Keach joined a Bap­tist church ear­ly in life, and be­gan to preach at age 18. For the next 10 years, he worked as an evan­gel­ist in towns and villages, oft­en be­ing per­se­cut­ed for his prin­ci­ples as a Bap­tist and Non­con­for­mist. Up­on pub­li­ca­tion of The Child’s In­struct­or, he was fined, pil­lo­ried, and im­pri­soned.

In 1668, Keach moved to Lon­don and be­came pas­tor of a Bap­tist church which met first in pri­vate houses, and later in Hor­se­ly­down, South­wark. There a large con­gre­ga­tion ga­thered around him, to which he min­is­tered with great ac­cept­ance un­til his death. He was the first to in­tro­duce sing­ing to Bap­tist con­gre­ga­tions.

Keach’s works in­clude:

• The Child’s In­struct­or; or, a New and Ea­sy Prim­er, 1664
• Expositions of the Par­a­bles in the Bi­ble, 1671
• War with the Pow­ers of Dark­ness, 1676
• Tropologia, a Key to Open Scrip­ture Me­ta­phors, 1682
• Distressed Si­on Re­lieved, or the Gar­ment of Praise for the Spir­it of Hea­vi­ness (Lon­don: 1689)
• The Breach Re­paired in God’s Wor­ship; or Sing­ing of Psalms, Hymns & Spir­it­u­al Songs Proved to Be a Ho­ly Or­di­nance of Je­sus Christ (Lon­don: J. Han­cock, 1691)
• Spiritual Mel­o­dy, 1691
• A Feast of Fat Things: Con­tain­ing Sev­er­al Scrip­ture Songs and Hymns, 1696
• Spiritual Songs: Be­ing the Mar­row of the Scrip­ture (Lon­don: John Mar­shal, 1700)

Sources

Hymns

1. Awake, My Soul, Awake, My Tongue
2. O Lord, ’Tis Mat­ter of High Praise