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ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A47361	An answer to Mr. Marlow's Appendix Wherein his arguments to prove that singing of psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs, was performed in the primitive church by a special or an extraordinary gift, and therefore not to be practised in these days, are examined, and clearly detected. Also some reflections on what he speaks on the word hymnos, hymnos: and on his undue quotations of divers learned men. By a learned hand. By B. Keach.	Keach, Benjamin, 1640-1704.	1691 (1691)	Wing K43A; ESTC R223737	27,870	57

in answer to what we say That our Psalms and Hymns are Spiritual though precomposed you say 1. That such Forms are not Spiritual Worship because Singing in the Primitive Gospel-Times was from the special Gift of the Spirit 2. Though say you the Matter of precomposed Forms of Singing be Spiritual yet the Heart must be Spiritual too or Grace and Melody must be in exercise in performing of them The Grace of Joy must be raised in the Soul to the heighth of Melody and so break forth Or to that purpose you speak pag. 44 45. Answ 1. We need no more the special Gift in Singing to render our Singing Spiritual than those special Gifts in Preaching to render our Sermons Spiritual 2. As to have Grace in our Hearts not only in the Habit but also in the Exercise in Singing we acknowledg it is necessary to a right performance of it And so 't is in Prayer Preaching and all other Spiritual Duties of Religion And let me tell you we need no greater assistance of the Spirit in Singing than in Praying or Rejoicing therefore what signifies that which you say pag. 45. Viz. The least exercise of true Grace in our Hearts in Prayer gives Essence or Being to Prayer so the least exercise of gracious melodious Joy gives Essence to inward Singing And say you as we ought not vocally to pray in the Publick Worship of God in the Church without a sufficient Gift of the Spirit so also we ought not vocally to sing in the Church unless it be by a sufficient Gift of the Spirit And seeing we have not such a Gift we are not capable of vocal Spiritual Singing And so we must be contented as you intimate in pag. 46. with the Essence of it in our Spirits only Answ By this way of arguing you may lay Godly Christians under Temptations about Prayer especially in the Church because they may plead they have not the Gift whereas the Grace of Prayer viz. a broken Heart is that which God chiefly looks at and so should we too This makes no more against Singing than it doth against Praying And thus I must argue upon you If I have not the special Gift of Singing I must content my self with the Essence of it in my Heart and yet as I have shewed the essence of it is not in the Heart as it is in the Voice and so since if I have not the special Gift of Prayer I must be contented with the Essence of Prayer only Heart-Prayer and not pray vocally at all But you intimate that none ought to sing but such who are in the full assurance of the Love of God But you might as well say none ought to rejoice in the Lord nor to praise him but such only as well as to say what you do here against their Singing who want that assurance But you hint in pag. 46. as if we must be satisfied with your Essence of Singing viz. inward joy in the Heart till we come to the primitive perfection of Divine Worship c. Answ We doubt not through Grace but we are come to such perfection of Divine Worship as to know what Gospel-Worship is and also that we ought not to neglect one Ordinance more than another because we are not arrived to the height of Perfection I am sure the way you would lead poor Souls in is not to bring them forward towards perfection in Worship but to keep them back and hinder them in pressing on to that which some have not yet attained unto Moreover your folly appears too much in calling our Singing an Irregular way of Worship unless you had more strength of Argument to convince your Reader what you say is true May be if you had Truth on your side you might have answered like a Man But I am satisfied all wise Men will say there appears nothing less than Argument In both parts of your Book there are many words indeed but little else as I can see If what I have said have no more strength of Argument and Scripture and good Sense in it for Singing of Psalms c. than appears in your Book against it I do intreat my Reader to reject what I have said and esteem it as worth nothing but if it be otherwise viz. upright even words of Truth O then ye Saints receive this Ordinance and let what I have said by the assistance of God's Spirit be as Goards and as Nails fastened by the Master of Assemblies which are given from one Shepherd Prov. 12. 10 13. One word more to those Texts in Paul's Epistles Ephes 5. 19. Col. 3. 16. where he enjoins those Churches to admonish one another in Psalms Hymns and Spiritual Songs c. Can any Man suppose in these words the Apostle exhorts Ministers to preach and so sing in Preaching or to admonish one another to pray and so to sing in Prayer How absurd would it be to affirm either Why then say I he can mean nothing else but this Ordinance of Singing c. Object But say some Did not the Lord's People of Old in their Captivity say How can we sing one of the Lord's Songs in a strange Land Psal 137. 4. Answ 1. Under that Dispensation the Lord's People had a special and peculiar Right to Temporal Blessings and when they were deprived of them and in Exile they might not see they had that cause to sing the Praises of God But our Promises and Privileges are better and more inward and Spiritual And therefore under the Gospel-Days we find the Saints sung in the midst of their greatest Sufferings for as our Sufferings do abound in us so our Consolation also aboundeth by Christ 2 Cor. 1. 5. 2. I know not but we nevertheless might see cause to refuse as they did to sing the Lord's Song at the taunting and reproachful Requests of an insulting Enemy the Lord's People are not to do the Lord's Work at the Devil's Instigation 3. But blessed be God we are not in Exile we are delivered like Men that dreamed our Liberty and Mercies are great if we do not sin them away In the last place consider how acceptable and well-pleasing to God his Praises are in a Song read Psal 69. 30. I will praise the Name of God with a Song and will magnify him with Thanksgiving Vers 31. This also shall please the Lord better than an Ox or Bullock that hath Horns and Hoofs Two things you may observe from hence 1. That to sing God's Praises is acceptable to him 2. That 't is no Ceremonial Rite but in it self a Moral Duty Sacrifices appertained to the Ceremonial Law and though acceptable to God in their Nature and Design yet Moral Duties have always had the preference He hath shewed thee O Man what is good i. e. that excells that which God most delights in to do justly love Mercy c. Mic. 6. 8. And this of praising God in a Song seems from hence to be a Duty of the same Nature

AN ANSWER TO Mr. Marlow's Appendix Wherein his Arguments to prove that Singing of Psalms Hymns and Spiritual Songs was performed in the Primitive Church by a Special or an Extraordinary Gift and therefore not to be practised in these Days Are Examined and clearly Detected Also some Reflections on what he speaks on the word ὑμνοσ Hymnos And on his undue Quotations of divers Learned Men. By a Learned Hand Psal 119. 141. I am small and despised yet do not I forget thy Precepts 1 Cor. 14. 22. Wherefore Tongues are for a Sign not to them that believe but to them that believe not but Prophesying serveth not for them that believe not but for them that believe By B. KEACH London Printed for the Author and sold by John Hancock in Castle-Alley on the West side of the Royal-Exchange and by the Author at his House near Horselydown in Southwark 1691. To all the Saints and Churches of Jesus Christ Christian Salutation Honoured and Beloved IT grieves me I have further occasion to trouble you after this manner I know not what should move Mr. Marlow to write his Appendix just at a time when he was told I was writing an Answer to his first Discourse he might have had a little Patience and have staid till my Treatise was published whereby he might the better have perceived whether what he wrote the last Year would abide the Test or Trial of God's Word or not This is therefore his second Attempt in publick against God's holy Ordinance of singing of Psalms Hymns c. before any body appeared visibly to oppose or put a stop to his undue Proceedings For what Call he had to begin this Controversy at such an unseasonable time I know not but since he has done it certainly none can see any just cause to blame me for standing up in the Defence of that Truth of Jesus Christ which I am so well satisfied about and established in and that too as it is practised by the Church to whom I am related as an unworthy Member and above twenty Baptized Congregations besides in this Nation Tho before I went about it I offered my Brethren him or any other a sober and friendly Conference in the Spirit of Meekness which I could not obtain tho I did not give such a publick Challenge as my Brother intimates in that strange Epistle he hath wrote to me but upon the coming forth of his Book I was troubled and would have had it been discoursed in the General Assembly but that was not consented to and then I told my honoured and Reverend Brethren my purpose was to give an Answer to his Book but did not enter upon it till I was urged by several and particularly by Mr. Marlow himself before divers Witnesses in such kind of words as these i. e. Answer me like a Man Whether he is answered like a Man or but like a Child is left to your Consideration 't is done according to that Light and Ability God hath been pleased to bestow upon me But if he or any of his Helpers do see cause to reply they must answer such Persons who have wrote upon this Truth like Men and Men too of great Parts Learning and Piety or let them not trouble me nor the World any more As touching his Epistle to the Churches I shall take but little notice of it nor of that he hath writ to my self sith in my Judgment neither of them signify much you are Men of greater Wisdom than to be frightn̄ed out of an Ordinance or deterred from seeking after the Knowledg of it with these scurrilous Names of Error Apostacy Human Tradition prelimited Forms mischievous Error Carnal Forms Carnal Worship c. These are hard Words and do not bespeak a trembling Heart nor a humble Spirit and better becomes a Man that pretends to Infallibility But what some Men want of sound Arguments they think to make up by hard Words and Confidence but this will never do with you How hath our Practice of baptizing Believers c. been branded with the reproachful Name of Error and 't is very observable how some Men of far greater Parts and Ability than my Brothers or mine either have cried out against the Reign of Christ Conversion of the Gentiles and calling of the Jews as a gross Error as witness Mr. Richard Baxter particularly of late 'T is Arguments I know you look for and if you find those of Mr. Marlow's to prevail against what I have said do not regard what I have wrote in the least for I would have your Faith as the Apostle speaks to stand in the Power of God and not in the Wisdom of Men. The smallness of the Number of our Churches who are in the Practice of this Ordinance I also know will signify nothing with you provided it be proved to be a Truth of Jesus Christ What tho there was not one of our Churches that had Light in it it would certainly the more concern them to enquire after it And tho he hath so coursly saluted me c. yet I am not concerned at it further than to bewail his Confidence and Ignorance to say no worse I know no Men in any Age who appeared first to vindicate a Truth which others call an Error but have met with the same Usage I meet withal from our Brother who I hope is a good Man and means well yet is he strangely beclouded As I have been a Preacher up of Spiritual Worship as he says and that too more than thirty Years tho a poor and unworthy one so through the Grace of God I hope shall continue to do unto the end of my days and 't is only Spiritual Worship you may perceive I plead for in contending for singing of Psalms Hymns and Spiritual Songs none of which three can be without their special and particular form But must they needs be therefore carnal and humane Forms which appertain unto them I see 't is time to stand up for the Form of Ordinances for the Form of Doctrine and for the Form of sound Words for if we must part with singing of Psalms Hymns c. from his pretended Arguments about Forms all external Ordinances must go as well as that of Singing In a word we must give up our whole visible Profession and wait for those extraordinary Gifts of the Spirit that were in the Primitive Time if we must not sing till we have that extraordinary Gift to do it which some had in the Apostles Days and the like in discharge of every Gospel-Ordinance which were to abide in the Church to the end of the World He may as well therefore say I do but counterfeit that excellent Gift in Preaching when I preach which was in the Primitive Gospel-Church as thus to charge me in the case of our singing by the ordinary Gifts of the Spirit Read his Epistle to me Append. p. 15. It seems to me as if my Brother does not understand the nature of Moral

Duties or natural Worship but mistakes and thinks natural or moral Worship must needs be carnal tho we never plead for the performance of any Duties that are moral naturally in themselves without the help and assistance of God's Spirit and the Graces thereof in our Hearts Is it not part of natural Religion and Worship to fear God to love God and trust in God and that too with all our Hearts and with all our Souls and with all our Strength and love our Neighbours as our selves c. These Duties appertain to natural Religion yet without the divine Help and Influences of the Spirit we can do none of them in a right manner no more say I can we pray nor sing the Praises of God which are Duties comprehended in our fearing honouring worshipping and loving of him And whereas Mr. Marlow reflects on me as if I singled out my self more than others in London in pushing on this practice of Singing I must tell him I have abundance of Peace in my Spirit in what I have done therein And if our People I mean the Church to whom I belong are one of the first Churches of our Perswasion in this City found in the practice of this Sacred Ordinance I am satisfied it will be to their great Honour and not to their Reproach and that not only in succeeding Ages but also in the Day of Jesus Christ But blessed be God the greatest number of our worthy London-Elders are as well satisfied in this Truth as my self and many of their People too and will generally I doubt not in a little time get into the practice of it Our Reverend Brother Knowllys 't is known is clear in it and has practised it for some Years though at present 't is not used in his Congregation He told me lately he is about to write in Vindication thereof which he intends to publish in a short time if the Lord please to spare his Life And whereas Mr. Marlow affirms as if I had brought Singing into our Congregation to the grief and trouble of many of our Members it is false for 't is known the Church hath been in this practice near twenty Years after Breaking of Bread and near 14 Years on Thanksgiving-days in a mixt Congregation And what was done of late in bringing it in after Sermon on the Lord's Days was done by a regular Act of the Church in a solemn manner And though some of our worthy Brethren and Sisters are at present somewhat dissatisfied with it yet I doubt not but will in a little time see their Mistakes if such busy Men as he do not in an undue manner blow up Coals of Contention amongst us Can any sober Christian think he hath done well to publish the Private Affairs of a Particular Church to the whole World It seems to some as if he has hopes there will be a Breach in the Church upon the Account of our Singing the Praises of God but I hope he will find our worthy Brethren understand themselves better than to go about to impose on the Church or Consciences of their Brethren or to strive to pull down that which the Church and themselves too have been a building for so many Years Can there be a Man so left of God as to countenance any Persons to make a Schism in a Congragation because they cannot forgo a Duty they have so long been satisfied in the practice of and so the whole Body to submit to the Sentiments of a few Persons as if they had Power over our Faith We do not say our dissatisfied Brethren shall sing with us or we will have no fellowship with them no God forbid we should impose on their Consciences We do not look upon Singing c. an Essential of Communion 't is not for the being but for the comfort and well-being of a Church We have told our Brethren since we sing not till after our last Prayer if they cannot sing with us nay nor stay with the Church whilst we do sing they may go forth and we will not be offended Should any countenance through a hot and unaccountable zeal such a Schism it would make strange Confusion in our Churches And since he thus publickly hints at this private Case amongst us I had I thought a clear Call to open the matter plainly as it is to clear my self and the Church to all who may read his Epistle and this my Answer for we have done nothing we have the least cause to be ashamed of or unable to justify in the sight of God or Man I shall add one word to the consideration of the Brethren of our Church I doubt not but they will consider it 1. If they look upon us as equal in Knowledg and Uprightness towards God with themselves they may see we have the same ground to be offended with them in diminishing from God's Word as they may be with us for adding as possibly they think to God's Word 2. And let them consider 't is a horrid Evil to break the Bond of Spiritual Union and unawares to wound the Body of Christ Whose Work is it thus to do but the Devil's and what a reproach doth it bring upon the Truth and how grievous is it to all truly Godly Ones and grateful to the Enemies of our Sacred Profession Besides upon such a trifle can it be so hainous a Crime to be found often in that Duty which they with us have so often and long been in the practice of and in a mixt Assembly too many and many times Besides brought in by almost an unanimous Agreement in a solemn Church-Meeting there being not above five or six that shewed any publick dissent nor they neither signifying any such dissatisfaction i. e. that if we sang at such Times they could not bear it nor do I hear they do desire us now to decline the said practice Love will cover a greater Fault than this for they may see cause to believe 't is not Self-Interest but the Glory of God we wholly aim at But to return The truth is I wonder any should be taken with his Book for I never saw any thing come out in Print upon any controvertible Truth that has less of Argument in it or more of Confidence And 't is not my Thoughts alone nor more destructive Mediums made use of to the whole of the external Parts of Religion Nay one told me very lately that one of our dissatisfied Members intimated to him as if our Bible was not truly or rightly translated and it seems to rise from what Mr. Marlow hath asserted in his Book about the word Hymnos I fear'd that would be the Effect of his Attempt if any Body regarded what he hath said upon that account But pray what Call has he to rebuke me after this publick manner especially before the whole World If I had done any thing amiss in his Judgment in that Matter I could wish he had had more Wisdom and Prudence or