Psalmody made the dividing line between Associates/Covenanters and hymn-singing Presbyterians 'clear and distinct'

Source: arp-south-history
Page: 221
Type: quote
Confidence: high
Topics: psalmody-controversy denominational-boundaries exclusive-psalmody regulative-principle
Places: America
Institutions: Associate Church Reformed Presbyterian Church Associate Reformed Church Presbyterian Church

Context

This passage appears in Lathan’s extended discussion of the history of psalmody in American Presbyterianism. He has just explained how the version question (Rouse vs. Watts) evolved into a more fundamental question about whether uninspired hymns should be sung at all. He then describes how this theological divide mapped onto denominational boundaries.

Extract

This at once made the dividing line between the Associates and Covenanters, on the one hand, and the hymn-singing Presbyterians on the other, in America, clear and distinct. The Covenanters and Associates held that it was a sin to sing in worship to God compositions merely human, while the great body of the Presbyterian Church in America held that it was not.

By no act of either the Associate Church, or the Reformed Presbyterian Church, or the Associate Reformed Church, was either Watts’ psalms or Watts’ hymns, or the hymns of any one else allowed to be used in the worship of God.

Significance

This extract provides explicit historiographical support for the book’s central thesis—that psalmody preferences created denominational boundaries:

  1. “Clear and distinct” dividing line: A denominational historian explicitly states that psalmody made the boundary between churches “clear and distinct”—precisely the argument the book advances.

  2. Sin vs. not sin: The divide wasn’t about taste or tradition but about whether hymn-singing was sinful. This explains why the issue drove denominational realignment—it was a matter of conscience.

  3. Corporate identity markers: All three exclusive-psalmody bodies (Associate, Reformed Presbyterian, ARP) maintained the same standard “by no act”—showing institutional commitment across related denominations.

  4. Useful for framing: This passage can be quoted directly to establish that contemporaries (and later historians) understood psalmody as the defining marker that sorted Reformed Presbyterians into different denominational homes.