The Novelty of Popery Opposed to the Antiquity of True Christianity, Book 7 · Treatise · Chapter 6
CHAP. VI. The ſame is proved by the example of the Church of the Old Teſtament.
BY all that we ſaid of this queſtion it is evident, that we have the word of God, reaſon, and the confeſſion of our Adverſaries on our ſide. To which we muſt add the example of the ancient Church, both of the Old and the New Teſtament, which muſt be our rule.
I. To take the matter from the beginning, God gave his Law in an intelligible tongu…, and the form of prayers and bleſsings which God preſcribed unto Aaron to uſe in publick, were in the vulgar tongue of Gods people. Such prayers and bleſſings we read, Numb. 6.23. and in the following verſes, and in the 10. ch. ver. 35. and 36. And the form of thankſgiving in the offering of the firſt fruits, Deut. 26.3. And the form of prayer after the paying of the tythes in the third year, Deut. 26.13. In a word, all the publick prayers which were done by the Prieſts, or by the people, were done in a tongue underſtood by the people. And David gave Pſalms unto the people, which were ſung in the Temple with inſtruments of Muſick in Hebrew, the vulgar tongue of Iſrael.
II. Under the captivity of Babylon, the Hebrew tongue degenerated from its purity. Yet that alteration was not ſo great, but that Hebrew in which Moſes and the Prophets have written was underſtood by the Jews. Not only becauſe the people exerciſed themſelves in the reading and hearing of theſe books both in private houſes, and in the Synagogues every Sabbath; but alſo becauſe the corruption was not ſo great, but that the common people underſtood Hebrew eaſily, becauſe of the proximity between Hebrew and the vulgar Jewiſh tongue. Wherefore alſo in the New Teſtament, the Jewiſh tongue is often called the Hebrew tongue, as Matth. 27.33. where Golgotha, which is a word of the Jewiſh tongue, is ſaid to be an Hebrew word: whereas the right Hebrews ſaid Golgoleth that is, the skull: And Joh. 19.19. It is ſaid that Gahbatha, in Hebrew, ſignifieth Pavement, although Gabbatha be a Syrian word. That the Jews after their return from the captivity of Babylon underſtood Hebrew, and the text of the books of the Law, it appears by the 8. chapter of Nehemiah, in the 2. verſe, where it is ſaid, that Ezra the Prieſt brought the Law before the congregation of men and women, and of thoſe that were capable to hear. And it is added that Ezra read in the book before the men and the women, and thoſe that could underſtand, and the ears of all the people were attentive unto the book of the Law. The vulgate verſion agreeth to this, Et legit in libro aperte, in platea, &c. & aures omnis populi erant arrectae ad librum. And a little after, Et legerunt in libro legis diſtincte & aperte ad intelligendum, & intellexerunt cum legeretur, that is, They read in the book of Gods law diſtinctly and openly to underſtand it, and they underſtood the reading. That is not done in the Roman Church, in which the Deacon reads the Goſpel, and the Sub-Deacon the Epiſtle, in Latine, before women, peaſants, and tradeſmen, who underſtand nothing in it, and by conſequence cannot be attentive unto it.
The expoſition which the Levites added unto that reading, of which the following Texts ſpeak, was not to expound the terms of the Law in another tongue, but to expound the ſenſe, as Nicolas de Lyra acknowledgeth upon Nehem. 8.(a)Eſdras legit in eo aperte, id eſt intelligibiliter declarando ea quae videbantur obſcura. Ezra read in the Book, openly, that is intelligibly, declaring the things which ſeemed obſcure.
III. (b)Joſeph. foreign, cap. 12. foreign, &c.Joſephus in the 12. and 16. Ch. of the Book of the Empire of reaſon, deſcribeth the martyrdom of the ſeven brethren, and of their mother by the cruelty of King Antiochus Epiphanes, and ſaith that the mother exhorteth her children, the youngeſt eſpecially, to dye conſtantly for Gods Law, and that ſhe ſpake to them in Hebrew, that ſhe might not be underſtood by Antiochus who was a Grecian. And ſince ſhe ſpake ſo to the youngeſt, it appeareth, that then among the Jews, women and children ſpake Hebrew.
IV. Luke 4.16, &c. the Lord Jeſus being in the Synagogue of Nazareth, takes the Book of the Prophet Iſaiah, and reads before the People a long Text of that Prophet; Then he adds, This day is this Scripture fulfilled in your ears; which words ſhew, that the aſſiſtants had well underſtood the words of that Text. Is it credible, that in the Synagogues of the Jews they read Scripture in a language not underſtood, ſeeing that in the Scriptures God ſpeakes to the people that he may be underſtood?
V. Acts 22.2. The Apoſtle Paul makes a ſpeech to the Jews in Hebrew, And when they heard that he spake in the Hebrew tongue to them, they kep, the more ſilence, Which they had not done if they had not underſtood it. And the Apoſtle would not have ſpoken to the common people in a language which they underſtood not. As alſo the reſt of the Chap. the 12 verſe eſpecially, ſheweth that the Jews underſtood it very well.