hand of God in the great things done here already, particularly that the covenant, the foundation of the whole work, is taken, Prelacy and the whole train thereof extirpated, the service-book in many places forsaken, plain and powerful preaching set up, many colleges in Cambridge provided with such ministers as are most zealous of the best reformation, altars removed, the communion in some places given at the table with sitting, THE GREAT ORGANS AT PAULS AND PETERS IN WESTMINSTER TAKEN DOWN (emphasis added), images and many other monuments of idolatry defaced and abolished, the Chapel Royal at Whitehall purged and reformed; and all by authority, in a quiet manner, at noon-day, without tumult.1 So thorough was the work of removing organs that the Encyclopaedia Britannica says that at the Revolution most of the organs in England had been destroyed.2 When, therefore, the Assembly addressed itself to the task of framing a Directory for Worship, it found itself confronted by a condition of the churches of Great Britain in which the singing of psalms without instrumental accompaniment almost universally prevailed. In prescribing, consequently, the singing of psalms without making any allusion to the restoration of instrumental music, it must, in all fairness, be construed to specify the simple singing of praise as a part of public worship. The question, moreover, is settled by the consideration that had any debate occurred as to the propriety of allowing the use of instrumental music, the Scottish commissioners would have vehemently and uncompromisingly opposed that measure. But Lightfoot, who was a member of the Assembly, in his Journal of its Proceedings3 tells us: This morning we fell upon the Directory for singing of psalms; and, in a short time, we finished it. He says that the only point upon which the Scottish commissioners had some discussion was the reading of the Psalms line by line. ENDNOTES: 1. Girardeau cites this quotation from the Acts of Assembly of the Church of Scotland, 1644. 2. Girardeau cites Art., Organ. 3. Girardeau cites Works, Vol. xiii., pp. 343, 344; London, 1825, sermonaudio/go/148354 . ________________ FROM: INSTRUMENTAL MUSIC IN THE PUBLIC WORSHIP OF THE CHURCH By John L. Girardeau (Still Waters Revival Books, [1888] 2000), Historical Argument pp. 158, 159, 161, 165, 170, 179, covenanter.org/Girardeau/Instrumental/instrumentalmusic.htm. ________________ The Heresy of Instrumental Music in Public Worship sermonaudio/go/148354 With reference to the time when organs were first introduced into use in the Roman Catholic Church, let us hear Bingham:1 It is now generally agreed among learned men that the use of organs came into the church since the time of Thomas Aquinas, Anno 1250; for he, in his Summs, has these words: Our church does not use musical instruments, as harps and psalteries, to praise God withal, that she may not seem to Judaize....Mr. Wharton also has observed that Marinus Sanutus, who lived about the year 1290, was the first who brought the use of wind-organs into churches, whence he was surnamed Torcellus, which is the name for an organ in the Italian tongue....Let us pause a moment to notice the fact, supported by a mass of incontrovertible evidence, that the Christian church did not employ instrumental music in its public worship for 1200 years after Christ....It deserves serious consideration, moreover, that notwithstanding the ever-accelerated drift towards corruption in worship as well as in doctrine and government, the Roman Catholic Church did not adopt this corrupt practice until about the middle of the thirteenth century....When the organ was introduced into its worship it encountered strong opposition, and made its way but slowly to general acceptance. These assuredly are facts that should profoundly impress Protestant churches. How can they adopt a practice which the Roman Church, in the year 1200, had not admitted...Then came the Reformation; and the question arises, How did the Reformers deal with instrumental music in the church?...Zwingle has already been quoted to show instrumental music was one of the shadows of the old law which has been realized in the gospel. He pronounces its employment in the present dispensation wicked pervicacity. There is no doubt in regard to his views on the subject, which were adopted by the Swiss Reformed churches...Calvin is very express in his condemnation of instrumental music in connection with the public worship of the Christian church...In his homily on 1 Sam. xviii. 1-9, he delivers himself emphatically and solemnly upon the subject: In Popery there was a ridiculous and unsuitable imitation [of the Jews]. While they adorned their temples, and valued themselves as having made the worship of God more splendid and inviting, they employed organs (emphasis added), and many other such ludicrous things, by which the Word and worship of God are exceedingly profaned, the people being much more attached to those rites than to the understanding of the divine Word... Whatever may be the practice in recent times of the churches of Holland, the Synods of the Reformed Dutch Church, soon after the Reformation, pronounced very decidedly against the use of instrumental music in public worship. The National Synod at Middleburg, in 1581, declared against it, and the Synod of Holland and Zealand, in 1594, adopted this strong resolution; That they would endeavor to obtain of the magistrate the laying aside of organs, and the singing with them in the churches.... The Provincial Synod of Dort also inveighed severely against their use...The Rev. Charles H. Spurgeon, ...upholds an apostolic simplicity of worship. The great congregation which is blessed with the privilege of listening to his instructions has no organ to assist them in singing...The non-prelatic churches, Independent and Presbyterian, began their development on the American continent without instrumental music. They followed the English Puritans and the Scottish Church, which had adopted the principles of the Calvinistic Reformed Church...It has thus been proved by an appeal to historical facts, that the church, although lapsing more and more into defection from the truth and into a corruption of apostolic practice, had no instrumental music for twelve hundred years; and that the Calvinistic Reformed Church ejected it from its services as a element of Popery, even the Church of England having come very nigh to its extrusion from her worship. The historical argument, therefore, combines with the scriptural and the confessional to raise a solemn and powerful protest against its employment by the Presbyterian Church. IT IS HERESY IN THE SPHERE OF WORSHIP (emphasis added). ENDNOTES: 1. Works, Vol. iii., p. 137, ff. covenanter.org/Girardeau/Instrumental/instrumentalmusic.htm ________________ ow.ly/Bcw28 Calvin, Close Communion and the Coming Reformation (a book review of Alexander and Rufus... by John Anderson [1862]) by Dr. Reg Barrow (Shows how John Calvin practiced close communion and how the biblical view of this ordinance is intended to purify the individual, church and state. Refutes the Popish and paedocommunion heresies (regarding this sacrament), as well as all views of open communion. This is Reformation History Notes number two.) swrb/newslett/actualnls/CalvinCC.htmow.ly/Bcw28 Calvin, Close Communion and the Coming Reformation (a book review of Alexander and Rufus... by John Anderson [1862]) by Dr. Reg Barrow (Shows how John Calvin practiced close communion and how the biblical view of this ordinance is intended to purify the individual, church and state. Refutes the Popish and paedocommunion heresies (regarding this sacrament), as well as all views of open communion. This is Reformation History Notes number two.) swrb/newslett/actualnls/CalvinCC.htm JOHN CALVIN ON SEPARATION FROM FALSE WORSHIP (i.e., non REGULATIVE PRINCIPLE WORSHIP) and WORSHIPPING PRIVATELY IN YOUR HOME sermonaudio/new_details3.asp?ID=14661 John Calvin, during the First Reformation, showed that he supported the concept of Covenanted Reformation by requiring all the residents of Geneva to take an oath in support of the Reformation. The Register of the Council of 24 of Geneva notes as follows: 12 November 1537. It was reported that yesterday the people who had not yet made their oath to the reformation were asked to do so, street by street; whilst many came, many others did not do so. No one came from the German quarter. It was decided that they should be commanded to leave the city if they did not wish to swear to the reformation (Scribner, Bob and Pamela Johnston. 1993. The Reformation in Germany and Switzerland, Cambridge University Press, p. 138,). swrb/newslett/actualnls/CalvinCC.htm). Reformed Confessions, Heresy, Schism & the Faithful Remnant sermonaudio/sermoninfo.asp?SID=7300125251 The Necessity of Reforming the Church (1543) by John Calvin (FREE ONLINE BOOK) swrb/newslett/actualNLs/NRC_ch00.htm ow.ly/BcvNp What Are Terms of Communion? What is Close Communion? What is Occasional Hearing? What Is Biblical Separation? By Pastor Greg Price and Dr. Michael Wagner (Free Covenanter MP3s) ow.ly/BcvNp Close Communion, the Lords Supper, Refuting Paedocommunion, etc. swrb/newslett/FREEBOOK/closecom.htm The Covenanted Reformation Defended Against Contemporary Schismatics by Greg Barrow (Greg Price, Dr. Reg Barrow and Larry Birger) Contains what may be the best information gathered into one book (outside of the Bible) on the topic of the Lords Supper and the Reformation practice of close communion! References many hard-to-find Reformation source documents while defending the original intent of the Westminster standards and the practice of the best churches of the second Reformation. On close communion in particular see Misrepresentation 4 at reformedpresbytery.org/books/covrefdf/covrefdf.htm#mis4. Against Backsliding Modern Denominations, Nations & Individuals (Separation) swrb/newslett/FREEBOOK/backslid.htm Terms of Ministerial and Christian Communion in the Reformed Presbyterian Church, and In Our Day, In the Puritan Reformed Church; With Explanatory Dialogue (Including The Biblical and Logical Necessity of Uninspired Creeds) swrb/newslett/actualnls/TermsMin.htm The Six Points of the Terms of Ministerial and Christian Communion in the Reformed Presbyterian Church by the Reformed Presbytery (The old paths illuminated with the powerful Covenanter spotlight.) swrb/newslett/actualnls/6points.htm In this age of boasted charity, but really detestable neutrality and indifferency, it is an irksome and painful task, but a duty, thus to bear testimony against churches, in which are to be found, no doubt, many precious sons and daughters of the Lord Almighty. But personal piety never was, nor possibly can be, the condition of fellowship in the visible church. To think so, and say so, is one of the most popular delusions of the present day. It puts the supposed pious man, speaking his experience, in the place of God, speaking his sovereign will in the Bible. This is the height of impiety. - Reformed Presbytery, Act, Declaration, and Testimony for the Whole of Our Covenanted Reformation, p. 175, on the Puritan Hard Drive at ow.ly/fPY4o. WESTMINSTER ASSEMBLY & INSTRUMENTAL MUSIC IN PUBLIC WORSHIP, DIRECTORY FOR THE PUBLIC WORSHIP OF GOD sermonaudio/new_details3.asp?ID=22679
Posted on: Tue, 18 Nov 2014 15:00:01 +0000
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