in cold Weather so is he that singeth Songs to an heavy Heart And sometimes it was unseasonable while it was yet an Institution Psal 137.1 2 3 c. By the Rivers of Babylon there we sat down we hanged our Harps upon the Willows They that carried us Captive required of us to sing one of the Songs of Sion How shall we sing the Lord's Song in a strange Land Is any afflicted Jam. 5.1 let him pray Is any merry let him sing Psalms So then if Singing be the expressing of Joy Gladness and Mirth of Spirit and the Church of Christ be now in a Wilderness Mourning Sackcloth-State why should we imagine that Christ should appoint such an Ordinance for her constant universal Practice while she is in such Estate that is so improper and contrary to her State and Spirit but that the Typical Glory of the Jewish Church in Solomon's time shall be compleatly answered in the external and spiritual Glory of the Church of Christ in her Kingdom-State Secondly The Singing of David's Psalms were suitable to all the rest of the Levitical Ceremonial and external instituted Worship of God in the Old-Testament-Church in its most perfect splendant State in David's and Solomon's Days consisting of a wordly Temple Heb. 9.9 10 23. ch 7.12 ch 8.13 ch 10.1 for if the Sanctuary was worldly the Temple was also worldly and of carnal Ordinances which was a Figure for the time then present and Pattern of Heavenly things and Shadow of good things to come but not the very Image of the things and were imposed on them until the time of Reformation and change of the Priesthood Law Temple and Service or Worship of God which things being all removed by Christ the Body and Substance of them Acts 15.10.28 Rom. 7.6 who hath taken off that Yoak and delivered us from the Law that we should serve in Newness of Spirit and not in the Oldness of the Letter 2 Cor. 3.6 to bring in any part of the Levitical Ceremonial Institutions into Gospel-Worship for that is a mingling of Letter and Spirit of Law and Gospel together Thirdly David's Psalms were instituted appointed and appropriated not only to vocal Singing but to divers kinds of musical Instruments which are all named 1 Chron. 15.16 to 25. See Dutch Annot. on Psal 9. Psal 22. Psal 16. 1 Chron. 15.20 21. 1 Chron. 13. ch 14. ch 28.12 13. viz. Cymbals Harps Psalteries and Trumpets together with vocal Singing and limited by the Spirit as divers are of opinion to certain Tunes or Parts of Musick ordained and commanded by the Spirit of God and of as great Force as Singing was And therefore to follow the Old-Testament-Institution of David's Psalms there will be a Necessity of having David's Instruments of Musick and Tunes or Parts and of the Courses and several Orders of the Levites which Antichrist somewhat imitates mixing together the Christian Jewish and Pagan Religion instead of conforming to the true Apostolical Institutions and Pattern of Divine Worship Fourthly The matter of David's Psalms and of other Holy Mens contained in the same Book suited to the Levitical Service and not to Gospel-Worship for many of them were suited to particular Occasions and Experiences and Accidents of that Day as you may see by divers of their Titles others were general of Israel's Deliverance out of Egypt and from divers other Enemies Some were clear Prophecies of the Sufferings of Christ which to sing now were to deny that Christ is come in the Flesh and of his Church and the Glory that should follow under the Types and Names of David and Solomon and many legal things in which Gospel-Mysteries are wrapped up some of which are hard to be understood by the greatest Proficients of our Day and therefore improper to be sung by all the Church who can't sing them with Understanding and others of them being Prayers and miserable Complainings may as well justify the singing Prayers as finging Praises Fifthly The Psalms of David were limited to Persons viz. the Levites who were the Ministers of the Songs 2 Chron. 29.25 c. to 31. 1 Chron. 16.4 to 8. ver 36. ch 25. 1 to 8. ver 36 41. Psal 106.48 both by Voice and Musical Instruments for the People did not sing together with the Levites but only bowed the Head and worshipped and concluded with Amen and praised the Lord with Amen Hallelujah or Amen Praise ye the Lord. Therefore from this Davidical Institution there is no Ground Pattern or Example for the Gospel-Churich to sing together Sixthly Such singing the Psalms of David is no where instituted ordained or practised either by Christ or his Holy Apostles there is no Instance can be given in the New Testament that any of David's Psalms were ever sung by any Persons or Churches or that Christ or his Holy Apostles did ever use them but as they did other Scriptures or that the Holy Apostles when ever they had occasion to translate any one Text out of the Hebrew into the Greek Tongue did ever turn them into Metre and therefore finding no Institution nor Example we have no Warrant for the Singing of them III. Of prescribed and precomposed Songs and Hymns First If the Essence of Singing as before is shewed consisteth in an inward spiritual Exercise of the Soul or Mind of Man and that as I shall farther demonstrate both the Matter and the Melody of it proceedeth from the inward Graces and Operations of the Holy Spirit with the Word then surely no humane prescribed or precomposed form of Singing can be accepted of God but that which proceedeth from the Word of God by the Dictates and Teachings of the Holy Spirit which is manifest from those two Texts Ephes 5.18 19. Col. 3.16 saith the Apostle Be filled with the Spirit Let the Word of Christ dwell richly in you in all Wisdom c. Here is the Fountain of Gospel-Worship viz. the Word and Spirit of Christ not the Word alone for that cannot inrich the Soul in all Wisdom without the Spirit of Wisdom to understand it for to have the Word in the Head only is but a poor thing but we must have it to dwell richly in our Hearts by the Holy Spirit to sing with the Understanding and with Grace in our Hearts to the Lord. And as the Word in the Head only cannot create Melody in the Heart without a Fullness of the Spirit so the Spirit works not without the Word but fills us with matter from the Word and is witnessed to by the Word otherwise we know not the Spirit of Truth from the Spirit of Error Now the Essence of Singing consisteth of these two Parts viz. Matter from the Word and Melody by the Spirit so that neither the Word nor the Holy Spirit can be wanting and therefore whatsoever Forms are used which proceed not from within us out of a Fulness and Enrichings of the Word and Spirit cannot be spiritual Gospel-Singing
Secondly That no humane prescribed or precomposed Forms are to be used in Gospel-Prayer or Singing appears from the Ministration and Conveyance of the Spirit and Power by the Gospel First The Gospel conveys the Spirit as Paul saith Who also hath made us able Ministers of the New Testament not of the Letter but of the Spirit for the Letter killeth but the Spirit giveth Life or quickneth Here the Law is called the Letter and the Gospel Spirit not because the Law was not spiritual and the Gospel was not transcribed in the Letter but 1st Because the Law required perfect Obedience to the Letter on Pain of Eternal Death and the Gospel sincere Obedience through the Spirit 2dly Because the Legal Worship was more formal in the Letter than the Gospel-Ministration which is in Spirit For we are the Circumcision which worship God in the Spirit and have no Confidence in the Flesh viz. in the formal and carnal Ordinances of the Law and much less in the humane precomposed forms of Men. 3dly Because the Law did not minister nor convey the Spirit to us it commanded in the Letter but gave no spiritual Power to perform Obedience to it which the Gospel did by giving the Spirit with the Word Therefore the Apostle calls the Gospel the Law of the Spirit of Life Rom. 8.2 And it is not through the Works of the Law that we receive the Spirit nor minister the Spirit but through the hearing of Faith Gal. 3.2 5 14. And this agrees with that great Commission which Christ himself gave to his Disciples Go ye therefore and teach all Nations Lo Math. 28.19 20. I am with you always even to the End of the World Not only by his outward Providence which is over others as well as they but by his Spirit which shall abide with us for ever John 14.16 And the Prophet saith As for me this is my Covenant with them saith the Lord My Spirit that is upon thee and my Words which I have put in thy Mouth shall not depart out of thy Mouth nor out of the Mouth of thy Seed nor out of the Mouth of thy Seeds Seed saith the Lord from henceforth and for ever Here the Word and the Holy Spirit are conveyed throughout all Generations to the end of the World by the Covenant or Gospel of Jesus Christ And as none can say that the Words which the Lord had put in his Mouth were a humane prescribed form but as Christ himself saith John 6.63 The Words that I speak unto you they are Spirit and they are Life So the same Words proceeding from us by the same Spirit are Spirit in opposition to humane and legal forms which reject and deny the sufficient successive Gifts of the Spirit So that it is clearly manifest that the sufficient Gifts of the Holy Spirit do still remain and shall remain for the Service and Worship of God to the end of the World Secondly The Gospel doth minister and convey Power For where the Spirit is there will be Power The Apostle saith Ye have not received the Spirit of Bondage viz. of the Law again to fear Rom. 8.15 16. but ye have received the Spirit of Adoption whereby we cry Abba Father The Spirit gave a sufficient Power not only to the Apostles as such or to the Saints in Rome as partaking of the extraordinary Gifts of the Holy Spirit in that present Day but Gal. 4.6 Because ye are Sons God hath sent forth the Spirit of his Son into your Hearts crying Abba Father Here is the Reason of their Power because ye are Sons therefore all that are Sons according to the measure of the Spirit of Adoption which beareth Witness with our Spirits that we are the Children of God have Power to pray to God as to their Father 2 Tim. 1.7 For God hath not given us the Spirit of Fear but of Power and of Love and of a sound Mind 1 Cor. 4.19 20. And the Kingdom of God is not in Word but in Power There were some in the Church of Corinth that were puffed up in their Minds whose Speech the Apostle would not know or regard but the Power of Religion was that which he looked for and did expect to find amongst them because the Kingdom of God viz. his Gospel-Church is not in Word but in Power A humane prescribed Form is no Power and therefore is none of this Gospel-Kingdom Jude 19. These are they that separate themselves sensual having not the Spirit And the Apostle Paul prophesied of such a professing People that should arise in the last Days Having a form of Godliness 2 Tim. 3.5 but denying the Power thereof and from such we must turn away They had an outward Form of Godliness but not the inward Power contrary to true Godliness which hath its Form from the inward Power and Workings of the Holy Spirit with the Word Now it is no Wonder that this formal People deny the Power of Godliness for an invented Form and the Power are Opposites and are inconsistent with each other for if there be a spiritual Power it refuses and denies the invented Form for then there is no need of a prescribed nor pre-composed humane Form and if we use such a Form we deny the Power and reject the sufficient successive Gifts of the Holy Spirit by relying on that Form And so the Apostle argues that as Jannes and Jambres withstood Moses so do these resist the Truth 2 Tim. 3.8 Men of corrupt Minds Reprobate concerning the Faith Thirdly Seeing that those Persons with whom I am chiefly concerned do not only oppose deny and refuse the Use of a humane prescribed and precomposed Form of Prayer but also of that Prayer which our Lord taught his Disciples of which they rightly say that it was but an Epitome of all Prayer and was never intended to confine Prayer to the Compass and Form of those Words For we find that none of those many Prayers in the New Testament were so limited but according to the State and Circumstances of Persons and things they made Supplication by the Holy Spirit and so must Singing also be left to the Liberty of the Holy Spirit of God And one might think that I need not use farther Arguments for their own Practice confutes their Error in Singing prescribed Forms and testifies the Truth I am pleading for for what Reason can be given for Forms of Singing when they deny all Forms of Prayer and how can they reject a Form of Prayer or the Form of Prayer which Christ hath left us in the New Testament while they maintain the use of a humane Form of Singing which is no where found in the Holy Scriptures IV. Of Womens Singing That Women ought neither to teach nor pray vocally in the Church of Christ is generally believed by all Orthodox Christians and is asserted from 1 Cor. 14.34 35. Let your Women keep silence in the Churches for it
Whether you will assert that meerly natural Worship without Gospel-Institutions and Qualifications for that which is Legal and Ceremonial is done away will please God and ought to be exercised in his Gospel-Church Or 3. Do you say that the acceptable manner of praising God in his Gospel-Church for that is the chiefest Point in question is discovered and warranted to us both from the Light of Nature and Divine Revelations and Gospel-Institutions and so because you have no Warrant from either of them for your Practice of formal Singing together do you shuffle between them both If you say that your Practice of singing Praises to God in his Church is a constant Ordinance by Divine Revelation and Institution only then you cannot pretend to the Practice of it from the Law or Instinct of Nature and if you found it on the Law of Nature only then you bring it into the Gospel-Church without regard being had to the Tenor of the Gospel which is that as God is a Spirit so they that worship him must worship in Spirit and in Truth as Christ saith The Hour cometh and now is Joh. 4.23 24. when the true Worshippers shall worship the Father in Spirit and in Truth for the Father seeketh such to worship him Which is not to be understood of worshipping in our natural Spirits only For the Apostle saith Rom. 8.8 26 27. that they that are in the Flesh cannot please God But ye are not in the Flesh but in the Spirit if so be that the Spirit of God dwell in you Now if any Man have not the Spirit of Christ he is none of his And that the Spirit also helpeth our Infirmities for we know not what we should pray for as we ought but the Spirit it self maketh intercession for us with Groanings which cannot be uttered And we are commanded to pray always with all Prayer and Supplication in the Spirit Ephes 6.18 And to pray in the Holy Ghost and to be filled with the Spirit Chap. 5.18 19. speaking to your selves in Psalms and Hymns and Spiritual Songs And I will pray with the Spirit 1 Cor. 14.15 and I will sing with the Spirit And the Apostle saith in his Epistles to the Romans and Galatians Rom. 8.15 Because ye are Sons God hath sent forth the Spirit of his Son into your Hearts crying Abba Father And ye have received the Spirit of Adoption Gal. 4.6 whereby we cry Abba Father So that Gospel-Prayer and Singing is in with and by the help of the Holy Spirit And therefore if no regard be had to Gospel-Institutions and Qualifications for Prayer Singing but that they are to be practised from the Law Light or Instinct of Nature only then such Prayer and Singing so perform'd can't be part of Gospel-Worship nor should they be knowingly suffered in any Gospel-Church For the design of God in erecting the Gospel-Church was that he might have a Spiritual House 1 Pet. 2.5 9. an Holy Priesthood to offer up spiritual not natural Sacrifices acceptable to God by Jesus Christ Moreover if Singing and Prayer are put together and performed by you as spiritual Duties why do you not follow the spiritual Rule and plain Gospel-Order for Singing as well as Prayer And if you put them together as natural Duties from the Law or Instinct of Nature only without regard being had to Divine Institutions and Qualifications it is the ready way to bring the World by Shoals into the Gospel-Church and so to turn it by major Votes which is no argument of Truth into a natural Church-state And it also opens a wide door for Forms of Prayer as well as for Forms of Singing for if the Practice of both are alike from the Law of Nature and Singing be performed in stinted precomposed Forms what reason can you render why such Forms of Prayer should not be used as well as such Forms of Singing But if Singing and Prayer are not put together by you as founded alike on the Law of Nature how can you demonstrate their Essences to be from the different Principles of Nature and Grace when true Gospel spiritual Singing is from the Fountain of the Holy Spirit as well as Prayer and preserve the Gospel-Church from the Confusion of apparently-known natural and spiritual Persons in having full Communion together if natural Worship meerly as such should be allowed therein Farthermore what Scripture-Grounds and Reasons can you render when you perform Prayer according to Gospel-Order in the Church with a single Voice by one at once in subjection to the Rule of Christ 1 Cor. 14.26 to 34. though Prayer is not expresly mentioned therein wherefore you do reject the Psalm expresly named and annexed with other Gifts unto the Rule from coming under the Order of it And what can you say to the Practice of Womens vocal Singing in the Church when it is so directly against the plain and positive Command of Christ To conclude this Epistle to you it highly concerns you to consider whether your practice of Singing or what I have herein asserted in this Treatise 1 Cor. 3.12 13 14 15. Rom. 2.16 can stand our Trial at the Day of Jesus Christ when both you and I shall appear before him and receive our Loss or Gain according to the Gospel And therefore that the Lord would graciously awaken you and convince you of your Error which I am perswaded that one day or other you will be made ashamed of and pardon your Sin and Injury to the Church of Christ therein and prevent your building of Hay and Stubble on the true Foundation and make you an Instrument of his Glory and his Peoples Comfort as it hath been my earnest Prayers to God for you so I desire in Love and Faithfulness to continue I. M. The CONTENTS of the Brief DISCOURSE or the First Part. 1. A Brief Exposition of Ephes 5.18 19. Col. 3.16 1 Cor. 14.26 Page 5 2. Of the Essence or Being of Singing Page 5 3. Of David's Psalms Page 9 4. Of Precomposed Songs and Hymns Page 15 5. Of Womens Singing Page 21 6. Of the Order of Singing Page 22 7. Objections answered 1. Of Moses Deborah and Barak's Singing Page 24 2. Of Musick used by the Prophets in Saul's Time Page 25 3. That Musick and Singing was an Institution to continue till Temple-Worship was made void is no Argument to prove that Gospel-Singing should continue in constant use from the Primitive Church till the second Coming of Christ Page 26 4. To Isa 52.8 9. Page 28 5. To Matth. 26.30 Page 29 6. To Acts 16.25 Page 32 7. To Ephes 5.19 Page 33 8. Of Wicked Mens praying and singing Praises Page 36 9. That true Believers having cause to praise God is no proof that they must constantly sing his Praise in his Worship Page 38 10. That Formal Prayer and Singing under the Law is no Argument for such under the Gospel Page 43 11. That Prayer and consequently Singing are of the same Nature under the Gospel as
may also be of the same Nature and intend the same thing as it did in the Legal Worship Answer It is true that private Prayer is a Duty of the same Nature under the Gospel as it was under the Law both with respect to the like Occasions Wants and Necessities of the Saints and to the same Spirit by which all true Believers do offer up spiritual and effectual Prayers to God But as to the Conveyance and Delivery of Prayer as an Ordinance in and for the publick ministerial and ordinary instituted Service of God in his Church there is a Difference in Gospel-Times to what it was under the Law for such publick Prayers were conveyed and delivered formerly with dark Shadows and carnal Ordinances by which means the Spirituality of spiritual Persons as David of whom it is said that he praised God by the Ministry of the Priests and Levites in the publick Worship of God was greatly vailed to what it now is 2 Chron. 7 6. 2 Cor. 3.13 14 15. 2 Chron. 29.25 to 31. Nehem. 11.17 22. since all those Forms Ceremonial Shadows and carnal Ordinances are removed for while the Priests were offering the Sacrifices the Priests and Levites in Songs with Instruments of Musick delivered such Psalms of Prayers and Praises as were appointed for the publick Service of God So that publick Prayers in the ordinary and constant Worship of God in the Old-Testament-Church was ministred in a different manner to what it now is and ought to be under the Gospel and therefore whatsoever Singing hath been or still may be in Gospel-Times may as well differ from the Old-Testament-Temple-Singing But having before shewed that Temple-Singing was no Type of Singing in the Gospel-Tabernacle-Church-State there is the less need of any Reply to this Objection Twelfth Objection Since the extraordinary Gifts of the Holy Spirit are ceased we must now pray and preach by its ordinary Gifts and if we are allowed to use precomposed Forms of Preaching why not of they might say Prayer and Singing also Answ 1. I do acknowledg and assert that we should not neglect Prayer till we have an extraordinary Gift or Impulse of Spirit unto Prayer but we should constantly go to God as we can not only for Continuance of those Mercies we have but for further Supplies of our inward and outward Wants which are the chiefest part of Prayer But Singing proceeds from a Fulness of Injoyment and is called a Breaking forth Isa 52.9 and therefore requires a greater Measure of the Holy Spirit For we can pray for what we have not but we should break forth into Singing from what we have otherwise we mock God and draw nigh unto him with our Mouths Isa 29.13 and honour him with our Lips when our Hearts are far from him and our Fear towards him is taught by the Precepts of Men and therefore when I consider the present State and Frame of the Churches of Jesus Christ I much wonder that so many should be for Singing when their Hearts are so much below Prayer for if we should go from Saint to Saint we should find that this is the general Cry I have a dead and stony Heart saith one and another mourneth under the Strength and Power of Sins and Temptations and a third for the Light of God's Countenance and the great Complaint is I am dull and heavy and cannot profit in Ordinances and that which is worst of all I am shut up in my Spirit that I cannot pray I want the Spirit of Prayer and Supplications Now if thus it be then where is the Spirit of Singing Will you lie and express that with your Lips to God which you have not in your Hearts But some of these will say Singing will raise my Spirit I find Refreshment by it and therefore I am for Singing To this I answer That there may be a natural sensual Joy in the Heart when it is not from the Light and Influence of the Holy Spirit and therefore we must beware that we make not our Spirits a Standard for the Worship of God but that we try our Spirits by the Scriptures 2dly As to Forms of Prayer and Singing I have sufficiently treated of them before and that the sufficient Gifts of the Holy Spirit shall continue for the Worship of God in the Gospel-Church to the end of the World and therefore my Business here is only to shew that the using a Form of Preaching is no Example for a Form of Singing if it be why not of Prayer also which you deny because there is Reason for a Form of Preaching from the Word of God and Example of Christ himself who read a Text and then preached from it though as he was not so others are not limited to that or any other particular Forms yet it is lawful for them and required of them to compare spiritual things with spiritual to attend on Reading and Meditations 1 Cor. 2.13 1 Tim. 4.13 15. 2 Tim. 1.13 ch 2.15 1 Cor. 4.6 and to hold fast the Form of sound Words rightly dividing the Word of Truth as a Workman that needs not to be ashamed of his Work as Paul who saith These things Brethren I have in a Figure transferred to my self and to Apollos for your sakes So that where the Scriptures do give us Liberty we may use it but it is our Sin to take it where it is forbidden as I have shewed it is to use a Form of Prayer or Singing I could say more of the different Nature of Preaching to that of Prayer and Singing but I think it is needless here and therefore I shall conclude with my humble Request to all those that are for Singing of David's Psalms or any prescribed Forms of Singing as the Custom is that they would be pleased seriously to consider of these several things following 1. That the vocal Singing together either of David's Psalms or any humane precomposed Forms is a corrupting of the pure Worship of Jesus Christ in mingling of Law and Gospel or humane and divine things together 2. It will lead us to Apostacy to return from whence we came as a Dog to his Vomit and as a Sow that is washed to her wallowing in the Mire 3. Consider seriously you that are Leaders of the Lord's People and are for such formal Singing Whether the same Arguments you now urge to your Fellow-Brethren will be pleadable for your Practice at the Bar of Jesus Christ you may plead them here to us but will you not be ashamed to own them there The Lord give you a true Sight and Sense of the evil Consequences of this your Error that you may not cause his People to sin but may yet with sound Doctrine strengthen the weak Hands and confirm the feeble Knees and make straight Paths for your Feet Heb. 12.12 13. lest that which is lame be turned out of the way but let it rather be healed 4thly Consider that if you err from the Rule