Downame - BV209_D69_G6_1640_v1

of Battologie in prayer: Í Ì more are thefe true of our fpeech withGod,whereiri all fuperfluitie of idle words is joyned with irreve- recce and abufe of the majeflie of God Seventhly, Plato , though an heathen Philofod pher , yet in his wifdome, for which he was called divine, he faw that brevitie and pithineffe in prayer was to be affected rather then prolixitie and there- fore preferreth the fhort prayer of the Lacedemoni- ans, That God would give them ;wo cmì 7ois. áyet,9is .s1lciGiad. t: farre before the longer prayers of the Athenians, wherein they ffudying to be long, uttered many things which neither became the majeftie of God nor were expedient for themfelves:and therefore he faith, as if he had read that counfel of Solomon, 'ArT.á Atii ,roWñc ¢vMnñs 1Jio ocÁ4scvs ó, 7í go76 p117401/gi a Cä. But never did the heathen fo groffely offend in their battologie as the Papifts at this day;who num- bring upon their beads their prayers which them- felves underffand not, perfwade themfelves that the more often they do repeat their Pater-nofiers and their Ave- Maries , the more fatisfaaory and meritorious their prayer is before God : yea, and to the greater multitude of fuch idle repetitions the Popes have granted the greater indulgences. For whereas according to the invention of Do- minick their rofaryor ftring of beads confiffeth of 55 beads, whereof five (that is, every eleventh) be greater, to fignifie that to every Pater- nofíer they muff recite ten Ave-Maries;they have deviled fence that time the Ladies Pfalter conteining three rofa- ries,that is, befides fifteen Pater- nofiers , an hundred and fifty Ave - Maries , according to the number of K z Davids