judg of those quarrels I only attend the pernicious Doctrines I see assumed to maintain the interest of one side with intention to rebuke the same as universally false and destructive to the public peace and quiet Neither in truth can I understand which of both parties may fear more prejudice from the Doctrine I am reprehending I see complaints and jealousies upon both sides which of both hath more reason for it as I am not apt to determine so I do conceive that N. N. as also any other may be uncertain to which of the parties he do's prepare ruine by allowing subjects upon suspicion of danger from their fellow subjects to go to war with them without the consent of their Prince If both do complain and fear why may not either party as well as the other fall upon his fellow subjects when opportunity will assist him in conformity with that Doctrine Truly I cannot but wonder how any one living under a Prince or state that hath several Kingdoms Provinces or Societies to govern should dare to publish so pernicious a Doctrine as this I am reprehending If those of Navar and Arragon of Sicily and Sardinia of Brabant and Flanders should renew old quarrels or stir up new ones and run to war about them without the consent of their common Prince how long would the King of Spain be able to keep peace in his Dominions If his Ministers did take notice of this Doctrine and the consequences of it certainly they would have all Books containing it banished out of their territories But all this is sanctified with N. N. by telling us that the war was for Religion and since the law of God and nature do permit a Man to kill an other that pretends to take away his life with the same or more reason he may kill one that means to take away his Religion which ought to be more precious and dear to him then his life Good God whether has the perverseness of men arrived to canonize Murders and the most barbarous cruelties with the sacred name of Religion This language came not from Heaven Christ nor any of his Apostles did never teach it the Church instructed by them did not practise it Lactantius sets before us the maxims and practise of Christians in those times by these noble words Defendenda Religio est non occidendo sed moriendo non saevitia sed patientia non scelere sed fide Religion is to be defended not by killing but by dying for it not by cruelty but by patience not by mischief but by Faith Thus St. Peter and St. Paul and the rest of the Apostles thus did the brave Theban Legion defend their Religion tho able to defend it with Sword as is testified by Tertullian if the Spirit and Doctrine of Christ then steering the Church had permitted it A particular person to defend his life say you may kill by way of prevention an unjust aggressor that pretends to take it from him to this purpose you quote Divines and Civilians and from thence you infer two consequences the first that likewise a community or society may war against and destroy another society from whom it fears the like destruction the second consequence is that a private person or a Society may also by way of prevention set upon and kill another whom he suspects doth intend to take his religion from him You abuse foully the Doctrine above mentioned of Divines and Civilians by misapplying it both your consequences do not only contain a perverse Doctrine against right Divinity and Christian discipline as now declared but also do trespass against the rules of Logic. The former because it is not so easie to surprise a whole society largely dispersed as it is to surprise one particular person Evidences requisit to qualify a prudent fear such as may justify a preventing onset may not so easily be found against a society the threatning words or purpose of one particular or more in a society giveth not so much assurance of the purpose or intention of the whole society as the words of a particular may give of his intention Besides the killing of one particular is not so criminal and hainous nor so much exposed to an oppression of innocents as the killing and destroying of a whole society is therefore it s no lawful consequence a particular person may killby way of prevention another that he fear will kill him ergo a society or great party may likewise by way of prevention destroy another from whom it fears the like destruction Your second consequence above mentioned that if one to defend his life may kill an other that pretends to take it from him he may likewise kill him or them that intend to take his Religion from him this consequence also I say besides the perverse Doctrine it contains is a faulty piece of Logic it is not so easy to take his Religion from a man as his corporal life Your Religion may not be taken from you by a surprise or when you are a sleep or against your will as your corporal life may be Wherefore the same prevention cannot be necessary or lawful for the preservation of both Any that hath true Religion in him due love to God and a sincere and serious desire of his own happiness must take the loss of his corporal life for his Religion to be the greatest gain he can make it being the greatest security he can have of gaining life and glory everlasting for his Soul and body as our Saviour hath declared And is it not a desirable exchange to leave a painful short and wretched life for a glorious blessed and everlasting one Much he hath in him of Earth and little of Christian Spirit who would not wish to be dissolved if he were sure to be after his dissolution with Christ The only reason that can justifie a fear to dy and part with this miserable life is the uncertainty of what may be our doom in the other and the hopes of securing a good one by further living but when a security is given to pass by death to a life everlasting as Christ gives to such as die for God and his holy Faith what Christian consideration can justifie a fear to such a death so far as to kill those that intend to bring us to it Truly N. N. I have so much of kindness and true friendship left in me for you as made me sorry and not a little troubled to see such pernicious Doctrines as these contain'd in your book I took you for a Man better principled and if I had perceived any such errors in your conversation at the time of our acquaintance in Spain I would have refuted them and shewed my dislike to them as freely as I do now I am willing to imagine that non ex tuo haec dicis that it is not your own deliberate sentiment but imposed upon you by some of those fiery emissaries of Rome who will not stick to
not ordained again after their ceremonies Which point of presumtion and contemt of ancient Canons the Church of England refuses to learn from the Romish admitting to the practise of their respective orders among us such as have bin ordained in the Romish Church tho we have far greater reasons to suspect their ordinations as disagreeing with ancient Canons then they have to suspect ours as we have hitherto largely declared By all this discourse it appeareth how groundless is the scruple of such as refuse to join with the Church of England for fear that the ordination of its Clergy is not valid whereas we have all the certainty and even more for the validity of our ordination that the Roman Church hath for hers how much Suarez was mistaken in affirming that the Church of England has not the Ecclesiastic hierarchy composed of Bishops Priests and Deacons necessary to the constitution of a Catholic Church CHAP. XII Of the large extent of Christian Religion professed in the Church of England THe fourth and chief kind of universality proposed by Suarez as necessary to the constitution of a Catholic Church is the extent of it over all the parts of the Earth This he denies to the Church of England as not passing saies he the Limits of the Brittish Dominions But if he speaks of the Faith professed in the Church of England as he ought to do for the present purpose he was greatly mistaken Here I will shew that King James's saying as Suarez relates that the one half of the Christian World do join with us in the same Faith did not exceed the bounds of truth and modesty and that of three parts of Christians two do join with us in the profession of the Faith of Christ contained in the Apostles Creed tho not of all contained in the Creed of Trent whereby the Roman Church alone is singled from us and from all other Christian Churches not unlike Ismael whose hand was against every one and every Mans hands against him And as the Donatists would confine the Church of God to that corner of Africa they inhabited so the Romanists would not have it extended further then their jurisdiction declaring for excommunicated and damned all that join not with them in obedience to their Pope That they may be ashamed or weary of their blind presumtion and cruelty in offering to mangle and deface in this manner the Church of God if avarice and ambition the genuine cause of this proceeding is capable of shame or amendment I will give to the People blinded by them a view of the multitude of illustrious Nations and Religious Believers in Christ which they do rashly if not maliciously condemn and segregate from their communion And beginning with Protestants inhabiting Europe from the remotest parts thereof Eastward in the Kingdom of Polonia containing under its dominion Polonia Lituania Podolia Russia the less Volhinia Massovia Livonia Prussia all which united in a roundish enclosure are in circuit about 2600 miles and of no less space then Spain and France laid together In this so large a Kingdom the Protestants in great numbers are diffused through all the quarters thereof having in every Province their public Churches and Congregations orderly severed and bounded with Dioceses whence they send some of their chiefest men of worth unto their general Synods which they have frequently held with great celebrity and with such prudence and piety as may be a happy example to be followed by all Christian Churches and likely would be followed upon a due consideration if the insatiable avarice and boundless ambition of Rome aspiring desperatly to a monarchical power over all did not obstruct all the waies that sincere piety and zeal of Religion can imagine for the peace of Christians For as much as there are diverse sorts of these Polonic Protestants some embracing the Waldensian or the Bohemic others the Augustan and some the Helvetian confession and so do differ in some outward circumstances of discipline and ceremony yet knowing well that a Kingdom divided cannot stand and that the one God whom all of them worship in Spirit is the God of peace and concord they jointly meet at one general Synod and their first act alwaies is a religious and solemn profession of their unfeigned consent in the substantial points of Christian Faith necessary to Salvation Thus in general Synods at Lendomire Cracovia Petricove Woodslave Torun they declared upon the Bohememic and Helvetic and Augustan confessions severally received amongst them that they agree in the general heads of Faith touching the Holy Scripture the sacred Trinity the person of the Son of God God and Man the providence of God Sin free will the Law the Gospel justification by Christ Faith in his name Regeneration the Catholic Church and supreme head thereof Christ the Sacraments their number and use the state of Souls after Death the Resurrection and life Eternal They decreed that whereas in the forenamed confessions there is some difference in phrases and forms of Speech concerning Christs presence in his holy Supper which might breed dissention all disputations touching the manner of Christs presence should be cut off seeing all of them do believe the presence it self and that the Eucharistical Elements are not naked and emty signs but do truly perform to the Faithful receiver that which they signify and represent To prevent future occasions of violating this sacred consent they ordained that no man should be called to the sacred Ministry without subscription thereunto and when any person shall be excluded by excommunication from the Congregation of one confession that he shall not be receiv'd by them of another Lastly For as much as they accord in the substantial verity of Christian Doctrine they profess themselves content to tolerate diversity of ceremonies according to the diverse practice of their particular Churches and to remove the least suspicion of rebelling sedition wherewith their malicious and calumniating adversaries might blemish the Gospel tho they are subject to many grievous pressures yet they earnestly exhort one another to follow that worthy and Christian admonition of Lactantius defendenda Religio est non occidendo sed moriendo non saevitiâ sed patientiâ non scelere sed side illa enim bonorum haec malorum sunt This is the State of the Professors of the Gospel in the Elective Monarchy of Polonia who in the adjoining Countries on the fouth Transylvania and Hungary are also exceedingly multiplied In the former by the favour of Gabriel Bartorius Prince of that Region who not many years since expelled thence all such as are of the Papal faction in a manner the whole Inhabitants except some few rotten and pâ—trid limbs of Arrians Antitrinitarians Ebionits Socinians Anabaptists who here as also in Polonia Lituania and Borussia have some public assembly are professed Protestants and in Hungary the greater part especially being compared with the Papists Thence Westward in the Kingdom of Bohemia consisting of 3200 Parishes
Nation in the Roman Religion The Indian Christians commonly called of St. Thomas because by his preaching they are supposed to have bin converted to Christian Religion inhabit in the nearer part of India near to Cape Comori being esteemed afore the Portugals frequented those parts about 15000 Families Their Archbishop formerly acknowledged obedience to the Patriarch of Masal by the name of the Patriarch of Babylon as by those Christians of India he is still termed But the Archbishop revolting from his former Patriarch submitted himself of late by the Portugals persuasion to the Bishop of Rome retaining notwithstanding the ancient Religion of his Country which was also permitted by the Pope in so much that in a Synod held in Goa for that purpose he would not suffer any alteration to be made of their ancientrites or Religion as * Linschot lib. 1. cap. 15. one that lived in those parts at that time hath recorded But that Bishop being dead his successor in another Synod held by the Arch-Bishop of Goa at Diamper not far from Maliapur was induced to make profession together with his suffragans and Priests both of the Roman obedience and Religion Here the reader may note how ready the Roman Court is to wink at any errors in the proselytes they can purchase provided they acknowledge the Popes Supremacy that being secured all is well the rest will come in with time as has happened with these Indians If not that wise Court will stop where it cannot go further and allow what they may not deny For it is to be considered that these Indians at their first reduction to the Popes obedience with permission to use their own rites and Religion being Nestorians held several Articles contrary to the Roman Faith First That there are two Persons in our Saviour as well as two natures That the blessed Virgin ought not to be termed Mother of God That Nestorius condemned in the third and fourth general Council and Diodorus Tarsensis and Theodorus Mopsuestensis condemned for Nestorianism in the fifth were holy Men rejecting for their sake the third general Council held at Ephesus and all other Councils after it and especially detesting Cyril of Alexandria Tho. Ã Jes de conv Gen. lib. 7. c. 2. They celebrate the Sacrament of the Eucharist with leavened Bread They communicate in both kinds They use not auricular confession Nor confirmation They celebrated the Communion instead of Wine with the juice of Raisons softned one night in Water and so pressed forth They baptized not their Infants until they were forty daies old They used not extreme unction Their Priests were married and after the Death of their first Wives had the liberty of the second third and oftner Marriage They had no Images of Saints in their Churches but only the Cross Other particular tenets proper to each one of the forementioned societies of Christians inhabiting the East may be seen with Mr. Brerewood and Mr. Pagit in their relations of these Churches In sum we may say they agree with our reformed Churches of Europe as well in asserting the fundamentals of Christian Religion as in reproving the novel errors of the Roman Church and detesting the arrogancy of it in pretending to a Supremacy over all other Christian Churches and condemning all that will not submit to their pretension herein CHAP. XV. A reflexion upon the contents of the Chapters preceding and upon the pride and cruelty of Romanists for condemning and despising all Christian societies not subject to their jurisdiction CErtainly if those bold and blind Zelots of the Roman Church who can speak no peaceable word nor entertain any charitable thought of any man that is not of their communion did reflect upon the contents of the three Chapters preceeding and consider how many illustrious Nations and numerous Societies of Men do serve God sincerely both in the Eastern and Western Churches many under continual persecution and suffering for their Religion they would abate their pride in despising all that be not of their way and moderate their fury in condemning all to Hell fire that will not pay subjection to their Pope When the Emperor Charles the fifth reduced the City of Ghent from a revolt one of his Peers counselled him he should rase down to the ground that great City The generous Emperor to win that Counsellour to milder thoughts brought him to an eminent place whence he could view the vast extent and rare beauty of that City which when he had viewed and considered he could not find in his heart to continue in his former severe judgment of having it ruined Inhumanly cruel he must be who considering the number and splendor of Nations and People mentioned in the preceeding Chapters serving Christ without dependance upon the Pope of Rome will have them all damned to Hell When Scapula president of Carthage threatned the Christians with cruel usage Tertullian bids him bethink himself a Ad Scapulam c. 4. p. 71. What wilt thou do saies he with so many thousands of Men and Women of every Sex age and dignity as will freely offer themselves what fires what swords wilt thou stand in need of what is Carthage it self like to suffer if decimated by thee when every one shall see there his near kindred and neighbours and shall see there Matrons and men perhaps of thy own rank and order and the most principal persons of either the kindred or friends of those who are thy own nearest friends Spare them for your own sake if not for ours And in his Apology speaking of the vast spreading of that party b c. 37. p. 30. Tho saies he we be men of quite an other way yet have we filled all places among you your Cities Islands Castles Corporations Councils nay your Armies themselves your Tribes Companies yea the Palace the Senate and the Courts of Justice Certainly these expressions of Tertullian so tender and pressing could not chuse but work upon the mind of Scapula and win him to a milder dealing with the Christians I would desire N. N. and others of the Roman Church severe censurers of their Christian Brethren to reflect upon the number and quality of those whom they condemn and endeavour to ruine by the notices delivered in the three last Chap. preceeding and consider with how much propriety the words of Tertullian may be applied to them What power will they have need of to subdue the rest of Christianity alien from their communion so far exceeding themselves in number and forces as above declared And in case they should subdue them what fire and sword would suffice to destroy them And if all should attend their wishes what heart could endure to see such multitudes of their dear Countrymen friends and nearest relations perish whether temporally by their decrees tending to the ruine of all Christians not submitting to their power or eternally by the cruel verdict of Eternal damnation they give against all dissentors I know some of them will
have us say that your Church made choice of that text beyond others to be read in the Anniversary Mass of Souls because in it is made mention of a weighty sum of money to be given for the dead and with offerings of this kind your Clergy is much pleased and so do strike on that string too much in their Funeral Sermons exhorting to mony offerings for the dead to the no small offence and heavy censure of such of your People as dare speak their sense By what I see of your temper I am sure you would say so if you were in my place and case And while you make your atonement with your Church for undervaluing her judgment in the preference of that text forbear at last tergiversations and stand to a trial of the pertinency of the said text reputed for chief to prove the Existence of Purgatory I said that tho the Book relating the foresaid case were Canonical and of certain Autority which is not allowed yet it was no concluding argument to prove the Existence of Purgatory since Praiers for the Dead may be made and were made to different purposes then that of drawing them out of Purgatory and if that be so it is not a good consequence Judas Maccabeus ordered Praiers to be made for his Soldiers defunct therefore it was to draw them out of Purgatory That Prayers may be made for the dead to a different purpose then to draw them out of Purgatory I proved first out of a doctrine received among Romish Doctors that God being present to all the spaces of Eternity may see now and listen to Praiers that will be made in any Age after and fore-seeing that godly persons shall pray in the future for the assistance of his Grace to one dying now may yield it accordingly If this go well said I praiers may be commendable and very important for the dead tho no Purgatory were in nature being conducent to a greater emolument of dying penitently and thereby escaping the everlasting fire of Hell I have added that if the case related of Maccabeus be true it is more likely the praiers made for the slain should have proceeded in the manner aforesaid then for bringing them out of Purgatory since in the same place is related that those men were found to have committed a mortal sin which is not pretended to be pardoned in Purgatory under the Coats of every one that was slain saith the Text Maccab. XII 42. They found things consecrated to the Idols of the Jamnites which is forbidden to the Jews by the Law And the following Context declares that sin to have bin hainous for as much as it drew upon them Gods vengeance saying that every man saw that this was the cause wherefore they were slain Mr. I. S. is pleased to approve of that subtilty of Schole-men alledged for ground of this reply that Praiers in the future may avail Souls dying before to obtain a good death the only thing I did suspect may not meet with general applause and which indeed if certain and accordingly apprehended and believed by men would make Praiers for the dead to appear more useful and important then ever the doctrine of Purgatory could make them yet appear to serious judgments But my good Antagonist allowing the same doctrine to be very good tells me it is not to the purpose None is more apt to call one a thief then he that is a thief himself and none so ready to say his opponent speaks not to the purpose as one that never speaks to the purpose himself Of this latter sort I dare make good Mr. I. S. to be in all his encounters upon my discourse if it were worth my while in the mean time I appeal to the Reader of common sense to judg betwixt him and me at present which of us both doth speak to the purpose he in saying that my discourse now related is not to the purpose of proving the case of Judas Maccabeus do's not evince the existence of Purgatory or I in ordering thus my Argument to that purpose The Praiers supposed to be made by the Maccabees might have bin and probably were made to a different purpose then that of drawing the Souls of their defunct from Purgatory therefore the case of such Praiers to have bin made doth not evince the existence of Purgatory The Antecedent of this Argument as also the proof and declaration of it is allowed and commended by my Adversary To enlarge upon declaring the legality of the consequence is to mistrust the understanding of the discreet Reader and to mis-spend my time which I do not resolve to do But shall we see how my subtile Adversary go's about to prove I did not speak to the purpose in my former discourse For allow saies he those Praiers made for the slain might have had that effect in this passage c. a penitent death yet still returns the conclusion pretended by Bellarmin that the passage proves it was the belief and practice of the people of God and praised by Scripture to pray for the expiation of the sins of the dead Good Sir this is to draw breath a little but not to escape a deadly blow given to your cause in this occasion I take up your own words and make them serve my purpose thus Tho that passage proves it was the belief and practice of the people of God and praised by Scripture to pray for the expiation of sins of the the dead yet still returns my Conclusion that those Praiers might have bin made for the expiations of sins committed by the dead in life and to be pardoned at their death not of sins remaining after their death and bringing them to Purgatory which was Bellarmins purpose and yours The Texts he alledges out of St. Dennis and Isidorus for praying for the dead are capable of the same construction I gave to the praiers of the Maccabees This Answer he might have expected from me if he were in charity with more ground then the other he supposes rashly I should give that the Ancient Fathers erred I did not learn in the Church of England to respect them less I see here far greater reading and regard of them then I saw among you I know no Gehinus or others of those you mention that ascribes to them more errors then Aquinas Scotus Suarez Maldonate and other your greatest Schole-men and Scripturians they alledg them frequently for contradictory opinions and the one side must be in an error You betray too much of a vulgar temper in admiring it should be said that any of the Ancient Fathers hath erred They confess themselves to have don it it was far from their modesty and sincerity to deny it CHAP. XXVI The Argument for Purgatory taken from the 12th of S. Matth. v. 32. solved THE chief testimony out of the New Testament alledged in favor of Purgatory is that of Matth. XII 32. where our Saviour saith that a sin against the Holy Ghost
gains a Plenary Indulgence Whosoever being truly penitent will propose firmly to forsake his sins committed and in the same day will visit any seven Churches or where so many Churches are not to be found shall visit those that be and if there be but one Church in the place shall visit all the Altars of it and pray to God for the extirpation of Heresies once a year shall enjoy the Indulgences allowed to such as visit the seven Churches at Rome Whosoever shall think devoutly of any Mystery of the Passion of our Saviour and in honor of the said Passion shall kiss seven times the ground will in that day obtain the Indulgences allowed to such as go up the holy Stairs in Rome but this once in every year Whosoever in imitation of the foresaid five Saints either shall truly detest his sins with a firm purpose of sinning no more or shall exercise some act of Virtue shall so many times obtain an Indulgence of seven years and so many quadragena's or forty daies Indulgence Whosoever shall read any Chapter of the life of the said Saints or shall visit their Altar or worship their Image and pray for the happy state of our holy Mother the Church and for the Conversion of sinners shall at every time obtain Indulgence of 100. daies The same Indulgence shall any obtain who will give anâ— Alms to the Poor or shall instruct them by himself or by another in things belonging to Faith and good manners Whosoever shall exercise himself in the worship of the holy Eucharist or of the blessed Virgin meditating upon the dignity of that mystery and the benefits redounding from it to us or commiserating the griefs of the said blessed Virgin wherewith she was possessed at the Passion and Death of her Son or in any other manner shall reverence the blessed Sacrament and pray for the necessity of the Church shall obtain Indulgence of 100 daies as often as he doth it Any dwelling in Rome or not distant from it above twenty miles if he hath a lawful impediment not to be present at the solemn blessing which the Roman Pope is wont to give in the Festivity of Easter and Ascension but shall confess and receive and pray for the extirpation of Heresies c. shall enjoy the Indulgences which the people present will enjoy but such as are further distant from Rome shall enjoy the same Indulgences performing the said duties tho they have no lawful impediment for absence All the Indulgences aforesaid may be applied to the faithful deceased by way of Suffrages For to gain the said Indulgences it is enough to have privately with you any Crown or Cross c. blessed by his Holliness with the foresaid Indulgences and to fulfill the duties before mentioned even tho happily you may be obliged to perform them upon another account Whosoever in the point of death commending himself to God shall invoke the foresaid Saints or any of them with his mouth if he can having confessed and received the Communion if he may otherwise having at least contrition shall obtain a plenary Indulgence of all his sins In the distribution of the said Crowns Crosses c. and in the use of them his Holiness commands to observe the Decree of Alexander VII issued the 6. day of February 1657. viz. that Crowns Crosses Rosaries Medals and sacred Images blessed with the foresaid Indulgences may not pass the persons of those to whom his Holiness gave them or such as from them received those things the first time and that they may not be lent or be bestowed otherwise to lose the Indulgences and any of them being lost no other may be subrogated for it by any means notwithstanding any allowance or priviledg to the contrary His Holiness prohibits this form of Indulgences to be printed out of Rome MICHAEL ANGELUS RICCIUS Secret Rome out of the Print of the Reverend Apostolical Chamber 1671. I leave the judicious Reader to gloss upon this grant and the profuseness of it whether it be a rare or difficult thing to gain a plenary Indulgence where grants of this kind are frequent They will tell us it will promote Piety to have such encouragement to Penitence praiers and deeds of Charity But let them consider whether it may not rather be an occasion of continuing in vices and a wicked life if by a verbal Confession and an imperfect kind of contrition or displeasure with sins for penalties following them apt to be conceived by the most wicked livers a security is given of remission of all sins tho never so grievous and repeated and of the eternal pains due to them and likewise all the temporal penalties following them are remitted by a plenary Indulgence so easy to be obtained as we have seen Who will not perceive that encouragement is given hereby to persevere in vices whatsoever other purposes they may have who grant them And if this be well considered Mr. I. S. will cease to admire that Protestant Doctors should accuse the Roman Church of facilitating by these means the way to sinning CHAP. XXXI The dismal unhappiness of the Romish people in having their Liturgy in a Tongue unknown to them EX ore tuo te judico serve nequam thus begins Mr. I. S. his answer to my discourse upon this subject wherein I lamented the misery of the Romish People in having their Liturgy in a tongue unknown to them and thus also shall my reply to him begin which certainly will be to put the Saddle on the right Horse What is it Sr that I have said which may be a judgment against my self in this case That the purpose of nature by speaking is to communicate the sense of him that speaks to the hearer which cannot be obtained if the hearer perceives not the meaning of the words he speaks This say you proves against my self for in the Liturgy or public Service of the Church we speak to God and not to the Congregation and God can understand us tho we do not our selves But stay Sr is not the Liturgy or public Service of the Church as well with you as with us composed of an exchange of speech betwixt God and his People they speaking to him in Praiers and Thanksgivings he speaking to them by the Lessons of sacred Scripture by the Epistles Gospels and Psalms Is it not necessary for both these purposes that the People should understand what they say to God by Prayer and what he says to them by Exhortation And for the first wherein you think your pretension to be obtained for praying I say is not Praier a rational and voluntary Elevation of the mind helped by the expressions and sense of the Praier read or said Is not this elevation of the mind mainly advanced by understanding the word of the Praier read or said whoever heard a Psalm sung with solemn Music may well tell how different a feeling and elevation of mind he hath when he sees or knows the words sung