with their staves, and the clerk in his box, the change by the priest, of dress from surplice to gown, and of place from the reading desk to the vestry, from the vestry to the altar, and thence to the pulpit, the whole scene has a theatrical air, and very little congeniality, till habit has reconciled it with the feelings with which an humble christian goes to worship. Nothing can be more striking than the contrast of this parade with the simple service of the primitive believers.* Some of the ceremonies are fantastic beyond all but popish example. They do not appear in their most offensive shape in places where there prevails a taste for simplicity in divine service; but whereever there is an inclination to pomp, nothing can be more accommodating than the church; and a friend, who attended episcopal worship not long ago in Quebec, informs us, that so little in unison with protestant ideas was the show,-the bishop sitting in idle state under his canopy within the rails, and the singing men in their copes chanting the service from above, that but for the familiar English words, he might have doubted whether he were in the protestant cathedral of Canada, or in the neighbour. ing chapel of Notre Dame. The feasts and fasts,

*The manner of public worship as late as the end of the second century is described by Neal (vol. 2. p. 407.) on the authority of Justin Martyr and Tertullian. to have been this. First, the scriptures were read; after reading followed an exhortation to the practice and imitation of what was read; then all rose up and joined in prayer; after this they went to the sacrament, in the beginning whereof the president of the assembly poured out prayers and thanksgivings, according to his ability, and the people said amen; then followed the dis ribution of the elements, and a collection of alms.

The homily on the time and place of prayer, expressly condemns chanting and playing upon the organ, as sorely displeasing to God, and filthily defiling his holy house. Book of Homilies, p. 294. Oxford edition, 8vo. 1816.

In "Pillars of Priestcraft and orthodoxy shaken," vol. 2. p. 345, is preserved an account of the form of consecration of certain bishops in Dublin, by the archbishop of Armagh, primate of Ireland, in 1660, a valuable document, to shew what a magnifi

in the observance of which, christians find so much satisfaction, were instituted to conciliate pagans, as a father of the fifth century, quoted by Mr. Sparks, (p. 77, ingenuously or inadvertently hints. "Our Lord God hath brought his dead (martyrs) into the room and place of your gods, whom he hath sent off, and given their honour to his martyrs. For instead of the feasts of Jupiter and Bacchus, are now celebrated the festivals of Peter, and Paul, and Thomas, and Sergius, and other holy martyrs."

V. The episcopal service authorizes a rite not christian. We speak of the rite of confirmation, which has no decent show of scriptural evidence. Where the early preachers of our religion are said in the New Testament to have confirmed their converts, that confirmation in the faith, and that only, is spoken of which is the effect of a better acquaintance with it, and of encouragements to hold fast the profession of it without wavering. Paul went with Silas "through Syria and Cilicia, confirming the churches," (Acts xv. 41.) in the same manner as with Barnabas he went "to Lystra, and to Iconium, and to Antioch, confirming the souls of the disciples, and EXHORTING them to continue in the faith, and that we must through much tribulation enter into the

cence the church affected, even at a time when it had not ceased to be hard pressed by the puritans. Among other remarkable things, these words are the conclusion of an anthem, composed for the occasion, by the dean of St. Patrick's:

'Angels, look down, and joy to see
Like that above, a monarchy;

Angels, look down, and joy to see
Like that above, an hierarchy.'

Does not the following, from another source, look less like a directory of public worship, than like the orders to the sceneshifters and orchestra in the prompter's copy of a German play? "After the dismissal of the congregation, a few moments will be allowed for mental prayer, that God will pardon the imperfection of the prayers that have been offered, and dispose the hearts of his people to obey his will. The sexton will then throw open the doors, and the organ will commence soft and solemn music, rising with the swell, and ending with the full organ."

kingdom of God." (Acts xiv. 21, 22.) Nor are the texts relating to imposition of hands any more to the purpose; for wherever this is spoken of in the New Testament as a religious ceremony, as Mr. Sparks with perfect accuracy remarks, it always implies" as in Acts viii. 17. "a communication of extraordinary gifts," or, as in Acts vi. 6. "induction to some office." It were well if there were nothing worse to say of this rite than that it is unauthorized. But we fear that no good comes of the bishop's thanking God for having "regenerated his servants," i. e. in baptism, "by water and the Holy Ghost, and given unto them forgiveness of all their sins," and going on to "certify them by this sign," (i. e. by imposition of his hands,) of God's "favour and gracious goodness to them." In the view of this office, he who can bring to the altar rails the slender preparation of the creed, the Lord's prayer, &c. may go thence, if he believe his spiritual father, with the comforting assurance that his warfare is accomplished, that his iniquity is. pardoned. It is a way to quiet conscience too abrupt, we fear, not to be dangerous.-This is no trifling. The words of the office, if they mean any thing, mean what we have said. If not, they ought to be disused; for they are supposed to be significant, and so deceive.

VI. It involves false doctrine.

False we call it. Disputed it is, at all events; and therefore unfit to make a part of social worship; for this is a duty in which christians ought to be encouraged to unite, and it is no gracious thing to try one who comes to put himself on our christian hospitality, by a doctrinal shibboleth. We are not prepared to say, that a religious community are obliged, out of tenderness to others' views, to exclude from their devotions any thing which appears to them essential to acceptable worship; but we do say, that it is no matter of caprice, and that it is under a heavy responsibility, that the decision, what is thus essential, must

be made. The following are examples of false doctrine involved in the episcopal service.

1. The trinity.

This is supposed in different places. Particularly, the second petition in the litany is addressed to God the Son, the third to God the Holy Ghost, and the fourth to the "holy, blessed, and glorious Trinity," and great part of the same prayer or collection of prayers is offered to our Saviour.

2. The popish error of the real presence of the body and blood of Christ in the sacramental elements, is certainly not discountenanced in the following passages of the order for the administration of the Lord's supper. That we and all others who shall be partakers of this holy communion, may worthily receive the most precious body and blood of thy Son Jesus Christ." "The body of our Lord Jesus Christ, which was given for thee, preserve thy body and soul unto everlasting life." "The blood of our Lord Jesus Christ, which was shed for thee, preserve thy body and soul unto everlasting life."*

3. That baptism is a saving ordinance.

"Seeing now, dearly beloved brethren, that this child is regenerate." "We yield thee hearty thanks, most merciful Father, that it hath pleased thee to regenerate this infant with thy Holy Spirit."+

* For the popish character of the English church service at large, in the estimation of the first reformers, we have very good authority. King Edward, to satisfy the Devonshire rebeis, wrote to them, "As for the service in the English tongue, it perchance seems to you a new service, but yet indeed it is no other but the old; the self-same words in English." Dissenter's Catechism, p. 48.

† Dr. Wyatt calls the baptismal font the laver of regeneration, p. 37. In the church catechism, the child is taught to define the "inward and spiritual grace" in baptisin, "a death unto sin, and a new birth unto righteousness; for being by nature born in sin, and the children of wrath, we are hereby made the children of grace." In the twenty-seventh article baptism is declared to be "not only a sign of profession and mark of difference, whereby christian men are discerned from others that be not christened; but it is also a sign of regeneration or new birth, whereby, as by an instrument, they that receive baptism rightly are grafted into the church; the

4. That bishops are able to communicate the holy spirit, and confer the power of forgiving sins.

"When the prayer is done, the bishop, with the priests present, shall lay their hands severally upon the head of every one that receiveth the order of priesthood, the receivers humbly kneeling, and the bishop saying, Receive the Holy Ghost, for the office and work of a priest in the church of God, now committed unto thee by the imposition of our hands;

WHOSE SINS THOU DOST FORGIVE, THEY ARE FOR

GIVEN; and whose sins thou dost retain, they are retained." Form and manner of ordering priests.*

These are samples of the service-book. We are accustomed to consider prayer as an awfully solemn thing. In this exercise, if at any time, we assuredly think that we ought to say what we mean. With a man, who, holding unitarian opinions, can use the litany as a prayer, or who, believing that no human power is competent to forgive sins, can ordain or be ordained in the form we have extracted-we know not how to sympathize. We enter not at all into his views. We hope they are as just as they appear to us extraordinary.

VII. The Book of Common Prayer contains improprieties of language.

We admit that it is an advantage of preconceived prayers over extemporaneous, that care may be taken.

promises of the forgiveness of sin, and of our adoption to be the sons of God, are visibly signed and sealed." Nothing seemed wanting to carry episcopal pretensions the length of caricature, till Mr. Dodwell, as quoted by Doddridge, Lect. vol. ii. p. 375, started the idea, that "there goes along with the administration of baptism, if the person administering it be duly ordained, a certain immortalizing spirit, whereas persons dying unbaptized are not immortal;" that is to say, in plainer English, episcopal ordination communicates the power of conferring immortality!

* We cannot enlarge on the idea that all this false doctrine is protected in the strong fortress of the prayer-book, but will rest it on the authority of Dr. Wyatt. "Forms serve as an unchanging standard of faith, always instructing the people, and acting as a barrier against the innovation of new doctrines." p. 31.