| The Heresy of Instrumental Music in Public | | | | having made the worship of God more splendid |
| Worship | | | | and inviting, they employed organs, and many |
| With reference to the time when organs were | | | | other such ludicrous things, by which the Word |
| first introduced into use in the Roman Catholic | | | | and worship of God are exceedingly profaned, the |
| Church, let us hear Bingham:1 "It is now generally | | | | people being much more attached to those rites |
| agreed among learned men that the use of | | | | than to the understanding of the divine Word..." |
| organs came into the church since the time of | | | | Whatever may be the practice in recent times of |
| Thomas Aquinas, Anno 1250; for he, in his | | | | the churches of Holland, the Synods of the |
| Summs, has these words: 'Our church does not | | | | Reformed Dutch Church, soon after the |
| use musical instruments, as harps and psalteries, | | | | Reformation, pronounced very decidedly against |
| to praise God withal, that she may not seem to | | | | the use of instrumental music in public worship. |
| Judaize.'"...Mr. Wharton also has observed that | | | | The National Synod at Middleburg, in 1581, |
| Marinus Sanutus, who lived about the year 1290, | | | | declared against it, and the Synod of Holland and |
| was the first who brought the use of wind-organs | | | | Zealand, in 1594, adopted this strong resolution; |
| into churches, whence he was surnamed | | | | "That they would endeavor to obtain of the |
| Torcellus, which is the name for an organ in the | | | | magistrate the laying aside of organs, and the |
| Italian tongue....Let us pause a moment to notice | | | | singing with them in the churches...." The Provincial |
| the fact, supported by a mass of incontrovertible | | | | Synod of Dort also inveighed severely against |
| evidence, that the Christian church did not employ | | | | their use...The Rev. Charles H. Spurgeon, ...upholds |
| instrumental music in its public worship for 1200 | | | | an apostolic simplicity of worship. The great |
| years after Christ....It deserves serious | | | | congregation which is blessed with the privilege of |
| consideration, moreover, that notwithstanding the | | | | listening to his instructions has no organ "to assist" |
| ever-accelerated drift towards corruption in | | | | them in singing...The non-prelatic churches, |
| worship as well as in doctrine and government, | | | | Independent and Presbyterian, began their |
| the Roman Catholic Church did not adopt this | | | | development on the American continent without |
| corrupt practice until about the middle of the | | | | instrumental music. They followed the English |
| thirteenth century....When the organ was | | | | Puritans and the Scottish Church, which had |
| introduced into its worship it encountered strong | | | | adopted the principles of the Calvinistic Reformed |
| opposition, and made its way but slowly to | | | | Church...It has thus been proved by an appeal to |
| general acceptance. These assuredly are facts | | | | historical facts, that the church, although lapsing |
| that should profoundly impress Protestant | | | | more and more into defection from the truth and |
| churches. How can they adopt a practice which | | | | into a corruption of apostolic practice, had no |
| the Roman Church, in the year 1200, had not | | | | instrumental music for twelve hundred years; and |
| admitted...Then came the Reformation; and the | | | | that the Calvinistic Reformed Church ejected it |
| question arises, How did the Reformers deal with | | | | from its services as a element of Popery, even |
| instrumental music in the church?...Zwingle has | | | | the Church of England having come very nigh to |
| already been quoted to show instrumental music | | | | its extrusion from her worship. The historical |
| was one of the shadows of the old law which has | | | | argument, therefore, combines with the scriptural |
| been realized in the gospel. He pronounces its | | | | and the confessional to raise a solemn and |
| employment in the present dispensation "wicked | | | | powerful protest against its employment by the |
| pervicacity." There is no doubt in regard to his | | | | Presbyterian Church. It is heresy in the sphere of |
| views on the subject, which were adopted by the | | | | worship. |
| Swiss Reformed churches...Calvin is very express | | | | ENDNOTES: |
| in his condemnation of instrumental music in | | | | 1. Works, Vol. iii., p. 137, ff. |
| connection with the public worship of the Christian | | | | FROM: INSTRUMENTAL MUSIC IN THE PUBLIC |
| church...In his homily on 1 Sam. xviii. 1-9, he | | | | WORSHIP OF THE CHURCH |
| delivers himself emphatically and solemnly upon | | | | By John L. Girardeau |
| the subject: "In Popery there was a ridiculous and | | | | (Still Waters Revival Books, [1888] 2000), |
| unsuitable imitation [of the Jews]. While they | | | | "Historical Argument" pp. 158, 159, 161, 165, 170, |
| adorned their temples, and valued themselves as | | | | 179. |