LECTURE VI. LITURGIES AND RITUALS. THE ARGUMENT. THE CONSIDERATION OF LITURGIES AND RITUALS FOLLOWS NATU. RALLY THAT OF SCRIPTURE, CREEDS, AND ARTICLES-THE EXPEDIENCY OF THEM NOT HERE SO MUCH THE SUBJECT OF INQUIRY AS THE NECESSITY-FIXED FORMS OF PRAYER A CONSTITUENT ELEMENT OF A VISIBLE CHURCH-VISIBILITY AND UNITY OF THE CHURCH PROVEDAN UNITED CHURCH REQUIRES AND PRE-SUPPOSES UNITED PRAYER -SCRIPTURE AUTHORITY FOR THIS SHEWN TO BE CONTAINED IN THE TEXT-EARLY DIVISIONS OF PUBLIC WORSHIP THE SAME AS NOWPRAYER FOR PUBLIC AND NATIONAL BLESSINGS FORM A SCRIPTURAL AUTHORITY FOR VISIBLE AND NATIONAL CHURCHES-THE CHURCH'S EARLY PRAYERS FOR AUTHORITIES PROPHETIC OF AUTHORITIES BECOMING ULTIMATELY FRIENDLY TO HER-THE WANT OF APOSTOLICAL LITURGIES NO PROOF THAT LITURGIES ARE NOT ESSENTIAL TO THE CHURCH—THE JEWS HAD A PRESCRIBED LITURGY-THAT LITURGY A MODEL FOR THE EARLY CHRISTIAN-THE FOUR PRIMITIVE CHRISTIAN LITURGIES TRACED UP TO THE APOSTOLICAL AGE-AT THE REFORMATION THESE WERE RESTORED IN THEIR ORIGINAL PURITY-VISIBILITY AND PURITY OF A CHURCH MARKED BY ITS LITURGY-DANGER OF LEAVING PUBLIC WORSHIP TO PRIVATE DISCRETION-A NATIONAL CHURCH SHOULD HAVE A NATIONAL FORM OF PRAYER-EXCELLENCE OF OUR OWN LITURGY-IT CONSOLED OUR CONFESSORS AND MARTYRS IN THEIR TRIBULATIONS-JEREMY TAYLOR'S ELOQUENT PANEGYRIC UPON IT. LECTURE VI. LITURGIES AND RITUALS. 1 Timothy, ii. 1, 2. I exhort therefore, that, first of all, supplications, prayers, intercessions, and giving of thanks, 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. WE have attempted, in previous Lectures, to trace the institutions of the visible Church of Christ, downwards from their source. We have examined into the Authority and Inspiration of Scripture, the import of Creeds, and the utility of Articles. We have seen how they flow naturally out of each other; we have ascertained the peculiar province of each, and the absolute necessity of all. Following this path onward, according to our proposed system of inquiry, we now come directly upon the question of Liturgies and Rituals; intending to include under these terms all prescribed forms of worship, whether simply for common prayer, or for the public administration of sacraments and ceremonies. That this is the place which the consideration of Liturgies K should occupy in any systematic discussion of Christian Institutes, is at once evident from the fact that prayer is a practical developement and application of the doctrinal principles which Creeds and Articles are intended to define-as necessarily pre-supposing sound information on all points of faith and duty, as moral practice requires a previous understanding of the laws of morals. If that be no inapt definition, which has been given, of the nature of Prayer, viz: "That it is an offering up of our desires to God for things agreeable to his will,”1 then is an accurate knowledge of that will an essential pre-requisite for the due performance of this religious duty. Now such a knowledge of his will can only be gathered out of Scripture; our views of Scripture being tested, and, as far as human means can avail,-guaranteed as to their accuracy, by their concurrence with the universal opinion of the Church throughout all ages. opinion is expressed, as far as essentials are concerned, in the Creeds; and, as to more minute particulars, and with reference, also, to some local exigences of the Church, in the Articles of Religion. With these (and not without these) preliminary preparations, the Church of Christ is "throughly furnished" for Prayer: and hence we are brought 1 Westminster Assembly of Divines. This directly to the consideration of common and fixed Forms of Prayer. The abstract necessity for such forms is a preliminary inquiry; and is of deeper import than may appear on a hasty view. Much controversy has taken place (for it is an old question in the Church) as to the expediency of prescribed and publiclyauthorized forms of worship; and strong and eloquent reasons have been advanced, (though it must be confessed that neither the reasoning nor the eloquence have been on this-as indeed it is on few questions-confined to one side,) as to the advantages of carefully prepared and generally approved formulas of address to the Deity over invocations which are thrown off under the heat and zeal of the moment, and which are the immediate expression, therefore, of the mind of him alone from whose mouth they proceed. To this question of relative superiority we do not now confine ourselves. It has been discussed by Jeremy Taylor' with that mixture of solid reasoning and brilliant illustration, which, while they cannot but delight even an honest opponent, leave little to be sought for, in addition, by him who is already friendly to his view, unless it be the grave and judicious determination of the 2" An Apology for Authorized and Set Forms of Liturgy against the Pretence of the Spirit."-Works, vol. vii. Heber's edition. |