WORSHIP OF THE CHURCH. CHAPTER I. FORMS OF PRAYER. The subject which next claims the inquiring christian's attention, is one in which we differ from almost all religious denominations around us, the manner of celebrating divine worship. As this is a difference obvious to all, even to those who know nothing of our doctrines, or of our views of the christian ministry, it naturally follows that the most common objections against the church are urged against the liturgy. It is an assertion often gravely advanced, that those who "pray by a book" must necessarily be mere formalists, destitute of all vital piety. The remark, we are well aware, is founded in ignorance; but the opinion is so general, that no one who uses "a form" can, at the same time, "pray with the spirit," that we shall do well to consider for a moment, the lawfulness, expediency, and propriety, of precomposed - forms of prayer. From the earliest ages of which we have any accurate knowledge of the manner of conducting public worship, forms of prayer have been used; nor, until within the last three hundred years, were they ever objected to. It is well known that the Jews had a prescribed form for their temple service, in which our Saviour and his apostles must have united whenever they "went up into the temple to pray." Our blessed Lord gave his express sanction to precomposed forms, when he delivered to his disciples that prayer which is honoured with his name, and said—when ye pray, say, Our Father, who art in Heaven, &c.* On another occasion he says, "after this manner therefore pray ye"t-making this prayer a model; but, in the other case, when ye pray, say," &c., he evidently enjoins it as a set form. Did the occasion require, we might show how admirably it answers both these designs, being at once a perfect model by which to frame all our prayers, and a most comprehensive form, including every essential branch of prayer.‡ It is unnecessary to multiply proofs of the lawfulness of precomposed formularies of devotion; that they are also expedient and proper almost all judicious and reflecting men are agreed. That eminent nonconformist, Richard Baxter, "whose praise will be in all churches of the saints to the end of time," maintained "that all social prayer necessarily implies a form." In his "cure of church. divisions" he says, "I never heard any separatist or anabaptist or any other public minister, but he imposed a † Matt. vi. 9. *Luke xi. 2. + "With respect to that summary which our Lord condescended to teach his disciples; though, I believe, it had a peculiar reference to the state in which they were before his passion, and while he was still with them; yet, agreeably to the fulness of his wisdom, it is so comprehensive, that I apprehend every part of a believer's intercourse with God in prayer may be reduced, without forcing, to one or the other of the heads of this prayer. And I should esteem it a golden hour indeed, one of the happiest seasons I ever enjoyed in prayer, if I could repeat it with a just impression of the meaning of every clause."-John Newton, Works, vol. iii. p. 407, New Haven ed. 1826. form of prayer upon all the congregation. He is void of common sense, that thinks that his extemporary prayer is not as truly a form to all the people, as if it had been written in a book. The order and words are not of your own invention, but invented by another to your hand, and imposed upon you to use. For I hope you come together to pray, and not to hear a prayer only. But the difference is, first, that one imposes every day a new form on you, and the other imposes every day the same; secondly, that one tells you not what words you shall pray in before you hear them, and the other writes them down for you to know beforehand." Such is the testimony of one eminently pious man; let us now hear that of another, little less distinguished for piety and zeal. "I should think," says John Newton,* "an evangelical liturgy a great blessing; as it must secure the people (that is, the bulk of the nation) from being exposed to the same uncertainty and disappointment from the reading desk, as they are liable to from the pulpit. For they who cannot, or do not, preach the gospel, are not likely to pray agreeably to the spirit of the gospel, if that part of the public service was likewise left to their own management. Or shall we say, it is an advantage to some dissenting congregations, that their ministers not being confined to a form of sound words, there is little more of Christ or of grace to be found in their prayers than in their sermons? Is it not too hastily taken for granted by many, that God cannot be worshipped in spirit and truth by those who * Newton's Works, vol. iii. pp. 406, 407. use a form of prayer?-or that he will not afford them who so approach him any testimony of his acceptance? If the words of a form suit and express the desires and feelings of my mind, the prayer is as much my own as if I had conceived it upon the spot. On the other hand, if I have the greatest readiness and fluency in diversifying expressions, so that my prayer should always appear unstudied and new; yet if my spirit, or the spirit of those who join with me, be not engaged in it, though I may admire my own performance, and be applauded by others, it is no better than a mere lifeless form in the sight of Him who searcheth the heart. Not to say that many who profess to pray extempore, that is, without either a printed or a written form, go so much in a beaten path, that they who hear them frequently can tell, with tolerable certainty, how they will begin, when they are about the middle, and when they are drawing to the close of their prayer." "It cannot be denied that the Lord himself appointed forms of prayer and praise to be used in the Old Testament Church. When the ark set forward, and when it rested, Moses addressed the Lord, not according to the varied emotions of his own spirit, but statedly in the same determinate expressions. Num. x. 35, 36. So likewise in the solemn benediction which the high priest was to pronounce upon the people. Num. vi. 23—27. Again, at the presenting of the first fruits, though the heart of the offerer might be filled with gratitude, he was not to express it in his own way; but the Lord himself prescribed the form of his acknowledgment, confession, and prayer. Deut. xxvi. 12-15." |