A30241:612
CXLV expository sermons upon the whole 17th chapter of the Gospel according to St.…
CXLV expository sermons upon the whole 17th chapter of the Gospel according to St. John, or, Christs prayer before his passion explicated, and both practically and polemically improved by Anthony Burgess ...
London: printed by Abraham Miller for Thomas Underhill, 1656
Title page typeset from the transcription.
Sermon 24: Of vain Tautology in Prayer; And what Repetitions in Prayer are such, and what not; She…
Modern spelling is a reading aid: the words are the author’s, only the spelling is modernized. Original shows the page as printed, with the transcription marks.
2. When the matter is excellent then it may be repeated again, because by often striking the same stroke at last the Instrument enters, sometimes a sudden transient passage doth not touch the heart, and so the excellency of it is not discerned, but when once or twice it is spoken, then it may affect: It's a Rule, Pulchrasunt his dicenda, we cannot see the worth of a Jewell at the first sight; and hence it is that there are some sentences of choice and excellent virtue, that our Saviour himself would use more then once, Such as that, Many are called but few are chosen, and some Parables also are twice spoken to by our Saviour, yea, that Psalm which describeth the grievous pollution of every man by nature; The Apostle Rom. 3. doth repeat at large, it being such an excellent choice Truth that every one is to be affected with, and till that foundation be laid there cannot be any esteem or prizing of Christ.
2. When the matter is excellent then it may be repeated again, because by often striking the same stroak at last the Instrument enters, sometimes a sudden transient passage doth not touch the heart, and so the excellency of it is not discerned, but when once or twice it is spoken, then it may affect: It's a Rule, Pulchrasunt his dicenda, we cannot see the worth of a Jewell at the first sight; and hence it is that there are some sentences of choice and excellent vertue, that our Saviour himself would use more then once, Such as that, Many are called but few are chosen, and some Parables also are twice spoken to by our Saviour, yea, that Psalm which describeth the grievous pollution of every man by nature; The Apostle Rom. 3. doth repeat at large, it being such an excellent choice Truth that every one is to be affected with, and till that foundation be laid there cannot be any esteem or prizing of Christ.
3. When the affections are very fervent and zealous, then it cannot but they will express the same thing again: It's not want of matter but height of affection and zeal that makes the tongue utter the same thing twice, as