The sacrifice of the Mass is still celebrated in the ancient language which was universally used throughout the Roman empire, and in which the liturgy and public offices of the church were performed in all the western parts of Europe, when the Christian religion was first published to the world. All sermons, exhortations, and instructions which regard the faithful, are regularly delivered to them in the vulgar or maternal language which they speak and understand; but it is deemed an expedient point of discipline, to retain the same ancient, fixed, and unchangeable language, in the celebration of the divine mysteries, and in the solemn prayers which are addressed immediately to God, and which regard the office of the clergy. The chief reasons which induce the Catholic Church to make choice of the Latin, in preference to any of the mixed languages that sprung from it after the dismemberment of the Roman empire, and are now in use in the European nations, are the following: 1st--She is the church of all ages, and of all nations; and therefore, to show her antiquity and catholicity, as well as her aversion to novelty and changes in religious matters, she still retains the same ancient and universal language which the saints have used for so many ages from the apostles' days, and which is fixed and unchangeable, taught every where in public schools, generally learned by persons of all conditions, and the best known and most universally understood in the western parts of the world. 2dly--In order to preserve the purity of her faith, and a greater conformity in her public worship in all countries, and to avoid the various alterations and corruptions which the living languages, spoken in different places, are liable to in every century, the church wisely judges, that as there is but one true faith, there should be but one common language for all the faithful, spread over the different nations of the world, to commune with each other in the profession of one and the same faith, and in the exercise of the same religious duties. {338} 3rdly--Another good effect and advantage that arises from this point of ecclesiastical discipline, is, that the same priest can perform the public church offices in all places where he travels; and a Catholic is never at a loss to join with those of his own religion, and assist at the public worship of God, whithersoever he may have occasion to go, since he meets with the same Mass and Liturgy, in the same words, abroad, which he was accustomed to near at home; whereas, if the divine service was to be performed in the maternal language of every country, and to be translated into as many different tongues as the ignorant people understand and speak in the different provinces, there would be nothing but a Babel of confusion, and a man of one country would be at a loss to serve God on the Lord's day in another country.