Rogers on Article XXIV: Of speaking in the Congregation in such a tongue as the people understandeth

The proposition. Publike praier, and the Sacraments, must be ministred in a tongue vnderstood of the common people.

The proofe from Gods word.

THis assertion needeth small proofe. For who so is perswaded (as all true Christians of vnderstanding, are) that what is done publikely in the Church by a strange language, not vnderstood of the people, profiteth not the Congregation¹; edifieth not the weake ²; instructeth not the ignorant³; inflameth not the zeale ⁴, offendeth the hearers ⁵, abuseth the people ⁶, dipleaseth God ⁷, bringeth religion into contempt ⁸, easily will thinke, that where the praiers be said, or the Sacraments administred in a tongue not vnderstood of the vulgar sort, neither is the word of God regarded, nor the custome of the purer, & primitiue Church obserued.

This article no church doth doubt of, and very many by their extant Confessions doe allow ⁹.

Aduersaries vnto this truth.

But their is nothing either so true, or apparent, which hath by all men at any time bin acknowledged. So contrary to this truth.

In old time the Ossens made their praiers vnto God alwaies in a strange language, which they learned of Elxeus their founder ¹⁰, and the Marcosians, at the ministration of Baptisme, vsed certaine Hebrew words, not to edifie, but to terrifie, and astonish the mindes of the weake, and ignorant people ¹¹.

In these daies, the Turkes performe all their superstitions in the Arabian language, thinking it not onely vnmeete, but also an vnlawfull thing for the common sort of persons, to vnderstand their Mahometane mysteries ¹².

The Iacobite preists doe vse a tongue at their church ministrations, and meetings, which the vulgar people cannot comprehend ¹³.

The diuine Lyturgie among the Russians is compounded partly of the Greeke, and partly of the Sclavonian language ¹⁴.

The Papists will haue all diuine Seruice, Praiers, and Sacraments, and that throughout the world, ministred onely in the Latine tongue, which but fewe men of the common people doe vnderstand: some of them holding, that It is not necessary that wee vnderstand our praiers ¹⁵, and that praiers, not vnderstood of the people, are acceptable to God ¹⁶, and all of them maintaining that hee is accursed, whosoeuer doth affirme, how the Masse ought to be celebrate onely in a vulgar tongue ¹⁷.

Footnotes

1. 1. Cor. 14.6.9.14.
   ↩

2. Ib. 17.26. ↩

3. Ib. 14 19. ↩

4. Ib. v. 9. ↩

5. Ib. 7.11. ↩

6. Ib. 11.16. ↩

7. Matth. 15.8. ↩

8. 1. Cor. 14.23.
   ↩

9. Confess. Helv. 2. c. 22. VVitt. c. 27. August. de Miss[?], ar. 3. Suev. c. 21. ↩

10. Epiph. haer. 19. ↩

11. D. Iren. l. 1. c. 18. ↩

12. An. Geufraeus a[?]lae Tur. l. 2. ↩

13. Magd. eccles. hist. Cen. 12. c. 5. ↩

14. Alex. Guag. de relig. Mosc. pag. 230. ↩

15. Test. Rhem. annot. p. 463. ↩

16. Test. Rhem. an. Matth. 21.6. ↩

17. Si quis dixeril, lingua tantum vulgari Missam celebrari debere, anathema sit. Concil. Trid. sess. 22. can. 9. ↩