lowing strong and comprehensive direction given to a Christian bishop for the regulation of God's service: "I exhort therefore, that first of all, supplications (that is litanies), prayers (repeated by the minister with an Amen by the people); intercessions (petitions offered up for others), and giving thanks (general thanksgivings), be made for all men: for kings, and for all that are in authority, that we may lead a quiet and peaceable life in all godliness and honesty."

This injunction is very full, and comprehends a complete analysis of what should constitute the precatory part of the public worship of God. We shall see, by and bye, how far our liturgy is in conformity with it. In the eighth verse he adds: "I will that men pray every where." Here is an injunction for general prayers as well public as private.

In 2 Timothy i. 13., we read: “Hold fast the form of sound words:" which whether it refers to a formulary of faith, as a creed, or a form of prayer, as a

liturgy, shows clearly, that it was good for Timothy, "his own son in the faith,” and consecrated by him Bishop of Crete, to have a "form of sound words" to which to adhere. Here then is authority

for the repeating of CREEDS.

The apostle exhorts the Hebrews vi. 16. "Let us therefore come boldly to the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy, and find grace to help in time of need." We are therefore to PRAY FOR GRACE. In Hebrews x. 22., we are directed to "draw near with a true heart, in full assurance of faith, having our hearts sprinkled from an evil conscience, and our bodies washed with pure water." In this there is an intimation of previous ABSOLUTION, and PREPARATORY CLEANSING. In the twenty-fifth verse we read, "not forsaking the assembly of ourselves together as the manner of some is, but exhorting one another" or, in prayers

exciting one another to observe the public. worship of God, in sincerity and truth.

In the epistle of St. James, we find

directions for PRAYING FOR THE SICK, and making thanksgiving for those who are merry, that is joyful at being rescued from afflictions and trials; and in verse the sixteenth he adds, "Confess your faults one to another, and pray one for another." In this, there is a mutual and general CONFESSION, as well as a mutual and general prayer enjoined.

Other texts, no doubt, might be adduced, but I pass now to the Fathers, from whom the same instances which have served to prove the use of set forms, may be advanced as authorities for the forms themselves. These forms are all founded in Scripture, and were accordingly modelled after those written directions, as well as after those established and permitted customs which the apostles gave, or allowed to the churches which they planted. This inference we derive from the accounts of the early liturgies and prescribed prayers.

Pliny the younger, in the accounts given to Trajan, of the Christians, mentions

their assembling to worship, and singing hymns alternately. This is the evidence of a heathen, and cannot therefore be suspected of connivance or partiality.

St. Polycarp alludes to the custom of saying the Lord's Prayer; so do Tertullian, Origen, Cyprian, Cyril of Jerusalem, Chrysostom, Optatus and many others.

That PSALMS were used in the church, besides the instances already adduced, we learn from Eusebius, who quotes an ancient author to that effect. Justin Martyr also gives directions for a joint singing of psalms. St. Cyril of Jerusalem is still more explicit, for he mentions "the church-singers, and their singing the 22d and 23d psalms, and the angelic hymns."* St. Ambrose composed the

Te Deum.

The account given by St. Basil is worth recording: "All, as it were, with one mouth and one heart offer a psalm of confession to the Lord."

* Bennet.

This Father also records the practice of CONFESSION in these words: "The rites and customs which have now obtained in all the churches of God agree in spirit and in sound; when the people HAVE CONFESSED themselves unto God, rising up from their prayers they betake themselves to psalmody, and, being divided into two parts, they reply to one another in Psalms." And " rising early in the morning the people go straight to the house of prayer, making CONFESSION of their sins with much sorrow. St. Augustine tell us, that the Christians in his time assembled "to learn God's law, to declare his wonderful works, to praise him for his gifts, and pray to him for his blessings."*

St. Gregory Thaumaturgus composed a LITURGY, and there is one also ascribed to St. James, with several others of ancient use. The like may be said of RES

PONSES.

* Mant's Prayer Book.