whosoever considers the Condition of the Cities of London and Westminster as they were formerly and as they are now will not despair of Success For before our unnatural Civil War I have been informed by a Reverend Divine there were few Churches in those Cities where daily publick Prayers were read and where they were very few People to joyn with the Minister in them But now there are very few Churches that want them or a Congregation to attend them And though such Assemblies were but thin when this first begun a little after the happy Restauration of our Monarchy and Church yet I my self can witness that their Numbers daily encreased in so much that in some places there are publick Prayers four times a day and good Congregations where in my Memory there were none at all This is a great Encouragment to try what may be done in other great Towns where People are not far distant from the Church Begin with perswasions to come at least upon Litany days And so by degrees they may be induced to wait upon God constantly at his House to make their Prayers and Acknowledgments to him Represent to them frequently how much the publick Service of God excels all that we can perform in Private Because then God appears more glorious in Praises when his People joyn together to set them forth Bid them mark how David and other inspired Persons have in the Book of Psalms stirred up the Affections of the whole Body of God's People to meet together for his Divine Service saying O praise the LORD all ye nations praise him all ye people CXVII 1. O magnify the LORD with me and let us exalt his name together XXXIV 3. Praise ye the LORD Sing unto the LORD a new song and his praise in the congregation of Saints CXLIX 1. Or as it is in the Hymn appointed every day after the second Lesson at Morning Prayer C Psal 4. O go your way into his Gates with thanksgiving and into his Courts with praise be thankful unto him and speak good of his Name In short instruct them that every Hallelujah they meet withal in the Holy Scriptures or Praise ye the LORD suppose publick Assemblies to which all the foregoing Exhortation are directed where many met together for Divine Worship not contenting themselves to praise God alone by themselves but with all those who were Members of the same Body with them But if by all your endeavours you cannot bring this to pass yet there is one thing of which I must admonish you that I am sure is in your power It is this That all Priests and Deacons are bound by the Law of this Realm and of this Church to say daily Morning and Evening Prayer privately when they cannot openly Not being let by sickness or some other urgent Cause See the first Rubrick in the common-Common-Prayer Book after the Preface concerning the Service of the Church Do not fail therefore I beseech you to read the daily Prayers Morning and Evening privately in your own Family That the Divine Service according to Law may be performed daily in every Parish though not every Church There cannot be constantly nor commonly urgent Causes much less Sickness I hope to hinder this And when there is not look upon your selves as bound in Conscience to read the Prayers at home And when you do officiate Publickly on the Lord's Days or other times in the Church let it be in such a solemn manner that it may move the People to attend and make them in love with our Prayers There is a careless overly way of reading them so fast and with such little Devotion as hath exceedingly disgraced them and given great offence to the better sort of People among us and hardned the bad in Prophaness and Irreligion I hope none of you are guilty of this but it becomes me to admonish you of the danger of it and to beseech you constantly to compose your selves with the greatest seriousness and reverence and affection to perform Divine Service in the Church This will keep up the Majesty of our Worship and preserve it from Contempt For I can see nothing that should move those that Dissent from us to call it dead and formal but only the deadness and formality that hath appeared too often in him that Officiates Stir up your selves therefore to Officiate in every part of the Divine Service with a becoming Gravity and Deliberation and yet with such Life and Affection as may express your Concern to have your Petitions Granted and the word of God Regarded Avicenna as he is vulgarly called an Arabian Philosopher hath an excellent Discourse upon this Subject in the third part of his Metaphysicks Where having said that they who instruct the People ought to teach them Forms of Prayer wherein to address themselves to God He adds this Direction to them As a Man uses to prepare himself to come to the King in purity and cleanness with graceful Language and an humble Gravity with a comely Deportment of Body ceasing from all disorderly Motions there as well as from perturbation of mind so it is fit there should be laudable Modes and Forms of serving God at all times For these do highly conduce to imprint on the minds of the People a sense of the most high and to confirm them in their Devotion to the Laws and Rules of Life Which if they were not preserved by this solemn Commemoration Men would quite forget in one or two Generations Thus I find him quoted by Mr. Selden in his Comment in Eutichii Origines fol. 57. And he doth but express the sense of the Ancient Christians from whom the Mahometans derived that solemnity and seriousness which they use in their Divine Service It is no small part of the Study of Priests in the present Roman Church to learn how to compose their Looks and Gestures and Voices in the several Offices which they are to perform Which as it hath too much of the Theatre in it so that pains may all be spared by possessing our Minds with a deep sense and feeling of the Majesty of God to whom we speak and of our great need of the things which we pray him to bestow upon us This will naturally compose our Countenances and regulate the tone of our Voice and make us pronounce the Prayers as gracefully as we would a Petition to the greatest Majesty on Earth The Organs of Speech indeed in several Men are of a very different Frame and Figure so that all cannot speak no more than sing alike But some more harshly some more sweetly Yet an awful Sense of God upon our Minds and an hearty Love to him would form every Man's Voice to as good an Accent as his natural Capacity will permit SECT IV. The next Office in our Liturgy is The Order for the Administration of the Holy Communion which being the highest Duty of our Religion that which is most peculiar Christian Worship the greatest Care ought to
that place yet God still was in all his thoughts without whose aid he durst not undertake any thing much less hope for success in his Affairs And shall we who have no such load of business upon us roll our â—eâ—ves up and down in ease and as that Father there speaks 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. not so much as in the beginning of the day offer up an hymn of Praise and Thanksgiving to the giver of all good things and implore his Blessing upon us A most stupid negligence and an unpardonable insensibleness of our constant and most bountiful benefactor without whom we can do nothing His Grace and Mercy we ought to seek as soon as we rise and as often as we can in the day retiring our selves on purpose into our Closets to beseech him to be with us in our Studies and in our Labours for the good of Souls For as Clemens Alexandrinus speaks Lib. VII Strom. a Priest ought to be of such an heavenly Spirit that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 his whole life is Prayer and Conversation with God Which St. Basil in his Homily upon the Martyr Julitta thinks is the Apostles meaning when he bids us Pray without ceasing not by putting up Petitions to Heaven perpetually in so many words for that 's impossible 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. but rather by the settled Disposition of our mind and bent of our Wills towards God into which our Prayers ought to put us and preserve us therein and by a regular Life whereby we shall draw down still more of his Grace upon us For this I must observe in the Conclusion of this part of my Discourse that careless and frigid Prayers which make no alteration in our selves have no effect with God To whom we must address our selves with such fervent and earnest Desires as turn our Hearts towards him and give us such a lively sence of him as brightens and chears our minds knits our Wills and Affections to him and makes us like him Thus Daniel represents this Duty to us when he complains of the Children of Israel that They did not make their prayer to the LORD their God to turn from their iniquity and to understand the truth IX Dan. 13. Which as it denotes their dull formality in their Prayers which no doubt they continually made in their Captivity whereby they were not converted to God and reformed in their lives So it implies withal that serious and devout Prayer hath a power in it to turn about the Heart and give God the possession of it which is the best way to understand the truth Employ therefore as much time as you can in secret Prayer to God with such Affection that you may feel your selves really bettered by it Pray for your selves and pray for your Flock that God would bless your Labours among them and pour the Dew of his Heavenly Grace upon them for the whole Church of Christ yea for all Mankind For such is the Nobleness of this Duty that in the exercise of it we extend our Charity to all the World which we cannot do by any other means It enlarges our Souls into a kind of infinity and immensity in our good Desires and Wishes and in the readiness of our Mind to do good to every one were it in our power SECT III. Thus having briefly laid before you the private Duties intumbent on the Ministers of Christ I proceed to those which are of a publick Concernment And in treating of them I shall take them into consideration in that Order wherein they lie in the publick Liturgy of our Church Where the first thing that presents it self unto us is the Order for MORNING and EVENING Prayer daily throughout the year Which is to be performed by him that Ministreth in every Parish-Church or Chappel being at home and not being otherwise reasonably hindred This is the standing Law of this Realm and a most reasonable Law it is For who can imagine that God who so strictly enjoined the Jews to offer to him a Lamb every morning and every evening at the Temple to double this Sacrifice on their Sabbath doth not expect that we who are made a peculiar people to him by far greater benefits than were conferred on them should offer unto him the Sacrifice of prayer and praise and thanksgiving Morning and Evening in our Churches All Christians from the beginning ever did it At this day all the Eastern Churches both Greek and Armenian constantly do it I need say nothing of the practise of the Roman Church which in this matter is truly Catholick The Lutherans and Calvinists as they are called in Germany have their daily publick Offices and full Congregations The Socinians in Poland as Ruarus tells us Cent. 2. Epist pag. 99. had publick Prayers Morning and Evening which lasted three Quarters of an Hour Yea the Mahometans themselves have their stated times of Prayer five times in the day For Mahomet had so much sense as to call Prayer The Pillar of Religion as Dr. Pocock observes upon Abul-Pharagii p. 304. For take this away and Religion falls to the ground as this Pillar of iâ— will soon do if it be not supported by publick Assemblies How they came to be so much disused among us here in this Church except only on Sundays it is sad to consider and extreamly to be lamented We herein forsake the practise of all Churches and fall short of those who are not Christians The Constitutions indeed of our Church are conformable to all others and strictly enjoyn that which we do not now practise Which is a publick Witness against us that we are degenerated from our first Principles and by degrees grown cold and remiss in our Religion The fault perhaps may have been very much in the People but it is to be feared we have been to blame also in not admonishing them of their Duty and calling upon them to assemble themselves daily to Worship their blessed Lord and Saviour It must be allowed that in some Parishes the Houses are so scattered and lie so far distant from the Church that they cannot possibly meet together daily for the Publick Service of God But this Plea cannot with any appearance of truth be made for all Parishes especially for Market-Towns where the Houses are built closer together and not far from the place of publick Worship Many are at leisure also in such Parishes to attend daily if they had Hearts to do it upon the publick Prayers Whatsoever may be alledged in the excuse of poor labouring People Therefore use your best endeavours to bring the People to a sense of their Duty in this matter and to the performance of it where no tolerable reason can be given for the neglect of so necessary a part of our Religion and which tends so much to the honour of it and to the Glory of God To attempt such a good thing though you should not succeed in it will give you great satisfaction But
be taken about the due Performance of it That is 1. First of all you ought to invite your People to a frequent Participation of it We are not told in Scripture how oft we are to do this in remembrance of our Saviour But when we consider that this is the end and intention of it to Commemorate the wonderful Love of our Lord in his Death and Passion for our sakes we cannot think fit to let there be a long time between one communion and another Especially when we consider that the first Christians it is manifest met together every LORDS Day at least to magnifie the mercy of God in giving his only begotten Son to be our Redeemer and the inconceiveable love of the Son of God in making himself an Offering for our Sins This they thought their great business when they assembled together so that our Assemblies never look so like Christian Assemblies as when the Holy Communion is celebrated 2. In order to which frequently open to your People the Nature Necessity and the great Benefits of communion with Christ and one with another in this Holy Sacrament of Christs Body and Blood Answer their Scruples and remove their Objections but especially awaken them out of that lazy indifference wherein too many live whether they live like Christians or no. 3. When the time is appointed for its Administration warn them to prepare themselves for it and direct them how to do it and require them who intend to partake of it to signifie their Names to you at least sometime the day before So the first Rubrick before the Order for Administring the Holy Communion requires with great reason because you ought to have time to do what follows 4. If any Person in your Parish be a notorious evil liver or have done any wrong to his Neighbours either by word or deed so that the Congregation be thereby offended you ought having knowledge thereof to admonish him as the next Rubrick directs to amend his naughty Life and not presume to come to the Lord's Table till the Congregation be satisfied of his Repentance and that he hath made such a recompense to those he hath wrong'd as they accept of The like is to be done when you perceive Malice and Hatred to reign among any of your Parish endeavouring to bring them to a reconciliation before you suffer them to partake of the Holy Communion 5. And more than this the Third Rubrick requires you if these private endeavours have no effect openly to repel such Persons from the Communion if they offer themselves to receive it who will not be reconciled nor reformed giving notice of their obstinacy to the Ordinary within the time there prescribed 6. In the Administration of the Holy Communion compose your selves to the most serious and solemn deportment and perform every part of this most Christian service with the highest degree of Devotion So St. Justin Martyr tells us in his Second Apology where he gives an account of what was done in the Christian Assemblies in his time that Bread Wine and Water being set before him that presided He sendeth up Prayers and Thanksgivings 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 with all his Power or Might Which is an expression that hath been much abused by those who separate from us to prove that no forms of Prayer were used in the Church in those days but he who officiated conceived a Prayer of his own as well as he was able So they interpret that Phrase 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which is manifestly an expression of that earnestness of Devotion with which the Bishop or Priest came to Consecrate the Sacrament of Christ's Body and Blood It being a Phrase very much used among the Jews when they speak of their Prayers For their Ancient Doctors have this saying among them as our excellent Mr. Thorndike observes Whosoever saith Amen WITH ALL HIS MIGHT the gate of the Garden of Eden is opened to him And Maimonides describing their Morning Service useth the same form of Speech The People answer Amen be his great name Blessed for ever and ever WITH ALL THEIR MIGHT See Service of God at Religious Assemblies Chap. VII To which may be added what we read in the Apostolical Constitutions where there is a large Form of Thanksgiving at the Eucharist for all Gods Blessings Especially in our Lord Christ from his Incarnation to his Sufferings Death and Resurrection And then it follows Therefore being mindful of these things which he suffered for us We give Thee thanks O Almighty God 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 not so much as we ought but as much as we are able Which exactly answers to the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ALL THE MIGHT in Justim Martyr and explains the meaning of it But there have been so many excellent Books written about the Holy Communion that I will enlarge no further upon this Subject SECT V. In that Office there is a Rubrick directing where the Sermon is to come in and therefore I shall in the next place say something to you concerning Preaching Which is a Duty to be performed by every Priest according to the Authority given to him at his Ordination in those words Take thou Authority to Preach the Word of God and to Minister the Holy Sacraments in the Congregation where thou shalt be lawfully appointed thereunto And the Prayer made after the Ordaining of Priests That God's Word spoken by their mouths may have such success that it may never be spoken in vain Now to make it thus successful a great many directions might be usefully given concerning both the Matter of Sermons and their Form their Stile also and manner of Delivery with distinct Pronunciation and such like into which if I should launch out they alone would be sufficient to fill a little Book I shall therefore only briefly desire you to consider the state and condition of your Auditory and to suit your Discourses thereunto Country People are not to be troubled with Controversies and Disputes but to be plainly taught what to believe and practice 1. Therefore endeavour to instruct and settle their minds in the Principles of Religion And for this end study well the Works of Two Late Bishops of Chester One of which Dr. Wilkins hath wrote a Treatise of Natural Religion and the other Dr. Pierson hath given a full account of the Christian in his admirable Book upon the Apostles Creed 2. Especially instruct them in the great Fundamental Article of our Religion the Divinity of our Blessed Lord and Saviour and of the Holy Ghost showing them how all our comfort is built upon this And truly I look upon it as a singular Providence of God that he did not 〈…〉 Hereticks who now boldly strike at this great Article of our Faith to start up in an ignorant Age but in a time when there are so many able Men in the Church to beat them down God hath furnished us with a great number of such excellent Persons as have throughly studied
Parents were sometimes snatch'd on a sudden from their Children by bloody Persecutors They might have been brought up in Paganism if these Spiritual Parents had not been engaged to look after them and instil Christian Principles into them 6. You give a charge after Baptism to the Godfathers and Godmothers that they take care the Child be brought to the Bishop to be confirmed by him so soon as he is fit for it And therefore you would do well to remember them as you have opportunity of this part of their Duty and in order to it to see they be instructed in the Church Catechism set forth for that purpose SECT VII Which is the next part of your care diligently upon Sundays and Holy-days to instruct and examine openly in the Church so many of the Children of your Parish sent unto you as you shall think convenient in some part of the CATECHISM They are the very words of the first Rubrick in the end of that Office where in the next Rubrick Fathers Mothers Masters and Dames are ordered to cause their Children Servants and Prentices which have not learnt their Catechism to come to the Church at the time appointed and obediently to hear and to be ordered by you till they have learned all that is appointed in the Catechism for them to learn It is to be hoped they will do this if you call upon them and beseech them to take care of it letting them know that you are ready and desirous to perform your Duty if they will do theirs And mark I beseech you what is required of you not only to examine the Children in the Catechism that is to ask them the questions and receive their answers but to instruct them therein that is teach them the meaning and make them understand the weight of every word If you would spend a quarter of an Hour in this exercise all the Summer long when the days are long at Evening Prayer after the Second Lesson as the Rubrick appoints it would be of wonderful use both to your selves and to your People I say to your selves as well as the Parish because it would put you upon Considering Collecting and Digesting such proper places of Scripture as relate to every Article of the Creed and to the Commandments and to all other parts of the Catechism And upon studying also and framing the plainest and clearest Explications and Illustrations of every Point couched in so few words that they might easily be carried away and remembred Which being once well done it would serve you all your Life The same thing being to be repeated over and over again every Year For I suppose you may be able once a Year to go through the whole Catechism Which would certainly edify your People very much and make them more capable to understand your Sermons by having a clear Notion of many Terms which you have constant occasion to use in them It would bring People also to Church in the Afternoon For they would soon perceive this short Instruction to be as useful as any Sermon And consequently they would observe the Lord's day better For I cannot but think that many would by this means have your Explication of the Catechism by Heart and be able to instruct their Children again at home I shall quicken you to this by what I find was done about it in the Reign of King James I. who sent strict Orders to the Arch-Bishop of Canterbury both concerning Preaching and Catechising especially the latter Which he would have by all means continued in the Afternoon according to the former custom in England so his words are which it seems then began to be disused And of this the Lord Keeper Williams saith the King was so desirous that he declared If his Bishops would not take care that it should be done he would recommend it to the care of the Civil Magistrate And in a Letter to the Bishop of London he tells him the reason of all this He saw many going away to Popery or Anabaptism or other points of Separation and considering with much admiration what should be the cause of it especially since he opposed both so much himself he could think of none in greater probability than the lightness affectedness and unprofitableness of that kind of Preaching which had of late Years been much taken up in Court University and Country The usual scope of very many Preachers being noted to be soaring up in points of Divinity too deep for the Capacity of the People or the mustering up a great deal of reading or the displaying of their own Wit or an ignorant medling with Civil Matters or the venting their own Distasts c. So the People being bred up with this kind of teaching and never instructed in the CATECHETICAL and Fundamental Points of Religion were easily led aside from their Religion either by Papists or Anabaptists or other Sectaries This I find in the Cabala of Letters p. 112. which is necessary to be considered now Because since that time the Explication of the Catechism in the Afternoons hath been much neglected unto which we have reason to impute the instability of many Souls in their Religion SECT VIII When the Children of your Parish are throughly instructed in the Church-Catechism and are come to a competent Age as the words of the third Rubrick are in the end of that Office you are to take care that they be brought to the Bishop to be Confirmed by him Now such little Children as are commonly presented to the Bishop cannot be thought to be of a competent Age. Which is explained both in the Title of the Order of Confirmation and the Preface to it to signify such as are come to years of Discretion That is to understand what they do and consent to renew the solemn Promise and Vow that was made in their Name at their Baptism ratifying and confirming the same in their own Persons and acknowledging themselves bound to believe and do what their Godfathers and Godmothers undertook for them As you are bound therefore by the last Rubrick at the end of the Catechism when the Bishop gives notice of his intention to Confirm either to bring or send in Writing with your Hands Subscribed thereunto the Names of all such Persons within your Parish as you shall think fit to be Presented to him to be Confirmed So I beseech you take care you set down the Names of none but such as have a sense that they take upon themselves an Obligation to keep their Vow in Baptism and are resolved to do their Duty towards God and towards their Neighbour as they have been taught in their Catechism In short I think none ripe to be Confirmed but such as are fit and disposed immediately after it to receive the Holy Communion of Christ's Body and Blood Our Church seems to signify so much when in the end of this Office it Ordains That none be admitted to to the Holy Communion until such time as he
once a Year on the first day of Lent though the Prayers then appointed are to be used at other times as the Ordinary shall appoint This if done solemnly though it seem a thing of no great labour yet might have a great effect For every one knows or ought to know that the Lent Fast was Instituted to be a time of Repentance and to bring Men to it what can be more effectual than this Denunciation of Gods Anger and Judgments against Sinners with most comfortable assurances of Grace and Mercy to the Penitent I know it is hard as the World goes to get a Congregation together upon that day when this is required to be read in the Church You may therefore read it on the First Sunday in Lent and then put the Sense of it into your Sermon where it may be proper to press them to weigh every part of it distinctly And in order to it remove that foolish Objection which I have heard some have in their Mouths that they cannot endure to Curse their Neighbours by showing them plainly that they are not the Curses of the People but of God himself which he hath denounced against Sinners To which when the People are ordered to say AMEN they only consent to the truth of that which God saith The very Office teaches this when it declares the end of reading those Curses gathered out of the XXVII of Deuteronomy and other places of Scripture and the Peoples saying Amen to them that they may flee from such vices for which they affirm with their own mouth the Curse of God to be due And represent to them also that whether they will affirm these Curses to be due or no they will fall upon them if they be such Sinners as are there named and the sooner because they refuse to say Amen to the Words of God that is affirm what he affirms who is the Faithful and the True This Cavil being taken away it will be easie to make them sensible how useful it is for them to joyn with you in this Commination which may awaken drousy Souls to consider and amend their evil doings that they may escape those Judgments that are threatned to them which are unavoidable if they go on still in their Sins There was something like this among the ancient Jews who at certain stated times were wont to denounce a general Anathema against all the Israelites who knowingly and willingly violated such and such Laws A Form of which Mr. Selden hath given us out of their Ritual called Colho Lib. IV. De Jure Nat. Gent. cap. 7. This it is likely the Christian Church thought fit to imitate not by denouncing a formal Anathema but only by a solemn recital of the Threatnings in God's Laws against impenitent Sinners And their affirming the truth and certainty of them Which in the Romish Church came at last to such an Anathema as I now mentioned in the Jewish Ritual call'd The greater Excommunication which here in England was denounced by every Bishop twice a year and by every Parish-Priest four times a year against certain Persons A Form of which great Curse the same most Learned Person hath given us out of the Ritual according to the use of the Church of Sarum in his first Book De Synedriis Cap. X. where he observes that in the room of this our first Reformers only ordered this Maledictory Commination as he well stiles it to be used once a Year In the beginning of which Commination there is mention made of a godly Discipline in the Primitive Church whereby such Persons as stood Convicted of notorious sins were in the beginning of Lent put to open Pennance This Discipline we there wish might be restored again but seem to suppose that for the present we can only instead of it denounce God's anger and judgments against sinners and make them say Amen thereunto whereby they may stand Convicted in their own Consciences that they are under the Curse of God and so be brought to Repentance Had we not need then do this very seriously if it be all that we can do of this kind Yet let it be considered whether we may not be able to do something more if we will attempt it For may not scandalous Persons be more frequently presented than they are May not private Admonitions if not publick be more used Let us not then think fit to do nothing because we cannot do all that we would The right way to enlarge our Authority of the want of which we complain is to use that which we have uprightly and faithfully That is if we presented none in the Ecclesiastical Court till private Applications had been made to them with seriousness and earnestness unsuccessfully and if it were done without respect to Persons Parties or Interests we might bring our Courts into that just esteem and credit which they ought to have And having mentioned private Admonition let me in a few words remember you that at your Ordination you promised to use both publick and private monitions and exhortations as well to the sick as to the whole within your Cures as need shall require and occasion shall be given And perhaps more good might be done this way than any other if it were done at fitting times with as much secrecy as may be and with apparent affection to them In some Cases perhaps it may be done most effectually by Letter which may be sent when you cannot have opportunity to speak to them And here it may be proper to admonish you that Dissenters from our Church are thus to be dealt withal by some way of private Conference with them not by Preaching against them for they are not there to hear it Our own People indeed are by publick Discourses as well as otherways to be confirmed and established in our Communion But there is no way to reduce them but by private arguing with them Which is not to be omitted because the present act of Indulgence doth not justify them in their separation but only suspends the Punishments to which they were before liable Still they are in a state of Schism out of which you should endeavour to recover them by kind Perswasions and Arguments which may work more upon them than all the Penalties formerly inflicted which made them Angry but did not Convert them For the Conclusion of this part of my Treatise I should upon the mention of LENT have said something concerning that Fast and other days of Fasting or Abstinence appointed by the Church which if Men could be perswaded to observe as times of Recollection and Examination of themselves and Prayer they would find great benefit thereby to the encrease of Christian Piety I wrote a little Book about it in the beginning of the late Reign which had the Approbation of my Superiours But I have not room to say more of it here Nor of the Festivals which are ordered to be kept in Commemoration of great Blessings God hath bestowed