Office and duties of the archdeacon Though the people take no part in the election of ministers, yet a due deference is paid to their testimony in setting apart It is their solemn duty to declare any impediment in a condidate If the bishop, for any cause, suspends the ordination of a candi- date, yet he does so with the charitable supposition that he A space allowed for the private devotions of the congregation just before the ordination itself,- -a wise and needful pro- In the collect, two things are supplicated for the minister, both of which are indispensable; namely, knowledge of true doctrines, and a virtuous practice - Character of the epistle and gospel here used Every minister at ordination is given a specified local charge Nature of the deacon's duties Promises made by the candidate ORDINATION SERVICES, CONTINUED. THE ORDERING OF PRIESTS.- Christian ministers are never called in the New Testament by Meaning of the word hireling used here Instructive, arousing, and consolatory character of the bishop's address to the candidates Our bishops do not claim an original power inherent in them- The power of forgiveness of sins here granted, is only a declara- Distance from the press must plead excuse for a few other typographical inaccuracies. THE RITUAL OF THE CHURCH OF ENGLAND. CHAPTER I. ON FORMS OF PRAYER. THE use of forms of prayer is in accordance with the Scripture and the practice of the Church of Christ. The Israelites continually used forms of prayer and praise in their public worship; the first account of their solemn worship is a form of praise sung in parts by men and women after their miraculous deliverance from the Egyptians. Exod. xv. 1-21. Soon after, God himself prescribed a form of words, by which the priest was to bless the people, Numb. vi. 23-26, (though Aaron, an eloquent man, and favoured by Divine inspiration, was then high priest,) and also forms of prayer for the use of those who offered their first fruits and tithes. The Psalms of David were many of them forms of prayer and praise, composed under the guidance of the Holy Spirit, not only for his own private use, but also for the public service of the temple, 1 Chron. xvi. 7; 2 Chron. xxix. 30; v. 13. After the captivity, the Jews had forms of prayer, some of which appear to have been in use in the time of our Saviour; and that Jesus Christ and his apostles joined in the Jewish worship, and thereby sanctioned the use of precomposed prayers, is evident from the Gospel history and the Acts. of the Apostles; and that the Lord's prayer was given by our Saviour to his apostles as a B formulary of prayer, may be gathered from the command in St. Matthew, vi. 9, compared with St. Luke, xi. 1, 2*, and also from the testimony of numerous Christian writers who lived in the ages immediately succeeding the apostles. Further, the sublime prayer recorded in Acts iv. 24-30, seems to have been a precomposed form, because we there read, that the whole company lifted up their voices with one accord, that is, joined all together with audible voices in prayer, which could not possibly have been the case, unless such prayer was a precomposed set form; for whatever may be said in favour of joining mentally with our spirit in a prayer conceived extempore, it is not possible that a considerable congregation could join vocally or aloud, as the apostles and their company are related to have done, in a prayer not so composed. But besides the Lord's prayert, it is evident from the history of the primitive Christians that, after the cessation of the "I am the last person that would wish to confine Christians to the use of a written form of words in their private devotions on the contrary, I would rather encourage them to form a habit of addressing their Father who seeth in secret,' in any expressions that are best intelligible to themselves, which occur at the moment. But congregational prayer· ·-common supplications joint worship-is a very different thing, and accordingly our Lord supplies to his disciples no form of words for solitary devotion, but only warns them against a public display of what ought to be secret, and bids them enter each into his closet, and shut the door when about to engage in private devotion. But immediately after, He does teach them a form of words evidently designed for joint worship, and accordingly expressed in the plural number. The contrast is very remarkable between our Lord's expressions in the different precepts, thou, when thou prayest, enter into thy closet,' &c.: 'when ye pray, say, Our Father,' &c. Whatever may be thought of the precise kind and degree of the use which our Lord designed should be made of the very prayer itself which He taught, this much, at least, is plain-that in teaching it, He gave the strongest possible sanction to the use of precomposed prayer for congregational worship."-Pastoral Letter of Archbishop WHATELY. So averse was our Lord to unnecessary innovation and the affectation of novelty, (says Grotius,) that He who had not the |