[Footnote: _Mass.
Rec._ i. 110.] The evil still continued, for only the next year it was
found that so many lectures "did spend too much time and proved
overburdensome," and they were reduced to two a week. [Footnote: Felt's
_Eccl. Hist._ i. 201.] Notwithstanding these measures, relief was not
obtained, because, as the legislature complained in 1639, lectures "were
held till night, and sometimes within the night, so as such as dwelt far
off could not get home in due season, and many weak bodies could not
endure so long, in the extremity of the heat or cold, without great
trouble and hazard of their health," [Footnote: Winthrop, i. 324.] and a
consultation between the elders and magistrates was suggested.
But to have the delights of the pulpit abridged was more than the divines
could bear. They declared roundly that their privileges were invaded;
[Footnote: _Idem_, i. 325.] and the General Court had to give way. A
few lines in Winthrop's Journal give an idea of the tax this loquacity
must have been upon the time of a poor and scattered people. "Mr. Hooker
being to preach at Cambridge, the governor and many others went to hear
him.... He preached in the afternoon, and having gone on, with much
strength of voice and intention of spirit, about a quarter of an hour, he
was at a stand, and told the people that God had deprived him both of his
strength and matter, &c.
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