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

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well it may please the Offerer I shall not enquire but that it will Grace the Service I do not believe unless by Gracing the Service he intends that it will give it a greater external Pomp and Splendour And if that be his meaning the Papists will tell him that the Service in the Church of Rome is much more Graceful than that which is to be found in this Authors Church Alas Sir Simplicity is the Glory of the Christian Worship and the more there is of Pomp and Ceremony added to it the less Beautiful and Graceful is it found A Worship dressed up al a Mode de Romain with Ribbons and Gaudy Topknots will not be Graceful in Gods account how much soever some Superstitious Fops may Admire and Applaud it But is the Worship of God any thing the better for a few Gaudy Additions of Men Will such Fancies render it the more acceptable to God or the more Advantageous to the Worshippers To conclude either of these would be an Argument of Superstition But it will Please the Offerer he pretends The Musick may please his Ear or delight his Fancy But I suppose what may gratifie the Sence and please the Fancy must not presently be admitted to have a room in Divine Worship For if so Hundreds of Fopperies might he brought into Christian Assemblies and be mixed with the Service there He saith Ser. p. 21. It is somewhat unreasonable to suppose God will be delighted with such unpleasant and harsh Tones in his Service as Men in their common Diversion would not endure And for ought I know it may be as unreasonable to suppose that God will be delighted who is a pure Spirit with the sweetest airs and Melody of an Organ Non Musica Chordula sed Cor. 2. The Second Use he pretends of his Organ is to stir up the Affections of the Soul Ser. p. 21. Ser. p. 10. and make them the fitter for Devotion And other where he tells us it is of use to exalt Mens Devotion I would offer you a few Remarks upon this As 1. Methinks the Musick of the Voice should be sufficient for this purpose The generality of Men I think concur in it that Vocal Musick is much more Sweet and Charming than Instrumental and has as great a Power to raise and warm the Affections as any the most Musical Pipes upon Earth If Christ had thought fit Instrumental Musick should have been used to this end in the times of the Gospel I doubt not but it would have been the Matter of a Precept as well as it was under the Law 2. But what does this Gentleman mean by Exciting the Affections Does he intend that the Melody of his Organ will excite good Thoughts attended with such an Agitation of the Blood and Spirits as is to be found in the Affections of Joy Hope Desire Love c If this be his Meaning I utterly deny that his Musical Instrument by its Sweetest Harmony will thus stur up the Affections of the Soul Necessarily Perhaps Contingently sometimes the Musick of an Organ may have such an effect which being granted it will not thence follow that Organs may be Statedly used in the Worship of God for that end For the sight of a Cross or a Gallows may be the occasion of the stirring up of good thoughts in a Man yet I suppose none will thence be forward to conclude that they may be brought into Christian Worship and statedly used there for that End The sight of a Deaths-head of a Skeleton or of a Lamb dead and bloody may accidentally stir up some good Affections in some good Men. What! May they therefore be brought into Worshipping Assemblies and be set before the People as a means to stir up their Affections and to excite their Devotions And must we have Sermons Preached and Printed to inform Christians in the excellent use of them to these purposes I believe you will readily grant me that Ministers Time and Abilities may be better imployed How fond a thing is it for Ministers to introduce their own private Fancies into their Congregations and then by their Preachments to go about to perswade People of the excellent use of them 3. Christ has promised to Concur with his own Ordinances duly Administred but he has no where promised to concur with Mens groundless Fancies and they have no reason to expect that Organs should be thus useful to Excite Mens Affections seeing it is no Appointment of the King of the Church to this end 4. If Organs are of use to stir up the Affections of Christians in the Worship of God and are to be used for that very end why should we not have more sorts of Musical Instruments such as Harps and Viols Timbrels and Haut-bois c. the more to excite the Affections For I suppose our Author will not deny but that these have a vertue too to excite Affections So that if Organs will somewhat excite the Affections the other Musical Instruments will give some heightning addition For Bonum bono additum facit Majus bonum Good added to good makes the greater good And so the more Musical Instruments supposing them well Consorted will raise the Affections the more An excellent way this to introduce all the Musick of the Jewish Temple and to fill every Parish-Church with a Choir of Levites 5. I grant that the Musick and Melody of an Organ may put a pleasing Motion upon the Blood and Spirits may perhaps cause the Blood to glide along the Veins and Arteries with somewhat more of briskness But what is this to the stirring up of Pious and Religious thoughts in the Mind Must a pleasing motion of the Spirits necessarily be accompanied with serious and devout Cogitations Then whenever Persons hear the sound of an Organ in a Tavern and have their Spirits pleasingly agitated by it they must all necessarily fall to their Devotions But experience assures us that altho ' Organs are sometimes found in those places yet rarely are they found very devout who frequent them He Informs us Ser. p. 21. that this sort of Musick is a Mighty Advantage to Religion So then doubtless we may conclude them to be the best sort of Christians who are favoured with the Melodious sound of an Organ because from what our Author saith we must suppose them to be the most Devout But alas this sort of Talk is all pure Falacy I remember in some of the Logick Systems I have formerly perused I have met with an Instance of a Fallacious Sorites to this purpose viz. Qui benè bibit benè dormit qui benè dormit non peccat qui non peccat erit beatus Ergo qui benè bibit erit beatus Methinks our Author seeks to impose upon his Readers much what in the same manner for at this rate as far as I can sound the depth of his Argument does he reason They who have the use of Organical Musick in their Sacred Assemblies are moved or