LETTER IX.

ON PRE-COMPOSED FIXED FORMS OF

PRAYER.

SIR,

IN again resuming my pen, I will endeavour to state to you some of those reasons which have induced me to consider pre-composed set Forms of Prayer, in the public services of the Church, infinitely superior to extemporary forms. I am perfectly satisfied that there is no comparison. I have heard numerous extemporary effusions offered up, not only by you, but also by many of the first-rate Dissenting Teachers in the kingdom; but I never yet heard any worthy of being put in competition with our excellent and incomparable Liturgy. Having been a Dissenter for almost the first twenty-five years of my life, and accustomed to the lazy manner of Dissenting worship, I at first felt it rather irksome to sustain that unceasing attention which the Liturgy of the Church demands: but to this I very soon became reconciled, and instead of feeling it at all troublesome, as at first, I now esteem it a very great excellency. The various parts and admirable arrangement of the Liturgy have the effect of securing the attention, and of keeping alive the devotion, of the worshippers; and thereby preventing that drowsiness and indifference common to those Congregations, where none but the Minister can take an active part

in prayer to God. In the last Dissenting Meetinghouse which I attended, I regularly sat about a year and a half in the same pew with the Minister's wife, who almost invariably slept during a great part of every service, including the time of the first prayer, which is generally long. This she could not have done with the use of the varying Liturgy of the Church. Those Dissenters who occasionally go to Church, generally complain that they find the variety of the Liturgy rather tedious; but, were they to attend more frequently, the objection would very soon vanish; and if they were really spiritually-minded, they would soon discover its excellence, and would, I am fully persuaded, much prefer it to extemporary prayer. The Service of the Church is, indeed, but ill adapted to idle and careless worshippers; such would be far more at their ease in a Dissenting Meeting-house, where they would have nothing to do all the time but to sit and look about them. But those desirous of worshipping God in spirit and in truth, will ever find it admirably adapted to every purpose of heartfelt, fervent devotion; for whatever may be their circumstances, situations, or necessities, it is ever suitable. They can want nothing but what it contains. Its language, also, is well worthy of the solemn purpose to which it is applied; for comprehensive fulness,' 'majestic simplicity,' rich chastity, and devotional sweetness of expression, it stands unrivalled within the whole compass of 'uninspired compositions.' And were our Congregations to join with their Ministers in the Liturgy with spirituality of mind and fervent devotion, our Churches would be like little heavens upon earth-they would in deed and in truth, be the very houses of God and the gates of heaven.

With a pre-composed Form of Prayer, persons can pray not only "with the spirit," but "with the understanding also." This it may be utterly impossible to do, when the prayers are made off-hand by the Minister. How often have I, in Meeting-houses, experienced the following case :-The person engaged

in prayer has uttered half his sentence-the people are expecting the remainder-he forgets what he was about to say becomes confused-hacks at it-begins again and at length concludes with something widely different from that with which he first began. Let the spirit be ever so happily framed, how can the understanding act in such a case as this? And when we consider what men ordinarily are-how difficult it is in prayer to fix the attention upon the sole object of worship, and how much the presence of a Congregation is calculated to occupy the thoughts, should we wonder that such instances are very usual? Again: the people, instead of having their minds fixed upon high and heavenly things, are engaged with the speaker -canvassing the nature of his petitions, or criticising the language which he makes use of; at least there is something like a necessity to do the one, and a strong temptation to do the other;-so that on every hand this Dissenting practice opens a door to distraction of mind. This distraction about words and expressions, both the Clergy and the people, in the public service of the Church, entirely escape, by the use of their excellent Liturgy. Their undivided attention may be wholly fixed upon the Eternal God, the object of their worship and adoration. And knowing previously that every sentence they are about to use is agreeable to the Scriptures of Truth, they can pray "with the spirit, and with the understanding also." The awful distance which exists between the Creator of the Universe and his creatures, ought to inspire them with the profoundest reverence and awe. How little in accordance with such feelings is the improper, hasty, off-hand language sometimes heard amongst Dissenters. All this the vain repetitions, the ridiculous expressions, the great irreverence, and the disgusting familiarity which shock the mind of the pious Christian in the Meeting-house, are entirely and wisely prevented by the use of a pre-composed fixed Form of Prayer.

Another, and one of the greatest and most invaluable

excellencies ofa pre-composed set Form of Prayer is, that its use effectually prevents the introduction of false doctrine and heresy into the worship of God. This is most clearly proved from the experience of almost three centuries for whilst during that time great numbers of Dissenting Congregations have fallen into the damning gulf of Socinianism, the Church has not lost a single Congregation. "In a single western county of England, thirteen Socinian Congregations now exist, eleven of which were, within the last twenty years, Christian Societies."* "In the Church of Geneva, no sooner was the subscription to the Helvetic Confession (of Faith) abandoned, than Arianism took full possession of the chairs and pulpits. It is also a striking fact, that although Unitarianism has prevailed to a great degree in the Eastern States of America, and particularly in Boston, and has swept away many Orthodox bodies of Christians, it has not made its way into a single Episcopal Congregation. Persons accustomed to the Liturgy,' says a well-informed examiner, the instant any one comes to them, saying 'I deny the Trinity, refer to their Prayer Books, and the fruit of such reference is, that since the Liturgy of the American Church was agreed upon collectively, not one Episcopal Congregation has fallen into Arianism.""+ These, Sir, are undeniable facts-facts which prove at once the decisive superiority of Established Articles, and pre-composed Scriptural Forms of Worship, in preserving the Truths of the Gospel in a Church, to the raw and undigested and not unfrequently indigestible Articles and Prayers of Dissenters, made extempore, just according to the whim and humour of the moment. The nature of the Members of the Church of England is the same as that of Dissenters, and their constant adherence to the grand truths of Chris

*See Christian Guardian, 1832, p. 370.

+ Reasons for Attachment and Conformity to the Church of England, by the Rev. R. Meek, p. 75.

tianity, whilst so many Congregations of Dissenters have been carried down the stream of Independency into the dead sea of Socinianism, cannot be attributed to any inherent excellency which they possess above Dissenters, but under the blessing of God, entirely to the existence and influence of her sound Articles and Scriptural Liturgy. There are in this country, out of two hundred and fifty-eight, two hundred and thirtyfive Dissenting Meeting-houses, which were once the "fountains of purer principles," now devoted to the propagation of the damnable doctrines of Socinianism. Now, Sir, it certainly cannot be said, that subscription to Articles of Faith, and the use of a pre-composed Form of Prayer, have been the cause of their awful departure from the faith they once professed, because they never had any. But it is, on the contrary, a selfevident truth-a truth undeniable, because established by positive fact and experience, that had the successive Ministers of these Meeting-houses been obliged to subscribe to sound Articles of Faith, and to use a Scriptural Liturgy, they would have been, every one of them, as is the case with every place of worship belonging to the Established Church, still the fountains of principles much purer than the blasphemous doctrines which they are now used to promulgate. Now, although I know you will not stick at a little, in order to support your sentiments when they are exposed to danger, yet I think you are scarcely prepared to say that the continual departure of such numbers of your Congregations to the proscribed ranks of Socinianism, is not an evil of magnitude incomparably greater than subscription to sound Articles of Faith and the use of a Scriptural Liturgy, which together would certainly have proved an effectual preventive. The sum of the matter, then, is simply this: that whilst you, without either Articles or a Liturgy, have lost two hundred and thirty-five Congregations, out of two hundred and fifty-eight, the Church, with her Articles and Liturgy, out of her many thousands, has not lost a single Congregation.