Selected quad for the lemma: church_n

Word A Word B Word C Word D Occurrence Frequency Band MI MI Band Prominent
church_n bishop_n city_n diocese_n 4,049 5 10.8358 5 false
View all documents for the selected quad

Text snippets containing the quad

ID Title Author Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication) STC Words Pages
A66394 A discourse concerning the celebration of divine service in an unknown tongue Williams, John, 1636?-1709. 1685 (1685) Wing W2702; ESTC R1943 35,062 62

There are 2 snippets containing the selected quad. | View lemmatised text

Hebrew Greek and Latin made all to his praise c. And conformable to this is the Decree of the Council of Lateran under Innocent III. Anno 1215. that because in many parts within the same City and Diocess there are many people of different manners and Rites mixed together but of one Faith We therefore command that the Bishops of such Cities or Diocesses provide fit Men who shall celebrate Divine Offices according to the diversity of Tongues and Rites and administer the Sacraments This may be further confirmed by the very Offices of the Church of Rome but this is sufficient to shew that the Church of Rome hath departed from Scripture Antiquity and it self when it doth require that Divine Service be performed in a Tongue unknown to the people and that it was never the opinion of the Fathers nor any Church nor even of the Church of Rome that it is most expedient to have it so performed So little was it then thought that religious things the less they are understood the more they would be admired and that to preserve a reverence for them and the people from dangerous errors it is requisite to keep them from being understood So little was it pleaded that there are any Tongues sacred in themselves and that as the three upon the Cross of Christ are to be preferred before others and to exclude the rest so the Latin as next to the head of Christ is the most venerable of the three So little was it then thought that there is a certain kind of Divinity in Latin and something more of Majesty and fitter to stir up Devotion than in other Tongues So little were they afraid that Latin would be lost if the Service were not kept in it or however so little evident is it that they valued the preservation of that Tongue above the Edification of the Church Lastly So little did they think of the expedience of having the Service in one common Tongue as Latin That Christians wherever they travel may find the self same Service and Priests may officiate in it as at home As if for the sake of the few that travel the many that stay at home should be left destitute and for one Mans convenience 10000. be exposed to eternal perdition These are Arguments coined on purpose to defend the Cause and so are peculiar to the Church that needs them II. Let us consider Whether from the time of its having been a Rite it hath been the Rite of every Church To this I shall only produce their own Confessions for it is acknowledged that the Armenians Aegyptians Habassines Muscovites and Sclavonians have their Service in a Tongue known to the people And their giving them the hard Names of Hereticks Schismaticks and Barbarous will not save the Council from being fallible when it saith It is the rite of every Church But were there no such Churches in the World that herein practised contrary to the Church of Rome yet it would no more justifie her than it can make that good which is evil that expedient which is mischievous to the Church of God or reconcile one part of the Council to the other that when it hath declared The Mass contains great instruction for the people yet adds That it is expedient and an approved Rite that it be not celebrated in the Vulgar Tongue But say they this is granted If there were no interpretation but that is provided for by the Council for it is ordered That lest Christs sheep should hunger all that have the care of Souls shall frequently expound c. And that we are now to consider SECT IV. Whether the Provision made by the Council of Trent for having some part of the Mass expounded be sufficient to countervail the mischief of having the whole celebrated in a Tongue not understood of the people and to excuse the Church of Rome in the injunction of it This is the last refuge they betake themselves to confessing that without an Interpretation S. Paul is against them but with this they plead he is for them But what shall we then think of the case in their Church at a time when as the people could not understand so the Priests could not interpret and wanted both the gift and had not acquired so much as the art of it What shall we think of their case and their Church that hath neither provided nor doth use such an Interpretation as the Apostle speaks of but what differs as much from it in respect of the light it gives to the people as both that and the Tongue they use do in the way by which they are obtained If it were a translation what a ludicrous thing would it be for a Church in its constant Service to take suppose the Lord's Prayer in pieces and first pronounce it in Latin and then in English But as they do not permit their Offices not the Horae B. Virginis Breviary or Mass Book to be translated into a Vulgar Tongue So the verbal translation of it during the celebration of Mass was never thought of by the Council but was thereby condemned as the cause and seedplot of many errors as we are informed in a Letter wrote upon the occasion of Voisin's translation by the whole Clergy of France to Pope Alexander the Seventh And whatsoever the Exposition did refer to let it be what it will yet it was not to the devotional Part as Sanders declares who after he had pleaded that an Unknown Tongue with interpretation was the perfect fulfilling of S. Pauls advice perceiving a difficulty behind throws all off with this If the Interpretation of Prayers be laid aside for a season it is however not to be thought that it is to be omitted for ever c. So that at most no more was intended than a short exposition of some doctrinal Point or Ceremony which might as well be called an Exposition of the Breviary or any other Book containing much the same things as the Missal And it is probable that so much as this also was never intended which if ever is very rarely practised amongst them Insomuch as Ledesma saith That the sence of the Council was That the people should be instructed only by Sermons Indeed they would rather have this go for an Argument than dispute it They do as the Irish by their Bogs run over it lightly for fear if they tread too hard it will not support their cause but stifle it And therefore they wheel off again and then tell us That it being a known set Form in one set Language those that are ignorant of it at first need not continue so but by due attention and diligence may arrive to a sufficient knowledge As if the poor people are inexcusable if they do not arrive to a sufficient knowledge of the Tongue which must be learned before the things without other helps than their own attention and diligence when the Priests and
person that having been baptized by Hereticks upon the hearing the Questions and Answers at the Baptism of the Orthodox questioned his own Baptism But saith he we would not rebaptize him because he had for a good while held Communion with us in the Eucharist and had been present at our giving of Thanks and answered Amen S. Basil who flourished about the year 370 putting the Question How the Spirit prays and the Mind is without Fruit answers It is meant of those that pray in a Tongue unknown to them that hear For when the Prayers are unknown to them that are present the mind is without Fruit to him that prays c. And as to the Practice of the Church in the publick Service he declares That the people had the Psalms Prophets and evangelical Commands And when the Tongue sings the Mind doth search out the sence of the things that are spoken And he relates how the Christians used to spend the Night in Prayers Confessions and Psalms one beginning and the rest following And that the noise of those that joyned in the Prayers was like that of the Waves breaking against the Shoar With him we have S. Ambrose agreeing that lived much about the same time who saith It is evident that the Mind is ignorant where the Tongue is not understood as some Latines that are wont to sing in Greek being delighted with the sound of the Words without understanding what they say And again the unskilful hearing what he doth not understand knows not the conclusion of the Prayer and doth not answer Amen that is it is true that the Blessing may be confirmed For by those is the confirmation of the Prayer fulfilled that do answer Amen c. And he doth shew what an honour is given to God what a reverence is derived upon our Religion and how far it excells the Pagan that he that hears understands and that nothing is in the dark And he saith This is a symphony when there is in the Church a concord of divers Ages and Vertues that the Psalm is answered and Amen said c. Toward the latter end of the same Century lived S. Chrysostome who saith That the people are much concerned in the Prayers that they are common to them and the Priest that in the Sacrament as the Priest prays for the people so the people for the Priest And that those Words and with thy Spirit signifie nothing else And what wonder is it That in the Prayers the people do talk with the Priest And elsewhere he saith That the Apostle shews that the people receive no little damage when they cannot say Amen To conclude Bellarmin saith That in the Liturgy which bears this Fathers name the parts sung by the Priest Deacon and People are most plainly distinguished To him let us add S. Jerom his cotemporary who declares that at the Funeral of Paula in Jerusalem the multitude did attend and sung their Psalms in Hebrew Greek Latin and Syriack according to the Nations they were of And we are further told That at Bethlem there resorted Gauls Britains Armenians Indians c. and there were almost as many Choirs of Singers as of Countries of a different Tongue but of one and the same Religion And the same Father tells us That at Rome the people sounded forth Amen like to the noise of Thunder Next let us consult S. Augustine of the same time who saith That no body is edified by what he doth not understand And That the reason why the Priest lifts up his Voice in the Church when he prayeth is not that God but the people may hear and understand and joyn with him And that whereas the Bishops and Ministers of the Church were sometimes guilty of using barbarous and absurd Words that they should correct it that the people may most plainly understand and say Amen And elsewhere as has been quoted before exhorts that they be not as Parrots and Pies that say they know not what Thus far our Authorities do proceed with little interruption For Bellarmin doth grant That not only in the times of the Apostles all the people were wont to answer in Divine Offices but that the same was a long time after observed both in the Eastern and Western Church as is evident from S. Chrysostome S. Jerom c. Now having derived the Title thus far for above 400 years we need not be much solicitous for what was introduced afterwards but yet for a farther confirmation I shall add some Testimonies of a later date Such is that known Edict of the Emperour Justinian who dyed Anno 565. in which it is thus enacted We command all Bishops and Priests to celebrate the holy Oblation and the Prayers in sacred Baptism not in a low but such a Voice as may be heard by the people that thereby their Hearts may be raised up with greater Devotion and Honour be given to God for so the Holy Apostle teacheth in the first to the Corinthians For if thou only bless with the Spirit c. To this I shall add that of Isidore Hispalensis that lived in the end of the fifth Century who saith That it behoveth that when it is sung in the Church that all do sing and when Prayers are offered that all do pray and when there is reading that all do read and silence being made that all hear This is also agreeable to the former Opinion of the Church of Rome it self and for proof of which what can we desire more than the Declarations of Popes and Councils and this we have For we read of a permission given by the Pope to the Moravians at the instance of Cyril who had converted them and other Nations of the Sclavonians to have Divine Service in their own Tongue and that he and the Conclave were induced to it when not a few did oppose it by a Voice from Heaven that said Let every Spirit praise the Lord aud every Tongue confess to him as Aeneas Sylvius afterward Pope relates And Pope John the VIII not long after in Anno 880. writes thus to Sfento opulcer a Prince of the Sclavonians We command that the Praises and Works of our Lord Christ be declared in the same Sclavonian Tongue For we are admonished by sacred Writ to praise the Lord not only in three but in all Tongues saying Praise the Lord all ye Nations praise him all the people And the Apostles filled with the Holy Ghost spake in all Tongues And S. Paul admonisheth Let every Tongue confess and in the first to the Corinthians he doth sufficiently and plainly admonish us that in speaking we should edifie the Church of God Neither doth it hinder the Faith or Doctrine to have the Mass sung or the Gospel and Lessons well translated read or other divine Offices sung in the same Sclavonian Tongue because he who made the three principal Tongues viz.