RP view that Associate Reformed Church declined through hymn-singing and open communion

Context

Glasgow quotes from a later edition of the Associate Testimony (emitted about fifty years after the 1782 union that formed the Associate Reformed Church) to document how the original Covenanter and Seceder principles were gradually abandoned. This passage represents the Reformed Presbyterian interpretation of why the ARP declined, directly linking hymn-singing to institutional decay.

Extract

In an edition of their Testimony, emitted about fifty years after the union, we read: “Nearly fifty years have now elapsed since the organization of the Associate Reformed Church; and the correctness of the [former] remarks on her Constitution, has been clearly exhibited. For some time she continued to observe the usages of the Associate Church from which she separated. But becoming numerous and popular some of her ministers began to manifest symptoms of dissatisfaction with many of these usages, acted contrary to them, wrote against them, and attempted their abolition.” Among their divisive courses enumerated were the doing away with days of fasting and preparation before communion, holding open communion, singing hymns, freely exchanging pulpits with all denominations, and agitating a union with the Presbyterian Church. The history of the Associate Reformed Church was marked with so much declension, that the body divided into three distinct Synods in the North, South and West.

Significance

This passage is crucial for understanding how exclusive psalmody advocates interpreted denominational history. From the RP perspective, hymn-singing was not an isolated change but part of a broader pattern of “declension” that included abandoning fasting days, adopting open communion, and pursuing Presbyterian union. The rhetorical construction places hymn-singing alongside these other “divisive courses” as evidence of unfaithfulness to Reformation principles. The fact that the ARP eventually split into three synods is presented as the natural consequence of these innovations. This interpretive framework - linking worship changes to institutional fragmentation - would have been compelling evidence for those considering whether to leave hymn-singing denominations.