which prescribes such as shall lead attention to God, but not arrest it on themselves; such as shall appear to be a means for the better performance of worship and duty, without occupying so much of the eye, as to be in danger of being regarded as that performance of worship and of duty itself.

And of this description are the ceremonies of the Church of England. The cross, the ring, and surplice, were all of them emblems, few, simple, and significant; and therefore ought not to have been objected to. We are continually acting by signs the auctioneer knocks down his lot, and the farmer strikes his bargain.

Among the ceremonies of our church, we may reckon the rubrics which direct the postures of standing, kneeling, and sitting, during different parts of the service. These attitudes are, with great propriety, adapted to the mental affections, respectively supposed to accompany various religious exercises. Thus, we are commanded to kneel, while we are imploring favours, or giving thanks for those already received: this atti tude being habitually regarded by us, in common life, as expressive of a sense of unworthiness and humility; the sentiments which ought to inspire us in these parts of the service. We stand while praising God, to signify our cheerfulness, and the lifting up of our hearts; and also while professing our be lief, to denote our steadfastness in the Christian faith. While the word of God is read in the lessons, or expounded from the pulpit, the congregation sit, in listening to it: because these instructions are delivered to themselves primarily, as men; not having, like the prayers and praises, an immediate reference to sentiments of devotion. It is a maxim in philosophy, that an imitation of the gestures which naturally accompany an affection of the mind, tends to introduce, or to strengthen, that affection. Our devotions are accompanied by the postures prescribed in the Liturgy, upon the same principle which teaches us to stand uncovered in the house of God, that being the cus tomary outward sign of respect. All these attitudes, then, being associated in our minds, with the sentiments which either

nature or the habits of life attach to them; will, in the hour of worship, call up these sentiments in minds where they do not already exist, and confirm them, where they do.

Another excellence peculiar to our church, consists in its festivals. The Reformation wisely struck out of our calendar a multiplicity of saints' days and holydays, as tending to make the common people idle; whereas the same God who commands men to rest on the seventh day, positively enjoins, Six days SHALT thou labour. Nevertheless, besides the service of Sundays, a few solemn week-days are, in perfect consistence with decency and propriety, observed; such as Christmas-day; the Epiphany, or day commemorating the first extension of Christianity to the Gentiles (the benefits of which we all partake); Ash Wednesday, or the first day of Lent, a season of solemn preparation for a fit commemoration of our Saviour's sufferings and resurrection; Good Friday, the day on which our Redeemer was crucified; as well as the whole of the Passion-week; Holy Thursday, the day on which our Lord ascended into heaven; and a few other days dedicated to the honour of the Apostles, the Mother, and first friends of our Lord. Two of these days are holy above the rest those which commemorate the birth, and the crucifixion of the Saviour of the world.

The other holydays, as well as the service on the Wednesdays and Fridays throughout the year, are principally designed for those, whose easy circumstances, or superannuated >condition, exempts them from daily labour. They are designed, in a word, for all who can attend them, without temporal injury to their families; and who, if they did not attend, would probably be seduced by too much leisure, into some sinful or vain way of spending their time. On Ash Wednesday, and during Passion-week, however, all persons of every age and business might, without inconvenience, devote one hour to public worship; returning to their usual occupations during the remainder of the day.

As the festivals of the church are thus few, simple,

4

and proper, its OFFICES are conformable to decency and rea

son.

For a proof of this assertion, it is only necessary to enumerate them. We have a communion service, leading our devotions in that most sacred rite, with the same sublimity and simplicity of language, the same animation and reasonableness, the same spirit and understanding in point of matter, which pervade the Liturgy. We have an office of baptism; another for confirmation; another for the visitation of the sick; another for expressing the gratitude of persons recovered from childbirth; another for conferring orders on persons who undertake the ministry; another for the solemn ceremony of marriage; and another for burying the dead. The reasonableness of such offices is so obvious, as to require no comment: and if any person will take the trouble to peruse them, he will find, that, in language and matter, they are all as excellent compositions as have ever proceeded from the ordinary inspirations of the Spirit.

One of those advices which deservedly gave Solomon the name of wise man, Eccles. v. 2, is, Be not rash with thy mouth, and let not thy heart be hasty to utter any thing before God; for God is in heaven, and thou upon earth. When we contrast the majesty of God with our own littleness, and his purity with our offences, we cannot but acknowledge that we ought to approach him with awe, and with the dread of saying any thing that may be rash, indecent, or irreverent. For this purpose a liturgy or form of prayer is the best calculated. The inspired Apostles, indeed, and early disciples, had less occasion than we have, for forms, (although, in the Lord's prayer, they had one which was perfect, and which was given as a model for their future devotions), since their prayers were dictated to them by a more enlarged measure of the Spirit of God. But as soon as Christianity had settled itself, this extraordinary assistance, which had been given to strengthen it against the first opposition. which it met with, being no longer necessary, was with

drawn and Christians are only now endowed with those common influences which prompt, aid, and strengthen their own exertions and co-operations.

In the present situation of the world, then, forms have the advantage over extemporaneous prayer. They are equally dictated by the Spirit; because the Spirit may influence those who compose them in their studies, as well as another in the moment of offering unpremeditated petitions. A liturgy informs us, before we repair to the house of worship, what prayers are to be offered in our name. We have a previous opportunity of studying them; and of either approving of their excellence, or (if we dislike them) of resolving to absent ourselves from the place where they are read. And while the minister is reading them, our attention is not divided; we have nothing to think of but our devotion. How differently situated is a congregation listening to extemporaneous prayer, wherein he who is their organ and mouth, may shock his fellow-worshippers, while they are lifted on the wing of adoration, by vulgar expressions, or ignorant, unlawful, trifling supplications; and while communing with the Almighty in their name, make them advance opinions different from those they hold; as well as prefer petitions foreign to their wishes or principles.

Whatever beauty and propriety the original composers of a liturgy have given it, continue with it on all occasions. All who join in it are sure, that neither incapacity, nor indolence, nor lukewarmness, nor occasional elevation or depression of spirits; neither political biass, nor malignant passions, nor want of orthodoxy, nor excess of enthusiasm in their minister, can -communicate themselves to the supplications which are offered in their name and in their behalf, as may obviously be done wherever there is no form of prayer. Now, if liturgies in general be thus preferable to extemporaneous prayers, the devotional service of the Church of England is the best of all liturgies. For sublimity, simplicity, and propriety of language; for raising the humble, cheering the contrite, soothing

the afflicted; for furnishing expressions to sentiments of divine affection, supplication, praise, and thanksgiving; for reasonableness in its progress from exhortation to confession; from confession to an offer of absolution to sincere penitence; from thence to prayers for divine assistance; mingled with praise, thanksgiving, the reading of the word of God, and solemn professions of faith; for providing petitions for all the exigencies of men in general, and even for the various temporal wants of individuals; for propriety in conducting public worship, by short prayers, responses, and other innocent means, which stimulate attention, and prevent devotion from growing weary; the liturgy of the Established Church, for all these excellencies, stands unrivalled amongst human compositions *..

Grant's Sermon on the Reasonableness of the Established Church.