A47407:278
The breach repaired in God's worship, or, Singing of psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs,…
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 ...
London: printed for Author, 1691
Title page typeset from the transcription.
Singing of Psalms, Hymns, and Spiritual Songs, an Holy Ordinance of… › Chapter 13
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.
Fourthly, The Manner, or how it should be performed, i. e. with Melody, or Spiritual Joy in the Heart, or Grace. What he calls Melody in our Heart in one place, he calls Grace in the Heart in the other. The Tongue is the Instrument, but it must be tuned with Grace, or the Music will not be sweet in Christ's Ears. In Singing of Psalms, &c. (saith one) a gracious Heart takes Wings, and mounts up to God to join with the Celestial Quire: It is Grace which fills the Heart for, and sweetens the Heart in this Duty.
Fourthly, The Manner, or how it should be performed, i. e. with Melody, or Spiritual Joy in the Heart, or Grace. What he calls Melody in our Heart in one place, he calls Grace in the Heart in the other. The Tongue is the Instrument, but it must be tun'd with Grace, or the Musick will not be sweet in Christ's Ears. In Singing of Psalms, &c. (saith one) a gracious Heart takes Wings, and mounts up to God to join with the Celestial Quire: It is Grace which fills the Heart for, and sweetens the Heart in this Duty.
Fifthly, The Master of the Chore, the Preceptor, as Mr. Wells saith, viz. the Heart; we must look to the Heart in Singing, that it is purged by the Spirit. God is the Creator of the whole Man, and therefore will be worshipped and praised with the whole Man. The whole Man is bought with a Price; our Tongues as well as our Spirits are not our own; therefore we ought to glorify God in our Bodies, and in our Spirit, which are the Lords, 1 Cor. 6. 19, 20. My Heart is fixed, O God, my Heart is fixed: I will sing and give praise, Psal. 57. 7. Awake my Glory, &c. I my self will awake. What was this which David calls his Glory? (all tell you) it was his Tongue; and in Singing and Praising of God, the Glory of it much lies, when the Heart is filled and fixed with Grace in the discharge of this Duty.