harp and organ." It is impossible to say, at this time, what specific instruments are denoted by the Hebrew words; that they denote musical instruments of some sort, there is no doubt. No sooner was there. a regular national church established in Israel, a people selected by the Almighty for that very purpose, than we find music making a part of the ritual. "The trumpet was blown in the new moon, on the solemn feast day; such was the statute for Israel, the law of the God of Jacob." The performers, vocal and instrumental, were ranged by the royal prophet, under divine direction, in their several classes, and appointed to wait in succession through the year. At the dedication of the temple by king Solomon, they were all assembled, and performed together, the whole nation joining in a grand chorus of praise and thanksgiving, while the glory of the Lord, a body of light above the brightness of the sun, descended from heaven, and filled the house of God. If music in the Jewish church served to enliven devotion and elevate the affections, why should it not be used, to produce the like effect among Christians? Human nature is the same, and the power of music is the same; why should there not be the same application of one to the other, for the same beneficial end, under both dispensations? Vocal music ceased not with the law: why should we suppose that instrumental music was abrogated with it? Surely, the trumpet may still be blown upon our feast day: the singers and players on instruments may still make their voices to be heard as one, in blessing and thanking the Lord God of Israel, the Redeemer of his people. and sung the anthem of the season-"Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace, good will towards men.”* On the evening before our Saviour's passion, when he celebrated the passover with his disciples, they sang a hymn, or psalm, together. St. Paul exhorts his converts, more than once, to cheer and animate each other, in their Christian course, by " psalms and hymns, and spiritual songs, making melody in their hearts," as well as their voices, " to the Lord." † And this was the constant practice in the primitive church. Instrumental music could have no place during the times of persecution, when, for fear of their enemies, the Christians were obliged to hold their assemblies in secret chambers, in dens and caves of the earth. Organs are said by some to have been introduced into churches, about the middle of the seventh, by others, not till the eleventh or twelfth century; since which time this kind of music has made a part in the Christian service. With us of the church of England, indeed, it ceased for a short period in the last century. By the sectaries of that day, organs were holden in abomination; and the fury of an enthusiastic zeal, which seems to have been DEAF as well as BLIND, destroyed many capital instruments. It is observable, however, of Milton, though so warmly engaged against the church, that his taste got the better of his prejudices; for, in one of his smaller poems, he speaks of cathedral service-as it ought to be spoken of and in a manner truly worthy of himself. It is much to the honor of the members of the kirk of Scotland, that many of them have lately subscribed liberally towards the erection of an episcopal On that night, ever to be had in remem-chapel, with an organ, at Edinburgh. The brance by us, when it pleased God to bring his first begotten into the world, the angel preached a short sermon on the subject of the nativity, and communicated to the shepherds the glad tidings of the Gospel: "Unto you is born this day, in the city of David, a Saviour, which is Christ, the Lord"-Immediately heaven's white-robed choristers appeared, * Gen. iv. 21. Jubal, said to have been "the father of such," was indeed a descendant of Cain, and the seventh only from Adam in that line. But that, even in that line, idolatry had so early taken place of the worship of the true God, does not appear. † 1 Chron. xxv.-In imitation of king David, the emperor Charlemagne, in the university of Paris founded by him, and in other parts of his dominions, endowed schools for the study and practice of music. At church he always sung his part in the choral service, and he exhorted other princes to do the same. He was very desirous also that his daughters should attain a proficiency in singing, and to that end had masters to instruct them three hours every day. See Sir John Hawkins, vol. ii. p. 21. 46 VOL. II. votaries of presbytery not only bear the sound of organ, but, I believe, have adopted it in some of their own places of worship in England. O might all their other prejudices in our disfavor die away and vanish in like manner! The objections, in short, of any account, urged against choral music, are pointed at the Luke, ii. 13. Ephes. v. 19. Coloss. iii. 16. But let my due feet never fail There let the pealing organ blow, And bring all heaven before mine eyes. abuse which has been sometimes made of it, and to which, like other good things, it is at all times liable. Great care should, therefore, be taken to keep the style of it chaste and pure, suitable to holy places and divine subjects. "Religious harmony," says Collier, "must be moving, but noble withal; grave, solemn, and seraphic; fit for a martyr to play, and an angel to hear." The light movements of the theatre, with the effeminate and frittered music of modern Italy, should be excluded, and such composers as Tallis and Bird, Gibbons and King, Purcel and Blow, Croft and Clark, Wise and Weldon, Green and Handel, should be considered (and it is hoped they always will be considered) as our English classics in this sacred science.* Nothing then can be said against it, and every thing may be said for it. That which is commonly affirmed of nature (whatever is meant by the word) may with truth and propriety be affirmed of the God of nature, that he "doth nothing in vain." To the element of air he has given the power of producing sounds; to the ear the capacity of receiving them; and to the affections of the mind an aptness to be moved by them when transmitted through the organs of the body. The philosophy of the thing is too deep and . wonderful for us; we cannot attain unto it! But such is the fact with that we are concerned, and that is enough for us to know. The end and design of so curious an apparatus are most evident. Sound was intended to be the vehicle of sentiment, and should be employed in the conveyance of such sentiments as may instruct, improve, purify, and exalt the mind; such as, when received and retained, may inspire resolutions, and produce actions, tending to the glory of God and the good of mankind. How can this purpose be more effectually answered, than it is, when the most beautiful and sublime passages of holy writ, set to the finest music, are heard outwardly with our ears, and ingrafted inwardly in our hearts? What can we havewhat can we desire more, upon earth? The power of music is but too well known, by fatal experience, when it is misapplied applied to cherish and call forth the evil that *The science of Music was ranked next to that of Theology by Luther, who is thought to have composed the notes now sung to the hundredth psalm. On the true style and composition of music in general, and sacred music in particular, see the excellent observations made by the reverend and learned Mr. Jones, in his Treatise on the Art of Music, dedicated to the Directors of the Concerts of Ancient Music; Introduction, and occasionally through the work. The manner in which he has illustrated one science by ideas borrowed from another, in the way of analogy, shows the hand of a master. lies concealed in the corrupt heart of fallen man; to recommend and excite in him all the follies of levity and dissipation, of intemperance and wantonness. What are we to do in this case? Are we to renounce and disclaim music? No; let us employ music against music. If the Philistines sing a chorus in honor of their idol, let Israelites sing one louder to the glory of Jehovah.* In the heathen mythology we are told, that when the Sirens warbled the soft seducing strains, to allure heedless mortals into the paths of unlawful pleasure, two different methods were made use of to escape the snare. Some rendered themselves incapable of hearing, while others overpowered their songs by chanting divine hymns. The story is fabulous, but the moral just, and apposite to the subject in hand. For there is no doubt but that the heart may be weaned from every thing base and mean, and elevated to every thing that is excellent and praise-worthy, by sacred music. The evil spirit may still be dispossessed, and the good spirit invited and obtained, by the harp of the son of Jesse. Talk we of LIFE, and Joy, and PLEASURE? "Thou, O Lord, shalt show us the path of LIFE; in thy presence is the fulness of JOY, and at thy right hand is PLEASURE for evermore." + Are we at any time heavy and sluggish? Does religion seem dull, prayer a task, and thanksgiving a burden? "Awake up, my glory; awake, lute and harp!-I will praise thee, O Lord, among the people; I will sing unto thee among the nations. For thy mercy is great unto the heavens, and thy truth unto the clouds. Set up thyself, O God, above the heavens, and thy glory above all the earth." I Have we a turn to ingratitude? Are we disposed to forget the mercies we have received?" I am well pleased that the Lord hath heard the voice of my prayer; that he hath inclined his ear unto me; therefore will I call upon him as long as I live." § Is the strong man tempted to glory in his strength, the great man in his power, the rich man in his possessions, or the fair woman in the beauty and gracefulness of her person? "As for man, his days are as grass: as a flower of the field so he flourisheth. For the wind passeth over it-it is gone-and the place thereof shall know it no more." || Are we captivated by anything we see or hear below, and induced to esteem it GREAT? "I was in the Spirit on the Lord's day, and I heard a great voice of much people in heaven, saying, Hallelujah! Salvation, and glory, and honor, and power, unto the Lord our God; for true and righteous are his judgments. And again they said, Hallelujah. And the four and twenty elders, and the four living creatures fell down, and worshipped God that sat on the throne, saying, Amen, Hallelujah, And a voice came out of the throne, saying, Praise our God, all ye his servants, and ye that fear him both small and great. And I heard as it were the voice of a great multitude, and as the voice of many waters, and as the voice of mighty thunderings, saying, Hallelujah, for the Lord God omnipotent reigneth. Let us be glad, and rejoice, and give honor to him; for the marriage of the Lamb is come, and his wife hath made herself ready." * Before such a scene and such a band, every human performance must shrink and fade away in the comparison. A performance, however, has lately been exhibited, and, to our honor, has been exhibited in Britain (its sound still vibrates in the ears of many who hear me) which furnished the best idea we shall ever obtain on earth of what is passing in heaven. It did justice (and that is saying very much indeed) to a composition of the great master, to which may be applied the observation of a learned writer upon a chorus in an anthem penned by the same Rev. xix. 1, &c. Set by Blow, in a strain of sublimity truly wonderful. hand, that "nothing less is suggested by it to the imagination, than all the powers of the universe associated in the worship of its Creator," Music, then, has always been used in the church, and with good reason. May it always continue to be so used, and to produce its proper effects! In England, choral service was first introduced in this cathedral,† and the practice of it long confined to the churches of Kent, from whence it became gradually diffused over the whole kingdom, Here may it breathe its last-but not till time shall expire with the world! Violated no more by sacrilegious hands, may this august and magnificent fabric remain, in perfect beauty, through all the generations of mankind that are yet to come, a monument of the piety of our ancestors, and a witness to that of our posterity! May thanksgiving and the voice of melody, like that of this day, be evermore heard in it, till the veil being done away which parts the visible from the invisible world, the choirs of heaven and and earth shall unite before the throne. * Sir John Hawkins, v. 416: † Sir John Hawkins, i. 404, 371.-We are invol. ii. p. 314, that when queen Elizabeth was enformed by Strype, in his Annals of the Reformation, tertained at Canterbury by archbishop Parker, the French ambassador, who was in her suite, hearing the excellent music in the cathedral church, extolled it to the sky, and brake out into these words: heard the like, no, not our holy father the Pope him"O God, I think no prince beside in all Europe ever self." May we not say, that to cathedrals, and the persons teaching and taught in them, has been owing the preservation of music among us from age to † Commemoration of Handel in Westminster Ab-age? bey. DISCOURSE LXXI. THE CHARACTER OF TRUE WISDOM, AND THE MEANS OF OBTAINING IT. PROVERBS, IV. 7. Wisdom is the principa. thing; therefore get wisdom: and, with all thy getting, get understanding.. THE sage instructor of the world, from the It would be tedious, and it is needless, crithe eminence on which Providence had tically to discuss the signification, and nicely placed him, surveys mankind. Discontent- to trace the shades, which discriminate the ed with themselves and their present condi- meaning of the different words employed in tion, he beholds them engaged in the pursuit the book of Proverbs; such as, "wisdom, unof something that still flies before them. Pleasure, wealth, and power appear in their view, and solicit their attention. Grieved to see time mispent in quest of things perishable, and labor lost on that which either may not be obtained, or, when obtained, may disappoint in enjoyment all the hopes excited by expectation, he raises his voice, and wishes it to be heard to the ends of the earth. He calls men off from a fruitless chase after objects attained with difficulty, and possessed without satisfaction; he points out one adequate to all their efforts; one in the pursuit of which no time can be mispent, no labor can be lost; one which presents itself a fair mark, to be always hit by the quick eye and the steady hand; one that may be surely gained by genius and diligence, and, when gained, is productive of pleasure, riches, and honor; pleasure which fadeth not away, riches which none can take from the happy possessor, and the honor which cometh from God only. Solomon found, if men were disposed to be contented with anything, it was that with which they never should be contented their ignorance. He exhorts them to LEARN. "Wisdom is the principal thing; therefore get wisdom: and, with all thy getting, get understanding." The subject will best be laid before you, in its several branches, by considering WHAT it is we are enjoined to acquire, How we are to acquire it, and WHY we are to acquire it. First, then, we will consider the nature of that which we are so earnestly enjoined to acquire. derstanding, knowledge, prudence, discretion," and the rest. They seem often to be used promiscuously. So far, at least, as relates to our present purpose, and the institution which is the occasion of our assembling at this time, they may certainly be regarded as terms nearly synonymous, and intended to convey the idea now generally expressed by the word LEARNING. The wisdom of Solomon, we know, extended itself on every side; it was conversant in matters physical and theological, natural and artificial; it investigated and stated the duties and offices of man, political, domestic, and personal; it contemplated him in the several relations and employments of life, and prescribed the conduct respectively proper in each. And this surely is true wisdom; this is the end of all learning. Philosophy, the result of sagacity, reading, and experience, lays down rules and maxims; history furnishes examples; and the system of nature, with the inventions and improvements of art, supplies images and illustrations. A distinction has been made between divine and human learning, and much has been written upon it. The former has by some been magnified to the contempt and exclusion of the latter, as if that ought not to be brought into the sanctuary; as if any great quantity of it were not only useless, but prejudicial; as if science were the death of goodness, and ignorance indeed the mother of devotion. On the other hand, there are who pretty plainly intimate, that they think the name of learning due only to that without something of mathematics and mechanics. Thus necessary is a knowledge of languages and sciences to interpret the letter of Scripture, the source of doctrines and precepts, the foundation of all improvements, moral and spiritual; and they must ever be the best interpreters who have the largest share of it. The advantages of a superior skill in the Greek language, as exercised on passages in the New Testament, and the early ecclesiastical writers, have been eminently displayed in a controversy now subsisting, the subject of which is of the highest importance. which we style human; religion, in their be well comprehended and ascertained, opinion, being calculated to engage the attention of none but those whose abilities qualify them not for scholars. In the first of these representations there is a want of judgment; in the second, of piety. The two species of learning differ; but they differ as the MEANS do from the END. Were there no divine learning, human learning would lose great part of its value: limited to the present life, it must terminate on the confines of the grave. And had we no human learning, we should not be able to attain to that which is divine. The days of inspiration have been long since at an end. God has ceased to communicate im- Less, indeed, of human learning was mediately the treasures of wisdom and needed by the clergy when the world around knowledge to any man. Modern preten- them had none, as was the case in the dark sions to such communications betray some ages preceding the reformation. To the fault either in the hearts or heads of those clergy, however, of those very ages are unwho make them. These treasures must be believers indebted for the preservation of sought for, with the blessing of God upon that learning which, since the reformation, our endeavors, in the ordinary way. All they have employed in vain against Christhe divine learning upon earth is contained tianity. From the clergy in modern times in the books of the Old and New Testa- have proceeded nine in ten of the books ment, which are written in Hebrew and written to facilitate the progress of literaGreek. Those languages, therefore, with the Latin, must be studied; and the study of them falls within the department of human learning. ture, and disseminate every species of it through the world.* Enemies to false philosophy, they have ever proved themselves the friends and promoters of that Enough, perhaps, it will be urged, may which is true. Yet a certain author havbe gathered from translators, for all the ing very innocently mentioned "a philosopurposes required. But to whom are we phical divine," as a character that might be indebted for translations, unless to those supposed to exist, without any contradicwho by good and sufficient learning became tion implied, the historian of the Roman qualified for the work? And as they, how-empire is pleased to represent such a supever worthy and able, were yet very far posed being as a STRANGE CENTAUR,† a from infallible, it will frequently happen, in composition absurd and monstrous, half points of difficulty, that we can neither suffi- man and half brute. According to his own ciently establish our own faith, nor confute ideas, however, the representation may be the arguments of the adversary, without re- just enough; for a philosopher, as we have curring to the originals. The adversary, to too much reason to apprehend, in his acserve his turn, will recur to them; and ceptation of the word, is an unbeliever; a what will become of us, if we are not to divine is (and, let us hope, will always confollow him? tinue to be) a believer. Wisdom, it seems, was born with the infidel, and will die with him. We will take the liberty, notwith whatever learning may at any time have been brought to the attack, there has never hitherto been found a deficiency of it for the defence of religion; neither will there be found any such deficiency, we trust, in time to come, while our schools and universities, (chiefly under the management and direction of clergymen) shall continue to exist and flourish. From considering the nature of that wisdom we are in the text The history of the people of God cannot be understood, without taking with us that of pagan states, particularly of the Assy-standing, to say-because it is true-that rian, Persian, Grecian, and Roman empires. An exact acquaintance with what has been passing in the world since the extinction of the last, cannot be dispensed with in a commentator on the prophecies, particularly those in the Revelation. To adjust the situation of places and the succession of times, we must call to our assistance the sciences of geography, chronology, and astronomy. Nor can the proportions of the temple and its furniture, described in the books of Kings and Chronicles, and afterwards referred to by Ezekiel and St. John, See the late Dr. Jortin's admirable Charge upon this subject, at the end of his Sermons. † Vol. ii. p. 369. |