A Short View of the Prelatical Church of England 2, Chapter 5
CHAP. V. Of the Letany.
VVE come now to the laſt piece, of the matter of the Lyturgie, but not the leaſt ſinful, but rather the moſt offenſive: Namely, the Letany, not a ſtump or a limb of Dagon, but the head of the Maſſe-book, appointed to he ſaid on Sundayes, Wedneſdayes, and Fridayes, yea, and at other times, if the Ordinary appoint it: of this it may truly be ſaid, as one ſaid of the Phariſees ſin, that it was either the ſin of the Holy Ghoſt, Toſſan in Mat. 12. Canon. 15or a ſin very nigh it; ſo the Letany is either blaſphemy, or very nigh blaſphemy: upon theſe dayes, one of every houſe muſt be preſent; ſetting a note of ſome preheminency, both upon theſe week dayes and the Service, yea, from the Etymologie of the word foreign, or Letany, the defenders of it will have it to be a more ſerious and cordial Prayer then others. It is obſerved by the Learned, that the Antients had the order and manner of the Letany from the Heathens, Serarius in Litan Caſſan. in Liturgy. P. 244. Exercit. p 237.as Dionyſius Halioarnaſſius witneſſeth, and Cauſabon obſerveth in theſe words: foreign, the Letanies or Supplications about the Altars of their gods. Polybius renders the words very handſomely and ſignificantly by the word, foreign, which ſignifieth to intice the gods by blandiſhing allurements: theſe words, & others uſed by human writers to the ſame purpoſe, as by Homer and others, falls in with the ſame fault that our Saviour accuſeth the Phariſees of, namely, vain repetition, and multitude of words, for which, ſaith Chriſt,Mat. 6.7. they think to be heard. Now this Letany is a very facinating fardel of Tautologies and Battologies; beſides its other faults, in this Latany there is, Lord deliver us eight times, hear us we beſeech thee, 20. times: to omit many deſires to be delivered from things from which there is not the leaſt appearance, no more than of the French pox, the danger of being drunk at a Whitſon-ale, or a purſe cut at a ſtage play, and not ſo much. In that prayer to be delivered from fornication, what meaneth that addition, & from all other deadly ſin, as though ſome ſin were not deadly. Again, after a tautolog cal ſuming up and repetition of the titles and Elogies of the Trinity toſſed with reſponſes, they fall on in a Heatheniſh way to act the word Letany or Maggany, as it is well rendered, namely, as it were to conjure; and as if the devil were now to be diſpoſſeſt (which no Prieſt muſt dare to do by the Canon without licenſe from the Ordinary) they would uſe the very ſame pieces; namely, By the miſtery of the holy incarnation, by thy holy nativity and circumciſion; by thy baptiſm, faſting, and temptation; by thine agony and bloody ſweat; and by the croſs and paſſion; by thy precious death and burial; and by the coming of the holy Ghoſt, Good Lord deliver us. This piece of the Popiſh-Maſſe-book, whence we have it, is no better than that conjuring or juggling of the Magicians, whereby they ſeemed to imitate Moſes his working of Miracles, Porph. in his doub.which they did not, as the learned in that Art teſtifie, without magick-ſpels; they uſe ridiculous invocations, ſaith the ſame Author, & ſo be the invocations in the Letany; and the better the words are, as we have ſaid, the more grievous the abuſe: And that we may not come ſhort of the Papiſts idolizing of this Letany, we have not only our ordinary and weekly letanies, but alſo our annual or yearly letanies, acted in Proceſſion. It is true, we have left out the Saints in our Lyturgy, that was too groſs; but had the Laudenſes got their Colours fixed, ere this the letany had been flancked with this ſtuffe. But why did they expunge that ſuffrage in King Edward his Book againſt the Pope, From the tyranny of the Biſhop of Rome, Good Lord deliver us? To ſhut up this curſory trial of the matter (for it is no more) how can the Service-book-men juſtiſie theſe words of the Collect on the twelfth Sunday after Trinity, Giving unto us that which our Prayer dare not preſume to ask? It is true, we obtain more than we Pray for; but what we dare not Pray for, either in act or deſire, we ſhall never obtain.
The ſum of that which hath been ſaid, we bring up into this Argument;
That Service, the matter or bulk whereof is partly falſe, partly fooliſh and frivolous, ſhould not be preſented unto God: But the parts of the Service-book, whether eſſential or integral, are ſuch, as hath been fully proved: Therefore they ſhould not be preſented to God.
We humbly intreat your Honors to lay this Argument in the ballanoe of truth, and if it weigh down the Service-book, let the ſaid Book, we pray you, be caſt out of the Sanctuary as light.