government can best determine § 7. Lastly if any of these fore-mentioned waies of Protestants for the knowledge of the Word of God the guide to eternall life were sufficient what need were there of preaching and instructing of the people at least of them that can read but let them take the Bible and let nature work which in the co-operation of their owne wise fancies will hatch a goodly Religion no doubt borne like Minerva of the brain of Jupiter and be as comely as a Chymera of many seuerall shapes tackt together and to them instead of the ancient heathens houshold-Gods which every one must adore as his private God within himselfe O sacras gentes quibus haec nascuntur in ipsis Numina Who prove the truth of this saying in themselves that He that is Schoole-master to himself is Scholler to a fool § 8. Observing thus the weaknesse and absurdity of all the Protestants alledged in proof that the Scripture is the Word of God easie to be understood at least in all things necessary to salvation and that it is to be interpreted by it self or by the Spirit to everie particular man so making way for as much variety in Religion as there may be diversity of opinion I saw that although some probable arguments may be drawn from the Scriptures to prove them to be of God yet there was no other infallible way to know what is the true Word of God first taught by the Apostles and their hearers but by the testimony of some sure certain and agreeing witnesses and what is the meaning of this Word of God in case there should be any important difference about it thereby to give a period to all controversies but by some society of men renowned for their wisdome And this I conceived in common prudence a far better way than for a man to rely upon himselfe But though this were a better way than those of the Protestants yet if this society of men were not in these matters free from error although it is more likely they should tell truth than the Protestants yet I could not have an immovable foundation for my saith but it would be subject to wavering and inconstancy and so there could be no prudent setlednesse in Religion nor any well-built hope of the end thereof eternall life I saw then that it was needfull that there should be a faithfull witnesse a wise judge and so wise and faithfull that he should not be subject to falshood or error otherwise it seemed to me that God had not contrived a competent way to his own glory or mans salvation which to be wanting in is neither sutable to his wisdome nor his goodnesse I therefore concluded that there was some society of men who must instruct us in the premises and that this society in reason ought to be infallible and that none could with any colour pretend to be this society but that which we call the Catholique Church which all Christians professe to believe according to the Creed of the Apostles But before I could proceed any further I was cast upon the examination of the sense of the words Church and Catholique finding therein much difference amongst the pretenders to these titles CHAP. V. Of the meaning of these words Church and Catholique and that neither of them belong to Protestants § 1. THere were seven Cities that strove for the body of Homer And very many societies of Christians there are that lay claime to the body of Christ which is his Church And as when Telesius a young Grecian having won the prize in the Pythian games was to be led in triumph there arose such a dispute between the severall Nations there present every one being covetous to have him for their owne that one drawing one way another another instead of receiving the honour that was prepared for him he was torne in pieces even by those who seemed most ambitious to honour him So happens it to the Church all those that beare the name of Christians avow that to her only appertaines the victory over hell and that whosoever will have part in the prize and glory of this triumph must serve under her Ensigne but when they come to debate about the body of this society then every Sect desirous to draw her to themselves they rend and teare her in pieces and instead of embracing the Church which consists in unity they embrace Schism and Division which is the death and ruin of the Church § 2. The Protestants do somtimes give a strict definition of a Church somtimes a large somtimes they restraine her to the number of the predestinate only somtimes they enlarge her so far that they imbrace within her compasse because they will be sure not to leave out themselves all the variety of Christians whatsoever But by all the former they exclude the visibility of the Church which is an inseperable companion thereof as I shall shew hereafter for the predistinate are not knowne to any body nor ordinary unto themselves But those that are so presumptuous as very many are to assume unto themselves the assurance of their predestination do easily lay hold on this tenure which they do the more boldly by how much it is more difficult for another to disprove but as it is not easie for another to disprove so it is as hard for them to prove and concludes nothing therefore in the behalf of the Churches description in generall or of their share in particular Beside the word Ecclesia Church is derived from a verb which signifies to call not to predestinate And the Church is a society but the predestinate are a multitude and there is this difference between a societie and a multitude that a society hath a certain form and vertue whereby they communicate together which the other without this association have not Now predestinaton as it is meere predestination establisheth nothing in the predestinate nor is it made in them but in God only and by consequence doth not make them actuall parts of the society called the Church It is not the union of predestination but of vocation that builds men into a Church By the later definition of a Church they deny the very being of Heresie and Schisme for if the whole Masse of Christians be the Church notwithstanding the errors in faith which some of them hold or separation in communion which they make then there are none that can be called Heretiques or Schismatiques or else which is equally absurd all Heretiques and Schismatiques are of the Church and this destroyes the holinesse of the Church in doctrine which is another inseparable ornament thereof Others which are some of the subdivisions of sects amongst the Protestants as Brownists Anabaptists and the like say each sect for it selfe that that is the Church excluding all others from that title even their fellow Protestants but this excludes the universality of the Church another inseparable companion thereof at least after the Apostles had
else can usurp it from her For howsoever some when being so hard pressed that they cannot claime the title of true Chritian unlesse they assume the name of Catholique do then arrogate it to themselves and say that they are Catholikes yet in ordinary speech if you speak of a Catholike every one understands thereby a Romane Catholike all other Sects voluntarily taking to themselves the name of some men for their founder as of Luther Calvin whom they call their Reformers or of some place as the Albigenses or from some accident of their pretended reformation as Protestants by which the legall Protestants delight to stile themselves with this addition of the Church of England renouncing therein as they suppose Luther and Calvin as ashamed or seeming to scorne to derive themselves from any one man as though the Church of England in this matter namely in opposition to the whole Church both present and precedent were of more consideration then one single man Moreover certain enough it is that the Reformation of the Church of England began by one man and he no God neither except it were such an one as Jupiter was who transform'd himself into a beast for the love of women before it filled the whole Kingdome and arrived at that high pitch of perfection that some suppose And who that man was is well enough knowne and what godly motives he had which they must confesse or else that their Church is like Melchizedek without Father or Mother or like a Mushrump started up in a night no man knowes how On the contrary the true believer will own no name but that of the Catholique Faith which was first devised by the Apostles in the Creed and which the successors of the Apostles in that Faith have alwaies worne As the Antient Father a Pacianus ad Symp. Ep. 1. S. Pacianus saith in an Epistle to Sympronianus a Novatian Heretique Christian is my name Catholique is my Sir-name that names me this marks me out by that I am manifested by this I am distinguished And Saint b Cyrill Hieros Catech 15. Cyrill of Jerusalem expounding the Creed For this cause saith he thy faith hath given thee this Article to hold undoubtedly and in the holy Catholique Church to the end thou shouldest fly the polluted Conventicles of Heretiques And a little after when thou comest into a Town inquire not simply where the Temple of our Lord is for the Heresies of impious persons do likewise call their dens the Temples of the Lord neither ask simply where the Church is but where is the Catholique Church For that name is the proper name of this holy Church And on the contrary c Hieron cont Lucifer c. 9. S. Hierome saith If in any part thou hearest of men denominated from any but from Christ as Marcionites Valentinians c. know that it is not the Church of Christ but the Synagogve of Antichrist And d Lib. deutilitat cred cap. 7. S. Augustine fully Although there be many heresies of Christians and that all would be called Catholikes yet there is alwaies one Church if you cast your eyes upon the extent of the whole world more abundant in multitude and also as those that know themselves to be of it more sincere in truth than all the rest but of the truth that is another dispute That which sufficeth for the question is that there is one Church to which different Heresies impose different names whereas they are all called by their particular names that they dare not disavow from whence it appears in the judgement of any not pre-occupate with favour to whom the name of Catholike whereof they are all ambitious ought to be attributed And again e De vera relig cap. 6. We must hold the Christian Religion and the communion of that Church which is called Catholique both by her own and by strangers for whether Heretiques and Schismatiques will or will not when they speak not with their own but with strangers they call the Catholiques no otherwise than Catholiques As for the Protestants it is certain that neither by others nor yet by themselves in ordinary speaking are they called Catholiques No nor yet in their most solemne and serious speaking as appears by the severall Acts both of the King of England and of the Houses of Parliament wherein both sides publish to the world and yet in a sense different from one another that they will maintain the Protestant Religion But the Roman Church hath alwayes possessed the name of Catholique and therefore she is such CHAP. XII Of the second Mark of the Church viz. Antiquity both of persons and doctrines § 1. THe second mark of the Church is Antiquity as God saith by the Prophet Jeremy Stand in the waies see inquire of the old paths which is the good way and walk therein Ier. 6.16 And our Saviour saith Mat. 13. that the good seed was sown first and afterwards the tares And even in nature truth is before falshood And this Antiquity I found applyable in the highest degree to the Roman Religion for though some heresies are very antient as is intimated in that the tares were sowen soon after the good seed yet the truth is more antient and so is the Church of Rome This antiquity of hers for the greatest part of time is confessed by Protestants Perkins whom I alledged before grants it for 900. yeares Napier goes higher and saith it raigned universally and without any debateable contradiction 12. hundred and 60. yeares And seeing this raign of the Catholique Religion which Protestants call Popery was then universall it is apparent that it did not then begin for such an universall possession could not be got on the suddain as they may perceive by the Protestant Religion which is not improved to neere that universality in above a hundred yeares so that in all probability even according to the opinion of Protestants the beginning thereof must be in or neere the Apostles times Now whether we take the Roman Church for the society of Christians that acknowledge the Bishop of Rome for their head or whether we take it for Fathers and Doctors holding the doctrines of the present Church of Rome in both respects it will appear that the Church of Rome is most antient and Apostolicall The former is proved by the testimony of S. * Iren. cont Val. lib. 3. c. 3. Irenaeus who calls the Roman Church the greatest and antientest Church founded at Rome by the two most glorious Apostles Peter and Paul And of S. Augustine * Aug. Epist 162. who saith In the Roman Church hath alwaies flourished the Principality of the Apostolique Seat This word alwaies including all the time upward from that present to S. Peter So that by this it is manifest that there was a Roman Church even from S. Peters time who was the first Bishop and Pope thereof Which S. Augustine confirmes in another place saying Number the Priests even from
power thereof to be extinguished by permitting damnable errors in the whole Church and that soon after his departure as some Protestants say and not to recover light for twelve or fourteen hundred years together especially considering there was no possible meanes for any man to know the contrary there was no society of men that taught otherwise and if at any time there started up any they were condemned of error by all their fellow Christians and in processe of time melted from the face of the earth The Scripture if that were the means as Protestants pretend not being printed the invention of Printing not being in the world till about two hundred years ago and the Bibles that were written being but few by reason of the great labour of writing them and those that were not purchaseable but by few because of their price nor legible but by fewer because they were not printed but written and lastly not to be knowne to be the Word of God as I have shewed before but by the testimony of those men who they say were corrupted who having corrupted the doctrine might with much more ease have extinguished or corrupted the Text and made them speak what they pleased it being known to far fewer than the doctrine was it being difficult to obtaine uncertain whether it were right and very obscure in its meaning so that if they had been guilty of changing the Apostles doctrine they could easily have razed out all those places which Protestants urge against them and so have prevented the strange and notable discovery that the Protestants think they have made of their errors And if they say that God by his providence preserved the Scripture both from extinction and corruption may not we much more reasonably say having warrant for it out of the Scripture also whereas they have no warrant for the preservation of the Text that God by the same providence did and will alwaies preserve his Church from corruption which is a thing much more easily known than the Scripture consisting of a living multitude can expresse it self more plainly This infallibility in the mouth and Tradition of the Church the Prophet assureth Esa 59.21 My Spirit which is upon thee and the words which I have put into thy mouth shall not depart out of thy mouth nor out of the mouth of thy seed nor out of the mouth of thy seeds seed from hence forth for ever And therfore S. Augustine saith Aug. Ep. 118. that to dispute against the whole Church is insolent madnesse § 4. To know divine and supernaturall truth by the light and lustre of the doctrine belongs to the Church triumphant Inward assurance without an externall infallible ground is proper to Prophets and Apostles the first publishers of Religion and seeing that God doth not now instruct either of these waies as I have shewed but by an externall infallible ground and this being the Tradition of the Church it followes that he must preserve it from error and likewise render the Church it selfe alwaies conspicuous that it may be discerned by sensible markes of which we shall speake anon And he is also bound by his providence to assist men in the finding out of this Church when they apply their best diligence thereunto that so they be not deceived And whereas some of the more learned Protestants say that though they have no infallible ground besides the teaching of the Spirit yet they are not taught immediatly by propheticall manner because they are also taught by an externall probable though not infallible motive to wit the Churches tradition I conceive that except they assigne an externall infallible meanes besides Gods inward teaching they cannot avoid the challenging of immediate revelation For whosoever knowes things assuredly by the inward teaching of the Spirit without an externall infallible motive unto which he doth adhere is assured prophetically though he have some externall probable motives to direct his belief S. Peter had some come conjecturall signes of Symon Magus his preversenesse and incorrigible malice yet seeing he knew it assuredly we believe he knew it by the light of prophecy because beside inward assurance he had no externall infallible ground If one see a man give almes publiquely though he see probable signes and tokens that he doth it out of vaine glory yet cannot he be sure thereof but by the light of immediate revelation because the other tokens are not grounds sufficient to make him certain For if a man be sure and have no certain ground of this assurance out of his own heart it is cleer that he is assured immediately and only by Gods inward inspiration Wherefore Protestants if they will disclaime immediate revelation in deed not in words only they must either grant Tradition to be infallible or else assigne some externall infallible ground besides Tradition whereby they are taught what Scriptures the Apostles delivered Lastly I was perswaded of the Churches infallibility in her Traditions and Doctrines because she is endowed with the power of miracles which wheresoere they are which I shall hereafter examine do both prove that that society of Christians is the true Church and that that Church is infallible in all that she proposes as the Word of God And the reason is because God who is truth it self cannot set his hand and seal that is miracles and works proper to himself to warrant and authorize a falshood invented by men Against which * Feild lib. 3. cap 15. Whites Reply p 216. Protestants object and say that miracles are only probable and not sufficient testimonies of divine doctrine alleadging Bellarmine who saith we cannot know evidently that miracles are true for if we did we should know evidently that our faith is true and so it should not be faith To which may be answered that such evidence as doth exclude the necessity of pious affection and reverence to Gods Word evidence that considering the imperfection of humane understanding may enforce men to believe cannot stand with true faith If we know by Mathematicall or Metaphysicall evidence that the miracles done in the Church were true this evidence would compell men to believe and to overcome the naturall obscurity and seeming impossibility of the Catholique Doctrine therefore as Bellarmine saith we cannot be Mathematically and altogether infallibly sure by the light of nature that miracles are true Notwithstanding it cannot be denied in reason what our Saviour affirmes that miracles are a sufficient testimony binding men to believe the very works that I do do bear witnesse of me that the Father hath sent me Joh. 5.36 and consequently that we may know them to be true by Physicall evidence as we are sure of things we see with our eyes and handle with our hands as S. John saith 1 Epist 1.1 what we have seen with our eyes what we have beheld and our hands have handled of the word of life Or we may be as sure of Miracles as we are of such things as
being once evident to the world are by the worlds full report declared unto us which is a morall infallibility So that if we have not a Metaphysicall or Mathematicall infallibility of the truth of Miracles yet we have a Physicall and morall infallibilitie as much as we have of any thing we either hear or see Nor doth this Physicall evidence take away the merit of faith because this evidence not being altogether and in the highest degree infallible in it self for our senses may somtimes be deceived it is not sufficient to conquer the naturall obscurity darknesse and seeming falshood of things to be believed upon the testimony of those miracles For the mystery of the Trinity of the Incarnation Reall presence and the like seem as far above the reach of reason as any Miracle can seem evident to sense hence when faith is proposed by Miracles there ariseth a conflict betwixt the seeming evidence of the Miracles and the seeming falshood and darknesse of Catholique Doctrine against which obscurity a man cannot get the victory by the sole evidence of miracles except he be inwardly assisted by the light of Gods Spirit moving him by pious affection to cleave to the Doctrine which is by so cleer testimony proved to be his Word Even as a man shut up in a chamber with two lights whereof the one makes the wall seem white the other blew cannot be firmly assured what colour it is untill day-light enter and obscuring both those lights discover the truth so a man looking upon Christian Doctrines by the light of miracles done to prove them will be moved to judge them to be truth but looking upon them through the evidence of their seeming impossibilities unto reason they will seem false nor will he be able firmly to resolve for the side of faith untill the light of divine grace enter into his heart making him prefer through pious reverence to God the so-proposed authority of his Word before the seeming impossibility to mans reason CHAP. VII That Catholique Tradition is the onely firm foundation and motive to induce us to beleeve that the Apostles received their doctrine from Jesus Christ and Jesus Christ from God the Father And what are the meanes by which this doctrine is derived downe to us § 1. AS Catholique Tradition is infallible in it self so is it most necessary for us there being no other certaine testimony to any prudent man no firme ground or motive to believe that the Primitive Church received her doctrine from the Apostles the Apostles from Christ Christ from God nor no way to bring it downe from those times to these but only the Tradition of the Church For we may observe three properties of the doctrine of faith to be true to be revealed of God to be preached and delivered by the Apostles The highest ground by which a man is persuaded that his faith is true is the authority of God speaking and revealing it the highest proof by which a man is assured that his faith is revealed is the authority of Christ and his Apostles who delivered the same as descending from God but the highest ground that moveth a man to believe that his faith was preached by the Apostles is the perpetuall Tradition of the Church succeeding the Apostles unto this day assuring him so much according to the saying of * De praescr c. 21. 37. Tertullian who maketh this ladder of belief in this sort what I believe I received from the present Church the present from the Primitive the Primitive Church from the Apostles the Apostles from Christ Christ from God and God the prime verity from no other fountaine different from his own infallible knowledge So that he that cleaveth not to the present Church firmely believing the Tradition thereof as being come down by succession is not so much as on the lowest step of the ladder that leads unto God the revealer of saving truth successive Tradition unwritten being the last and finall ground whereon we believe that the points of our belief came from the Apostles which may be proved by these arguments § 2. First if the maine points of faith be to be believed to come from the Apostles because they are written in Scriptures and the Scriptures are believed to be the Word of God upon the report of universall Tradition then our belief that the things which we believe come from the Apostles and from God resteth upon the Tradition of the Church but it is most certaine that the Scriptures cannot be proved to have been delivered unto the Church by the Apostles but by the perpetuall Tradition unwritten conserved in the Church succeeding the Apostles all the other waies by which the Protestants endeavour to prove the Scripture to be the word of God being vaine and insufficient as I have proved before Secondly common and unlearned people which comprehend the greatest part of Christians may have true faith yet they cannot have it grounded on the Scripture for they can neither understand nor read it or if read it yet but in a vulgar language of the truth of whose translation they are not assured therefore must rely upon the testimony of the present Church that that which they believe is the Word of God Thirdly if all the maine and substantiall points of Christian faith must be believed before we can securely read and truly understand the holy Scripture than they are believed not upon Scripture but upon Tradition going before Scripture and that it is so is manifest because true faith is not built but upon Scripture truly understood according to the right sense thereof nor can we understand the Scripture aright unlesse we first know the main Articles of Faith which all are bound expresly to believe by which as by a rule we must regulate our selves in the interpretation of the Scripture otherwise without being setled in the rule of faith by Tradition men are apt to fall into grievous errors even against the main articles of the faith as of the Blessed Trinity and Incarnation of the Son of God as experience doth sufficiently testifie so that reading and interpreting Scripture doth not make men Christians but supposeth them to be made so by Tradition at least for the main points such as every one is bound expresly to know Fourthly they to whom the Apostles wrote and delivered the Scripture were already converted to Christianity and instructed in all necessary points of faith and in the common practises of Christianity and so by what they knew by Tradition could easily interpret what was written but otherwise might easily have failed in the mainest points as some forsaking Tradition did for example the Arrians who were confuted by the Catholiques not by bare Scripture for of that the Arrians had plenty but as it was interpreted by Tradition Therefore none can be supposed to understand the Scripture aright so to know the true word and will of God but by being such as they were to whom the Apostles
faith were delivered to them by the Apostles to the Apostles by Christ to Christ by God the fountain of all truth CHAP. IX That there is and ever shall be a visible Church upon earth And that this Church is one holy Catholique and Apostolique § 1. NOw considering all that hath been said before the summe whereof is this That we have no meanes to know certainly the doctrines of the Apostles but only the Tradition of the Church and that that Tradition is and ought to be infallible hence I conceived that this consequence was necessary that there should be and is alwaies a visible Church in the world to whose Traditions men might cleave and that this Church is one universall Apostolicall Holy First there is alwaies a true Church of Christ in the world for if there be no meanes for men to know that Scriptures and all other Articles came from Christ and his Apostles and so consequently from God but the Tradition of the Church then there must needs be in all ages a Church receiving and delivering these Traditions else men in some age since Christ should have been destitute of the ordinary meanes of salvation because they had no meanes to know assuredly the doctrines of Christianity without assured faith whereof no man can be saved And although a false Church may deliver the true Word of God as it is contained in the Scripture and the Creed yea even a Jew or Heathen may do so for this is but casuall yet none but a true Church can deliver the Word of God with assurance to the receiver that the text is incorrupt thereby binding him to the belief thereof Now it is necessary that men have the true Scripture not only casually but they must be sure the Text thereof be uncorrupt therefore there must be a true unerring Church whose authority is so aut hentique that it is a sufficient warrant for men to believe the doctrine shee delivers to come from the Apostles Secondly this Church must be alwaies visible and conspicuous For the Traditions of the Church must ever be famous and most notoriously known in the world that a Christian may truly say with S. Augustine De utilit Cred. c. 14. I believe nothing but the consent of Nations and Countries and most celebrious fame Now if the Church were at any time invisible or very secret and hidden then could not her Traditions be famously known nor could men that were willing to submit themselves to her directions know where to find her out of whose communion they cannot attain salvation Thirdly this Church is Apostolicall that is derived from the Apostolicall Sea by the succession of Bishops and Pastors for else how can we be assured that we have the Apostles doctrine It must be one generation that must certifie another and if there should be any interruption in that time all might be lost and changed And how could the Tradition of Christian Doctrine be notoriously Apostolicall if the Church delivering the same hath not a manifest and conspicuous pedigree and derivation from the Apostles Which is a convincing argument used by S. Augustine Epist 48. circa med How doe we trust out of the divine writings that we have manifestly received Christ if we have not also from thence manifestly received his Church The Church that hath a lineall succession of Bishops from the Apostles famous and illustrious whereof not one hath been opposite in Religion to his immediate predecessor proves evidently that this Church hath the Doctrine of the Apostles For as in the rank of three hundred stones ranged in order if no two stones be found in that line of different colour then if the first be white the second is white and so the rest unto the last even so if there be a succession of three hundred Bishops all of the same Religion if the first have the Religion of the Apostles and S. Peter the second hath and so the rest even unto the last Fourthly this Church is one that is all the Pastors and Preachers deliver and consequently all her Disciples and children believe one and the same Faith For if the Preachers and Pastors of the Church disagree about matters which they preach as necessary points of Faith they lose all their credit and authority for who will believe witnesses on their own words if they disagree in their testimony Fifthly I infer that this Church is universall spread over all Nations that she may be said to be every where morally speaking that is according to common humane account by which a thing diffused over a great part of the world and famously knowne is said to be every where In this manner the Apostle said that the faith of the Romans was renowned in the whole world Rom. 1.12 that so the whole world may take notice of her as of a worthy and credible witnesse of Christian Tradition howsoever her outward glory and splendour peace and tranquillity in some places and at some times be more or lesse eclipsed and shee be not alwaies in all places at once And the reason of this perpetuall visible universality is because the Tradition of the Church is the sole ordinary meanes of faith toward the Word of God This Tradition therefore must be so delivered as that it may be known to all men seeing God will have all men without exception of any nation to be saved and come to the knowledge of the truth 1. Tim. 2.4 which they cannot do unlesse the Church be so diffused in the world that all known nations may take notice of her And Gods will that all men should be saved though it be but an antecedent will as Schoolemen call it yet it inferreth two things which some Protestants deny first the salvation of all men secondly the meanes of their salvation In respect of the meanes the will of God is absolute that all men in some sort or other have sufficient meanes of salvation In respect of the end to wit the salvation of all men the will of God is not absolute but as Schoolemen say virtually conditionall that is God hath a will that all men be saved as much as lies in him if the course of his providence be not intercepted and men will cooperate with his grace And the reason why some Nations hear not the Gospell and Word of God is not the defect of his Church but the want of working in the naturall causes to discover such Countries which defect God will not ever miraculously supply But if the Church were invisible to the world and hoarded up her Religion to her selfe either not daring or not willing to professe and preach the same unto others Nations may be knowne and yet the Word of God not known to them If therefore this Church should be hidden for a long time mens souls should perish not through defect in the naturall causes but only through the hiddennesse obscurity and wretchednesse of the supernaturall meanes to wit of the Church not
of which prophanation there hath been over frequent experience CHAP. XXIII Of the Liturgie and private prayers for the ignorant in an unknowne tongue § 1. PRayer in an unknowne tongue hath two branches one concerning publique prayer in a tongue which the people that are present doe not understand the other private prayer in a tongue which the party praying doth not understand both which Protestants think absurd in reason and contrary to Scripture but Catholiques beleeve truly that they are neither For maintenance whereof let us consider the meaning of S. Paul 1 Cor. ch 14. the place by them violently but impertinently objected against us We must then know that as the gift of tongues was given to the Apostles by the Holy Spirit when he in the shape of tongues desended upon them so the same gift with divers others was continued amongst the Christians for some time after This gift amongst the other they did exercise in their publique Church-meetings where they assembled for the benefit edification of the hearers speaking some extemporary prayer or other holy discourse both for matter and language as the Spirit gave them utterance with great affection elevation of the mind towards God Yea the language many times was such as no man present understood as is intimated verse 2. for he that speaketh in an unknowne tongue c. no man understands him no nor many times did the speaker understand himselfe for the gift of tongues and the gift of interpretation of tongues were two distinct gifts as we see in the 12. ch and did not alwaies meet together as we may gather from the 13. verse of this chapter where the Apostle exhorteth him that speaketh in an unknowne tongue to pray that he may interpret which was a signe that ordinarily they could not by verse 14. where he saith If I pray in a tongue my spirit prayeth but my understanding is unfruitfull now this must be meant of a tongue which he himself did not understand otherwise his own understanding could not be unfruitful And thus also doth S. Augustine de Genes ad lit lib. 12. cap. 8.9 and other Fathers interpret S. Paul By this it is manifest that the Apostle doth not here reprove the practise of the Church of Rome in her Latine Liturgie directly seeing this here reproved and that are extreamly different Therefore ours can be only so far reprovable as it agrees with the other in the reasons for which it was reproved which are want of interpretation therby want of edification to the auditors of sufficient warrant to the unlearned through want of understanding of what was said to say thereto Amen Now seeing ours doth not agree with that in any of these it is therefore irreproveable Yet if it should agree with that in any of these it should not notwithstanding be unlawfull because they differ in the maine and principall part the end for these Church-meetings were intended for the instruction edification of the auditors therefore it was fit the exercises thereof should be in a tongue which they that were to be instructed understood but the publike Liturgie of the Church was instituted for the service praise of God therfore may be without unlawfulnesse in any tongue that he understands to whom it is dedicated The truth of all this will appear if we consider the differences between that case and ours The languages then spoken were utterly unknowne many times to any man there present even to the speaker himself but the Liturgie of the Church is in a language or languages known to very many as the Latin in the Latin Church to all Scholars to most Gentlemen youths bred in Grammer Schools in some countries to most Mechanicks it cannot therfore absolutely be said to be an unknown tongue And though it cannot be proved unlawful to have the Liturgie in a tongue absolutely unknowne yet where the Latin tongue hath been unknowne to all or most of the better sort the Church hath dispensed with the use thereof as appears by the dispensation of Pope Paul 5. to turn the Liturgie of the Masse into the vulgar language of China to use the same until the Latin tongue grew more known familiar in that country Moreover the prayers other spiritual excercises which S. Paul speaks against were extemporall made in publike meetings according to the present inspired devotion of the speaker So that the unlearned hearer or he that supplied his place the Clark except he understood the language consequently the matter could not prudently say Amen to it seeing he knew not whether the thing that was spoken were good and lawfull or no. But the Liturgie Service of the Church hath set offices for every day approved by the Church therefore from hence a man may be confidently assured that it is good lawfull and therefore he may boldly say Amen Besides there are means applied to the ignorant multitude by which they are or may be if they use diligence therein made to understand the publike Prayers of the Church namely Sermons Exhortations Catechismes private instructions Manualls Primers in vulgar languages where the Prayers used in the Church are found So that the ordinary common passages of the publike Service may be and are easily understood even by women children they may understandingly say Amen Therefore as the Apostle did allow of an unknowne tongue in the exercises of the Corinthians provided there were some to interpret it so the Service in Latin is very allowable even under this notion while there are the aforesaid meanes used for the interpretation thereof And the Congregation is edified as the Apostle appoints it should be by the things that are done said in the Church while the people have but a generall understanding of the severall passages thereof And if they were in a vulgar language the difference for matter of understanding would be but in a little more or lesse for that every woman boy girl in a Church should be able to understand word by word the Liturgie therof be it in what language it will is morally impossible seeing there are great store of words in every tongue in common use amongst the better sort which common people do not understand And suppose this might be avoided in those parts of the Liturgie which are composed by the Church by making choice of the most vulgar words that might be found yet it is impossible to be so in that which makes the greatest part of the Liturgie to wit the Scripture And if yet all the words of the Scripture could be bowed to their understanding for the Grammatical signification thereof yet without all paradventure the sense which is the chiefe thing to be understood and for which only the language doth serve by reason of the innumerable figurative speeches therein is altogether impossible For example let any unlearned Englishman say whether these following places in English for so