Added to the other ordination
exercises these long Mather addresses must have been tiresome enough.
Nathaniel Ward deplored at that time, "Wee have a strong weakness in New
England that when wee are speaking, wee know not how to conclude: wee make
many ends before wee make an end."
Dr. Lord of Norwich always made a prayer which was one hour long; and an
early Dutch traveller who visited New England asserted that he had heard
there on Fast Day a prayer which was two hours long. These long prayers
were universal and most highly esteemed,--a "poor gift in prayer" being a
most deplored and even despised clerical short-coming. Had not the Puritans
left the Church of England to escape "stinted prayers"? Whitefield prayed
openly for Parson Barrett of Hopkinton, who could pray neither freely, nor
well, that "God would open this dumb dog's mouth;" and everywhere in the
Puritan Church, precatory eloquence as evinced in long prayers was felt to
be the greatest glory of the minister, and the highest tribute to God.
In nearly all the churches the assembled people stood during prayer-time
(since kneeling and bowing the head savored of Romish idolatry) and in the
middle of his petition the minister usually made a long pause in order that
any who were infirm or ill might let down their slamming pew-seats and sit
down; those who were merely weary stood patiently to the long and painfully
deferred end.
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