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— part of that Avorsliip wherein all things are to be done to edification ; which they are in this and the Quakers' silent meetings much alike. Strange! that there is no need that men should know or understand that which is their duty to perform ; and which, if they do it not, is not that which it pretends to be, — the worship of the church. Again ; if the people neither need hear nor understand what is spoken, I wonder what they make there. Can our author find any tradition (for I am sure Scripture he cannot) for the setting up of a duinb show in the church, to edify men by signs, and gestures, and words insig- nificant? These are gallant attempts. I suppose he doth not think it was so of old ; for sure I am, that all the sermons which we have of any of the ancients Avere preached in that very language wherein they celebrated all divine worship:) ; so that if the people understood the sermons, as he says, " they must be made to them in a language they understand." I am sure they both heard and understood the worship of the church also ; but " tempera mutantur." And if it be enough that God understands the language used in the church, we full well know there is no need to use any language in it at all.
But to evidence the fertility of his invention, our author offers two things to confirm this wild assertion : — 1. " That the Jews neither heard nor saw when their priest went into the ' sanctum sanctorum' to offer prayers for them ; as we may learn from the gospel, Avhere the people stood without, whilst Zacharias was praying at the altar." 2. " St Paul, at Corinth, desired the prayers of the Romans for him at that distance, wlio also then used a language that was not used at Corinth." These reasons, it seems, are thouglit of moment; let us a little poise them. For the first, our author is still the same in his discovery of skill in the rites and customs of the Judaical church; and being so gi'eat, as I imagine it is, I shall desire him in his next to inform us who told him that Zacharias entered into the " sanctum sanctorum" to pray, when the people were without. But let that pass. By the institution and appointment of God himself, the priests in their courses were to burn incense on the altar of incense, in a place separated from the people, it being no part of the worship of the people, but a typical representation of the intercession of Christ in heaven, confined to the performance of the priests by God himself; " ergo," under the gospel, there is no need that the people should either learn or understand those prayers which God requires by them and amongst them ! This is civil logic. Besides, I suppose our author had forgot that the apostle Paul, in his Epistle to the Hebrews, doth purposely declare how those Mosaical distances are now removed by Christ, a free access beiug granted to believers, with their worship, to the throne jof grace. But there is scarce a prettier fancy in his whole discourse than his application of St Paul's desiring the Romans
140 ANUIAD VERSIONS ON A TREATISE
to pray for liim when he was at Corinth, — and so, consequently, the prayhio- of all or any of the people of God for their absent friends, or the whole church, — to the business in hand; especially as it is intended, with the enforcement in the close, that they used a language not understood at Corinth. But because I write not to men who care not whether they hear or understand what is their duty in the great- est concernments of their souls, I shall not remove it out of the way, nor hinder the reader from partaking in the entertainment it will afford ]iim.
But our author, foreseeing that even those with whom he intends chiefly to deal might j)ossibly remember that St Paul had long ago stated this case in 1 Cor. xiv., he finds it necessary to cast a blind before them, — that if they will but fix their eyes upon it, and not be at the jjains to turn to their Bibles, as it may be some will not, he may escape that sword which he knows is in the way ready drawn against him; — and therefore tells us that " if any yet will be obsti- nate," (and which, after so many good words spent in this business, he seems to marvel that they should,) " and object what the apostle there vvi'ites against praying and projDhesying in an unknoAvn tongue," he hath three answers in readiness for him, whereof the first is that doughty one last mentioned, — namely, " That the prayers which the apostle, when he was at Corinth, requested of the Romans for him, were to be in an unknown tongue to them that lived in Corinth ;" when the only question is, whether they were in an unkno'WTi tongue to them that lived in Rome, who were desired to join in those sup- plications ? Surely this argument, — that because we may pray for a man when and where he knows not, and in a tongue which he under- stands not, that therefore the worship of a church, all assembled together in one place, all to join together in it unto the edification of that whole society, may be performed in a language imknown to them so assembled, — is not of such cogency as so suddenly to be called over again. Wherefore, letting that pass, he tells us the design of the apostle in that place is " to prevent the abuse of spiritual gifts, which in those days men had received, and especially that of tongues ; which he lets them know was liable to greater inconveniences than the rest there mentioned by him." But what, 1 pray, if this be the design of the apostle, doth it follow that in the pursuit of this design he teaches nothing concerning the use of an unknown tongue in the worship of God? Could I promise myself that every reader did either retain in his memory what is there delivered by the apostle, or would be at the pains on this occasion to read over the chapter, I should have no need to add one word in this case more; for what are the words of a poor Avoak man to those of the Holy Ghost speaking directly to the same purpose? But this being not from all to be