haste within the space of half a quarter of an hour But 3. Besides these gross and palpable Battologies which cannot lightly escape any mans eye that doth but cursorily view that highly honoured but more justly condemned Model of Devotion the Letany there are several others obnoxious enough to a little observation For 1. Presently after request here made for deliverance from all evil and mischief and from sin another request is made for deliverance from some evils and some sins as from Pride Vain-glory Hypocrisie c. from Fornication and all other deadly sin as if Pride Hypocrisie Malice Envy c. were but sins venial By the way They that are so desirous to cover the shame of the Romish Parentage of their sarling Letany much forget themselves to suffer so express a lineaâ—ent of her Mothers feature to be seen in her face as the making onely of some sins deadly which supposeth others to be venial 2. After deliverance begg'd from the crafts and assaults of the Devil the like deliverance is within two or three lines begg'd again from all the deceits of the Devil and afterwards from those evils which the craft and subtilty of the Devil worketh against us 3. After prayer made for deliverance from contempt of Gods Word and Commandment prayer is here again made that we may diligently live after his Commandments and the third time that we may amend our lives according to his holy Word Passages and expressions symbolizing in words sence and meaning as near as these found in the conceived Prayer of an Anti-formist would be called tautologies to the great disgrace and contempt of it by persons who have addicted themselves to Liturgical I had almost said Lethargical Devotions 4. VVhen prayer hath been here made unto God to give and preserve to our use THE FRUITS OF THE EARTH so as in due time we may enjoy them we are compelled to pray again in dry weather for such moderate rain and showers that we may RECEIVE THE FRUITS OF THE EARTH to our comfort c. and yet again in wet weather for such weather whereby we may RECEIVE THE FRUITS OF THE EARTH in due season and yet after all this That our Land may yeild us HER FRUITS of increase 5. After the People have pray'd Have mercy upon us being beholding to their Minister for a Vocative-case they must pray out of hand yet again Lord have mercy upon us and for all this yet again Christ have mercy upon us and after all these agains yet again once more Lord have mercy upon us and now all the Beads of this string are told 6. This Prayer O Lord arise help us and deliver us for thy Names sake is presently after corrected and amended onely thus O Lord arise help us and deliver us for thine Honour 7. When we have prayed From our Enemies defend us O Christ we must pray unto Almighty God as if our Letany did a little Socinianize Save and deliver us from the hands of our Enemies 8. About the middle of this Letany after the thick and short Prayers the Minister as if the People and he had been idle untill now or at least about some other business then praying admonisheth his People to pray saying unto them Let us pray 9. And lastly to pass by several other impertinent Duplicats and Multiplicats or vain repetitions of Petitions within the compass of the Letany onely When the Minister and People shall have prayed with the uttermost devotion they can make between them for Charles our most gracious King and Governour for our gracious Queen Katharine Mary the Queen-Mother James Duke of Yorke c. they must recruit their Devotions very speedily or else they will pray the second time which is not far off but coldly for our most gracious Soveraign Lord King Charles our gracious Queen Katharine c. 2. Neither is this admired piece of Devotion so notoriously deformed as we have seen with Tautologies and empty Repetitions onely it hath sundry other Ailments and Diseases hanging upon it 1. All those eight Petitions or Prayers if such they be put into the mouth of the Minister unto which so many Good-Lord-deliver-us's are subjoyned as far as the Minister uttereth or prayeth them are absolute and gross Non-sence having no Verb at all in them onely the People are enjoyned to supply the defects of their Minister and to underprop his pendulous words with a principal Verb and so between the Premises of the one and the Conclusion of the other we have with much ado a Syllogism of Prayer formed That the Minister should pray by halves or make half a Prayer and the People pray another half Prayer and these two halfs be clapt together to make a whole Prayer is certainly a new-fangled device of praying and such whereof the Scripture yea and all Principles of Reason not superstitionized are ashamed But 2. Though Good-Lord-deliver-us joyned to the preceding words of the Minister make a competent and grammatical sence together yet those one and twenty Some-whats for Prayers they are not and what distinct appellation to give them I know not which are relieved with the like number of We-beseech-thee to-hear-us-Good-Lords do not of themselves make any sense at all nor any very good sence in conjunction with the words assigned unto them for their relief For to say That it may please thee to do this and that We beseech thee to hear us good Lord is little better then a Soloecism at the best but an unusual and harsh construction 3. Here are several expressions and passages besides not so considerate or well-digested 1. To pray to be delivered from Deadly Sins which supposeth the distinction of Sins into venial and mortal to be consonant to the Scriptures sounds rather Pontifician then Protestant Devotion though I think the distinction may in a sence be admitted this was touched before 2. To pray unto God to preserve all that travel by Land or by Water is it not to pray for High-way-men and Thieves Pirates and Murtherers if they be travelling either by Land or Water that they may escape the danger of being apprehended and punished for their wickedness and consequently that they may have peace and continue undisturbed in their horrid practices as well as honest and harmless men in such a condition 3. These expressions By thy Agony and bloody Sweat by thy Cross and Passion c. be they intended whether sensu Mediatorio Adjurativo re-memorativo or in what sence soever make no good sound in the ears of a good Conscience especially that is tender and unlearned 4. Every person that is enjoyned to pray for the sending down of the HEALTHFUL Spirit of Grace upon our Bishops and Curats c. hardly understands in what sence why or how the Spirit of God is here termed healthful 5. That God should be considered in his power of working Great Miracles when he is desired to send down his Spirit upon our Bishops and Curats c. Doth it
a Confession of Sins of an Absolution of the Lords Prayer repeated and repeated and repeated and so of the Doxology so called in like manner repeated over and over and over of whole Chapters for Lessons of broken Chapteâ—s for Epistles and Gospels of pieces of Chapters as Magnificat Benedictus Nunc dimittis c. with the Song of Sâ— Ambrose to separate between Lesson and Lesson as if there were some danger or inconvenience at least if they should come too close together of the Ten Commandments with as many Lord have mercy upon us's of a long Letany so called of Versicles and Responds of Collects and Prayers in abundance some for all men some for Christs Church militant here on Earth some for Bishops Pastors and Curates as if these were Members of the Church triumphant and some for such other occasions as the Policy and Piety of the Compilers could agree upon and lastly of a pair of Creeds the repeating of one of which being required of the whole Congregation requireth the most ignorant and prophane wretch in it to profess and say that he believeth as much if not more as the most knowing and worthiest Christian yea and that he believeth that which I believe no man understandeth upon any good grounds what it meaneth I mean that Christ descended into Hell the other imposing upon all men such a Faith as of absolute necessity unto Salvation which the Scriptures no where require upon such terms of any man and which is not found in many sound Christians if in any Where I say the Service enjoyned consisting of all these Members and Parts now mentioned must needs be tedious and tiresome unto the People spending and wasting the best and freshest of their attention and so indisposing them to attend unto the preaching of the Gospel and the words by which they must be saved as if the project and design of it had been to intercept the great Duties of preaching and hearing the Gospel preached by rendring the wearied Minister less capable of the one and the wearied People less capable and desirous of the other Now then I repeat from afar and ask Is it not very considerable or rather indeed is it worth any consideration at all whether God will be pleased with a Worship presented unto him in the shape and form of such a prodigious Liturgy as that which hath now been described unless haply men think that a Worship made up of various pieces and these of different colours is as honourable and so as acceptable unto God as Jacob thought a particoloured Coat would be unto Joseph his Son Or doth not the Liturgy the lineaments and feature of which have been presented as perfectly resemble the Common-Prayer-Book as face answereth face in the water 3. It calls for some consideration likewise whether it be possible in an ordinary way or without a piece of a miracle for a man or a woman to keep up his heart so much as in a tolerable posture of devotion reverence and attention unto such prayers which having been fram'd by men and these not of any known excellency above their neighbours are in respect of their original less considerable and after long familiarity more obnoxious to contempt especially when he can well nigh say them by roat beforehand and of which he is able to say with him in the Comedy Plus millies jam audivi I have heard them more than a thousand times over already The common saying verified by experience more than enough is familiarity breeds contempt and neglect And God himself judgeth it necessary to consult his Glory I mean a religious awe reverence and esteem of his Counsels and Works from men by concealing the one and the other until the time of their bringing forth that so they may come fresh and new unto them It is the Glory of God to conceal a thing Pro. 25.2 And speaking of his Works Isa 48.7 They are created now and not of old and even before this thou heardest them not so the former Transtation lest thou should say Behold I knew them implying that men commonly at least less mind or regard the declaration of such things unto them which they knew before And upon this account doubtless our Saviour speaketh thus Mat. 13.52 Therefore every Scribe i.e. every Doctor or Teacher which is instructed unto or for the Kingdom of Heaven i.e. is worthily or meetly qualified for the work of the Ministry of the Gospel by which the Kingdom of Heaven is promoted in the world is like unto a man that is an housholder which bringeth forth out of his treasure things new and old Now an ability to pray being as necessary an endowment for a worthy Minister of the Gospel as a gift of preaching the Apostles themselves as it seems Act. 6.4 giving it the preheminence in the exercise of their Ministry that Minister who shall pray little but only reade a longsome beadroll of Prayers long and short if yet they may be called Prayers some of them being termed Collects the greater part or number of them being imbodied and this body sirnamed Letany a work the performance whereof requires not the best of the abilities of an ordinary Schoolboy of seven years of age and therefore very improper and uncomly for him to bestow so much time upon who should be yea and who pretends to be an Ambassador from Christ unto the World one of a thousand c. such a Minister I say that shall perform the praying part of his Ministry at such a despicable rate as this is not like to draw many into part and fellowship with him in his worship of God but such who know not that God whom they worship nor care much either to know him or how to worship him as they ought The ignorance the prophaneness the wickedness the licentious and debauched lives of the greatest part of that generation both men and women who are the zealous followers of the Common-Prayer-Book Ministry in the Nation will seal the truth of these sayings fast and sure 4. Neither is this to be lightly passed over by those that stand in any awe or dread of the jealousie of God that the Liturgy or Common-Prayer we speak of smells rank of the Popish Mass-Book being indeed some slight interpolations or new surbushings with some accommodations to secular or civil ends and purposes amongst us only excepted little else but the substance matter contents of this Book This consideration alone is sufficient to render it the abhorring of their souls that understand any thing almost of the nature and dreadful severity of divine jealousie as that any little spark not only of right-down or broad-fac'd Idolatry but of any tiffling dalliance or wanton compliance with it will cause it to smoke against those that shall provoke it in this kind Husbands that are jealous are not able to bear not only the gross act of Adultery in their Wives but not so much as any familiarity or
the Word of God Because it is too too plain and palpable a case that the Service of God performed by any other Liturgie than one of this calculation cannot be consonant to the holy Scripture Now then this being his meaning in the Minor Proposition his Argument with the largest indulgence of approbation and consent concludes nothing in favour of his Service-Book nor proveth that The Service of God performed by it is consonant to the holy Scripture For that there are some things contained in this Liturgie or Book which are contrary to precepts and directions found in the Word of God was shewed towards the beginning of this Discourse and might be proved in many more particlars than are there produced We need go no further than to the Letany so called of which such glorious things are spoken by this Author pag. 8. that he seems to adore the fulness of it as much as Austine did plenitudinem Scripturae the fulness of the Scriptures themselves and more generally the men of his inspiration are impotent in their Elogiums and commendations of this piece as if in it they saw the Service-Book in all her glory Yet unto him that shall weigh it exactly in the ballance of the Sanctuary it will I believe appear to be a very corrupt member and in which the unclean Spirit of Will-worship acteth his part in some things more childishly but in more more contradictingly to the right rule of Worship than in any other part of the Book Yea were there a diligent and narrow search made into it a just volumn might be made of the weak and unworthy things only with their sober and necessary explications that would be found in it First It is no good Omen that in the very Inscription or Title of it where it is ordered or commanded to be used on certain dayes as on Sundayes Wednesdayes and Fridayes there is a manifest contrariety to the Holy Scripture which reproveth and consequently prohibiteth the observation of Dayes and Times as well as of Moneths and Years Gal. 4.10 And why not on Tuesdayes and Thursdayes as well as on Wednesdaies and Fridaies Doubtless upon no better account than that on which Jeroboam offered upon the Altar which he had made in Bethel on the fifteenth day of the eighth moneth even the moneth which he had devised of his own heart 1 Kings 12.33 If such devices as this be not the very quintessence and spirit of Will-worship I confess I have no understanding in the Mystery Again when it is commanded to be USED on Sundays c. the meaning of the word used as the use and practice allowed if not commanded also in those Churches or Chappels termed Collegiate interpreteth it is distributively either sung or said the like liberty being granted in these words concerning venite exultemus Now the Scripture in the New Testament maketh a slat opposition between praying and singing Jam. 5.13 Nor doth it speak any where of singing any thing but either of Psalms or Hymns or Songs Now then if the Letany be a Prayer one or many and not a Psalm Hymn or Song it cannot be sung with any consonancy to holy Scripture Thus we see the very door opening into the admired Letany is polluted let us vew the Fabrick it self a little we shall soon find more irregularities and pollutions here 1. How oft do they that pray by this Letany transgress our Saviours rule concerning Prayer 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 use no battologies or needless repetitions 1. When the Minister prayeth O God the Father of Heaven have mercy upon us miserable sinners I desire to know 1. Whether this be an entire Prayer or a piece of a Prayer 2. Be it an entire Prayer or a piece of a Prayer Whether it is not intended that the People present should joyn with him in it and pray for the same thing when and whilest he prayeth If this be so and I presume that for shame it will not be denied then it is a battologie or needless repetition for the People immediately and as it were with the same breath to repeat or pray over the same words again O God the Father of Heaven c. So then according to this account if the Minister prayeth with the People as they pray with him our Saviours rule against needless repetitions in prayer is no fewer than four several times broken on both hands within the compass of the four first petitions or Prayers of the said Letany Or if such repetitions as these be not vain and needless and such as Christ prohibited I desire the great Master of this piece of devotion that he will 〈◊〉 Distinguish between repetitions and repetitions and define which are needless and which are necessary and then 2. Give us a substantial account that those mentioned are of the latter not of the former kind But to our Query If the words queried upon contain an intire Prayer why do not the People testifie their consent and desire to have it granted by saying Amen at the end of it as himself saith p. 14. that men are obliged to say unto such Prayers and as is more agreeable to holy Scripture 1 Cor. 14.16 rather then instead thereof to repeat the words of the Prayer Certainly there cannot be a more pregnant instance of a vain and needless repetition then this since the word Amen would signifie altogether as much yea the very same thing which this repitition doth If the said words be to be taken as a Petition onely and as a member and part of a Prayer why do the People interrupt the Minister in the midst of his Prayer seeming rather to affront and mock him by saying the same words after him then to express any seriousness of Devotion with him Therefore in this notion of the words there is in the Peoples repetition of them a manifest insurrection against that Apostolical Precept Let all things be done decently and in order Or is it decent and orderly that the Minister should not be suffered by the People to finish the Prayer which he hath begun without their interruption Again 2. This unchristian misdemeanour of battologizing is committed seven or eight times over in the repetition of these words by the People Good Lord deliver us For why should not the prolation of them onely once be as effectual for all needful ends and purposes as the making of so many sounds of the same words so nigh together But it is well as the case stands that the fond spirit of VVill-VVorship contented himself here with so few miscarriages in vain repetitions as seven or eight when as upon as good an account in reason he might have multiplied them to seventeen or eighteen or to a greater number at which stone being blind he stumbled soon after in prescribing these words We beseech thee to hear us good Lord to be repeated twenty or one and twenty times over within the compass of so much devotion as may be dispatched without making