THE LATIN SERVICE. 457
now, sir, I hope I shall obtain your excuse for having drawn forth this discourse unto a length beyond my intention, yourself having given me the occasion so to do, by pretending that you would, upon this head of images, come up close unto me; which caused me to give you a little taste of what entertainment you are to expect if you shall think meet to continue in the same resolution.
CHAPTER XXIL
Of Latin service.
The 1 7th chapter of the " Animadversions, " about tongues and Latin service, is your next task. Of this you say, that " it hath some colour of plausibility ; but because I neither do nor will understand the customs of that church which I am so eager to oppose, all my Avords are but wind." Ans. No such thing as " plausibility" was aimed at in any part of that discourse. It was the promotion or de- fence of truth which was designed throughout the whole, and nothing else : for that are all things to be done, and nothing against it. What you are able to except against in that discourse will speedily appear. In the meantime, pray take notice that I have no eagerness to oppose either you or your church ; so you will let the truth alone, I shall for ever let you alone, without opposition. It was the de- fence of that, and not an opposition to you, that I was engaged in. In the same design do I still persist, in the vindication of what I had formerly written, and shall assure you that you shall never l)e opposed by me, bvit only so far and wherein I am fully convinced that you oppose the truth. Manifest that to be on your side, and I shall be ready to embrace both you and it ; for I am absolutely free from all respects unto things in this world that should or might retard me in so doing. But that I may hereafter speak somewhat more to the purpose in opposition unto you, or else give my consent with imder- standing unto what you teach, pray inform me how I may come to the knowledge of the customs of your church, which, you say, " I neither do nor will understand." I have read your councils, those that are properly yours; your mass-book and rituals; many of your annalists or historians ; with your writers of controversies and casuists : all of the best note, fame, and reputation amongst you. Can none of them inform us what the customs of your church are? If you have such Egyptian or Eleusinian mysteries as no man can under- stand before he be initiated amongst you, I must despair of coming
458 A VINDICATION OF THE ANIMADVERSIONS ON FIAT LUX.
unto any acquaintance with them ; for I shall never engage mto the belief of / knoiv not ivhat. For the present, I shall declare you my apprehension as to that custom of your church, as you call it, which we have now under consideration, and desire your charity in my direction if I understand it not aright. It is your custom to keep the Scriptures from the people in an unknown tongue. Some- what contrary to this your former custom, in this last age you have made some translations out of a translation, and that none of the best: the use whereof you permit to very few, by virtue of special dispensation ; pleading that the use of it in the church, among the body of its members, is useless and dangerous. Again: it is the cus- tom of your church to celebrate all its public worship in Latin, where- of the generality of your people understand nothing at all ; and you forbid the exercise of your church-worship in a vulgar tongue, under- stood by the community of your church or people. These I appre- hend to be the customs of your church; and, to the best of my understanding, they are directly contrary, — 1. To the end of God in granting unto his church the inestimable benefit of his word and worship; and, 2. To the command of God, given unto all, to read, meditate, and study his word continually; and, 3. Prejudicial to the soids of men, in depriving them of those unspeakable spiritual advantages which they might attain in the discharge of their duty, and which others, not subject unto your authority, have experience of; and, 4. Opiwsite unto, yea, destructive of, that edification which is the immediate end of all things done or to be done in public as- semblies of the church ; and, 5. Forbidden exi^ressly by the apostle, who enforceth his prohibition "vvith many cogent reasons, 1 Cor. xiv. ; and, 6. Contrary to the express jwactice of the primitive church, both Judaical and Christian, all whose worship was performed in the same language wherein the people were instructed by preaching and exhortations, — which I presume you will thmk it necessary they should well understand; being, 7. Brought into use gradually and occa- sionally, through the stuj^endous negligence of some who presided in the ch larches of those days, when the languages wherein the Scripture was first written, and whereinto, for the use of the whole church, it had been of old translated, — as the Old Testament into Greek, and the whole into Latin, — through the tumults and wars that fell out in the world, became corrupted, or were extirpated ; and, 8. A means of turning the worship of Christ, from a rational way of strengthen- ing faith and increasing holiness, into a dumb histrioniccd show, ex- citing brutish and irregular affections; and, 9. Were the great cause of that darkness and ignorance which spread itself in former days over the whole face of your church, and yet continueth in a great measure so to do; and, in sum, are as great an instance of the power