M. Hardinge. The .34. Diuision.
I trust wise, godly, and stedfast men, who be not caried about with euery winde of Doctrine, wil be moued more with the auctoritie of Origen, a man alwaies in the iudgement of al the Chri∣sten worlde accompted most excellently learned, then with the scorninge of Caluine, who speakinge of the auncient Latine Seruice vsed in Englande, and Fraunce saithe, Ad Ecclesiam ex sono non intellecto nullus penitus fructus redit: that of the sounde not vnderstanded, no fruite at al re∣tourneth to the Churche: vsinge that woorde of despite, that might better be spoken by a Mynstrel, of his Pipe and Taburret, then by a Preacher, of the Diuine Seruice. Neither hereof with any milder Spi∣rite speaketh his Disciple and Subminister Theodore Beza, the hote Minister of the deformed Churches of Fraunce. Quaecunque preces ab aliquo cōcipiuntur eo idiomate, quod ipse nō intelligat, pro Dei ludibrio sunt habendae. What praiers so euer be made (saithe he) of any man in a tonge that he vnderstandeth not, they be to be taken for a mockerie of God. Who so euer here alloweth Caluine, and Beza, condemned of the Churche, must condemne Origen, for this pointe neuer reproued or toutched of any, that haue not spared him where so euer they coulde charge him with any errour. If al praiers made in an vnknowen tonge be a mockinge of God, as Beza saithe: then were the praiers vttered by miracle in the Primitiue Churche with tongues (which the vtterers them selues vnderstoode not after the minde of Chrysostome) a mockinge of God: For I see nothinge, whereby they are excluded from his 87 general saieinge, and vniuersal proposition. Verily, this teachinge of Beza is not sounde. I weene, if he were out of the protection of his deformed Churches, and conuented before a Catholike Bishop, to geue an accompte of this doctrine, he woulde steppe backe, and reuoke that rasshe saieinge againe. For els he shoulde seeme to graunte, that God gaue at the beginninge of the Churche, the gifte of tongues to be mockte withal: whiche were very absurde, and blasphemous. S. Paule wissheth that al the Corinthians spake with tongues, but rather that they Prophecied.