תמונות בעמוד
PDF
ePub

prayers and the quantity of Scripture to be read was left to the discretion of each officiating minister; episcopacy was abjured, the king murdered, and under the name of a popular government, the most detestable tyranny usurped the place of our free and happy constitution*.

This ceased at the Restoration, when King Charles the Second, at the entreaty of the dissenters, held a meeting in the SAVOY of an equal number of the most eminent episcopal and presbyterian divines, to make such reasonable alterations in the liturgy as they might jointly agree upon; but the latter were so little disposed to proceed in the temperate way pointed out by the king's commission (one of them having the assurance to propose substituting a liturgy of his own, composed without regard to any liturgies ancient or modern,) that nothing could be done. By the bishops, however, the following improvements were made several lessons in the calendar altered for others more suitable for the days; the prayers for particular occasions separated from the Litany; the prayers for Ember weeks, for the Parliament, and for all conditions of men, the general thanksgiving, the office of baptism for grown persons, prayers to be used at sea, some collects, and the service for the anniversary of King Charles' martyrdom, and the Restoration, &c., &c., added. This was the last revision of the liturgy, when it was unanimously

:

* From contemplating this and Mary's reign, we may well agree with Dr. South, that "Puritanism and Popery are like Romulus and Remus, twins suckled by the same wolf." "Schism in the Church is what rebellion is in the state, and it should be timely considered that the same principle of independence which gives birth to the one, waits only for the opportunity to bring forth the other." "Those who go greatest lengths to procure religious liberty for themselves, are least disposed to allow it to others."-DAUBENY.

+ Birch, in his Life of Tillotson, gives a flourishing account of

subscribed by both houses of convocation of the provinces of Canterbury and York, and established by the Act of Uniformity. On this occasion the king and parliament affirmed that it was framed BY THE AID OF THE HOLY GHOST, a just encomium, and pious besides, if considered as an acknowledgment that Divine grace, if earnestly implored, will always assist the sincere endeavours and sanctify the imperfect actions of man*.

We are not indebted for it to the Parliament of the day, as has been calumniously asserted; its origin was always strictly ecclesiastical, and its establishment from time to time, entirely catholic. It was composed and compiled under the sanction of royal authority by the apostolic governors and ministers of the Church, and then was ACCEPTED by the lay members of the Church, in parliament assembled—and since we learn from Scripture and history, that Christian princes have authority in ecclesiastical matters so far as they act not contrary to the law of God; since the crown did not exercise an unlawful authority in promoting the changes of the liturgy, and since that liturgy received the approbation and assent of the Church, it is not schismatical, uncanonical, or in any matter illegitimate; but on the contrary, is invested with that sacred and spiritual authority to which Christians are bound to yield their devoted and affectionate obedience. The "Toleration Act," as it is called, has indeed suspended the enforcement of the penalties of the Act of Uniformity, deeming such matters unfit objects for temporal coerthe improvements made at a sixth revision of the liturgy, in William the Third's reign; but great as the names were of the persons mentioned in that commission (the labours of which were never made public,) we are slow to believe that any material alteration could be made without injury.

*CARWITHEN's History of the Church of England.

cion; and though it thus frees dissenters from being offenders against the state, notwithstanding their separation from the worship prescribed by the liturgy, yet it by no means excuses, or can excuse them from the schism they have made in the Church, and they are guilty of that sin, and will continue to be guilty of it, as long as they separate, notwithstanding any temporal authority to indemnify them.

Thus, after more than a century of trial and experience-after having been brought five times, at different intervals, under the revision of bishops and divines whose piety and theological attainments have not been surpassed, if equalled, in any country or in any age of the Christian Church-after having been subjected to continual controversy with Puritans, Presbyterians, and the various sects under the Commonwealthafter having been twice brought under the ordeal of public and solemn discussion by disputants selected from the ablest divines of the realm, after receiving the sanction of the clergy in convocation, and of the laity through the legislature-after all this time, all this investigation, all these gradual improvements, and with this authority of the Church and the state, the Book of Common Prayer comes before us with claims unrivalled in the history, and with excellencies not to be found in the composition, of any manual of devotion in the world. If long experience and trial -if the most profound learning, the most eminent piety, the greatest wisdom-if the sifting of the most skilful disputants—if time, labour, ability, knowledge, experience, investigation, discussion, ecclesiastical sanction, and civil enactments can stamp authority on any book-it is stamped on the Book of Common Prayer.

From these facts the following inferences may be drawn:

1st. This book, by the authority of the Church, claims our obedience in all things not contrary to the word of God.

2nd. By the very circumstances which attended its progress, as well as by its intrinsic excellence, it claims the veneration and affections of Protestants. It ought not to be lightly objected to, and even if a specious censure is brought forward, that censure should be viewed with suspicion, as not likely to have escaped in the ordeal to which the book has been subjected, and possibly seen by the skilful compilers and revisers of it to have been founded in imperfect views of the subject.

3rd. The man who would sweep away this monument of accumulated piety, experience, learning, and investigation, and substitute the produce of his own single wisdom and short experience, must think very highly indeed of himself-whether "more highly than he ought to think," we shall not pronounce. But Baxter, whose learning and piety no one questions, was bold enough to offer his attempt as a substitute; and in the miserable abortion he produced, left a memorial how much easier it is to censure such a masterpiece, than to perceive the defects of our own labours, or the delusive representations of our self-love and weakness.

4th. If we thus regard attempts to substitute digested and elaborate productions of men of eminent talent, in the place of this tried and well-considered form of prayer, what shall we think of the substitution of extempore forms-the undigested and hasty effusions of common, and, sometimes, uneducated men? Can we think that, by these the edification of Christ's Church, or the glory of God, can be promoted better than by the Book of COMMON PRAYER-the work of more than a century—the result of repeated applications

of the highest learning, wisdom, and piety; and the pure metal, after many a searching test, and many a fiery trial?

Whoever fairly examines the ecclesiastical history of England with a view to this object, will see the weaknesses of men overruled for the preservation of the purity and integrity of our liturgy; he will see conferences, and convocations, and parliaments, all unconsciously moved by the secret springs of Providence; he will see the friends and the foes of our establishment alike contributing to perpetuate the existence of a service whose merits neither of the contending parties was, probably, well qualified to appreciate; and in all this he will manifestly discern the wisdom and goodness of the Most High providing for the spiritual progress and advancement of succeeding generations.

It is certain that Omnipotence does nothing in vain; it is no less certain, that when, by various movements, Providence marks out to us a great design, we shall be involved in deep criminality, if we do not employ our best powers in the furtherance and promotion of that design. Now, such, precisely, is the case with respect to our liturgy. In its formation, it has been happily, and doubtless providentially, guarded alike from excess and from deficiency. It possesses a peculiar temperament, equally remote from all extremes, and harmoniously blending all excellencies; it is not superstitious, it is not fanatical, it is not cold and formal, it is not rapturous and violent; but it unites, beyond any other human composition, sublime truth and pure spirit, the calmest wisdom, and the most energetic devotion. Under various trying circumstances it has been so signally and repeatedly preserved, that we cannot doubt it has been continued to us for some greater purpose than it has hitherto effected.

« הקודםהמשך »