of Bidding Prayer And when King Iames of blessed memory turn'd those Injunctions into Canons his Law runs Canon 55. That Ministers should move the People to joyn with him in Prayer viz. in this Form of Bidding Prayer Ye shall pray for Christs Catholick Church c. concluding always with the Lords Prayer Now let any indifferent man judge Are Exhortations proper Forms of Prayer Nay let a discerning man consider it well and it will appear that things there prudently spoken by way of Exhortation and Narration would prove very absurd in Prayer How fond would it appear to tell the great GOD of Heaven of the Kings most Excellent Majesty our Sovereign Lord Charles by the Grace of God King of England c. or as some do oft tell GOD of such a Lord Earl of such a Place and Baron of another and of his Majesties Honourable Privy Councel and his very good Lord c. And yet when we do but exhort them to joyn their Prayers such Clauses may not be unfit I can scarce think of any other way to defend them and yet t is true that this Form is there viz. Can. 55. call'd Prayer before Sermon and so it is because we then say together with the Preacher the Lords Prayer to those very purposes he exhorts And they well know who know Divinity that all kinds of Prayer are reducible to that holy Form but it follows not that the Preacher's Exhortation is a Prayer for that he then speaks not at all to God himself but to the People Indeed upon an occasion extraordinary it is a Prayer of no ordinary composition and therefore call'd the Form of Bidding Prayer both by a reform'd King and a very glorious Queen and yet de facto misus'd by an itching Puritanical party at first no doubt by Cunning and Design and afterwards as I verily think for the most part by a mistake of that bad end to which it drove or by inadvertency of the Law But it is most apparent that such forbidden Prayers are an especial means to eat out the whole English Liturgy A DISCOURSE Of the Difference betwixt Long Prayers prohibited and Continuance in Prayers commanded When thou prayest thou shalt not be as the Hypocrites c. Matth. 6. 5. OXFORD Printed by L. Lichfield Printer to the University for Richard Sherlock Bookseller In the Year 1684 A Discourse of the Difference betwixt Long Prayers prohibited and coutinuance in Prayers commanded THey who are true members of Christ's Church below are conform to the glorious Saints in Heaven above they do the will of God on Earth as t is in Heaven and that 's undoubtedly the way to Heaven We cannot possibly lose our way thither whilst we follow their steps who are thither gone before us Those Triumphant Saints in Heaven rest not day nor night saying Holy Holy Holy Lord God Almighty Whereunto conforms the man after Gods own heart saying O Lord God of my salvation I have cryed day and night before thee Our Lord commends it as a duty incumbent that men ought always to pray and by his Apostle commands it positively Pray without ceasing Giving thanks always Praying alway with all Prayer and Supplication But these Examples and Commands are not so to be understood as if we should do nothing else but pray which was an old Heresy of the Messalians and Euchites long since condemned by the Church of Christ as being a thing impossible to pray without ceasing in the bare literal sense because this corruptible body presseth down the soul and corporal necessities do call for supply Neither yet that we should make long Prayers which is the new error and great mistake of these times the which though generally the most used and best liked as being set off with the paint of a seeming zele and pretence of the Spirit yet the unlawfulness of such long Prayers will appear if we will without prejudice and partiality consider that 1. They are forbidden by our Lord saying When ye pray use not vain repetitions Matth. 6. 7. in which words our Lord means not the same prayers repeated as is falsly objected against the Prayers of the Church for thus our Lord prayed himself Matth. 26. 39. 44. where his Prayer was short and three times repeated And therefore undoubtedly by vain repetitions in praying is understood multitude of Words and variety of expressions to the same purpose or rather to no purpose since our Desires both may and ought to be expressed in few words and pertinent according to the pattern our Lord hath given us And that t is the meaning of our Lord when he saith After this manner pray ye that our Prayers should be generally formed to the length of his Prayer prescribed will appear 1. From the Context if seriously weighed and rightly understood wherein is manifest that the manner of praying by such a short Form is commanded in opposition to the Heathenish use of much speaking in Prayer 2. From the Parallel-Text in the Margin Eccles. 5. 2 Be not rash with thy Mouth and let not thy Heart be hasty to utter any thing before God for God is in Heaven and thou upon Earth and therefore let thy words be few 3. From the Prayers of Christ's Church which are in all Liturgies of the Christian World for the most part of the same length and surely the general Practice of the Church is the best Interpreter of the Scripture 4. Such are generally also all the Prayers of the Holy Spirit of God which stand upon Record in Holy Writ viz. the Book of Psalms with many more We meet with none that are of such a continued length as are in use amongst us but they are all divided by distinct Verses into so many several shorter Prayers Long Prayers are forbidden by our Lord because such is the custom of the Heathen as the Heathen do Matth. 6. 7. who mind more the Oratory and Language Tone and Pronuntiation than the Humility and Devotion of the Soul in prayer and t is much misbecoming Christians to worship the true God as the Heathen do their false and feigned Deities And Because they imply a false notion of the Majesty of Heaven and a misbelief of his Divine perfections as if he were asleep and must be awakened or did not understand our Wants and Desires or being otherwise imployed he could not attend our Petitions except in multitude of Words exprest and loud bawling for audience So prayed the Priests of Baal 1 Kings 18. 27. and so saith our Lord of all Heathen people that they think they shall be heard for their much speaking which is directly contrary to the true faith of a Christian who believeth and acknowledgeth the Omniscience and Omnipresence of God as it follows in the Eighth verse Your Heavenly Father knoweth what things you stand in need of before you ask which Divine Truth is implicately denied by loud and long Prayers Long prayers are not only
whereof runs thus That he will use the Service Book prescribed in Publick prayer and no other Secondly Because the use of such Prayers is directly against an Act of Parliament viz that for the Uniformity of Common Prayers which enjoyns peremptorily under sharp punishments that no man shall use any other open Prayers than are mentioned and set forth in the said Book Thirdly No man is to presume to exercise any Office in the Church except he be called to it as it was in Aaron Seeing therefore both the Church and State have expresly enjoyn'd us to use no Publick prayers but the Liturgy except his Majesty give leave upon extraordinary Occasion for the drawing up of Forms which leave hath ground de Iure communi both Ecclesiastical and Civil it followeth that neither Church nor State have given power to any to vent themselves in such open Prayers in the Church because they expresly forbid it To presume then to use such Prayers contains in it a complication of several Sins 1. The Sin of Falshood or the breach of solemn Promise confirm'd by subscription of the Church 2. T is an act of Disobedience to the Higher Powers and so it is an express sin against the Fifth Commandement 3. T is an act of Injury aed Usurpation offered to the Church in presuming to thrust themselves into a sacred Office which such men are not to be intrusted with nor thought fit at all to execute for many may be able to discourse unto men since if they chance there to fail in point of truth or congruity the matter is of less consequence but the Church will but trust but few that shall lead Men when they speak to God because there a Falshood may prove an abomination in Speech an Incongruity may soon amount to a Blasphemy I would glanly demand of any prudent person whether he conceive that when the Church of England was in her greatest glory she had ever in it 9500 Persons answerable to the 9500 Parishes that were able to lead the people in prayer Sad experience tells us the contrary and informs us loudly enough of the Soloecisms and Blasphemies and the same experience tells us that their Directory helps them not at this dead lift nay it may often prove the greatest impediment since were some weak men allowed as well their Matter as Words they might perhaps come off with some tolerable approbation but being forced to confine themselves to matter which either they well understand not or are not so well us'd to speak of their Prayers are oftentimes vain and ridiculous or which is worse erroneous and blasphemous The licentiousness of Devotion that each private Priest durst adventure to lead others in Publick prayer breeding great disturbance in the Primitive Church brought the Fathers to decree thus in the second Council of Milevis where St. Austin sate as appears by the Subscription That no Publick Prayers should be offered up to God that had not been approv'd of in a Council or least agreed upon by the more discreet sort of men Ne fortè aliquid contra fidem vel per ignorantiam vel per minus studium fit compositum Lest either through ignorance or want of good pains the publick Faith might receive hurt by such Prayers Now besides other hurts which the Church of England hath received by this unlawful course all know that she hath received one remarkable mischief in the neglect and scorn of her Liturgy For when Cartwright the Puritan Incendiary saw he wanted Power either to extirpate or to alter our established Book of Common Prayer he was the first durst boldly use this forbidden Knell of Devotion and those that followed him improved it to so great an height by posting over our Liturgy with so much carelesness and scorn and by giving all the Advantages to those Forms of their own both of the Voice and of the Eyes and of the Hand that the People began e're long to think that the reading of the Liturgy was but an useless task impos'd by the Church on the Priests but that they compleatly served God if they came when the Psalms were singing because besides that they served God and had the benefit of a Sermon they heard a long Prayer also set out with all the Devotion and all the advantage that it could possibly receive from the Art or from the natural good parts of the person who compos'd it So that he who will needs continue the use of these forbidden prayers in the Pulpit takes the readiest course as much as in him lies for the rooting out the publick Liturgy I suppose that these men do not at all like the course which the Independants now use in Prayer who permit this extemporary or voluntary way not only to the Priests but to the Soldiers and to the Mechanicks and I imagine a main cause of their mistakes to be because such an Office is intruded on by those men who have not just authority to perform it But then if they would consider things well they would easily find that this use of forbidden Prayer hath metamorphos'd them into Independants since they have no more authority to compose such Forms from that Apostolical Church that ordained them than either that person hath who is now imployed to make Shoes or that other Ecclesiastick whose Formalities are a Belt and a Buff Jerkin It may be said perhaps that many Churchmen both of great knowledge and great place have themselves us'd these forms of Prayer and upon that ground why may not they Truly if to argue thus were concluding it might soon free us not only from the ties of many English laws but from the obligation of the Decalogue it self which without all doubt is broken often enough not only by those of the common sort but by men of great Place and Knowledge But we must distinguish between Consuetudo and Corruptela and so learn that Usages taken up against press-written Laws are Corruptions but not justifiable Customs One thing I shall adde more and it is a short Discourse How the Pulpit-Forms of Prayer were brought into the Church of England We must know then that in the time of Popery the manner commonly was to use the Lords Prayer or else an Ave Maria before Sermon so that when Edward the Sixth came to compose his Injunctions he made choice as he had good reason of the Lords Prayer for that purpose But because it was thought fit that the King 's just Supremacy in Ecclesiastical things should be at the least weekly published to the People it was thought expedient to premise to the ' Pater noster a Form as his Injunction stiles it of Bidding Prayer wherein the Priest was not to speak to God but only to the People exhorting them to pray instantly for such and such persons but he prayed not to God at all untill he closed with the Lords Prayer This was likewise confirm'd in the Injunctions of Queen Elizabeth and expresly call'd the Form
Bookseller In the Year 1684 MEDITATIONS upon our going to Church with some short Directions for your Demoanour in the House and in the Service of GOD. UPon your going to Church three things will be necessary for you to consider 1. The Condition of the Place whither you are going 2. The great End of your going thither and 3. How there you are to demean your self All this you would consider if you were going to the Palace of an earthly Prince who is but a mortal man like your self and you surely have much more reason to consider the particulars now that you are going unto the Courts of the Lord's house First then as to the House whither you are going t is indeed as to its Fabrick but like other houses made of wood and stone even as the Lords day is but like other days as to the air and light of heaven but the relative holiness of this House and its eminency above other houses will appear by the Names whereby it is called both in the Book and by the people of God Under the Law it was called the Tabernacle of the Congregation i. e. the place of God's meeting with his people the Temple of the Lord where he presents himself to the contemplation or view of his Worshippers sitting betwixt the Cherubims as on his throne of State T is also called the Sanctuary of the Lord the House of God the Habitation of his Holiness and the place where his Honour dwelleth All which Names do explain each other and need no Interpretation Under the Gospel t is called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Church of God 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Lord's House 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the King's Palace and Oratorium the House of Prayer Any of which Names much more all of them together considered will oblige any man who hath any sense of Religion to obey that command of God himself which is not merely ceremonial and typical but moral and perpetual Ye shall keep my Sabbaths and reverence my Sanctuary Lev. 19. 30. Secondly As to the great end of your going to Church it is to present your self before the Lord and there to adore the great Majesty of Heaven from whom you have your life and breath and all things It is not to serve your self by hearing this or t'other fine-gifted Minister tickling your itching ears by his taking Discourses agreeable to your fancy but to serve the Lord is your Errand to his House viz. there to joyn with the Minister and the Congregation in publick prayers and praises of God in Psalms and Hymns and Spiritual songs in Confessions Thanksgivings and Benedictions as wherein chiefly the Service of God consists Behold now praise the Lord all ye servants of the Lord ye that by night stand in the House of the Lord even in the Courts of the house of our God Lift up your hands in the Sanctuary and praise the Lord Ps. 134. 1. 2. As for me I will worship towards thy holy Temple and praise thy Name Ps. 138. 2. Thirdly As to your Carriage and Demeanour in the house of God you are commanded Keep thy foot when thou goest into the house of God Eccles. 5. 1. enjoyning thee First to beware of all light unseemly indecent and irreverent carriage and to shew humility and devotion in all the gestures of thy Outward man bowing down thy self and kneeling before the Lord thy Maker Ps. 95. 6. before him who made both thy body and soul and joyned them together that they might be joyned in his Service So worshipped the people of God the whole Congregation bowed themselves with their faces to the ground 2 Chron 7. 3. And so all good people resolve to do We will go into his Tabernacle and fall low on our knees before his footstool Ps. 132. 7. Secondly The foot of the Inward man must also and chiefly be kept upright in the house of God Thy Affections are the feet or motions of thy Soul these must be kept free from all secular cares pure from all sensual lusts clean from all wanton wicked inclinations yea from all thoughts of any worldly concerns for ye cannot serve God and Mammon Mat. 6. 24. In the High-priest's forehead was engraven in a plate of Gold Holiness to the Lord Exod. 28. 36. and every ordinary Priest was commanded to wash before he entred into the Sanctuary Exod. 30. 19 10. intimating that exact Purity and Holiness which is required of all both Priests and People when we approach the presence of the Lord in his holy Temple So saith the holy man of God Holiness becometh thy house O Lord for ever Ps. 93. 5. and he resolves accordingly I will wash my hands in innocency and so will I go to thine Altar Ps. 26. 6. Be not slothful and negligent averse and careless backward and tardy in coming to the Church for many and mischievous are the consequents of coming thare For 1. you rob your self of the opportunity of your private prayers for a Blessing upon the publick 2. You lose the benefit of the publick Confession and Absolution which are of high esteem and value to all who are wisely religious And 3. to deprive your self wittingly and willingly of any part of God's publick Worship is both a sin and a loss of so great an account as cannot easily be exprest nor will be ordinarily believed Against such sinful sloth and neglect endeavour to have imprinted in your heart the love of God's House and of his Service there performed Say with the man after God's own heart Lord I have loved the habitation of thy House and the place where thine honour dwelleth Ps 26. 8. I was glad when they said unto me We will go unto the house of the Lord. Psalm 122. 1. Our feet stand in thy gates O Ierusalem vers 2. I. When you come to the Church-door COnsider that you are now upon entrance into the Presence chamber of the great King of the World whose Throne of Glory is in Heaven above but his Throne of Grace in his Temple here below Say then within your self Surely the Lord is in this place How dreadful is this plaee This is none other but the house of God this is the gate of heaven Gen. 28. 16 17. How amiable are thy Dwellings thou Lord of hosts My soul hath a desire and longing to enter into the Courts of the Lord my heart and my flesh rejoyce in the living God Yea the Sparrow hath found her an house and the Swallow a nest where she may lay her young even thine Altars O Lord of hosts my King and my God! Blessed are they who dwell in thy house they will always be praising thee Ps. 84. 1 2 3 4 And most happy were I could I both esteem it and make it my greatest joy and constant labour of love to praise the Lord in his Temple II. When you are entred and view the Baptisterion or Font. GIve hearty thanks unto God for your Christendom that
suspected or coldly entertained but they may be fitted to all mens necessities though not to their curiosities they may be such as may sufficiently serve every mans duty though not please all mens fancies Answ. 2. Though they suit not with every man's particular condition in all circumstances t is no argument against them for that would conclude against all Laws whatsoever wherein t is impossible to make provision for all particular circumstances and accidents that occur t is sufficient that all Publick Sanctions do secure the publick Interest and whatsoever hath influence upon publick Societies and Communities of men Answ. 3. Every man 's private Condition wherein he may be separate from the publick is to be fitted by his private prayers and therein he hath liberty to expatiate himself and enjoy all those fancied benefits and self-pleasing sweetnesses which variety and liberty can afford him that which cannot be expected in publick prayers which are of a publick nature and design suiting with publick interests the duties and conditions of all Christians and providing also for publick Events that are either probable or can be rationally foreseen Answ. 4. There are many Circumstances relating to particular mens businesses that are not fit to be inserted in the publick Service of the Church or to be mentioned in publick It is more safe and prudent to recommend many things unto God in general expressions than to insist particularly and positively upon them especially in such things as are temporal and worldly wherein men are more apt to be positive and expressive than becometh Our blessed Saviour knew well enough the particular wants and conditions of his Disciples when they begg'd of him to be taught to pray yet he descends not to any enumeration of those particulars but gives them a Form of Prayer in general terms because it was for a publick use and benefit Answ. 5. If any defects and inconveniences be fancied in those devout and accurate peayers of the Church which have been framed and approved by the long experience of 1600. years to fit all publick concerns and meet with all necessary conditions to be commended unto God in publick how much more may we fear the many inconveniences disorders irregularities in the private prayer though pretended to complete and fill up the emptiness of the publick The defects and impertinencies tautologies errors and blasphemies of many such private prayers are obvious to each mans observation Object 6. T is further said that it may as well be ordered that one common Sermon should be preached in all Churches and at all times as that one common Prayer should be constantly used and no other Answ. 1. The Church does indeed trust all her Priests and Deacons to preach to the people and by way of Sermon to exercise their gifts for the edification of others wherein variety of expressions are very useful to move excite admonish exhort reprove which are the ends of preaching not so of praying as before was observed Answ. 2. If the Minister chance to fail by impertinent tedious or any irregular expressions in preaching the matter is of less moment than to err in prayer Because first it is more safe to be bold with the people than with the great Majesty of Heaven the people may pardon an indiscretion a rudeness a mistake if any such happen in a Sermon but that boldness or impudence rather which ventures to offer up unto God their mistakes and undecent expressions is not so venial and easily pardonable Secondly Sermons to the people are but the means not any essential part of Gods worship it self but holy Prayer is a part and a principart of Gods outward worship so that to mistake and erre in the one is but indiscretion if not wilful but to err in the other is impiety and irreligion A mistake a falshood in prayer is not a lye unto men but unto God Acts 5. 4 5. the great Sin for which Ananias and Sapphira were struck with sudden death Which should strike the hearts of all men with such an awful fear as not to dare to utter any thing unto God that may prove false or be improper to be spoken nor yet to go beyond what they are authoriz'd to say in publick by the commands of God and of his Church Object 7. Our Saviour prayed Extempory and by the Spirit and his Prayer Iohn 17. was long and no part of a Liturgy Answ. Those Prayers of our Lord which are recorded were not Extempory but set forms and parts of the Jewish Liturgy in the Temple which might be proved by particulars if it were not too tedious to be here inserted And his prayer Ioh. 17. was a private not a publick prayer 't was designed indeed to a publick use and benefit not offered up in publick and with his Disciples though for and in their behalf and 't was a prayer that was proper and peculiar to Christ alone as the only Mediator betwixt God and man and so not to be drawn into an example Object 8. Solomon pray'd in the Temple a private prayer of his own in publick 2 Chron. 6. So did Hezekias 2 Chron. 30. 18. So did Elijah the Prophet 1 Kings 18. 16. and St. Paul the Apostle Acts 20. 36. Answ. All these prayers with all others recorded in holy Writ were undoubtedly the immediate dictates of God's holy Spirit whereunto no man without sin and presumption may pretend at least not depend and relie thereupon And as for St. Paul's prayer Acts 20. 36. whether t was a set Form or not t is not express'd nor yet many of our Saviour's prayers upon record and so no argument pro or con to be drawn from thence Object 9. The Fathers frequently began their Homilies with prayers and St. Paul himself began and ended his Epistles with prayers and there is a prayer extant of Saint Ambrose which he used before his Sermon Answ. But what kind of Prayers these were is not considered viz. short Collects or rather Ejaculations imploring the Divine Assistance which they used not always before but sometimes in the midst of their Sermons also when they treated of some high mystery of Godliness of other matter of difficulty or were transported with more than ordinary zeal to the practice of such of such a virtue or the eradication of some reigning offence amongst the people as is frequent in many of St. Chrysostome's Homilies And of St. Ambrose he being a Metropolitan might surely assume such a power to compose a prayer for his own use which is not nay ought not to be allowed to every inferior Presbyter Secondly because he used a short prayer and this but sometimes before his Sermon it doth not follow That every green-headed Minister may use a prayer of his own private conception twenty times as long as the other and so fully as far distant from the pattern which our Lord hath given us which is also answer sufficient to St. Paul's example objected Object 10. But St. Augustine
affirms the necessity of this Prayer before Sermon saying That Queen Esther prayed for the temporal safety of her Nation before she adventured to speak before the King Ahasuerus that God would be pleased to put into her mouth congruous words How much more ought we to pray for the like gift when we are to speak for the eternal salvation of souls in the Word and Doctrine August de Doct Christiana And again saith he When the hour is come to preach before he opens his mouth let him lift up his thirsting soul unto God Answ. It is undoubtedly a laudable practice for every Preacher to pray for the Divine Assistance in his Sermons to the People And this not only in the publick prayers of the Church but in private also betwixt God and his own soul and this as the Father directs before he opens his mouth in publick And such was Queen Esther's prayer in private before she publickly spake to the King which makes rather against than for the private prayer in publick for and with the whole congregation St. August could not be guilty of any such practice for it was against his judgment being himself one of the Two Hundred Fathers of that Milevitan Councel wherein it was decreed that no prayer should be us'd in publick but such as were approv'd in the Synod Sometimes this Father did conclude his Sermon with an Exhortation conceived in form of a Prayer e g. Conversi Turning unto the Lord God Father Almighty let us render him all possible thanks beseeching him of his great mercy that he would vouchsafe to hear our prayers and expell the Enemy from having any influence upon our thoughts and desires words and actions that he would increase our faith govern our minds fill us with spiritual cogitations and at last bring us to everlasting happiness through Iesus Christ which is not so much a Prayer as an Invitation to Prayer suitable to the Form prescribed in the Canon of our Church Object 11. The liberty or private prayer in publick is the way to make an able Ministry whilst thus they are put on to exercise and improve their Ministerial gifts and graces Answ. T is rather the way to make a Licentious Fanatick Brain-sick Ministry and in process of time no Ministry at all for from this practice it is that so very many unlearned unstable souls have taken up the trade and proved as eminent at least as well approved of by the people for their gift of Prayer as the most learned of their Tutorers therein And whosoever shall impartially weigh and without prejudice consider it he may observe that this private prayer in publick both in Church and at home is the very life and soul of that Schism and Division which is still so perniciously kept up in this Church T is hereby maintained more than by preaching and disputes T is from hence that Parties do call their Leaders Godly Ministers and themselves the godly Brethren the children that cry Abba Father the chosen and familiar friends of God from their over-saucy and familiar converse with God This is that great Idol whom all the world of Non-conformists on this side the pale of the Roman Church adore and worship crying down the goodly frame of Gods worship in his Church under the notion of Idolatry Superstition and Will-worship that every one may set up his Idols in his own heart follow the sway of their own imaginations to be guilty themselves of that Will-worship which they falsly impute to the Church of Christ Upon this Rock many thousands of Souls have suffered shipwrack who have been otherwise piously inclined For being taken with holy language religious tone and sceming zeal of this or the other person in their private and conceived prayers they have in respect thereof slighted and undervalued even the Celestial Prayer of God the Son all the divinely inspired prayers of God the Holy Ghost recorded in Holy Writ with all the devout and excellent Prayers of the Church of Christ which are framed after the pattern prescribed by our Lord commanded by the higher Powers used by the devout people of God in all Ages and whereby many thousand triumphant Saints in Heaven have pray'd themselves into that blissful place of Eternal Glory After all this it would be considered That as every error in Religion is very prolifick in bringing forth many others of the same mishapen stamp and nature so this erroneous way of divine worship the use of a private Prayer in a publick Congregation is also productive of many mistakes and falshoods and deformed ways of worship in the management thereof And 1. Such private Prayers in publick are generally erroneous in the length of them For that Long Prayers are unlawful is apparent First Because they are prohibited by our Lord Mat. 6. 7. When ye pray use not vain repetitions which cannot be understood of the same prayer repeated which is falsly objected against the prayers of the Church for so prayed our Lord himself and his example surely contradicts not his Doctrine whose Prayer when most earnest in his Desires was the same three times repeated and a very short prayer also Mat. 26. 44. By vain repetitions then must be meant the repetitions of the same thing in other words For First to use multitude of words and variety of expressions in prayer is vain i. e superfluous impertinent and to no purpose since our desires may and ought to be expressed in few words and pertinent Secondly such are generally vain i. e. empty and insignificant that have more noise than weight more sound than sense serving only to fill up the time to amuse the minds and tickle the itching ears of the Hearers That such kind of long Prayers are here forbidden by our Lord is manifest Secondly From the parallel Text quoted in the Margin Eccles. 5. 2. Be not rash with thy mouth and let not thy heart be hasty to utter any thing before God for God is in Heaven and thou upon Earth therefore let thy words be few And this Text in the margin quotes another to the same purpose Prov. 10. 19. In the multitude of words there wanteth not sin but he that refraineth his lips is wise Thirdly From the custom of the Heathen as it follows Use not vain repetitions as the Heathen do It was the manner of the Heathen saith the ordinary Gloss out of Cyprian to endeavour rather to be eloquent than devout in their prayers and to be loud and clamorous rather than fervent and zealous And example whereof we have 1 Kings 18. 27. where Elijah mocks the Priests of Baal calling upon their Pagan Deities Cry aloud for he is a God either he is talking or he is pursuing or he is in a journey or peradventure he is asleep and must be awaked And accordingly they cryed aloud thinking as our Saviour here saith that they should be heard for their much speaking And therefore as it follows v. 18. Be not like unto