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Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software. The text has not been manually corrected and should not be relied on to be an accurate representation of the item.
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Untitled Article
is among us , " he says a ^ his day , a sister who has obtainecRhe « ii ' t ' of revelation , which she experiences by a spiritual ec ^ tasis , in the church , during the solemnities of the Lord ' s day . She converses with angels , and sometimes also with the Lord ; * " and
while the scriptures are read , or the psalms sung , or the discourses delivered , or the prayers offered , materials for her visions are
supplied by them . " *—This passage decisively proves that devotional singing was employed among the social religious exercises of the Christians ; but it does not appear
certain , whether Tertullian refers solely to their public worship , properly so called , or includes the religious exercises during their agapse or love feasts . If the latter , the singing alluded to might lave been that which we know .
from another passage , was cmployed during the agapse : but the natural meaning of the above quotation , is decidedly in favour of the supposition that Tertullian refers to singing in public worship ; and 1 think this supported
hy the circumstance , that he understood Pliny as stating ( in the passage already quoted in § ii . P- 461 . ) that the Christians in Asia Minor sang their hymn in praise of Christ . The only difficulty is , that when he is expressly
speaking of the public worship of the Chrjstians ,+ he does not mention singing : but neither does he * he reading of the scriptures ; and I is not , like Justin Martyr , giv . Jn g a regular detail cf the distinct P * s and manner of their public Worshi p .
# anima , c . ix . p . 7 . 70 . Par . 1675 f Apology , c . 39 .
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At the conclusion of Tertullian ' s account of their agapae , f we find that * ' whoever was able was called out into the middle * to sing a psalm to God , from the Holy Scriptures , or of his own compo .
sing , " This is , I believe , the only intimation we have of the net * ture of rhe social singing among the Carthaginian Christians , in TertuIJian ' s time ; and we seem to have ground to infer from it , that their public devotional
singing was similar to that which ( if it really were singing ) was practised among the Christians of whom Pliny speaks ; it was performed by a single individual in the presence of his fellow Christians . ( See p . 462 . )
1 here are , as far as I can find , only two other passages in TertuL lian ' s works referring to singing , which are quoted in King ' s Primitive Church , P . II . ch . i . § 4 , 6 . These clearly prove that . singing wjas common among the Carthaginian Christians in his time .
in their more private exercises of devotion ; but they do not at all affect our present inquiry ...... It may be observed that ^ e bt ^ Lve no reason to suppose TeiJtuJlian acquainted with the constitution and discipline of the European or Asiatic churches ; and it is clear , that we derive no information
from him , quite decisive as to the practice of the Carthaginian Christians on the subject of instrumental music with their devotional
singing , and no information whatever as to their opinions respecting it . —I see , however , no reason to suppose that they did employ it with their devotional singing .
f Or as JLd . King erroneously sup-, poses , of the JLorda supper * Apol . c . " xxxix * p . 3 $ «
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On ike vse of Vocal and Instrumental Music in Public Worship . 669
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), Oct. 2, 1813, page 669, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2433/page/45/
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