the publick Assemblies Prayers had been ordinarily used to be made in the Extempore Way except by inspired Persons as before that that Way could not have been altered so universally as it was to the use of Forms and yet we have no notice of the same either in History or by Tradition But secondly not only in that we use a Form but in that we use such Forms wherein we have the most Communion with other Christians that is possible in the very words we speak we use the Psalms of David which as they have ever been a part of the Publick Worship of Jews so also of Christians we use also that excellent Form the Te Deum which hath been used very anciently and received of abundance of Churches into their publick Liturgy so the three Creeds and the Collects before the Epistles and Gospels and the Gloria Patri and most parts of our Service are made up of the most approved and generally received Forms of Prayer that could be found with accommodation to the present time 3dly In the use of the Common-Prayer we have Communion most fully with the Christians to whom we are united under one Government which we call the Church of England and with all of that Congregation we presently joyn with in publick Worship whereas in the other Way we have no certain Communion but only with the Minister because we are not sure that any one in the Congregation approves of all he says nor it may be can we neither and it is possible the Minister himself may speak that for want of premeditation which he on second thoughts may not approve himself So that there cannot be so full Communion of the Spirit in that Way as in ours These things I have thought fit to hint to beget a good Opinion in the minds of Men of our established Order for the publick Worship of God But I would not be thought to despise any that have a true love to God and desire to honour and glorifie him in such a Way of Worship as they think most acceptable to him what Mistakes soever Misinformation and Prejudices of Education and Converses may subject them unto And I hope those that differ from me will not reproach my fervent desire to promote Piety in the Way I best approve and that which I am many ways obliged to chuse before any other And if what I have written would perswade them to make a honest trial not by standing at gaze to see what we do or sitting by as unconcerned in the Worship we offer to God by the Common-Prayer while they only wait for the Preacher they desire to hear but by joyning heartily with us according to the Advices of this Paper I do not doubt but they would soon leave wondering at my fervency in this Way But if some should through misguided Zeal or for the Interests of their Party fall foul on me for commending what they seek by all means to deprave I am content to suffer as my Saviour did while the Reproaches of those that reproach God in condemning what by the Laws of Nature and Examples in Scripture he approves fall upon me And if those that approve this Way of Worship be made hereby the more fervent and devout in attending thereupon I shall rejoyce in my Labours and Sufferings for their sakes And I hope they will be so when they consider that in this Way Devotion is not subject to be abused by the subtilty of ill Men as it hath been by such on both sides that differ from us that here is no Discouragement given to the Weak and Bashful by exemplifying a Way of Devotion that is above their reach nor any Temptation to the Bold and Self-conceited to aspire to things too high for them to their own shame and to the disturbance of the Church That therein nothing but Principles of Truth that tend to Piety Charity Obedience to Superiours Meekness Moderation and Peaceableness among our selves are possible to be insinuated into our minds That hereby we shall be greatly assisted in Holy Meditations while our minds will he stored with abundance of excellent matter for the same and in educating our Children religiously in keeping our Families in Vnity and Order and performing the Worship belonging to the same and the many other great benefits that we shall experience in a devout attendance on the daily Service of God in publick appointed by this Church by which considerations they will also be more confirmed in their love hereunto and excited to become examples to others who will be more effectually drawn to their Duty by observing the devout and frequent practice of this Way of Piety than by Disputations about it And it seems to me that nothing is more like to preserve this Church against the designs of its Enemies on both hands than such exemplary frequency of Attendance and fervency of true Devotion in those that profess themselves the Children thereof The effecting of which is the Design of the ensuing Advice both to Readers and People WHile this Sheet was Printing I was told by a Friend that he heard the Learned Dr. Beveridge in a Sermon on Titus 2.12 March 26. declare That the import of the word Worship was expressing Honour and Respect by bowing the Head and Shoulders and that this Action as it had anciently been used in sacred Offices to signifie our Adoration of Almighty God so it is most fit and decent in the Exercises of Religion now I was much pleased that the Judgment of so excellent a Person publickly declared just at the coming out of this Book wich I am sure he had not the least knowledge or intimation of gave countenance to my Undertaking in this Preface Since that I hearing the said Doctor read Prayers at one of the Lent-Sermons at his Church it seemed to me such a perfect Exemplification of what I advise in the Book that I might seem to have learnt all from his practice though I never heard him before And I have great hope that the Example of one so eminently Pious and Learned of so excellent a Temper and such unwearied Labours in the Ministry may do more toward introducing Seriousness and Reverence in Divine Worship than these Papers can do themselves wherefore I have ventured without his knowledge to propose his Example in conjunction with my Endeavours humbly begging his pardon if he be offended to have his Name mentioned by so unworthy a Pen. SOME CONSIDERATIONS Offered to Readers and People DIRECTIONS for READERS HE that will perform this Service as he ought must first be prepared with true Devotion in his Mind and Spirit Two things are needful for the Explication of this First That the Expression of Devotion is a necessary Part of Worship Secondly That it will be difficult for the Reader to make such Expression if he have not real Devotion in himself For the first I shall only observe That it is the very Nature of Publick Worship to be an
should bear to those whether our Superiors Equals or Inferiors with whom we are united as one Nation and National Church and also should endeavour to represent to ourselves what may be the several States and Conditions of those we are presently to joyn with in the performance of Sacred Offices Such Considerations will much help our Devotion for the sense of the sins of others to whom we are united as well as of our own will help to make us humble and contrite in our Confessions the sense of their Wants and Miseries will help to make us fervent in our Supplications the sense of the Mercies they receive will help to make us joyful in God's Praises because we are obliged by our Union to reckon their Sins their Wants and their Mercies our own Thus the general knowledge that multitudes of Christians as well as our selves are concerned in the Matter of our Prayers and the sense we have in particular of the Concern of many of those we presently joyn with will add much more to our Devotion It may be there are many things in the Publick Prayers that we have not at present such a particular Concernment in but when we think there are Millions of Christians that have who are all of the same Divine Incorporation and that many of them are our own Country-men united with us as a National Church and some our Neighbours with whom we are one as a Parochial Church and of whose Concern we may have a particular knowledge I say this Meditation will greatly assist our Devotions and will also increase that Charity without which our Prayers as well as Ourselves are counted but dead in the fight of God And when we have wrought Ourselves to this excellent Temper our love to our Brethren will help our Devotion another way also For it will make us endeavour by our example to make them Devout and the more defefective we do perceive their Devotion to be the more shall we indeavour to assist it by the perfection of our own And there is certainly no better way for I have known those that Reproof and Disputation did but irritate by such Examples to have been reformed Lastly Frequent Reading these Holy Offices by ourselves and serious Meditation thereon would be a great help to our Devotion and Dr. Comber 's Excellent Book on the several Office of the Common Prayer will much 〈◊〉 us therein for when we have a full understanding of the great things contained in the brief comprehensive Sentences of the Lords Prayer and of our Collects c. the memory thereof when we come to repeat them will much assist our Devotion And I am perswaded that if Men were but conversant in the study of the Common Prayer-Book they would find more Instruction in the Matter of their Duty to God and Man more Assistance in governing their Affections and Passions and preserving Peace in themselves more Support and Consolation in Troubles and Afflictions and more Aid against Temptations c. than in reading many Books but especially it would be an excellent Means to increase those Holy Affections which prepare us for Publick Prayers and to assist our Devotion in the Performance I have mentioned this little of a great deal that might be said of the Matter of our Meditation but still it must be remembred that these things be thought on with a purpose and intention to beget in us such habitual Affections and Dispositions that we may be always fit to Pray and may in the most wonted Expressions exercise a servent Devotion and if we do so we shall not so need the Natural or Artificial Rethorick in Prayer as those do that want these Dispositions nor shall we be cloy'd with having Prayers always the same as some Dainty Stomachs are with eating often the same Meats for such Men constantly carry in their Breast such a sense of their past Enormities that it puts Life into their repeating our General Confession and such Esteem of God's Mercy in Christ as gives them a Behaviour not ordinary in receiving Absolution they have such Affection towards the Glory and Pleasure of Almighty God and such belief that he only can give what we want and forgive the Sins and prevent the Temptations that would involve us in evil now in this World and eternally in the next that it gives a great Devotion to their saying the Lord's Prayer and all the rest tho' they are still the same And where Men have such sense methinks no Man should deny that they pray in the Spirit or in the Holy Ghost as the Precepts of the Gospel require That Pious Nonconformist Mr. J. Corbet in his Kingdom of God hath these words The Spirit of Prayer is never wanting where the Heart hath a due sense of the Matter pag. 46. Although as he afterwards explains it we use a stinted Form of Words Dr. Owen I confess in a late Discourse of Prayer hath these words If Persons are able in the reading any Book meerly of Human Composure to rise up in answer to this Duty of Praying with all manner of Prayer and Supplication in the Spirit or the exercise of the Aids and Assistances received from him and his Holy Acting in them as a Spirit of Grace and Supplication endeavouring labouring and watching thereunto they have attained what I cannot understand That is in plain words the Doctor cannot understand how a Man that uses a Form can be said to pray in the Spirit It would be a high presumption in me to question the Understanding of so Great a Man but he will not be angry if I question my own for I cannot understand why our Saviour from whom we have these Precepts of Praying in the Spirit should teach his Disciples a Form of Prayer if in using a Form we cannot pray in the Spirit But it may be the Doctor will say as he doth insinuate in many places of that Book that Christ gave those words only for a Doctrinal and Directive Help to Prayer i. e. To teach Men how to pray Ex tempore for which End he saith we may read Forms of Prayer how unlawful soever the use be for which they were made But then I do not understand how the Doctor can say pag. 234. That it were better it may be that this were done Men taught to pray Ex tempore in some other way and these Doctrinal and Directive Helps not cast into the Form of a Prayer which is apt to divert the Mind from its proper End and Vse Which words seem to me to have such a Reflection on our Blessed Saviour as is little short of Blasphemy according to the Doctor 's Opinion of the Lord's Prayer For if that were not intended for a Form but for a Doctrinal and Directive Help to Prayer then those words applied to him plainly say That it may be Christ might have done better than to have cast his Instructions and Directions about Prayer into the Form of a Prayer which is
The house of Prayer It is written My house shall be called of all Nations the house of prayer Mark 11 17. ADVICE TO THE READERS OF The Common Prayer And to the PEOPLE Attending the Same With a PREFACE concerning DIVINE WORSHIP Humbly offered to Consideration for promoting the greater Decency and Solemnity in performing the Offices of GOD's Publick Worship Administred according to the Order Established by Law amongst Us. By a well-meaning though unlearned Layick of the Church of ENGLAND T. S. The Third Edition Corrected London Printed for Sam. Crouch at the Corner of Popes Head-Alley next Cornhil 1691. To that Worthy Citizen my Honoured Friend Mr. Deputy Haws Treasurer of Christ's Hospital SIR I Dedicate this Impression to you because your Bounty occasioned it and I am glad it did so because I think such a Book may be always useful in the Church in which 't is to be feared some both of the Clergy and Laity will always want such Advice as is therein offered I did most affectionately design this Book to Excite the most Serious Consideration of the Excellency of the Solemn Offices of our Common Prayers and to give assistance as well as I could towards such performance as the thing deserved I could scarce hope tho' I much desir'd that the Book should have had so good Success But it pleased God who best knew the sincerity of my Affections to move first our Right Reverend Diocesan and afterwards another Bishop to recommend it to their Clergies whereby the Efficacy thereof to the end I designed was much assisted And I do also impute this your Pious Vndertaking in giving a Book to every Lad that is put out Apprentice unto the same Divine Motion And I verily believe that if these young Men would argue from your giving it them as they ought it would mightily help to effect in them what I desire For which reason I crave your pardon for exposing an imperfect Character of you while I endeavour to instruct them so to do This Book may they say was given us by our Worthy Treasurer who was so much esteemed in the City for his Wisdom Piety and Readiness to all good Works as to be unanimously chosen to that Office And that in the discharge of it hath out-done the Expectations of his Electors and the Example of his Predecessors and hath rendred himself a worthy Pattern to all that come after him The wholsomness of our Food our warm and whole Cloathing our sweet cleanly and well repaired Lodgings our well accomplished School-masters our diligent and careful Nurses and Attendants of all sorts shews his great care of us and all Men see the same in the healthiness of our Countenances which is observed to be beyond what was formerly And how can we but conclude that he who was so kind to our Bodies gave us this Book in kindness to our Souls which he knew and we ought to consider are infinitely better And even for our Souls also we have found his Care exceeding great for he hath caused us to be instructed in the Reasons of Worshipping God and in the Right Way of doing it both in Private and in Publick and we hear others applaud our good Order and decent Performance in both respects while we daily Morning and Evening Worship God in this great Family and every Lord's day most solemnly Praise him in the greater Congregation imitating the heavenly Host whose Voice was like that of many Waters or mighty Thunders in saying their Hallelujahs Rev. 19. And this assures us he believed this Book would teach us something very beneficial in that respect And wiâ— not God and Man and our own Consciences condemn us of Folly and Ingratitude if we do not read and consider it I hope dear Sir these Youths will learn thus to argue themselves into a serious attention to what I have written I hope also that your thus approving the Book will perswade more of my Fellow-Citizens to read it and that thereby they may be drawn from the Impertinence of Coffee-house Conversation unto those holy Exercises of God's Worship wherein they may find much better Diversion a Diversion which is as Rational and Sublime as that is Mean and Foolish This little I have hinted to further the design of my Book not that I thought to add to the Fame of your Vertues but rather to express that true Respect towards you which they have begotten in me Who am SIR Your affectionate Friend and Servant THO. SEYMOR TO THE READER THERE is no Christian that prays in the words which his Lord hath taught him but doth implicitely profess his desire that these Papers may be read and considered For the first thing be there prays for is the hallowing God's Name which is That God will give his Grace to us and all People that we may worship him as we ought to do as our Catechism hath taught us Now the design of this Book being only to give assistance to the worshipping God as we ought he that desires the doing of that must also the considering of this For how meanly soever the thing be done it cannot but occasion some thoughts in Mens minds and some discourse in Company upon this Subject whereby it is very probable many things which in the ordinary performance have been amiss may be observed and amended which would not have otherwise been thought on and Men may be excited to consider what is fit to be done that this Service may be most decently and solemnly performed And if it do but this I have my end I do not impose my Dictates on any but offer things to Consideration with all humility acknowledging that both my want of Learning Time Health and due Composure make me unfit to write for publick View but my fervent desire to see things ordered in the best manner in this Service which I have found so comfortable to my self and desire may be more esteemed and frequented by others hath perswaded this Essay which I hope will offend none If any should blame my boldness in medling with those of the Ministry my excuse must be in the Observation of an Ingenious Gentleman That even the Lamps of the Sanctuary may need Snuffers to make them burn the clearer I know he saith they ought to be of Gold and I wish mine were better Metal But I hope the purity of my Intention will make amends for the meanness of of my Style and Expression and procure a kind Acceptance with that Sacred Tribe Vpon occasion of this Second Edition I must add this to the Reader That I was forced in the first to cut off much of what I designed that so I might accomn odate the Book to what the Bookseller would venture to print but he now grown more bold by the good success of his first undertaking gives me liberty to prosecute my first Intentions wherefore I here make some Inlargements and I have done it with good intentions for the exciting a serious Devotion
the highest dignity at the right hand of God I say he that considers this I hope will think as I do I know prejudice hinders Men from observing what is excellent in any thing but especially in such things they are not used to but as I suppose none will deny that God is thus to be worshipped so where Men are not prejudiced I verily believe they will think that in no Way they can do it better There is something also to be inferred as to this matter of God's Worship from the plentiful effusion of the Spirit in Gospel-times and our Fellowship and Communion in that Spirit There are some Phrases in the New Testament which I think have been perverted to a wrong sence such as Praying in the Holy Ghost Worshipping God in the Spirit and in Spirit and Truth which I think may better be referred to the worshipping God as revealed by the Gospel which is called the Ministration of the Spirit in the respect forementioned or else to our worshipping God in Faith and Fervency in Vnity and Vnanimity without distinction of Jew and Gentile in spirituality without legal Types and Figures and carnal Ordinances in the vertue of Christ's Merits which was the truth of all the bloudy Sacrifices of Atonement for acceptanceâ— with God in the legal Worship and this according to the Revelations whereof the Spirit of Christ is Author and by whose Gifts and Powers they were confirmed I say better refered to these things than to praying without study or a prepared Form onely by help of the Spirit It seems to me that if those Expressions had any relation to praying by any extraordinary and supernatural assistance of God's Spirit as was their praying in Languages they had never learnt or in Expressions that were above any attainments they could be supposed to have by ordinary means it must be appliable only unto that time For however an Opinion hath been insinuated of late of a miraculous and supernatural assistanceâ— for the performance of that Duty which hath given considence to many who are naturally unable for the same to venture on it and that even in publick Administration to the great dishonour of Religion and just offence of all wise Men yet I think none will dare to affirm that any Christian or Minister hath any promise from God of such assistance of the Spirit as may make it to be truly said that be prays in the Spirit in the sence above-mentioned But now praying in the Spirit as I first interpreted it of praying as the Revelations of the Spirit of Christ in the Gospel requires is appliable to all Times and Persons and this I think to be done as in the forementioned respect of worshipping the Trinity in Vnity and our Lord and Saviour as God-man so also when our Prayers are ordered for the greatest advantage of Faith and Fervency and of the Unity and Fellowship of the Spirit and so I think ours are ordered For in the first place our Faith is helped by the assurance that we ask such things as are pleasing to God and secondly by the frequent mention of the merits of Christ When we pray in the words which our Lord and Saviour himself hath taught us and use such Forms as have been composed by Men famous in the Church and approved by multitudes of Christians and that for many Ages when our Prayers are ordered with great advice of those that are most learned among our selves being also such as are orderly called to direct the publick Ministrations in Sacred Things and when they are approved by all the Christians united into one National Church under one Civil Government which approbation is declared by the Representatives of both Clergy and Laity with whose advice they are by Law established and when we ourselves may consider and weigh the same before we use them having them in our Books to read at any time certainly we may on all these accounts he more assured that we pray for such things as we ought than when we joyn in a Prayer we never heard before and such as is the sudden conception of a private Minister as the use is with those that are against our Way And finally the frequent mention of the Merits of our Saviour at the conclusion of our brief Collects is more helpful to our Belief that we shall find acceptance for Christ's sake than when it is only once at the end of a long continued Prayer if my own experience and that of wiser Men do not deceive me And secondly for Fervency we have great help also having nothing to do but to apply our minds to earnestness in praising God and praying to him no need of attending to hear what is spoken that we may judge whether it be fit for us to joyn in it or not and when we know the Prayers before-hand we can joyâ— with the Minister and Congregation though wâ— hear not every word that is read And the briefness of the Prayers being composed of such weighty and comprehensive Expressions helps more to true Fervency than long Prayers though the Novelty and Variety may more work on Mens fancies Then thirdly the Vnity and Fellowship oâ— the Spirit is hereby assisted I mean that Vnity and Fellowship which that Spirit of Goâ— hath constituted by whom we are all baptized into one Body and made to drink in to one Spirit and so are obliged to all possible Concord and Agreement both external and internal For first We agree with the Saint of all Ages in this That the publick Worship of God is to be administred by a prepared Form and not by the present Conceptions of the Administrator For I cannot understand that either the Jewish Church or the Christian did ever administer their publick Worship in any other way except what those Persons did who were divinely inspired as many were among the Jews and in the first Ages of the Church who therefore were said to Prophecy when they uttered such excellent Psalms or Prayers Extempore of which this is a sufficient demonstration to me That in the Jewish Synagogues all things at this day are administred by Forms and in all the Christian Churches that have not been accounted Enthusiastical the same Way was ever observed or at least none can deny that it now is so in all the Christian World except those Congregations united in some odd Opinions that do separate from the Body of Christians the only considerable Body of these that ever admitted the other Way of Administration being the Scots formerly and the English in the late Distractions but on many accounts that Admission cannot be esteemed an orderly Settlement or excuse them from Schism though it were by the prevailing Party Now since it hath scarce ever been known in Matters sacred and of long custom that great Alterations have been made but with great Oppositions and Commotions I conclude that if in the beginning of the Jewish Worship in their Synagogues or of the Christian Worship in
Name may be Hallowed and then Profane it ourselves by using it in vain and light Interjections or by Oaths and Execrations in our common talk and causing it to be profaned by others through our vicious and scandalous Lives That his Kingdom may come and yet rise in Rebellion against the Holy Government of his Spirit in our Hearts and against the Disposals of his Providences as to our outward Estate And to affront his Ministers either Ecclesiastical or Civil and discourage them in their Administrations by our Crosness Frowardness and Disobedience To Pray That his Will be done on Earth as it is in Heaven when yet our Obedience is so dull and heavy and as it were constrained by necessity and so very unlike the Angels who in doing the Will of God fly with all alacrity all this is very absurd and incongruous I may add the Indecency of our Grumbling if we are not as Rich as our Neighbours and our Discontent at Losses and Crosses though we have more than enough left when yet we pray but for our daily Bread Our Implacableness and Irreconcilableness towards those that offend us when we pray to be forgiven no otherwise than as we forgive And lastly that when we pray that God will not lead us into Temptations we do so heedlesly or presumptuously run into them I say so run into Temptations that without a Miracle God himself cannot deliver us from evil when we may be sure he will work no Miracle in favour of such as offer themselves as a prey to Satan by their running into Temptation and neglecting the Means of their own Preservation I hint these things from the beginning of our Service that we may see the incongruity of a wicked Life with the whole 2dly The Unacceptableness of all Expressions of Devotion from Men of such vicious and profane Lives The sacrifices of the wicked are an abomination to the Lord 't is the prayer of the righteous that is his delight Vnto the wicked saith God What hast to do to take my Name into thy mouth since thou hatest to be reformed and casteth my words behind thee The most Solemn Assemblies of such Men for his Worship and Service is a burden to him Isa 1. the reason is because his infinite Veracity makes him to hate their Hypocrifie his just Resentments of their bold breaking his Laws when ever the Devil and their Lusts tempt them to it makes his Displeasure to arise at their Fawning when these are satisfied To give real Worship to Satan by doing his Lusts and to live to the Flesh by fulfilling its Desires and then to make these outward Appearances of great Devotion towards God makes his Jealousies burn like that of an abused Husband when his Wife fawns on him after her Adulterous Embraces 'T is our Hearts that are God's Peculiar and if we suffer any thing to ravish or defile them the sacrifices of our lips will not be accepted But now how excellently doth Holiness and Righteousness sute together and how graciously doth God accept such in whom they are conjoyned To see a Man that makes acknowledgment of a most Glorious and Trimendous Deity by Solemn Acts of Worship in the Morning Walking in the Fear of God all the Day long To see a Man after he hath Celebrated God's Glorious Perfections Wisdom Goodness Truth Faithfulness Patience Long-suffering and Forgiveness c. in the Solemn Office of Thanksgiving striving to imitate them in the Course of his Life To see a Man after the Cup of Blessing received at the hands of God's Ministers with great Devotion to declare by his Conversation that he hath thereby been made to drink into the same Spirit with his Saviour That he is Lowly Meek and Patient Loving and Diligent in doing others good a Contemner of things below earnestly seeking those above as Christ was I say to see this is most lovely because these things do so excellently agree And such Men in whom these are united are most acceptable in their approaches to God he is well pleased with their Adorations and Praises delights to hear their Prayers and will shew such tokens for their good that they may always see to their joy and their enemies oft to their shame And I am perswaded if the People of this Church will join these Two Things in their constant Practice God will so Bless us that all the Ends of the Earth shall Fear him i e. be allured by the Flourishing Glory of our Church and State to Imitate the Excellent Order der of our Divine Service And if they would but consider what good effects this would have to the healing our Breaches and restoring us to Love and Unity among ourselves making us a Joy to our Friends and a Terror to our Enemies abroad and preventing the Miseries we lately felt and presently fear at home and will not suffer themselves to be blinded by Passion and Prejudice and the ill Arts of discontented Men I say they could not chuse but put their helping hand to effect the conjunction I conclude therefore with my Earnest Prayer to Almighty God for the good Success of this Book affectionately designed to perswade Men to a Decent Performance of Holy Offices and to Exemplary Piety in all their Converses That by his Blessing notwithstanding all its defects it may fully attain its End and to this Prayer I hope all Good Men will say Amen FINIS Imprimatur GEO. ROYSE R. R mo in Christo Patri ac Dom. Dom. Johanni Archiep Cantuar. Ã Sacris Aug. 10. 1691. ERRATA Page 3. line 2. for fervous read serious p. 68. l. 12. after same add with p. 81. l. 24. after to add much p. 98. l. 20. for their r. our ibid. l. 21. for they r. we p. 131. l. 21. after many add are ADVERTISEMENT AN Engraved Cyphering Book 1680. The Aâ—la-mode Secretary Accomplish'd Clerk Tradesman's Copy-Book Youth's Indroduction to Trade An exercise-Exercise-Book for Scholars at the Writing-School The Striking copy-Copy-Book Containing divers Alphabets of Capitals to be performed by Command of Hand The Pen-man's daily Practice 2 new cyphering-Cyphering-Book 1691. Curiously Engraven in all the Modish Running Mâ—xt Hands now in use with great Variety of Command of Hand Being a great Help to the Improvement of Penmanship A Royal Sheet of Paper full of Variety of the Clarks Hands with Breaks of the Exemplifying Courâ— Leâ—â—ers and 166 Words abbreviated in Court-Hand and fairly written at length in the Mâ—dish Eâ—gressing Set-hand Price 2 s. 6 d. so contrived as to be cut in parâ—â— and rolled up in a Pen-case All by John Ayres Writing Master Sâ—ld by him and S. Crouch at the end of Pope's-Head-Alley in Cornhil