remembrance of them cannot be entirely obliterated; there they are on record to be a speaking witness to the apostate, how novel her proposed doctrines are, and, at least, to point out to her whence she has fallen. We have instances of churches (the Syrian, in India, appears to be one,) thus being kept alive, to waken at last from the slumber of ages, and rise once more to put on their beautiful garments*.

A few other considerations which show the benefits of prescribed forms of prayer are as follows:

1st. No sufficient number of men could be found possessing the gift of such extemporaneous prayer as is due to the majesty of God and the glory of his Son Jesus Christ. Besides, if the prayers be left to the discretion of an individual minister, he will not only omit many things through his forgetfulness or infirmity, which the people require, but also from his natural leaning towards his own state of mind will frame his petitions rather to suit his own case than theirs.

2nd. Must it not promote the communion of saints, and is there not something cheering and elevating in the thought, to remember that the members of the Church throughout the world† are (though locally separated) periodically engaged at the same time in the same prayers and praises? that we are using words which are rising to heaven, not in the churches of Great Britain and Ireland only, but from

* Essay in Church of England Magazine.

The liturgy has been translated into Arabic, and into the different languages of India, and also into French, Greek, Russian, Dutch, German, Polish, and Italian.-See Reports of the Christian Knowledge and Prayer-Book and Homily Societies. There is now at Liverpool a congregation of converted Jews who use the liturgy in Hebrew. There is a daily Hebrew service at Jerusalem, and on the Lord's day, in Arabic.-See Report of London Society for Promoting Christianity among the Jews.

the banks of the Ganges, the St. Lawrence, the Ohio, in the islands of the Pacific, and in the Western Ocean*?

* "It is not in this age only in which you live, that this service conveys the devotions of Christians to heaven. In some of the ejaculations it contains the first disciples breathed their praises and their wishes to the Most High. Its collects have, many of them, for many hundreds of years, been the vehicles of the public devotions of the Church, and upon some of its apostrophes has the last breath of distinguished martyrs trembled, whose piety, during their lives, was refreshed by its hymns and its psalms. It is not under the Gospel dispensation alone that some parts of this service have been used to express the common devotions of the faithful. There are hymns in it which were sung by the saints under the Mosaic dispensation, and in the use of the Psalms particularly, the Church of the New Testament is found in society with the Church of the Old; for in these sacred compositions, not the emotions of David's heart only were vented, but much of the worship of God's ancient people did consist. It is not only in the Church militant upon earth that this service in some of its parts is used. We have borrowed from the Church triumphant in heaven their congratulatory anthem and their perpetual hymn; and have reason to believe that their voices are in concert with ours when they sing the song of the redeemed. How sublime is this view of the communion and fellowship of the Church under the Mosaic and Christian dispensations, in different ages and different nations on earth and in heaven, in the use of some part or other of that holy liturgy which it is our distinguishing felicity to have received from our fathers! Who would not wish, in the temple, to bear upon his lips those psalms and prayers in which the glorious company of the apostles, the goodly fellowship of the prophets, and the noble army of martyrs, have uttered their devotions to God? How dead must he be to the finest associations which can affect the mind, who is not animated to a devout and fervent performance of his part of the service of the sanctuary, by the consideration that, upon these same censers which the Church holds out to him, incense hath been put by those hands which are now extended before the throne of the Almighty, and that, as its smoke ascended, those eyes were lifted up to heaven which are now fixed on the visible glory of God and of the Lamb!"-Bishop DEHON.

"And if it be animating and impressive to find ourselves thus linked to churches far off, and separated from us by their geographical remoteness, it is no less a source of solemn enjoyment to find ourselves, by the same chain, bound to the men of other times. I cannot forget that these prayers have continued to gladden the hearts of the persecuted Protestants of passed-by ages, have been heard in the prison cells of England, have been used at the stake, have floated above the flames, and almost borne down the taunts

B

3rd. If detained at home by sickness or affliction the churchman can bend the knee in private; and with his book of prayer, in this case of necessity, though absent in body, mingle in spirits with the tens of thousands who are in the sanctuary, and feel that there is "one Lord, one faith," and that Christ is all in all, the head of his mystical body.

4th. To pray acceptably, it is requisite not only that we offer up our petitions to God with sincerity and earnestness, but that we should afterwards trust and depend upon Him for the fulfilment of them, according to the promises which He has made us in Jesus Christ our Lord. For this purpose, a set form of prayer is certainly a great help to us; by means of it, we can take a review of the petitions which we may have offered at the throne of grace: and, whilst we apply our minds to the thoughts of the blessings we have asked, we can call our faith and confidence into lively exercise, in waiting for an answer to our prayers.

The benefits of a set form for public worship were

and execrations of Smithfield. I cannot forget that the attachment of the martyrs of the sixteenth century to these very prayers was a special article in the indictment under which they were condemned. I cannot forget the chivalrous ardour of Cranmer, who pledged himself to defend the prayer book of the English church against all and every assailant; the love expressed for it by Hulliers, who clasped it to his heart at the stake, and died with it in his grasp; the veneration for it, expressed in the conduct of Taylor, when he bequeathed it to his wife as the best legacy he could leave her: a work so wrought into the history of Protestantism; a liturgy so associated with the most trying and triumphant times of the Church's struggles, cannot but be precious to every one who truly enjoys the privileges then so dearly purchased. We cannot but feel gladdened at the thought that the words of sacred worship are the same with those which these noble spirits valued, and that in the use of the prayers handed down from them to us, our Church has an uniformity and a connexion with the Church of those eventful days."-Discourses preached in Derry, by A. BoYD, Curate of the Cathedral.

felt by CALVIN, the most esteemed by dissenters of all the foreign Reformers, who, in a letter to the Protector of England in the reign of Edward the Sixth, A.D. 1548, thus expresses himself:-"I highly approve of a fixed form of prayer and ecclesiastical rites, from which it should not be lawful for the pastors in the discharge of their office to depart, as well in consideration of the weakness and ignorance of some, as that it may plainly appear how our churches agree among themselves; and lastly, that a stop may be put to the desultory levity of those who affect novelties. There ought to be an established Catechism, an established mode of administering the sacraments, and also a public form of prayer." BAXTER also writes, "The constant disuse of forms is apt to breed giddiness in religion, and it may make men hypocrites, who shall delude themselves with conceits that they delight in God, when it is but in those novelties and varieties of expression that they are delighted."

It is objected that the use of prescribed forms is not praying in the Spirit, but quenching the Spirit; but these terms, so far as they belong to the present age, signify, the former, not being furnished with a variety of phrases in prayer, but having religious affections breathed into us by the Holy Ghost for the exercise of this duty: and the latter, in the only sense in which it can be applied to us, means extinguishing such affections, by indulging sin, or suffering them to die away through negligence. Whoever is not assisted by the Holy Spirit in prayer, whatever may be the form which he may adopt for the purpose, will never pray effectually; and whilst of this we should be fully persuaded, we must differ from the enthusiasts with respect to what is called the spirit of prayer. With them it means a spirit of ready invention and extemporaneous effusion, which is by no

means the certain effect of Divine influence.

Its real meaning is, what can proceed from God alone, a spirit of pious affection; such as David felt when he composed the 42nd, 51st, 84th, 86th, and other psalms which could be pointed out*.

The spirit of devotion which gave acceptance to the simple prayer of the publican, and without which the most perfect composition is but a collection of words offensive to the Deity to whom it is addressed, is a mixture of humiliation and gratitude derived from the consideration of our vileness or wretchedness on the one hand, and the contemplation of infinite goodness and astonishing loving-kindness on the other. Whosoever prays in this disposition of the soul, most certainly prays by the Holy Spirit, because this disposition is not natural, but the effect of the Divine influence, which is graciously employed for the purpose of bringing fallen man back to his Maker. This devout disposition, the work of the Holy Spirit, is not, it is true, confined to any particular mode of prayer; but as it confessedly depends more upon the heart than the head, it is more likely to prevail on occasions, when, in consequence of the head being less occupied with attention to the prayer, the heart is more at liberty to be affected by the spirit of it.

The objection is put sometimes in another form,

* "In extemporary prayer, what men most admire, God least regardeth, namely, the volubility of the tongue. Herein a Tertullus may equal, yea exceed, St. Paul himself, whose speech was but mean. (1 Cor. x. 10.) O, it is the heart keeping time and tune with the voice' that God listeneth to; otherwise the nimblest tongue tires, and the loudest voice grows dumb before it comes half way to heaven. 'Make it,' says God to Moses, 'in all things like the pattern in the mount.' Only the conformity of the words with the mind, mounted in heavenly thought, is acceptable with God. The gifts of extemporary prayer and ready utterance may be bestowed upon a reprobate; but the grace thereof (religious affection) is only given to God's servants."FULLER'S Meditations.