by-Respects and sinister selfish Ends let us firmly adhere to its Doctrine Discipline and Worship So shall we best Secure the Protestant Religion in General by Securing this best part of it Established among us But chiefly hereby shall we Secure our League with Heaven and the Interest of our Immortal Souls far beyond our Temporal Welfare and Interest which this however through the Blessing of God will honestly promote and therefore the more securely help to obtain We have all things that we can desire to accomplish Those great Ends we of this Town particularly have the Daily Sacrifice of Prayer in this House of God we have with others an Accurate Form of Prayer containing the most proper Method and pious Matter and suitable Expressions fit for our Devotion We have proper Psalms appointed to Praise God with and proper Lessons and constant Sermons to Instruct us in our Duty We have excellent Collects and a most pathetical Litany to solicit our Heavenly Father for the Mercies we want and to avert the Judgments and Dangers we fear And now by a kinder Providence to our selves than to our Neighbours we have the most proper Means of Instrumental Musick to quicken our Hearts and to raise our Affections to make us the more Devout All so Edifying and Instructive that it must be our fault if we be not constantly made the wiser and better for being here It behoves us therefore to take care that we be here often and that our Hearts be full of Faith and Love of Humility and Devotion when we come and then we need not doubt of having been heard and accepted when we go away And I must remind you That since now we have the best Advantages of any Church in the World we should endeavour to be the best Christians in the World We must be most wanting to our selves if we be not and our Accounts at the last will be required according to the Talents given We may perhaps have the Vanity to imagine That God will Excuse us for our well Meaning though in many Things we come short of our Duty But let us not deceive our selves and think to mock God 'T is only doing of it will make us acceptable Let us then endeavour to be as good Christians as we ought to be by doing what is required of us So shall we oblige God to dwell among us and to delight to bless us with what we wish with Health and Happiness with Peace and Plenty but above all with the Security of our Church and Religion which we are most of all to desire For the doing of what is required is the best Sacrifice we can offer unto him 'T is by our good Lives we Praise and Engage him most This makes the best Musick in the Ears of the Almighty and is the Chief Melody of our Hearts to which Musical Instruments are purely subservient as being a proper means to excite our Devotion to quicken our Minds and to raise our Affections towards him But all this is to make us the more enflamed in our Love and more ready in our Obedience 'T is a severe Judgment not to be so affected Ezek. 33.30 31 32 33. It being almost impossible to know God and to be lively and devoutly affected towards him but we must be obedient to him And then we shall love what he loves and hate what he hates consequently we shall be more just in our Dealings more upright in our Conversations and more holy and sincere towards God and our Neighbour Every way better fitted to glorifie him in Heaven when we can in fervent Devotion be raised to glorifie him here with our cheerful Hearts and vertuous Lives through the help of Musical Instruments It will now Argue a great deal of Arrogance and Singularity in any of us to speak against the Use of These which the generality of Christians not only in this Age but in those that have been purer and better have approved of and looked upon as of singular Use and Advantage for those great Ends and to help us forward in our way to Happiness according to the Primitive way of Worship by Psalms and Hymns and Spiritual Songs and making Melody in our Hearts unto the Lord. Surely this which is the Entertainment of Angels and just Men in their glorified State ought not to disgust any of us who should endeavour the utmost we can to be qualified for their Company and to bear a part of their happy Employment which is with constant Readiness and Agility to obey the Will of God and with Everlasting Songs of Praise to magnifie his ever glorious Name This we are to begin here and to perfect with them above in the Quire of Heaven And I will not detain you any longer at present from the grateful Harmony which is to follow through the Excellency of our Organ and the Sweetness of so many well tuned Voices as joyn in Consort with it The Art of Singing Psalms which some of you have happily learnt may not unfitly be reckoned among those that are Divine and has no less than the Holy Ghost for its Original who taught the Patriarchs the Prophets and the Primitive Christians to utter the Praises of God with a Song It being so commendable and so religious an Accomplishment as does become the greatest Person and is not debased by the meanest and in all probability will not only raise your Esteem but your Devotion too By the Grace and Melody of this Vocal and Instrumental Musick together I hope This Congregation will be kept in a continual Fervor fit for Devotion and for retaining such Instructions from this Place as may conduce to the making us first Sober and Religious Christians then happy and glorious Saints The Charms of which may in time melt us into Love and so charitable an Affection as that we may all seek the Good and Welfare of each other And I hope bring the Use of Artificial Singing and Divine Anthems again in request and be both studied and practised too as they were in the earlier Times of Christianity immediately after the ceasing of that sort of Inspiration in singing Psalms and Hymns which was then extraordinary and to supply the place of it Even as now since the Expiration of some other Extraordinary Gifts which were then in the Church the latter Ages must be supplyed from Study and Learning if at all And the Pretenders now to Preaching and Praying by the Spirit without these will be altogether as vain as their ex tempore Singing can be supposed to be without the Advantages of Art I am perswaded if any thing takes us off from that Vanity and prevents greater Confusion and Discord from the Minds of Men it will be the Charms of Musick which by the Subtlety of its Nature and the Insinuating Sweetness of its Sound will strike deeper into the Heads of some than the closest Reason possibly can into their Hearts It may work out that Malady which first
raised and fomented by the Devil too viz. The Spirit of Division and Hatred and Animosity The Spirit of Anger of Envy of Malice of Revenge and other such disorderly and mischievous Passions which this will be apt to drive from our Minds and is a proper Remedy against Those great Ends among many others which I shall hereafter shew being very likely to be promoted by this means will abundantly compensate for that Pious and Exemplary Beneficence we have shewn in erecting this stately and magnificent Structure of an Organ now Dedicated to the Honour of God the Service of his Church and the Good of his People By an happy Providence is this again restored to that very Place from whence the other by Sacrilegious Hands was sometime since pull'd down and destroyed And I doubt not but those who have so freely contributed towards it will conclude their Money put to a very good Use and that they 'l find a great Satisfaction in it themselves and the greater constantly as they see the Benefit and Advantage of it redound both to themselves and others And may the Blessing of God go along with it and Descend upon the Heads of those particularly who have been the Encouragers and Promoters of it To which if it may in any wise contribute I shall make it the Business of this Day to Assert the Lawfulness and Recommend the Use of it And this I have chosen to do from a Consideration of these most express words of the Psalmist to this purpose in the Conclusion of that Divine Collection of his in this last Psalm which by the Title it bears 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is Hallelujah or Praise ye the Lord. Wherein he Exhorts All People to call upon the Lord and to Praise him in his Sanctuary and that with all kinds of Musical Instruments particularly with stringed ones and Organs I may very well here take for granted I suppose that Praise is one of the most Delightful as well as one of the most Necessary Duties we are obliged to perform towards God That 't is of an Eternal Obligation upon us and which engages all People at all Times and in all Places And also That we are to take the best Course and make use of the best Means where they may be had with respect to those Times and Places to make this Duty most Affectionate and Ardent considering our own Weakness and Indisposition and likewise most Solemn and Acceptable with Respect to the Majesty of God This I am to shew may be by Musical Instruments and among them The Organ as being the greatest help to this sort of Devotion By Stringed Instruments in this place * Lorinus in loc Felix Cajetan and others suppose is to be understood some sorts of them now unknown to us But according to the Hebrew word †〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Species Instrumenti Musici Semel extat Buxtorf in loc it signifies such a one as is compounded of many sorts of Musical Instruments and contains much variety of Musical Harmony and Melodious Sounds like unto that of the Organ now in use but differs from it in that they were to be play'd upon without the help of Wind which this is not And 't is further observable that an Organ in the Original is derived from a Root which signifies to Love with ardency and vehemence 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Adamavit Buxtorf It seeming so to express the Nature of the Thing whose use is to stir up the Affections of the Soul towards God that People cannot but be in love with it In treating of which I shall proceed after this method First I shall assert the Lawfulness of Musick both Vocal and Instrumental and particularly of the latter in the Time of Divine Service as well in the Christian Church now as in the Jewish Church heretofore Secondly I shall shew the great Use and Advantages of it Thirdly I shall Answer the most material Objections which the Adversaries of Church-Musick have against this Practice And Lastly I shall conclude the whole with an Exhortation to you to stick heartily and devoutly to the performance of that Excellent Church-Service of ours established in the Church of England as being the fittest and best of any in the whole Christian World to answer the ends of our Holy Profession namely to give us a peaceable and happy Life here and to bring us to Heaven hereafter And first I am to Assert the Lawfulness of Musick both Vocal and Instrumental and particularly of the latter in the Time of Divine Service as well in the Christian Church now as in the Jewish heretofore Towards the Proof of which I shall draw some Arguments * From the Light of Nature and the Reason of the Thing * From the Authority of the Scripture and the Institution of David consequent thereupon * From the Sense of the Apostles in the New Testament * From the Opinion and Practice of the Reformed Churches both at home and abroad And * particularly from the Judgment of the most Eminent Men among those who dissent from our Church in other Matters This I take to be sufficient for the Proof of the Thing before us after which I presume its Lawfulness cannot well be called in question § 1. The Lawfulness of that cannot certainly with any tolerable Reason be denied which all Ages have Allowed and Approved of * 1 Chron. 15.16.25 1. Ecclus 50.16 17 18. The High Priest taught the People to Praise God and Pray therewith 2 Chro. 15.14 It was used at making a Covenant with God God's own People of old made their Approaches unto the True God in a Religious manner with the Solemnity of Musick as well as the Heathen to their false Gods Both finding such a Natural fitness in the Thing as would be likely to Excite their Devotion and make it the more acceptable And therefore this being the general Practice of all Nations that we read of seems to argue such a way of Worship to proceed from the Dictates of Natural Religion which Men were not so much Taught as Born to Hence we find from the Testimony of Scripture That before the Law was given by Moses The Invention of Musick was so early as to be in the Days of Lamech the sixth from Adam his Son Jubal was the Father of all such as handle the Harp and the Organ Gen. 4.21 i. e. He was the Author and Inventor of these And in the Days of Job who is thought to have lived before Moses those Instruments of Musick which served to rejoyce and chear up Mens hearts at their Feasts Job 21.12 God thought fit to Consecrate to a Religious Vse and made them Instruments of much Honour to his Church and much Devotion to his People Dr. Hickman Conc. in Psal 100. 1. p. 14. or Directions made in this Case by David there were Instruments of Musick used and a Song made upon a Religious Account as appears by these two Instances
of Miriam the Sister of Aaron and of the Prophets who came to meet Saul The former we read of Exod. 15.20 21. who Celebrated the Deliverance of the Israelites out of Egypt was no less than a Prophetess and she did it after this manner She took a Timbrel in her hand and all the Women went out after her with Timbrels and Dances And Miriam answered them Sing ye to the Lord c. 'T is supposed here that they sung to one another by turns this famous Song of Moses the Men beginning and the Women answering them or else the Propriety of Speech would not so well hold of Miriam's answering them c. The other Instance was after the Delivering of the Law but before the Reign of David 1 Sam. 10.5 â— or any prescript Appointment of it 1 Sam. 10.5 where the Company of Prophets are met by Saul coming down from the High Place with a Psaltery and a Tabret and a Pipe and an Harp before them while they Prophesied and sang Praises unto God If we look into the Practice of the Heathen World we shall find Instances of the same kind Homer one of the ancientest Writers among them Dr. Hammond in loc mentions the Greeks usage in Celebrating the Praises of their Gods with an Harp The Phrygians with a Drum And the Egyptians with a Timbrel So the Idol-Worship in the Eastern part of the World mentioned by the Prophet Daniel was performed with all kinds of Musical Instruments and Musick Dan. 3.5 And the Western or the Roman had Musick a great Ingredient in their Religion and erected a Colledge of Tibicines or Players upon Wind-Musick and endowed them with great Priviledges for their Solemn Performances herein § 2. But this is nothing to the Endowments that were made by David upon the several Officers 1 Chron. 25. Chap. 23.5 which were concerned in its Performances both in the Tabernacle and also the Temple David being a King and a Prophet could not only do this at that time but prescribe the Use of it in the time of the Messias whose Type he was Psal 45. 146. He first gave the Establishment to it in the Jewish Church and by the Assistance of the Holy Ghost made such Heavenly Composures as not only supplied the Jews with the most Excellent Forms of Prayer and Praise upon all Occasions befitting that State But to whom all after Ages are beholding for their Instructions herein and for those lofty Strains of Divine Eloquence which have wonderfully improved the Devotions of the Christian Church And 't is from so great a Man 1 Sam. 13.14 as this after God's own heart as well as from the Reason and Usefulness of the Thing that we in a great measure owe the Advantages of Vocal and Instrumental Musick among us The Light of Nature indeed has given great Directions in this Matter But the Revelation of God to his Prophets greater Whereby Mankind in general have been loudly called upon by holy David particularly and a great part of it has heard the Voice of the Prophet and made use of such means as have raised their Devotion to an higher pitch than otherwise they could have done and consequently have made the Praises of God more abundantly glorious Psal 66.2 This is done by the help of Artificial Songs and Instrumental Musick to supply the Defects and to heighten the Performances of Corrupted Nature Psal 98. and to assist in Repairing that Voice of Joy and Gladness in serving the Lord which had been miserably broken by Disobedience and Sin and made in a great measure defective and not so capable alone to reach the Delights and to attain the Perfections of that blessed Imployment This sweet Psalmist or Singer of Israel therefore 2 Sam. 23.1 with divers other Prophets who were Inspired besides him for this purpose as Heman and Asaph 2 Chron. 5.12 and Jeduthun and perhaps the Sons of Corah too whom we read of among the Compilers and Singers of David's Psalms introduced into the Church of God among the Jews the Use of such Instruments as were thought fit by them being so Divinely Inspired to raise the Spirit of Devotion among the People and to make them Celebrate the Praises of their Creator in the most Solemn Manner Psal 57.8 and with the greatest Alacrity and Exultation as could be imagined best becoming the Reason and answering the End of the chiefest part of the Creation And from thence we may Argue If this was Useful under the Jewish State why not under the Christian Have not Christians sometimes the same Deadness and Dulness and Spiritual Indisposition in the Service of God which the Jews had and which lack to be shaken off Do not the Members of the Christian Church in the Performance of their Worship labour under the same Defects of these sorts And consequently Do they not stand in need of some such Helps and Assistances to move their Affections to raise their Devotion to shake off their Drowsiness and to inspire their Thoughts with Chearfulness and Zeal with Love and Veneration when they make their Addresses unto him in Prayer and Thanksgiving If they do as 't is too manifest they do for that Reason have they always had the proper if not necessary Assistance of Church-Musick among them Of Vocal * I might here mention the Hymns of the Blessed Virgin of Zacharias and of Simeon Luke 1 and 2d Chapters And what is said in the opinion of Socrates concerning St. Ignatius who was supposed to be the Child which our Saviour took and set in the midst before his Disciples when he said Matth. 18.3 Except ye be converted and become as little Children ye shall not enter into the Kingdom of Heaven That 't was he who first brought the Alternate way of Singing into the Christian Church having learnt this from a Vision of Angels thereby concluding the better to stir up one anothers Affections and coming nearer to the Heavenly Pattern where the Seraphims cry one to another Holy Holy Holy Lord God of Hosts Isai 6.3 Sâ—cr Hist Eccles l. 6. c. 8 Dr. Comber's Companion to the Temple Part 2. § 8. And of the famous St. Ambrose who added most melodious and artificial Singing to the Divine Service in the Church of Milan whereof he was Bishop and this way among the rest which soon after was propagated to others He it was who composed the most Seraphick Hymn which is in the Church called the Te Deâ—m in Honour of the Blessed Trinity which noble Strains 't is thought he received down by Tradition from the Compositions of the Apostles or some other Primitive Christians who were inspired with the Gift of Singing And for that reason have we such frequent mention made of their Singing to and Praising God with Spiritual Songs and Hymns in the first and purest Ages of Christianity when they were so unfortunate as to be under the severest Persecution And to that