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

aM. Dost thou think that the word of God is to be read in a strange tongue, and such as the people understandeth not? S. That were grossly to mock God and his people, and shame- lessly to abuse them both. For whereas God commandeth that his word be plainly read to young and old, men and women, namely, to the intent that all may understand and learn to fear the Lord their God, as he himself in his own word expressly witnesseth, it were a very mockery that the word of God, which is appointed by God himself to teach his people, should be read to the people in a tongue unknown to them, and whereof they can learn nothing. Nowell, p. 5.

We make our prayers in that tongue which all our people, as meet is, may understand, to the end they may (as St. Paul coun- selleth us) take common commodity by common prayer, even as all the holy fathers and catholic bishops, both in the Old and New Testament, did use to pray themselves, and taught the people to pray too. Jewell.

It is sufficiently proved of our part, that the fourteenth chapter to the Corinthians must of necessity belong to the use of com- mon prayers ; and that in the primitive church the service was every where ministered in the vulgar tongue ; and that the priest and the people prayed altogether. I have proved, not only that the nations that understood Greek or Latin had their service in the Greek or Latin tongue, but by Theodoretus, Sozo- menus, St. Ambrose, and St. Jerome, that the Syrians had their service in the Syrian tongue ; but by St. Basil, that the Egyp- tians had their service in the Egyptian tongue : the Lybians, the Thebans, the Palestines, the Arabians, and the Phoenicians, each of them in their own tongue : by Origen, that all barbarous

• Except ye utter by the tongue words easy to be understood, how shall it be known what is spoken ?

for ye shall speak into the air.

Therefore if I know not the mean- ing1 of the voice, I shall be unto him that speaketh a barbarian, and he that speaketh shall be a bar- barian unto me. If I pray in an

unknown tongue, my spirit prayeth, but my understanding is unfruitful. What is it then? I will pray with the spirit, and I will pray with the

understanding also: I will sing with the spirit, and I will sing with the understanding also. Else when thou shalt bless with the spirit, how shall he that occupieth the room of the unlearned say Amen at thy giving of thanks, seeing he understandeth not what thou say-

est. In the church 1 had rather

speak five words with my under- standing, that by my voice I might teach others also, than ten thousand words in an unknown tongue.

have public prayer in the church, or to minister

people had their services in their several barbarous tongues : by Sulpicius, that the people of France, then called Gallia, had their service in the French tongue. St. Jerome saith, Vox quidem dissona, sed una religio. Tot pene psallentium chori, quot gentium diversitates. To be short, I have proved by St. Chrysostom, and by Lyra, and others, that there can no manner of profit redound unto the people of prayers made in a strange tongue. Jewells Reply to Harding, Art. III.

Although reason, if it might rule, would soon persuade us to have our common prayer and administration of the sacraments in a known tongue — both for that to pray commonly, is for a multitude to ask one and the self-same thing with one voice, and one consent of mind ; and to administer a sacrament is, by the outward word and element to preach to the receiver the inward and invisible grace of God ; and also for that both these exercises were first instituted, and are still continued, to the end that the congregation of Christ might, from time to time, be put in remembrance of their unity in Christ, and that, as members all of one body, they ought, both in prayers and otherwise, to seek and desire one another’s commodity, and not their own without others — yet shall we not need to flee to rea- sons and proofs in this matter, sith we have both the plain and manifest words of the Scripture, and also the consent of the most learned and ancient writers, to commend the prayers of the congregation in a known tongue.

If ever it had been tolerable to use strange tongues in the congregation, the same might have been in the time of Paul and the other Apostles, when they were miraculously endued with gifts of tongues. For it might then have persuaded some to embrace the Gospel, when they had heard men, that were Hebrews born and unlearned, speak the Greek, the Latin, and other languages. But Paul thought it not tolerable then : and shall we use it now, when no man cometh by that knowledge of tongues, otherwise than by diligent and earnest study ? God forbid. For we should by that means bring all our church ex- ercises to frivolous superstition, and make them altogether un- fruitful.

As touching the times before the coming of Christ, there was never man yet that would affirm, that either the people of God, or other, had their prayers or administrations of the sacraments,

If the whole church be come toge- in an unknown tongue, let it be by

ther into one place, and all speak two, or at the most by three, and

with tongues, and there come in that by course, and let one inter-

those that are unlearned, or un- pret. But if there be no interpreter,

believers, will they not say that let him keep silence in the church’.

ye are mad? Let all things be 1 Cor. xiv. 9, 11, 14 — 16, 19, 23^

doneunto edifying. If any man speak 26 — 28.

u 2

the sacraments, in a tongue not understanded of the people.

or sacrifices, in a tongue that they themselves understood not. As for the time since Christ, till that usurped power of Rome began to spread itself, and to enforce all the nations of Europe to have the Romish language in admiration, it appeareth, by the consent of the most ancient and learned writers, that there was no strange or unknown tongue used in the congregation of Christians.

But yet, to stop the mouths of the adversaries, which stay themselves much upon general decrees, it shall be good to add to these testimonies of Scriptures and doctors one constitution, made by Justinian the Emperor, who lived five hundred twenty and seven years after Christ, and was emperor of Rome. The constitution is this: We command that all Bishops and Priests do celebrate the holy oblation, and the prayers used in holy baptism ; not speaking low, but with a clear or loud voice, which may be heard of the people ; that thereby the mind of the hearers may be stirred up with great devotion, in uttering the prayers of the Lord God ; for so the holy Apostle teacheth: therefore, for these causes it is convenient, that among other prayers, those things also, which are spoken in the holy oblation, be uttered and spoken of the most religious Bishops and Priests, unto our Lord Jesus Christ, our God with the Father and the Holy Ghost, with a loud voice. And let the most religious priests know this, that if they neglect any of these things, that they shall give an account for them in the dreadful judgment of the great God, and our Saviour Jesus Christ. Neither will we, when we know it, rest and leave it un- revenged. Horn. xxi.