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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

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of all Gospel-Ordinances in these days Ergo. That Assertion is vile and pernicious The Major cannot be denyed the Minor I have abundantly proved in this Treatise In Sect. 4. You seem to Answer what we say about Singing being a moral Duty Which you say Is the refuge of some who cannot maintain their practice of formal Singing by Gospel-Institution Append. pag. 27. Answ You mistake we need no Gospel-Institution 't is as clear a Precept in these Scriptures Ephes 5. 19. Col. 3. 16. as any we have in the New-Testament But we say Singing the Praises of God is more than a mere positive Duty What you further say under this Head doth but betrary your own Ignorance about moral Precepts and needs no Answer I having fully explained it in this Treatise Is it absurd and irrational for us to make the Moral Law or Light of Nature a Rule to exert the Worship of God see Append. p. 28. 'T is not so much the matter of Moral Duties as the manner of the performance of them that renders them Spiritual and for the more orderly and spiritual performance of such Duties that are in their own nature Moral they are brought under Gospel-institution as Prayer Preaching and Singing the Praises of God are and therefore all Moral Duties must be discharged by the help of the Spirit and with Grace in the Heart if accepted of God In pag. 33. of your Appendix you repeat your former Objection against Womens Singing in the Church because the Apostle saith he suffered not a Woman to teach nor usurp Authority over the Man but to be in silence So that Christ say you makes it an usurpation of Authority for a Woman to teach or to speak or any ways to break her Silence in the Church But then say you 't is objected These Scriptures that forbid Womens teaching and speaking in the Church do intend only that they should not be the Mouth of the Church as in Prayer and Doctrine c. To this Objection against your Exposition of these Scriptures you give your Answers 1. That such a sense as this we speak of is against the Letter of these Texts 2. By asserting that in Singing together there is Teaching Instruction and Admonition pag. 34. Answ This kind of arguing against Womens Singing we have all ready fully refuted but for the sake of our good Women and to detect this falsity I shall add a word or two further in way of Reply 'T is a hard case that Women should be debarred to speak in any sense or any ways to Break Silence in the Church as you affirm through a mistake of the Text. 1. For then they must not ask a Friend how he or she doth when in the Congregation 2. She must not be suffered to be an Evidence in the Church against any Offender in the case of Discipline 3. Then she must not ask where the Text is if she comes too late for that is in some sense a speaking and breaking Silence 4. Nor must she then say Amen at the close of Prayer for that 's a breaking Silence 5. Which is worst of all she must not in the Church give an account of her Conversion or declare how the Lord was pleased to work upon her Heart for I have shewed in that Act there is much instruction nay 't is so full of teaching to others that what some pious Women have spoke in the Church upon this account God hath blessed to the Conversion of Sinners as well as it has refreshed and sweetly comforted divers Believers and therefore herein you abuse the sense of the Holy Ghost and indeed are not I fear fit to be a Teacher of others but to learn in silence your self 2. The way therefore to understand this as well as other Scriptures is to have recourse to the main drift or purport of the Spirit of God therein And evident it is the main thing the Apostle drives at in both these places or doth intend is this viz. That Women ought not to be allowed to take part in the ordinary Ministration of preaching the Gospel or ministerially or authoritatively to preach the Word because he that has received a just Call so to do may and ought to exhort and command in the Name of our Lord Jesus with all Authority Tit. 2. 15. and this Work therefore Women should not take upon them because they must be in Subjection and not usurp Authority over the Man To take the bare letter of the Text without shewing the scope and drift of the Spirit of God in it would make sad work as I might shew from many Scriptures and has occasioned many abominable Errors any Heresies to abound in the World 3. As to that teaching which is in Singing it doth not lie in a Ministerial way and therefore not intended by the Spirit of God here Preaching or Teaching is not Singing nor Singing Preaching or Teaching though there is a Teaching in it You must learn better to distinguish between different Duties and Ordinances before you take upon you to teach others Read what I have before said and also what Mr. Cotton Sidenham c. have said as you will find it repeated in this Treatise in respect of the Nature of Teaching and Admonition that is in the Ordinance of Singing and you may further see how you miss and abuse these Scriptures for he or she that reads the Scripture may be said in some sense to teach there is much teaching in it yet sure a Woman may be suffered to do this as a case may present it self both in the Church or at home either in her Husbands presence and not be deemed to usurp Authority over him for the Usurpation the Apostle speaks of respects a Womans own Husband if not chiefly as well as others and therefore if she must not sing in the Church so by your Argument she must not sing nor read the Scripture at home in the presence of her Husband because there is a kind of teaching in both those Duties and if she should as you intimate she would not only break Silence but usurp Authority over the Man i. e. her Head and Husband which is forbid The Lord deliver poor Women and Men too from such kind of Doctrine as this 4. 'T is evident the Apostle lays no other restraint upon Women than what the Law laid them under they are to be silent or 't is not saith he permitted unto them to speak but they are commanded to be under Obedience as also saith the Law 1 Cor. 14. 34. And 't is as clear they were always under the Law suffered to sing in the Congregation as well as the Men therefore it was not such a Speaking or Teaching as is in Singing that Paul intends in those Scriptures 5. Whereas you affirm that Women were not admitted to pray nor prophesy in the Church neither in the Old nor New Testament is doubless false as our late Annotators well observed on 1 Cor. 14. 34. which
is the very Text you mention take their words This Rule must not say they be restrained to ordinary prophesying for certainly if the Spirit of Prophesy came upon a Woman in the Church she might speak Anna who was a Prophetess in the Temple gave Thanks to the Lord and spake of him to all them that looked for the Redemption of Israel and I cannot tell how Philip's Daughters prophesied if they did not speak in the presence of many The reason given why Women should be silent is because they are commanded to be in Obedience A Woman say they might say Amen to the publick Prayers and also sing with the Congregation to the Honour and Glory of God but for her to speak in an ordinary course of Prophesy to instruct People c. she is forbidden The Apostle saith a Friend in a Manuscript doth not prohibit all manner of speaking for that is directly contrary to 1 Cor. 11. 5 6. where Women are admitted to pray and prophesy for Prayer they may say Amen to the publick Prayers of the Church and for Prophesy they may sing Psalms the Apostle using the Expression according to the Ideum of the Jews 1 Sam. 19. 20 21. 1 Sam. 10. 5. they shall prophesy and for they shall prophesy the Cald. Paraphras reads they shall sing and thou shalt praise with them Vid. Wilson's Dict. Dr. Hammond's Annotat. on 1 Cor. 11. 5. and so it 's used 1 Chron. 25. 1 2 3. The Prohibition saith he is not restrained only to Church-Assemblies but holds good in all places and at all times and intends a Subjection of Women to their Husbands as plainly appears by comparing 1 Cor. 14. 35. with 1 Tim. 2. 12 13. with the occasion and scope of the Text and is of no greater Restraint now than lay on them under the Law 1 Cor. 14. 34. where they were permitted to sing Object But say you If we should say such a vocal Singing together is for a Teaching then where are the Hearers if all be Teachers c. Appendix p. 35. Answ We have shewed you Singing is a distinct thing from that which is called Teaching or Preaching tho in Singing there is a Teaching but chiefly we speak to our own selves as the Apostle exhorts in Psalms c. and the matter of the Psalm or Hymn is full of Teaching and Admonition yet 't is the Matter sung which teaches rather than the Singers may be said to do it nor is it any Contradiction to say when I teach others yet I am thereby taught and admonished my self So that if it were admitted to be a common or ordinary Teaching which must not be allowed and all might be said to teach c. yet nevertheless all are Hearers also and are in a sweet manner taught admonished and instructed in singing the Word of Christ in Psalms Hymns and spiritual Songs as elsewhere I have shewed Nor is it any Contradiction to say according to the sense of the Apostle Women must keep silence in the Church and yet suffer them to sing c. no more than it contradicts their Silence when they speak at other times which they are allowed to do In Sect. 6. You speak of those prophetical places of the Psalms c. urged by us for Singing under the Gospel-days where all the Earth is exhorted to sing unto the Lord Psal 96. 1. Psal 95. 1 2. Psal 100. 1 c. 1. This you would have refer to the preaching of the Gospel i. e. as the Apostles sound went forth into all the Earth Rom. 10. 18. confounding Preaching and Singing together one time and Prayer and Singing at another 2. You would have it chiefly to refer to the seventh thousand Years of the World or Reign of Christ hinting in your first Part as if then there shall be a Singing besides the Essence of it in their Spirits but if that thousand Years you speak of shall be before the end of the World or Gospel-Dispensation pray where lie those Precepts that will authorize them in those days to sing and yet do not authorize or warrant us to sing now Shall they have a new Bible for those Times But if the Precepts for Singing then are contained in our holy Scripture and yet do not belong to us 't is good for us to consider whether other Precepts written therein do not wholly refer to those Times too nay all Ordinances till the Spirit comes down in an extraordinary manner and so now we must throw off all Gospel-Administrations and turn Seekers I am sorry to see such Stuff as this published to the World But what I have said or cited from the Writings of other Godly Men in respect of those Prophetical Psalms and other places of Scripture that enjoin the Gentile-Churches to sing the Praises of the Lord I would have you and others consider well of before you write again In Sect. 7. you heap up a company of confused words to no purpose about premeditated Matter for Prayer to oppose premeditated Hymns c. Append. pag. 38 39 40 41 42 43 c. Answ 1. The Form of Prayer Christ hath left us is a Rule for us in Prayer and we may premeditate what we intend to lay before the Lord it appears from thence and so is the Word of Christ our general Rule by which we must premeditate and precompose our Spiritual Hymns and Songs 2. But Prayer and Singing differ the one from the other we may use other words in Prayer than what we premeditated as the Spirit of God may help us But we are limited by God's Word to sing David's Psalms or else Hymns and Spiritual Songs composed out of the Word of God Now let them be either they must be so many words and no more or else none can sing with him that has the Hymn Now we say the extraordinary Influences for Singing Preaching Interpreting c. are gone therefore every Ordinance must be performed by the ordinary Gifts and Influences of the Spirit or else we must have none at all Was Singing or any other Ordinance performed in the Gospel-Days by an extraordinary Spirit not performed then also and afterwards as well and as acceptable to God by the ordinary Gifts Shew if you can that other Ordinances which had such special Gifts then to attend them as well as Singing do notwithstanding remain Ordinances and yet Singing of Psalms and Hymns doth not so continue If therefore a Man should premeditate every word of his Sermon by the Assistance of the Spirit who dares to say he speaks not by the Help of the Holy Ghost or that his Sermon is not part of Spiritual Worship 'T is no matter whether we have our Sermons or our Hymns mediately or immediately composed and brought forth provided they be Spiritual and done by the help of the Spirit But to close all Are not David's Psalms part of Spiritual Worship and are not the Churches exhorted to sing them In Sect. 8. Appendix pag. 43 44 c.
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