Selected quad for the lemma: spirit_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
spirit_n	keep_v	peace_n	unity_n	7,015	5	8.9407	4	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A47407	The breach repaired in God's worship, or, Singing of psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs, proved to be an holy ordinance of Jesus Christ with an answer to all objections : as also, an examination of Mr. Isaac Marlow's two papers, one called, A discourse against singing, &c., the other, An appendix : wherein his arguments and cavils are detected and refuted / by Benjamin Keach ...	Keach, Benjamin, 1640-1704.	1641 (1641)	Wing K50; ESTC R21273	133,739	273

For we do say and testify we believe you are wholly without Singing in any proper Sense at all The Lord give us Moderation don't let us be bitter one against another I shall beg a part in your Prayers and intreat you to look over what Weakness you may see in this small Tract for I am you know but a Babe in Christ's School and know but in part And now to you my Beloved Brethren and Sisters who meet on Horselydown whom I hope I may say are my Joy and my Crown whose Souls are most dear to me and whom I can say I truly love and long after it rejoices my Spirit to see how generally you are inlightned into this Gospel-Duty but 't is no small grief to me to see since the Church in such a solemn manner agreed to sing the Praises of God on the Lord's Day to find some of you so much offended I am perswaded 't is for want of Consideration for you have no new thing brought in among you Hath not the Church sung at breaking of Bread always for 16 or 18 Years last past and could not nor would omit it in the time of the late Persecution And have not many of the honest Hearers who have stayed to see that Holy Administration sung with you at that time and yet none of you ever signified the least trouble And have we not for this 12 or 14 Years sung in mixt Assemblies on Days of Thanksgiving and never any offended at it as ever I heard What is done more now 't is only practised oftner and sure if it be God's Ordinance the often practising of it by such who find their Hearts draw out so to do cannot be sinful And on that Solemn Day when the Church would have it put up to see 〈◊〉 the Members stood affected about Singing almost every ones Hand was up for it or to give Liberty to the Church at such times to sing And when put up in the Negative but about 5 or 6 at most as I remember were against it Did any one of you at that time say if we did proceed to sing at such times you could not have Communion with us which if you had I perceive the Church nay every one of us who had born our Burden for many Years would have born it a little longer Besides did not the Church agree to sing only after Sermon and when Prayer was ended And if those few Brethren and Sisters who were not satisfied could not stay whilst we sung they might freely go forth and we would not be offended with them so far was the Church or my self from imposing on the Consciences of any But is it not hard that some of us should so long be laid under a Burden when the Church generally was against Singing at that time and you cannot bear it now it is come to be your Lot I am afraid the noise of these things are misrepresented abroad and therefore I thought it might not be amiss to rectify Mistakes in you or any other Brethren The matter of Difference that is at present between the Church and some few of our dear and beloved Brethren and Sisters is not about Singing it self nor singing with others for that has been all along the practise of the Church for many Years as before I hinted but only about singing on the Lords Day unless it be one Member except the Judgments of any other are lately changed But my Brethren will I hope seriously consider of the Matter and labour after that Christian Love Tenderness and Forbearance the Gospel calls for We are exhorted to bear one anothers Burdens and so to fulfil the Law of Christ For the Lord's sake let us not fall out by the way and lay things grievous on one anothers Spirits for we are not Lords over one anothers Faith but Helpers of each others Joy O my Brethren pray let us all watch against Satan and strive to keep the Vnity of the Spirit in the Bond of Peace I must confess divers of you did much desire me to answer Mr. Marlow's Book before this time but I hope you will excuse my neglect for some of you know the occasion of it ●tis done now and in the fear of God recommended to your perusal And O that the Lord would be pleased to bless it to your Satisfaction then shall I have cause to praise the Lord that I undertook the Work I can ●●y you lie near my Heart and I would do any thing I am capable of to promote Truth and Peace amongst our selves and in all the Churches of Christ If any of you should say How can we be satisfied to have Communion with the Church when we believe 't is an Innovation that 's a hard word Ar● you Infallible Is there not ground for you to fear you are mistaken or to think in the least 't is a doubtful case since so much is to be said for it and has been so generally received from the beginning by most enlightned Saints and you your selves with the Church for so long a time been in the Practice of ●t at other times Besides can you find any ground from God's Word that will warrant you to separate your selves from the Church upon this account and also may not the same or like Scruple rise in our Spirits against having Communion with you who we be●ieve lie short of a plain Gospel-Ordinance ●nd so through want of light diminish from God's Word as you say we add thereto by doing of it But far be it from us to have a thought to act that way towards any of you Moreover will not such a practice of a Separation from the Church upon this account justify other Godly Christians who are Members of such Churches who do not sing that are convinced as well as we it is their Duty to separate from those Congregations to joyn with such Churches as are in this practice Doubtless that Door that will let you out of this Church will let others out of those Churches I mentioned before and there are not a few such in this City There is one thing I think good to note here to prevent any mistake that tho I call Preaching a moral Duty yet to preach the Gospel only appertains to such whom God particularly hath gifted for that Work and who have a lawful call to it I shall conclude with the words of the Holy Apostle Finally Brethren farewel be Perfect be of good Comfort be of one Mind live in Love and Peace and the God of Love and Peace shall be with you 2 Cor. 13. 11. Which is the Prayer of him Who is Your unworthy Brother fellow Servant and poor Labourer in God's Harvest B. Keach From my House near Horselydown Southwark April 3d 1691. The Contents of the chief Things contained in the insuing Treatise WHat it is to sing Page 5. That there can be no proper Singing without the Voice pag. 6. 'T is not simple Heart-joy or inward rejoicing without

to teach and admonish one another by it but if we consider there are many Lessons to be learn'd one of another from this publick Conjunction of singing Scripture-Psalms 1. They teach one another and by the very Act admonish one another to get the same Frames these holy Men had in penning the Psalms and in the variety and spirituality of them to get David's Frame in singing David's Psalms c. 2. 'T is by this they teach one another the Unity and Harmony that is and should be among Saints as one Body that their Happiness and Joys are bound up together and so the Misery of one is the Misery of the whole and this is a glorious L●sson to know their Union together as a Body equally concerned in the Joy or Sorrow of one another equally interested in the Praises of God There is no Duty practised in all the Gospel that doth fully express the Communion of Saints and represent Heaven as the Saints singing together The Lord's Supper doth represent the Communion of Saints very lively but not so as mutual singing when all at once not by consent only but expresly speak the same thing the same moment In the Lord's Supper th● afterwards they were all one Bread yet they all do not receive it at the same instant of time but may take successively the Elements but in singing they all joyn perfectly at once to sound forth the Praises of God as if they had but one Heart and one Voice too This is the perfect Emblem of Heaven no jarring all with one Voice and Heart crying Hallelujah Hallelujah 3. They teach one another this Lesson also viz. with what Alacrity and Chearfulness they should perform all their Duties together and how with sweetness of Love and Joy they ought to walk together 4. They teach one another how to carry themselves in all Conditions with a joyful and praising frame of Spirit c. and it shews a Soul is not in a right temper when he cannot sing over his Condition To which I might add not are they in that sweet Concord and Union with the Church or hearty Affection that cannot joyn in one Heart and Voice with them 5. They teach one another by singing and admonishing one another this way to avoid any thing that may hinder their Joys in Communion and break their Harmony in spiritual Actions all which and many more are great Lessons and are taught naturally by Saints mutual singing together pag. 211 212. Object If any should object How can Vnbelievers joyn with the Saints in singing if this be so Answ This hath been answered already there are the like Lessons tho not to that degree and clearness taught in uniting Hearts together in publick Prayer and Praises in Prayer and in mutually joyning together equally in hearing God's Word Nay and all must grant that the chiefest and nearest Communion is that of the Heart and Spirit If therefore you may and do admit such you speak of to that Communion and Liberty with you how dare you or can you deny them this True the Voice shews that Union that is in the Heart or sets it forth but the chief Fellowship and Unity is in the Spirit as in the last Chapter I have shewed Now I shall come to consider the Method or Form of your Book or Heads you insist upon which are laid down in six Particulars I. Of the Essence of Singing as you call it II. Of David's Psalms III. Of prescribed or precomposed Songs IV. Of Womens Singing V. Of the Order of Singing VI. Of Scriptural and other Objections I. Of the Essence of Singing Thus you begin viz. Though intelligible Singing for teaching and admonishing others cannot be without the use of the Organical Instruments of the Voice yet the Essence or Being of Singing consists in an inward spiritual Exercise of the Soul or Mind of Man And this must be granted for we all do own that true Prayer may be made in our Hearts to God without the use of our Voice And then come and tell your Reader the Essence of Sin is in the Heart and the Essenc● of other things Good and Evil and take 〈◊〉 four Pages in this kind of nonsensical way 〈◊〉 speaking confounding the proper Acts 〈◊〉 God's Worship nay destroy them utterly by starting an uncouth term as here apply'd 〈◊〉 Essence nay and I perceive this mighty Ma● of Straw you have made and set up you 〈◊〉 at a strange manner 't is as it were the 〈◊〉 on which all the stress of the whole Superstructure of your new-found Contrivance to evade God's blessed Ordinance of Singing 〈◊〉 laid so that if this be razed you must find another Singing in the New Testament besides this Essence of Singing which you say is in the Heart and I perceive 't is only that inward joy of the Spirit that you mean by the Essence of Singing and that to be all the Singing you would have the Saints to use in Gospel-days And besure if you have missed the mark here your Book has nothing in it of instruction A Man cannot be so vain as to attempt to overthrow an Act of Divine Worship as it hath been received and practised for many Ages amongst all the Godly generally but he must set up something in the room of it which he must call by that name since God's Word bears positive witness to such a Church-Ordinance A Gospel-Singing there is as well as a Gospel-praying preaching c. But rather than it shall be that which indeed it is as owned by the Law and the Prophets Christ and his Apostles and most wise learned and truly Godly Christians it shall be something else contrived in the darkness of your Mind Thus the Quakers have cast off the Holy Ordinances of Baptism and the Lord's Supper and have gotten spiritual Ones in the blind Imaginations of their Hearts in their 〈◊〉 as you would have a Heart Singing of Psalms without the Voice so they have got 〈◊〉 Heart-baptism without Water and a Heart-breaking of Bread without Bread or Wine The Papists or Church of Rome also have by the subtilty of Satan and pride of their own Spirits changed and corrupted these and other Ordinances of the Gospel another way 〈◊〉 they have set up something in their stead which they call by their Names for first they have that they call Baptism but it is not Christ's Baptism but Rantism with many Ceremonies added to it They have that they call the 〈◊〉 Supper but 't is not Christ's Ordinance but another thing c. Also let me tell you in the fear of God you have adventured to raze or take away Christ's Ordinance of Singing and have invented something to put in its room which you call a Gospel-singing And I am afsaid you little think of the bitter Consequents of this Attempt of yours and how you ●eem hereby to ridicule though not wittily I ha●e better thoughts of you the whole of Gospel-Ordinances by turning them into a