Selected quad for the lemma: spirit_n
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A66394
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A discourse concerning the celebration of divine service in an unknown tongue
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Williams, John, 1636?-1709.
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1685
(1685)
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Wing W2702; ESTC R1943
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35,062
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62
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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.
they more peculiarly belong take them into consideration Now their Arguments are taken partly from Scripture and partly from some cases supposed to be parallel to this Object 1. They say That the Children in the Temple as well as the people cryed Hosanna to the Son of David Matth. 21. 16. whereas they understood not what they said And yet this was our Saviour pleased with and defended them in But this is said with very little Reason For Answ 1. It is more probable that they did understand than that they did not Hosannah being a form of solemn acclamation and as easie to be understood by them in the signification so also in the application of it to Christ upon this occasion which saith S. John 12. 17 18. was Because the people had heard that he raised Lazarus And whereas our Saviour applyes that of Babes and Sucklings to the case that was not because these that cryed Hosannah were such but that because God never wanted Instruments of his Glory but could make use of such as were mean and unfit in themselves for it 2. Supposing they did not understand where is the consequence that because young Childrens Prayers proceeding from the instinct of God's Spirit be acceptable to God therefore the voices of other simple folk now in the Church though they themselves understand not what they say be marvellous grateful to God as the Rhemists say As if an extraordinary case should be a Rule for us in an ordinary and that Prayers proceeding from Children by the instinct of God's Spirit and who were little less miraculously empowered to do it than the Ass of Balaam if they were Sucklings and such as could scarcely speak as Ledesma would have it should teach us to choose what we do not understand Or as if what was grateful to God from Children who were in no capacity of doing better than following of others though they did not understand should excuse nay recommend the Service of those that are in a capacity of understanding and yet understand no more of what they offer to Almighty God in particular than if they were Babes and Sucklings and such as had no understanding The Apostle in 1 Cor. 14. 20. doth upon this occasion exhort Be not Children in understanding so as to think God pleased with that which doth not benefit us or so as to think That he who is so merciful as to accept according to what a Man hath should also be so remiss as to accept him that bringeth not what he hath That when God hath given us a Tongue and Understanding we should be debarred of the use of both in his Worship and Service and yet our Service and our selves be as well accepted as if both were employed therein Certainly what will avail where there is no capacity will not avail when there is a capacity and therefore it is a mean way of arguing and will receive the same answer That they that have no use of Reason are truly and efficaciously baptized and so there is no need of understanding and it would have confuted it self if they had added as they should therefore those that have 〈◊〉 understanding may as lawfully act and shall be as certainly accepted though they use not that understanding as if they did Object 2. Among the Jews the Prayers of the Priest when he entred into the Holy of Holys were accepted though the people were without Lev. 16. 17. and Luk. 1. 9 10. Therefore the Service of the Church may be so said as all the people understand it not and also be accepted Answ 1. It is acknowledged on both sides that the High Priest's entring into the Holy of Holies was typical of Christ and the Atonement made by him and consequently what the people could not bear a part in But since the people are concerned with the Priest in the Offices of our Religion and are to set their Amen to it there is no parity betwixt the case then and the case now 2. How is this a proof that they had their Service in an Unknown Tongue Or if they were to have it in a Known Tongue how can they infer That the High Priest might have used an Unknown Tongue when praying with the people and that this should have been as acceptable to God and as beneficial to them as if it had been understood Obj. 3. But they say it proves thus much That Prayers though made for them that do not hear or are absent are effectual and then why not as well for them that do not understand them though present This is an Argument they much insist upon But 1. If this were of any force then we need no more to pray for our selves because others pray for us than we are not bound to understand what we pray because thosethat pray for us do understand 2. The Dispute is not Whether persons in some cases may not be benefited by the Prayers of others though they do not understand them as when the Church prays for the absent as well as the present and Christ in Heaven intercedes with success for his Church here and those that are present pray for Children Lunaticks and delirous But whether such Prayers are acceptable to God which a person himself is obliged to joyn in and yet so little understands as he knows not what he prays for whether for himself or others nor can be certain whether indeed he prays at all Monica prayed for her Son Austin with that Fervour and Devotion with such passion and continuance that S. Ambrose told her It was impossible a Son of such Prayers and Tears should miscarry But if she had prayed in a Language she understood not she would not have known what she prayed for and she would then have found no Tears for her Prayers or if she had had Prayers and Tears they had both been lost with her Son And although the Priest be a publick person and offers up our Prayers to God yet this doth not at all exclude the faithful from a share in them And therefore as the Priest is the Mouth of the Congregation and as such he must use a Tongue the Congregation understands So the Congregation is to attend to him and to give their Amen and Assent to what he in their name offers to God And he is neither Priest nor Mouth to them if he prevents them in their part and renders them uncapable of bearing a part in it by using a Tongue they understand not And therefore it 's as necessary the Congregation should understand as the Priest and if he do otherwise he can no more justifie himself than if he did celebrate the Service in a Tongue he himself knew nothing of and which neither the one nor the other did understand So that upon the whole we have reason to conclude with Sanders That an Vnknown Tongue is not profitable for the people though he will not allow it for that Reason to be