A47361:117
An answer to Mr. Marlow's Appendix Wherein his arguments to prove that singing of…
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.
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
Modern spelling is a reading aid: the words are the author’s, only the spelling is modernized. Original shows the page as printed, with the transcription marks.
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 showed) 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.
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 ⟨p. 43⟩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.