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that he appointed women to sing psalms in honour of himself , in the midst of thv church , on the great day of the pasbover . "—I suppose this was originally said in the same way as it now sometimes is , that such a one sings to his own praise and t'lory .
( Burney , p . 10 . ) The council of Laodicea ( A . D . 3 l 4 or 319 . ) forbade all to sing in the church , except the singing canons , ( Burney , p . 25 . ) " After the most diligent inquiry concerning the time when instrumental music
had admission into the ecclesiastical services , there is reason to conclude , that before the reign of Censtantine , as the converts to th ( Christian religion were subject to frequent persecution and disturbance in their devotions , the use
of instruments could hardly have been allowed , and by all that can be collected from the writings of the primitive Christians , they seem never to have been admitted /' ( Burney , p . 26 . ) Eusebius ( who died A . D . 340 ) states in his com .
mentary on the 92 d p * alm , that the Christians when they meet , ting to the name of the Lord , not only with the voice , but upon an instrument of ten strings , and up *
on the cithera . ( P . 27 . ) The harp and psaltery , as being the most grave and majestic instruments of the time were preferred to all others .
( Burney , p . 25 . ) The music of the first five or six ages of the church , consisted in a plain and simple chant of unisons and octaves . Music in parts was not
introduced for many ages after the establishment of Christianity , B in ^ ham ( Works , vol . i . p . 665 . ) says , " that the most ancient and genera ) practice , till tine way
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of alternate psalmody was brough t into the church was for the uhok assembly to join together , the women and children , united with
one mouth and one mind , in ringing psalms and praises ro God : » but he gives little or no proof of his assertion . The writers of the Ri » mi > h church say that this eus .
torn was not in u * e before Ambrose ( who died 397 ) : anrf Bingham thinks it necessary to asserf the contrary ; but his proof amounts to nothing . Chrysostom , indeed , ( who however lived after Am .
brose , ) says , when comparing the times of the apostles with his own u they alt sang in common" ( m-\ pz \ ov tftxvrs s Ttoivyf ) j bat this can prove nothing ( even if C . can fairly be adduced as an evidence . )
as to the practice of the age succeeding the apostolic . The fact appears to me to be , that the earliest singing in public worship a « mong the primitive Christians was strictly speaking solo singing ; that the next siep was for the people at
large to join in the last verse ( which method we are certain continued to be practised in the 4 ih century ) ; and that though at first any one who was able and willing sang these solos , by degrees the
singing was confined to persons regularly appointed to undertake it . In the third century the plan of singing in alternate choirs was introduced at Antioch , arid soon
found its way into the West . I am not aware that any clear instance of what may be properly called congregational singing can be adduced before the fourth
century . This was the last and best stage of the progress ^ ( Bingham , p . 669 . ) A mod * oi worship so likely to be abused ( and I may add « o often abused )
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6 ? 2 On the Use of Vocal and Instrumental Music in Public PVorshiw
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), Oct. 2, 1813, page 672, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2433/page/48/
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