THE WESTMINSTER AND SCOTTISH ASSEMBLIES CONDEMN ORGANS IN WORSHIP.
James Dodson
The correspondence which passed between their Commissioners and the General Assembly of the Church of Scotland, and which is printed along with the Acts of the Assembly, has the most direct bearing upon the subject now in debate. Upon the 20th May 1644 the Commissioners wrote to the Assembly an account of the progress of the Westminster deliberations, in which they state:—
“We cannot but admire the good hand of God in the great things done here already. . . Prelacy and the whole train thereof extirpated, the service-book in many places forsaken, plain and powerful preaching set up, many colleges in Cambridge provided with such ministers as are most zealous of
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the best reformation, altars removed, the communion in some places given at the table with sitting, the great organs at Paul’s and Peter’s in Westminster taken down, images and many other monuments of idolatry defaced and abolished, the Chapel Royal at Whitehall purged and reformed; and all by authority, in a quiet manner at noon of day, without tumult.”
It may be here remarked that if Baillie, who was a Resolutioner, rejoiced in the demolition of organs in London, much less could we suppose that the stricter party, who constituted the majority in the country, would have tolerated the least approach to the use of instrumental music in worship.
In agreement with the sentiments of their Commissioners, the General Assembly which met at Edinburgh on June 4, 1644, wrote cordially as follows to the Assembly at Westminster:—
“We were greatly refreshed to hear by letters from our Commissioners there with you of your praiseworthy proceedings, and of the great good things the Lord hath wrought among you and for you. Shall it seem a small thing in our eyes that . . . the door of a right entry unto faithful shepherds is opened; many corruptions—as altars, images, and other monuments of idolatry and superstition—removed, defaced, and abolished; the service-book in many places forsaken, and plain and powerful preaching set up; the great organs at Paul’s and Peter’s taken down; that the Royal Chapel is purged and reformed; sacraments sincerely administered, and according to the pattern in the mount?”
From this it is evident not only that the Scottish Commissioners at the Westminster Assembly were opposed to the use of instrumental music in worship, but that the General Assembly of Scotland unanimously regarded this as in full accordance with the principles of the Scottish Church.
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The Confession of Faith and Directory for Public Worship, framed at Westminster, and ratified by the General Assembly of the Church of Scotland, are evidently inconsistent with the employment of a liturgy, or of instrumental music. The Directory (preface) intimates “We have agreed upon the following Directory for all the parts of public worship at ordinary and extraordinary times. Wherein our care hath been to hold forth such things as are of divine institution in every ordinance; and other things we have endeavoured to set forth according to the rules of Christian prudence, agreeable to the general rules of the Word of God.” The worship is stated by the Confession of Faith to consist of (chap. XXI. sections 3, 4, 5) “prayer; the reading of the Scriptures with godly fear; the sound preaching and conscionable hearing of the Word in obedience unto God, with understanding, faith, and reverence; singing of psalms with grace in the heart; as also the due administration and worthy receiving of the sacraments instituted by Christ,” are all parts of the ordinary worship of God.” By the Directory it is also declared to be “the duty of Christians to praise God publicly by singing of psalms in the congregation,” and that, “in singing of psalms the voice is to be tuneably and gravely ordered, but the chief care must be to sing with understanding and with grace in the heart, making melody unto the Lord.” Both the Confession of Faith and Directory for Public Worship were examined and
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approved of by the General Assembly. From the principles upon which both the Confession of Faith and Directory of Worship were constructed, it must be held that, whatever is not directly declared to be of scriptural appointment, must be held to be excluded as destitute of Divine warrant and authority.
In sanctioning this Directory, not as a Liturgy, but for the express purpose of superseding the Liturgy, “that there may be a consent of all the Churches in those things that contain the substance of the service and worship of God,” and that the ministers “may, if need be, have some help and furniture, and yet so that they become not hereby slothful and negligent in stirring up the gifts of Christ in them” (Preface to the Directory), it is said (Act of Assembly, Feb. 3, 1645, Sess. 10)—
“Whereas an happy unity and uniformity in religion amongst the Kirks of Christ in these three kingdoms united under one Sovereign having been long and earnestly wished for by the godly and well-affected amongst us, &c. The Assembly doth with much joy and thankfulness acknowledge the rich blessing, and invaluable mercy of God in bringing the so much wished for uniformity in religion to such a happy period, that these kingdoms, once at so great a distance in the form of worship, are now, by the blessing of God, brought to a nearer uniformity than any other reformed Kirks; which is to us the return of our prayers, and a lightening of our eyes and renewing of our hearts in the midst of our many sorrows and sufferings, and a taking away in a great measure the reproach of the people of God, to the stopping of the mouths of malignant and disaffected persons, and an opening unto us a door of hope that God hath yet thoughts of peace towards us, and not of evil to give us an expected end; in the expectation and confidence whereof we do rejoice; beseeching the Lord to preserve these kingdoms from heresies, schisms, offences, profaneness, and whatsoever is contrary to sound
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doctrine and the power of godliness, and to continue with us and the generations following these His pure and purged ordinances, together with an increase of the power and life thereof, to the glory of His great name, the enlargement of the kingdom of His Son, the corroboration of peace and love between the kingdoms, the unity and comfort of all His people, and our edifying one another in love.”
By Act of the Scottish Parliament of date 6th February 1645, this Directory was specially authorised, “after the public reading and serious consideration of the Act of the General Assembly approving the same, with the Ordinance of the Parliament of England establishing the said Directory and the Directory itself” . . . “Which Act, together with the Directory itself, the estates of Parliament do without a contrary voice ratify and approve in all the heads and articles thereof, and do interpose and add the authority of Parliament to the said Act of the General Assembly.”
This history affords clear evidence of what the principles and practice of the Church of Scotland, in regard to worship, were at the time of the Westminster Assembly, when the present Confession of Faith was framed, and of what was understood to be the worship “prescribed in the Holy Scriptures,” Confession c. 21, s. 1. It is well known that, by the restoration of Prelacy in 1661, and its continuance for twenty-eight years, this settlement was superseded for the time, although, as we have said already, no attempt was made even during that period to alter this worship in any considerable degree, and especially by the introduction of a liturgy or organs.