would inquire into the lawfulness of such things as appertain to Divine Worship we must apply our selves to the Holy Scripture being in matters of that nature to determine of Right and Wrong Lawful and Unlawful according to the Directions Commands and Prohibitions of it If we would be satisfied about their Expedience we must consider the Nature Ends and Use of what we inquire about This therefore is a proper method for the Resolution of the foregoing Question But because the Apostle in his Discourse upon this Subject 1. Corinthians 14. doth argue from the ends and use of the several Offices belonging to Divine Worship and because the like Order may give some light and force to what follows I shall first of all I. Treat of the Ends for which Divine Worship and the several Offices of it were instituted II. Consider whither those Ends may be attained when the Worship is performed in a Tongue not understood III. Whither the worship so performed as to leave those ends unattainable will be accepted by GOD IV. I shall consider the Apostle's Discourse upon this Argument and whither it can be reasonably concluded from thence That Divine Worship so administred as not to be understood of the people is unlawful I. In the first of these the Masters of Controversie in the Romish Church do proceed with great tenderness and no little obscurity For would we know what the Worship is they would have in an Unknown Tongue they answer it is the publick only they defend For as for private saith one It is lawful for P. Sancta not in Epist P. Molinaei c. 17. n. 6. T. G. First reply to Dr. Stelingfleet sect 3. every one to offer his lesser Prayers to GOD in what Tongue soever he pleaseth And saith another All Catholicks are â—aught to say their private Prayers in their Mother Tongue As if it were possible to assign such a vast difference betwixt them when the Dispositions Reasons and Ends required and intended are the same that what is lawful expedient and necessary in the one is unlawful inexpedient and unnecessary in the other Or as if the saying private Prayers in Latin was never heard of practiseâ— or encouraged in their church Again Would we understand to what purposes the Divine Offices do serve and whither the Edification Instruction and consolation of the people be not some of those Ends. Bellarmin answers De verbo l. 2. c 16. Sect obj quart 1. That the principal end of Divine Offices is not the instruction or consolation of the People but a worship due to GOD from the Church As if there were no regard to be had to the special ends of those Offices such as the Instruction and Consolation of the people Or as if GOD could be honoured by that Worship where those ends are not regarded 2. The Rhemists add That Prayers are not made to teach make learned or increase knowledge Annot. 1. cor 14. P. 63. though by occasion they sometimes instruct but their especial use is to offer our Hearts desires and Wants to God c. As if there were no Offices in God's Worship appointed for Instruction and increase of Knowledge and which are performed in an Unknown Tongue amongst them as well as Prayer Or as if their Adversaries did either deny it to be the special use of Prayer To offer our hearts c. to God Or did affirm that the special use of it is To teach make learned and increase knowledge as they with others Censur proposit Erasmi prop. 5. Poncet dis cord de L' Auvis ch 1. do falsly suggest and would fain have believed But to set this in a better light and that we may understand what are the Ends and Uses for which Divine Worship was appointed and after what manner they are to be respected It is to be observed 1. That Divine Worship in its first notion respects God as its Object and so the end of it in general is the giving Honour to him by sutable Thoughts Words and Actions 2. That he hath appointed several wayes and Offices by which he will be so honoured and in which as the Honour doth terminate in him so there redounds from thence benefit to the church 3. That the Benefits redound to the church according to the nature of those Offices and the special Ends they were designed unto As the Word of God is for our instruction and comforâ— c. The Lord's Supper for the increase of Faith in God and love to him through Jesus Christ The praising of God is to raise our Affections and to make us more sensible of his goodness and to quicken us in our duty The special use of Prayer that I may use the Words forecited Rhem. Annot. is to offer up our Hearts Wants and Desires to God and that by conversing with him Part. 4. c. 2. Sect 7. 8. we may be the more ardently excited to the love and adoration of him as the Trent Catechism doth express it 4. That those Offices are to be performed so as may effectually answer those Ends and as we may receive the benefits they were appointed for From whence it follows 5. That if the Offices of Divine Worship are to be performed by Words those Words and that Tongue in which they are administred must be such as will not obstruct but promote and in their nature are qualified to attain those Ends. And if those Ends cannot be aâ—â—ained without the Tongue in which the service is performed be understood It makes that means as necessary in its kind as the End and it is as necessary that the Tongue used for those Ends in Divine Worship be understood as that those Ends should be respected or that there should be a Tongue used at all For it is not God but Man that is immediately respected in the Words since there is no more need of Words to GOD then of Words that are vulgarly understood and so it is not for him but Man that this Tongue or that or indeed that any Tongue at all is used And if it be requisite that there be a a Tongue and Words used in publick Worship and which all persons present are supposed to joyn in and receive benefit by then it is as necessary for the same reason to use Words significant and understood as to De Doct. Christ l. 4. c. 19. use any Words at all For saith S. Austin what doth the soundness of speech profit if not followed with the Understanding of the â—earer seing there is no reason at all for our speaking if what we speak is not understood by them for whom that they might understand we spoke at all From what hath been said we may be able to vindicate such Arguments of the Protestants Divine service in a known and vulgar Tongue as were taken from the Ends of worship against the replyes made to them by their adversaries of the Romish Church As 1. The Protestants argue in general that
pretends to be a part of GOD's Word were delivered to us by as universal uncontroulled Tradition as the Scripture is we should receive it as we do the Scripture But it appears plainly that such things were at first but private Opinions which now are become the Doctrines of that particular Church who would impose her Decrees upon us under the Venerable Name of Apostolical Universal Tradition which I have shewn you hath been an ancient Cheat and that we ought not to be so easie as to be deceived by it But to be very wary and afraid of trusting the Traditions of such a Church as hath not only perverted some abolished others and pretended them where there hath been none but been a very unfaithful preserver of them and that in matters of great moment where there were some and lastly warrants those which it pretends to have kept by nothing but its own infallibility For which there is no Tradition but much against it even in the Orignal Tradition the holy Scriptures which plainly suppose the Roman Church may not only erre but utterly fall and be cut off from the Body of Christ as they that please may read who will consult the Eleventh Chapter to the Romans v. 20 21 22. Of which they are in the greater danger because they proudly claim so high a Prerogative as that now mentioned directly contrary to the Apostolical Admonition in that place Be not high minded but fear CONCLUSION I Shall end this Discourse with a brief Admonition relating to our Christian Practice And what is there more proper or more seasonable then this While we reject all spurious Traditions let us be sure to keep close to the genuine and true Let us hold them fast and not let them go Let us not not dispute our selves out of all Religion while we condemn that which is false nor break all Christian Discipline and Order because we cannot submit to all humane Impositions In plain words let us not throw off Episcopacy together with the Papal Tyranny We ought to be the more careful in observing the Divine Tradition delivered to us in the Scripture and according to the Scripture because we are not bound to other While we contend against the half Communion let us make a conscience to receive the whole frequently It looks like Faction rather then Religion to be earnest for that which we mean not to use In like manner while we look upon additions to the Scripture as vain let us not neglect to read and ponder those holy Writtings When we reject Purgatory as a Fable let us really dread Hell-fire And while we do not tye our selves to all usages that have been in the Church let us be carful to observe first all the substantial Duties of Righteousness Charity Sobriety and Godliness which are unquestionably delivered to us by our LORD himself and his holy Apostles and secondlie all the Ordinances of the Church wherein we live which are not contrary to the Word of GOD. For so hath the same Divine Authority delivered that the people should obey those that are their Guides and Governours submitting themselves to their authority and avoiding all contention with them as most undecent in it self and pernicious to Religion which suffers extreamly when neither Ecclesiastical Authority nor Ecclesiastical Custom can end disputes about Rites and Ceremonies Read 1 Thess 5. 12. Heb. 13. 17. 1 Cor. 11. 16. and read such places as you ought to do all the other Scriptures till your hearts be deeply affected with them For be admonished in the last place of this which is of general use and must never be forgotten because we shall lose the benefit of that Coelestial Doctrine which is delivered unto us if we do not strictly observe itâ— That as this Evangelical Doctrine is delivered down to us so we must be delivered up to it Thus St. Paul teaches us to speak in 6. Rom. 17. where he thanks GOD that they who formerly had been servants of sin did now obey from the heart that form of Doctrine unto which they were delivered So the words run in the Greek as the Margin of our Bibles inform you cis bon paredothnie This is the Tradition which we must be sure to retain and hold fast above all other as that without which all our belief will be ineffectual This is the very end for which all Divine Truth is delivered unto us that we may be delivered and make a surrender of our selves unto it Observe the force of the Apostles words which tell us first that there was a certain form of Christian Doctrine which the Apostles taught compared here to a mould so the word Typos form may be translated into which Mettal or such-like matter is cast that it may receive the figure and shape of that mould 2. Now he compares the Roman Christians to such ductile pliable matter they being so delivered or cast into this form or mould of Christian Doctrine that they were intirely framed and fashioned according to it and had all the lineaments as I may say of it expressed upon their souls 3. And having so received it they were obedient to it for without this all the impressions which by knowledge of Faith were made upon their souls were but an imperfect draught of what was intended in the Christian Tradition 4. And it was hearty obedience sincere compliance with the Divine Will such obedience as became those who understood their Religion to be a great deliverance and liberty from the slavery of sin before spoken of into the happy freedom of the service of God 5. All which lastly he ascribes to the grace of God which had both delivered to them that Doctrine and drawn them to deliver up themselves to it made their hearts soft and ductile to be cast into that mould and quickned them to Christian Obedience and given them a willing mind to obey chearfully All this was from God's grace and not their merits and therefore the thanks was to be ascribed to him who succeeds and blesses all pious endeavours Now according to this pattern let us frame our selves who blessed be God have a form of Doctrine delivered to us in this Church exactly agreeable to the holy Scriptures which lie open before us and we are exhorted not onely to look into them but we feel that grace which hath brought them to us clearly demonstrating that we ought to be formed according to the holy Doctrine therein delivered by the delivery of our selves to it By the delivery of our mind that is to think of God and our selves and of our duty in every point just as this instructs us And by the delivery of our wils and affections to be governed and regulated according to its directions And when we have consented to this we find the Divine grace representing to us the necessity of an hearty obedience to what we know and believe and have embraced as the very Truth of God To this we are continually drawn
that Ignorance is the Mother of Devotion But yet as plain as it is the saying is so downright a contradiction to the common sense of Mankind that I think a Man may venture as roundly to assert that it is plain a Man may see without Light as that he may pray without Affection and Devotion though he do not understand and with as great as if he did And he may with as good a Grace maintain that the best way to see is to put out the Light as affirm with them That such as pray in Latin though they do not understand oftentimes pray with more Affection and Devotion then they that do understand But because this is asserted with so much confidence and that To say that people are not profited without they Ledesma c. 13. n. 13. Censura proposit Erasmi prop. 5. understand is condemned not only as an erroneous but wicked assertion I shall look back and leaving the extravagancy of the latter as self-exposed consider whither the Affections are not without benefit and that the Soul can be devout and affected where the Understanding is not instructed nor the Mind is concerned in the service we are conversant in The resolution of which depends upon the consideration of the Soul of Man and the several faculties of it Concerning which it shall suffice to observe 1. That in all reasonable and deliberate Acts there is more or less so necessary a concurrance of the prime faculties of the Soul viz. the Understanding Will and Affections that none of them can be said to be excluded 2. That in all such Acts if the Understanding be not the leading faculty and of such influence that the others cannot act without it which must be supposed for how can a person affect or choose what he doth not know Yet without that the acts cannot be termed reasonable So Cassiodore No body doth any thing wisely which he doth not understand 3. That in the Acts of Religion the presence of the understanding In Psal 46. is as much required as in any other rational Acts whatsoever The renewing of the Mind being there Rom. 12. 1 2. the Spring of all spiritual Action and the whole called from thence a reasonable Service And therefore if in other Cases the affections cannot move or be profited without the help of the Understanding then as little can it be supposed in Religion and the Offices belonging to it where the Understanding is Sonus Cordis as St. Austin cals it applying it to our purpose The note of the Heart Now to say That the affections are not without In Genes Lit. L. c. 8. in Ps 99. profit though the Mind be not instructed and that they that do not understand do pray with as little tediousness and as great Affection and Devotion as they that do understand not to repeat the rest of the stuff before cited is to say that the Affections have no dependance in Nature upon the Understanding or that Religion requires less of us then any other reasonable acts whatsoever and that what we cannot do without being Lunaticks or Idiots in other matters we may there creditably do and speak and Act as absurdly as we will with allowance But this kind of Doctrine is only to serve a turn being fitted to those that are fitted for it and to whom nothing can be absurd which some Men say For there are those amongst them cannot digest it and do determine otherwise So Salmeron the Jesuit If any one prayes privately and the things prayed for are not understood by by him he wastes his time So he that speaketh publickly in an Vnknown Tongue which others do not understand In 1 Cor. 14 be doth yield no Fruit And then certainly others can receive none others receive none This the Council of Trent doth acknowledge when it declares as abovesaid It seems not expedient to the Fathers That the Mass be celebrated in the Vulgar Tongue And presently adds Lest the Sheep of Christ should hunger and when the little ones ask bread there is none to break to them the Holy Synod commands all that have the care of Souls frequently c to expound somewhat of it So that they grant without Explication the Faithful may hunger and be without profit for what need would there be of exposition if the people may be as devout without it as with it I shall conclude this with that of S. Austin We ought to understand that we may sing with humane reason Eposit in Psalm 8. not as it were with the Voice of Birds For both Parrots and Crows and Pies and the like are often taught by Men to pronounce what they do not know But to sing with understanding is granted by the Divine Will to mankind So that according to him if we set aside the Understanding the Parrot of the Cardinal Ascanius had it been taught the LORD'S Prayer or other Forms of Devotion as well as the Creed Rhodiginus l. 3. c. 32. might have contended in competition with those that hear and sing and pray with Words without understanding Since whatever Affection and Devotion is pretended to without Knowledge is like a Vision of a mans own Heart and not of Jerem. 23. 16. Divine Illumination that doth either proceed from Imagination or Imposture But that we may not think this Assertion of theirs that there may be profit without understanding and Devotion without knowledge to be unreasonable they both produce Experience and endeavour also to give a rational account of it The former is appealed to by the Rhemists As for Page 461. Hosius p. 9. Edification that is for increase of Faith truth Knowledge and a good Life the experience of a few Years hath given all the World a full demonstration whither our Fore-Fathers were not c. as devout as we are in all our Tongues translations and English Prayers And we are told That the people know what is done in the general to wit that GOD is worshipped Ledesma c. 21 n. 23. and honoured that the Priest prayes to him that good things are asked of him for the People and thanks given to him that the memory of Christ and his Passion are celebrated and the Sacrifice offered to GOD. This no Clown is ignorant of and this is enough This is somewhat like the course taken by Sâ—crates that said He only pray'd in general because what particular things were good for him the Gods knew better then himself But whither this be done among them with as much reason and whither with any respect to our Religion and the several Offices of it is now to be considered For our satisfaction herein we may observe I. They grant that the People can and do understand no more by their Service then the general intent and points of it II. That the People cannot apply these generals to the particular Points of it So the Rhemists The simple People are not bound to know to what Petition