which consists in having none at all seeing that faith commeth by hearing of the Word of God for it is not to heare the Word of God to heare a sound without understanding the Apostle then by this reckoning was destitute of reason when he gave thanks to God for that that the Corinthians were rich in all knowledge 1. Cor. 1.5 And that wish he made that the Philippians might abound in knowledge and understanding was very inofficious and unkinde seeing that by that knowledge the endevour of their faith slackned and enfeebled Coloss 3.16 and their merit diminished Hereon we have an excellent passage of Saint Chrysostome in his Homilie 61. upon Saint Iohn wherein after he had in many words reprooved the people and reproched them too for their ignorance and for their incapacity and disabilitie to defend the cause of God and to render a reason of their faith and had layd before them the Apostles commandement that willeth that the Word of God should dwell plentifully in every one of us in all wisdome Col. 3.16 he askes * 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 What answer herevnto make those persons more unprofitable then drones They say that the soule is blessed which is simple and that hee which walkes in simplicitie walkes with affiance That this is that which is the source and fountaine of all this evill to wit that amongst the people there are but very few of them that could in time of need alleadge any testimonies of Scriptures This complaint of this good Doctor was at this day ridiculous for the people would answer him how should wee be able to alleadg the Scriptures whereof you have forbidden us the reading And indeed there is not extant any approved and allowed translation in the vulgar tongue It is now adaies a badg of an heresie to reade carefully the Scriptures and to alleadg them CHAP. II. Two differences betweene us and the Church of Rome touching an unknowne tongue COncerning an unknowne tongue when we speake unto God or when God speaketh unto us wee have two sorts of differences with the Church of Rome the one concerning the prayers of particular persons the other touching the publique service For in the Church of Rome the people use to pray without understanding themselves and to speake unto God and unto the Saints in a tongue which he that prayeth understandeth not as if it were suspected to themselves or they were afraid to understand their own prayer thinking that the Latine hath something in it that 's more holy and that barbarous termes have more efficacie and that prayer in * Or in any other tongue then Latine English is lesse acceptable to God The very same abuse hath intruded it selfe into the publique service which is performed in Latine where the people of France Germany and Spaine understand nothing Wherevpon also the people vse to say let 's goe heare a Masse but not let us goe observe the words or understand the Masse they might say farre better if they said let us goe see the Masse for they goe to it as unto a shew and not as unto an instruction and as if it were not enough that the Masse is said in Latine a great part of the Masse is pronounced exceeding lowe and with a deepe silence the rest is said in confused termes and with quivering of an inarticulate voice whereof their Doctors render us the reason namely for that Shepheards in hearing of the Masse having learned the words of consecration Durand Rat. lib. 4. c. 35. Cum quidam pastores Canonem in agro cantaâ—ent panem super lapidem posuissent ad verboruÌ„ ipsorum ptolationem panis in carnem conuer sus est ipsi tamen divino iudicio igne coelitùs misso percussi sunt Propter quodsancti Patres statueruÌ„t verba ista sub silentio dici pronounced them over the bread of their meale which was incontinently transubstantiated into flesh wherevpon withall they were strucke with thunder from heaven This Historie is recited by Durand in his 4. booke of his Rational chap. 35. and by Pope Innocent the III. in his third booke of the misteries of the Masse chap. 1. CHAP. III. Of prayers of particular persons in a tongue not understood by themselves that pray I. PRayer is a request or supplication which man presenteth unto God forwarded and suggested by the sense and feeling of our want and necessitie it is a kinde of almes which man asketh of God Whence it followeth that hee that prayeth ought to pray according to his feeling and to apply his prayer accordingly unto his necessitie this cannot be done by him that prayeth without understanding himselfe and who by custome sayeth a prayer in terms not understood very often it falleth out that the partie which hath an intentioÌ„ to aske of God something saith in his Latine prayers things farre from his owne intention Thus Courtizans and women that understand the Latine iust as much as the Greeke doe say in Latine their seaven Psalmes Psal 38. 143. wherein David being sicke complaineth that hee halteth as he goeth and that his raines were enflamed and speaketh as one shut up in a darke Cave whither Saul had brought him is it credible that a silly woman pronouncing these things in Latine once thinkes of asking salvation or the forgivenesse of sinnes II. The Apostle Saint Iames in his 1. Chap. willeth that when we aske any thing of God wee aske it in faith not doubting at all Now it is impossible to aske of God any thing in faith and in full assurance when the thing is not knowne which is asked of God for faith implyeth and bringeth knowledge Wherevpon also our Saviour Iesus Christ conioyneth ordinarily knowledge with faith as in the 10 of Saint Iohn ver 38. That you may know and beleeve that the Father is in me and in the 17. Chap. ver 8. They have knowne and beleeved that thou hast sent me Wherfore insteed that Saint Paul so often saith that we are iustified by faith Esay in his 53. Chap. ver 11. saith that wee are iustified by knowledge III. One cannot accuse a man in plainer tearmes to bee out of his wits then in saying to him You know not what you say But all things which in civill conversation would bee esteemed absurd in the Romish religion are held for good as if religion served to trouble the wits or were a receptacle of absurdities and that which otherwaies is a folly here is a devotion God then shall deale iustly to grant nothing to that person that knowes not what he askes and by consequent knoweth this that God hath denied him IV. Here experience and necessitie reforme men by force for they who shall have all their life long made their prayers in latine without understanding of themselves in suddaine afflictions and in great griefes will change their language and will cast forth unto God their fervent prayers in their ordinarie tongue A man which is in
the Iewes which are called Helenists in the 6. of the Acts who were Iewes transported into Aegypt by Ptolomeus Lagus who also were called Babelim and were dispersed abroad in very great numbers thorow out all Africa so called because they were issued of the people which had beene transported into Babylon for they there read in Synagogues the Greeke translation of the Septuagints Whereupon also the Apostle to the Hebrewes writing to them alleadgeth to them the Scripture according to their translation Of these Iewes was Philo a Iew of Alexandria See Scaliger de emendat Temp. p. 143. A man learned in the Greeke but ignorant of the Hebrew For in Alexandria the Greeke tongue was there so common that the Bishops as Athanasius Cyrill Theophilus c. there preached to the people in Greeke IX It is without reason that Du Perron obiecteth unto us the example of the sacrificing Priests of the Law interceading for the people in the Temple the whilst that the people were without in the Court and by consequent could not understand that which the Priest said For here the question is of the Priest speaking unto God in the Masse in the presence of the people And withall the question is of the Masse in the which are read Chapters to the people out of the Scripture all in a tongue which the people understand not And indeed there are many Priests that understand not their Masse to what purpose then is it to bring us the example of a sacrificing Priest who spake not to the people and spake not to God before the people the whilst that hee was was within in the holy place And read not to the people any place nor Chapter of the Law of God And indeed we finde not in the holy Scripture that the Priest spake or pronounced by mouth any prayer whilst that hee was in the holy place or whilst he was in the Sanctuary as he performed the propitiation for the people I thinke that if this Priest comming out of the Temple to the people that waited for his comming forth in the Court had spoken to the congregation in a barbarous and strange tongue this people would have stoned him X. Now these Gentlemen confesse that by this unknowne tongue the people is deprived of instruction and of consolation but they say that their * Such prayers as they thinke fit for them to understand pronesse and Sermons supply this defect in which they set forth that which is said in the Masse Put wee the case that it were so For it is a maine abuse to doe evill to the end to bring remedies for the same to make wounds to the end to apply playsters to them It were better the Priest made himselfe understood in the Masse insteed of making the poore people hope that within some yeares they shall learne the explication of it in some Sermon But it is most false that in their Sermons there is any explication made of the Masse neither in regard of the word nor of the matters take me a Pesant or a Tradesman that hath heard Masse fiftie yeares you shal finde him wholy ignorant of that which is said in the Masse are the people made to understaÌ„d in Sermons why the Priest praying for the dead saith that hee prayeth for them that sleepe a peaceable sleepe Or why the Priest presenting unto God the consecrated Hoast which they say is the bodie of Iesus Christ asks of God that he would so accept of that offering as hee did of Abels sacrifice that is to say of a calse or of a lambe offered by Abel Or why the Priest beseecheth God in the Masse that the Angells may take Iesus Christ which is upon the Altar and carry him up unto the celestiall Altar Or why the Priest calls the bodie of Iesus Christ These gifts These offerings which God createth daily and quickneth Or why the Priest in his confiteor confesseth his sinnes to God to the holy Virgin Marie to Michael the Arch-Angel to Saint Iohn Baptist without speaking of Iesus Christ Or why in the Masse the holy Virgin is preferred before Iesus Christ in saying communicating and celebrating in the first place the memorie of the Virgin Marie notwithstanding that the sacred Supper was only instituted for a remembrance and commemoration of Christ and to shew forth his death XI The Cardinall du Perron findeth that the discommoditie which is in the people not understanding of the service bringeth this profit that the merit of the peoples endeuour and the exercise of their faith is thereby the greater Hee thinkes that the lesse knowledge there is the more merit there is in the faith and that he that hath least understanding he it is that hath most faith and that merits most Which is the same that Harding a Harding De precibus peregtina lingua factis Hic pius animorum affectus tam est proculdubio Deo gratus ut nulla â—erborum intelligentia conferri queat saith That the people indeed understand not the Latine of the Masse but that the pious affection which they thither bring is so acceptable to God that thee understanding of the words cannot be compared unto it By this reason there is merit in knowing nothing and ignorance shall be ranked amongst the blessings of God and to instruct a man in the true knowledge of God it is to diminish the merit and the price of his faith And why not Seeing that faith consisteth in being ignorant and in not knowing and is opposite to knowledge as Cardinall Bellarmine hath before told us Certainely this maxime is a maine prop to uphold the Popes Dominion and the Authority of the Clergie seeing it teacheth to beleeve without knowledge and to follow the Pope and his doctrine with their eyes shut with not so much as enquiring at all after the will of God nor after his Word which is a light which God offereth us to the end that we our selves might know the right way Now albeit that remedilesse ignorance lessens the fault yet so it is that it is an evill as being borne blind excuseth going out of the way And yet going out of the way is still an evill But to studie to be ignorant and to bee afraid to learne and to be voluntarily blinde and to thinke that there is merit in voluntarie ignorance besides the follie of it is a stiffe and wilfull obstinacie not to have a will to learne the Will of God nor can I conceave what that endeavour is and that great exercise of faith which Du Perron saith is in those that doe beleeve without understanding seeing it is no labour to know nothing and to will not to learne XII The same Prelate insisteth strongly upon the danger it would bee to translate the Liturgie into the Vulgar tongue saying that the changing though but of one sole sillable yea but of one letter in the Mysterie of the Church might bring a change in the faith Witnesse the
length when the night of ignorance is neere at hand Hence came that implicit faith which relyeth on the faith of another and which beleeveth that which the Church of his countrey beleeveth without ever knowing that which the Church ought to beleeve and which serveth God by custome following the thronge and involveing themselves in the multitude Hence came in the Liturgie in a strange tongue and not understood as if the english tongue were too base and triviall for divine service Hence came in the custome of praying to God without knowing what they asked of him as if they were affraid to understand themselves Hence came it to passe that as in the publique reading of the Scriptures God is a barbarian unto men so also in publique prayers the Priest is a barbarian to the Assembly and in the prayers of particulars every one is a barbarian to himselfe The occasions and the change of affaires have herevnto often contributed For the vulgar tongue of a countrey comming to be abbasterdised by laps of time or being suddenly changed by the confus'd medley the blending and invndation and uiolent breaking in of strange people the Pastors and leaders of the people have not beene carefull to accommodate the publique service unto the understanding of the new inhabitants and to the tongue in vse So that the Liturgie became in lesse then fiftie yeares not to be understood by the people And this came to passe in Italie where the Latine was the vulgar in the time of the Apostles and many ages after But the Latine being corrupted by the inundation of the Goths Lumbards and French and by the extinguishing abolishing of good letters and learning the Bishops still retained the service in the ancient tongue and suffered the people to loose the understanding of it The like happened in France and in Spaine as we shall see hereafter True religion taketh a quite contrary way It resists this naturall inclination of men by which they flie instruction fearing to learne the will of God least thereby they should oblige themselves to follow it thorow the brightnesse of the Gospell it dissipates the kingdome of the Prince of darknesse For the people ought to bee clearely instructed in the doctrine of saluation seeing they have as great a share in salvation as the Pastors Who shall not answer for the people at the day of iudgement if the blinde leade the blinde Matth. 25.24 they will both fall into the ditch The Prophet Habacuk tells us Habac. 2.4 that The iust shall live by his faith and not by the faith of another He which beleeves in God by proxie or attornie deserves that another should bee saved for him betweene the false and the true religion there is as much difference as betweene two Temples the one whereof hath his windowes and lights shut and stopt up the other receiveth in lights on all sides in the one the people make profession of a blinde obedience in the other the people demand instruction The one setteth forth to the view the Lampe of Gods Word the other suppressing this spirituall light lighteth up candells at high noone And like as the light which struck Saint Peter on the side when hee slept in prison Acts 12. made the irons to fall off from his hands and opened him the prison even so the light of the true doctrine breakes asunder the bands of superstition sets a man at libertie according to that which our Saviour Iesus Christ teacheth in the 8. of S. Iohn You shall know the truth and the truth shall make you free Wherevpon also God said in the 5. Chapter of Esay My people are led captive because there is no knowledge and Iesus Christ in the 22. of S. Matthew said to the Sadduces You erre not knowing the Scriptures Wherevpon he also said to the Iewes Iohn 3.39 Search the Scriptures which is a commandement which is not made to the people by the Church of Rome And God himselfe by his Prophet Ieremie in his Chapter 31. promiseth a happie time wherein every one shall not teach his brother saying Know yee the Lord for saith the Lord they shall know me from the least to the greatest God reiecteth a Zeale without knowledge Rom. 10.2 and the Apostle desireth that the charitie of the Philippians might be with knowledge and all understanding Philip. 1.9 This is the condemnation of the world SAITH THE LORD that light is come into the world Iohn 3.19 but men love darknesse better then the light Matth. 10.16 God indeed would have us to be simple and innocent but withall he will have us to be prudent and wise he forbids curiositie in things hee hath concealed from us but it followeth not thence that wee must bee ignorant of things necessarie and which he hath manifested to us in his Word For these causes have wee taken away images out of our Churches which speake not and have set in their places the holy Scriptures wherin God speaketh unto us these images are fallen downe to the ground before the doctrine of the Gospell as Dagon before the Arke of the Covenant 1. Sam. 5.3 and wee have brought in the Scripture in the vulgar tongue and have established againe the service of God in words understood for teaching no other doctrine then that which is contained in the holy Scriptures we are not ashamed of our religion and we do desire that our doctrine might bee knowne of every one and examined by the Scriptures Iohn 10.38 Iohn 17.8 Rom. 10.17 having learned by the holy Scriptures that faith consisteth in knowledge and that Iesus Christ will that men know before they beleeve and that faith is by hearing of the Word of God whence it followeth that we must heare the Word of God and be therein instructed before we can have faith we reiect the counsell of our adversaries who would have men beleeve before they choose the way of salvation in stead of that they must know to the end to choose aright Can there a greater abuse then to make the faith of Christians to consist in ignorance Bellar. lib. 2. de iustificatione cap. 7. § Iudicium Fides distinguitur contra scientiam melius per ignorantiam quà m per notitiam definitur Du Perron in his booke against the King of great Britaine lib. 6. ch 1. pag. 1080. as Cardinall Bellarmine doth who saith that faith is distinguished against knowledge and is better defined by ignorance then by knowledge Wherevpon likewise the Cardinall du Perron thinks that the greater ignorance is the greater is the merit of faith saying that when as any one understands not the publique service for that the Priest speaketh in an unknowne tongue and not understood that defect is recompensed by the merit of the endevour and greater excercise of faith Which is a new kinde of merit to endevour to know nothing and an endevour of faith which consists in negligence and a faith
II. Two dfferences betweene us and the Church of Rome touching an unknowne tongue page 22. CHAP. III. Of prayers of particular persons in a tongue not understood by themselves that pray p. 25. CHAP. IIII. That in the Primitive Church every one prayed in his owne tongue pag 41. CHAP. V. That the Liturgie or publique service in a tongue not understood is contrary to the Word of God and unto reason pag. 49. CHAP. VI. This assertion prooved by the Church of the old Testament pag. 81. CHAP. VII That the Primitive Christian Church thorow out the whole world used a tongue understood in their publique service pag. 90. CHAP. VIII Two causes that move the Pope and his Clergie to will that the Masse and the whole ordinarie service be said in the Latine tongue p. 120. CHAP. IX The third cause for the which they are not willing to have the Masse understood by the people the clauses of the Masse which would scandalise the people if they vnderstood them p. 124. CHAP. X. An examination of the Adversaries reasons especially of them of Mounsieur the Cardinall du Perron p. 180. CHAP. XI An examination of the proofes which Mounsieur the Cardinall du Perron draweth from antiquitie for service in a tongue not understood p. 129. CHAP. XII By what meanes the Latine tongue was brought into divine service in France and in Spaine p. 232. CHAP. XIII Concerning England and Germany and how the Romane service and the Latine tongue was brought in thither p. 252. CHAP. XIIII Concerning Africa how the service in the Latine tongue thither entred p. 273. A TREATISE Concerning a strange language in prayers and in the service of GOD. CHAP. I. That false religions love obscuritie But the true Religion setteth forth to the view her doctrine holdeth nothing hidden IT is an opinion commonly received that ignorance is the mother of devotion In the matter of Gods service men admire most what they understand least and obscuritie augments reverence and herewith fareth it as with beauties the which when men doe nothing but stand at enterview and at gaze they kindle and inflame the more concupiscence Negligence and prophanesse contribute to this evill For men having no naturall inclination to bee instructed in the knowledge of God they uoluntarily disburden themselves of that care upon them that make profession to instruct them rather then they will take the paines to learne they had rather beleeve without knowing and follow others without any further inquisition to informe themselves and this affected ignorance cloketh it selfe with the specious title of respect towards the Church and of quicknesse of apprehension if there be question of putting forth a mans money there men will be sure to enquire out the best securities and men are in this point full of diffidence and distrust but when the point of salvatition falleth into debate they referre themselves to rely on the faith of another and blindfold their owne eyes with a uoluntarie ignorance Satan that seaseth on men by naturall handels snares and nooses useth this inclination to seduce them it being easie for him to make them goe astray out of their way that shunne the light He it is that hath taught Magicians and coniurers to insert and blend in their coniurations barbarous and sustian termes not to be understood He it is that instructed the Pagan Priests to cover and keepe close their misteries under a religious silence and to keepe aloofe off at a distance the prophane who now a daies are termed the lay-people or the laiques Thus * Hetrusca disciplina the Toscane discipline wherein was contained the old religion of the Romanes a Quintilianus lib. 1. Carmina Saliorum vix sacerdotibus suis satis intellecta sed quae mutari vetat religio and the verses of the Salique Priests sung by those Priests of Mars were coucht in rude and barbarous termes and such as were not understood of the people Epiphanius in the heresie of the Ossenians b 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 saith that the hereticks taught to pray with obscure words forbidding to enquire after the interpretation of them Saint Augustine in his 16. Chapter Quod vult Deus affirmes the same of the Heracleonites And Clemens Alexandrinus in his first booke of Tapisseries saith that c 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 men hold that prayers pronounced in a barbarous tongue have more efficacie Hierome in his Epitaphe d Barbaro simplices quosque terrent sono ut quod non intelligunt plus mirentur of Lucinius Andalusien they affright the simple with a barbarous sound so that they admire most what they understand least The Mahumetans Turks and Persians have their service in the Arabick tongue which the people understand not And the Iewes whom God hath given up to reprobate sense do read in their Synagogues the Law and the Prophets in the Hebrew tonge whereas the most part of their people have but little or no understanding thereof They that have the charge to guide and instruct the people have beene carefull to foment and increase this evill for they endevour to keepe the people in ignorance with-holding from them the key of knowledge as our Saviour Iesus Christ saith Luk. 11.52 and hindering others from entering in By this meanes they make themselves respectable and of account as such that are onely capable of understanding divine matters the things that belong to God and having onely and alone a familiar communication with God And by the selfe same meanes they themselves take sanctuary and hinder that there can no cleare inspection be made into their affaires and gaine the liberty to accommodate religion to their owne profit and to carve and shred it at their pleasure Dealing as theeves do that blowe out the candells for feare of being discride for they are afraid least the things which men admire a farre off being knowne and better taken notice of at a nearer distance should become contemptible and vtterly out of request Like unto painted women who would not willingly bee uiewed neere at hand having learned by experience that there is trouble to lead the ignorant and that it is easiest diving into a blinde mans purse and that every man that would be informed in the reason and originall of things is not easily perswaded Hence commeth it that they withdraw the people from reading of the Scriptures and that they hinder the translating of them into the vulgar tongue Hence commeth it that they labour so much to cast an aspersion upon the Scriptures and to make them to be suspected by the people as a dangerous booke and that the reading thereof is the cause of heresies Hence came in Images which serve to amaze and to holde at gaze the eyes whilst they blinde their understandings and to afford them recreation whilst they withdraw and bereave the of instruction Hence came that heape of Ceremonies which are shaddowes which growe apace and stretch out themselves in