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banish a most powerful auxiliary of piety, but also by a consequence, from which no man would revolt sooner than the esteemed author before us,-imposition on conscience is the all but inevitable result of the use of a liturgy. We will suppose that the minister of a voluntary church and his flock are comfortably settled in the use of a liturgy, which they mutually approve. The minister dies, and his successor objects to the liturgy, either to the use of a liturgy altogether, or to the use of this particular liturgy. What is to be done in this case? Does the minister, as a pre-requisite to his final settlement, require the congregation to give up the liturgy to which they are attached? then he imposes on the consciences of his people: or is the liturgy, notwithstanding all the minister's objections, to be continued? then, undoubtedly, the people impose on his conscience. A liturgy and imposition on conscience, have almost invariably been connected; and in the very nature of the case they are all but inseparable: a consideration which seems to fix upon liturgies the mark of the beast. As for contentions, the introduction of liturgies into our congregations would increase them tenfold. The peaceful state of some societies, separated from the establishment, which use her liturgy, may be adduced as contravening this remark; but the objection would imply a forgetfulness, not only of the usual constitution of such societies, but that the members of them are mostly Churchmen in education, or in principle, or in feeling, and perhaps in all; and that they have none of the sensitiveness on the subject of impositions on conscience, which distinguish the thorough-paced Dissenter. Nor is it a fact that liturgical worship disposes the people to unite in acts of religious service. In proof of this we shall find, in the far greater number of episcopal assemblies, that the congregation, as if wearied by their responsive labours, do not unite in the psalmody: the part of worship in which the vocal as well as the mental engagement of the people, is indispensable.

In reviewing the history of the Protestant Dissenters, we are struck with the fact, that during the period of episcopal persecution, and for full sixty years after that period, the entire body were the strenuous advocates of free prayer. So are the great majority of orthodox Dissenters still; though perhaps with less decision than their fathers: while now and then, a somewhat feeble cry is uttered for a partial adoption of forms. The character of the prayers to which our fathers listened, accounts, in part, for the decision of their sentiments relative to the mode of worship. Free prayer must have been a fine and a mighty engine in the hands of Baxter and Howe, and of others like them in mind and in condition. We cannot wonder that the men who united in their prayers, should speak of "book worship" in the contemptuous tones which our fathers were wont to use. Great as are the excellencies which in the book of common prayer are combined with great faults, those excellencies were put quite into the shade by the prayers to which they were accustomed to listen.

* The Wesleyans and the Calvinistic Methodists may be cited as instances to the contrary. But as they are mostly of Church of England origin, in their case, free prayer has supervened upon the forms, and not the forms upon free prayer.

Nor could a form express the feeling and the desires arising out of the circumstances in which our fathers were placed. The minister, who in the dead of the night, had left his half-famished wife and little ones, to meet the remnant of his former flock, and who saw amongst that remnant, children reduced to beggary through the persecution of their parents, the blooming, happy wife, changed into a downcast and friendless widow, through the cruellest of murders, the protracted rigours of a dungeon, would have found himself strangely shackled by a form: a form to him would have been an intolerable restraint on an overflowing heart. Indeed in any circumstances, when a mind at once rational and devout, rises in free social services to the spirit and enjoyment of religion, no forms can be compared with such prayer, merely on the score of effect.

It must, however, be confessed, that to pray well without the use of written forms, is, in the ordinary and peaceful circumstances of the church, no easy attainment; especially to do it in conducting the devotions of the same congregation during a considerable period. Hence, some dissenting ministers, whose early predilections, were quite of a contrary character, have in their latter years been inclined to the use of forms. To cite an instance in point; about twenty years ago, possibly more, for we have not the book at hand, a work was published, entitled, if memory deceive us not, "A New Directory for Nonconformist Churches;" a leading object of which, was to recommend the use of forms, composed in the language of the Holy Scriptures in connection with free prayers. After the author's death, a second edition, we believe, of the title page, announced this as the production of the veteran nonconformist Samuel Palmer. But the acknowledged difficulty of praying well extempore, is not to be met by the use of forms; of this, the Lancashire liturgies, published rather beyond the middle of the last century, and which, according to the prediction of the venerable Orton, contributed to destroy or banish the piety which was then still lingering among the northern Presbyterians, furnish a melancholy proof. The difficulty is to be met, in the older minister, by a devout submission to the decayed physical and mental energy, which may have induced a belief, that he is unfitted to be the organ of a free devotion; a submission, which will tend to cure the evils on account of which it is demanded: and in the younger minister, by the assiduous cultivation of a pious temper, and by diligently availing himself of such aids as Mr. Walford, and other writers of the same class, have afforded him.

Since these remarks have been written, we have been reminded of one advantage of free prayer-its fitness to meet peculiar cases, whether domestic, local, or national. During the prevalence of the Influenza, the sanctuaries of the Nonconformists resounded with the "supplications, prayers, intercessions, and giving of thanks," which the occasion required while from the churches of the establishment, except in the meagre and feeble generalities of the prayer "in time of any common plague or sickness," no such devotions have proceeded : a state of things which would not have been greatly improved had three or four short weeks allowed time enough for the production of one of those fine specimens of devotional talent, which are sent down from high places on extraordinary occasions!

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To be content to worship God with a fixed and an adoring understanding, when through the infirmity of our nature, the passions refuse to lend us their desired aid, is, perhaps, both in the closet, and in the sanctuary, considered as a means, the great secret of habitual devotion.

Method in prayer, so justly recommended by Mr. Walford, where it does not degenerate into stiffness and formality, is both pleasing and profitable. But it is a fact, that some men of highly cultivated minds, and who are methodical preachers, have never been able to conform themselves to any very exact method in their public devotions. This Mr. Orton acknowledges to have been his case. Such an inability may, in some persons, have been occasioned through their beginning to offer social prayers, when very young, and before the mind had been subjected to a proper discipline; while in others, it is occasioned by a cause which cannot be lamented-the deliberate resting of the mind on every petition; a resting, which, in some persons, at least, is unfavourable to the recollection of plan. To those, who, from either of these causes, feel it difficult to keep within an exact method, no judicions friend would advise its adoption. The prayers of such persons, though not very methodical, will not be rambling, nor yet will they omit any important particular. Their intelligence will forbid the former, and their piety the latter. It has, however, sometimes occurred to us, that they who feel a difficulty in confining themselves to method in prayer, can secure all the benefits of such a confinement, by briefly introducing the different branches of devotion, in the early part of the general prayer, and then with no fear of omitting any topic, which ought to be included, they can, in its close, give full scope to the unfettered utterance of heart, which is their proper element in prayer.

The enemies of unwritten prayers are greatly mistaken, if they suppose, that they who use such prayers, employ no thought about their public devotions. Extemporaneous prayer forms a standing joke with a certain class of episcopal clergymen. Men of this class may be assured, that many dissenting ministers have exercised more thought upon the single engagement of public prayer than the scoffers have done upon their ministry, in all its parts, and in all its services.

* See Orton's Letters, vol. i. p. 27.

+ Mr. Walford is not quite accurate in styling the Book of Common Prayer, "the exclusive instrument of public devotion in the Church of England." There is no canon to forbid the use of free prayer, in the pulpits of the establishment. The clergy have in this respect a license, of which some of their number fully avail themselves. This liberty renders singularly indecent the sarcasms on unwritten prayers, which some episcopalians are prone to indulge. If such prayers are, necessarily, a compound of folly and impiety, why does the church of England tolerate them? Extemporaneous prayer is used not only in the church of England, but also in the church of Rome. Speaking of a sermon he heard at Lisbon, Mr. Whitefield says, "towards the conclusion, he" (the preacher) "called upon the people to join him in an extempore prayer. This they did with great fervency, which was expressed not only by repeating it aloud, but by beating their breasts, and clapping their cheeks, and weeping heartily. (Whitefield's Letters, vol. iii. p. 75.) If unwritten prayers are a reproach, the Protestant Dissenters are not the only persons to whom the reproach belongs.

prayer as

These ministers feel that, although preaching is a weighty employment, prayer is, on some accounts, still weightier. But in well as in preaching, the most unacceptable to themselves, are usually the most acceptable to others. He who mourns the imperfect forms, in which he presents the complaints and the desires of his brethren to God, is the man whose own spirit will find access to "the throne of grace," and who will carry the spirits of his fellows

with him" into the holiest of all."

FOREIGN THEOLOGICAL LITERATURE.

AMERICA:

1. A Commentary on the Epistle to the Romans, designed for Students of the English Bible. By Charles Hodge, Professor of Biblical Literature in the Theological Seminary at Princeton, Philadelphia. 1835. 8vo. pp. 588.

This important work was evidently designed to meet the wishes, and satisfy the wants of those who have no desire to pursue the critical track marked out by Professor Stuart, and other commentators of the same class. It contains, for the most part, the results, not the working of the critical process. The principles which it developes are those of enlightened Calvinism, which, in various parts, are put in contrast with certain views of original sin and redemption, which have of late years been gaining ground in some sections of the American church. In the course of last year, Professor Hodge published an abridgment of his Commentary, a reprint of which has just been issued by the Religious Tract Society, 438 pages, 12mo., and highly deserves the attention of every student of the divine word.

2. Notes Explanatory and Practical on the Epistle to the Romans: designed for Bible Classes and Sunday Schools. By Albert Barnes. Fifth Edition, revised and corrected. New York. 1836. 12mo. pp. 328.

The author of these Notes is already favourably known in this country by his labours on the Gospels and Acts, of which they are the prosecution. Soon after their appearance, the charge of inculcating dangerous doctrines was brought against them, and Mr. B. was put upon his trial before the Presbytery, of which he is a member. After a fair and full investigation, he was acquitted; since which event, however, for the sake of peace, he has introduced various changes into his notes-removing expressions which were ambiguous, or liable to be misunderstood, and such as were calculated to give unnecessary offence to those who differed from him in opinion. The views contained in the work are substantially those of Professor Stuart; except as it regards the latter half of the seventh chapter, where the author ably advocates the opposite side of the question. The works of Mr. Barnes have had an extraordinary

sale: nearly 12,000 copies of his Notes on the Gospels had been disposed of early in 1835.

3. Calmet's Dictionary, &c. Revised, with large additions, by Edward Robinson, D.D. Boston. 1835. Royal 8vo. pp. 1003.

The value of the present edition of this useful work is greatly enhanced by the important contributions of the editor, whose extensive, accurate, and thoroughly literary knowledge of the various subjects treated of, rendered him singularly qualified for such an undertaking.

4. Encyclopedia of Religious Knowledge, &c. Boston. 1835. Extra royal 8vo. pp. 1275.

The most comprehensive theological dictionary yet published. While it draws largely on the last edition of Buck and other recent sources, it contains a vast deal of original matter, and bears the marks of care, honest research, and accurate statement. It is particularly rich in biography, bringing to view the lives and writings of numerous American authors and others, totally unknown on this side of the Atlantic. The original articles on the Christian denominations have been furnished by writers belonging to each of them. At the end is a Missionary Gazetteer, brought down to the present time-a fact, which shows how deeply the American theology is imbued with the missionary spirit.

5. A Greek and English Lexicon of the New Testament. By Edward Robinson, D.D. late Professor of Sac. Lit. in the Theol. Sem. Andover. Boston. 1836. 8vo.

pp. 918.

Instead of republishing his translation of Wahl's "Clavis Philologica," which met with so favourable a reception, that the whole edition of 1,500 copies was exhausted in little more than four years, Dr. Robinson has here given us an entirely new work-the result of close application to the principles of lexicography and philology for a number of years; a careful study of the improved works of Wahl, Bretschneider, Winer, and especially Passow; and a constant perusal of the New Testament itself, and other Greek writings both classical and Hellenistic. It is a book which ought to be in the hands of every theological student. Each article contains, so far as practicable, a reference to every passage of the New Testament, in which the word is found, so that in more than seven-eighths of the words the lexicon is a complete concordance. The difficult passages are more or less illustrated; and the work, in some measure, supplies the place of a more extended commentary. It is beautifully got up, and does great honour to the American press.

6. A Hebrew and English Lexicon of the Old Teslament, including the Biblical Chaldee. Translated from the Latin of William Gesenius, &c. By Edward Robinson, D.D., &c. Boston. 1836. 8vo. pp. 1092.

Another invaluable production from the pen of the same indefatigable author. Hitherto the Hebrew labours of Gesenius have been almost immeasurably in advance of those performed by others in the same department of sacred literature; and the impetus which they have given to the study of Hebrew is most powerful and extensive. Of his Hebrew Grammar, upwards of 33,000 copies

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