Old Testament a very fit original Archetype to answer our Evangelical Terestrial Sacrifice That was the Manna which was called Bread by Moses and was indeed Rained from Heaven and is called the Food of Angels by the Psalmist No doubt to shew its Heavenly Mystical Nature far exceeding the Nature of our common Bread It is called also a Body prepared as the same Apostle Quotes the Words of the Old Testament These are the very Expressions us'd by our blessed Saviour concerning his own Sacrament in St. Joh. vi He also calls it Manna Bread from Heaven and his own Body exactly according to these Mystical Reasonings from the Old Testament We never find any mention of an Archetypal Heavenly Beast answering those Bloody Sacrifices Yet the whole Benefit of these Sacrifices depended on these Archetypal Patterns answering them in Heaven Thence follow'd the Obligation of God to ratify in Heaven what was performed by the Priest on Earth in giving or denying the Mystical Benefits of the Sacraments as the Priest shall think fit to give or deny the Sacramental Elements Thence the Union between the Church Militant and the Church Triumphant on account of the Union between the Caelestial Archetype and the Terrestrial Eucharistical Sacrifice Thence the Union between the Patriarchal Church of the Old Testament and the Apostolical of the New because the whole efficacy of those old Sacrifices of Beasts was derived from their representing and applying the Death of our blessed Saviour as commemorated and apply'd in our Christian Eucharistical Sacrifice Thence the Union of all the visible Churches in the World with the Caelestial Church and among themselves and the Reason obliging all particular Churches in Earth to ratify each others Censures which was that which made their Admissions into Communion and their Excommunications Catholick tho' the Acts themselves were only the Acts of single Churches The Reason was because every particular in admitting a Member intitled the Member so admitted to the Heavenly Church with which all the particularly Churches in the World were one and therefore were obliged to own such a Member for a Member of themselves And every particular Church in Excommunicating a Member deprived the Excommunicated of his Right to the Heavenl Church which whosoever wanted could not be owned by any particular Church which pretended to be one with that which was Heavenly of so much consequence was this whole Mystical Reasoning greater perhaps than our Adversary was aware of However this Reasoning gives a clear Account that tho' Instrumental Musick were as indifferent as we conceive it to be it would not therefore follow that it would be Indifferent or in the Power of any Church to restore the Custom of Bloody Sacrifices I know not whether it be worth XXII No Reason for opposing the first Impositions whilst Lawful for fear of Rigours afterwards the while to take notice of another Consequence much insisted on by the Party that is the Danger of exceeding in Impositions if the first Impositions be submitted to But truly conscientious Reasoners would first have prov'd the Hurtfulness of many lawful Impositions if submitted to by the Ecclesiastical subject The Government might indeed be blamed for it but in the subject for whom they are concern'd tho' the Imposition were indeed hard yet submission to it for Peace sake would for that Reason be highly commendable as an Act of the greater self-denyal and the greater Zeal for Pecae and Discipline and the greater Abhorrence of needless Division whilst nothing Sinful were impos'd Then they would have given some 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 concerning the due Number that might be impos'd that might neither be too small nor too numerous This they would have done if they had desir'd to have purged themselves to God and their own Consciences that they had not oppos'd subjection to those who were over them in the Lord but Rigours of those who had abus'd the just Authority committed to them But to stop at the first Impositions before they can pretend them Rigorous looks as if Flesh and Blood as if Stomach and Resentment as if an aversation to subjection it self had been the original of their Quarrel It runs into the opposite extreme as indeed their Defences of their Schism generally do as if the Authority it self not any Tyrannical use of it were the thing regretted by them The Topick it self they cannot defend nor justifie the Consequences of it who are notwithstanding so forward to warn others of Consequences There is hardly any thing necessary in Humane Life but what excess may make pernicious Eating is so Yet how great a part do Surfeits make in our Bills of Mortality Will they therefore think it reasonable for avoiding Surfeits to disswade from Eating If they had no design of running into an extreme of opposing all Impositions in things indifferent our Churches Impositions whatever the Out-cry has been against them have been so few that I cannot tell how even our Adversaries themselves could charge our Churches Impositions with being excessive if they had allowed of any Impositions at all If they allow of none they would do well to own that their Disputes are not against Abuses only of Authority but against Authority it self Their doing so would let the Favourers of Comprehension see that our Disputes are not indeed of so trivial an Importance as they are commonly conceiv'd to be That they are indeed whether we shall have any Authority which our Adversaries shall think themselves oblig'd in Conscience to own and to be concluded by when nothing but Conscience can oblige them to it in a State of Persecution That is indeed whether we our selves shall have any Body Politick when they are once receiv'd into it For we cannot any longer have such a Body than we have the Authority essential to the Constitution of such a Body Then it would become the Favourers of Comprehension to consider whether any Grants of our Adversaries can make amends for so great a Concession on our Parts as the Dissolution of our selves Or whether any other independent Body in the World would think fit to admit Enemies to their Constitution into their Body together with their hostile Opinions or whether they could think any Pretences how fair soever they might seem otherwise to be sufficient to compensate a Reconciliation of so fatal Consequence The rather so because it perfectly discharges Persons reconcil'd on such Terms from all Obligations to perform what should afterwards be perform'd as a Condition of the Reconciliation on their Parts For it is only their Difference to our common Authority that can make them really one with us when they are admitted into our Assemblies The giving this up to them as a Condition of their coming in to us is like opening a Gap which may seem to let them in whilst themselves please but lets them out again as soon as their old Animosities shall put them on laying hold of new Pretences or retrieving the old ones But
rather which they would seem to be offended at more out of a pretence to keep up a Separation than that any Offence can be justly taken at the things themselves And that this is no uncharitable or groundless surmise is evident from their Aversion to Alterations in the time of the Sessions of the last Convocation as they were before in that of 1660. And the Conference at the Savoy when they might have been satisfied in any thing could they have agreed in what would have satisfied them besides a total Subversion of the English Constitution which is at this time in an especial manner and always has been since the Reformation the greatest Bullwark of the Protestant Religion against Popery of any in the whole Christian World And 't was sadly apparent what great advances Popery made in the late times of Anarchy and Confusion when this excellent Constitution was subverted and thro' the Policy of the Church of Rome her most Zealous and Religious Defenders were traduc'd as Popishly affected and by their Instigation cut off because in truth they were the most irreconcilable Enemies to the Tyranny and Corruption of that Church as any People whatsoever Witness besides the Royal Martyr himself the incomparable Arch-Bishop Laud * Called by Mr. Long the Papists Scourge and Horrour who if Times would have favour'd him had Zeal and Courage and Learning and Interest enough to have driven Popery out of any Kingdom in Christendom And for certain the return of it in this Kingdom will for ever be prevented whatever is pretended by ill designing Men if the Doctrine and Discipline of our Church be but maintain'd with a like Resolution and Christian Bravery as he maintained them when he adorned the See of Canterbury The sticking close to which is the readiest Course that can be taken to keep out Popery and nothing else will be able to do it For notwithstanding the Out-cry of Popery be at every turn made against our Church Service which is one of the grossest and foulest Slanders that ever was invented or credited and could proceed from nothing so much as an ill Design against her * Nothing can make an honest Man suspect our Church of Popery but his Ignorance what Popery is London Cases p. 493. or from great Ignorance of what Popery is were this excellent Constitution destroy'd Popery in all probability would soon destroy the Protestant Religion quite and we should be clearly over-run with the Tyranny as well as Superstition of that corrupt Church which at present domineers over so great a part of Christendom and threatens Ruin and Desolation to all the rest We see too much what would be our own Case by the barbarous Persecution of the Protestants in France Savoy c. notwithstanding the Edicts and Oaths and Declarations of those Princes to the contrary if we should through the subtilty of the Court of Rome be perswaded by any of our Dissenters to alter our English Constitution or so much as admit of the desired Comprehension under the plausible pretence of Union but in truth it would be a means of dividing and weakning us the more among our selves than we could hope to win from abroad 'T is plain we might gratifie our Enemies thereby but we should never oblige our Friends nor strengthen our Interest nor one jot the less be calumniated as Popish But that the Church of England is free from any such Imputation of Popery is so clearly and candidly evinc'd by the learned Dr. Hooper the present Dean of Canterbury in his excellent Treatise on that Subject at the end of the London Cases that it will be needless for any one to say more to it for those that will not be convinced of the contrary by his Reasons do but expose their Ignorance to the World or what is worse their Prejudice or ill Design Among other things which some of those who dissent from us dislike and against all Honesty and Reason make to be a part of Popery is the Practice of Instrumental Musick in our Church Service But 't is a very ridiculous Argument to say so because the Church of Rome uses it and very uncharitable and unjust while the generality of Protestant Churches abroad as well as ours at home which are any where established have the use of it as well as that and have had so ever since the Reformation Our first Reformers were certainly wiser than to account that for Popish and to be quite abolished which was as useful then in the Christian Church as before and which they did Reform where they found it grosly abused but did never think fit to abolish the use of it or account it a piece of Popery to be cast off Those excellent Men were not possessed with such a Spirit of Opposition as against all Sense and Reason to run away from every thing in Divine Worship which the Papists did use or allow this would be bad indeed and a much greater Errour than that which they pretend to avoid for then they must disown God and his Son our Saviour Jesus Christ because the Papists believe them then they must lay aside the Hierarchy because the Papists maintain it and have no Places nor Times set a part for divine Worship nor set Forms of Prayer to address themselves by to the great God of Heaven and Earth because the Papists have them nor indeed have any Decency or Comliness in the House of God because such are to be seen in the Church of Rome No 't is the Corruptions and Superstitions of the Church of Rome we are Reform'd from and 't is not requisite we should be still a Reforming what is thought Decent Regular Primitive and Edifying in our Church And I Challenge any even the most Bigotted Dissenters from the Church of England to shew any one Superstitious Rite or corrupt Doctrine of the Church of Rome which is allowed or maintained in our establish'd Church They may accuse the Surplice for being such but with what shew of Reason to satisfie an unprejudiced Man Why they may as well account a Black Gown to be Popish or a Judges Scarlet being the Grab of the Whore of Babylon or Rev. 17. 4. a grey Cloak because it is worn by some of the Friars And so for the * This Sign both Tertullian and St. Cyprian allow was used from the time of the Apostles continued in use in the time of Constantine the Great and therefore could not be an Invention of the Papists Opus p. 326. Mr. Long 's Calv. Redivivus p. 72. Cross after Baptism for there is no such in it the Ministers making that Sign as a significant Ceremony that in Token hereafter the Child which is Baptized shall not be ashamed to confess the Faith of Christ crucified c. is no more Popish than the speaking those Words is Popish nor those decent and significant Rites and Ceremonies which our Church Governors have thought fit to appoint for the more
orderly and solemn Performing the Service of God in his Church are no more Popish than the Time and Place of Prayer nor the kneeling at it nor that very Form of Prayer which our Saviour taught his Disciples And the use of Instrumental Musick is no more Popish than the use of Vocal is since they are both made use of in the Protestant as well as Popish Churches and both for the same excellent Ends namely for the more lively and affectionate Praising of the Goodness of God and the more effectual raising their Minds in Devotion towards him as well as to regulate the Voices of the People and to make them the more Harmonious And nothing is more evident than that the generality of Protestant Churches abroad as well as ours at home do use Instrumental as well as Vocal Musick in the Worship of God I give Instances in Serm. p. 13. the Lutheran as most of the Foreign are which are planted in Germany such as the Dominions of the Elector of Saxony the Duke of Brandenburg the House of Lunenburg and many imperial Cities in the large Territories of Denmark Sweden Poland Russia c. Also in the few Churches which were Reformed according to Calvin's Model in part of Switzerland and Holland The Reformed in France I do not mention because they have been all along so kept under as not to be able to obtain an Establishment according to Primitive usage and their own Desire otherwise they would have had the Hierarchy and I Question not a like Decency in their Church Service as other Reformed have This they Zealously Petitioned for in the time of Cardinal Richlieus Administration * The judgment of the Foreign Reformed c p. 47. But that great Minister was too Politick to admit of their Petition for an Hierarchy foreseeing that such an Apostolical Institution and those Decencies in Divine Worship would make their Church too Beautiful and Regular and soon draw many from the Romish Establishment to their Communion Now this use of Instrumental Musick so universally obtaining in most if not all National Protestant Churches being a proper help to excite and enliven Mens Minds in Devotion as well as to regulate their Voices as most unprejudic'd People find it is no great matter if some few of singular Humours and unreasonable * Scrupulus est formido Temeraria sine fundamento atque adeo nou petest obligare Amesius de Consc. l. 1. 1. 6. Scruples are dissatisfied about it and dislike such a Practice For 't is impossible to please every Body in any one established Church whatsoever The Rules for Decency however Innocent and Instructive will not meet with such an universal Approbation but some will be prejudic'd against them and then 't is much if through the Craft of others they be not easily brought to dissent from them There is scarce any one part of our Church Service though never so excellent and edifying but some or other dislike it and some dislike all shall we therefore lay aside our Book of Common Prayer 'T is very unreasonable surely unless there were a better substituted in its room and such a one I believe neither this Age nor the next will be able to produce But to please whom shall we be perswaded to lay aside or alter our Church Service Why some few who will not otherwise join with us therein I am well satisfied could that heal or remove the Schism that is among us it would have been done a long while since But our Church Governours know too well that the Spirit and Genius of the dissent is of such a Nature that nothing will satisfie that Medly of People and the different Parties concerned in it otherwise their Charity is so great that they would have condescended to the Satisfaction of the meanest Party But then again their Prudence does direct them to consider there is a far greater number of People which make a more considerable Body of the Catholick Church which would be offended if that Service and this excellent Constitution were laid aside and who then should be rather satisfied Those who are for a regular and decent Church Service according to the Primitive Pattern as that of the Church of England is or those who being Biassed by some unreasonable Scruples oppose the same and are really for no such thing And what does it matter if some few inharmonious Souls do dislike the Organs in our Church as some others through Prejudice dislike our Church Service and both through extreme Ignorance or an ill Design account them Popery Will it be reasonable to expect our Governours should so far neglect their Duty to the Church and their regard to the most considerable Body of Protestants to gratify these few by altering the one and laying aside of the other When at the same time by such a silly Objection of Popery which is given by many as a common Term of Reproach to any thing which they do not like in the Church they must also accuse all Foreign Churches of the same Guilt while all of them well approve of our Church Service and of Instrumental Musick too And it is very little to the purpose to Object against the universality of this Approbation as the Answerer does Because some very considerable Ans. p. 37. Dutch Churches have no Organs in them as that at Leyden for Instance and some others though they may be supposed to be of Ability to procure them But I am credibly inform'd that there are Eight Churches in that City and only one without Organs Why there are none in the Popes Chappel at Rome and yet this is no Argument that they are not approved of by the Pope in the Romish Church All this Out-cry of Popery is nothing else but Artifice and Design against our Church without any tolerable Reason or justifiable Grounds to support the Imputation chiefly raised and fomented and encouraged by the Papists themselves that they may by means of that Slander Distract and Divide us and make us become an easier Prey to them This is so very evident that in that little Tract called Foxes and Firebrands set forth by Dr. Nalson it is undeniably so Anno 1680. It being a Specimen of the Danger and Harmony of Popery and Separation wherein is proved from undeniable matter of Fact and Reason that Separation from the Church of England is in the judgment of Papists and by sad Experience found the most Compendious way to introduce Popery and to ruin the Protestant Religion By this means Popery does by degrees continually get Ground and our Protestants not uniting among themselves for want of joining in our excellent Church Service will not be able to hinder the Progress of it for the future And to speak freely an ungrateful but certain Truth I concur with some worthy Men in believing * I have seen a MSS bearing that Title which fully proves the matter of Fact and it is hoped will
shortly see the light The Imputation of Popery may be clearly laid at the Dissenters Door and we have no reason to account any thing Popery in the Kingdom nor to fear any Danger of it but from those few who are professed Papists themselves or such as too near agree with them in Principles and Practices * Another MSS written in the time of Q. Eliz called a dutiful Advertisement to beware of the Puritans by the Papists and of the Papists by the Puritans discovering the great Coherence and agreement between both the Sects in manifold and divers regardable both erroneous and perillous Positions c. See this at large proved in the Compendious History of all the Popish and Fantical Plots and Conspiracies against the established Government in Church and State in England Scotland and Ireland from the First of Queen Elizabeth to 1684. By the Reverend Mr. Tho. Long of Exon. and who are and always have been their prime Agents and Instruments I mean the several Sects among us which dissent from the Church of England Which Church is by far the greatest if not the only Support of the Protestant Religion and Interest and consequently the greatest Enemy the Church of Rome has in the World 'T is look'd upon to be so by those of that Communion and therefore is it become the Object of its greatest Fury and Envy to destroy which is its greatest aim and if by any means it can be effected they may truly think they have done the business of the Reformation This Church had beyond others of the Protestant Profession a great advantage in the Reformation for when Luther who first began to reform the Errors and Corruptions of the Church of Rome and to separate from it had made a great step that way he notwithstanding left a great many things unreformed which were offensive and could not be justified by Primitive Anquity such as the two great number of Ceremonies and almost all the external Worship in the Church of Rome Auricular Confession the use of Crucifixes The use of the Crucifix allowed by Mr. Baxter and called Causa Motiva c. in Devotion but without Adoration the absurd Pictures of the Trinity and the Doctrine of Consubstantiation determining the Mode of the real Presence instead of the absurder Popish Doctrine of Transubstantiation Afterwards Calvin carried on the Reformation Care of Ch. Div. at Geneva to which Place he was invited by the Citizens A. D. 1536. when they had expelled their Popish Bishop who was also their Temporal Lord and refused to re-admit him unless he would disclaim Popery upon whose refusal they took the Government of Church and State into their own Hands which soon occasioned great Disorders and Confusions And upon this to gratifie the Magistrates See Mr. Longs Calv. Redivivus p. 10 c. and yet to keep the Authority of the Church he suits his Model of Government to the exigence of the Times and upon this account was in a manner necessarily obliged to make a direct opposition to Popery the great Measure of his Reformation for which Reason he laid aside the Hierarchy notwithstanding its being Primitive and Apostolical because he must not come near the Popish Government But yet he plainly approves of it and Calvinus in Libro de necess Reform Ecclesiae very sharply rebuked those English Men who did dissent from it If any says he be found that do not reverence such an Hierarchy i. e. such as is in England and subject themselves to the same with the lowest Obedience I confess there is no Anathema whereof he is not worthy However his Model was never received in the Church of England nor suited to it and his assistance was not accepted by Arch-bishop Cranmer who with Bishop Latimer Bishop Ridly Dr. Taylor and our other worthy Reformers had the Honour of Martyrdom for the sake of that transcendent Part of the Reformation which they had established among us This was so admirably well contriv'd as to be in the moderate way between that of Luther and the other of Calvin They did not carry matters so high as this latter by running from one extreme to the other That because the Church of Rome was over-run with Abuses from the Hierarchy and its Service burdened with a vast number of Ceremonies and the outward Ornaments of the Church being so extravagant had almost destroyed the inward Beauty of it and turned its Worship into Shew and Appearance and made to affect more the outward Senses of the People than their Hearts and Minds therefore he did not seek to reform those Abuses so much as to destroy the Ancient Government of the Church and utterly to abolish all its Rites and Ornaments Which says the Learned Puffendorf In his Introduction to History p. 406. proved a main Obstacle to the increase of the Protestant Religion and caused an aversion and Animosity in the common People against that sort of Reformers and increased their Zeal for that Religion which they had received from their Ancestors Neither did our Reformers fall so low in their establishing the Reformation as Luther at first did by retaining too much of the Popish Service and making very little Alterations in outward Matters But they kept an excellent Mean and a regular Disposition of the whole Constitution according to Primitive usage before Popery had Corrupted it Their Business was to Reform the Christian Church from Popish Superstition and Error and not to fashion it according to their own Humour and Fancies or for the pleasing of others to make a direct Opposition to Popery the measure of the Reformation But the Method they took was by Examining into what was most agreeable to the Sense of the Scriptures and the Opinion of the Primitive Church concerning those Rules for Deceny Order and Edification which these only recommended in general to the Governours of the Church But the particular appointment of such things was left to their Prudence and Care so as to fit particular People and Nations only they were to be careful so to manage the Affairs of the Church as not to do any thing in contradiction to those general Rules of the Apostle Let all things be done unto edifying And Let all things be 1 Cor. xiv 26. 40. done Decently and in Order Agreeable to which those excellent Men our English Reformers settling the Doctrine Discipline and Worship of our Church did not fly so high as not to allow the Papists to be right in any thing nor go so low as to comply with them in any one Superstition and Corruption which two Extremes the other Reformers fell into but ours keeping the middle way between them did by their moderate and discreet Proceeding produce our incomparable Establishment which we are now blessed withal beyond any other Protestant Church For which Reason ours is look'd upon as the Center of Union and Harmony of all the Protestant Churches in the World And so accounted
Direction from God and therefore he needed not have Carped at the Expression As were thought fit by them had he not left out the following Words being so Divinely Inspired But then for a sure Retreat he says Ans. p. 12. Shew as a Command in the Gospel for the use of Organs in publick Worship So say the Anabaptists Shews us a Text to command the Baptizing of Infants in the New Testament And a Man who Marries one too near of Kin to him may say the same thing Shew me a Text in the New Testament against it But I conceive a few Words will take off the edge of the Objection and shew there is no need of a Text directly to command either of them For the Reason of a Law continuing and that Law being no where forbidden either directly or by necessary Consequence it is still in force and then the Conscience is bound to the observation of it according to a known Rule of the Canonists Ratio Legis est nexus Conscientiae This is agreeable to the Practise of the Church in those several Instances as well as that concerning Instrumental Musick The admitting Infants into the Jewish Gen. 17. 7. 9. Deut. 29. 10 11 12. Mat. 28. 19. Acts 2. 39. Covenant by Circumcision was a positive Law of the Old Testament and for the same Reason Infants not being forbidden to be admitted into the New Testament Covenant by Baptism are as capable of receiving the Sacrament of Baptism now as they were of Circumcision then the Reason of it being still the same And if this way of arguing from Scripture by just and necessary Consequence be not allow'd then Infants are in a worse Condition since the coming of Christ than they were before and the Gospel Priviledges are now straiter and narrower to them than before which is very absurd to affirm So the State of Marriage within the Degrees and Limitations of Lev. 18 c. is not expresly Commanded in the New Testament yet is of force still and the Reason of it is taken from the Old Test. because it remains still the same the Old Testment as to Moral Precepts being as much the Object of our Faith and Practice as the New 't is both together and not one singly makes the Rule we are to walk by In like manner Instrumental Musick in 1 Chron. 15. 16. 4. 25. 6. 2 Chron. 29. 25. Psal. 149. 3. 150. 4. the Worship of God being expresly Commanded in the Old Testament and not being forbidden in the New and there being still the same Reason for its continuance does shew the Lawfulness and Expediency of it now altho' there be no express Text for it in the New Testament To exact a particular Command or Precept in Scripture for a Practice of this Nature is as reasonable says the Bishop of Cork as to require Duty of Singing p. 403. a Text for having convenient Churches or decent Places to assemble in for having Seats in Churches or Cushions to kneel or lean upon or for any such useful accommodation and honest Advantage of Divine Worship So if we do not allow Mr. Burket of Infant Baptism p. 8. Scripture Consequences * How shall we prove Women ought to receive the Sacrament of the Lords Supper or that the Sabbath is to be changed from the Seventh to the first Day of the Week c. But then 't is said That Organs or Instruments of Musick were permitted the Jews for the sake of their Weakness to In Loc. stir up their Minds to perform their external Worship with some Delight and for this St. Chrysostom is Quoted and the Author of the Questions and Answers in Ans. p. 21 22. Justin Martyrs Works for saying this use was to Persons in a State of Child-hood after the manner of the Law To the same effect Isidore Pelusiota Clem. Alexand. c. And in the Reign of David 't is intimated That God suited such means Ans. p. 77. to the Infant State of the Church To which it may be Answered That these Fathers do not by their Allegorizing the 150 Psalm argue against the use of Instrumental Musick Absolutely but shew rather the true use of it is because of the Imperfection and Weakness of Humane Nature and that God condescending to a regard of the same did not only permit and allow Instrumental Musick in his Solemn Worship but expresly commanded it And tho' the Command was delivered by David and the Contemporary Prophets to the Nation of the Jews yet it is obligatory still at least by way of Direction to the Governours of the Church in like State of Affairs thro' all Ages and People because the Reasons hereof are not Temporary but likely to last as long as the World does So we may make our Appeal to what St. Chrysostom says as the In Psal. 150. Reason of it with which agrees Clem. Alexandrinus that it was Instituted and Paedag l. 2. c. 4. Commanded rather than permitted for the sake of Mens Weakness to stir up their Minds to perform their external Worship with some Delight And as he goes on For that God had a Mind to bring them to a great deal of Diligence by such Allurements For God considering their Sordidness and Sloth and groveling Nature contrived by this means to awaken them mixing with the labour of Attendance the pleasingness of Melody Much like this speaks St. Basil and from such Authorities as these it was Basil Homil. in Psalm 1. Ser. p. 9. 10. urged to be as useful under the State of Christians as of the Jews because they have sometimes the same Deadness and Dulness and spiritual Indisposition in the Service of God which the Jews had which lack to be shaken off And since the Members of the Christian Church in the performance of their Worship labour under the same defects of these sorts therefore they stand in need of some such Helps and Assistances to move their Affections to raise their Devotion to shake of 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 Neither does this use for those Reasons in the least reflect upon the Wisdom of our Saviour by not enjoining of it as it is not very handsomly insinuated Ans. p. 14. p. 83. For our Saviour himself and his Apostles did not disallow of nor speak against the Practice of Instrumental Musick when they Communicated with the Jews who used it in the Temple as certainly they would have done if they had disliked it or thought it improper for Christian Worship Neither did the Primitive Christians declare their dislike of it or judge it unlawful But the State of the Church did not admit of it at that time when Christianity was under Persecution nor Instrumental Musick as the Answerer Mistakes Ans. p. 18. me no more than the Jewish did when under the Babylonish Captivity they hung
up their Harps upon the Willows and Psalm 137. refused to Sing the Songs of Sion in a strange Land to those who carried them away Captives And 't is no wonder that in the Primitive Times of Christianity there should be a discontinuance of it For we know the outward Modes and Circumstances of Divine Worship must give way to the exigencies of the Times and have been ever Modelled and altered according to the outward State of the Church And this is the Reason why Instrumental Duty of singing p. 464. Musick so slowly came into the Church both Jewish and Christian. At first the State of neither would admit it when the Jewish Church arrived at a settled Estate it came in thereto by Gods appointment The Christian Church remained longer under Persecution and in an unsettled Condition and hence it comes to pass that as the Primitive Christians took up only the most simple way of Singing such as their Condition would admit so the advances to Art were more leisarely and came on by such gradations as Providence has given way and occasion for And therefore I said To the Bene esse and Flourishing State of the Church the Serm. p. 15. use of the Organ with respect to the suitableness of the Times and usefulness of the Thing does abundantly conduce The latter part of the Sentence the Answerer Ans. p. 41. leaves out and then he takes occasion most notably to descant upon his own Fancy I shall not speak of the Fathers Allegorical Expositions of Ps. 150. without the Literal meaning sometimes which the Answerer mentions in three Pages because their Sentiments and p. 20 21 22. Mistakes in this Matter are Discoursed in the Treatise following Clem. Alexandrinus particularly is observed somewhere to have spoken against Church Musick but he does it not in pursuance of the Principles of the Christian but of a Philosophical Religion then in Vogue somewhat like that of the Quietists or of our Philadelphians who are for a mental Religion abstracted from all that is external or sensible I come now to the next thing to be taken notice of which is The Antiquity of Instrumental Musick in the Christian Church To say when or by whom it was introduced therein at first is not certainly known and for that Reason it is thought to be the more Ancient and more Early received for it being generally used in Divine Worship by Jew and Gentile it passed insensibly into the Practice of Christians as many other innocent Customs in which they were bred up ordinarily did But to make it savour of Popery the Answerer likes those Authors who alledge it was introduced into the Christian Church by Pope Vitalian about the Year 656 or rather that it may not want the Mark of the Beast in the Revelations it was say the Magdeburg Centuriators A. C. 666. He is well pleased if it can be thought to be of Popish Extraction therefore he mentions it twice but yet confesses Some think that this sort of Musick was Ans. p. 17. and p. 32 not of so early an use in the Christian Church 'T is no great matter who is of this Opinion but there be Authors of good Credit who make it to be of a much ancienter use by several Centuries of Years The present Subdean of the Chappel Royal hath these Words We Dr. Battel in his Serm. of the Lawfulness and Expediency of Church musick p. 9. may and ought to look upon it as the necessity of the first Christians rather than their choice and that they had not wherewithal to be at the Charge of those Aids and Ornaments to their Religious Worship rather than that they witheld the Expence because they thought it unlawful or unbecoming their Assemblies For no sooner did the Church begin to Flourish but they grew into Use and Esteem And we read of St. Ambrose who lived about the latter end of the Fourth Century soon after Constantines Time that he A. C. 373. joined Instruments of Musick with the publick Service in the Cathedral Church of Millan where he was then Bishop which Example of his was so well approv'd of that by degrees it became the general Practice of other Churches thereabout and has since obtained in almost all the Christian World besides Others have referred this to another Cause namely that as Inspiration in singing Psalms which was doubtless an extraordinary Gift common to the primitive Christians began to cease Instruments and Skill were brought in its Room even as Learning and ordinary Means took place instead of those extraordinary Gifts The Bishop of Cork says St. Ambrose Chap. 2. p. 298. took up a more Artificial and Melodious way of Singing from the Easterlings And Dan. 3. 5. will inform us that the Eastern Practice had the Sound of the Cornet Flute Harp Sackbut Psaltery Dulcimer and all kinds of Musiick in the Worship of their Idol Gods In the time of St. Ambrose flourish'd St. Basil and St. Chrysostom who both mention the use of Instrumental Musick as Advantages to the Weak in Devotion regarding humane Infirmity And St. Augustine being a Contemporary of St. * Lib. Conf. 9. c. 6. Ambrose and who as some say joined with him in Composing the Te Deum which at this day is sung in ourChurches might in all probability be so much moved as he says he was with the melodious Hymns in the Church of St. Ambroses * 'T is said he Composed 37 or more And St. Hilary St. Gregory and St. Bernard did Compose many others for the Service of the Church Composing and Improvement Justin Martyr or whoever was the Author of the famous Questions and Answers Bound up with his Works Quoted by * De emend Temp. l. 7. p. 684. Scaliger and †Hist. Eccles l. 2. c. 7. H. Isid. Pelus l. 1. c. 90. Eusebius mentions the use of Instrumental Musick in the Church for the same Reason which St. Chrysostom and St. Basil did before which Book is Confessed by all to be very Antient and to be Writ some say in the Fourth Century the Bishop of Cork says in the beginning of the Third These Authorities must needs shew that Instrumental Musick was much earlier in the Churches Service than Pope Vitalianes Time and so could not be introduc'd by him However 't is not to be expected we should find this Religious use in the very Primitive Times But that can be no Objection against such an use of them now for Christianity was not got then to that Height and Grandeur as to admit of such an Ornament and we need not stand much upon the early Use of it since its sober use is of so great an Advantage in Christian Assemblies now the Art is brought to a greater Perfection than formerly And since some Men of great Estates are at a vast Charge to adorn their Houses and to have the helps of Musick for civil Purposes it is somewhat unreasonable they should
for raising the Soul towards God for quieting tumultuous Passions and begetting a sedate serious Temper fit to receive Divine Impressions as in the Case of Elisha â—â—n 3. 13. being Consulted by the wicked King Jehoram who being discomposed thereat and afterwards importuned by him and Jehoshaphat together he changed his Mind and for the composing it when disturbed with Passion said But now bring me a Minstrel and it came to pass 16. when the Minstrel plaid that the Hand of the Lord came upon him i. e. the Spirit of Prophecy or the inspired Principle of his Soul was stirred up in him Josephus says being Inspired at the Voice of the Musick He directs a miraculous Course for their Relief on which Words the Learned Munster thus speaks * Assertemihi Psalten qui Sc. Instrumenti Melodi i auferat perturbationem animi tumultuarios in me sedat Cogitationes quae Prophetiae non a imittunt Speritum Bring me a Musician who by the sweetness of his Instrument may remove this perturbation of Mind and appease these tumultuous Thoughts of mine which suffer not the Spirit of Prophecy to move in me This is directly contrary to what the Answerer has thought sit to deliver as his Opinion p. 59. where he flatly denys that Instrumental Musick in the alleged Case was made use of to stir up the Spirit of Prophecy in the Person mentioned At other times it generally served for the raising of mens Aflections in the Service of God for the quickening of Devotion and preparing their Minds for it as now it is used in the Christian Churches Protestant and Popish Foreign and Domestick 'T is much abused in the Popish Churches but regulated by the Reformation in the Protestant and if we will be but consistent with our selves the regulating this and other Abuses is the proper end of Reformation and not quite to abolish the use of it because it has been abused if so I wonder what we should retain Luther's Opinion was doubtless for Instrumental Musick but he did not expresly declare for it at that very juncture when he began to separate from the Church of Rome and wrote his Formula miss commun pro Ecclesia Wittenberg because he was not then clear what in such outward Decencies he would have settled But he then professes He never designed to abolish the whole Order of Worship then in use in the Roman Church but to Purge it from the vile Additions with which it was corrupted and to shew its Godly use 'T is very plain in that Treatise he never design'd to Condemn Church Musick and Organs but as they were abused by the Papists for he allows much more of Musick in the Communion Service than we do tho' not so much as the Papists use Aud whereas the Answerer says He is inclined to believe that he never approved Ans. p. 33. but disliked it The Reason of which is from his Quoting H. Eckard who was one of his Followers and Superintendent of the Church of Schwattzburg for saying * In his Fasciculus Controvers Theol. That Luther numbers Instrumental Musick amongst the Badges of Baal which looks as if he was no Friend to this sort of Musick But had he Quoted this Disciple of Luthers more fairly in this matter and not left out what follows I am inclined to believe he might have been of another Opinion For Luther having reckoned up a large Catalogue of Abuses in the Communion Service c. calls Churches and Altars and Fonts and Chalices and Organs c. The Ensigns of Baal but upon what account He does not call them simply so Sed si singularis aliquis Cultus illis affingatur But if there be any singular Worship ascribed to them this quite alters the Case and for the same Reason he may speak against Churches Altars Fonts c. as well as against Organs and so would any one should they be made Idols of and not as we say only Utensils for the more orderly comely and devout Worshiping of God To which I will add what Sethus Calvisius Quotes him for in Epist. ad Senselium Musicum Plané judico nec pudet asserere post Theologiam Bp. of Cork p. 434. esse nullam Artem quae possit Musicae aequari So for Calvin's inconsistency in this matter 'T is apparent that he sometimes speaks favourably for it when he says * Com. in 1 Cor. 14. He doubted not at all but the Christians from the very beginning Imitated the Jewish Custom in Singing Psalms Now that we know was with Instruments And in his Comment on Col. 3. he says * Psalmus est in quo Concinendo adhibetur Musicum aliquod Instrumentum praeter Linguam That it is the Nature of a Psalm that in the Singing thereof some Musical Instruments be joyned with the Voice At other times he speaks against it and reckons Instrumental Musick among the number of the legal Ceremonies introduc'd into the Christian Church through inconsiderate Zeal c. This certainly is an inconsistency with himself And from his Temper and Practice it may without contempt be truly Comment in Ps. 33. 2. said That he was a Man of an intemperate Heat and Passion however great he was as to his Learning and Zeal in carrying on the Work of the Reformation And notwithstanding his Opinion the primitive Christians in the main were of another and did not think Instrumental Musick peculiar to the Jewish Oeconomy and so might well be revived under Christianity Now the Followers of Luther and Calvin who in all probability may be supposed to understand their Master's meaning best have the general use of Instrumental Musick in their established Churches as in Germany Poland Swedeland Denmark Switzerland Holland and others of the Helvetick Confession as well as in England And tho' it cannot be supposed that every Parish Church in those Countries should be able to have so great an Advantage in the Worship of God yet their Approbation and Desire of it is sufficiently shewn by their union with the chief Towns and Cities where in their respective Countries their Abilities are great enough to procure it * View of the Government c. p. 39. Mr. Durel says The Reformed Hungarian and Transilvanian Churches have them and likewise Trumpets sounding at the Church-doors If they have not in those in Piedmont and France the Reason of it is This is flatly denyed by the Ans. p. 43. their unhappiness being suppressed and kept under by the Papal Power Than that it was not in Scotland is no more to be wondered at now than it was not in England in the long Rebellion none I suppose will take a President from them in Devotion who have now a third time since the Reformation cast of almost all Decencies in Divine Worship and for about ten Years last past have changed their Glory from being an uniform Christian Church according to the Primitive and Apostolical Pattern into
the Novelty of a National Conventicle They have not 't is true like the * Ans. p. 37. French Nimrod Dragooned the Episcopal established Church into a Non-conformity but they have done almost as bad See Ravil Redivivus Letters from the Borders But that new Establishment may not be design'd to stand long being Built upon a bad Foundation And I have been credibly Informed tho' the Cameronian Party have carried the Day and got Presbytery to be for the present in the Nature of an Establishment yet throughout the whole Kingdom there is not one in Five approves of it or one in Three is a Presbyterian and among the civiliz'd Parts of it not one in Ten and of Persons of the best Quality and Education not one in Thirteen I shall conclude this Digression in the Words of * See the Judgment of the Foreign Reformed c. in a Letter to a Member of the House of Diodate to the Assembly of Divines at Westminster when they had done the same thing in England and desired his Opinion of it What a sad Spectacle is it to see that Church troden under Foot An horrid Commons ' p. 46. thing ye have done and never before heard of amongst the Reformed Churches We are struck with Horrour at the change of the glorious Face of that Church May God restore it to its high Estate and pitch of Holiness and Glory again And give true Repentance to the Abettors and Promoters of that Change which is so Monstrously for the worse that they may in time make what Satisfaction and Restitution they can tho' not fully yet to the utmost of their Power for the manifold Injuries they have done And tho' I must confess I am not of Age enough to remember the Transactions of those Times in England which the Answerer says go to the Tune of p. 45. Forty one yet I utterly deny any Falsity in the Paragraph of the Sermon p. 16. Relating the Miseries of them some of which I have felt My much Honoured * The Reveverend Mr. Richard Newte Rector of Tiverton Father being forced to remove his Family seven times because of that unnatural War his Sequestrators threatening to throw his Children out into the High-way But being all now gone to their proper Place without making a suitable Repentance or offering a Satisfaction I shall leave them to Judgment without mentioning their infamous Names And to return I know not what Reason the Answerer has for saying That Ans. p. 43. all the Reformed Churches in Germany Worship God without Organs Many of them 't is true are so suppressed and kept under that they can no more have the benefit of them than they can of the Hierarchy nor than the French Protestants could of both before they were unmercifully Banished out of the Kingdom But these are in the Churches at Hamburg Munster * Durel's View c. p. 38. 39. Hessen Cassel Dort Heidelberg and several other great Places where Peoples Abilities and their Governours will give them leave So likewise they are in Helvetia as at Bazil Bern c. But that they should be any where in the Greek Churches is much since they are generally very Poor for which Reason in the Eastern Asiatick they cannot be expected because they are much Poorer I will not here omit what my * Bp. of Cork Author speaks of Zanchy particularly because he is Quoted by the Answerer Ans. p. 56. against this sort of Church-Musick and Diodate two Followers of Calvin The former says * On Col. 3. 16. Multiplex Magnus est usus hujus Musicae c. Manifold and great is the use of this Musick 1st That the Glory of God may thereby be made more Illustrious and August 2dly The mind of Man is after a marvelous sort affected therewith 3dly Our Heart being by this Musick made the more Chearful the Grace of God dwelling in us is stirred up The same is the Judgment of Diodate and many of the later Calvinists who tho' it was the Fate of some of them to be necessitated to be without Organs in their Churches have declared their Desire of them And from this Consent of their Doctors undoubtedly it is that Organs are at this Day in use in most Places of the Belgick Churches and long Time have been is as evident by the Decrees of their Synods forbidding this use of them upon Political and Common occasions out of Divine Worship and Commanding they should sound nothing but Psalms and the Praises of God And not only they but several of the Pastors of the Reformed French Churches who live in Places where they can conveniently have Organs have also introduc'd them as the worthy * Vind. Eccles Angl. c. 27 Dr. Durel testifies touching the Reverend Rochfort Pastor of the French Church at Rotterdam and others And now with what Confidence can the Answerer say that the Hungarian Ans. p. 43. Transilvanian Helvetian and all the Reformed Churches in Germany are those that do Worship God without the use of Organs When the direct contrary is as notoriously evident as any thing can be So true it is that all Serm. p. 16. the best established Churches in the whole Christian World do concur with us herein who are of Ability to make so great Provision for the better carrying on the Worship of God in the Assemblies of his People That except our Dissenting Congregations and their Brethren in Scotland there is scarce any where any considerable Number of Christians Dissent from us so as not to approve of Instrumental Musick in their Devotion tho' many be so unhappy as not to have it But now our Adversaries being pressed with this plain matter of Fact cannot with any Colour of Truth deny the frequent use of them in the Churches under the Helvetick as well as others of the Auspurg Confession which Calvin Signed as well as Luther tho' they would make the Distance between them to be ir-reconcilably great they would seek to evade the chief Design and use of them by saying That altho' Ans. p. 37. the Dutch have Organs in their Churches 〈◊〉 they pretend not as the Author of the Sermon does that they are to exalt their Devotion and the more to excite their Affections but they use them to regulate the Voices of the People and to direct them in the Tune of the Psalm they are to Sing In Answer to which three things will evidence the quite contrary to be true 1st Ex Confesso he grants in Ans. p. 5◠the Case of Elisha That this sort of Musick was enjoyned then for the quickening of Devotion And again Instrumental Musick was Commanded by God then and Blessed for the exciting of Mens Affections in his Service now if so 't is very absurd to turn off the stress of the Argument upon the Divine Command as he does there whereas 't is as clear as the Sun that the quickening of Mens
Devotions was by the means and therefore the Design of Instrumental Musick and not by the Divine Command which enjoyns it 2dly The Nature of the thing is always the same if it had that Efficacy under the Law to quicken and excite Mens Affections in Devotion as 't is certain it had and for that Reason was enjoyned by the Divine Command it has not altered its Nature since And tho' it be granted there is no express Command for it now while there is none against it and the Reason and use of the thing still continuing it may very well be allow'd and approv'd of as serviceable for the same end But 3dly Matter of Fact is directly against this Allegation of the Answerer For to shew that the Design of the Organ in the Dutch Churches is to raise Mens minds and to quicken their Affections for Devotion and not solely to regulate the Voices of the People and to direct them in the Tune of the Psalm It is notoriously evident as I have an Account from some who have Lived and Conversed among the Dutch and their Neighbours for several Years and found it to be their Practice For the Organs to Play their Voluntaries for an Hour commonly before the Service begins and while the Congregation is filling and then afterwards when the Organ stops the People Sing a Psalm and the Organ does not Play all that while to regulate their Voices but did before to raise their Affections and to chear their Minds for Devotion This is done particularly at the Hague at Amsterdam Dr. Durel nforms us p. 38. at Hambourg c. At Hassen they have a peculiar kind of alternation in Singing their Psalms The Precentor or Master of the Musick with his Scholars who are like our Singing-Boys and Choristers Sing out the first Verse with all the People then the Organs Play the second The Musicians and People sing the Third Verse as the First the Organs Play the Fourth as the Second Some such way they have at Bremen Cassel c. In many of the Dutch Churches for the Reasons aforesaid is the Musick upon their Bells where they have Forty or Fifty in a Steeple upon which they play some taking ravishing Tunes for an Hour or more together before the Church Service begins not so much for the calling the People together to their Devotion because they are to be heard but a little way being small and well tuned for variety of Parts to play several Lessons upon according to the occasions of the Solemnity and the Seasons of the Year but the better to fit them for their Devotion and to strike a reverential awe upon them when they come to Church to raise the Passions of Joy or Grief to enliven their minds when dull and heavy and to compose them when vain and roving c. Next he says It deserves Consideration That Organs were introduced into the Dutch Churches by some Magistrates against the consent of the Ministers If so they shewed a better regard to the welfare of the Churches than the Ministers did and deserve Commendation for it But doubtless the Dutch Ministers would never have Communicated with the Dutch Magistrates in their Churches where Instrumental Musick was generally used if they had thought the use of it unlawful in the Christian Church neither can we well suppose their Ecclesiastical Synods would ever have suffered it to continue so long as it has done had they had any interest among their Magistrates or any Authority left in their own Churches if they had not thought it Expedient also and useful as well as Lawful in Holy offices whatever is pretended by our Adversary to the contrary to favour his dislike of the Dutch Magistrates for their Adhering to so advantageous a practice as he Saith against the consent of the Ministers I need not now as the Answer would Ans. p. 39. lead me prove the Discipline of the Church of England exceeds that of the French Protestants Churches the Dutch Scot 's c. than I need prove the Sun shines at Noon day And then touching the holiness of its Members in Life and Conversation He seems very partial by insinuating as if the vast number of Debauched Profane and Atheistical Sots were of that Communion and not among the Dissenters Truly these are a great Scandal to any Party whatsoever who profess so holy a Religion as the Christian And I believe all Parties among us need a great Reformation on that account and have too little cause to upbraid each other But yet I knew a very noted old Non-conformist Preacher in the West who having sufficiently experienced the Practices of his own Party for along time did some short time before his Death advise his Children rather to trust a Church of England Man in Dealing than a Dissenter from it The preceding Discourse I suppose sufficiently Vindicates the Sermon from the Exceptions of the Anonymous Letter written against it I have answered the main Objections in the Argumentative part and rectified several Misrepresentations and partial Quotations which are found therein Should I have followed the Answerer in all his Excursions and needless Repetitions I should have drawn this Reply to a much greater length I fear it is too long already The Arguments and Authorities I have brought together do I hope abundantly justifie the Lawfulness of Instrumental Musick in divine Offices to all unprejudiced Readers and for others 't is in vain to go about to perswade And if my Adversary cannot close with As he says Ans. p. 43. the judgment of his beloved Mr. Baxter in this Matter who offers the same Arguments I do but with more Strength he says p. 12. But why with more Strength Had he spoken these things it might have been perhaps with a greater Tone but surely the reason is the same when fairly quoted and at large in the very same Words I cannot suppose he will close with the Judgment of such great Worthies of our Church as the Judicious Mr. Hooker Dr. Hammond Bishop Stillingfleet Bishop Wetenhall Dr. Comber c. quoted by the Author whose Authorities and Opinions he thought not fit to take any notice of But by some means or other the Separation must be kept up and besure there will never be wanting pretences enough for that purpose To which I shall subjoin what Dr. Comber The forth following vâ—rses of that Psal. are directed to the Gentiles to all People in says in his Comment on Psalm 98. Since the Glory of God is manifested to all Lands they ought all to joyn in Praising his holy Name nnd that by all due means which the Christian Church may express an hearty Joy particularly by all sorts of Musick by stringed Instruments and Voices and by Wind Instruments also for Musick is the Gift of God and tends not only to express but to beget the Affection of Joy it doth compose the Thoughts calm the Mind and put the Soul into a posture of
to make a goodly outward Shew c. which it rightly accounts a Mocking and Blaspheming of Gods holy Ordinance It comes at length to blame those who refused to frequent the Parish-Churches because they were scoured of such Gay gazing Sights as their gross Fantasie was delighted with because they see the false Religion abandoned and the true restored This it does under the Representation of a Woman thus Discoursing her Neighbour on that occasion Alas Gossip what shall we now do at Church since all the Saints are taken away since all the goodly Sights we were wont to have are gone since we cannot hear the like Piping Singing Chaunting and Playing upon the Organs that we could before To which the Reply is But dearly beloved we ought greatly to Rejoyce and give God thanks that our Churches are delivered out of all those things which displeased God so sore and filthily defiled his holy House and his Place of Prayer Where observe the Complaint of the Person who refused to come to the Parish-Church was not among other things that there simply was no Playing upon the Organs there as the Answerer Ans. p. 82. would insinuate but expresly that there was not the Like Playing upon the Organs The Words are Sence we cannot hear the like Piping Singing Chanting and Playing upon the Organs that we could before Where the Word Like being Craftily left out the Sense and Meaning of the Homily is quite inverted For the Like use of Singing and Playing upon the Organs most apparently refers to the superstitious Use and abominable Abuse of these things which by the Reformation was clearly taken away but the Discreet and Sober use of these in God's Service was never absolutely Abolished or ever accounted justly so to be neither was it ever the Opinion of the Church of England in the Days of Queen Elizabeth or since That Organs in Churches are displeasing to God and filthily defiling his House as 't is untruly mentioned by the Answerer in two Places For 1st In the Days of Queen Elizabeth when these Homilies were Composed Ans. p. 82. 83. and ordered to be read in Churches it is to be Noted that the use of the Organ was allowed and approved of every where and was in most Parish Churches in England not only in the greater Towns but in abundance of lesser ones in some very small Parish-Churches where either pious Benefactors or Peoples Abilities did reach to Maintain them and this continued so throughout her long and happy Reign and afterwards in the Reigns of King James I. and King Charles I. which Practice is so manifest that it cannot be denyed with any degree of Truth which certainly no body could suppose would have been if it were the meaning of the Homily to Condemn them and to account them as Displeasing to God and filthily defiling his House II. It is also to be considered That if we allow this Reasoning of the Answerer from the Homily against the use of Organs by the same we must argue against Singing too for that is expresly mentioned with it Since we cannot hear the like Piping Singing Chaunting and Playing upon the Organs that we could before Where the superstitious and corrupt Use of either Singing or Playing upon the Organs is only adjudged by the Church to be taken away and not the use of either or both of them to be Abolished And indeed I think not only from thence but well nigh as much may be Objected on other accounts against Vocal as against Instrumental-Musick in the Church since both are equally capable of Abuse But yet both of them may be of excellent use if Grave Discreet and Regular and of singular advantage for the promoting the Praise of God and the Edification of his People when skilfully joyned together And then III. The Opinion of the Church of England is the same as to this matter with what I have said above as will appear by consulting the subsequent Words of the Homily which are these This ought we greatly to Praise God for That such Superstitious and Idolatrous manners as were utterly nought and defaced God's Glory are utterly Abolished as they most justly deserved And yet those things that either God was Honoured with or his People Edified are decently retained and in our Churches comely Practised Among which things our Church does reckon the use of the Organ wherewith God is honoured and his People edified and for those Reasons was it decently retained and in our Churches comely Practised both at the Reformation and in Queen Elizabeths time when it Flourished as much as ever and ever since when it did 'T is very strange now that the Church Practice which is so clear in this matter should be so strangely misconstrued and misrepresented as if it spake against the same thing which it so decently retains and allows and finds so great Benefit by But to shew farther That it cannot be the profest Judgment of our Church to Condemn the use of Organs in it as the Answerer positively avers it is from the Homily altho the obsolete expression of its being delivered from Superstition and abuse in the Place of Prayer seems repugnant to its constant Practice Take this short Story The Lord Chief Justice Cook was made a Sheriff by King James 1st with a design of Displeasure and upon account of his being of the Republican Party He to excuse himself insisted on a particular of the Sheriff's Oath not then repealed and perhaps not yet whereby he was obliged to Prosecute the Lollards for Heresy Will the Adversary therefore conclude that he was obliged to Prosecute the Protestants under a Protestant Govenment and after so many Laws made in favour of Protestancy only because this particular had escaped their observation and was not actually repealed Could he think his not Prosecuting the Protestants prevaricating with the design of the Legislators who had signified their sense by so many more and clearer Laws than were to the contrary or could he think that the sense of the Legislators of the past Age were to over-rule the sense of the Legislators of the present Age in a case of Contradiction His 2d Objection is That if the Obj. II. Praising of God with Organs be thus Lawful in the Worship of God then will it for the same Reason be Lawful to introduce other Musical Instruments in the Worship of God as Harps Trumpets c. The consequence of which is very true and at present in some Organs there are such Stops as represent Drums Trumpets and divers other sorts of Musick And where is the Fault that so useful an Art is now much improved beyond what it has been * In his View of the Government public worship of God c. p. 39. Dr. Durel informs us That at Hessen they Sing Anthems not only with Organs but with loud Instruments and Violins too At Bern they have Cornets and Sacbuts which Play in the Churches when they Sing the
oblig'd to Communicate with the Apostles must also have Communicated with the Sacrifices and other Solemnities of the Temple in order to the obtaining those Mystical Benefits of which the Jews were made partakers by those Solemnities among others by their Hymns seconded with Musick not only Vocal but Instrumental How so if that Instrumental Musick had been unlawful even to the Gentiles A Doctrine in it self so incredible III. The Apostles reasoned from the Law to the Gospel otherwise than our Adversaries do now ought in Reason to have very evident Proof before it be receiv'd And what Proof can our Adversaries pretend to that can be thought so evident Have they any express Testimonies of the N. T. that Musical Instruments in the Service of God are unlawful sufficient to countervail that notoriety of Fact avowedly practic'd to the contrary If this cannot be pretended have they at least any evident Prohibition of it that might make it unlawful for the future when this dependence of the Christian Church on the Jewish Establishment was to expire I know no Evidence of either kind that themselves pretend to Well then will they pretend to any evident Proof of any other Proposition from whence this must necessarily follow They tell us indeed that all the Jewish Law that was not Moral or Judicial was in course not only to cease to be obliging but also to begin to be unlawful from the Promulgation of the Gospel But what Proof can they produce for this Proposition so crudely and so generally express'd No plain Testimony of the N. T. that I know of Can they therefore say that it is at least supposed in the Reasonings of the N. T Where do they find that the Apostles argue that any thing was to be antiquated under the New Testament for no other Reason but because it was prescribed under the Old So far from that that we have many Examples of the Apostles and Apostolical Writers Reasoning from the Old Testament to the New The Adversaries of Tythes pretend that Tythes are not to be paid to the Ministers of the Gospel now because they were imposed as a Duty to the Levitical Priesthood St. Paul argues directly contrary that 1 Cor. ix 13. 14. because the Levitical Priests lived by the Altar then therefore they who Preach the Gospel now should also live by the Gospel He reasons the same way when 1 Cor. ix 9. 10. 1 Tim. v. 17. 18. he proves that because the Law required that the Ox's Mouth should not be muzled when he trod out their Corn that was the ancientest way of Threshing in imitation as it should seem of their Treading out their Vintage therefore the Clergy shoul partake of the Contributions of the Church which themselves laid out for the use of the Poor who were maintained by those Contributions So he allows the Reasoning against Christians Marrying Persons of another Communion from the Jews Obligation not to Marry Persons of another Nation in order to their Propogating a holy Seed So he also Reasons himself that as the Jews 1 Cor. vii 14. did allow that the holiness of one Parent was sufficient to entitle their common Off-spring to the Foederal holiness of Circumcision so the holiness of one Parent by the Rules of Christianity was also sufficient to entitle the Children of such Marriages to the Foederal holiness of Christianity by Baptism This he supposes when he thence infers that the Believer was under no Obligation of breaking such a Matrimonial Contract on account of that Objection insisted on for doing so that is of the holiness of the Seed with which such Marriages were conceived inconsistent For himself had Circumcis'd Acts xvi 1. St. Timothy on account of his Mother who was a Jewess tho' his Father was a Heathen No doubt on account of the receiv'd allow'd practice of the Jews whom he design'd to gratify by doing so On the same Topick his Fellow-labourer Clem. Rom. ep ad Corin. St. Clement concludes the Sacredness of the Gospel Ministry from all the ways God had used for asserting the inviolable Sanctity of the Levitical Priesthood against Laical encroachments How contrary is this whole way of Reasoning to that used by our Adversaries on many others as well as this Occasion And yet it was indeed no other than IV. And indeed were to be presumed most likely to do so considering their Education what was to be expected in their Circumstances considering the History of those Times Our Adversaries may be pleased to remember that when those Scriptures were Written on which they ground their contrary way of Reasoning the whole Church was Govern'd by the Apostles whose place of Residence as of a Body was at Jerusalem They may remember farther that the Apostles themselves as Jews were possess'd with the same prejudices of Education as the rest of their Nation in favour of their present Establishment and against unnecessary Innovations St. Paul had Persecuted the Church on account of his Zeal And St. Simeon for the same Reason had got the Sirname of Zealot And St. Peter's concern for the Law he had been bred in appeared on all occasions His Hunger could not make him eat what his Education had oblig'd him to believe common and unclean And he avoided eating with the Gentiles that he might avoid offence of the Jews which came from Jerusalem It also thence appear'd how cautious the Apostles themselves were oblig'd to be in admitting Innovations if they would maintain the good Opinion they were possess'd of with their own Charge of Jerusalem who were also as St. James assures us Zealous of the Law We have therefore reason to believe that they would not admit of any Revelation that was not very clear against the then received Opinions Whatever their own private Opinions might have been yet we have reason to believe that they would not have ventured to publish and practice Opinions in favour of Innovation without such Evidence as as might satisfie others as well as themselves if they would preserve the good Opinion of the Zealots mentioned by St. James and keep them with their Zeal from Apostatizing from the Christian Religion notwithstanding Innovations so contrary to the Opinions they had been bred in But where can our Adversaries find any Testimony so express in the Writings of the N. T. that all the Ritual and Ceremonial Precepts of the Law were to be abrogated upon the promulgation of the Gospel that even the Jews by extraction should be discharg'd from the Obligation under which they had been formerly of observing them Whence can they prove that thenceforward it must have been unlawful by the Law of Christianity for them to observe them tho' with no regard to the former divine Legislation which had impos'd those ceremonial Precepts on the whole Peculium but on account of the humane Authority whereby particular Churches may provide for their Bodies without imposing on other Churches of equal Authority with themselves
Considerations to make amends for it and to recommend it However the genuine Ignatius in his uninterpolated Epistles reasons from allusions to holy Dances and Instrumental Musick This 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 shews that whether they practic'd them or not yet the Christians of that Age at least did not Condemn them And there is reason to believe they did not The Pythagoreans greatly approv'd them as we know the Jewish Essenes were great admirers of the Pythagoreans who derived many of their own Customs to the whole Body of the Christians Such were their Praying to the East their great aversness even to lawful Oaths their Reconciliations before Sunset their use of Milk and Honey as a Symbol of the new Plutarch 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Birth These things we find the Church possess'd of in very antient Monuments without any Account of their first Original And the first and last are not so accountable from any other Original as this of their being brought among the Christians by the universal Conversion of the Essenes So the Author of the Book of Judith makes the Jews expressing Jud. xv their Joy for the defeat of Holosernes's Army by Dances with Musick also Instrumental This appears partly from 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. Ep. ad Ephes N. 4. the Greek partly from the Latin which in those Apocryhal Books are strangly different This shews at least the Sense of the Jews in that Age wherein that Book first appeared That could not be later than the Apostles time because Clements mention Judith in his Epistle to the Corinthians And indeed within fresh Memory of Ignatius the Apostolical Church which was the Head of all other Churches had notoriously approv'd and communicated with Instrumental Musick at least in the Worship of the Temple It is not also improbale but that the Apostles continued it in the Head Church whether in Pella or in the Ruins of Jerusalem after the Dissolution of the Worship of the Temple That mention of Harpers with it in the Vision of the Revelations has nothing joyn'd with it Characteristick of the Jewish Worship before the Dissolution And therefore may represent the Fact truly as it was in this Interval between the Destruction of the Temple and the new troubles which befell the Christians in the latter end of Domitian but especially under Trajan This is a time wherein we have no Monuments that can inform us any thing to the contrary And within this time it must have been that St. John saw that Vision in his Exile at Patmos The eldest Testimony produc'd by our Adversary from Clemens Alexandrinus is considerably later than Ignatius when the memory of the Traditions of the Apostolical Church of Jerusalem was now much forgotten by the many Disturbances which followed on the Ruin of the Temple It is not improbable that the Instrmental Musick was the Prerogative of that Supreme Church as it seems also to have been of the Temple Worship of the Jews in Jerusalem The Musick usually accompained the Sacrifices which by the Jewish Law were to be Offer'd only at Jerusalem we never find it mention'd in the Synagogue-Worship And this may give a probable Account why it was not receiv'd in other Christian Churches besides that of Jerusalem They were form'd in imitation of the Jewish-Synagogues at first with the same dependance in many regards on the Church of Jerusalem that the Synagogues had on the Temple And when after the Decease of all the Apostles the other Churches succeeded into the full Rights of the Head Church of Jerusalem the disorders of the times had so long discontinu'd that Custom even in the Head Church that tho' Ignatius might yet it might be very possible that Clemens Alexandrinus might not remember it No not even with the Assistance of those old Witnesses of Apostolical Tradition from whom Clemens receiv'd his Informations of the Apostolical Affairs as he Strom. 1. himself tells us But 't is not likely that any of those Witnesses could be near so old as Ignatius But the Musick describ'd in the Revelations is such as might likely be practtis'd by the Apostles in the Ruins of Jerusalem after the Dispersion of the Jews and the Abolition of the Temple-Sacrfices HOWEVER our Adversary conceives XX. The Jewish Circumcision contrary to the Design of the Gospel The Gentile nothing to our Adversaries purpose The Case of neither of them like that of Instrumental Musick that Circumcision and the old bloody Sacrifices might be restor'd by the same Consequence that Instrumental Musick were if any Church should think fit to do so He might well think so whilst he believ'd that the only Reason which made Circumcision and those Sacrisices unlawful now was their having been observ'd formerly But I have shewn how contrary that way of Reasoning is to the way of Reasoning us'd by the Writers of the N. T. and have thereby prov'd a necessity of settling an Hypothesis by which we may be able to distinguish what is Abolished from what is not so And the Hypothesis now given affords a Rule sufficient to shew why Instrumental Musick may still be Lawful tho' neither Circumcision nor bloody Sacrifices were so That is because Instrumental Musick is no way repugnantto the Constitution of the new Peculium which is not true of the Jewish Circumcision nor the Jewish Sacrifices For no uncircumcis'd Person could partake of the Jewish Sacrifices and he that was Circumcised was thereby Incorporated into the Jewish Nation Whilst these two things were insisted on it was impossible for a Gentile not Incorporated into the Jewish Nation to be admitted to the Benefits of the new Peculium which was directly contrary to the new Revelations of the Gospel But our Author urges the Circumcision of other Nations as if their Agreement in it would have gone as far to have recommended it for a Law of Nations as their Consent in Instrumental Musick But he did not remember that no other Nation that used Circumcision did pretend to use it as the Jews as a Ceremony of Admission into the peculiar People of God which is the only Consideration that made it inconsistent with the Constitution of the Gospel Several of them seem'd to have us'd it not as an Initiation to their Nation but to their Sacerdotal Dignity to qualifie Men for being admitted to the Secrets of their Religion So it seems to have been in the Cases of Pythagoras and Apion who were Circumcised among the AEgyptians And therefore also among other Nations who deriv'd their Circumcision from the AEgyptians as particularly the Colchians are said to have done by Scsostris And perhaps this may be the Reason why the old Peculium is call'd a Royal Priesthood as well as a Holy Nation because the right of Admitting into that Nation was equal to that which among other Nations was thought sufficient to confer that higher Degree of Sanctity which all Nations ascrib'd to their Priests above the ordinary Holiness thought requisite
Holiness Eph. iv 24. The Tabernacle of the Gospel which none can doubt to be Heaven it self the true Tabernacle Heb. viii 2. For the Archetypal Ideae were supposed only to have Truth in them according to the Platonists So Grace and Truth which came by Christ. is opposed to the Law given by Moses St. John i. 17. And being stedfast to the Gospel Commuion in opposition to the Communion of the Hereticks is said to be the abiding in the Truth All these Forms of Speech understood according to the Custom of that Age do plainly suppose that all the Heavenly Archetypes of the Law were Evangelical and uncapable of any revocation that shouldymake them unlawful under the Gospel and that all the positive Institutions of the Gospel were reckon'd on as Heavenly and therefore Harpers being mentioned in the Heavenly Jerusalem must needs be supposed to have place among those antient Customs that were not to be abrogated It is certain that Instrumental Musick could be it self no Shadow according to the Doctrine of the Gospel seeing the Evangelical Writers reckon it among the Heavenly Archetypes which were the Truth and the Body that answered those Shadows Nor is it any more difficult to prove Harps in Heaven which the Adversary insultingly requires than to prove a Circumcision there not made with Hands than it is to prove a Manna and a Bread there that is the Food of Angels This sure is an easier Account of that Idiome in the Style of the new Testament which my late excellent Friend Dr. More called Israelitismus than that insisted on by our Adversary He might have been pleased to remember two Israelitisms there mentioned the Mystical which by the Christians of that Age was believed to be perfectly the same with their own Constitution as consisting of a Body of Gentiles ingrafted upon the Apostles who were themselves Jews by Extraction and the Literal which was in some things contrary to the new Revelations of the Gospel and so far as it was so abrogated by them And it is certainly much more rational to Interpret them by the Israelitism they professed rather than by that which they opposed This was no other than the Native Language that was in course to be expected in their Circumstances But the Event of this way of Interpretation will be quite contrary to what the interest of our Adversaries Cause will require It will argue that the Israelitish Customs so alluded to were still receiv'd by the converted Christians and that they could be no part of those old Isarelitish Customs which were antiquated on account of their inconsistency with the Gospel This therefore will confirm what I said before that the Apostles still continued this Instrumental Musick in their capital residence at least whilst the quietness of their Circumstances in those troublesome times would allow them to do so BUT there are Odours also 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 joiined XXVIII Incense might have been us'd by the Aposties after the destruction of the Temple with the Harpers Rev. v. 8. and the viii 3. 4. joined with the publick Prayers exactly as among the Jews This the Adversary makes an argument of that it must have been the old antiquated Judaism that was here alluded to not that which was approv'd by the Christans I suppose he may think himself the more secure here because even our Churches do not practice what here seems to have been practis'd by the Apostles But he might have remembred that there were also several other undoubted Apostolical Practices which have been since discontinued generally at least in the Reformation Such were those of the Ecclesiastical Deaconesses the Kiss of Charity and the Feasts of Love He I confess cannot account for this who makes all things either Sins or Duties thatare taken from Precedents of that Age and allows no mean between those two Extremes We can easily do so who believe that the Apostles themselves as well as other Ecclesiastical Governours took some things into the use of the Church from the civil Usages of their Age which as they were prudent then when they were in Civil use so they may as prudently be disused now when they have been so long antiquated as to their Civil use and the particular Exigencies of those times are now ceased which were the principal Considerations that then recommended them But I see no reason why our Adversaries should believe that the use of Incense was not continued even after the Destruction of the Temple in the principal residence of the Apostles It is to this Day practised by a far greater consent of the ancientest Churches Greek as well as Latin nor can we find any Original of it that can prove it later than the times of the Apostles themselves It appears in the first and ancientest Liturgies of both Tongues It is mention'd in those Canons which are therefore called Apostolical because they who first gathered them into a Body knew no Original of their Practice short Can. ap 2. gr of the Apostolical times It is St. Jerome's rule that the Immemorial Customs of each Church should be presum'd to have been Apostolical This Rule was probably followed by this Author Thus therefore there is reason to presume that this Custom might have descended from the Apostles themselves We have indeed an express mention of it in an Author considerably antienter than the Collect of these Canons that is of the ancient Hippolytus the Disciple of St. Irenaeus and a witness of Apostolical Traditions So he 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Ora. de consum Mund. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Tertullian is the eldest Latin Christian Writer extant and he also mentions the cost the Christians were at in buying Frankincense Tert. Apol. c. 42. Thura plane non emimus Those are the Words of the Objectors not of Tertullian His own Answer follows Si Arabiae queruntur Scient Sabaei pluris carioris suas Merces Christianis Sepeliendis profligari quam Dijs fumigandis He mentions inded no other use of it but in Burials He elsewhere excludes it from Sacrifices where he tells us That the Oblation offered by the Chrstians was not Grana Thuris unius assis non Arabicae arboris Lachrymae c. c. 30. unless possibly he might intend some Emphasis in the Words unius assis as a reproof of their Niggardliness in it as Alexander the great is said to have reproved his Tutor Aristotle for his having obstructed his native Magnificence after his Conquering Arabia This might have been opposed to the greater Expensiveness of the Christians on Franckincense mentioned in the former Place But I am rather apt to think that the Case of the African Churches might be somewhat singular Tertullian mentions their being at first Converted by the Church of Rome Praesc c. 36. And as it should seem at a distance from the Apostles ib. c. 32. After the Church of Rome had taken a liberty of Innovating from the Practice of the Ephesian College of
them weak and beggariy when separated from the Gospel Institutions which were alone supposed able to confer the mystical Benefits Convenanted for as well as represented by those legal Symbols This made them beggerly when they kept them off from the Evangelical Archetypal Symbols which were thence forwards appointed by God as the only ordinary conveyancers of that riches of Grace which the separating Jews in vain expected from their own Symbols This was the true dispute of great Importance in that Age in which the Arguments now mentioned were insisted on with great Prudence and Strength The Error confuted was the depending on Circumcision for the Incorporation into the true Peculium which could no longer be expected without our Christian Baptism And the depending on the Temple Sacrifices for all the Benefits of the Heavenly mystical Sacrifice which were thenceforward to be expected from our Christian Eucharist The contenting themselves with the literal Circumcision in the Flesh for their intitling themselves to the name of the Seed of Abraham and the Promises made to them that were so without the Faith of Abraham in the Messiah which he had when those Promises were made to him before his carnal Circumcision as the Apostle observes Rom. iv 9 10 11 12. These and the like were the Weak and beggarly Elements spoken of by St. Paul when depended on for the Benefits which they were not able to perform and that in separation from those means by which alone they could be performed by the new Revelations of the Gospel And this Reasoning was very proper to oblige all Jews to come into the Christian Communion and to continue in it if they desired the mystical Benefits conferred formerly in the Jewish Communion alone before the Gospel Revelations had altered the Case but not afterwards But then these Reasonings conclude nothing against the very same abrogated Symbols if practiced in unity with the uncircumcis'd Believers much less if the same things had been observ'd by the Ecclesiastical Power of the Church without regard to the old Imposition of Moses For the latter could oblige all its own Subjects which the former could not do being only obligatory to the Jewish Nation Here therefore there was no Enmity no Wall of Partition which might any way tend to the dissolution of their common Body and Communion Withal it is plain that this Reasoning extends to no other Jewish Customs but those only who were thought to entitle to some mystical Benefits represented and conveyed by them till God had declared it otherwise by his new Revelations And therefore it is to no purpose in reference to this design to find a thing represented by the Jewish Symbol unless it be a mystical Benefit to which it was to entitle from God as a Covenanting Symbol Instituted by him In vain therefore does our Adversary pretend that Instrumental Musick shadowed our Worship with the Organs of our Bodies Had that been true yet it had been nothing to the purpose in relation to the design of these reasonings That had been a Duty not a Benefit which is plainly supposed as pretended to in all the Instances of these Reasonings It was their losing the Substance conveyed by the shadow on which all the force of the Argument depends that is drawn from the Appellation of shadows The Weakness of the Elements or Rudiments of the Mosaick Law as argumentative in this Case implies their insufficiency to convey the Benefits as their Beggarliness implys their Inability to confer the Mystical Riches that were expected from them If therefore our Adversary will make Instrumental Musick a Shadow or a Rudiment he should bethink himself of some Mystical Benefit represented and conveyed by it under the Law but now conveyed by some other Institution succeeding it under the Gospel For this is absolutely requisite to make it now an empty Shadow and a weak and beggarly Element And what may that be Is it the admitting us to the Joys of the Heavenly Society represented by Instrumental Musick And why may not the like use of Instrumental Musick entitle us to that now as well as represent it I have shewn that the Gospel Symbols are supposed as best qualified to give us a title to any thing Heavenly by the Reasonings of the New Testament I have shewn that by the same Reasonings the same Title is denied to the legal Symbols in a Statee of Separation from the Communion of the Church I have shewn that the contrary is supposed by the same Reasonings concerning the Symbols of the Church that they and they alone are supposed sufficient to perform what is represented and Symbolically Covenanted for by them The weakness and beggarliness of what would otherwise have been useful do more concern our Adversaries than Us who practice even their Vocal Musick as the Jews did in a Seperation from the truly Original Apostolical Communion The good God open their Eyes and make them truly sensible of it Thus I think I have obviated all that has been said or can be said from our Adversaries Principles with relation to my own principal Argument And I have not leisure to follow him in things less necessary to my own design FINIS