A47407:279
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.
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.
So in Psal. 108. 1. O God, my Heart is fixed: I will sing, and give praise with my Glory.
Augustine saith, It is not a musical String, but a working Heart that is harmonious. Mary sung with her Tongue, and her Heart was in her magnificent Song. And, as saith another Godly Man; When we sing Psalms, &c. let us take heed that we have the same thing in our Mind, that we warble forth with our Tongues, and that our Song and our Heart do not run several ways. If (saith Mr. Wells) we in Singing only offer the Calves of our Lips, it will too much resemble the Jewish Service. Men may hear, or pray, as well as sing carnally; therefore we should remember to do as the Apostle teaches, to sing with the Spirit, and with the Understanding also, 1 Cor. 14. 15