Non Clamor Sed Amor

Samuel Longfellow, Life of Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, Vol. 3, Appendix VII, p. 446:

The Motto

Upon one of Mr. Longfellow's book-plates was engraved the motto "Non clamor sed amor." It was taken from the following stanza which he had found, without any author's name, in one of his books: --

"Non vox sed votum,
Non chorda sed cor,
Non clamor sed amor,
Clangit in aure Dei."

Not voice but vow,
Not harp-string but heart-string,
Not loudness but love,
Sounds in the ear of God.

The verse that is Longfellow's motto has been oft-repeated through the ages, and variously attributed to Augustine, the Venerable Bede, Lewis Bayly, Francis Roberts, and others. I have spent some time tracing its origin, and after reviewing the various citations by Bayly, Roberts, and, further back, Jerome Zanchius, and his mentor, Peter Martyr, I think I am able with some confidence to point to the source of this verse as being a medieval gloss on Gratian's Decretum, Distinction 92, Chaps. 1 and 2.

Lewis Bayly, The Practice of Piety (1611), p. 154:

4. As you sing uncover your heads (1 Cor. xi. 4), and behave yourselves in comely reverence as in the sight of God, singing to God in God’s own words; but be sure that the matter make more melody in your hearts (Eph. v. 19; Col. iii. 16) than the music in your ear; for the singing with grace in our hearts is that which the Lord is delighted withal, according to that old verse:

Non vox, sed votum; non miisica chordula, sed cor:

Non clamans, sed amana, psallit in aure Dei.

‘Tis not the voice, but vow;

Sound heart, not sounding string;

True zeal, not outward show,

That in God’s ear doth ring.

Francis Roberts, Clavis Bibliorum: The Key of the Bible (1665), p. 129:

4. Sing with the heart and inward affections, making melody with Grace there to the Lord, as well as with the voice making melody to the outward eare. The Apostle insists in a special manner upon this Direction.
....
d. The Gloss rightly prefers the real heart-melody before the formal Voice-musick: saying;

Non vox, sed votum; non Musica chordula, sed Cor:
Non clamor, sed Amor; Psallit in aure Dei.

Soule's vow, not ayery voice; sound heart, not sounding string:
Pure love, not piercing-noise; in Gods ear sweetly sing.

Jerome Zanchius, Commentarius in Epistolam Sancti Pauli ad Ephesios (1594, 1888 ed.), p. 242:

Multa in hanc sententiam & contra hanc nimis numerosam Musicam scripta legantur in Decret. distinct. 92. Et concluditur ex hoc loco Pauli. corde magis lingua & voce canendum esse Dominio. Et ibidem glossa duos pios versus, quanquam non elegantes.

Non vox sed votum: non chordula Musica sed cor,
Non clamans sed amans cantat in aure Dei.

Peter Martyr, "On Music and Song" ("De Musica et Carminibus") in Commentary on Judges (In Librum Iudicum) (1561), translated by Joseph C. McLelland, in John Patrick Donnelly, S.J., Frank A. James III & Joseph C. McLelland, eds., The Peter Martyr Reader (1999), p. 170:

Augustine adds that those who give greater heed to music than to the words of God sin with penalty, as he puts it. Jerome agrees wholly with this judgment, as he has noted on the letter to the Ephesians.15 Gregory of Rome shared the same opinion, in a synod at Rome. Their words are written in the Decrees, distinction 92, the chapter Cantantes and the chapter In sancta Romana.16 In its gloss we read these two verses, not very eloquent, but devout:

Not the voice, but the desire; not the tune, but the heart;
not being noisy but loving, sounds in God's ear.17

15 Augustine Conf. X.50 (PL 32.800): poenaliter me peccare confiteor; Jerome on Eph. 5.19 has "Let the servant of God sing in such a way that the words of the text rather the voice of the singer cause delight" -- Gratian Dec. I, dist. XCII (PL 187.129ff.).
16 Gratian Dec. I, dist. 92, chaps. 1 and 2 (PL 187.429): corde magis quam voce Deo cantandum meminerint.
17 Non vox, sed votum; non cordula musica, sed cor [vox]; Non clamans, sed amans cantat in aure dei. I follow Anthony Marten's Commonplaces here, substituting cor for vox at the end of the first line, thus offering a better parallel to cordula and contrast to the initial vox.

Turning Words Into Works

Francis Roberts provides a list of directions for the right use of Scripture in Clavis Bibliorum: The Key of the Bible, Unlocking the Richest Treasury of the Holy Scriptures, and the last (p. 11) I thought particularly worthwhile to post here:

IX Rule.

The last Direction I shall commend to the Reader for the improvement of Heavenly dexterity in, and understanding of the holy Scriptures, is; Endeavor sincerely to practice Scripture, and you shall solidly understand Scripture. Bernard said truly, he rightly reads the Scriptures that turns words into works, Knowing into Doing. The mightiest man in practice, will in the end prove the mightiest man in Scripture. Theory is the guide of Practice, Practice the Life of Theory. Where Scripture contemplation and experience meet both together in the same person, true Scripture understanding must needs be heightned and doubled. To this effect is Christs promise My Doctrine is not mine, but his that sent me; if any man will do his will, he shall of the doctrine whether it be of God. To like purpose subscribes the experience of David. That through thy commandments hast made me wiser than mine enemies: for they are ever with me. I have more understanding than all my teachers: for thy testimonies are my meditation. I understand more than the Ancients, because I keep thy Precepts.

God's Covenants

Francis Roberts, who wrote many theological works and a version of the metrical Psalms, is the author of the largest single Puritan treatise on covenant theology. In the introduction The Mysteries and Marrow of the Bible: viz. God's Covenants with Man, he wrote that his compendium was the product of "weekly lectures, to treat of God's Covenants, [which he commenced] on Sept. 2, 1651, and have persisted therein till the very publication of this book, in May, 1657." It consists of 1,721 pages in folio.

Charles Pastoor and Galen K. Johnson, Historical Dictionary of the Puritans, pp. 270-271:

ROBERTS, FRANCIS (1609-1675). English Puritan preacher. Roberts was born at Methley, near the town of Leeds. He studied at Trinity College, Oxford, and became a proponent of Presbyterianism, subscribing to the Solemn League and Covenant of 1643. In that same year, Roberts became the pastor of the St. Augustine's Church on Watling Street. He served doubly as the chaplain to the Earl of Essex in Dublin, and, in 1649, he became the rector at Wrington, Somerset. His theological legacy lies chiefly in his book The Mystery and Marrow of the Bible, a massive tome that elaborates the history of God's dealings with the human race in terms of six covenants, arranged successively through Adam, Abraham, Moses, David, the Jewish exiles in Babylon, and Jesus Christ. His additional writings include Believers Evidences for Eternal Life, The Key of the Bible, and True Way to the Tree of Life.

Won Taek Lim in The Covenant Theology of Francis Roberts, pp. 3-4, writes:

Among the works of those inappropriately neglected Puritan thinkers, Roberts' immense book on covenant stands out. In 1657 Roberts published The Mysterie and Marrow of the Bible: viz. God's Covenants with Man.... Considering the size of books published at that time, it was extraordinary to write more than 1,700 pages in folio on a single subject. In God's Covenants Roberts' citation of authors ranges widely from the early church to his own days. Roberts cites St. Augustine and John Calvin more often than any individual Puritan thinkers, including the divines of the Westminster Assembly.

Roberts outlines the plan of his work ("a plan devised and partially executed by John Ball," Charles Augustus Briggs, General Introduction to the Study of Holy Scripture, p. 465, and referenced by Thomas Blake in Vindiciae Foederis; or, a Treatise of the Covenant of God Entered With Man-Kinde in his preface to the reader (1653)):

A Work of vast extent, comprising in it: all the methods of divine dispensations to the Church in all ages; all the conditions of the Church under those dispensations; all the greatest and precious promises, of the life that now is, and of that which is to come; all sorts of blessings promised by God to man; all sorts of duties repromised by man to God; all the gradual discoveries of Jesus Christ, the only Mediator and Saviour of sinners; the whole mystery of all true religion from the beginning to the end of the world; and which as a continued thred of gold runs through the whole series of all the Holy Scriptures,...because I have set my heart exceedingly to the Covenants of my God, which (in my judgment) are an universal basis or foundation of all true religion and happiness, I have shunned no diligence, industry, or endeavor that to me seemed requisite for the profitable unveiling of them.

Ernest F. Kevan, The Grace of Law: A Study of Puritan Theology, p. 116, records the diagram of God's Covenants that Roberts sets forth (p. 16, cf. pp. 177, 739 f.), which I have reformatted here:

God's COVENANT is twofold

1. A Covenant of Works, in the first Adam, before the Fall.

2. A Covenant of faith, in the second Adam, after the Fall; comprehending [1 and 2 below].

1. The Covenants of Promise, under the Old Testament. (1) With Adam. (2) With Noah. (3) With Abraham. (4) With Israel in Mount Sinai. (5) With David. (6) With the Jews about their return from Babylon.

2. The Covenant of Performance, or the New Covenant under the New Testament.

In 2007, I had the privilege to visit the Puritan Resource Center at Puritan Reformed Theological Seminary in Grand Rapids, Michigan, which owns a copy of Roberts' tome. A dear friend took a picture of me with that book, along with some others, including another by Roberts, The Key of the Bible (along with the Works of William Perkins and Daniel Rogers' Naaman the Syrian, his Disease and Cure). It is my prayer that one day, massive though it is, someone will take on the project of republishing God's Covenants, for the benefit of the Church, which always stands in need of a deeper understanding of covenant theology.