CHAP. XIV. (Book 14)
VERS. II.
〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉▪
He that speaketh in a Tongue.
SPeaking in a Tongue? In what Tongue? You will find this to be no idle question, when you have well weighed these things.
I. There is none with reason will deny, that this whole Church of Corinth understood one and the same Corinthian or Greek Language: as also, that the Apostle here speaks of the Ministers of that Church, and not of strangers. But now it seems a thing not to be believed, that any Minister of that Church would use Arabic, Egyptian, Armenian, or any other unknown Languague publickly in the Church; from whence not the least benefit could accrue to the Church, or to the Minister himself. For although these Ministers had their faults, and those no light ones neither, yet we would not wil∣lingly accuse them of mere foolishness, as speaking an unknown Language for no reason: nor of ostentation, as speaking only for vain glory. And although we deny not, that it was necessary, that those wonderful gifts of the Holy Ghost should be manifested be∣fore all the people, for the honour of him that gave them; yet we hardly believe, that they were to be shewn vainly, and for no benefit.
II. The Apostle saith, vers. 4. 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉▪ He that speaketh in a Tongue edifieth himself. Which how could he do from those Tongues, when he could have uttered those very things in his Mother Tongue, and have reaped the same fruit of edification?
III. The Apostle tolerates an unknown Tongue, if an Interpreter were present. But I scarce believe he would tolerate, that one should prate in Scythian, Parthian, or Ara∣bick, &c. when he could utter the same things in the Corinthian Language, and without the trouble of the Church, and an Interpreter.
We are of opinion therefore, nor without reason, that that unknown Language, which they used, or abused rather, in the Church, was the Hebrew; which now of a long time past was not the common and Mother Tongue, but was gone into disuse; but now by the gift of the Holy Ghost it was restored to the Ministers of the Church; and that necessarily, and for the profit of the Church. We enquire not, in how many un∣known Languages they could speak, but how many they spake in the Church; and we believe that they spake Hebrew only.
How necessary that Language was to Ministers, there is none that doubts. And hence it is, that the Apostle permits to speak in this (as we suppose) unknown Language, if an Interpreter were present, because it wanted not its usefulness. The usefulness ap∣peared thence, as well to the speaker, while he now skilled and more deeply understood the original Language; as also to the Hearers, while those things were rendred truly, which that Mystical and Sacred Language contained in it.
The foundations of Churches were now laying, and the foundations of Religion in those Churches; and it was not the least part of the Ministerial task at that time, to prove the Doctrine of the Gospel, and the person, and the actions, and the sufferings of Christ out of the Old Testament: now the Original text was unknown to the common people; the Version of the Seventy Interpreters was faulty in infinite places; the Tar∣gum upon the Prophets was unconstant, and Judaized; the Targum upon the Law was, as yet none at all; so that it was impossible to discover the mind of God in the Holy Text without the immediate gift of the Spirit, imparting perfect and full skill both of the Language and of the sense: that so the foundations of Faith might be laid from the Scriptures, and the true sense of the Scriptures might be propagated without either er∣ror, or the comments of men.
The Apostle saith, Let him pray, that he may interpret, vers. 13. And Interpretation is numbred among the extraordinary gifts of the Spirit. Now let it be supposed that he spake Latine, Arabick, Persian: either he understood what he spake, or he did not: if he did not, then how far was he from edifying himself? And yet the Apostle saith, He