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a p ersecuted people would be aided in producing this effect by the licentious use which was made of music in the public spectacles and religious rites of the heathens . 3 . Among the Alexandrian Christians in the latter part of the
2 d century , singing was ve ^ y common in their more private devotional exercises , and probably also in their public worship y and the use of instrumental music in the former ( at least ) appears not to
have been regarded by them as "blameworthy , because sanctioned by the practice of the pious psalmist . As tkis argument equally holds with respect to their singing in social worship , it may be inferred that whatever were their
practice , their principles did not oppose the use of it there also . * 4 . As far as we can collect respecting the singing of the African Christians in the second century , it did not resemble our
congregational singing , but was performed by a single individual , or at most by a part only of the congregation . 5 . That we have no means of
• What really was their practice I cannot absolutely decide to my own satisfaction . The argument in faTOur of their employing instrumental music in public worship , I have already stated ( tee p . 464 . ); on the other hand it may fcc supposed that Clemens would scarcely think it necessary to justify the employment of it in their devotional singlinat
g social entertainments by referring to the example of David , if it had ** en commonly employed in the pub-* £ worship of the church . It is a point ° * some difficulty , but as appears to me of no great importance . I apprehend "lat we are as good judges of tho propriety of the practice as Clemens ; and «*** we are at least as favourably n-« wcd for knowing what was the prac-*«« of the apostle *
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coming to any general conclusion respecting the practice and opinions of the Christians in the age succeeding the apostolic , as to the employment of instrumental and vocal music in devotional
exercises ; nor consequently to any conclusion whatever , except from the scriptures , respecting the practice and opinions of the apostles themselves . There is nothing ( as far as I can discover , ) in the contemporary records of the first two centuries , which can invalidate
the conclusions formerly drawn from an examination of the N . T . ( See p . 127 ) While examining Burney ' s History of Music and Bingham ' s Antiquities of the Christian Church ,
I made some memoranda , a few of which it may be desirable to add here , as illustrative of the progress of devotional music , and others as opposing my own views of the subject .
Burney says ( vol . li . p . 9 ) 5 € i Eusebius tells us that a regular choir and method of singing the service were first introduced , and hymns used in the church , at Antioch , the capital of Syria ,
during the time of Constantine ( A . D . 3 Ofj—337 ) , and that St . Ambrose who had long resided there , had his melodies thence , '* —It is not , however , to be infer , red from this passage ( even if cor ^ rectly stated by Burney ) , that
singing had not been previously employed at all in the public worship of the Christian church . It was one of the charges made against Paul of Samosata ( A . I > , 270 0 " that he abolished the Psalms which were wont Co be
sung to the honour of our Lord Jesus Christ ) as novel , and composed by modern authors ; aud
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On tie use of V * ocal and Instrumental Music in Public Worship . 671
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), Oct. 2, 1813, page 671, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2433/page/47/
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