PA ELT II. Reverend Mr. Richard Baxter. In the Communion of the Sick, the ancient Cufomof the Church was, where time and place allowed it, to fend the Deacon to the Sick, at the time of the Cele- bration, with a Portion of the Confecrated Bread and Wine, which is here omitted. The Minifter is caufelelly tied to meet the Corps juft at the Church Sryle,andto ufe the oft-repeated [Lord have Mercy upon us,Cbri(t have Mercy uponus,Lord haveMer- cy upon us] : And it is a Confufion perilous to the living, that we are to prefume that all we bury be of one fort viz. Elan and Saved: when contrarily we fee multi- , tudes die without any fuch Signs of Repentance, as rational Charity can judge fincere. It is a diforder that Women be not at all required beforehand to delire any pub- . lick Prayers for their fate Deliverance ; and yet when they are delivered, that a Thanklgiving on the Lord's Days, filch as is for other great Deliverances will not ferve the turn, without a fpecial Office ; which if performed on the Lord's Day, willbe an Impediment or Dilturbance to the publick Worlhip : And while an in- convenientPfalms, and Repetitions, and Refpondsbe ufed, the Prayer is defe&ive, as will appear by comparing it with what we offer. It is a perilous Diforder, that Penance (as it is called) be ufed by notoriòüsrisners at a fated time, the beginning of Lent, which Ihould be ufed (rightly) to rellore the Perlon whenever he is fallen : And this is not to be wified (in this Diforder) tobe reloredagain ; no more than that Phyfick be given only at Lent in acuteDi- feafes, which muff be medicated out of Hand. In the repeating of the Curfes, the People Ihould he better taught to know the difference of the Law and Gofpel, and then that excellent dehortation may be well ufed : But this pertaineth to the ordinary preaching of the Word. Of the Refponds, and the doubtful Phrafe [thou barell nothing tkat thou hagmade] we have (poke before. Other Otnillions and Diforders appear by comparing it with what we of- fer. We only add upon the whole, there further general Remarks. a. It is a great Diforder that wehave fo many Prayers, inftead of massy Petitions in one Prayer : The Gravity and Serioufnefe requilee in our Prayers to God, and the Examples left on Record in Scripture, do perfuade us, when we have many Petitions at once to put up to God, which all have a Connexion in Nature anj Neceifty, that there Ihould be filch a Connexion of our Deli; es and Requefs, an many of them Ihould confiture one Prayer, whereas the Common Prayer-Book, in its numerous Collets, doth makeoft times as many Prayers as Petitions ; and weun- decently begin with a folemn Preface, and as Solemnly conclude, and then begin again ; as ifbefore every Petition of the Lord's Prayer, we should repeat [Our Fa- ther which art in Heaven] and after every Petition [ For thine is the Kingdom, the Parer and the Glory]. Yet we deny not that when we have but Tome one Parti- cular Requeft to put up, without Connexion with others, we may then make a Prayer of that alone. a. Hence it comes to pafs that the holy and reverend Name of God is made the matter of unneceffary Tautologies, while half the Prayer is made up of his Attri- butes andAddreffes to him, and with Conclufions containing the Mention of his Name and Kingdom, and the Merits of his Son ; even in holy Worlhip we Ihould fear MingGod's Name unreverently and in vain. g. And it is a great Diforder, that fo much of the publick Prayers Ihould be uttered by the People, as in the Refunds, and that they only Ihould put up the petitioning part, while the Minifer doth but faggef to them, or recite the Mat- ter of the Petitions, as in the Litany : feeing the Minifer is by Office to be the Mouth of the People and God, and Scripture intimateth, that ordinarily their Part was but to fay, [Amen% ; and it feemeth to many fober People, who are much of- fended at it, to be a very confided and unfeemly Murmur, that is caufed in moil Congregations by the Peoples (peaking. Efpecially when in reading the Pfalms the People fay every fecond Verle, which cannot he heard and underflood by filch as cannot read, or have no Books ; and, then the other Verle which the Minifer S s á faith, 315.
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