As he rode upon a high horse, which he showed me, he was often discovered at a considerable distance: and the rude people commonly cried out, "Here comes the old devil of Everton!"
On the top of Mr. B.'s clock, this remarkable motto was written, "Pay me short visits." This, I think, was no bad caution to his numerous visitants.
To conclude my story: Soon, soon all these oppositions to the invaluable gospel will cease, and the faithful labourer will enter upon his everlasting rest, when the truly wise shall shine as the brightness of the firmament, and they that have turned many to righteousness (which, I doubt not, was the happy case of this faithful servant of God) shall shine as the stars for ever and ever.
R. H.
K.
ON THE USE OF INSTRUMENTAL MUSIC IN DISSENTING CHAPELS.
To the Editor of the Baptist Magazine.
Two pieces have lately appeared in your excellent periodical on this subject. Though the former considered the use of Instrumental Music, in Dissenting Chapels, inconsistent with the simplicity of our worship, the ground is fairly open, I conceive, for further investigation. Believing that truth is promoted by free discussion, and that your magazine is friendly to both, I also rely upon your candour, for the admission of the following observations on the impropriety of Instrumental Music in the worship of God.
It is, in my opinion, opposed to the spirituality of the New Testament worship. When the Christian dispensation took the place of the Jewish, it swept away the load of carnal rites and ceremonies with which that nation was burdened. Of these carnal ordinances it is universally agreed that Instrumental Music was a part: with them, therefore, it is finally abolished; nor do I see how we can reinstate it in the worship of God, without violating his kingly prerogative, and impairing the spirituality of his worship, by the introduction of grosser materials, which he has, by direct appointment, excluded.
Instrumental music appears to me to be a departure from the practice of the primitive church, as well as a soil upon the spirituality of the New Testament worship. It has, from time immemorial, been the custom of innovators upon divine worship to construe the silence of the scriptures, concerning their innovations, into consent. Every one who understands the principles of Protestant Dissenters knows that their silence in such a case is a loud condemnation. No better reason, I believe, can be assigned for banishing any thing from the worship of the sanctuary, than the fact, that it is not sanctioned by the command of the apostles, nor by the example of the early Christians. Where, allow me to ask, is Instrumental Music sanctioned in the worship of the Christian dispensation? The apostle Paul exhorts us to "teach and admonish one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs." The same apostle, when in jail with Silas at Phillippi, "prayed and sang praises unto God." Pliny, in his celebrated letter to Trajan, A. D. 106, or 107, says of the Christians in his time, that they were "accustomed, on a stated day, to assemble before sunrise, and to join together in singing hymns to Christ, as to a deity."
But where have the apostles sanctioned Instrumental Music, by precept or example? When and where did the primitive Christians employ it in the worship of God? The truth is, as all who are acquainted with ecclesiastical records know, Instrumental Music is a piece of popish tinsel and show; and moreover a comparatively recent invention of popery itself. That musical Instruments were not used, says the author of the Biblical Cyclopædia, even in the Popish Church, in Thomas Aquinas's time, about the year 1250, appears from the passage in his questions: "In the old law, God was praised both with musical instruments and human voices; but the Christian church does not use instruments to praise him, lest she should seem to judaize."