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ARTICLE XV

OF SPEAKING IN THE CONGREGATION IN SUCH A TONGUE AS THE PEOPLE UNDERSTAND

It is a thing plainly repugnant to the Word of God, and the custom of the primitive Church, to have public prayer in the Church, or to administer the Sacraments, in a tongue not understood by the people.

I. THE ORIGIN

This Article was composed by the English Reformers in 1553, and rewritten with some immaterial changes in 1562. It was adopted entire by Wesley.

II. THE AIM

At an early period of the Christian era the Latin language was understood throughout the Western part of Christendom. The Romans, as masters of the Western world, imposed their language upon the peoples of the provinces, so that Latin was the common tongue of Europe, and became the language of liturgical worship. The Church being a permanent institution in which service was continuously held, the language was conserved in its service, while it gradually ceased to be a living tongue among the people. As the centuries passed the great majority of the people did not understand the tongue used in prayers and sacraments. There was a disposition on the part of the clergy to surround the sacred ordinances with a veil of mystery. "A feeling, too, that as the Church was one and yet universal, so there should be but one universal tongue in which her prayers and praises should go up to God, lent a coloring

of piety and poetry to the old custom of having Latin liturgies."1

The Article as first framed in 1553 declared that "It is moste semelie, and moste agreable to the Woorde of God, that in the congregation nothing be openlie readde, or spoken in a tongue vnknowen to the people, the whiche thinge S. Paule didde forbidde except some were presente that should declare the same."

In 1562 the Council of Trent anathematized those who say that "the mass ought only to be celebrated in the vulgar tongue." The English Reformers accepted the challenge, changed the wording of the Article, and declared the practice of praying or administering the sacraments in an unknown tongue "plainly repugnant to the Word of God, and the custom of the primitive Church."

III. THE EXPOSITION

It is a thing plainly repugnant to the Word of God. The gift of tongues, the great miracle of Pentecost, enabled the apostles and disciples to proclaim the gospel so that "strangers of Rome, Jews and proselytes, Cretes and Arabians," and many others, should hear in their own tongues "the wonderful works of God" (Acts 2. 10, 11). That miraculous gift did not end with that first scene of gospel triumph; it was continued during the apostolic age. It is evident God designed that the common people should have and understand every part of divine worship.

Many passages of Scripture could be cited to prove this: "Let all things be done unto edifying" (1 Cor. 14. 26). There can be no edification when the people know not what is said. "For he that speaketh in an unknown tongue speaketh not unto men, but unto God: for no

1 Browne on the Articles, p. 579.

2 Sess. XXII, chap. ix.

man understandeth him" (verse 2). "For if I pray in an unknown tongue, my spirit prayeth, but my understanding is unfruitful" (verse 14). "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 sayest?" (verse 16.) "I thank my God, I speak with tongues more than ye all yet in the church I had rather speak five words with my understanding, that by my voice I might teach others also, than ten thousand words in an unknown tongue" (verses 18, 19). "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" (verse 15).

The whole chapter in which these texts occur bears directly upon this subject. The gift of tongues in the Corinthian church was peculiar to the apostolic age, but the rules laid down by Paul to govern the exercise of the gift are applicable to any age. It is the same whether the tongues be a special miraculous gift or acquired by study, the use of the language must be for the edification of the congregation. This applies to speaking, praying, or singing. When an earnest, fervent prayer is offered, that awakens a deep yearning of soul in all who hear it, the responsive Amen makes it the prayer of all though voiced by one. And the Spirit-filled worshipers voicing to each other deep spiritual truth, singing with the spirit and with the understanding also, making melody in their hearts unto the Lord, render a service profitable unto themselves and acceptable unto God.

And the custom of the primitive Church.

The public worship of God in early Christian times was conducted in the common language of the people. The earliest forms were very simple. Jesus taught his disci

ples to pray, and gave them the beautiful form of prayer now universally used in the Christian Church. The sacrament of the Lord's Supper is the most sacred of all parts of our privilege and worship. It was instituted by our Lord with most impressive words and symbols, and closed with a song of praise.1

Incidental allusions to public worship by patristic writers indicate that the form of worship was simple and much the same in all the churches, and always in the vernacular. Justin Martyr gives a fair idea of the form of worship, and the administration of the Lord's Supper. "On the day called Sunday," he writes, "all who live in cities or in the country gather together to one place, and the memoirs of the apostles or the writings of the prophets are read, as long as time permits; then, when the reader has ceased, the president verbally instructs and exhorts to the imitation of these good things. Then we all rise together and pray, and, as we before said, when our prayer is ended, bread and wine and water are brought, and the president in like manner offers prayers and thanksgivings, according to his ability, and the people assent, saying Amen; and there is a distribution to each, and a participation of that over which thanks have been given, and to those who are absent a portion is sent by the deacons."2

Pliny's letter to Trajan indicates the same kind of service: "They affirmed that the whole of their fault lay in this that they were accustomed to meet on a stated day before it was light, and sang among themselves, alternately, a hymn to Christ as a God (or addressed themselves in a form of prayer to Christ as to some God)

1"Probably no more than a kind of recitative reading or chanting. As to the hymn itself, we know, from the universal consent of Jewish antiquity, that it was composed of Psalms 113, 114, 115, 116, 117, 118, always sung at every paschal solemnity."-A. Clarke. 2 First Apology, chap. lx.

and bound themselves by an oath (sacramento) not to the commission of any wickedness. . . . When these things were performed it was their custom to separate, and then to come together again to a meal promiscuous and harmless."

Origen says: "Christians in prayer do not even use the precise names which divine Scripture applies to God; but the Greeks use Greek names, the Romans Latin names, and everyone prays and sings praises to God as he best can, in his mother tongue. For the Lord of all the languages of the earth hears those who pray to him in each different tongue, hearing, if I may so say, but one voice expressing itself in different dialects. For the Most High is not as one of those who select one language, Barbarian or Greek, knowing nothing of any other, and caring nothing for those who speak in other tongues."1

As fast as the countries were evangelized the worship of God was conducted in an orderly way in the language of the people. Liturgical forms did not appear until the latter part of the third century or the beginning of the fourth. The earliest known form is in the Apostolic Constitutions. In this work are to be found an order of worship and a "divine liturgy."2 After this liturgies multiplied in the languages of the countries where the Church had been established. The Greek, Syriac, Armenian, Coptic, and Latin Churches had their liturgies.

As the Pope of Rome assumed superiority over other Churches the Latin liturgy prevailed in the Churches of the West. During the course of the ninth century, in consequence of the irruption of the Goths and the subversion of the Roman empire, the Latin language as the common language of the people ceased in Europe. In

1 Against Celsus, chap. xxxvii.

2 Constitutions of the Holy Apostles, book ii, chap. lvii; book viii, chap. vi.

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