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perienced, as feared; and thus it has had the effect, which all christians must rejoice in, to draw the attention of christian societies to the gifts and piety of their clergy, and, in a considerable degree, to bar the places of public instruction against men of incompetent attainments or doubtful character.

This objection to extemporaneous prayer, as (inaccurately, we suppose, in. general) it is called, is the only one to which we attach any sort of weight. We have heard it said, that it is hard to follow a prayer which one hears for the first time, and confusing to have to consider before one adopts it for his own, whether it expresses his feelings, and is suitable for his use We suspect the evil is nearly imaginary. The topics of prayer are from its nature limited; and ought to be, and to a great degree are, familiar. Every person has forms of expression, which in some degree belong to him, and are a guide to his meaning before the whole is uttered. Nor is every prayer offered in the church wholly different from all others. He who should seek to diversify his expressions to this extent, would be setting himself a task, painful to himself, and unprofitable to his people. And even at the worst, it is no very painful thing to keep the mind in suspense till the longest period, commonly used in prayer, is finished. But we may further reply, that the inconvenience, if it exist, furnishes no ground of preference for a form prescribed. For if it be hard to follow a prayer which one is using for the first time, it is next to impossible to follow a prayer which one has used times innumerable. Familiarity lulls attention to sleep; and if it can be roused, it is only by an effort which wholly engages the mind, and forbids it to be excited by the feelings which the occasion, unless such a narcotic were provided, would infallibly create. It is one of the good effects, we apprehend, of the assembling of christians together, that it invigorates and gives earnestness to the feelings of piety in all. And this ought to cause the common worship to be offered in a strain of warmer de

votion. But a prescribed form of prayer forbids this. It can have little indulgence for the course into which circumstances may lead the thoughts and feelings of the worshippers. It offers them only the alternative of stepping aside from the train of their reflections, to repeat, with such interest as they are able to force, a form of words which, from use, has lost its power to excite,—or of indulging apart from the assembly, devout emotions of their own, which, if the tyrannical service did not forbid, would be kindled and confirmed by being expressed in prayer.

But we do not defend extemporaneous prayer. Without doubt, we would have a person who assumes the sacred office, made capable, by previous discipline, of offering a suitable thanksgiving or request in the name of other christians, for the blessings which any moment may unexpectedly bring or call for.* But on stated occasions we would not have him undertake to lead the public devotions, without much and serious preparation. We would have him, before he ventures on so solemn an office, converse in solitude with religious thoughts; summon into his heart and mind every holy feeling, every grand and engaging conception of God, every inextinguishable "longing after immortality;" and work up his whole soul for the noblest act in which the soul of man engages. But when he has turned his thoughts and feelings into the proper channel, let him not dyke them in, and force them to stagnate there, but rather bid them roll on, and trust that mingling with the heart-offering of others, they will flow in a yet faller tide. In this state of mind it is not probable that his fellow worshippers will be tasked to understand his meaning, or embarrassed to decide whether it is applicable to themselves. Almost the least instructed

* The episcopal historian of the presbyterians of England and Scotland in Charles II's time agrees to this, "Il y a quelques ministres capables qui sans le formulaire ordinaire font des prieres pleines d'edification, et a cela tout ministre de l'évangile dont estre preparé." Edit. 2d. p. 134.

man may be nearly sure in the utterance of deeply-felt devout emotions, to carry the sympathy of others with him. This state of feeling, he will find the warm and powerful language of scripture best fitted to express. And by the frequent use of scripture language, which is copious enough for almost any occasion which can' occur, not only will the inconvenience named be guarded against,-for most who attend public worship are familiar enough with scripture to know when a sentence is begun what will follow,-but the great object is attained of having a worship in which all christians, whatever be their diversities of belief, can join; for interpret it as variously as they may, all allow the authority of scripture, and whatever is its language, they with full assent are willing to make the language of their prayers.

We have heard it as often as it is idly said, that in the congregational service the people can with no more propriety be said to pray, than they can be said to preach. If there is good sense in this, then public worship can only be properly conducted by the whole congregation speaking aloud, at once; then instead of offering prayers, as it has been commonly supposed to do, for various important blessings, through a considerable part of the Litany, the congregation does nothing but repeat, some fifteen or twenty times, "we beseech thee to hear us, good Lord;" and then, a great part of the English form might as well not deface the white paper of the service-book, for the prayers in it, with the single exception as we believe) of the Lord's prayer, are repeated by the priest alone, and are only appropriated by the congregation to themselves by an expression of assent at the close.

We prefer then free prayer to the use of prescribed forms, because we do not see that the former is liable to any important objection, while the latter relieve the clergy of an useful task, are not capable of being accommodated so closely to circumstances as might be wished, and tend to deaden the spirit of devotion. We feel strongly with Dr. Wyatt, that "we have a

sacred privilege and an awful duty, when we approach the throne of Jehovah; every thing therefore, which can tend to promote the most profound veneration, the most undivided attention, and the purest devotion, should be strictly adhered to;" and it is because we think thus, that we differ from him on the subject of a form. Other things being equal, we do not doubt that the best prayer will be that which is not composed till it is uttered; that he will most fitly offer the devotions of others, who is at the moment offering his own. It is when engaged in that service, that the sense of God's greatness, of our own unworthiness and dependence, is most powerfully felt. The mind is crowded with appropriate thoughts,-awed, elevated, and warmed at once, and all those feelings called into strong exercise, which make up the spirit of prayer.* If the persons employed in the ministry are capable of being affected by such emotions, we would have

* Bishop Hall's expressions in correspondence with these views, used in controversy with Calamy and others in 1640, shew him to have been little acquainted with the views of men in power, or to have had little sympathy with them. "Far be it from me to dishearten any good christian from the use of conceived prayer in his private devotions, and upon occasion also in the public. I would hate to be guilty of pouring so much water upon the spirit, to which I would gladly add oil rather. No, let the full soul freely pour out itself in gracious expressions of its holy thoughts into the bosom of the Almighty; let both the sudden flashes of our quick ejaculations, and the constant flames of our more fixed conceptions, mount up from the altar of a zealous heart unto the throne of grace; and if there be some stops or solecisms, in the fervent utterance of our private wants, these are so far from being offensive, that they are the most pleasing music to the ears of that God unto whom our prayers come. What I have professed concerning conceived prayers is that which I have ever allowed, ever practised, both in private and public. God is a free spirit, and so should ours be, in pouring out our voluntary devotions upon all occasions. Nothing hinders but that this liberty and a public liturgy should be good friends, and go hand in hand together; and whosoever would forcibly separate them, let them bear their own blame the over rigorous pressing of the liturgy, to the justling out of preaching or conceived prayers, was never intended by the law makers, or moderate governors of the church.”

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them permitted to express such;* and we do believe that men who are able to preach, are able to pray. At the same time we do not forget, that for the want of interest and appropriateness in preconceived prayers, there is some compensation in their admitting of being cleared from any thing offensive or irrelevant; and where special precautions on this score are thought necessary, we would certainly have them used. We think that in the time of Edward VI. when a very small proportion of the clergy were fit to be trusted with the public worship or instruction, the better part did well to provide a book of homilies for them to preach from, and a service book for them to pray by, and wherever the same need is thought to exist, we hope that similar provision will be made to meet it.

We have stated our objections to forms in general. But we have yet graver charges against the episcopal book of common prayer. We object to it that,

1. It is a perpetual form. Men, all of whom have been in their graves more than an hundred, and some more than a thousand years, dictate the addresses of episcopalians at the throne of grace.† Since their time the habits of thinking and of expression are considerably changed, and why, when on other occasions we are able to speak our own language, why confine us in this to the words of others, when if left to ourselves, we might fix on thoughts more interesting

* We are at a loss for the meaning of the framers of the liturgy, when in the office of institution they require the newly inducted minister to pray, "be ever with me in the performance of the duties of my ministry; in prayer to quicken my devotion, in praises to heighten my love and gratitude." On personal accounts, quickened devotion and heightened love and gratitude are fit objects of prayer to a christian minister, as well as to other christians, but they do nothing to assist him "in the performance of the duties of his ministry, which are named; for be his devotions ever so quickened or so dead, his love and gratitude ever so lively or so languid, the same form of prayer and praises must perforce be used.

† Occasional prayers are sometimes composed, but the substance of the book remains inviolably the same. Permanet, et remanebit in omne immobilis ævum.

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