altho in none of the three Evangelists it is so called But Cried saying which before he proved from Scripture-Evidence to be a distinct vocal Act of the Tongue from the Voice of Singing And he also bringeth other Scriptures of the same nature to prove Singing as Luke 2.13 Praising God and saying he saith in pag. 42. was Singing and pag. 44. To pass by saith he the Song of Zacharias and Elizabeth and Simeon how sweetly did Mary sing in all which places Singing is not once expressed nor in the whole 148th Psalm which is cited ver 1 2. in pag. 33. 3. In Pag. 63. he saith They had an extraordinary Gift of Prayer extraordinary Gifts to preach and handle a Doctrine the like in interpreting and prophesying so no doubt likewise for singing see also in his Answer to Appendix pag. 28. and in pag. 137. he saith Doubtless what the Apostle did by an extraordinary Spirit in bringing in a Doctrine and an Interpretation c. is a Rule for us in the ordinary Gifts But yet in pag. 142 143. in answer to 1 Cor. 14.20 to 34. How is it then Brethren when ye come together every one of you hath a Psalm hath a Doctrine hath a Tongue c. That saith he which you infer from hence is that this is the Rule viz. in the following Verses for our Practice viz. one by one or one after another must speak and exercise their Gifts and not all together and so he that has the Gift of the Psalm he is singly or alone by himself to sing as in prayer and preaching Answ saith he The Apostle directs that Church in the Exercise of extraordinary Gifts And now saith he pag. 143. let this once and for ever be noted and well heeded viz. That the ordinary way of Administration of all Gifts and Performance of all Ordinances in the Churches must be the Rule for the extraordinary Gifts and performance of Ordinances Which is quite contrary to what he said before however therein he does acknowledge and assert that there is but one Rule for both the ordinary and extraordinary Gifts of the holy Spirit And therefore seeing he saith in pag. 143 144. Now as to the Gift of Teaching Interpreting Prophesying c. only one was to be the Mouth according to the following Verses and saith he to act contrary to this Rule is Confusion It then consequently follows notwithstanding he makes a confused Exception of the Psalm that the ordinary Gifts yea all the Gifts of the Spirit and then must the Psalm also be subject to the order of this Rule for delivery with a single Voice one by one And yet in pag. 145. we find him saying What an endless stir is here of one Man's singing alone in the Exercise of an extraordinary Gift which cannot be proved by the Wit of Man from the Text much less had it been so would it have been a Rule to the Churches in ordinary Administrations of Christ's Ordinances But these are Confusions Confusions how is he confounded in opposing the Truth 4. In pag. 147. he saith For as Singing c. in the glorious time of the Gospel were all done by an extraordinary Spirit or by miraculous Gifts 't is evident therefore extraordinary Gifts were not only suted as you imagine to tune their Hearts and Tongues to sing the Praises of God only but also to pray preach prophesy c. In that he saith that I imagine it it is a great Abuse of me for there is no such thing in my whole Book as to limit the extraordinary Gifts of the Spirit to Singing only But yet in his Answer to Appendix p. 26. citing Matth. 7.22 1 Cor. 13.1 he saith From whence it appears that inward Joy and Peace of which you speak as the cause of singing in the Apostles time did not flow from that extraordinary Gift of the Spirit but from the saving Graces of the Spirit 1 Cor. 14.22 extraordinary Gifts were to convince Unbelievers of the Truth and not for the Joy and Comfort of such who did believe Men that have the Gift of Tongues may be graceless and so without Christ and perish eternally in Hell therefore the extraordinary Gift of the Spirit fits not tunes not the Heart nor Tongue to sing the Praises of God which is contrary to what he said afore In pag. 173. he makes an Objection But we have no Command to sing either before or after Sermon nor any Precedent c. His Answer is We have no Command to pray either before or after Sermon nor no Precedent that any Gospel-Church did so c. And he makes a farther Objection But we are commanded to pray always and that is a very convenient time when the Word of God is preached c. Ephes 6.18 He saith in answer to it We are commanded to rejoice evermore c. 1 Thess 5.16 Phil. 4.4 6. Besides the Preacher may pray before he comes out of his Closet or secretly in his Heart when in the Pulpit and answer those general Precepts And is it not as convement a time when we here of the Excellencies of Jesus Christ to sing and praise God as it is a proper Season to pray to God for a Blessing upon the Word There is the like parity of Reason for the one as for the other if any has the advantage it is the Ordinance of Singing for two reasons the one is a Precept the other a Precedent Psal 100. 1. and 95.1 2. Exod. 15.1 Matth. 26.30 Repl. Surely it is now a time for us rather to mourn than to sing when such an Essential part of publick Gospel-Worship is so strongly invaded What have we not a Precept for Prayer before and after Sermon will he destroy so great an Ordinance as Prayer is as not being Essential to the publick Ministerial Worship of God that he might the more exalt an Human Tradition Is not that a sufficient Precept in 2 Tim. 2.1 14 15. These things I write unto thee that thou mightest know how thou oughtest to behave thy self in the Church of the Living God And what things these are he begins to tell us in ver 1. I exhort therefore that first of all Supplications Prayers Intercessions and giving of Thanks be made for all Men c. So that from the plain Word of God we ought to begin first with Prayer in his Publick Worship and Service in his Church and those general Commands to pray always with all Prayer And in every thing by Prayer and Supplication with Thanksgiving to let our Requests be made known unto God And to be giving Thanks always for all things Phil. 4.6 Eph. 6.18 chap. 5.20 are binding on us to pray for the Blessing of God with his Word and for the watering of it with his Spirit together with giving of Thanks But to say that the Minister may answer these Texts by praying secretly in his Heart when in the Pulpit or in his Closet is destructive to his Official ministration of an essential Ordinance of Christ's publick Worship in the Church which he unjustly without the least cause reflects upon me for while he is doing the same himself That Mr. Keach's Learned Hand hath not been able to suppress the Evidence I have given of the true Signification of the word Hymneo to praise nor to charge me with any wrong Citations of any thing out of those Authors produced by me may without any difficulty plainly appear to all who will read his Book and mine which as it has stood his Test who has imployed his Learned Pen with impertinent and undescent Reflections to buffet the Truth I am pleading for so I have no reason to doubt but that my Cause will stand the trial of others also And therefore I do anert that in Matth. 20.30 Mark 14.26 Acts 16.25 Heb. 2.12 The word Sung nor Sing is in none of these four Places in the Greek Tongue where the word Hymneo to hymn is used alone without the Addition of any other word that imports a Singing which word Hymneo signifies simply to praise and is not confined to Songs of Praise as I have abundantly shewed in my Appendix from divers Authors and from the Evidence of our later Bibles now in use in which in the Old-Testament the Heb. word Tehillah and the Gr. word Hymnos are translated simply Praise without the addition of the word Sing and from the testimony of six several old Bibles five of which are to be seen in Sion-Colledg London The aforesaid four Scriptures having not the word Sung nor Sing are translated simply Praise Laus to say Grace to both which last Evidences he hath made no better reply than to say that it is of little importance in clearing the present Controversy To conclude I have here given you a Taste of Mr. K's Book so far as this single Sheet would permit me and do intend if the Lord please to answer what may seem to have greatest Strength in it lest my Silence should be misunderstood by any though to speak my Judgment it little needeth a Reply for he having taken no notice of many of my chiefest Arguments and very slightly touched on the Borders and not on the Strength of many others considering also what I have here presented to you his whole Book may be said more properly to be a piece of Confusion and an Abuse of my Book rather than any Answer to it By Isaac Marlow ADVERTISEMENT MY Book within mentioned is Intituled Prelimited Forms of Praising God Vocally sung by all the Church together proved to be no Gospel-Ordinance It is 8 Sheets of Paper Price 6 d. I have also published a Book Intituled A Treatise of the Holy Trinunity in two Parts The first asserteth the Deity of Jesus Christ and the Holy Spirit in the Vnity of Essence with God the Father The Second in Defence of the former answereth the chiefest Objections malt against this Doctrine By I. M. Price bound 10 d. London Printed for the Author 1691.
Some short OBSERVATIONS made on a Book newly Published by Mr. Benjamin Keach Intituled The Breach repaired in God's Worship c. wherein is contained a pretended Answer to Isaac Marlow's Brief Discourse concerning Singing in the Publick Worship of God as also to an APPENDIX lately published and thereunto added IT is not without some Sense that there is cause of Mourning for the occasion that lays me under some necessity of making Remarks of this nature on Mr. Keach's Treatise of Singing that I have given publick Birth unto this Paper Had it been to preserve my Personal Reputation only I should have born with much as I shall herein be silent wherein I am provoked by his unjust reflections beyond the perceivance of any â—y barely reading his Book rather than to have taken â—ny such way as this is which I have no need of to deâ—end my self in any wrong received from any But as I believe that my keeping Silence would give the greater Advantage to the spreading of the practice of that Erâ—or among our Churches which is received by some â—ersons whom Mr. Keach hath now openly headed in â—â—e publick Defence thereof and that the Truth will â—â—ffer if I give not timely notice of his disingenuous â—ealings with me in this Concern So I am obâ—ed in love to the Truth of Christ to present this folâ—â—ing Information to you to prevent your credential receiving of all that he hath taken out of my Book and cited to you in his own as my true Sense and Meaning First I shall take notice of Mr. Benj. Keach's undue Citations and Misrepresenting of several things publickly to the World to the great abuse of my aforesaid Book concerning Singing 1st In page 12. the end and pag. 13. he saith thus Now this being so what is become of Mr. Marlow's Essence of Singing who saith what can be more plain than that Singing and other Gifts of the Holy Spirit have their Essence in our Spirits wherein we are capable of worshipping God without verbal and vocal Instruments of the Body These are his very Words I answer saith he some have so smiled at this Expression that they cannot tell what he intends by it unless he would shew himself skilful in Chymistry But since he meddles with Divine Things I must confess I am troubled to see such kind of Words used that no Body knows what to make of them And are we not as capable in our Spirits to worship God in all other Ordinances without the verbal or vocal Instruments of the Body as well as in Singing without Voice by your Argument Pag. 14. you have said more to justify the Quakers silent Meetings than you are aware of c. And pag. 123. And saith he I am afraid you little think of the bitter Consequents of this Attempt of yours and how you seem hereby to ridicule tho not wittingly I have better Thoughts of you the whole of Gospel-Ordinances by turning them into a thing you call Essence a Heart-Service only without the Bodily Organs and rendring your self to be but little better in your so doing than a meer Enthusiast Rep. But how grosly I am here misrepresented anâ— abused by Mr. K. appears from what follows pag. My Words are these That Spiritual and Vocal Singinâ— was used in the Primitive and Apostolical Church of Christ is undeniable and that such Spiritual Singing is allowed is freely granted And after my naming of the First Head to be treated of viz. The Essence of Singing in the same Page c. it is said Tho 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 otherwise we deny all worshipping of God in the Church save only what is done by the Minister and exclude the Members of it from adding to joining with or having any share in Divine Worship and consequently that nothing can be properly called Sin that is only in the inward exercise of the Spirit but that which is so manifested by Words or Deeds Pag. 6. And then I speak of the Essence of Sin and of Prayer And afterwards in pag. 8. coming to discourse of the Essence of Singing and citing 1 Cor. 14.15 I say True this is meant of vocal Prayer and Singing in the Church and in this same Page he taketh out what he cites unfairly to brand me with as justifying the Quakers Silent Meetings and turning the whole of Gospel-Ordinances into a Heart-Service only A thing I never thought of and am as far from it as he or any others whatsoever for I farther say in the same Page that tho vocal Joy and Singing may be teaching to others yet the speaking to Gr. in according to Pool's Annot. before cited your selves viz. in your own Hearts in Psalms and Hymns and spiritual Songs singing and making Melody in your Heart to the Lord is Musick of an higher strain in the Ears of God So that tho in this Section is shewed that God is to be worshipped in our Spirits both in Prayer and Praises yet it is evident that there is no ground from hence nor in any part of my Book to think that I should intend an Exclusion of the vocal exercise of any of Christ's Ordinances in his Church and therefore this Clamour rather proceeds from his Passion of Spirit with the badness of his Cause Moreover what I have here said as to the Essence of Spiritual Singing is secretly confessed by him in his Answer to Appendix p. 42. where he saith of Singing And yet as I have shewed the Essence of it is not in the Heart as it is in the Voice That is if I mistake not his Sense it is not in the Heart like as it is in the Voice so that it hath its Essence in the Heart as it is inward and spiritual and in the Heart and Voice too as it is inward spiritual and vocal in which we do both agree But because I find so much of his Discourse against me depending on the parity and likeness of the Essence of Singing to the Essence of Preaching and not of Prayer which he acknowledgeth may be only inwardly in the Heart p. 174. I shall hear treat something further on it In pag. 14. he saith The Essence of Singing then if that Word may be admitted lies no more in our Spirits than the Essence of Preaching c. Repl. Not to speak of their Compound viz. our Spirits or our Spirits and Voice with the Spirit and Word of God I shall briefly say That there is such a difference in the significations of the words Singing and Preaching as will admit of a difference in their Essences Singing is a word of a tuning and musical nature and signification
as you may see by the Latin words that are put for it viz. cano canto psallo modulor see Rider's Dictionary And therefore the word Sing is used to signify either an inward and spiritual musical tuning of the Heart or an inward and vocal musical tuning of the Heart and Voice as the adjunct Matter treated of may demonstrate and accordingly the inward and spiritual or inward spiritual and vocal Singing have their Essence But as the word Preaching is more limited in its signification to outward Acts for though the inward Essence of it considered under other names as Meditation Self-speaking or Self-edifying 1 Cor. 14.4 27 28. may be only inwardly in our Hearts yet the Essence of it as properly considered from the signification of the Word cannot be so confined to the inward exercise of the Spirit as the more unlimited signification of the word Singing may because the word Preach signifieth from its Latin words concionor to preach to make a publick Oration Praedicator a Publisher or open Reporter a Praiser a Preacher Praedico to divulge to report to publish to noise abroad c. Rid. Dict. And therefore the proper Essence of Preaching is inconsistent to the inward exercise of the Heart without an outward act of Declaration which must of necessity be taken into the Essence of Preaching without which it cannot possibly be Now as the more limited word Preaching is used in the Scriptures for Publication Isa 52.7 Rom. 10.15 so the more unlimited word Singing is used and applied in the holy Scriptures to an inward and spiritual melodious Exercise as well as to inward and vocal Melody as in Ephes 6.19 Singing and making Melody in your Heart to the Lord. And Job 29.13 I caused the Widows Heart to sing for Joy To conclude this Matter True spiritual vocal and ministerial Singing for teaching and admonishing others and spiritual vocal and ministerial Preaching are alike in Essence tho not in degree of Attainment such Singing being from an higher enjoyment of God through a fulness of the Spirit But yet the one viz. Singing is not alike in limitation of Essence to an outward act of Declaration but may inwardly subsist in Essence without it And the other viz. Preaching being limited to an outward Act cannot exist only inwardly What I have here inlarged upon is to be helpful to remove that heap of Rubbish which he hath covered my Book withal representing it to the World contrary to what it is 2dly In pag. 113. he citeth 1 Cor. 14.26 out of my Book p. 8. where for want of these words nor can which I placed before the Text the Sense seems to admit of a singing vocally all together and so to confound the sense of my Words in contradiction of that which follows 3dly In pag. 146. he saith Your third Reply That the Singing that was in the Temple was extraordinary and so in the Apostles time Repl. But as I have no-where expressed my self in this manner so I have no-where made the Old-Testament-Temple a Type or Figure of the Apostles Time but of the glorious Time of Christ's Kingdom and have expresly said that the first setting up of the Gospel-Church is not the Antitype of David's and Solomon's Temple but of Moses's Tabernacle as you may see pag. 26 27 28. 4thly In pag. 150. saith he Your fifth Reply is to that of Christ's and his Disciples singing of an Hymn after the Supper pag. 29. which you say might be no more than giving of Thanks or saying Grace Reply But these Words tho they are put for mine yet they were never said by me neither did I ever determine whether Christ did or did not sing at that Ordinance My Words in pag. 30. are That Christ a their Minister hymned and they in their Spirits joined with him as Acts 4.24 to 32. 5thly In pag. 154. he saith But you would not have Old-Testament-Names given to New-Testament-Things in Singing Repl. But there is no such Expression in my whole Book nor any thing that imports the same but my words are these pag. 35. No Old-Testament-Names do prove the nature of New-Testament-Things as Circumcision Censer Incense Altar Sacrifice Passeover c. are all things of a different nature in the Old Testament to what they are sometimes used for in the New 6thly In pag. 155. saith he The Substance of what you say to this is That the Wicked in regard they see not their Sins nor need of a Christ they have no cause to sing Repl. But my words are these pag. 37. And as they have not a true sense of their Sins nor see their need of Christ so they know not that they have cause to sing his Praise for their Being It is one thing to say they have no cause to sing and a different thing to say they know not that they have cause so to do 7thly In pag. 157. he saith Object 2. But secondly you say Every true Christian nor the Church of Christ in general is able to sing Praises to God in his publick Worship because the greater number of them have not attained to the Faith of Assurance Repl. But my Words are these pag. 42. Is not capable to sing Praises to the Lord in his publick and constant Worship and have not attained to a sufficient Faith of Assurance Now for want of the word constant which is a material word on which much of our Controversy does depend His citation of me will admit of a different Reply to what my own Words will do And from pag. 172 unto the Conclusion in 185. tho he makes several Objections that may be easily taken for mine yet I find but one of them that is taken out of my Book p. 47. cited by him in p. 177. 9thly In his Answer to my Appendix p. 21. he saith What Authority have you to say our Saviour and his Disciples did not sing Or what reason has any sober or godly Christian to believe you if you so boldly affirm it Therefore I upon good Authority in opposition to what you say p. 12. that therefore from the signification of the word Hymnos there is a good and sacred Foundation or Warrant for such vocal melodious singing at or after the Lord's Supper c. Repl. But consider from what I have said in Append. p. 12. whether I am not wronged in his Charge against me my Words are these And therefore there can be no foundation nor warrant from the word Hymnos for such vocal melodious singing at or after the Lord's Supper seeing the Word cannot be any proof either that Christ did or did not sing at his Institution of that Ordinance and in that as I have premised God is otherways to be praised than by vocal singing 10thly In his Answer to Append. p. 33. he saith '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.