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, in his first Epistle to the Corinthians, saying, Truly, if thou only bless or give thanks in spirit, how doth he, that occupieth the place of the unlearned, say Amen at that thy giving thanks unto God? for he understandeth not what thou sayest. Thou verily givest thanks well, but the other is not edified. And again, in the Epistle to the Romans, he saith, With the heart a man believeth unto righteousness, and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation. 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, 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 unrevenged."

This emperor, as Sabelicus writeth, favoured the Bishop of Rome; and yet we see how plain a decree he maketh, for praying and administering of Sacraments in a known tongue, that the devotion of the hearers might be stirred up by knowledge, contrary to the judgment of them that would have ignorance to make devotion. He maketh it also a matter of damnation to do these things in a tongue that the hearers understand not. Let us

therefore conclude with God, and all good men's assent, that no common Prayer, or Sacraments, ought to be ministered in a tongue that is not understood of the hearers.

Now a word or two of private Prayer in an unknown tongue. We took in hand where we began to speak of this matter, not only to prove that no common Prayer, or administration of Sacraments, ought to be in a tongue unknown to the hearers, but also, that no person ought to pray privately in that tongue that he himself understandeth not. Which thing shall not be hard to prove, if we forget not what Prayer is. For if Prayer be that devotion of the mind, which enforceth the heart to lift up itself to God, how should it be said, that that person prayeth, that understandeth not the words that his tongue speaketh in Prayer? Yea, how can it be said that he speaketh? For to speak is, by voice to utter the thought

1 Cor..

Psalm lvii

of the mind. And the voice that a man uttereth in speaking is nothing else but the messenger of the mind, to bring abroad the knowledge of that which otherwise lieth secret in the heart, and cannot be known, according to that which St. Paul writeth; What man, saith he, knoweth the things that appertain to man, saving only the spirit of man, which is in man? He, therefore, that doth not understand the voices that his tongue doth utter, eannot properly be said to speak, but rather to counterfeit, as parrots, and such other birds, use to counterfeit men's voices. No man, therefore, that feareth to provoke the wrath of God against himself, will be so bold to speak of God unadvisedly, without regard of reverent understanding, in his presence, but he will prepare his heart before he presume to speak unto God. And therefore in our common Prayer the minister doth oftentimes say. Let us pray, meaning thereby to admonish the people, that they should prepare their ears to hear what he should crave at God's hand, and their hearts to consent to the same, and their tongues to say Amen at the end thereof. On this sort did the Prophet David prepare his heart, when he said, My heart is ready, O my God, my heart is ready, I will sing and declare a psalm. The Jews also, when in the time of Judith they did with all their heart pray God to visit his people of Israel, had so prepared their hearts before they began to pray. After this sort had Manasses prepared his 2 Chron. iii, heart before he prayed, and said, And now, O Lord, do I bow the knees of my heart, usking of thee part of thy merciful kindness. When the heart is thus prepared, the voice uttered from the beart is harmonious in the ears of God: otherwise he regardeth it not to accept it. But forasmuch as the person, that so babbleth his words without sense in the presence of God, showeth himself not to regard the majesty of him that he speaketh to; he taketh bim as a contemner of his Almighty Majesty, and giveth him his reward among hypocrites, which make an outward show of holiness, but their hearts are full of abominable thoughts, even in the time of their prayers. For it is the heart that the Lord looketh upon, as it is written in the history of Kings. If we therefore will that our prayers be not abominable before God, let us so prepare our hearts before we pray, and so understand the things that we ask when we pray, that both our hearts and voices may together sound in the ears of God's Majesty; and then we shall not fail to receive at his hand the things that we ask, as good men which have been before

1.Sam. xvi.

andis rudibus.

us did, and so have from time to time received that which, for their souls' health, they did at any time desire. St. Augustine seemeth to bear in this matter; for he saith thus of them, which being brought up in grammar and rhetoric, are converted to Christ, and so must be instructed in the Christian religion: "Let them know also (saith he) De Catechiz that it is not the voice, but the affection of the mind, that cometh to the ears of God." And so shall it come to pass, that if haply they shall mark that some bishops or ministers in the church do call upon God, either with barbarous words, or with words disordered, or that they understand not, or do disorderly divide the words that they pronounce, they shall not laugh them to scorn. Hitherto he seemeth to bear with praying in an unknown tongue. But in the next sentence he openeth his mind thus: Not for that these things ought not to be amended, that the people may say Amen to that which they do plainly understand. But yet these godly things must be borne withal of these catechists, or instructors of the faith, that they anay learn, that as in the common place, where matters are pleaded, the goodness of an oration consisteth in sound, so in the church it consisteth in devotion. So that he alloweth not the praying in a tongue not understood of him that prayeth: but he instructeth the skilful orator to bear with the rude tongue of the devout simple minister. To conclude: If the lack of understanding the words that are spoken in the congregation do make them unfruitful to the hearers, how should not the same make the words read unfruitful to the reader? The merciful goodness of God grant us his grace to call upon him as we ought to do, to his glory and our endless felicity; which we shall do, if we humble ourselves in his sight, and in all our prayers, both common and private, have our minds fully fixed upon him. For the prayer of them that Ecelus. XXXV. humble themselves shall pierce through the clouds, and till it draw nigh unto God, it will not be answered; and till the Most High do regard it, it will not depart. And the Lord will not be slack, but he will deliver the just, and execute judgment. To him therefore be all honour and glory, for ever and ever. Amen.

AN

INFORMATION

For them which take offence at certain Places of the holy

Scripture.

THE FIRST PART.

HE great utility and profit that Christian men and women may take, if they will, by hearing and reading the holy Scriptures, (dearly beloved) no heart can sufficiently conceive, much less is my tongue able with words to express. Wherefore Satan, our enemy, seeing the Scriptures to be the very mean and right way to bring the people to the true knowledge of God, and that Christian religion is greatly furthered by diligent hearing and reading of them, he also perceiving what an hindrance and let they be to him and his kingdom, doth what he can to drive the reading of them out of God's ehurch. And for that end he hath always stirred up, in one place or other, cruel tyrants, sharp persecutors, and extreme enemies unto God and his infallible truth, to pull with violence the holy Bibles out of the people's hands, and have most spitefully destroyed and consumed the same to ashes in the fire; pretending, most untruly, that the much hearing and reading of God's word is an occasion of heresy and carnal liberty, and the overthrow of all good order in all well-ordered commonweals. If to know God aright be an occasion of evil, then we must needs grant, that the hearing and reading of the holy Scriptures is the cause of heresy, carnal liberty, and the

subversion of all good orders. But the knowledge of God and of ourselves is so far from being an occasion of evil, that it is the readiest, yea, the only means to bridle carnal liberty, and to kill all our fleshly affections. And the ordinary way to attain this knowledge is, with diligence to hear and read the holy Scriptures. For the whole Scriptures, saith St. Paul, were given by the inspiration of 2 Tim. ili: God. And shall we Christian men think to learn the knowledge of God and of ourselves in any earthly man's work or writing, sooner or better than in the holy Scriptures, written by the inspiration of the Holy Ghost? The Scriptures were not brought unto us by the will of man: but holy men of God, as witnesseth St. Peter, spake as they 2 Peter i. were moved by the holy Spirit of God. The Holy Ghost is the schoolmaster of truth, which leadeth his scholars, as our Saviour saith of him, into all truth. And whoso is John xvi. not led and taught by this schoolmaster, cannot but fall into deep error, how godly soever his pretence is, what knowledge and learning soever he hath of all other works and writings, or how fair soever a show or face of truth he hath in the estimation and judgment of the world. If some man will say, I would have a true pat⚫tern and a perfect description of an upright life, approved in the sight of God; can we find, think ye, any better, or any such again, as Christ Jesus is, and his doctrine? whose virtuous conversation and godly life the Scripture so lively painteth and setteth forth before our eyes, that we, beholding that pattern, might shape and frame our lives, as nigh as may be, agreeable to the perfection of the same. Follow you me, saith St. Paul, as I follow 1 Cor. xi. Christ. And St. John in his Epistle saith, Whoso abideth 1 John ii. in Christ must walk even so as he hath walked before him. And where shall we learn the order of Christ's life, but in the Scripture? Another would have a medicine to all diseases and maladies of the mind. Can this be found or gotten otherwhere than out of God's own book, his sacred Scriptures? Christ taught so much, when he said to the obstinate Jews, Search the Scriptures, for in them John v. ye think to have eternal life. If the Scriptures contain in them everlasting life, it must needs follow, that they have also present remedy against all that is an hindrance and let unto eternal life. If we desire the knowledge of heavenly wisdom, why had we rather learn the same of man than of God himself, who, as St. James saith, is James i. the giver of wisdom? Yea, why will we not learn it at Christ's own mouth, who, promising to be present with Mat xxvii.