ding: and
he gave them many other observations, fit for his plain congregation,
but not fit for me now to mention; for I must set limits to my pen,
and not make that a treatise, which I intended to be a much shorter
account than I have made it: but I have done, when I have told the
Reader, that he was constant in catechising every Sunday in the
afternoon, and that his catechising was after his Second Lesson,
and in the pulpit; and that he never exceeded his half hour, and was
always so happy as to have an obedient and a full congregation.

And to this I must add, that if he were at any time too zealous in his
Sermons, it was in reproving the indecencies of the people's behaviour
in the time of divine service; and of those Ministers that huddle up
the Church-prayers, without a visible reverence and affection; namely,
such as seemed to say the Lord's prayer, or a Collect in a breath. But
for himself, his custom was to stop betwixt every Collect, and give
the people time to consider what they had prayed, and to force
their desires affectionately to God, before he engaged them into new
petitions.

[Sidenote: "Mr. Herbert's Saint's-bell"]

And by this account of his diligence to make his parishioners
understand what they prayed, and why they praised and adored their
Creator, I hope I shall the more easily obtain the Reader's belief
to the following account of Mr. Herbert's own practice; which was to
appear constantly with his wife and three nieces--the daughters of
a deceased sister--and his whole family, twice every day at
the Church-prayers in the Chapel, which does almost join to his
Parsonage-house. And for the time of his appearing, it was strictly at
the canonical hours of ten and four: and then and there he lifted up
pure and charitable hands to God in the midst of the congregation. And
he would joy to have spent that time in that place, where the honour
of his Master Jesus dwelleth; and there, by that inward devotion which
he testified constantly by an humble behaviour and visible adoration,
he, like Joshua, brought not only "his own household thus to serve the
Lord;" but brought most of his parishioners, and many gentlemen in the
neighbourhood, constantly to make a part of his congregation twice
a day: and some of the meaner sort of his parish did so love and
reverence Mr. Herbert, that they would let their plough rest when Mr.
Herbert's Saint's-bell rung to prayers, that they might also offer
their devotions to