extraordinary gifts of the Holy Spirit, liturgies, or precomposed forms of prayer, were very early used by them*, as some of the most ancient writers speak of them under the appellation of "common prayers," "constituted or appointed prayers," and "solemn prayers;" indeed so early were some of them composed that the four most generally in use bore the names of St. Peter, St. John, St. James, and St. Mark, as the respective authors† of them.

Spirit by measure, and in whom was hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge, who spake as never man spake, selected the words and phrases of this prayer from formularies at that time in common use among the Jews.

* Bingham, in his Christian Antiquities of the Church, shows that, besides the compliance of the first Christians with the stated forms of the Jewish liturgy and worship, they had some forms of their own in constant use among themselves, among which we may reckon: 1. The Lord's prayer. 2. The form of baptism constantly used without any variation. 3. The form of professing their faith in baptism, or the form of sound words settled in every Church. 4. The forms of renouncing Satan and covenanting with Christ in baptism. 5. The forms of scripture hymns and psalms and glorifications of God; to which the ancients seem to add, 6. The forms of benediction, such as the "Grace of our Lord Jesus Christ," &c., and lastly, The repetition of the history of Christ's institution of the last supper, as a necessary part of consecration, which, together with the use of the Lord's prayer in the celebration of the Eucharist, is generally thought to descend from apostolical practice.

+ Mr. Palmer, Orig. Liturg.-Dissertation on the Liturgy of the Patriarchate of Constantinople, having stated that it was used through Asia Minor, Thrace, Macedonia, and Greece, observes further, "When I reflect on the vast extent of these countries, the independence of the churches which existed there, the power which each bishop had of improving the liturgy of his church, the circumstantial varieties which we find between the liturgies of these churches, and yet the substantial identity of all, it seems to me difficult, if not impossible, to account for this identity and uniformity in any other manner than by supposing that the apostles themselves had originated the Oriental liturgy, and communicated it to all those churches at their very foundation. The uniformity between these liturgies, as extant in the fourth or fifth century, is such as bespeaks a common origin. Their diversity is such as to prove the remoteness of the period at which they were originated. To what remote period can we refer, as exhibiting a perfect general uniformity of liturgy, except to the apostolic age?

Our Saviour, it may be said, directed his disciples to take no thought beforehand, or premeditate how or what they should speak; but, not to mention that at the time when our English translation was made, the phrase to "take thought" imported, in agreement with the original Greek, anxious carefulness and solicitude, the injunction was evidently applicable to the particular time and circumstances only, when, in furtherance of an extraordinary mission from God, He promised to grant them the immediate assistance of his Holy Spirit to defend the truth, so that their adversaries could not gainsay nor resist it, and it would be doing violence to the meaning of our Saviour to refer the command to ordinary cases.

Many and various advantages arise from prescribed forms of prayer: I will mention a few of the most prominent and valuable.

1st. A form of prayer (written of course in the vulgar tongue, or common language of the country,) is most easily understood and heartily followed by the people; having been composed with that precision, which is the result of mature deliberation, it is thereby rendered more plain, simple, and perspicuous than extemporaneous effusion, and it affords opportunity of being studied and examined in private, whereas, if they know not the nature of the petitions about to be offered, instead of cordially joining with the minister, they must wait to make out the sense of his prayer, before they can fully enter into it as a petition to God. If this be of any consequence at all,

Let us remember also that existing documents of the second century enable us to trace this liturgy to that period; and that in the time of Justin Martyr, (to whose writings I allude,) the Christian Church was only removed one link from the apostles themselves."

"But for the most part, a large proportion of the hearers, if not all of them, have their minds occupied in taking in the sense of each sentence that is uttered, till their attention is called to the

much more so is it to those who sit at any great distance, or who may be afflicted with the infirmity of deafness.

2nd. It preserves to the people a great religious privilege, enabling them to take their parts in the public worship of the Church by following or accompanying the minister, not with their hearts only, but their voices, thereby having their attention fixed and quickened, their devotion animated, and the public service given its proper character of an united and common address to the Almighty. Of this privilege, which was handed down from the primitive Church, the people were deprived by the Romish innovation of having the prayers in Latin, but it was restored to them by our Reformed Church, of which it is in a great degree characteristic, inasmuch as dissenters cannot enjoy it, from their using extemporaneous prayers.

3rd. It contributes to the preservation of order and decency in the church, by affording no scope for the ebullitions of passion, the sallies of a fantastical imagination, the blunders of ignorance, or the extravagancies of fanaticism: deformities* little accordant

next sentence, and thus they are deceived, and I must say most hurtfully deceived, into imagining that they are themselves praying, when in fact they are at best only overhearing another person praying. I have said 'at best,' because I am convinced that oftener than not, the minister is deceived no less than the people, and imagines himself to be praying, when in reality, he is delivering what may be called an oblique sermon, where he is addressing himself, not to God, but to the congregation; and conveying to them, under the form of prayer, the doctrines and sentiments, the exhortations and reproofs, which he wishes to impress on their minds."-Pastoral Letter of Archbishop WHATELY.

* This has been admitted by dissenters of the present day. See JAMES's Church Member's Guide. See also a Treatise on Prayer, by WM. WALFORD, tutor of the academy for educating dissenting ministers, at Homerton, in which (after animadverting on the conduct of the clergy of the Church of England for declaring their assent to its liturgy,) there is the following on the mode in which public prayer is abused amongst dissenters :

with that beauty of holiness which becomes the sanctuary of God, yet which experience has witnessed, and which history records, in some, at least, of the advocates and practisers of extemporaneous prayers.

4th. It is the best preservation of soundness and consistency of doctrine, by operating as a control upon the indiscretion and errors of the minister, and gives a fixed character to the faith by embodying in its several services all the great doctrines of the Gospel according to their relative importance.

Circumstances have occurred of late years which plainly demonstrate the benefit of a liturgy, namely, that whilst no episcopal congregation ever became socinian, it is admitted by a dissenting periodical*, that in England, out of two hundred and fifty-eight chapels of dissenters, in which once was proclaimed redemption by the cross, and the co-equality of the Son and Holy Ghost in one glorious and blessed Trinity, two hundred and thirty-five are now the vehicles whereby the God-denying apostacy, and other souldestroying heresies are propagated throughout the land, and that the sum of seven thousand two hundred pounds by which socinianism is supported, was left

"What is to be thought of men who can degrade the sacred institution of public prayer into an instrument for the display of bigotry, presumption, and ignorance, or who dare to render it a vehicle for low humour, ridiculous conceits, or vulgar tales? Decency recoils from the display, and true piety is ready to weep over the baneful prostitution. The practice, which is by no means uncommon, I fear, of using prayer as a medium of fortifying fanatical representations of the Gospel and fostering a censorious and bitter temper among the devotees of such teaching, is little, if at all, less reprehensible; and all conspire to bring into contempt the pure and sacred spirit of Christian devotion."

The Eclectic Review.-In America also, especially in Boston, in which the light of true religion once shone, the deadly taint of socinianism has spread. Alas! that in the northern parts of this country (Ireland) the records of presbyterianism should tell a like story!

by orthodox dissenters for the propagation of doctrines the very contrary to those of socinianism. The late proceedings in the courts of law respecting Lady Hewley's charitable bequests, which, though undoubtedly left by her for orthodox dissenters, yet were all appropriated to socinian purposes, afford another proof of the necessity of some standing formularies of faith. Indeed so evident has this appeared to some dissenters, that the endowments belonging to many chapels are made to depend upon the condition, that the doctrines taught in them shall be in conformity with the doctrines of the Established Church.

Some churches which possessed liturgies, have, it is true, fallen into error: these, however, have arisen, not from their possessing, but from their departing from scriptural formularies; besides, it is not asserted that formularies are an absolutely effectual preservative against corruption, but that they possess, as has been shown, a powerful tendency to counteract the advance of error, and to keep the stream of Christian doctrines unpolluted. When once introduced, error may thus, perhaps, be rendered more lasting, but it would be obviously unfair to argue from this the abuse against the use of creeds and articles. Every institution might be similarly attacked, and every wholesome authority abrogated. Established formularies, it might be added, possess somewhat of a renovating influence. If a community without them depart from the faith, there is no trace left of its former standing-no marks and tokens in the trackless forest of error by which to retrace its steps; whereas, if error is introduced into accredited confessions, still there is something that is valuable left, (as in the case of Rome,) disagreeing with the rubbish piled upon it; or even if every pure creed and article be rejected, the